# Chen Tao · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

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← The Cult Dossier: all 182
The Cult Dossier · No. 072 · Ufo / Extraterrestrial
Chen Tao
God's Salvation Church; the True Way
1996 – 2001 (Chen teaching from 1992) · Taiwan; then Garland, Texas, USA
VIII. THE 1990s — THE MILLENNIUM APPROACHES
Fully religious — Taiwanese folk religion / UFO synthesis
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1992–1996 Chen reports a revelation in 1992, breaks from the SOUL LIGHT RESURGENCE ASSOCIATION, and founds Chen Tao in 1996.
- 1997 Between about 140 and 160 members relocate to Garland, Texas, buying more than twenty houses in a middle-class neighbourhood and dressing in white suits and cowboy hats.
- 22 DECEMBER 1997 Chen announces that GOD WILL APPEAR ON CHANNEL 18 IN EVERY TELEVISION SET IN NORTH AMERICA at 12:01 a.m. on 25 March 1998, and will then descend physically at 10:00 a.m. on 31 March 1998 at 3513 Ridgedale Drive, Garland.
- 25 MARCH 1998 Nothing appears on Channel 18. Chen tells assembled reporters: Since God's appearance on television has not been realised, you may take what we have preached as nonsense. He offers to be stoned or crucified. Nobody accepts.
- 31 MARCH 1998 At a press conference, surrounded by SIX POLICE OFFICERS for his own protection, Chen gives reporters TEN MINUTES IN WHICH TO STONE OR CRUCIFY HIM. Nobody moves.
- 31 MARCH – 1 APRIL 1998 HE THEN DOES WHAT ALMOST EVERY OTHER FAILED PROPHET IN THIS DOSSIER DOES. Within a day he tells the members: 'YOU YOURSELF HAVE BECOME GODS.' God had appeared after all — not on television and not in the flesh, BUT IN THE BODIES OF THE MEMBERS THEMSELVES. The admission of error and the rescue of the prophecy happened within twenty-four hours of each other.
- MAY 1998 The group sells its Garland properties and relocates to LOCKPORT, NEW YORK, after Chen inspects sites in Michigan and New York. On 13 May four families take rental housing.
- 1998–2026 Most members returned to Taiwan, but THE CHURCH DID NOT DISSOLVE — it continues to practise, in obscurity, having attracted almost no attention since the failed date.
### Its people
### Hon-Ming Chen
—
Founder, Chen Tao (God's Salvation Church) · born 22 April 1955 · active 1992–2001
Before the law. Never charged.
Where things stand. The group survives quietly. His public admission of error remains almost unique among the leaders in this dossier — BUT IT SHOULD BE READ ALONGSIDE WHAT HE DID NEXT. Within a day he had reinterpreted the failure so that God had arrived inside the members instead. He is both the cleanest counter-example and, twenty-four hours later, a textbook case of prophetic rescue.
- 1992–1996 A claimed revelation in 1992; he breaks from the Soul Light Resurgence Association and founds Chen Tao in 1996.
- 1997 About 140 to 160 members relocate to Garland, Texas, buying more than twenty houses.
- 25 MARCH 1998 God does not appear on Channel 18. Chen publicly admits error.
- 31 March 1998 No physical descent; he releases his followers.
- 1998–2001 Most members return to Taiwan; the group disperses.
Checked 2026-09-25 · living: health details are kept at home
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