At 9 a.m. on August 28, 2016, at the gate of the Church of Almighty God in Guro, Seoul, South Korea played out such a scene: Wu, a representative of some religious website in South Korea, led a Chinese mother and her son, as well as five elderly people, to demonstrate with slogan boards saying “Return My Husband to My Family,” etc. They even invited the journalist of a TV station to record the whole process. Under Wu’s command, the Chinese woman cried and shouted, claiming that her husband Zhang was hijacked to South Korea by the Church of Almighty God, and that she wanted her husband to go back with her. Such a scene makes us quite puzzled: The Chinese woman traveled a thousand kilometers to look for her husband, but why didn’t her husband want to meet her? What’s the relationship between Wu and this Chinese woman? How did they gather together to initiate this protest demonstration? Who is the real mastermind of this demonstration? Next, we will give you the answers one by one.
Zhang, husband of this Chinese woman, is a Christian of the Church of Almighty God. In 2015, he fled to South Korea to seek asylum. There are two reasons for him to go to South Korea for protection. First, it’s because the atheist CCP government has been cruelly persecuting religious belief, and he couldn’t believe in God in Mainland China freely. Second, it’s because his wife persecuted him for his belief as a result of being deceived by the rumors of the CCP government. As we all know, the CCP government is an atheistic dictatorial government. It designates Christianity as a cult, and labels the Bible as a cult book. Also, all believers of God are convicted as political criminals against the Party and the government, and they have been suffering all kinds of oppressions, arrests and persecutions. In Mainland China, it can be said that the Christians have been struggling to believe in God and perform their duties, surrounded by hazards. For Zhang, he not only suffered the CCP’s persecution from the outside, but also faced increasing persecution for his faith at his home. His wife Tian believed the rumors made up by the CCP, and threatened him many times with suicide and calling the police, in order to force him to give up his belief. Faced with the double persecutions from the CCP government and his blinded family, Zhang found himself in a really difficult position. He might be arrested and imprisoned by the CCP at any time. Having no choice, he fled to South Korea to seek protection in 2015. Zhang had thought that after fleeing the country ruled by the CCP, he could finally break free from the persecution and arrest of the CCP, and could believe in God freely. However, he never expected that the CCP would hotly pursue him and even stretch its evil hand to South Korea.
In May 2016, under the CCP’s arrangement, one of its agents and Zhang’s wife, son and sister all together came to South Korea for Zhang. When Zhang’s wife and sister met Zhang, Zhang told them his attitude clearly: He doesn’t want to return to China, and he cannot either. Because once returning to China, he will be arrested and imprisoned by the CCP government, and will suffer cruel tortures. Unexpectedly, his wife claimed that he must return to China with her even if he is to be imprisoned and maimed by torture. Later, under the incitement of the CCP agent, Zhang’s wife and sister cried, made troubles, and even threatened suicide to force him to return. They stole his two mobile phones and passport, and took away all the money he had on him. They also installed a monitor in his another mobile phone, and even chased and cornered him in the airport, attempting to abduct him back to China. Fortunately, Zhang narrowly escaped. Three months later, Zhang’s wife Tian with their son came to South Korea once again. On arriving there, Tian went to the Immigration Office of South Korea and tried to cancel Zhang’s asylum application. And then she called a press conference immediately, publicly framed the Church of Almighty God by saying that Zhang came here because he was coerced by the Church and demanded to take her husband back. Not long after that, in collusion with Wu, Tian went to the Church of Almighty God and took photos of the Christians who got in and out of the gate of the Church without any permission. On August 28, as organized by Wu, Tian, her son and five elderly people went to the gate of the Church of Almighty God and launched a demonstration with the signs reading “Return My Husband to My Family” and the slandering and blaspheming slogans against the Church of Almighty God. Under Wu’s instruction, Tian and her son struck at the door, crying and screaming, staged a “wretched drama.” They invited the journalists of some TV station to photograph and interview at the scene. Please think about it: Tian knows clearly how cruel the CCP’s means of persecuting Christians is and that Zhang will surely be arrested and detained, and suffer cruel tortures and afflictions once he returns, but why does she repeatedly force Zhang back to China? It is totally something within their household that Tian came to South Korea for Zhang, but why did she spread it and carry out a demonstration to protest against the Church of Almighty God publicly? As Zhang’s wife, why would she rather that Zhang returned to China being imprisoned and maimed by the CCP government than let him seek protection in South Korea? For Tian and her son, the traffic fee to South Korea and their board and lodging expenses is a big burden, but why can they come to South Korea time and time again? Since Tian is only an ordinary employee in some company, how can she get in contact with Wu who lives overseas and is completely a stranger to her? If we give it a little thought, we can see that Tian must be instructed and used by some person so that she disregarded the safety of her husband and came to South Korea twice to coerce him into returning to China. Behind her demonstration at the gate of the Church of Almighty God, there is an evil hand plotting and manipulating all these. So who is the evil hand?
Let’s then look at the organizer of this protest—Wu, a representative of some religious website in South Korea. She has a nationality and belief different from Tian, and they are thousands of miles away from each other and are in no way related. Why did she collude with Tian to organize the 8.28 Protest? Who exactly is she? From Wu’s activities in South Korea, it is obvious that she has a pro-CCP tendency: She opposes whoever the CCP opposes. Three years ago, Wu tried twice to sneak into the Church of Almighty God to gather information in the name of “investigating Almighty God’s work of the last days.” Because most believers in the church suspected her to be a CCP spy, she was excluded from the Church then. On July 19, 2016, Wu publicly stood on the side of the atheistic CCP, and condemned the Church of Almighty God with the adverse rumors made up by the CCP that slandered and blasphemed the Church. Besides, she incited the local citizens and religious world to resist the Church of Almighty God together. Wu is a religious person, but she actually stands on the side of the atheistic CCP all the time, serving as an accomplice and tool of the atheists in opposing God. It’s truly something pitiful, and a shame to the religious world! Why is Wu so indiscriminate that she should be willing to be used and commanded by the CCP to attack the Church of Almighty God? All signs indicate that Wu has probably been bought off by the CCP, for the CCP government is great at buying off people to do service for them. This is the habitual means the CCP uses to achieve its contemptible purpose. For example, every time the high officials of the CCP visit the foreign countries, they pay high to have a bunch of overseas Chinese as a welcome team. Moreover, the CCP buys off the important political figures and the officials in various countries at a huge cost to do things for them, which is already an open secret. So, there is nothing to be surprised that Wu is bought off at a high price by the CCP and then speaks and does things for them under the urge of interests. More than that, we learn from a journalist of some South Korea TV station that Wu had contacted them and invited them to report this protest three days before Tian and her son arrived in South Korea. Also, when Tian came to South Korea this time, Wu picked her up personally. These facts are proof that Wu and Tian have already known each other under the CCP government’s manipulation, and that everything Tian did after she came to South Korea this time was carefully planned and arranged. The 8.28 Protest is an organized, planned, and premeditated action. It’s not difficult for people of insight to find that Tian and Wu are nothing but chessmen and tools used and manipulated, and the true planner and manipulator behind the 8.28 Incident is the CCP! Then, why does the CCP government bribe Wu to be its lackey and spend such great financial, material and human resources on Tian and her son? The CCP has an ulterior and sinister intention behind it. Actually, the CCP asks Tian and her son to brandish the slogan “A wife looks for her husband, and a son looks for his father” to win others’ sympathy, and conduct a protest demonstration with the claim that the Church of Almighty God abducts Zhang, so as to deceive and blind the South Korean masses. Meanwhile, it is exerting pressure on the South Korean government. It intends to make the South Korean government forcibly send Zhang back to China. And then with Zhang as a precedent, all the other believers of the Church of Almighty God who fled overseas to seek asylum because of the CCP’s persecution could also be extradited to China. On the other hand, the CCP is using this matter to slander, discredit, and frame the Church of Almighty God, so as to stir up the South Korean masses’ hostility towards the Church of Almighty God. As a result, they would refuse to investigate God’s work in the last days and thus lose the chance to be saved by God. These are exactly the contemptible intention and purpose of the CCP.
In addition, we learn from the South Korean police, when Wu applied for the protest, she told them there would be sixteen people to participate in the 8.28 Protest. This shows that Wu had tried to incite the Korean religious world to participate in the protest demonstration against the Church of Almighty God, but few of them involved themselves in this protest. This allows us to see most people in the South Korean religious world respect the fact and are indeed enlightened, strong-minded, and thinking people. They have their own stand and viewpoints so that they were not deceived by the CCP’s rumors, and did not follow Wu in her evil. The Church of Almighty God in South Korea is a legally registered church, the Christians of the Church only testify to Almighty God, preach the kingdom gospel of Almighty God. They never violate the law of South Korea or fight against anyone, nor offend anyone. They do everything on the basis of the Bible, and never do things contrary to the teachings of the Lord Jesus. Although Wu and Tian, under the banner of “looking for family,” slandered and attacked the Church of Almighty God, picking quarrels and provoking troubles with the Church, the South Korean government wasn’t biased, which allows us to see the South Korean government is indeed democratic. This is what we have never seen in Mainland China, and we feel very comforted!
In this 8.28 Incident, Tian constantly said that Zhang was abducted by the Church of Almighty God. However, anyone with a discerning eye can see that she is confounding right and wrong, and playing the trick of a thief crying “Stop thief.” On August 29, Zhang made a public statement to some prominent medium in South Korea that he escaped here to seek protection only because of the hunting and persecution from the CCP. He said he performed his duty in the Church of Almighty God of South Korea out of sheer willingness, and that no one forced him. In addition, the Church of Almighty God explicitly states, “One gives up his whole being to sacrifice for God by the voluntary principle. For example, some sacrifice for evangelism, some sacrifice for doing the church work, some offer their whole beings and devote all their time to God and some can only sacrifice for God during their free time. All is chosen by man out of his free will; God’s house never forces man. If you are fit for duty, God’s house can call you. But whether you do or not is entirely decided by yourself.” Whether one believes in God or not and whether one performs duty in the church or not are decided by himself; the Church of Almighty God never forces man, much less compels man. So, the saying that Zhang is abducted by the Church of Almighty God does not conform at all to the fact. It is completely the CCP’s slander and defamation of the Church of Almighty God. In fact, the word “abduct” is not new for the CCP. Abduction is the usual means of the CCP. It arrests, imprisons and tortures Christians and dissidents illegally, and even beats them to death with impunity. So, the CCP is the real culprit who abducts Christians and the Chinese people. At Zhang, for example, he doesn’t want to go back to China. However, the CCP government wracks its brain and spares no cost to send agents to forcefully abduct him and conduct the protest demonstration, attempting to extradite him back to China to ravage and persecute him. Isn’t this exactly abduction? But the CCP confounds right and wrong and makes false accusations, shifting the blame onto the Church of Almighty God without any proof, by which it is to defame and slander the Church. The CCP is really evil to the utmost!
In addition, the CCP government and Wu and others seize on the matter of Zhang, who was persecuted and forced to seek asylum in South Korea to continue his faith and his duty, and thus defame the Church of Almighty God by saying that it tears families apart, and breaks the law. This allegation is so absurd and ridiculous. As is known to all Christians, it was recorded in the Bible that when the Lord Jesus called His disciples, one of them said, “Lord, I will follow you; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.” Jesus said to him, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:61-62). In the Bible, the Lord Jesus also told us clearly, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). “And every one that has forsaken houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred times, and shall inherit everlasting life” (Matthew 19:29). From the Lord Jesus’ words, we see that those who forsake everything to carry out God’s will, to satisfy and love God are most approved by God. Only such kind of people are worthy to be the disciples of the Lord Jesus and qualified to inherit God’s promise and blessings. Is the Lord Jesus’ such requirement of man tearing families apart? Is it illegal that the Lord Jesus’ disciples forsake family and career to preach the gospel? Obviously not! The deeds of these disciples are exactly the manifestation of their conscience, reason and obedience to God, and are approved by God. Moreover, for the sake of God’s commission, numerous saints throughout the ages abandoned their families, husbands, wives, and children to spread the Lord Jesus’ gospel everywhere. They endured a lot of hardships and sufferings, and they didn’t even hesitate to give up their lives. It is just because generations of saints willingly forsook their families and career for evangelism that the Lord Jesus’ gospel spreads to the ends of the earth, and that we, the gentile nations, are so blessed to receive the Lord Jesus’ salvation. Could we say that it’s wrong for the saints to forsake everything to expend for God? Could we say that their deeds are against the law? Could we say that they were coerced into going out to preach? Which nation’s law could convict them of crimes? Now, the Christians of the Church of Almighty God have suffered too much affliction and persecution from the CCP in Mainland China, with no place to hide, so they’re forced to flee overseas and continue to follow God and spread the kingdom gospel. Is there anything wrong with this? The CCP government condemns Christians’ righteous deeds of forsaking their family and career to preach as an illegal action, and condemns the positive things as negative ones. This is sufficient to prove that the CCP government confuses black and white, right and wrong, hates righteous and bright things and advocates evil and negative ones. The CCP government is so evil, so reactionary!
In this, I believe that you are all well aware that the CCP government is the mastermind behind the 8.28 Incident, and that this protest is just a drama which is completely invented, directed, and performed by the CCP itself. So, these allegations against the Church of Almighty God made by Wu and Tian under the instigation of the CCP government are totally false. The CCP government hates the truth most and hates the coming of the true God extremely. In Mainland China, it hunted Christ in every possible way and cruelly suppresses and persecutes Christians of the Church of Almighty God, driving them to leave their homes and have nowhere to go. Even so, they still do not quit. Nowadays, it stretches its evil hand to countries overseas. It uses its usual tricks such as bribery and interest inducement to buy off pro-CCP members to be its helpers overseas, making them its voice, to attack, slander, and defame the Church of Almighty God. It also incites and instigates the family members of Christians to stir up troubles abroad under the pretext of looking for their families, trying to forcibly extradite Christians of the Church of Almighty God back to China, so as to disturb and impair the spreading of the kingdom gospel in other countries. The CCP government is truly reactionary to the utmost and evil to the extreme! God’s disposition is intolerant of man’s offense. Any person, any country, or any nation that defies God will suffer God’s righteous punishment and curse. Almighty God says, “Recall the scene in the Bible when God wrought destruction upon Sodom, and think also of how Lot’s wife became a pillar of salt. Think back to how the people of Nineveh repented their sins in sackcloth and ashes, and recall what followed after the Jews nailed Jesus to the cross 2,000 years ago. The Jews were expelled from Israel and fled to countries around the world. Many were killed, and the entire Jewish nation was subjected to unprecedented destruction. They had nailed God to the cross—committed a heinous crime—and provoked the disposition of God. They were made to pay for what they did, were made to bear the consequences of their actions. They condemned God, rejected God, and so they had but one fate: to be punished by God. This is the bitter consequence and disaster that their rulers brought upon their country and nation.
Today, God has returned to the world to do His work. His first stop is the grand assemblage of dictatorial rulers: China, the staunch bastion of atheism. God has gained a group of people by His wisdom and power. During the period, He is hunted by China’s ruling party in every means and subjected to great suffering, with no place to rest His head and unable to find a shelter. Despite this, God still continues the work He intends to do: He utters His voice and spreads the gospel. None can fathom the almightiness of God. In China, a country that regards God as an enemy, God has never ceased His work. Instead, more people have accepted His work and word, for God does all He can to save each and every member of mankind. We trust that no country or power can stand in the way of what God wishes to achieve. Those that obstruct God’s work, resist the word of God, disturb and impair the plan of God shall ultimately be punished by God. He who defies the work of God shall be sent to hell; any country that defies the work of God shall be destroyed; any nation that rises up to oppose the work of God shall be wiped from this earth, and shall cease to exist” (“God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). In the Age of Law, the people of Sodom flagrantly denied and opposed God, directly infuriated God’s disposition, and were completely destroyed into ashes by God. In the Age of Grace, the Jewish chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees openly opposed and condemned the Lord Jesus. They, in collusion with the Roman government, nailed the Lord Jesus onto the cross, committing a heinous crime and infuriating God’s disposition, so that the entire nation was subjected to unprecedented destruction. Nowadays, the sins of the CCP opposing Almighty God are far more grievous than those of Sodom, and even more grievous than those of the Jewish religion. So what end will it bring to itself? What disaster will it bring to the Chinese nation? It’s self-evident.
Hereby, we hope people from all walks of life see through the truth behind the 8.28 Protest Incident, grow wise to the CCP’s schemes, and see clearly its devilish substance of being hostile to God.
Xiang Guangming