Zhushenjiao (主神教 ''Supreme Spirit''), also referred to as "Lord God's Teachings" is a

new religious movement A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or th ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Areas with its activity include

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

and

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

History

The movement was founded in

in late 1992 or early 1993. Its founder was Liu Jiaguo (刘家国), who was born in 1964 in

Huoqiu County Huoqiu County () is a county in the west of Anhui Province, People's Republic of China, under the jurisdiction of Lu'an City and bordering Henan province to the west. It has a population of 1,640,000 and an area of . The government of Huoqiu Count ...

in Anhui Province and executed in 1999. Liu was a member of the Shouters who later joined the

Beili Wang The Anointed King / Beili Wang (被立王) (also known as ''The Established King'') is a new religious movement of Christianity, Christian origin in the People's Republic of China, which possibly had more than 100,000 members at its peak. The gro ...

movement. The latter group sent him to

as a missionary in 1991. After the repression of Beili Wang by the government, Liu decided to establish his own group, attracting mostly former members of Beili Wang. By 1997, Liu had some 10,000 followers and was able to organize a national congress in Hunan with devotees from some 15 provinces. Liu was accused of fraud, of asking extravagant gifts from his followers, and of keeping a harem of women with whom he regularly had sex. He was arrested in June 1998 and indicted for multiple charges of rape. He defended himself by claiming sex had always been consensual, but was found guilty by a Hunan court, sentenced to death, and executed in October 1999. Several other members were arrested and charged with fraud and operating a

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...

, including Liu's second-in-command, a peasant from

Xiangxiang Xiangxiang () is a county-level city under the administration of Xiangtan, Hunan province, China. Located on Central Hunan and the west of Xiangtan, Xiangxiang is bordered by Ningxiang County and Shaoshan City to the north, Xiangtan County to the ...

, Hunan, called Zhu Aiqing (朱爱清), who was sentenced to seventeen years in jail. As a result of the arrests, the group declined but was reported as still active in 2015.

Beliefs

All information about Zhushenjiao's beliefs come from hostile sources, either Christian opponents or Chinese authorities. The movement was accused of trying to create a ''divine empire'' and to have divinized Liu and other leaders.

China Gospel Fellowship The China Gospel Fellowship (Chinese language, Chinese: 中华福音团契), also known as the Tanghe Fellowship (唐河团契), is one of the largest Evangelicalism, evangelical Christian religious movements in China, and is a Chinese house church ...

, which regards Zhushenjiao as a

, claims that the group had a system including "God the Lord" (主神), "Lord on High" (在上主), elders (长老), "four living creatures" (四活物 ), "seven angels’ (七天使), provincial authorities (省权柄), county authorities (县权柄), and co-workers (同工). Liu was recognized as "God the Lord" and Zhu Aiqing as "Lord on High."China Gospel Fellowship, ''防备辩驳异端'' (Beware and Refute Heresy), Zhengzhou: China Gospel Fellowship, undated (ca. 2004), 120-121.

References

{{Reflist 1993 establishments in China Apocalypticism New religious movements Religious organizations based in China Religious organizations established in 1993 Chinese cults

History

Beliefs

See also

References