Sanbanpuren—Three Grades of Servant

Part 2: The Great Servant

edited by Tony Lambert, Director for Research, OMF Chinese Ministries

In our last edition we saw that Xu Shengguang, (also known as Xu Shuangfu) the founder of Three Grades of Servants (TGS) group, had been executed in late November 2006 for his purported involvement in the murder of twenty members of another cult, Eastern Lightning.

In this issue let us examine in more depth the career, teachings and life-style of Xu himself. This will enable the reader to make an informed judgment whether TGS is a cult or not.

Xu's background
TGS first attracted attention in Hong Kong in the early 1990s, but appears to have arisen on China in the late 1980s. Its founder was Xu Shengguang (also called Xu Wenku and Xu Shuangfu). It has been claimed he was from Anhui, but according to Phoenix Magazine in Hong Kong who sent a reporter to Henan to investigate, he was born in 1946 in Lingliu Village, Xiaodian Township, Nanzhao County, Henan. He left this village when very young, although his younger brother is still living there. At some time he moved to the neighboring county of Zhenping. He never had more than primary school education. The Xu family were all converted to Christianity even before the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). When he was 12 years old (in 1958) he followed a Christian named Wang Huaru who was lame. Xu carried him around to preach. Xu established a reputation for himself and began to attract followers.

Xu's claims
As other cult leaders, stories of his powers began to be circulated in promotional literature of this sect. According to The Torch in the Thorn Bush Xu used his prayer power to heal cancer and even to resurrect people from the dead. It is also claimed he fasted sixty days without dying. This is reminiscent of other religious or cult leaders thrown up by the Chinese peasantry, which in the last decade of the century was in a process of painful transition to a full market economy. By the 1990s the dire state of agriculture in many areas, with millions of desperate peasants leaving the countryside in droves for the cities, created a fertile and turbulent environment in which not only the true gospel of Christ, but also many cults, have flourished.

Xu himself claimed to be the “Great Servant” at the top of the hierarchy, and to be an apostle or prophet on an equality with Moses. A former member of the sect, who later exposed it in a booklet written c.1998, stated:

“He claimed to be a modern Moses raised up by God. Only he had direct contact with God. All other people had indirect contact only and could only understand God’s will through his mediation… Anyone who disobeyed him was like Korah and was accursed.”

In 1996 this false doctrine further mutated to the even more extreme claim that Xu was the “Incarnate Master” (roushen zhuren). This meant that all the TGS believers in the lower grades could only go to God through him. They were forbidden to confess their sins directly to God—only through Xu. “The Servant had replaced Christ to become the way of salvation and mediator” (China and the Gospel, Nov-Dec 1999, p.20). Xu seems to have stopped short of actually claiming to be Christ, but by usurping the unique mediatorial role of our Lord, he had committed blasphemy and placed himself beyond the bounds of orthodox Christianity.

Xu was imprisoned many times by the police for his activities, and in this is no different from other more orthodox house-church leaders.

Xu's lifestyle
He and the top leaders of the sect were accused of amassing a huge fortune of 32 million RMB ($4 million). This was either given willingly by the masses of TGS believers who live sacrificially, or defrauded from them, depending on one’s view of Xu.

Xu and his associates certainly built up a large and profitable empire of enterprises. Already this was highlighted in the long research article published in 2000 by China Ministries International (CMI). This stated: “Xu Shengguang concentrated his efforts on expanding the church’s businesses, building a huge empire of church-owned properties. All this is controlled by his younger sister.”

Six years later, the Hong Kong-based Phoenix Magazine confirmed this assessment in much more detail. It described Xu as a “religious entrepreneur” who encouraged his followers to be good businessmen so they could donate more money to the cult. He and the TGS leadership controlled 20 enterprises, including a printing plant, travel agency, car repair workshop and shops in Beijing, Harbin and other cities. This empire is worth 5.8 million RMB. Xu’s younger sister, Xu Lingyu, and her husband, Zhang Linke, are major figures in the commercial operations network of TGS. TGS believers in the lower grades were encouraged to set up small businesses such as barber shops, restaurants, hotels etc. to make money and provide a network of “safe houses” for Xu and the top leadership to hide out in.

Xu’s own lifestyle was lavish, bearing in mind his poor peasant background. The procuratorate charged that Xu’s brother-in-law, Zhang Linke, was in charge of 10 million RMB to set up commercial enterprises for TGS across the country. His chauffeur, Han Wei, was in charge of 6 million RMB and his personal assistant, Wang Yang, had been in charge of 3 million RMB. Xu had purchased two luxury cars, a Mercedes Benz and a Passat, two luxurious homes and luxury goods worth more than 3 million RMB. His gold Rolex watch alone cost nearly 200,000 RMB [US$25,000] and a pair of designer glasses, 10,000 RMB. The chauffeur spent more than 700,000 RMB to buy a BMW sports car, as well as other costly items for the personal assistant, Wang Yang. The two spent more than 600,000 RMB in travel expenses. On March 6, 2006 his daughter, Xu Baiyin, was interviewed by the Hong Kong-based Phoenix Weekly in Henan. When confronted with the evidence of Xu’s luxurious lifestyle, she claimed her father did not realize the watch he was wearing was an expensive Rolex(!) as it was purchased on his behalf by his chauffeur. She was “unclear” about the business of her father buying cars, houses etc. In all, a not very convincing defense.

One notes with interest the reaction of true Christian villagers in Xu’s home village when told of his arrest. “Our faith is different from his. In their kind of faith, one can become rich. When they go out to preach they ride up-market sedan cars.” The average earnings of many Christian farmers in Henan according to government statistics is only US$250 PER ANNUM—or one percent of the cost of Xu’s luxury wristwatch.

False teaching
Perhaps reflecting Xu’s own educational limitations TGS does not appear to have produced much written teaching (unlike Eastern Lightning which has produced huge volumes of material.) According to CMI, TGS majors on sermons about prayer and the duty of believers to donate to the cult. They lack a consistent, detailed biblical or theological overview. Their teaching is arbitrary, fragmentary and forced. They even encourage believers to read The Analects of Confucius, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and other traditional Chinese books rather than the Bible. Their exposition of scripture is fanciful. For instance, because the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt is seen as a type of the believer’s conversion, they order new converts to steal as much as they can from their neighbors, work-units etc. to donate to Xu, in the same way the Israelites plundered the Egyptians of their gold and silver.

According to the house-church booklet, Understanding Heresies, written by a former member of TGS in c1998, Xu also forbade marriage and advocated celibacy. He forced husbands and wives to live separately saying their living together was “dirty and unholy.” This led to the tragic break-up of many families.

The same author states that Xu abolished celebration of the Lord’s Supper, saying this was “legalism, only according to the letter.” On the “basis” of Isaiah 30: 20-21 which states: “the Lord give(s) you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,” he spiritualized away the actual celebration of communion in clear defiance of Our Lord’s express command: “Do this in remembrance of me.” He also twisted scripture to “prove” that believers should tell lies.

The author of this house-church booklet which gives rare insight into the cult, says he became a member in 1989 but says he was not born again and had very little understanding of the Bible until 1993 when the Lord began to open his eyes. Only then he understood the realities of justification by faith, the atonement and the new birth. Other TGS leaders could only tell him he could never be saved and would certainly go to hell if he left the cult.

False prophet
Like other pseudo-Christian cults in China, TGS has an unhealthy obsession with eschatology. Xu believed that as Noah was warned beforehand of the flood, Lot warned Sodom and Gomorrah of their impending doom and Jonah preached repentance to the Ninevites warning of their destruction, so he had been given a mission to warn of the end of the world.

He has given false predictions of the Second Coming on at least two occasions. Firstly, he said Jesus would come again on July 1, 1989. Many believers slaughtered all their livestock, and abandoned all they had to wait for the coming of the Lord. When Jesus failed to come, they lost everything. Then later he predicted that Christ would come again during 1993. When his prediction proved false yet again, Xu came up with an ingenious “scripture proof.” God had foretold that Abraham’s descendants would be slaves in Egypt for 400 years. But in actual fact 430 years passed until they finally left Egypt. Thus Xu’s prediction was still true—the actual fulfillment has just been delayed a few more years! The house-church booklet, Understanding Heresies, states that Xu quoted the occult prophecies of Nostradamus to back up his false predictions.

Just as the Jehovah’s Witnesses are famous for their false predictions of the end of the world (originally set for 1914!), so Xu joins the ranks of those whom the Bible calls false prophets for the clear and simple reason that events proved his prophecies false.

In our third, and final installment dealing with TGS, we shall examine the structure of the sect in more detail.

Copyright 2007 OMF International