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What Makes a Cult? Here Are the Defining Characteristics · Hank Unplugged

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  Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Hank Henegraaff, and this is Hank Unplugged. On
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  Speaker 1: today's Hank Unplugged podcast, I want to talk about the
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  Speaker 1: characteristics of cults Cults in this case like Eastern Lightning.
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  Speaker 1: Eastern Lightning is also known around the world as the
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  Speaker 1: Church of Almighty God. And this is a cult that
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  Speaker 1: has devastated the lives of so many people. And as
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  Speaker 1: a result, we did a special issue of the Christian
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  Speaker 1: Research Journal devoted to exposing this cult from both a
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  Speaker 1: theological and a sociological perspective. our goal is not just
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  Speaker 1: to curse the darkness, but to build a lighthouse in
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  Speaker 1: the midst of the gathering storm. In other words, our
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  Speaker 1: goal is to rescue people, rescue them by the understanding
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  Speaker 1: that they have swallowed the skin of the truth stuffed
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  Speaker 1: with a great big lie, and to convert them to
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  Speaker 1: authentic Christianity. Now, throughout the duration of of my ministry,
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  Speaker 1: I've always emphasized that words and phrases are not univocal,
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  Speaker 1: they're equivocal. In other words, they take on the meanings
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  Speaker 1: poured into them. And the word cult is perhaps the
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  Speaker 1: quintessential example. I say that because its meaning can be
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  Speaker 1: rendered positively It can be rendered negatively or somewhere in between.
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  Speaker 1: In many regions of the world, particularly in Western regions,
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  Speaker 1: Eastern Lightning, again, it's also known as the Church of
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  Speaker 1: Almighty God, is now being viewed as just another Christian church,
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  Speaker 1: another Christian church that is unjustly persecuted by Chinese public
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  Speaker 1: security officials. As a matter of fact, just this morning,
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  Speaker 1: I read a post by a Dr. David A. Anderson. Dr. Anderson,
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  Speaker 1: as many of you may or may not know, he
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  Speaker 1: heads the prestigious United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
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  Speaker 1: This is a commission that was originally formulated by former
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  Speaker 1: President Bill Clinton. And in this particular post by Commissioner Anderson,
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  Speaker 1: he implores President Trump to raise with President Xi of
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  Speaker 1: China what he describes as China's genocidal campaign against religious minorities.
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  Speaker 1: And then he includes what he described as the harassment
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  Speaker 1: and imprisonment of Church of Almighty God members. Now what
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  Speaker 1: Commissioner Anderson didn't divulge is that the Christ of the
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  Speaker 1: Church of Almighty God is a female fraud, pure and simple.
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  Speaker 1: She's a fraudulent deity, a deity who threatens to kill
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  Speaker 1: all those who are not in line with her intentions.
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  Speaker 1: Those are her words. And since cults run the gamut
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  Speaker 1: of from, let's say, the doctrinally perverse Mormons to the
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  Speaker 1: sociologically deviant Heaven's Gate cult, I have characteristically employed a
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  Speaker 1: memorable acronym. It's the acronym CULTS. C-U-L-T-S. And I do
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  Speaker 1: that to provide an overview on what is, without question,
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  Speaker 1: a very, very evil cult. So I want to do
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  Speaker 1: Precisely that, on this edition of Hank Unplugged, I want
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  Speaker 1: to use the acronym cults so that you can remember
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  Speaker 1: the characteristics of cults, cults like the Church of Almighty God.
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  Speaker 1: The C always represents the same thing in my acronym.
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  Speaker 1: They're counterfeit. The U, they involve unbiblical revelations, the L,
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  Speaker 1: linguistic subversion, I'll talk about that a little later, the T,
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  Speaker 1: theological subversion, and then the S, and this is really important,
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  Speaker 1: the S in the acronym cults, sociological deviance. So I
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  Speaker 1: start with the letter C, which represents the word counterfeit.
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  Speaker 1: And I've said this many times, what is true of
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  Speaker 1: counterfeit currency is also true with respect to counterfeit religions,
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  Speaker 1: counterfeit religions such as the cult of Eastern Lightning. And
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  Speaker 1: while the list of theological and sociological corruptions of this
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  Speaker 1: pernicious cultic movement are myriad, none, none is more blatant,
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  Speaker 1: more blasphemous than their claim that when Jesus spoke of
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  Speaker 1: his coming, this is in the Olivet Discourse, Matthew chapter 24,
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  Speaker 1: he was specifically and directly referencing his reincarnation as a
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  Speaker 1: female Christ. In the cultic Bible of this cult, the
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  Speaker 1: female Christ actually overtly says that the first incarnation was
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  Speaker 1: male and the second female. And she goes on to
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  Speaker 1: say that if God had only come as a man,
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  Speaker 1: not a single woman could be saved. Now think about that.
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  Speaker 1: If that was not reprehensible enough, this self-designated female Christ
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  Speaker 1: proceeds to define her incarnation as, well, far greater than
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  Speaker 1: the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Not just deeper, but a
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  Speaker 1: far more profound significance. And in pious contrast to Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ whom John, the beloved apostle, rightly designated the
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  Speaker 1: one and the only who came from the Father, full
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  Speaker 1: of grace and truth, this counterfeit Christ supposes that she
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  Speaker 1: even more has the substance of obeying God's Spirit, that
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  Speaker 1: it is she who is full of truth and wisdom,
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  Speaker 1: and that it is she who is the truth and
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  Speaker 1: the way, and the life. And by the way, if
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  Speaker 1: those words sound jarringly familiar, it's because they're a plagiarism.
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  Speaker 1: They're a direct plagiarism of the words of Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: You might recall Thomas asking Jesus how he could know
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  Speaker 1: the way to the Father. And then Jesus saying to Thomas,
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  Speaker 1: I am the way, I am the truth, I am
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  Speaker 1: the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
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  Speaker 1: It's perhaps instructive here to underscore the salient reality that
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  Speaker 1: during his earthly ministry, Jesus demonstrated over and over again,
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  Speaker 1: he demonstrated supernatural authority. He did it over sickness. over
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  Speaker 1: the forces of nature, over fallen angels. He even did
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  Speaker 1: it over death itself. In sum, Jesus did what a
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  Speaker 1: counterfeiter cannot do. He exhibited supernatural authority over disease, over demons,
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  Speaker 1: and again, over death itself. The bottom line here is
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  Speaker 1: that the church of Almighty God is a counterfeit. So
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  Speaker 1: let me move to the U and the acronym cults.
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  Speaker 1: The U, again, represents unbiblical revelations. And they are a
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  Speaker 1: very common cultic characteristic. Let me give you Mormonism as
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  Speaker 1: a classic case in point. In the Mormon fairy tale,
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  Speaker 1: in is a fairy tale, there's an angel by the
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  Speaker 1: name of Moroni who appears to a young boy named
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  Speaker 1: Joseph Smith, and the angel allegedly divulges to Joseph Smith
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  Speaker 1: the location of golden plates on which allegedly are inscribed
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  Speaker 1: a record of God's dealings with the ancient inhabitants of
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  Speaker 1: the Americas. And not only that, but the plates allegedly
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  Speaker 1: contain what is called the fullness of the everlasting gospel.
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  Speaker 1: The plates, of course, according to Mormon lore, are written
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  Speaker 1: in what Joseph Smith claimed to be Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: and by the way, alongside the plate, Smith finds this
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  Speaker 1: pair of magical eyeglasses. Why? Well, they were the magic
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  Speaker 1: elixir by which to translate the Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics in English.
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  Speaker 1: And what's the result? Well, the result is the Book
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  Speaker 1: of Mormon and a new cult known as Mormonism. And that,
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  Speaker 1: for all practical purposes, is a pattern. It's a direct
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  Speaker 1: pattern that is followed by the Eastern Lightning cult. Remember,
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  Speaker 1: I'm using Eastern Lightning and the Church of Almighty God
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  Speaker 1: as synonymous. Two different ways that people refer to the
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  Speaker 1: same cult. But in the case of the Eastern Lightning
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  Speaker 1: counterfeit revelation, instead of being called the Book of Mormon,
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  Speaker 1: it's called the word appears in the flesh. And this
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  Speaker 1: again is the word of the female Christ. And it's
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  Speaker 1: a blasphemous extra-biblical revelation that purports to eclipse the Bible's
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  Speaker 1: Ten Commandments with what they call ten administrative decrees. Ten
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  Speaker 1: administrative decrees that have to be obeyed by God's chosen
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  Speaker 1: people in what they call the age of the kingdom,
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  Speaker 1: the present age. And there's something even worse. According to
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  Speaker 1: the counterfeit Christ, according to her counterfeit Bible, the Christian Bible,
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  Speaker 1: by contrast, is outdated. They call it low. They call
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  Speaker 1: it moldy, unreliable, and tainted with human opinion. And there's more.
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  Speaker 1: It's allegedly replete with human notions, with biases, and what
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  Speaker 1: they call distorted comprehension. Now, reason and evidence point in
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  Speaker 1: precisely the opposite direction. I say that because comprehensive archaeological fieldwork,
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  Speaker 1: careful biblical interpretation, affirms the reliability of the Bible. And
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  Speaker 1: not only that, but the synergistic harmony of the Bible
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  Speaker 1: is a powerful testimony that God has spoken and that
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  Speaker 1: these are his very words. And I'll say something equally compelling,
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  Speaker 1: which is the reality that the Bible records prophecies of
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  Speaker 1: actual events that could not have been known, that could
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  Speaker 1: not have been predicted by mere chance or by common sense.
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  Speaker 1: So if contrast is the conduit to clarity, and it
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  Speaker 1: most certainly is, you only need to read the Old
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  Speaker 1: and New Testaments in juxtaposition to the largely incoherent ramblings
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  Speaker 1: of the female Christ in order to recognize that the
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  Speaker 1: former is genuine and the latter false. is a corrupt counterfeit.
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  Speaker 1: It's an unbiblical revelation. Let me move on to the
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  Speaker 1: L in the acronym CULTS. The L stands for linguistic subversion.
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  Speaker 1: And here's what I mean. CULTS are notorious for subverting
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  Speaker 1: biblical language. How? By pouring their own corrupt meanings into
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  Speaker 1: biblical words and phrases. And what that means is that
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  Speaker 1: you and I need to know how to scale the
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  Speaker 1: language barrier. Now let me take some examples. Let's talk
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  Speaker 1: about the word Jesus to begin with. Mormons, they say
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  Speaker 1: Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer. If you talk
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  Speaker 1: to a Jehovah's Witness, they'll tell you, that Jesus is
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  Speaker 1: the Archangel Michael. And the Church of Almighty God, well,
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  Speaker 1: they'll tell you that Jesus is a female who was
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  Speaker 1: born in China. And here's how they do it. They
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  Speaker 1: take the phrase, this comes from the Olivet Discourse, which
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  Speaker 1: is Matthew chapter 24. They take the phrase, as the
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  Speaker 1: lightning comes out of the east and shines even to
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  Speaker 1: the west, so shall be the coming of the Son
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  Speaker 1: of Man. And then they say that just as Christ
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  Speaker 1: was incarnated in Bethlehem, the female Christ is like the
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  Speaker 1: lightning that comes from the east. In other words, that
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  Speaker 1: she is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ from the eastern
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  Speaker 1: region of China. Now, ironically, when Jesus speaks of the
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  Speaker 1: lightning that comes from the east and is visible even
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  Speaker 1: in the west, all he's doing is using a very
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  Speaker 1: common metaphor. And he's doing that to warn his disciples
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  Speaker 1: of false Christs and false prophets, which is precisely what
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  Speaker 1: the female Christ is. To read into Christ's metaphor the
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  Speaker 1: absurd notion that the lightning in view the lightning that
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  Speaker 1: comes from the east, is a way of communicating that
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  Speaker 1: a female messiah has been born in China and eventually
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  Speaker 1: would be recognized throughout the West, is the quintessence of
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  Speaker 1: linguistic subversion. And that's what cults do. But they're also
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  Speaker 1: theologically perverse, and that's the T in the acronym cults.
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  Speaker 1: This is something all cults have in common. They're pseudo-Christian
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  Speaker 1: groups that compromise, confuse, or outright contradict the essentials of
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  Speaker 1: the historic Christian faith. And their devotees have oftentimes mastered
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  Speaker 1: the art of taking texts out of context in order
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  Speaker 1: to develop their perverse pretexts for their perverse theology. And tragically,
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  Speaker 1: ungrounded Believers around the world often fall for the skin
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  Speaker 1: of the truth that is stuffed with a great big lie.
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  Speaker 1: Now I can give you a lot of examples. I
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  Speaker 1: suppose Scientology is a classic case in point. Scientology says
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  Speaker 1: that in place of resurrection, devotees must believe the unbiblical
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  Speaker 1: notion of reincarnation. And to do that, they distort the
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  Speaker 1: text of scriptures. And here's an example. They hail John
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  Speaker 1: the Baptist as the reincarnation of the biblical prophet Elijah.
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  Speaker 1: And that is despite the obvious fact that John himself
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  Speaker 1: dismissed this absurdity with three short words. You probably remember them.
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  Speaker 1: When he was asked by the Levites if he was
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  Speaker 1: indeed a reincarnation of Elijah, what did he say?' I
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  Speaker 1: am not.' But very much like the Church of Scientology,
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  Speaker 1: the Church of Almighty God holds to the theological perversion
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  Speaker 1: of reincarnation. Ready for this? According to the female Christ,
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  Speaker 1: some people are going to be reborn as birds, some
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  Speaker 1: as ducks, or some as geese, and even worse, As
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  Speaker 1: I've already made plain, she holds her own existence to
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  Speaker 1: be the very reincarnation of Jesus Christ himself. And to
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  Speaker 1: do that, she calls into question the bodily resurrection of
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And regrettably, this is just common
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  Speaker 1: fare for Aberrant Christianity. And because Christ's bodily resurrection is
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  Speaker 1: being compromised, it's being confused, it's being contradicted by cultists,
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  Speaker 1: authentic Christians have to be ready to combat this sort
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  Speaker 1: of theological perversion. Very much combat it like the Apostle
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  Speaker 1: Paul did in the whole of 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
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  Speaker 1: And I say that because a from this essential affirmation,
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  Speaker 1: there is no Christian faith. Not only that, but there
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  Speaker 1: would be zero hope for our own physical resurrection from
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  Speaker 1: the dead, which is the essence of the Christian faith.
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  Speaker 1: It is what St. Paul calls the thing of first importance. Well,
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  Speaker 1: let me move on to the last letter in the
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  Speaker 1: acronym CULTS, the S, which stands for sociological deviance. And
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  Speaker 1: this is a big one. From a sociological perspective, a
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  Speaker 1: cult is a religious or semi-religious sect that a sect
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  Speaker 1: whose followers are controlled in virtually every dimension of their lives.
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  Speaker 1: And as such, the devotees of the cult display a
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  Speaker 1: displaced loyalty, not only for the guru, but also for
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  Speaker 1: the group. And more often than not, they're galvanized together
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  Speaker 1: through physical as well as psychological intimidation tactics. They not
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  Speaker 1: only display a we-they-siege mentality, but they're often cut off
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  Speaker 1: from all former associations, and that includes their immediate families.
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  Speaker 1: And of course, the Church of Almighty God is the
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  Speaker 1: quintessential example of a diabolically dangerous and deviant cult. Sociologically deviant.
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  Speaker 1: Because those who fail the standard of unwavering obedience to
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  Speaker 1: this cult, and those who so much as contemplate defecting
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  Speaker 1: from the cult, well, they are threatened with inconceivable consequences.
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  Speaker 1: In no uncertain terms, the female Christ warns her devotees,
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  Speaker 1: as well as, I would say, her detractors, that the
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  Speaker 1: consequences for disobedience pretend disaster and death. She says, on
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  Speaker 1: the one hand, I kill all who are not in
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  Speaker 1: line with my intentions. And then she says, on the
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  Speaker 1: other hand, I curse all who violate my administrative decrees.
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  Speaker 1: And let me say this, her killings and cursings are
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  Speaker 1: spelled out in shocking detail. She has a book titled
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  Speaker 1: Typical Examples of Punishment for Resisting Almighty God, a book
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  Speaker 1: in which very little is left to the imagination. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: if you read it, it is terrifying. She provides one
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  Speaker 1: lurid detail after another of people who resisted her, resisted
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  Speaker 1: believing that she's Almighty God, And then they pay the
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  Speaker 1: ultimate price. And the ultimate price, their death and destruction
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  Speaker 1: and demise, is spelled out in graphic detail. So after
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  Speaker 1: my own careful examination of this sociopathic manipulation manual, I
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  Speaker 1: couldn't help but wonder about religious studies specialists, about people
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  Speaker 1: like Holly Volk, Dr. Holly Volk is an esteemed professor
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  Speaker 1: at an esteemed university, Western Washington University, and she has
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  Speaker 1: the temerity to categorize the Church of Almighty God as
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  Speaker 1: very much a Christian tradition. She says it's a Christian
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  Speaker 1: tradition in responsive dialogue with other Christianities, and that despite
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  Speaker 1: the obvious reality. And by the way, there are many
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  Speaker 1: other examples. The aforementioned Dr. David Anderson that I mentioned
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  Speaker 1: at the beginning of this podcast, he's head of the
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  Speaker 1: United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and is critical
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  Speaker 1: of public security officials who are trying to protect their
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  Speaker 1: citizens from this insidious and sociologically perverted cult. And tragically,
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  Speaker 1: the increasingly pervasive narrative that the Church of Almighty God
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  Speaker 1: is just another Christian group that's being persecuted by the
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  Speaker 1: Chinese Communist Party is not only wrongheaded, but it's decidedly dangerous,
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  Speaker 1: and it is deflective to authentic expressions of Christianity, particularly
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  Speaker 1: in places like China. Not only China, but places elsewhere
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  Speaker 1: around the world. So let me close by adding that
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  Speaker 1: There are literally millions of first generation Christians worldwide who
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  Speaker 1: are falling for this sociologically deviant and seriously dangerous cult.
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  Speaker 1: So this is not a tempest in a teapot. And
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  Speaker 1: this makes the equipping work of the Christian Research Institute
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  Speaker 1: worldwide absolutely crucial. Leaders must be prepared to withstand the
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  Speaker 1: onslaught of false teaching, of sociological deviance, of predatory cults
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  Speaker 1: such as Eastern Lightning. And that's precisely what we do
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  Speaker 1: at the Christian Research Institute. It's why we produce specialized
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  Speaker 1: resources such as the current special edition of the Christian
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  Speaker 1: Research Journal, a journal which is devoted to exposing the
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  Speaker 1: deviant distortions of the Church of Almighty God as well
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  Speaker 1: as to equip Christians to contend for the faith once
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  Speaker 1: for all delivered to the saints. This journal is available
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  Speaker 1: through the Ministry of the Christian Research Institute. It's not
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  Speaker 1: only in just English, but it's also in Chinese. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: one copy, you have both languages. And this is particularly
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  Speaker 1: helpful in regions like China, to people who speak Chinese
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  Speaker 1: where this cult grew up in the epicenter of Chinese culture. Also,
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  Speaker 1: we had it available in book form. I don't think
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  Speaker 1: there are any copies left, but we do have copies
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  Speaker 1: left of the English edition of the Christian Research Journal.
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  Speaker 1: And I think this is useful on many different levels.
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  Speaker 1: I always say contrast is the conduit to clarity, as
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  Speaker 1: I have in this podcast. And What I do here
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  Speaker 1: is I contrast truth and error. And in the process,
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  Speaker 1: you learn the truth. So you become better equipped to
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  Speaker 1: always be ready to give an answer or reason for
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  Speaker 1: the hope that lies within you with gentleness and with respect.
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  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed the podcast, as always, rate, review, subscribe.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: And do remember the journal that I talked about in
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  Speaker 1: the podcast. You can get your copy on the web
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  Speaker 1: at equip.org. or you can write me at Post Office
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Box 8500, Charlotte, North Carolina, zip code 28271. Thanks for
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: tuning in to this special edition of the Hank Unplugged Podcast.
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  Speaker 1: We look forward to seeing you next time with more.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you.