My name is Yang Xinfang. I was formerly an area leader of the Church of Truth, in charge of over 150 churches of several cities and regions around Shenyang City, in which there were over 300 co-workers and over 10,000 believers. Over the years, I had been rushing about among the churches, doing the work of administering, shepherding, watering, training, communicating, and so on.

In about 1994 and 1995, I heard the chief leader of Shenyang church mention “Eastern Lightning.” He told us that it was a “heresy,” a “cult,” and that it had now intruded into the house churches to snatch the lambs. He also warned me to keep a lookout for it. In 1996, several senior co-workers of No.3 area church in Shenyang Area accepted “Eastern Lightning.” After learning this great event, the chief leader immediately called an emergency meeting of the area leaders to arrange the work of resisting “Eastern Lightning.” At the meeting, he said, “‘Eastern Lightning’ claims that the Lord Jesus has been incarnated the second time and has come to China. They do not believe in the name of Jesus, nor preach the salvation of the cross, nor read the Bible. They read another book, which they call the ‘little scroll.’ You must not read this ‘little scroll.’ … Now, they have come to besiege our churches. Each area leader must guard the gate of the church properly and must not allow the Lord’s sheep to be taken captive by ‘Eastern Lightning.’” As I had always looked up to the chief leader, I had never doubted his words and always acted on whatever he said. His speech, which was “full of burden and eagerness to protect the church,” made me feel doubly “encouraged,” and I unconsciously developed a great hatred toward “Eastern Lightning.” I resolved to be dead set against “Eastern Lightning” and to fight it to the end for protecting the flock of the Lord and defending the truth.

Immediately afterward, I summoned a meeting of co-workers, in which I seriously conveyed the chief leader’s words to every co-worker in detail. I said, “‘Eastern Lightning’ is a cult. They are false because they have departed from the center of the salvation and denied the Bible. They do not believe in the name of Jesus but believe in another god, and they say that Jesus has returned. All nonsense! Now ‘Eastern Lightning’ is extremely aggressive. They are frenziedly attacking the churches and they specially snatch the believers in Jesus. The co-workers in particular must be alert lest you be captured by them.” Afterward, whenever I arrived at a church, I wantonly preached about how to guard against “Eastern Lightning.” In order to prevent the brothers and sisters from “being deceived,” I deliberately made up some bloodcurdling words to frighten them, such as, “‘Eastern Lightning’ is a Mafia-like illegal organization. Once you join it, you cannot withdraw easily. If you do not obey them, they will torture you and beat you until you are crippled. You may even walk in healthy yet be carried out disabled….”; “‘Eastern Lightning’ has compiled and printed many books. Those are not books at all. They are clearly poisons. Once you read their book, you will die. It’s a viper, pestilence. From now on, whoever gets the ‘little scroll’ must destroy it!” I also gave an order to the brothers and sisters and threatened them by saying, “Nobody should receive outsiders or strangers from now on. He who receives the believers in ‘Eastern Lightning’ privately will be cursed!” Meanwhile, I also called the key co-workers together to discuss how to resist “Eastern Lightning,” and I told them to mobilize all the believers in the churches to take action and “supervise” each other, so as to prevent the people of “Eastern Lightning” sneaking into the churches. Later, I got a booklet called Guard Strictly Against “Eastern Lightning,” so I personally arranged for over 1,000 copies to be printed and distributed to the churches of each area and all the co-workers of my area. I told them to read it first and then preach to the believers according to what the booklet said, so that every believer could hate “Eastern Lightning” and be dead set against it. Just like that, we made thorough preparations at all levels of our churches, and the defensive work in all aspects had been done to the limit.

However, although I rushed about tirelessly, although we tried every means to do the defensive work, still many believers accepted “Eastern Lightning” and the condition of the churches increasingly deteriorated. The co-workers could not work together with one mind, and they raised envy and strife and scrambled for power and influence among themselves. It became very common for the believers to return to the world, be possessed by demons, and become weak, and the churches became desolate and dismal. Although outwardly I continued running around and preaching, inwardly I felt empty and had nothing to preach. I repented yet never mended my ways, and I felt more and more depressed in my spirit. I lived all day long in the condition of committing sins in the day and confessing them at night. In the face of all this, I was perplexed despite much thought and felt very distressed. “Why is it so? What mistakes have we made? I have been so dutiful and faithful to the Lord, but why are our churches so weak yet ‘Easter Lightning’ more and more prosperous?” I just could not figure it out.