Time really flies. On this day I am 40 and it seems not too long ago when I left school for National Service [NS] in 1992. On looking back, it suddenly seems so far away when I first joined the workforce in 1995. Back then, I had thought I would live forever and now I am into the last year of the fourth decade of my life. I would no longer be getting NS reliefs for my 2011/12 Tax Returns and I had even received a letter which, if I am not wrong, offered me to opt-out of Eldershield! And that’s ELDERshield, not Medishield alright?! Thank you CPF Board for reminding me of my mortality!

That reminds me of a separate celebration with another friend when he joked that we all know we are old when we are listening to Madonna on Class 90.5 FM. After all, we probably used to listen to those songs on 98.7 FM when we were younger. So for those brats who are laughing at this old fossil right now, somewhere down the road you will be listening to Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber on Class 90.5 FM and perhaps they will play Madonna as “classical music” by then…

Anyway, it was almost an uneventful day. I always take leave on my birthday whenever it lands on a working day since I do not like facing shit at work on that day. On top of which I superstitiously believed that if I get a scolding or get into an argument with anyone on this day, it would ruin the entire year of my life.

Anyway, I had pre-arranged to meet up with Angel for lunch at Causeway Point a few days back. I was late and when I arrived I found that a trio had cornered her for a survey. Thinking it was probably the usual kind whereby the objective is to mine user information (such as email addresses and phone numbers) for insurance agents, I just stood by while she filled it up.

It was when I saw questions related to religion and Bible verses in the questionnaire that I took a closer look. By then, it was too late. When they “explained” that she has “misunderstood” a Bible verse, I realised that this was a cult group which talked about ‘God the Mother’. Do not confuse that with Catholicism’s Mary the ‘mother of God’, because these are not Catholics. I recalled having heard of this cult previously, and a brother-in-Christ even gave me a flyer he received from them and told me to write about it on this blog to warn the brethren. At that time, I had intended to write about this but I misplaced the flyer so the entire matter was shelved.

If I am not wrong, the formal name of this cult group is World Mission Society Church of God and it originated in Korea. Founded by a Korean man named Ahn Sahng-hong who claimed to be the Second Coming of Christ, the church is now led by a woman Zahng Gil-Jah. This ‘God the Mother’ doctrine reminds me of the Eastern Lightning or Oriental Lightning (东方闪电) cult in China which also teaches that their leader is female incarnate of the second Coming of Jesus.

Unlike the ‘World Mission Society Church of God’, the Eastern Lightning is confined within China. While local Christians may breathe a sigh of relief knowing this, it is not so fortunate for fellow believers in the home churches not affiliated (or “registered”) with the Three-Self Patriotic Movement in China. According to a brother-in-Christ who participated in missionary work in China, Eastern Lightning preys on these churches and a lot of missionary work has been undone because of their predation. I was told the Eastern Lightning would resort to all kinds of underhand methods to corrupt the leaders of home churches and subvert them. One of the methods include using women to seduce the pastors and they will then use the evidence of wrong-doings to coerce these “fallen” members to either bring part or the entirety of the home church into their fold. Since these home churches are not registered, the pastors would not dare to seek help from the authorities as the Communist state persecutes home churches and inflicts harsh punishment on them.

Although they do not seem to be related, the similarity in doctrine between the two makes me wonder whether they are all controlled or founded by the same sinister organisation. And by that I do not mean the spiritual entity that is behind these earthly organisations.