“They Killed My Mother, They Arrested My Father”: Sister Zou Demei’s Father’s Day Reflections

The former leader of The Church of Almighty God in four Chinese provinces is free in the United States, but her mother has been killed and she cannot contact her elderly father in China.

Editorial note: Bitter Winter readers are familiar with the story of Sister Zou Demei. In the United States, June 16 is Father’s Day. In this article, she talks about her father and how the persecution prevents her from contacting him.

A Persecuted Family

All my family belongs to The Church of Almighty God. In 2002, we learned that the police had identified us as members of the Church, and my father will soon be arrested on the three charges of being a “political criminal,” a “counter-revolutionary,” and “engaged in the subversion of state power.” I will be arrested too, together with my mother and my two sisters. We went our separate ways. I was on the run for ten years and only in 2012 saw my father again.

Gospel Movie Clip "Song of Victory" - Signs of the Lord Jesus' Second Coming

Gospel Movie Clip "Song of Victory"

When the Lord Jesus came to do His work, He preached the gospel of the heavenly kingdom everywhere on a grand scale, and it reverberated throughout the entire religious world and the Jewish nation. On the day that the Lord Jesus returns to do His work, it has shaken people from every sect and group, and caused a sensation across the entire world. Have you noticed the signs of the Lord's second coming? Have you welcomed His return?

Gospel Movie Clip "Song of Victory" - God's Judgment in the Last Days Makes the Overcomers

Gospel Movie Clip "Song of Victory"

The brothers and sisters of the Church of Almighty God endure the severe obstruction and persecution from the Chinese Communist Party and the religious world. Why do they continue to refuse to surrender, continuing to preach the gospel and testify for God? How does Almighty God lead them to undergo God's judgment and tribulations to attain purification and become overcomers?

What Does the Resurrection of the Dead in the Bible Mean?

By Xiangwang

    At 3:00 p.m., in a boat in the middle of a river, Jiang Xun was chatting with his aunt who had returned to China to preach.

    During their conversation, Jiang Xun discovered that his aunt now saw more clearly the things regarding faith and had very unique insight into them. So, Jiang Xun said enviously, “Auntie, after you came back from America this time, much of what you have talked about is what I’ve never heard. You must have gained a lot in America. I’d like to ask you a question. The Bible says, ‘Thus said the Lord Jehovah to these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live: And I will lay sinews on you, and will bring up flesh on you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am Jehovah’ (Ezekiel 37:5–6). ‘In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised’ (1 Corinthians 15:52). ‘For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first’ (1 Thessalonians 4:16). These verses say clearly that when the Lord comes back, He will show great miracles so that the dead will be resurrected instantly, emerging from their tombs like Lazarus did. At that time, we’ll see the martyrs to the Lord. However, not long ago, my old classmate told me that the resurrection of the dead is not, as I imagine, the dead being brought back to life and coming out from their tombs. Instead, it refers to those whose spirits are dead after Satan’s corruption coming alive. I don’t quite understand what he told me. Could it be that my view is wrong? Auntie, can you discuss your opinion?”