My name is Zhu Fuqiang. I was formerly a preacher of the Three-Self sect, who had believed in the Lord for over ten years. From 1997 on, I found that our church became more and more desolate: The brothers and sisters raised envy and strife and scrambled for power and profit among themselves more and more seriously. Even the preachers and co-workers were apparently of one accord but divided in heart, and they formed cliques and attacked each other, which exerted a very bad influence on the brothers and sisters. From then on, the number in our church gradually decreased, and my faith and love became far less strong than before. My spiritual state got worse and worse, and I always felt that I neither had a way to go forward nor dared to withdraw. Thus, I became extremely passive and weak.

Once in a sermon, our pastor said, “Now there is a sect called ‘Eastern Lightning.’ It is an underworld organization, and its members have guns. This gang are extremely brutal. They will induce you to join them by every means. Once you listen to their preaching, you will be deceived into joining them, and then you will be under their control and have to do whatever they tell you to do. If you try to withdraw, they will break your arms or legs, ruin your family, or even tear you apart. Their book is called the ‘little scroll.’ You must not read it, because it contains a magic potion. Once you read it, you will be bewitched….” Hearing that, I thought, “This gang of people from ‘Eastern Lightning’ are really horrible and detestable.” From then on, I lived in constant dread, afraid of them like the plague.

One day not long afterward, two men came to my home. Seeing that they were strangers, I immediately associated them with our pastor’s words, thinking, “They are probably of ‘Eastern Lightning.’” I plucked up my courage and asked, “I don’t know you. What do you come here for?” They said friendly, “We want to fellowship with you about God’s work of the last days.” On hearing that, I shook my finger at them and said, “I don’t want to have any fellowship with you. I know everything and there’s no need for you to fellowship with me. You vermin want to deceive me. No way! Get out of here now! Beat it!” With that I pushed them outward. One of them said, “Brother, we don’t mean any harm. We only want to bring you the eternal gospel mentioned in Revelation. God has been incarnated and come to the earth the second time, and has opened the little scroll. This is the fact that God has already accomplished. The Lord Jesus has really returned….” “Stuff and nonsense!” I snarled, giving the brother a box on the ear. “You refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit. If you don’t leave, I’ll call the police to arrest you.” Seeing me act like that, they left my home in tears. Watching their receding figures, I could not help feeling somewhat puzzled. “I beat them, but they did not hit back nor say anything to threaten me. Such ‘gangsters’ are really unworthy of the name.” But then I thought, “Anyway, I’d better be on the alert lest I be deceived.” Later, they came to my home many times but were fiercely driven out by me again and again.

One day in April 1999, two ladies came to my home. One was over twenty and the other over sixty, both in very plain clothes. I immediately realized that they came to preach Almighty God to me, and I thought, “You are trying in turns to deceive me into believing in Almighty God.” So I asked them point-blank, “You come to preach about God’s second incarnation, don’t you? I tell you, I won’t believe it. Don’t come to deceive me again. Go away now, or I won’t be so easy on you!” The elderly sister said, “Brother, according to the flesh, we are not willing to come. I’m old, and you are more clever than me. Can I deceive you? Today, if it were not for God’s love, how could I come to your home? Brother! Believing in God is not a small matter. We should be serious about it. God has come. If we shut the door on him, disbelieve in him, and even resist and reject him, won’t we become Pharisees of the present age? How grieved God’s heart will be!” At this, I flared up at her, “What a cheek! You are talking nonsense to me. You damned old woman! Don’t try to beat me down with your seniority. Get out right now!” After I said that, I dragged them out and shut the gate. However, they did not leave but waited outside the gate. More than two hours passed. The sky began to cloud over, and soon it rained heavily. Being shut out by me and having nowhere to shelter from the rain, they got wet all over and kept shivering with cold. But after the rain stopped, they still did not leave. Then I heard my neighbor saying, “Well, how could this family of believers in the Lord treat them like this? Even if they were beggars, you should not treat them this way. You are so inhuman and in no way like believers in the Lord!” Hearing that, I got more angry. “Before you came, everyone praised me; but now they say I am inhuman. Well then, I’ll just do something inhuman.” At this thought, I went to the kitchen and got a basin of cold water. Then I opened the gate and poured the water on the two sisters. Seeing my ferocious face, they said nothing, but knelt down on the ground and prayed in tears, “O righteous and holy Almighty God! We are really useless. We have enjoyed so much of your love but are unable to testify about your name. O Almighty God! May you inspire this brother so that he can turn back, understand your intention, and accept your end-time work. Then we will be content….” Hearing such a prayer, I could not help feeling somewhat touched. I returned to the room and looked through the window, and I saw that they were still kneeling in prayer, with their bodies trembling. I felt my conscience pricked at that scene, realizing that I had gone too far.

Noon arrived and my son came back from school. When he saw the scene at our gate, he was dumbfounded. He then hurried forward and said to the sisters, “Auntie, get up quickly. Granny, get up quickly. Go in with me.” Yet because they knelt too long, they failed to pick themselves up and fell headfirst to the muddy ground. My son cried with anxiety and called me, “Dad, dad, come out quickly! Auntie and granny have fainted. We are believers in the Lord; we shouldn’t treat them like this.” Hearing my son’s call, our next-door uncle ran out. At the sight of that, he rushed into my room and gave me two slaps on the face, saying, “You ought to have some conscience. What harm could they do to you? Do you have any deep hatred for them that you treat them like this? You are by no means like a believer in the Lord! You really put your Lord to shame. Help them into the room now!” The two slaps and scolding given by the uncle woke me up. “Yes, if it were not for God’s love, who among men could have such love? They come to my home not for food or drink but only to preach the gospel to me. If they were of an underworld organization, could they have such love?” As I thought of this, I hastily went out, raised them, and helped them into the room.