Chinese police detained 18 members of a banned religious cult which believes Jesus has returned to grace the earth in the form of a woman.
The Church of Almighty God, or Quannengshen, believes Jesus was resurrected as a woman in China, and that she will wreak the apocalypse.
Zhao Weishan founded the cult in the 1990s and his wife, Yang Xiangbin is believed to be the ‘female Jesus.’ They both fled China in 2000 and claimed political asylum in the US.
The arrests were made in Zhejiang Province on Wednesday following an investigation into the cult, Xinhua reports.
"The cult's 'leaders' imposed spiritual control over the members," Changxing County police officer Dong Jianfeng said. "They were told that as long as they gave donations, the Almighty God would keep their illness at bay."
"Every member was willing to donate their money, and the amounts ranged from 10,000 yuan (US$1,481) to tens of thousands of yuan," he added.
Police seized computers, hard drives, 150 books and 460 pamphlets used by the cult, China News reports. They said eight of the suspects have been “re-educated” and denounced their cult beliefs.
The group came under fire in 2014, when its members were caught beating a woman to death in a McDonald’s when she refused to give them her number as they attempted to recruit her. Two members were executed for the murder in 2015.
The Church of Almighty God is accused of isolating members from family and friends and pressuring followers to give money to get salvation. Like Scientology, the more members donate, the higher they progress in the cult’s ranks.
The cult’s headquarters are now in the US.