Perform Your Duty (2)
“In 2006, Zhang Hua closed her barber shop and started serving full-time for CAG as she “performed her duty.” For twelve years, Zhang Hua has served as church leader and community leader, but she has never received a salary. Zhang says, “God’s family tells us that everyone must “perform one’s duty”, and you will be saved until the end of the world.””[1] “In 2015, Zhang Hua became the leader of the visa team in the Northeast Area. She discloses that many people submitted forged real estate certificates, bank records, and academic certificates when they applied for visas. She says, “There are also some people who are actually unwilling to [leave China]. But they have the skills needed [abroad] and they [left] with tears in their eyes.””[2]
[1] Chen Jingshou, Beijing News Peeling Onions, “Beginning of the Cult “Almighty God” , August 12, 2018, accessed January 25, 2022.
Besides serving physically, Zhang says, ““performing one’s duty” also means donating money. The “Principles of Church Work Manual” states, “It is a good deed to dedicate all of your own to God; some people do not fully dedicate all of their own to God when they die. This is the biggest failure in believing in God.”[3] She explains, “many brothers and sisters have to give to God in order to show their sincerity. The teaching of “Almighty God” says, the end of the world will come soon; and it is useless to keep money. Only by giving to God and keeping the money in heaven can we be saved.”[4]
- Go to “Perform Your Duty (1)” for additional information.
The “Principles of Performing One’s Duty Adequately” does say something similar to Zhang’s quotes. The principles require CAG members to perform their duties adequately, i.e., to meet God’s requirements and satisfy Him. It warns CAG’s members that, “there is quite a substantial relationship between people’s salvation and how they fulfill their duties, whether they can do them well, and whether they can do them adequately… The standard that God requires of you is to perform your duty adequately. How should the word “adequately” be explained? It means you must meet God’s requirements and satisfy Him, and your work must be called adequate by God and be given His nod of approval; only then will you have fulfilled your duty adequately… If you do not do it adequately, then what will the consequences be? In severe cases, people’s hopes of salvation might disappear and be dashed; in less severe cases, they might be deprived of their right to fulfill duties.”[5]
[5] The Church of Almighty God, 170 Principles for Practicing the Truth – 78. The Principles of Performing One’s Duty Adequately (Excerpted from “What Is the Adequate Performance of Duty?” in Records of Christ’s Talks), accessed January 26, 2022.
As quoted above, CAG warn church members that they might lose their salvation if they do not “Perform Their Duties Adequately”. The principles further define that “adequately” is not simply going through the motions when “performing one’s duty.” Rather, “when [you] faced with a duty that needs your effort and expenditure, and that requires you to dedicate your body, mind, and time, you must not hold anything back, harbor any petty cleverness, or leave any leeway.”[6] In other words, in order to “Perform Your Duty Adequately,” giving 100% of your effort and 100% of your time, money, and assets are expected from you and all CAG members.
[6] The Church of Almighty God, 170 Principles for Practicing the Truth – 78. The Principles of Performing One’s Duty Adequately (Excerpted from “Life Entry Must Begin With the Experience of Performing One’s Duty” in Records of Christ’s Talks), accessed January 26, 2022.
CAG's Principles of Offering Donations and Alms
CAG’s literatures have some principles or rules regarding the handling of donations for followers to comply with. All five Principles of Offering Donations and Alms seem to contradict to the allegations reported on the news media. However, principles numbers (2) and (5) says, “(2) New believers who do not understand the truth are forbidden from offering donations. Only those with true faith in God may donate….. (5) Money and goods donated to God should be given to the church for safekeeping. One may also look after them oneself, or they may be handed to someone else who truly loves God, for safekeeping.”[1]
In real life, these two principles have a built-in psychological pressure to those who have joined the church for a while to give more and keep less. In addition, there are also Principles of How to Treat Offerings to God, of which the first three principles give total and complete control to the priest, the man used by the Holy Spirit, and God:
“(1) The money and goods of God’s house, including all of its property, are offerings to God from His chosen people, and belong to no church or person; (2) No one has the right to partake of offerings to God except for God and the priest. Any person who steals from them is a Judas, and must be punished; (3) Offerings donated to God are to be arranged, transferred, and controlled by Him and the man used by the Holy Spirit, and no one may interfere with them or move them at will……”[2]
First, number one (1) essentially says that the believers and the church administration at the local level are not allowed to use the offerings. Second, the other two principles, (2) and (3), point to the recipients of the offerings. It makes one wonder the real identities of the priest, the man used by the Holy Spirit, and CAG’s Almighty God.[3]
The CAG’s own holy book, “The Word Appears in The Flesh”, provides a list of The Ten Administrative Decrees That Must Be Obeyed by God’s Chosen People in the Age of Kingdom. In number three (3), it decrees the uses of offerings:[4] “The money, material objects, and all property in God’s household are the offerings that should be given by man. These offerings may be enjoyed by none but the priest and God, for the offerings of man are for the enjoyment of God. God only shares these offerings with the priest; no one else is qualified or entitled to enjoy any part of them. All of man’s offerings (including money and material things that can be enjoyed) are given to God, not to man, and so these things should not be enjoyed by man; if man were to enjoy them, then he would be stealing offerings. Anyone who does this is a Judas, for, in addition to being a traitor, Judas also helped himself to what was put in the money bag.”[5]
As the above paragraph’s red and green words indicate, the priest and God can enjoy money, material objects, and all property. But how does God enjoy these earthly material items that only human craves to embrace, possess, and enjoy.
If one reads closely the contexts of these principles and decrees, they all emphasize acts of obedience and, if not, then judgment and punishment for all violators. These money schemes as camouflage in “Perform Your Duty” and illegal act allegations were not well publicized to the public outside of China until April of 2002.
[1] The Church of Almighty God, 170 Principles for Practicing the Truth – 85. The Principles of Offering Donations and Alms, accessed January 26, 2022.
[2] The Church of Almighty God, 170 Principles for Practicing the Truth – 86. The Principles of How to Treat Offerings to God, accessed January 26, 2022.
[3] Some house churches in China are required to turn in most or all offerings collected to their mother church, i.e., the headquarters, in their hierarchy. A local house church leader in Northern China had multiple times shared her testimony that she had to spend her own money which had created financial hardship for her to run the local ministries of home gatherings.
[4] The Word Appears in the Flesh is CAG’s Bible, the new revelation allegedly spoken by the female Christ.
[5] The Church of Almighty God, The Word Appears in The Flesh – The Ten Administrative Decrees That Must Be Obeyed by God’s Chosen People in the Age of Kingdom, accessed January 26, 2022.