Edwin Stevens (missionary) in the context of "God Worshipping Society"

The God Worshipping Society (simplified Chinese: 拜上帝会; traditional Chinese: 拜上帝會; pinyin: Bài Shàngdì Huì) was a polytheistic religion formed in the 19th century under the influence of Protestant Christianity, incorporating elements of Chinese folk religion and Buddhist concepts. It denied the doctrine of the Trinity, honored God as the supreme deity, with Jesus as the crown prince and second in status, and Hong Xiuquan, the founder, as the second son of God. Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui, through spirit possession, claimed to be the "Heavenly Father Descending to Earth" and "Heavenly Brother Descending to Earth" respectively, acting as spokesmen for the Heavenly Father and Jesus. Hong's first contact with Christian pamphlets occurred in 1836 when he directly received American Congregationalist missionary Edwin Stevens' personal copy of the Good Words to Admonish the Age (by Liang Fa, 1832). He only briefly looked over and did not carefully examine it.

Subsequently, Hong claimed to have experienced mystical visions in the wake of his third failure of the imperial examinations in 1837 and after failing for a fourth time in 1843, he sat down to carefully examine the tracts with his distant cousin Feng Yunshan, believing that they were "the key to interpreting his visions" coming to the conclusion that he was "the son of God the Father, Shangdi, and was the younger brother of Jesus Christ who had been directed to rid the world of demon worship (Qing dynasty)."