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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

HON-MING CHEN (b. 22 April 1955), an associate professor of sociology at Chia Nan University until 1993, who had been an atheist until a claimed revelation in 1992.

What it worshipped and taught

A blend of Buddhism, Daoism, Taiwanese folk religion, Christianity and UFO belief. Chen taught that God would appear on television and then in person; that a nuclear holocaust was coming; and that God would arrive in a flying saucer to rescue the faithful. The group settled in Garland, Texas, because Chen said Garland sounded like God-land.

Who was in it

Hon-Ming Chen; about 150 followers, mostly Taiwanese professionals who sold everything to relocate.

How it ended, or where it stands

NO VIOLENCE AT ANY POINT, and the ending is disputed. About two thirds of the members left after the failed date; most returned to Taiwan while a remnant moved to Lockport, New York, and revised the prophecy. Wikipedia says the group then EFFECTIVELY DISSOLVED; other accounts say it continued quietly. This file records the disagreement rather than picking a side.

The dead

—

Of note

Included because Chen's response to falsification is almost unique: he publicly admitted he was wrong and released his followers. Set against Miller (028), Norman (046) and Prophet (061), it shows the full range of outcomes when a date fails.

Its timeline

  1. 1992–1996 Chen reports a revelation in 1992, breaks from the SOUL LIGHT RESURGENCE ASSOCIATION, and founds Chen Tao in 1996.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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

An associate professor of sociology at Chia Nan University until 1993, an atheist until a claimed revelation in 1992, who led between about 140 and 160 Taiwanese followers — mostly professionals who sold everything — to Garland, Texas, because he said Garland sounded like God-land. He announced that God would appear on Channel 18 on every television in North America at 12:01 a.m. on 25 March 1998, and descend physically six days later. When nothing happened he told assembled reporters that they could take what he had preached as nonsense, offered to be stoned or crucified, and released his followers from any obligation to believe him. Almost nobody in this dossier did that.

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.

  1. 1992–1996 A claimed revelation in 1992; he breaks from the Soul Light Resurgence Association and founds Chen Tao in 1996.
  2. 1997 About 140 to 160 members relocate to Garland, Texas, buying more than twenty houses.
  3. 25 MARCH 1998 God does not appear on Channel 18. Chen publicly admits error.
  4. 31 March 1998 No physical descent; he releases his followers.
  5. 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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