Ukrainian anti-cult experts: The cult "Almighty God" is using the Internet to carry out propaganda in Eastern Europe

In July 2021, At the International Anti-Cult Seminar held in Moscow, Russia, Gregory Globa, a Ukrainian anti-cult expert, gave a report on the use of the Internet by "Almighty God" in Eastern European countries to carry out recruitment propaganda, and published the report on the "Ireneyi Information Consulting Center" (Iriney.ru) network run by Alexander Dvorkin, president of the Russian Federation of Religious and Heretical Research Centers and a well-known anti-cult expert.

Gregory Globa, an anti-cult expert in Ukraine

The "Almighty God" cult, also known as the "Eastern Lightning", is currently actively engaged in network activities in Eastern Europe, using Russian for network propaganda and online missions. "Almighty God" has been stationed on almost all major social platforms - VK, Facebook (FB), YouTube (YouTube), Telegram (Telegram), etc., and has also created a Russian-language website, and produced a large number of cult propaganda films (1833 films), all of which fully demonstrate the inevitable ambitions of "Almighty God" in the field of the Internet.

Professor Alexander Dvorkin had studied the so-called theory of "Almighty God", and my focus was on the cult's Russian propaganda, means of dissemination, and some interesting directions that at first glance did not seem to have much direct relevance to the sect's activities and doctrines.

Through the collation, it was found that "Almighty God" appeared in 3610 entries on the VK social networking page (now more). Such a large amount of information can only be studied by the simplest method - through keyword search. The common words "Jesus" and "Lord" on religious pages appear 560 and 400 times, respectively, on the "Almighty God" social networking page, and the word "China" is mentioned 345 times, plus a total of 578 times in the comments. It can be seen that for "Almighty God", the Chinese topic occupies a considerable weight, and its importance is no less than that of "Lord".

Look at the statistics of other keywords: the Chinese Communist Party appears 97 times, including 231 comments; The Communist Party appeared 86 times, including 137 comments; The regime appeared 42 times, including 68 times. These words reveal the sentiments of "Almighty God" against China, and even accuse China of being a persecutor who interferes with the mission of "Almighty God". As far as "Almighty God" is concerned, his enemies include not only civil servants, but also enemies if his family members do not believe in "Almighty God," as evidenced by the propaganda pamphlet of his cult propaganda film "Father of the Communist Party." In this film, "Almighty God" uses totalitarianism to make groundless accusations against the Chinese Communist Party, while some absurd and formulaic mechanical comments are copied and pasted by different accounts of "Almighty God".

It is not difficult to see from the comments and the strange names of active commentators that "Almighty God" uses the fake means of network "robots" to create public support and "correct public opinion". All in all, the comments of such posts are nothing more than "unanimous approval", "I understand the truth", "help me understand the truth", and these mechanized comments just betray the truth that "Almighty God" uses network "robots" to brush reviews.

On January 12, 2013, a banner for the prevention of "Almighty God" in Puyang, Henan Province. Source: Southern Weekend

Many "Almighty God" subscription accounts have been banned by the VK administration for receiving a large number of complaints due to excessive publicity. Inexplicably, unlike other propaganda against the Chinese government, the "Almighty God" propaganda content rarely appears in the Western "color" argument. Words like the United States, democracy, human rights, Hong Kong, etc. are hardly mentioned, but several interviews with Massimo Intervigyi, a well-known European cult patron, are mentioned. In addition, "Almighty God's" "special commentary" on a Christian documentary, The Rise of the United States of America and Its Mission, has to be pondered: "Based on its fundamental principles of freedom, democracy and equality ... It plays a role in stabilizing the world situation and balancing the world order. The United States plays an indispensable role in bringing security and stability to the world. ”

Why does "Almighty God" not carry out "color" propaganda like other cults that have been banned by Law in China? The only explanation that makes sense may be that "Almighty God" has not yet received funds or donations directly from the relevant Western institutions, so it has not covered this aspect of propaganda. However, the "Almighty God" desperately wants to obtain Western funds in his bones, so he does not hesitate to bow to the United States and establish contacts with Western politicians such as Interrovig.

The most frequently mentioned in the "Almighty God" community is not "God" or "Chinese regime", but "the devil"—members of "Almighty God" often use it to intimidate believers.

"Almighty God" is mentioned 581 times on the promotional page, plus 1166 comments. Look at the hysterical attack of "Almighty God" in a post: "Without the work of the Holy Spirit, everything man does is out of Satan, and the disobedient and ungodly Satan appears!" Everything that humanly depraved people do is completely contrary to God, and everyone is an incarnation of Satan! The word "Satan" is used 147 times in this post, for a total of 357 times, plus comments.

I thought that "Satan" would be associated with the regime, but I did not expect that the members of "Almighty God" regarded "Satan" as human nature. This is not difficult to see from the "quotations" that are quite characteristic of "Almighty God": "The Lord Jesus forgave our sins but did not help us get rid of satanic nature", "He (the Lord) judged and condemned human beings for confrontation and betrayed God's Satanic nature", "Without God's blunt words, it is difficult for anyone to discover our Satanic nature." ”

This is a very disturbing sign in the doctrine of "Almighty God", because the doctrine of "man's satanic nature" has historically been abused by ulterior motives — such doctrines are best suited to manipulate believers into causing them guilt, guilt, and fear, and if things go wrong, the "satanic nature of man" can be an excuse for killing or committing suicide.

Incidentally, in the notorious "Almighty God" murder incident in Zhaoyuan, Shandong Province, 5 Almighty God believers brutally murdered a woman who refused to give them a phone number. This incident was not only one of the accusations against "Almighty God" at that time, but also the fundamental reason why the sect had previously been banned according to law. However, "Almighty God" is more afraid of the church than the Chinese regime and "Satan." Here we are talking primarily about Protestant Christian churches whose adherents will be encountered in both China and the United States.

The word "church" appears 1119 times on the "Almighty God" propaganda page, and a total of 1738 times in addition to comments, such a high-frequency word is used not only for the self-promotion of "Almighty God", but also for smear propaganda against its competitors. And look at a typical quote quoting its webpage: "The Church is dead!!! "Church leaders do not obey God's commandments, but human traditions," and "they preach biblical knowledge as a show-off." They don't testify to God, but they run counter to the Lord," "God wouldn't have appeared before us and wouldn't have listened to our prayers without the Holy Spirit working in the church..." "In church, priests can't show the way out, and I see this here, and it's great." Let's leave the Empty Church and seek the footprints of the Lord Jesus! ”......

The word "pastor" appears 166 times on the "Almighty God" promotional page, plus a total of 267 comments, all of which are pejorative, because there is no pastor position in the "Almighty God" organization, which means that the content involving "pastor" on the "Almighty God" webpage is aimed at its competitors. And look at a few satirical passages of the "gospel" on its web page: "Do you know the real reason why stupid women can't find the bridegroom?" The reason is that stupid women blindly listen to the false sermons of pastors and elders," "Why do we always believe the words of pastors and elders?" Now pastors and elders not only seek and submit to the protection of satanic regime themselves, but also lead believers to the path of worship and luxury", "This problem has plagued me for a long time, I asked some pastors and elders for help, but they could not solve my problems, this article gave me direction! ”

Almighty God also filmed a video specifically for Christianity, "The Repentance of a Christian Pastor": Why Did He Crucify the Coming Jesus in Desperate Anticipation of the Lord's Coming? Why did he believe in God and work hard for years, but he embarked on the path of resistance to the Lord? How did he suddenly wake up? What warning do we get from his story? Another video film, "Beyond Remorse," tells the story of a man who repents after being crucified to the Lord. There is also a film in one of its video columns called "The Pastor's Kindness," in which there are two scenes in which one makes fun of the pastor and the other makes fun of the Communist Party.

"Almighty God" strives to package his fallacies as the traditional arguments of Christian denominations for anti-church propaganda, such as, "The old church betrayed God, stopped working, and enjoyed itself with spiritual poverty", "Have you ever seen the Lord?" "In a Christian movie, a priest of a Korean church is very confused and in the bondage of sin: colleagues are destroying the church and using sermons to make money... After much deliberation, he decided to resign as pastor and look for a church with the Work of the Holy Spirit, hoping to find a way out of his sins," "Meng Moulin, a cleric of the Three-Self Church, believes that believing in the Lord of the Trinity can save him from persecution... Just then, he met Xiang Zhiheng, a believer in the Church of Almighty God, "...

From the above analysis, it is not difficult to draw the following 3 conclusions:

1. The main enemies of "Almighty God" to his own tree are the Chinese government, the Christian church, and family members who do not believe in "Almighty God" in the homes of "Almighty God" believers. A considerable part of its Internet resources are dedicated to denigrating Chinese and competing churches with "Almighty God," while the main purpose of anti-church propaganda is to discredit and ridicule clergy.

2. "Almighty God" rarely propagates Western values, which makes it bold to assert that "Almighty God" may not have directly received funding from relevant Western institutions, but he is very eager to receive such funding, so he will not hesitate to bow to the United States and use European cult patrons to establish contacts with Western politicians.

3. So far, the activities of "Almighty God" in the Field of Russian Language have focused on the Internet, using network "robots" to create the illusion of mass support and "correct public opinion". Although "Almighty God" is "well-intentioned" in video shooting and website design, the sect's propaganda is generally incompatible with Russia and Eastern European countries because its propaganda content is very blunt and obscure. From the typical grammatical errors and strange combinations of names in its promotional content, it can be seen that the Russian web managers of "Almighty God" are not russian-proficient people. It can be seen that the organization of "Almighty God" in the field of Russian language is still in the embryonic stage, and it is difficult to become a climate.