What Is the Meaning of Christmas, and Are You Truly Worshiping the Lord Jesus?

What Is the Meaning of Christmas, and Are You Truly Worshiping the Lord Jesus?

December 8, 2018

By Siyuan

The Origins of Christmas

Every year, as Christmas approaches, shops on the street arrange a dazzling display of Christmas presents, with Santa Claus and Christmas trees, and so on. Festooned in trees and on buildings there are many-colored lights, and whole cities are decorated with lanterns and colored hangings, and everywhere there is joy and excitement. To Christianity, Christmas is a very special holiday, and several months before Christmas, many churches will begin to busy themselves preparing everything necessary for the Christmas holiday. On Christmas Day, the churches are filled, and brothers and sisters get involved in the celebrations, eating Christmas dinner, putting on performances and worshiping the Lord Jesus, and so on. Everyone’s face is flushed with happiness. However, when we get together in joyous gatherings to celebrate the Lord Jesus’ birth, do we understand the meaning of Christmas? Perhaps brothers and sisters will say, “The Lord Jesus was nailed upon the cross to redeem all mankind, and so as to remember and celebrate the Lord Jesus’ birth, Christians established Christmas. Though the specific day on which the Lord Jesus was born is not recorded in the Bible, Christmas gradually became a universal holiday in the wake of the expansion of Jesus Christ’s gospel.” We may have known this, but do we know God’s love and His will for us that was actually hidden behind the birth of the Lord Jesus? And how should we approach Christmas in a way that is after the Lord’s heart?

The Church of Almighty God | The Road to Purification

The Road to Purification

Christopher, Philippines

My name is Christopher and I am a pastor from a family church in the Philippines. In 1987, I was baptized and returned to the Lord Jesus. By the Lord’s grace, in 1996 I became a pastor of the local church. At that time, apart from preaching in many places around the Philippines, I also preached in places like Hong Kong and Malaysia. Because of the work and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I felt that I had inexhaustible energy in my work for the Lord and an unceasing flow of words in my sermons.

God’s Attitude Toward Sinners

God’s Attitude Toward Sinners

October 13, 2018

Wang Yan

The last days are here, the prophecies in the Bible have basically all been fulfilled, and brothers and sisters all look forward to the Lord coming to receive us into the kingdom of heaven. But many brothers and sisters in the Lord are asking: Although we go to church every week to give worship, and we often read the Bible and we expend ourselves and work for the Lord, we are always committing sins in the daytime and then confessing in the evening, living in this vicious spiral, and we can never free ourselves from the bonds of sin. If things carry on this way, will the Lord really forgive us, and receive us into the kingdom of heaven? How exactly does the Lord treat sinners?

When we talk about God’s attitude toward sinners, brothers and sisters all understand this subject differently. For example, some believe that when the Lord Jesus was crucified, He absolved us of all our sins. They believe that, whether they are previous sins or sins that we will commit in the future, they have all already been absolved, the Lord doesn’t see us as sinners anymore and we will surely enter into the kingdom of heaven; some brothers and sisters believe that if we believe in the Lord Jesus in our hearts and acknowledge Him with our mouths, then we have been justified by faith, and we are forever saved, and that when the Lord returns we will surely be raptured up into the kingdom of heaven; then there are those brothers and sisters who believe that the Lord is merciful and loving, and that no matter how great our sins, the Lord will forgive us and absolve us of them, that ultimately the Lord will surely lead us into the kingdom of heaven, and on that day we will enjoy the blessings of the heavenly kingdom together with the Lord. I also used to believe that the Lord had taken all our sins upon Himself, that we were no longer sinful, and that the Lord would absolve us of any sin we committed. Because I took this view, I didn’t think much of the sins I committed every day, to the point where I even indulged myself, and my sins grew apace. But when I saw God says, “You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Lev 11:45), and these words in the Bible: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Heb 12:14), I felt very uneasy, and I thought: Yes, God is holy, and how can I, the sinner that I am, who commits sins every day and displeases the Lord, earn the Lord’s praise? How will the Lord treat such a sinner as me? Later, through an investigation of the Bible, I came to some new light which I’d like to share with you.

I saw that the Lord Jesus said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant stays not in the house for ever: but the Son stays ever” (Jhn 8:34-35). And Hebrews 10:26-27 says: “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” When I read these verses of scripture, I then knew what God’s attitude toward sinners is. To God, whether people believe in Him or not, all who commit sin are the slaves of sin, they all belong to Satan and are the enemies of God, and people like this can never enter into the kingdom of heaven. Moreover, if someone intentionally commits sin after they’ve come to believe in God, there is no longer any sin offering they can make and their sins will not be absolved by God. People like this are not only unable to enter into the kingdom of heaven, but they will also be destroyed by God for their sins, and will suffer the appropriate punishment. This made me think of these words in Revelation: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Rev 22:11-12). From these words, we can see that God determines people’s ends according to their deeds; those who do righteous deeds are rewarded, and those who do evil are punished. Thinking of how we believe in the Lord, although our sins were absolved, we still commit sins despite ourselves, we often lie and cheat for the sake of fame, fortune and status, we make excuses and quibble when we encounter issues and, so as to avoid taking responsibility, we can even frame others and shift the blame onto others; when we encounter natural or man-made disasters, trials and tribulations, we blame God and betray Him; in particular, when God’s work is at odds with our own conceptions, we deny God, condemn God and defy God; though we may nominally believe in God, we still worship and follow people; if we come to have status, then we exalt ourselves and bear witness to ourselves like the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees of old, and we take God’s place and make others worship us and look to us, we envy those who are good and able, and we act on our own personal preferences; some also covet the pleasures of sin and follow the evil trends of the world, and so on. We are still living out the image of a sinner, and we are still the servants of sin, so how can we possibly enter into the kingdom of heaven? Especially over the past few years, we are all able to perceive that the church has lost the work and guidance of the Holy Spirit, and our God-fearing hearts have become weaker and weaker. We can clearly feel that we are keeping the Lord Jesus’ words less and less, our dispositions are becoming increasingly arrogant and conceited, crooked and deceitful, selfish and greedy, haughty and capricious, we are unable to put the Lord’s teachings into practice, and we can’t even stop ourselves from doing things we know to be sinful. As we all know, God is holy and God’s disposition is righteous and unoffendable! The kingdom of heaven is the holy land that permits no filth or stain—this is determined by God’s disposition and essence! As for us, who are mired so deeply in sin that we cannot extricate ourselves, if we are incapable of casting off our corrupt dispositions and being cleansed, then how will we obtain God’s praise and be led into the kingdom of heaven? Isn’t that just a pipe dream? What’s more, the Lord Jesus never said that man could enter into the kingdom of heaven because their sins had been absolved and they had been justified by faith, but instead He demanded that we confess and repent, and take on the likeness of new people. Therefore, the God we believe in, who will forever pardon our sins, who will not remember any of our sins no matter how many we commit, and our belief that when the Lord returns we will be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven, are just our own conceptions and imagination, and simply do not tally with the Lord’s will.

Some brothers and sisters may raise questions, and will say: “We’ve believed in the Lord for many years and have worked very hard for Him. We can’t count how many churches we’ve established, and we’ve even been sent to prison. So even if we do commit sin, God will surely not abandon us!” If this was truly the case, then wouldn’t those Jewish Pharisees who traveled all over the lands and seas to spread the gospel, and yet defied and condemned the Lord Jesus, all have been able to enter into the kingdom of heaven? Why were they still condemned and cursed by the Lord Jesus? Wasn’t the Lord Jesus the loving and merciful God? How was He still able to condemn and curse them? Moreover, these people worked hard for God, so why didn’t the Lord Jesus pardon their sins? Regarding this question, these words of the Lord Jesus come to mind: “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity” (Mat 7:21-23). And a book of truth also says: “Some people will end up saying, ‘I’ve done so much work for You, and though there may not have been celebrated achievements, still I have been diligent in my efforts. Can’t You just let me into heaven to eat the fruit of life?’ You must know what kind of people I desire; those who are impure are not permitted to enter into the kingdom, those who are impure are not permitted to besmirch the holy ground. Though you may have done much work, and have worked for many years, in the end if you are still deplorably filthy—it is intolerable to the law of Heaven that you wish to enter My kingdom!” (“Success or Failure Depends on the Path That Man Walks” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Reading these words, I suddenly saw the light. It turns out that those who will enter the kingdom of heaven must indeed be those who cast off sin and are cleansed, who follow God’s way, and who obey God, worship God and love God. Those who spread the gospel and cast out demons in the Lord’s name but who don’t follow God’s way are evil-doers in the eyes of God. Just like those Jewish Pharisees—although they appeared pious on the outside, and they worked for God and suffered greatly all their lives, and paid much price, yet when the Lord Jesus incarnated to perform His work of redemption, they refused to accept it, much less submit to or practice the Lord Jesus’ words. Instead, they judged and condemned the Lord Jesus’ work, frantically resisted the Lord, and they even spread notions and rumors to deceive people and obstruct them from accepting the Lord Jesus’ work, and they nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross—by doing this, were they not openly opposing and contesting God? People like this, who simply will not repent, are truly Satan’s partners in crime and are Satan’s lackeys. They worm their way into the church especially to disrupt and demolish God’s work, and people like this have a God-defying essence, they are the enemies of God, and God will never allow hated enemies or the wicked to enter into His kingdom. From this, we are able to see that all who are incapable of practicing God’s words or of obeying God’s work are all unclean and unrighteous; if someone is unable to repent or to cast off their God-defying corrupt disposition, and they go on living in sin, then they are unclean, they are not a righteous person praised by God, but instead they are condemned. The kingdom of heaven is God’s kingdom, and God is holy, so if someone is unclean then how could they be qualified to enter into God’s kingdom and live together with Him? God is merciful and loving to man, but God is also righteous, and will never lead filthy and corrupt people into His kingdom. That is to say, whether or not we can enter into the kingdom of heaven in the end does not depend on how much work we do or how much we suffer, but most importantly it depends on whether or not our corrupt dispositions are changed and cleansed, whether or not we can practice God’s words, do God’s will, and whether or not we are people who love God, obey God and fear God. If we only rely on our own ardor to give things up, expend ourselves, spread the gospel, build churches and support other believers, but our own corrupt dispositions are not changed in the slightest, we still frequently commit sin, defy God and rebel against God, and we are unable to follow God’s way, then we will be evil-doers, and will be unable to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Thinking more about it, although we run all around expending ourselves, and we suffer and give everything up so as to spread the Lord’s name, yet we still conceal our own ulterior motives within us, and we don’t do these things to satisfy God or out of consideration for God’s will, but rather we wish to exchange our hard work for a beautiful destination in the future, to enter into the kingdom of heaven and be rewarded and given crowns. This kind of expending carries with it a deceptive nature, and is entirely us making deals with the Lord; in God’s eyes, this is us doing evil, and however much we suffer, God will not commend it. Furthermore, we don’t know God, and we don’t have God-fearing hearts. When God’s work is at odds with our conceptions, we act like those Jewish Pharisees, we arbitrarily judge and condemn God’s work, and we stubbornly cling to our own notions, deny God’s work and defy God. It can therefore be seen that, if we do not resolve our sinful natures, then we will be capable of committing sin, and defying and betraying God at any time and in any place. Our deeds can then only be condemned by God, so how could we possibly then enter into the kingdom of heaven? Only those who love the truth and can pursue the truth, whose belief in God no longer relies on their satanic dispositions or on their conceptions and imaginations, who can seek the truth and practice in accordance with God’s words in all things, who have achieved true obedience to and love for God, and who truly know God, can earn the Lord’s praise and be led by God into the kingdom of heaven. For example, those whom we know well—Abraham, Job and Peter—who had true faith in God, who sought to love and satisfy God, and who submitted absolutely to God’s orchestrations and arrangements, even though trials and tribulations befell them, they still didn’t blame or betray God. Moreover, they sought God’s will and practiced in accordance with God’s words in all things, and they bore beautiful and resounding witness to God—they were the ones most in keeping with God’s will.

Now we know God’s attitude toward sinners, and therefore we also naturally come to know how God sees us. So from now on, we should pursue the truth, cast off our corrupt dispositions and be cleansed, for only then can we win God’s blessings and be led by Him into the kingdom of heaven. So how can we free ourselves from the bonds of sin? I recommend everyone watch the movie The Moment of Change, and you will be shown the way.

That Day the Sky Was Especially Clear and Sunny (Part 1)

That Day the Sky Was Especially Clear and Sunny (Part 1)

Tian Ying

Note: The author was deceived and bound by the ideas of “sola fide” and “to be saved once is to be saved forever” that were disseminated by pastors, and refused to contact brothers and sisters who were spreading the gospel of God in the last days.

Unveiled: The True Meaning of “It Is Finished” Spoken by the Lord Jesus on the Cross

Unveiled: The True Meaning of “It Is Finished” Spoken by the Lord Jesus on the Cross

November 9, 2018

By Xiang’ai, Heilongjiang Province

Many brothers and sisters believe that what Jesus meant by saying “It is finished” when He was on the cross was that God’s work to save mankind was completed. But was this really the case? What exactly did He mean by saying “It is finished”? The following article will uncover the true meaning of the words “It is finished” that the Lord Jesus spoke upon the cross. Please read on …

At seven o’clock in the morning, Wang Xue was hurrying to her daughter Hui Min’s house. Half an hour before, Pastor Zhang had come to Wang Xue’s house to tell her that her daughter and son-in-law had accepted Eastern Lightning. This came as a great surprise to Wang Xue, and she thought to herself: “The members of Eastern Lightning testify that the Lord Jesus has returned and that He is expressing His words and performing a stage of work to judge and purify man. And yet the Lord Jesus clearly said ‘It is finished’ when He was upon the cross, and this shows that God’s work to save mankind has already finished. How can the Lord possibly return to do a new stage of work? My daughter and her husband are quite familiar with the Bible, and they pursue the truth quite diligently; they are thoughtful and insightful people, so they won’t have made this decision blindly. How could they have accepted Eastern Lightning? What’s going on here?” Wang Xue was extremely baffled and she wanted to understand the reasons behind this as soon as she could, and so she hurriedly set off for Hui Min’s house.

30 minutes later, Wang Xue arrived at her daughter’s home. As soon as she was inside, Wang Xue got straight to the point, and she said to her daughter, “Pastor Zhang came to find me at the crack of dawn this morning and said the two of you had accepted Eastern Lightning. Is this true?”

Li Jun, who had been reading in the study, overheard his mother-in-law and came out of the room. Hui Min saw her mother wearing a rather stern expression, so she took her mother’s hand and sat down. Smiling, she said, “Yes, mom, we’ve accepted Eastern Lightning. Lately, Li Jun and I have been reading the words of Almighty God and we’ve seen Almighty God’s words reveal all the truths and mysteries of God’s salvation of mankind, such as the mystery of God’s six-thousand-year management plan, the mystery of God’s incarnation, the mystery of God’s three stages of work, how God performs His work of judgment to purify and save man in the last days, and the end and final destination for mankind, and so on. The more we read Almighty God’s words, the more we feel that these words are the truth, that they have power and authority and that they are the voice of God! Mom, the Lord Jesus whom we’ve yearned for for so long really has returned as the incarnated Almighty God. Why don’t you investigate it yourself!”

Wang Xue listened to her daughter and her expression softened a little. She said, “Hui Min, our church is now desolate, so if you go looking for a church which has the work of the Holy Spirit, then I won’t stop you. But Eastern Lightning preaches that the Lord has returned and is performing a stage of work to judge and purify man. How is this possible? When He was on the cross, the Lord Jesus very clearly said ‘It is finished.’ This shows that God’s work to save mankind is over, and so long as we confess and repent to the Lord then our sins can be forgiven, and when the Lord returns, He will immediately raise us up into the heavenly kingdom. He won’t be performing any new work. This is often preached by pastors and elders, so how could you have forgotten it? How could you have accepted the way of Eastern Lightning?”

Li Jun smiled and said, “Mom, we’ve always followed the pastors and elders of the religious world, and believed that what the Lord Jesus meant by saying ‘It is finished’ when He was on the cross was that God’s work to save mankind was finished, and that when the Lord came again He would immediately raise us up into the heavenly kingdom and would not perform any new work. But does this view accord with the original meaning of the Lord’s words? Does it accord with the facts of God’s work? When the Lord Jesus was on the cross, He only said these three words, ‘It is finished.’ He did not say that God’s work to save mankind was totally finished, and yet pastors and elders just go by these words spoken by the Lord Jesus to decide that God’s work is now over and that when the Lord returns He will not perform any new work. By saying this, aren’t they making too much of a subjective assertion? Aren’t they just interpreting the Lord’s words by what they themselves wish? Mom, think about it. If the Lord Jesus saying ‘It is finished’ meant that God’s work to save mankind was over, then how would the Lord Jesus accomplish the work in fulfillment of His prophecy, that when He returned He would separate the goats from the sheep, the wheat from the tares, and the good servants from the wicked servants? The Lord Jesus also prophesied: ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come’ (John 16:12–13). ‘He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day’ (John 12:48). And it is recorded in 1 Peter 4:17, ‘For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.’ These words tell us clearly that when the Lord returns He will express the truth and perform His work of judgment. If we go by the understanding of the pastors and elders, that the Lord Jesus saying ‘It is finished’ on the cross meant that He had then completed His work to save mankind and that He had no need to perform any further work, then how would these prophecies ever be fulfilled? Wouldn’t the Lord’s prophecy that He would return to express the truth and perform His work of judgment then just come to nothing? Looking at it this way, wouldn’t it seem that the religious world’s interpretation is negating the Lord’s words and negating the Lord’s salvation in the last days? Therefore, we cannot determine that God’s work to save mankind is finished on the basis that the Lord Jesus said ‘It is finished’ when He was on the cross; this is our imaginations and it does not accord with what the Lord meant. If we delimit God’s work in accordance with our own wishes, then we will be apt to defy God!”

Wang Xue pondered the verses Li Jun had talked about, and she fell into deep thought: “Yes! All these years, I’ve listened only to what the pastors and elders have said, believing that what the Lord Jesus meant when He said ‘It is finished’ on the cross was that God’s work to save mankind was completed, and that He would never again perform any new work. But the prophecies of the Lord that my child and her husband have just mentioned do indeed say that when the Lord returns He will express the truth and perform His work of judgment. So what exactly did the Lord mean when He said ‘It is finished’ on the cross?” Thinking these thoughts, Wang Xue told them of her puzzlement.

Seeing Wang Xue begin to seek the truth, Hui Min and Li Jun smiled cheerfully, and Hui Min said patiently, “Mom, when the Lord Jesus said ‘It is finished’ on the cross, He was actually saying that His work of redemption in the Age of Grace was finished. As long as we accept the Lord Jesus’ work and confess and repent to the Lord, then our sins can be forgiven, and we are then qualified to pray to the Lord and enjoy the abundant grace and truth the Lord bestows on us—this is the result achieved by the Lord Jesus performing the work of redemption. But God’s work to save mankind did not come to an end because the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption was finished. Let’s read a couple of passages of Almighty God’s words together, and after we’ve read them, we will have a better understanding.” Saying this, Hui Min then brought from her bedroom a book entitled The Word Appears in The Flesh. Opening it, she read: “To man, God’s crucifixion concluded the work of God’s incarnation, redeemed all of mankind, and allowed Him to seize the key to Hades. Everyone thinks God’s work has been fully accomplished. In actuality, to God, only a small part of His work has been accomplished. He has only redeemed mankind; He has not conquered mankind, let alone changed the ugliness of Satan in man. That is why God says, ‘Although My incarnate flesh went through the pain of death, that was not the whole goal of My incarnation. Jesus is My beloved Son and was nailed to the cross for Me, but He did not fully conclude My work. He only did a portion of it’” (“Work and Entry (6)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “For all that man may have been redeemed and forgiven of his sins, it can only be considered as God not remembering the transgressions of man and not treating man in accordance with his transgressions. However, when man, who lives in a body of flesh, has not been set free from sin, he can only continue to sin, endlessly revealing his corrupt satanic disposition. This is the life that man leads, an endless cycle of sinning and being forgiven. The majority of men sin in the day only to confess in the evening. This way, even if the sin offering is forever effective for man, it will not be able to save man from sin. Only half the work of salvation has been completed, for man still has a corrupt disposition” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

When she’d finished reading, Hui Min gave fellowship, saying, “The words of Almighty God are very clear. The work of redemption performed by the Lord Jesus only completed one half of God’s work to save mankind. Although our sins were forgiven after undergoing the Lord Jesus’ redemption, we no longer committed obvious sins and we had some good external behaviors, we had not totally cast off the bonds of sin; we are dominated by corrupt dispositions such as being arrogant and conceited, selfish and contemptible, crooked and deceitful, and we often tell lies and cheat others for the sake of protecting our own interests and prestige. When we see someone who is better than us, we feel jealous and we don’t want to listen to them; if someone threatens our interests then we hate them, to the point of wanting to exact retribution on them; we also follow the evil trends of the world, we cling to wealth, covet vanity and we adore fame and fortune; when natural disasters or man-made calamities befall us, or if something unfortunate happens, we misunderstand and blame God, and we even judge and condemn God’s work based on our own conceptions and imaginings, and so on. Behaving in this way is enough to prove that only our sins are forgiven in our belief in the Lord, yet the satanic nature and corrupt dispositions within us remain deeply rooted. These are the root cause of us committing sins and defying God. If we do not solve our sinful nature, then we will be unable to control ourselves from sinning and defying God, or from betraying God and opposing God. God’s words in the Bible clearly state: ‘You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy’ (Leviticus 11:45). Also, chapter 12, verse 14 in Hebrews says ‘holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.’ God is holy, and the heavenly kingdom permits no stained human being to enter. So how could we who so often commit sins and defy God ever be worthy to see God’s face? How could we ever be worthy for God to lead us into the heavenly kingdom? Therefore, we still need God to return in the last days to perform a stage of new work and to solve the problem of the root cause of our sins. Only in this way will we be able to cast off our satanic and corrupt dispositions and attain God’s purification and salvation. This is also the fulfillment of the prophecy in the Bible that says, ‘Who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time’ (1 Peter 1:5).”

When she had spoken, Hui Min flipped to a page in The Word Appears in the Flesh and said to Wang Xue, “Mom, we will understand better once we’ve read two passages of Almighty God’s words. God’s words say: ‘A sinner such as you, who has just been redeemed, and has not been changed, or been perfected by God, can you be after God’s heart? For you, you who are still of your old self, it is true that you were saved by Jesus, and that you are not counted as a sinner because of the salvation of God, but this does not prove that you are not sinful, and are not impure. How can you be saintly if you have not been changed? Within, you are beset by impurity, selfish and mean, yet you still wish to descend with Jesus—you should be so lucky! You have missed a step in your belief in God: You have merely been redeemed, but have not been changed. For you to be after God’s heart, God must personally do the work of changing and cleansing you; if you are only redeemed, you will be incapable of attaining sanctity. In this way you will be unqualified to share in the good blessings of God, for you have missed out a step in God’s work of managing man, which is the key step of changing and perfecting. And so you, a sinner who has just been redeemed, are incapable of directly inheriting God’s inheritance’ (‘Concerning Appellations and Identity’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘Though Jesus did much work among man, He only completed the redemption of all mankind and became man’s sin offering, and did not rid man of all his corrupt disposition. Fully saving man from the influence of Satan not only required Jesus to take on the sins of man as the sin offering, but also required God to do greater work to completely rid man of his disposition, which has been corrupted by Satan. And so, after man was forgiven his sins, God has returned to flesh to lead man into the new age, and begun the work of chastisement and judgment, and this work has brought man into a higher realm. All those who submit under His dominion shall enjoy higher truth and receive greater blessings. They shall truly live in the light, and shall gain the truth, the way, and the life’” (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Having listened to her daughter, Wang Xue unconsciously nodded her head and thought to herself: “These words possess authority! It turns out that the Lord Jesus only performed the work of redemption, and even though our sins were forgiven, our sinful nature was not purged, so no wonder we live in sin all day long. Even though we want to cast off the bonds of sin, we can’t do it no matter how much we pray or try to exercise self-restraint. It seems that if we want to cast off the bonds of sin, then we truly need God to perform another stage of work!”

Li Jun got up and poured Wang Xue some water, saying, “Mom, Almighty God’s words explain very clearly why God is to perform His work of judgment in the last days and the results achieved by this work. Having been through the Lord Jesus’ redemption, only our sins have been forgiven, and yet our satanic nature was still deeply rooted within us and we are not yet qualified to inherit God’s blessings. Therefore, according to our needs as corrupt humanity, God will perform in the last days a stage of work upon the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, whereby God uses words to judge and chastise man, so that our sinful nature can be resolved and so that we are utterly saved from sin. Only by accepting God’s work of judgment in the last days can we see clearly the truth about our corruption by Satan, know our own God-defying satanic nature, experience God’s righteous and inviolable disposition and generate a God-fearing heart. We can thereby prostrate ourselves before God, hate ourselves and become willing to forsake our flesh and practice the truth. In this way, we will gradually be able to cast off the bonds of our satanic dispositions, be cleansed and changed, attain salvation and perfection, and become people who truly obey God and love God. Only then will God’s management plan to save mankind be totally finished, and God’s great work shall be accomplished. This precisely fulfills the words in Revelation which say: ‘And he that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said to me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him that is thirsty of the fountain of the water of life freely’ (Revelation 21:5–6).”

Li Jun and Hui Min’s fellowship surprised Wang Xue and sounded new and fresh to her ears. She thought: “What they are fellowshiping accords with the Bible and with the Lord’s words, and it sounds perfectly clear to me. It turns out that the Lord returning to express the truth and perform His work of judgment is precisely what we need, and it is done to save us utterly from sin, to enable us to attain God’s salvation and be perfected, and to become people who truly love and obey God …”

Hui Min saw her mother with her head lowered and not saying anything, and she gently shook her arm and asked, “What are you thinking, mom?”

Wang Xue relaxed her expression, raised her head and looked at Li Jun and Hui Min, and with a smile on her face she said, “Well, I never! You haven’t long accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days and you understand so many truths already. Listening to you both give fellowship today, I’ve come to understand a little too. The Lord Jesus only performed the work to redeem mankind, which was a part of God’s work to save mankind. By accepting the Lord Jesus’ work, we can only have our sins forgiven, but our sinful nature is not yet resolved, and we still cannot control ourselves from committing sins and defying God. We are simply unqualified to see God’s face or to be led by the Lord into the heavenly kingdom. If we want to cast off the bonds of sin, we still need God to come again and perform another stage of work, that of judgment and purification!”

Hui Min and Li Jun were thrilled to hear Wang Xue say this, and they kept thanking God!

Seeing her daughter and son-in-law’s happiness, Wang Xue spoke reproaching herself: “Ah, all these years I’ve listened to what the pastors and elders said, believing that what the Lord Jesus meant when He said ‘It is finished’ on the cross was that God’s work to save mankind was completed, and I’ve been longing with all my heart for the Lord to return and raise us up into the heavenly kingdom. In the end, I heard The Church of Almighty God testifying that the Lord had returned, but I didn’t seek or investigate it, and instead I clung to my own conceptions and imaginings, trying to advise you to keep to the Lord’s way, almost making a big mistake and losing God’s salvation of the last days. It seems that by understanding God’s words and approaching God’s work based on one’s own conceptions and imaginings, one is then capable of defying God at any moment and destroying one’s chances to attain God’s salvation! I now understand that if we want to be thoroughly cleansed and enter into the kingdom of heaven, then we must accept God’s work of judgment in the last days! But I’m not so clear on how God’s work of judgment in the last days purifies and changes people, so I want to keep seeking and investigating Almighty God’s work of the last days and read more of His words!”

“Thanks be to God! It just so happens that tomorrow the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God are holding a gathering with us, so why don’t you come with us and hear them fellowship?” said Hui Min.

“OK.”

“Thanks be to God!”

The sun shone bright and beautiful outside and, from time to time, the joyful sound of Wang Xue’s family talking together drifted out through the window …

How I Nearly Became a Foolish Virgin

How I Nearly Became a Foolish Virgin

Li Fang, China

In the fall of 2002, Sister Zhao from my denomination, the Church of Truth, brought her niece, Sister Wang, to my home to tell me some great news that the Lord has come back. After a few days of reading the words of Almighty God and listening to the sister’s detailed fellowship, I understood that from the creation of the world until now God has performed three stages of work in order to save mankind. Other truths that I also came to know were God’s adoption of a different name during each stage of the work, the significance of God’s name for each age, and the mystery of God’s incarnation, etc. These truths really allowed me to open my eyes wide and see my fill. I said to myself: “It all sounds crystal clear, and Almighty God very probably is the returned Lord Jesus so I’d better make sure I grasp this chance and read more of Almighty God’s words.” Before leaving, Sister Wang left some books of God’s words for me. Whenever I had time during the day, I read God’s words. The more I read the more I loved reading them and the more I felt that they were the words of God. After three days I became anxious. I thought: “My son, who is also a believer, and many brothers and sisters in our church still don’t know this great news about the return of the Lord. I’d better hurry up and tell them.”

The next day early in the morning I went to my son’s home. I said happily to him: “This is such a great book. You should read it as soon as possible.” My son glanced at me and asked: “What book? You seem pretty delighted. Just put it down there and I’ll take a look at it when I have time.” I thought that as all believers were looking forward to the Lord’s return my son would be happy to learn that the Lord has already returned.

I would never in a million years have imagined, however, that three days later my son would show up at my home in the company of six religious figures. One of them was Pastor Xia from my denomination, and the others were pastors and preachers from my son’s denomination. I was a bit stunned to see them, as I couldn’t figure out what was up and why so many people had come to see me. A pastor surnamed Li looked closely at me for a moment and with a look of concern on his face he said: “Auntie, we’re all believers in the Lord, one big family. Your son tells me that someone has given you a book, but you really shouldn’t read it. Now it’s the last days, and the Lord Jesus said: ‘Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect’ (Mat 24:23-24). We believe that these words of the Lord Jesus mean that anyone who says that the Lord has returned is a fraudster who we must guard against and refuse to listen to. Right now in the whole religious world there is only Eastern Lightning that is publicly bearing witness to the Lord’s return, so, whatever you do, don’t have anything to do with them. Don’t read any of Eastern Lightning’s books either. Their way is different from our faith, so don’t listen to them. You don’t understand the Bible very well, and you have small stature, so you’re easily deceived. We’ve been preaching for many years and we understand the Bible well. We’ve travelled all over China and we’ve seen a lot and our life is bigger. We’ve come today specially to rescue you, so you’ve got to believe us and not try to have it your own way.” When I heard this I thought to myself: “This pastor seems to be concerned about me and what he said isn’t wrong. I’m old and not very well educated, and I don’t understand the Bible that well. I certainly can’t discern as well as they do.” At this point Pastor Xia said: “I’m a pastor, and the Lord has given me His flock to manage. So it’s my responsibility to make sure that you don’t stray from the true way. If I don’t look after the Lord’s flock I won’t be able to settle my account with the Lord. Sister, don’t run around to other groups like this. If you get stolen from us by Eastern Lightning then all these years that you’ve believed in the Lord will be wasted!” Looking at their tense faces and hearing the serious tone in which they were talking to me made me feel a bit frightened. I thought: “That’s right. If I start believing wrongly then won’t all those years of faith be wasted?” But then I thought: “The words in that book seemed so good, so right. These pastors and preachers haven’t read the words of Almighty God, so how could they say that it isn’t a true way?” So I said to them: “The way you put it makes it seem like that really is the case but what I heard from them completely matches the words of the Lord in the Bible!” When they heard me say that they all started talking at once, saying so many things to scare me that I became dizzy and confused and experienced a lot of emotional turmoil. I sat there like an idiot, unable to say a single thing. Then they wanted me to pray with them and utter some curses, but I didn’t go along with it so they started to terrorize me again. Finally, my son said: “Let me deal with this matter of my mom’s.” Then he took the two hymn books named “Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs” and the cassette tapes of hymns as well as a book of God’s words named “Judgment Beginning With the House of God” from the cupboard and gave them to the pastor to take away.

After they left I was so upset that I couldn’t even eat my dinner, so I came before the Lord and prayed: “Lord Jesus, is what those pastors said true or not? It seems like they’re really concerned for my life. If I don’t listen to them, will I put my faith in the wrong place? Oh Lord, if You really have returned as Almighty God and I don’t accept You then wouldn’t I be closing the door on You? Wouldn’t I just be like one of the foolish virgins? Oh Lord, through reading the words of Almighty God these last few days I feel that I’ve gained a lot of spiritual supply. I’ve truly and honestly felt this, but could I be wrong? Now that they’ve taken away my books and my cassette tapes of hymns I feel really sad. Please show me the way as I don’t know what to do….” After praying I suddenly remembered that Sister Wang had given me another book of Almighty God’s words and I hid it deep inside the cupboard. When I realized that I still had this book I felt a little bit better. But then I thought about what those pastors had said, and I was still at a loss about what to do. Should I read that book or not? That night, I hardly slept at all, my mind in turmoil. Again and again I prayed to God in tears …

Early the next day my son came to take me to my former church meeting. I was very much undecided, but my son dragged me down to the meeting place and even told a preacher that I’d nearly been stolen by Eastern Lightning and he asked her to do her best to persuade me to stay. In an instant, the preacher and all of the brothers and sisters surrounded me. The preacher took hold of my hand, and in a gentle voice said: “Auntie, whatever you do, don’t listen to anyone else preaching. If you start believing wrongly, when the Lord comes to rapture the congregations then you’ll be left behind, won’t you? You have small stature, so if anyone gives you any kind of book to read it would be better for you to ask us first. Let us check on it for you….” The brothers and sisters were also all very keen to persuade me to stay, and I was moved to tears by their “love.” When they saw how moved I was they made their point once more: “If anyone from Eastern Lightning comes to visit you again, don’t let them in. Don’t have anything to do with them!” I nodded in agreement.

It was only a few days later that Sister Wang came to see me again. I told her: “The pastor read this passage from the Bible to me: ‘Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect’ (Mat 24:23-24). In the last days false Christs shall appear and anyone who says that the Lord has returned is a fraudster. I don’t understand the Bible, and my stature is small, so I’m easily misled. I don’t dare to listen to any other messages, so I’m not going to let you in. Don’t come again.” With great sincerity Sister Wang said: “The Lord Jesus said this to ensure that we would guard against false Christs during the last days but He didn’t intend for us to also turn our backs on Christ. If there are false Christs it’s because the real Christ has already appeared, because without the real Christ the imposters have nothing to imitate. Those words of the Lord Jesus tell us that we have to learn to discern; they aren’t saying that we should refuse to listen to the gospel of the Lord’s return just because false Christs will appear during the last days. Otherwise, how will we be able to welcome the Lord’s return? Actually, the Lord Jesus has already clearly described the characteristics of false Christs. The main ones include manifesting signs, performing miracles, healing the sick and exorcising demons, and copying the work that the Lord Jesus had already done in order to deceive people. So during the last days anyone who impersonates the Lord Jesus to preach the way of repentance and who can manifest a few simple signs or heal the sick and exorcise demons is a false Christ. Almighty God, who is the Lord Jesus returned in the flesh in the last days, doesn’t repeat the work that the Lord Jesus had already done but does new work on the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption. Almighty God has ended the Age of Grace and has opened the Age of Kingdom by expressing truths to do a stage of work of judging and cleansing mankind. Almighty God will thoroughly save all those people who have been redeemed but still live in sin by removing the shackles of their sinful nature and taking them away from Satan’s dark influence. Mankind will thus be taken to their wonderful final destination. Only God Himself can do this work; none of the false Christs can.” Although what the sister was saying seemed reasonable, the things that the pastors had told me were still swirling around in my head. My mind was agitated and unable to focus and I didn’t want to hear any more of her fellowship. So I told her that I had something to do next door, which was a lie, in order to get away from her. Sister Wang came back to my home many times after that but I always avoided her. My neighbor told me: “She doesn’t look like a bad person so what are you afraid of?” In my heart I knew that Sister Wang was a good person, but as I was of small stature I was afraid of getting my faith wrong.

After I returned to the meeting of my former church I heard the preachers still saying things in the sermon that they’d said before. They always talked about how to guard against Eastern Lightning, or donating to the church, or they repeated a lot of boring old stuff about how much they had worked and suffered for the Lord and how much God’s grace they had obtained…. They could not even say a little bit of something fresh and bright. I quickly grew fed up of listening to them, and started to doze off. On another occasion, a brother from another church came to give a sermon, but it was more of the same stuff about how he’d walked across mountains to do the Lord’s work and how much he’d suffered, how many people he’d converted through spreading the gospel and how many churches he’d set up. He used the sermon to blow his own trumpet. Listening to him made me feel very uncomfortable, and I came to the opinion that he wasn’t bearing witness for the Lord but just bearing witness for himself. On another day, I’d just arrived at the meeting place when one of the sisters said to me: “Today we’ve got a 20-something female theology student giving the sermon.” I was very happy to hear that and told myself that I was going to pay special attention because she would definitely give a better sermon than our preachers did. But the student started her sermon with how to guard against Eastern Lightning, and then went on to talk about how she’d given up her regular studies at the age of 16 to enter the seminary to study theology, how she’d worked and suffered outdoors in spite of the rain, how many places she’d been to…. The more I heard, the more fed up I got. I thought to myself: “This is all just old wine in new bottles! Why do they keep on trotting out the same old boring stuff? None of this has got anything to do with their experience or knowledge of the Lord’s words, nor is it leading us in following the Lord’s way or practicing and entering into His words.” I’d already been back at the meetings for over a month but I hadn’t gained anything from them. The more I listened to these messages, the drier I felt in my spirit, and I thought that I would die of spiritual thirst if I carried on believing like this. The more I thought about it, the more upset I got.

After the meeting I walked home with a heavy heart. I thought about the book Judgment Beginning With the House of God that Sister Wang had given me, which stated that people shouldn’t be arrogant and shouldn’t exalt themselves but should honor God as great and exalt God. But these preachers were all bearing witness for themselves, honoring themselves above all else, and getting others to look up to them. It seemed to me that what the book said was right! So that evening when I was alone at home I took out the copy of Judgment Beginning With the House of God and read some of it. The more I read the more my heart soared, and I really felt that these words could be sustenance for my life. I was puzzled as to why our pastor wouldn’t let me read such a good book. Our pastor often said that he was responsible for my life and yet he only seemed to know how to bear witness for himself in his sermons. He never told me how to gain life. I remembered a period when I was very weak and didn’t want to go to the meetings. The pastor never came to visit me or offer support. But how come as soon as I started getting some spiritual nourishment from reading Almighty God’s words he showed up to force me into listening to them repeating the same old stuff? That’s not taking responsibility for my life! I suddenly realized just how wrong I’d been, and I blamed myself bitterly: Almighty God’s words could give supply to my life, and they probably came from God. How could I have been so stupid and blind as to believe what the pastor had said and give up investigating the true way? I also thought about how Sister Wang had always given me loving support, and had borne witness to God’s work of the last days for me so that I had the chance to gain God’s salvation of the last days. But I wasn’t all that nice to Sister Wang, and even avoided seeing her on a number of occasions. I shouldn’t have treated her like an enemy. When I thought of this I felt extremely sad. So I came before the Lord and tearfully said a prayer of repentance: “Lord, I treated that sister who brought me the book of God’s words as an enemy and turned my back on her. This isn’t a case of abandoning someone but is actually a case of refusing Your salvation. Lord, now I know that I shouldn’t have listened to those pastors and given up investigating God’s work of the last days. I wish to repent to You, but I don’t know how to find Sister Wang. Please help me find her.” After praying, I picked up the book again and read it late into the night. The more I read the more I felt that the content was good, and the more I came to despise the pastors for preventing me from reading the words of Almighty God.

I’m so grateful to the Lord for listening to my prayer! The next day at noon, when I was eating lunch, Sister Wang came to my house. I told her about everything that had happened since I last saw her. When she heard that I’d been unable to gain supply in religious church she read out a passage of Almighty God’s words for me: “God will accomplish this fact: He will make all people throughout the universe come before Him, and worship the God on earth, and His work in other places will cease, and people will be forced to seek the true way. It will be like Joseph: Everyone came to him for food, and bowed down to him, for he had things to eat. In order to avoid famine people will be forced to seek the true way. The entire religious community is suffering severe famine, and only the God of today is the wellspring of living water, possessed of the ever-flowing wellspring provided for the enjoyment of man, and people will come and depend on Him” (“The Millennial Kingdom Has Arrived” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Then the sister fellowshiped this with me: “God is the wellspring of living water, and only God can supply life for people. When people leave God they will be in darkness and wither and die, just like a branch that has broken off from the tree trunk. In our faith in God, we must closely follow the footsteps of the Lamb, accept God’s work as it appears now, and come before God in order to be able to gain the work of the Holy Spirit and the nourishment and supply of God’s living water of life. Why is it that we can’t get sustenance from listening to those pastors and elders in religion? There are two reasons for this. One is that those pastors and elders don’t abide by the Lord’s commandments and don’t put the Lord’s words into practice. They don’t have real life experience and have no real knowledge of God and much less have hearts that fear God, which shows in the way they don’t at all exalt God or bear witness to Him in their work and preaching. They only blow their own trumpets and bear witness to themselves. By completely deviating from the Lord’s way they have turned into typical false shepherds who deceive people. This is why they are loathed and rejected by the Holy Spirit and never get His enlightenment and guidance. And this is the main reason why the religious community is so desolate. The other reason is that the Lord has already returned to do the work of the new age. The Holy Spirit’s work on people of the Age of Grace has already come to an end, and is now being done on the group of people who are up to speed with God’s new work. But the pastors and elders do not at all investigate God’s new work and do not follow God’s footsteps and accept His leadership. All they do is crazily resist God, condemn God’s work of the last days, and slander and blaspheme Almighty God, the Christ of the last days. They do whatever they can to prevent believers from investigating the true way and returning to God, and thus have become just like the Pharisees who nailed the Lord to the cross. They have already been condemned and eliminated by God, so there is no way the Holy Spirit could work on them. So, if we want to receive life sustenance we must align ourselves with the Holy Spirit’s current work, accept the things that God is currently expressing, and accept the leadership, supply, and shepherding of Almighty God, the Christ of the last days. This is the only way for us to gain truth and life. This proves what the Lord Jesus said: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (Jhn 14:6). ‘But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life’ (Jhn 4:14).”

After listening to Sister Wang’s fellowship about God’s words I had a sudden realization as to why the pastors, elders, and theology students had nothing worthy to preach: They don’t have truth! They resist God, and that’s why the Holy Spirit left them long ago. When they preach they only have intellectual knowledge to rely on, but they don’t have the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit and that’s why their preaching is not helpful to people. But there was still something that I didn’t understand, so I asked Sister Wang: “All those pastors and elders say that they’re very familiar with the Bible, that they’ve been to seminary school and have much life. I don’t understand the Bible that well and believed that they were really more mature than me in life, so that’s why I listened to them. So now I can’t decide whether they really have much life or not. Sister, do you think that they really have much life?” Sister Wang replied: “No one can say that they have life. This is all decided according to God’s words. What does it mean to have life? What things specifically should be manifested? The Lord Jesus said: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (Jhn 14:6). And Almighty God said: ‘Whether you are in possession of reality or not is not based on what you say, rather, it is based on what you live out. When God’s words become your life and your natural expression, only this counts as reality, and only this counts as you possessing understanding and real stature. You must be able to withstand examination for a long period of time, and you must be able to live out the likeness that is required of you by God; it must not be mere posturing, but it must flow naturally out of you. Only then will you truly have reality, and only then will you have gained life’ (“Only Putting the Truth Into Practice Is Having Reality” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘Why is it said that many people have no life? Because they do not know God, and thus it is said that they have no God, and have no life’ (“Only Those Who Know God Can Bear Testimony to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words we can see that Christ is the truth, the way and the life. Truth can act as people’s life, so gaining truth is the same as gaining life, and having life indicates that someone has gained truth and known God. Someone who doesn’t understand truth and doesn’t know God will not have a heart that fears God and will be unable to live out the reality of God’s words. This means that they have no life. If someone doesn’t have God’s words as their life then they still live by Satan’s poisons. They often reveal their corrupt dispositions—arrogance, conceit, selfishness, despicableness, crookedness, cunningness, and so on. And even if they believe in God they are still unable to fear God and stay away from evil. They often lie, cheat, commit sins, and resist God. How could they ever be called people who have life? If they say they have life it’s just the same fleshly life, the satanic life that is full of corrupt dispositions that are in opposition to God, and not the new life, which comes from experiencing God’s words and gaining the truth. So though the pastors and elders may be familiar with the Bible, and possess knowledge of the Bible and theological theories, that doesn’t mean that they know God and fear God and that they understand truth and have the work of the Holy Spirit. And it certainly doesn’t mean that they practice the Lord’s words or obey Him. Instead, what we see is that they usually exalt and bear witness to themselves, and generally try to get believers to worship them. What they reveal is the likeness of Satan—being arrogant and conceited, lacking fear for God, and always pretending to be good in order to fool people. Neither in their work nor in their preaching can they speak of any real knowledge of the Lord’s words or any practical experience that is beneficial to other people. No matter how many years you listen to them you will never understand any truth and your life will never grow. They have no knowledge of God or of His work, and when God has returned to flesh in the last days to express truths and do His work of judgment they frenziedly resist, condemn, and blaspheme Him without the tiniest bit of fear in their hearts. What kind of life do they have? They totally have the life of Satan. They’re just like the Pharisees who knew the Bible well and thought that they had sincere faith in God and had life but who didn’t know God and even resisted and condemned the Lord and nailed Him to the cross. This tells us that just because someone knows the Bible it doesn’t mean that they have truth and life. The only people who have life are those who understand and practice truth and who know God, have a heart that fears Him, and can live by God’s words. Those pastors and elders say that they have much life, and this is only fooling believers and deceiving themselves.”

After listening to Almighty God’s words and the fellowship of Sister Wang everything became much clearer in my mind: Just because someone knows the Bible well and can explain the Bible it doesn’t mean that they understand truth, know God or have life. I used to think that people in high positions or who had studied theology or had Bible knowledge all had much life. But now I see that my viewpoint was totally absurd. It seems that people who don’t have truth are unable to discern, and so are easily fooled. So I then asked Sister Wang a question: “Almighty God speaks so well. All we have to do is read His words carefully and we’ll realize that these are the words of God, God’s voice. So how come the pastors and elders don’t accept this and even do their utmost to resist and condemn Him?” Sister Wang replied: “During the last days, Almighty God has come and expressed all of the truths that corrupt mankind needs to be cleansed and saved. These truths are the way of eternal life that God has bestowed upon us. As long as people seriously read God’s words they will admit that these words are the truth, the life, and the way and are the foundation and the guide for mankind’s survival. This is a fact. Although most pastors and elders resist and condemn God’s work of the last days, and try to prevent people from reading Almighty God’s words, this doesn’t mean that they can’t hear God’s voice in them. Some pastors and elders can’t preach anything useful so they steal Almighty God’s words and preach them to their congregations, claiming that they are enlightenments that the Holy Spirit offered to them. So we can see that they are completely able to tell that these words are the expression of the truth. But why do they still frenziedly resist and condemn Almighty God? This has to do with their nature and substance of hating the truth. Think back to when the Lord Jesus first started doing His work, He manifested many miracles, especially the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish. An even more astonishing miracle for the people throughout the land of Judea was when He brought Lazarus back from the dead. So, many of the common people in those days recognized from the Lord’s words and work that He was the coming Messiah. But the leaders of the Jews didn’t accept the Lord Jesus, and instead resisted and condemned Him and in the end conspired with the Roman government to crucify the Lord. Why did this happen? Was it because they couldn’t hear the authority and power in the Lord Jesus’ words and recognize that they were from God? Was it because they were in some way inferior to ordinary Jews? No! It was because they saw that more and more people were accepting the Lord Jesus’ way. They were afraid that if all of the ordinary folk believed in the Lord Jesus then no one would follow or worship them and they would lose their status and their livelihood. They clearly knew the Lord Jesus was God and yet purposefully resisted Him; this revealed their antichrist essence, which is resistance to God and hatred of the truth. The Lord Jesus bitterly rebuked them when He said: ‘But now you seek to kill me, a man that has told you the truth, which I have heard of God…. Why do you not understand my speech? even because you cannot hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stayed not in the truth, because there is no truth in him’ (Jhn 8:40, 43-44). In present times, the words of Almighty God have revealed with crystal clarity the nature and essence of the current leaders of the religious community. Almighty God said: ‘Those who read the Bible in grand churches recite the Bible every day, yet not one understands the purpose of God’s work. Not one is able to know God; moreover, not one is in accord with the heart of God. They are all worthless, vile men, each standing on high to teach God. Though they brandish the name of God, they willfully oppose Him. Though they label themselves believers of God, they are ones who eat the flesh and drink the blood of man. All such men are devils who devour the soul of man, demons who purposefully disturb those who try to step onto the right path, and stumbling blocks that impede the path of those who seek God. Though they are of “robust flesh,” how are their followers to know that they are antichrists who lead man in opposition to God? How are they to know that they are living devils who specially seek souls to devour?’ (“All Who Do Not Know God Are Those Who Oppose God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). These leaders of the religious community today are just like the Pharisees of old: Although they know the Bible well they know absolutely nothing about God’s work. They see that the words of Almighty God are being accepted by more and more people who long for and seek God’s appearance, and they’re afraid that if the believers all believe in Almighty God then no one will follow them anymore or donate money to them. So in order to protect their status and their livelihood, under the banner of being loyal to the Lord and protecting His flock they have manufactured all kinds of vicious rumors to frenziedly resist and condemn God’s work of the last days and done their best to prevent believers from seeking and investigating the true way. So we can see that religious leaders are in fact Pharisees who dislike and hate the truth. They are living demons who eat people’s souls; they are antichrists who are being revealed by God’s work of the last days.”

After listening to God’s words and the sister’s fellowship I had a sudden realization and nodded my head a few times and said: “Now I finally get why those pastors and elders, on hearing that there are people bearing witness to God’s return, don’t seek or investigate it but instead persistently condemn Him. Now I understand why those pastors and elders are shouting that they are protecting me and are concerned about my life when in fact they are doing their utmost to hold me back and prevent me from reading God’s words and gaining the life sustenance from God. It is all because everything they do is to protect their own interests. They’re afraid that if people start following Almighty God they won’t listen to their sermons or donate money to them so that’s why they prevent people from investigating the true way. They really are despicable, and they have come very close to making me lose my chance of salvation. Now that I know how to discern better I’m going to refuse to have anything to do with them. No matter what they do to disturb me, I’m going to stand firm and follow Almighty God.” After that, I never went back to my original church meetings again.

Not long after, two preachers from my original denomination came to my house. One of them, Preacher Zhang, said to me: “Auntie, why haven’t you been to the meetings? Have you been in contact with the people from Eastern Lightning again? Whatever you do, don’t switch to their faith. If you follow their faith you’re done for!” With a firm voice I replied: “I got nothing from meetings with you recently and I grew ever darker in my spirit and I wasn’t able to feel the Lord’s presence. But since I started reading Almighty God’s words my spirit has been uplifted and now I’m starting to understand truths and my life is nourished. I feel that God is with me and that the Holy Spirit is working on me. Now I’m sure that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus and that the truths expressed by Almighty God are the living water of life. Only Almighty God’s words can give me sustenance, and wherever I can gain life that is where I shall go.” The other of them, Preacher Song, then said: “We worry about you. We worry that you’ll deviate from the right way. You’re immature in life.…” I said to her: “Maybe I’m immature in life, but God will lead me anyway. Thanks for your concern, but you should think about your own lives. My life is in God’s hands….” When they heard what I had to say they left in a huff. As I watched them disappearing into the distance I felt a huge sense of relief like I’d never felt before. Afterward, they came back twice more, but seeing that I was totally unmoved by their exhortations they never returned again. I thank God for guiding me and allowing me to see through the true faces and wicked hearts of those religious leaders, to see through Satan’s tricks and to find my way out of the confusion and back to God. I’m now being supplied with living water of life, and I will always follow and worship Almighty God!
Read more: Knowing the voice of God

Beholding the Appearance of God in His Judgment and Chastisement

Like hundreds of millions of other followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we abide by the laws and commandments of the Bible, enjoy the abundant grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and gather together, pray, praise, and serve in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ—and all this we do under the care and protection of the Lord. We are often weak, and often strong. We believe that all of our actions are in accordance with the teachings of the Lord. It goes without saying, then, that we also believe ourselves to walk the path of obedience to the will of the Father in heaven. We long for the return of the Lord Jesus, for the glorious arrival of the Lord Jesus, for the end of our life on earth, for the appearance of the kingdom, and for everything as it was foretold in the Book of Revelation: The Lord arrives, and brings disaster, and rewards the good and punishes the wicked, and takes all those who follow Him and welcome His return into the air to meet Him. Every time we think of this, we can’t help but be overcome with emotion. We are thankful that we were born in the last days and are lucky enough to witness the coming of the Lord. Though we have suffered persecution, it is in return for “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”; what a blessing that is! All of this longing and the grace bestowed by the Lord make us often sober unto prayer, and bring us together more often. Maybe next year, maybe tomorrow, or maybe even sooner when man does not expect it, the Lord shall suddenly arrive, and shall appear among a group of people who have been attentively waiting for Him. We are all contending with each other, none wanting to fall behind, in order to be the first group to behold the appearance of the Lord, to become one of those who shall be raptured. We have given everything, regardless of the cost, for the coming of this day. Some have given up their jobs, some have abandoned their families, some have renounced marriage, and some have even donated all of their savings. What selfless devotion! Such sincerity and loyalty must be beyond even the saints of ages past! As the Lord bestows grace upon whomever He wishes, and has mercy on whomever He wishes, our devotion and spending, we believe, have already been beheld by His eyes. So, too, have our heartfelt prayers already reached His ears, and we trust that the Lord will reward us for our devotion. Moreover, God was graceful toward us before He created the world, and none shall take away God’s blessings and promises to us. We are all planning for the future, and take it for granted that our devotion and spending are bargaining chips or stock for our rapture into the air to meet the Lord. What’s more, without the slightest hesitation, we place ourselves on the future throne, presiding over all nations and all peoples, or ruling as kings. All this we take as a given, as something to be expected.

How Should We Welcome the Second Coming of Jesus?

Nowadays, all the believers in the Lord are expecting the Lord Jesus’ second coming to bring man into the kingdom of heaven. Especially when people reading the scripture Acts 1:11, “Which also said, You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven.”, they think that the Lord left on a white cloud, so he will surely return on a white cloud. Thus most people just wait for the second coming of Jesus passively. But over more than two thousand years have passed, man still hasn’t seen the Savior coming with clouds. In recent years, whenever I see the disaster is greater and greater and the church becomes more and more desolate, I couldn’t help looking up to heaven and crying out to the Lord, “O Lord! Nowadays various signs of the last days have already been fulfilled, but why have we still not seen your return?” With the passage of time, I began to doubt: Is it truly after God’s heart that we wait for the second coming of Jesus so passively? Then how shall we welcome the second coming of Jesus?

The Necessary Knowledge of God’s Work in the Age of Grace

The Necessary Knowledge of God’s Work in the Age of Grace

The Necessary Knowledge of God’s Work in the Age of Grace

Sermons and Fellowship

    If we are able to earnestly ponder Almighty God’s words that reveal the significance and essence of God’s work in the Age of Grace, we will be entirely able to recognize that the Lord Jesus’ work in the Age of Grace was the work of redemption, and it was the work of atonement for corrupt mankind.