Praise God, almighty and wise, He has defeated Satan.
Praise God, His righteous disposition has been completely revealed.
All come to praise Almighty God, the lovely and practical God.
We praise God, humble and hidden, He is so lovely!
Praise You, Almighty God (praise God)! All come to praise You (praise You)!
A lot of people don’t understand why, since Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus in the last days, the Lord Jesus is called Almighty God when He comes to do the work of judgment in the last days. Why doesn’t He carry on being called the Lord Jesus? In fact, God has a new name each time He does a stage of His work. This new name is taken by God Himself as befits the work—it is not something that people call Him as they please.
Like the churches of Christianity, the Church of Almighty God came into existence because of the work of God become flesh. The churches of Christianity came to be because of the appearance and work of the Lord Jesus become flesh, and the Church of Almighty God came to be because of the appearance and work of the incarnate Almighty God of the last days. Thus, churches throughout the ages have been produced because of the appearance and work of God become flesh.
Why Does God Take the Name of Almighty God in the Age of Kingdom?
A lot of people don’t understand why, since Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus in the last days, the Lord Jesus is called Almighty God when He comes to do the work of judgment in the last days. Why doesn’t He carry on being called the Lord Jesus? In fact, God has a new name each time He does a stage of His work. This new name is taken by God Himself as befits the work—it is not something that people call Him as they please. The name God takes in each stage of work has its basis in the Bible. The name of the returned Lord Jesus of the last days was long ago prophesied in the Bible. Isaiah said, “And the Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory: and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name” (Isa 62:2). In the Book of Revelation, it was also said that “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write…. Him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God: and I will write on him my new name” (Rev 3:7, 12). “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, said the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Rev 1:8). “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunder, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigns” (Rev 19:6). The name of Almighty God of the Age of Kingdom is the complete fulfillment of the prophecies of the Book of Revelation. The name that God takes in each era has profound significance and is intimately connected to God’s work during that age. Almighty God revealed the mysteries relating to this when He said, “In each age, God does new work and is called by a new name; how could He do the same work in different ages? How could He cling to the old? The name of Jesus was taken for the work of redemption, so would He still be called by the same name when He returns in the last days? Would He still do the work of redemption? Why is it that Jehovah and Jesus are one, yet They are called by different names in different ages? Is it not because the ages of Their work are different? Could a single name represent God in His entirety? In this way, God must be called by a different name in a different age, must use the name to change the age and represent the age, for no one name can fully represent God Himself. And each name can only represent God’s disposition during a certain age and needs only to represent His work. Therefore, God can choose whatever name befits His disposition to represent the entire age. Regardless of whether it is the age of Jehovah, or the age of Jesus, each age is represented by a name” (“The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
“‘Jehovah’ is the name that I took during My work in Israel, and it means the God of the Israelites (God’s chosen people) who can take pity on man, curse man, and guide the life of man. It means the God who possesses great power and is full of wisdom. ‘Jesus’ is Emmanuel, and it means the sin offering that is full of love, full of compassion, and redeems man. He did the work of the Age of Grace, and represents the Age of Grace, and can only represent one part of the management plan. That is to say, only Jehovah is the God of the chosen people of Israel, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Moses, and the God of all the people of Israel. And so in the current age, all the Israelites apart from the tribe of Judah worship Jehovah. They make sacrifices to Him on the altar, and serve Him wearing priests’ robes in the temple. What they hope for is the reappearance of Jehovah. Only Jesus is the Redeemer of mankind. He is the sin offering that redeemed mankind from sin. Which is to say, the name of Jesus came from the Age of Grace, and existed because of the work of redemption in the Age of Grace. The name of Jesus existed to allow the people of the Age of Grace to be reborn and saved, and is a particular name for the redemption of the whole of mankind. And so the name Jesus represents the work of redemption, and denotes the Age of Grace. The name Jehovah is a particular name for the people of Israel who lived under the law. In each age and each stage of work, My name is not baseless, but holds representative significance: Each name represents one age. ‘Jehovah’ represents the Age of Law, and is the honorific for the God worshiped by the people of Israel. ‘Jesus’ represents the Age of Grace, and is the name of the God of all those who were redeemed during the Age of Grace. If man still longs for the arrival of Jesus the Savior during the last days, and still expects Him to arrive in the image He bore in Judea, then the entire six-thousand-year management plan would stop in the Age of Redemption, and would be incapable of progressing any further. The last days, furthermore, would never arrive, and the age would never be brought to an end. That is because Jesus the Savior is only for the redemption and salvation of mankind. I took the name of Jesus for the sake of all the sinners in the Age of Grace, and it is not the name by which I shall bring the whole of mankind to an end. Although Jehovah, Jesus, and the Messiah all represent My Spirit, these names only denote the different ages in My management plan, and do not represent Me in My entirety. The names by which people on earth call Me cannot articulate My entire disposition and all that I am. They are merely different names by which I am called during different ages. And so, when the final age—the age of the last days—arrives, My name shall change again. I shall not be called Jehovah, or Jesus, much less the Messiah, but shall be called the powerful Almighty God Himself, and under this name I shall bring the entire age to an end. I was once known as Jehovah. I was also called the Messiah, and people once called Me Jesus the Savior because they loved and respected Me. But today I am not the Jehovah or Jesus that people knew in times past—I am the God who has returned in the last days, the God who shall bring the age to an end. I am the God Himself that rises up at the ends of the earth, replete with My entire disposition, and full of authority, honor and glory” (“The Savior Has Already Returned Upon a ‘White Cloud’” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
Almighty God clearly said that there is representative significance to the name God takes in each age: Each one represents the work of God and the disposition He expresses during that era. During the Age of Law, God used the name of Jehovah to proclaim His laws and commandments and guide mankind’s life on earth; during the Age of Grace, God used the name of Jesus to do the work of mankind’s redemption; and during the Age of Kingdom, God is called Almighty God, He does the work of judgment beginning from the house of God to purify, change, and save man. God changes the age using His name, and uses this name to represent the work of the age. When Jehovah God did the work of the Age of Law, only by praying to the name of Jehovah and obeying His laws and commandments could people be blessed and protected by God. With the arrival of the Age of Grace, God used the name of Jesus to do the work of redemption, and people had but to accept the Lord Jesus as the Savior, and pray for repentance in the name of the Lord, to be forgiven of their sins and enjoy the truth and grace bestowed by the Lord Jesus. If people still clung to the name of Jehovah and refused to accept the Lord Jesus, then they lost the care and protection of God, and fell into darkness, being cursed and punished by God like the Jewish Pharisees. With the advent of the last days, God uses the name of Almighty God to carry out the work of judgment starting from the house of God. Only by accepting the name of Almighty God, keeping up with the steps of God’s work, and undergoing the judgment and chastisement of Almighty God, can people understand and gain the truth, break away from sin, be purified, and receive God’s salvation. All those who refuse to accept the name of Almighty God and refuse His work of judgment of the last days are incapable of freeing themselves from the bondage of sin, and shall forever be unqualified to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Christianity and the Church of Almighty God believe in the same God. People who understand the history of religion know that Judaism in Israel was born of the work that Jehovah God did in the Age of Law. Christianity, Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy were all churches that emerged after the incarnate Lord Jesus did the work of redemption. The Church of Almighty God came to be when God became flesh during the last days to do the work of judgment. Christians in the Age of Grace read the Old and New Testament of the Bible, and Christians of the Church of Almighty God in the Age of Kingdom now read The Word Appears in the Flesh, which was personally spoken by God in the last days. Christianity abides by the work of redemption that the Lord Jesus did in the Age of Grace, and the Church of Almighty God accepts the work of judgment of the last days of the returned Lord Jesus, Almighty God. The difference between Christianity and the Church of Almighty God is that Christianity abides by the work that God did during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace, whereas the Church of Almighty God abides by the work of judgment beginning from the house of God that God has carried out during the last days. The differences between Christianity and the Church of Almighty God are akin to the differences between Christianity and Judaism: During the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus carried out the work of mankind’s redemption upon the foundation of the work of the Old Testament Age of Law. But the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees of Judaism did not recognize that the Lord Jesus was the incarnation of Jehovah, that He was the Messiah they were waiting for. They stubbornly clung to the laws and commandments of the Old Testament proclaimed by Jehovah God. They also crucified the merciful Lord Jesus, who had saved mankind, thus offending God’s disposition. God then discarded the whole of Judaism, which clung to the laws of the Old Testament, and turned His salvation to the Gentiles—who, after accepting and following the Lord Jesus, formed the churches of the New Testament, which were also called Christianity. Meanwhile, the Jews, who clung only to the work of Jehovah God of the Old Testament Age of Law and rejected the work of redemption of the Lord Jesus, formed what is called Judaism. From this it can be seen that Christianity and the Church of Almighty God believe in the same God—the Lord who created the heavens and the earth and all things. It’s just that the name and work of God people hold to are different: The Church of Almighty God abides by the new name of God during the Age of Kingdom, and accepts the new work carried out by God during the last days, while Christianity holds to the name of God during the Age of Grace, and accepts the old work that God did during previous ages. This is the most important difference between Christianity and the Church of Almighty God. The God that both believe in, however, is the same: The only true God who created the heavens and the earth and all things. This is a fact that no one can distort or deny!
Many Christians believe that they need only accept the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption to enter the kingdom of heaven, and need not also accept the work of judgment of Almighty God of the last days. Such conceptions are completely wrong. During the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus did the work of redemption. People were saved because of their faith, and were no longer condemned by the law and put to death because of their transgressions. Yet the Lord Jesus only forgave man’s sins, and did not pardon or resolve man’s sinful nature. The satanic dispositions within people—the arrogance and conceitedness, selfishness and greed, crookedness and deceitfulness, and rebelliousness and opposition against God—still existed. People had yet to be completely cleansed, saved, and gained by God. Thus, the Lord Jesus said many times that He must return. In many places in the Bible is it prophesied that God shall return and perform judgment, bringing the saints into the kingdom of heaven. The incarnate Almighty God of the last days has expressed all truths for the purification and salvation of mankind, and has carried out the new work of judgment beginning from the house of God upon the foundation of the work of redemption of the Lord Jesus. It is in order to resolve mankind’s sinful nature, and to allow mankind to completely free himself from the bondage and constraints of sin, live out the likeness of the real man and be gained by God, and enter the beautiful destination prepared for mankind by God. It can be said that the work of redemption carried out by the Lord Jesus is the foundation of the work of salvation of God of the last days, while the work of judgment of the last days is the core and the focus of the work of salvation of God. This is the stage of work that is most crucial and important to the salvation of mankind. Only those who accept Almighty God’s work of judgment of the last days shall have the chance to be saved and enter the kingdom of heaven and become those who are caught up before God. Today, some people in the various sects and denominations of the religious world have seen that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus during the last days, and thus they have accepted and begun to follow Almighty God. Some unbelievers have also accepted Almighty God because of the truths expressed by Almighty God. These people who believe in Almighty God make up the Church of Almighty God. Under the guidance and shepherding of Christ of the last days, Almighty God, the Christians of the Church of Almighty God have, through experiencing and putting into practice the words of Almighty God, gradually come to understand many truths, and have clearly seen the source and substance of mankind’s corruption. Under the judgment and chastisement of God’s words, people have really and actually tasted God’s righteous and unoffendable disposition. Because they know God, they have gradually come to fear God and shun evil, and live according to God’s words. With their understanding of the truth, people’s knowledge of God has gradually deepened, their obedience to God has become ever greater, and they have put more and more truths into practice. Without realizing it, these people will have completely freed themselves from sin and attained holiness. The Christians who do not accept the new work of Almighty God, meanwhile, still believe in Christianity. They hold to the name of the Lord Jesus, abide by the teachings of the Bible, and have long since been cast into darkness by God, losing the care and protection of God. This is a recognized fact. If people insist on not repenting, and blindly condemn and oppose the Lord Jesus returned during the last days, Almighty God, and refuse to accept Almighty God’s work of judgment of the last days, then ultimately, they shall all be eliminated by God’s work.
The tenets of Christianity originate from the Bible, and the tenets of the Church of Almighty God originate from all of the truths that have been expressed by God since the time of creation during the work of the Age of Law, Age of Grace, and Age of Kingdom. That is to say, the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Bible of the Age of Kingdom—The Word Appears in the Flesh—expressed by the returned Lord Jesus of the last days, Almighty God, are the basic beliefs and the tenets of the Church of Almighty God. The Old Testament records Jehovah God’s work of decreeing laws and commandments and guiding the life of man during the Age of Law; the New Testament records the work of redemption carried out by the Lord Jesus during the Age of Grace; and The Word Appears in the Flesh is all of the truths for the purification and salvation of mankind expressed by Almighty God during the Age of Kingdom, as well as an account of God’s work of judgment during the last days. The true Bible is all of God’s utterances during the three stages of work, and the fundamental beliefs of the Church of Almighty God are all of God’s utterances during the three stages of work, that is, all of the truths expressed by God during these three stages of work. The three Holy Scriptures are the basic beliefs and the tenets of the Church of Almighty God.
Christianity was born of the work of the Lord Jesus in the Age of Grace, but the Lord Jesus Christ it believes in only did the work of redemption in the Age of Grace. Because the incarnate Lord Jesus was crucified and served as man’s sin offering, delivering man from the hands of Satan and releasing him from the condemnation and imprecation of the law, man had but to come before God and confess his sins and repent to be forgiven his sins and enjoy the bounteous grace and blessings bestowed by God. This was the work of redemption carried out by the Lord Jesus. Although man’s sins were forgiven by the redemption of the Lord Jesus, man was not expunged of his sinful nature, he was still bound and controlled by it, and could not help but commit sin and resist God by being arrogant and conceited, striving for fame and gain, being jealous and disputatious, lying and deceiving people, following the wicked trends of the world, and so on. Man had not broken free from the bondage of sin and become holy, and thus the Lord Jesus prophesied many times that He would come again to carry out the work of judgment of the last days, saying: “And, behold, I come quickly” (Rev 22:12). “And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 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” (Jhn 12:47-48). It is also written in the First Epistle of Peter that “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17). Almighty God, Christ of the last days, is the returned Lord Jesus. He has expressed all of the truths for the purification and salvation of man, has carried out the work of judgment beginning at the house of God, and has fully accomplished the prophecies of the Bible. The Word Appears in the Flesh expressed by Almighty God is “” (Rev 2:7) prophesied in the Book of Revelation, and is an account of God’s work of judgment in the last days. The work of judgment done by Almighty God is the final stage of work of God’s salvation for mankind, and is also its most fundamental and crucial stage. If man wishes to be saved by God and enter the kingdom of heaven, he must accept God’s work of judgment, and in this have been fulfilled the words of the Lord Jesus: “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Mat 25:6). “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20). Only if man accepts and experiences the judgment and chastisement of God’s words can he know the holiness and righteousness of God, know the substance and nature of man’s corruption by Satan and its true fact, truly repent before God, rid himself of all the sin, achieve holiness, become one who obeys God and worships God, and be gained by God. Only then will he be qualified to inherit God’s promises and blessings, and gain the beautiful destination.
The tenets of the Church of Almighty God originate from all of the truths expressed by God in His three stages of work, which means that they originate from the words of God recorded in the Bible and from The Word Appears in the Flesh. God began the work of saving mankind following His creation of the world, and His management plan for the salvation of man will not be completed until He finishes the work of judgment beginning at the house of God during the last days. From the words and all the truths God has expressed in the three stages of work, we are entirely able to see that, whether it be God’s work done by using man in the beginning during the Age of Law, or His work during the two times He was incarnated in the Age of Grace and the Age of Kingdom, all are the utterances and the expression of the truth of one Spirit; in substance, it is one God that speaks and works. Therefore, the tenets of the Church of Almighty God originate from the Bible and from The Word Appears in the Flesh.
(2) About The Word Appears in the Flesh
The Word Appears in the Flesh is the personal utterances of Almighty God, Christ of the last days, and is all the truths that God has expressed to purify and save man during His work of judgment of the last days. These truths are the direct expression of the Holy Spirit, the revelation of God’s life and substance, and the expression of God’s disposition and what He has and is. They are the only path through which man can know God and be purified and saved. The words expressed by Almighty God are the supreme principle of man’s actions and conduct, and there are no higher aphorisms for the life of man.
The Christians of the Church of Almighty God read God’s words in The Word Appears in the Flesh every day, just as the Christians of Christianity read the Bible. All Christians take the words of God as their life’s guide and as the highest of all life’s aphorisms. In the Age of Grace, Christians all read the Bible and listened to the preachings of the Bible. Changes gradually occurred in people’s behavior, and they committed fewer and fewer sins. Likewise, through the reading of the words of Almighty God and the fellowship of the words of God, Christians of the Church of Almighty God gradually understand the truth and break free from the bondage of sin, no longer commit sins and resist God, and become compatible with God. Facts prove that only by reading God’s words can man be purified and transformed and live out the image of the real man. These are facts that no one can deny. The words of God recorded in the Bible were expressed as God worked in the Age of Law and the Age of Grace, while The Word Appears in the Flesh is the words expressed by God in the work of the last days. The source of both is from the Holy Spirit. Almighty God’s words and work have totally fulfilled the prophecies in the Bible, and Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus, just as the Lord Jesus said: “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” (Jhn 16:12-13). So, too, is it prophesied in the Book of Revelation that, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev 2:7). “And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. … behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof” (Rev 5:1, 5).
Today, we have all seen one fact: All of the words expressed by Almighty God are the truth, and they have authority and power—they are the voice of God. No one can deny or change this. The Word Appears in the Flesh is freely available on the Internet for people of all countries and territories to seek out and investigate. No one dares to deny that they are the words of God, or that they are the truth. God’s words are driving the whole of mankind onward, people have begun to gradually awaken amid the words of God, and they are gradually progressing toward acceptance of the truth and knowledge of the truth. The Age of Kingdom is the age when Almighty God’s words rule on earth. Each and every one of God’s words will be accomplished and fulfilled. Just as all believers in God acknowledge the Bible today, people who believe in God will acknowledge in the near future that The Word Appears in the Flesh is God’s utterances in the last days. Today, The Word Appears in the Flesh is the basis of the beliefs of the Church of Almighty God, and it will surely become the foundation of existence for the whole of mankind in the next age.
(3) About the Names of God and the Three Stages of God’s Work
Following his corruption by Satan, man lives under the domain of Satan and his corruption has grown ever deeper. Man cannot save himself, and needs the salvation of God. In accordance with the needs of corrupt mankind, God has done three stages of work in the Age of Law, in the Age of Grace, and in the Age of Kingdom. In the Age of Law, God did the work of decreeing laws and commandments and guiding the life of man. In the Age of Grace, God became flesh and, upon the basis of His work in the Age of Law, carried out the work of crucifixion and redeemed man from sin. In the Age of Kingdom, God has once more become flesh and, upon the basis of the work of redemption of the Age of Grace, carries out the work of judgment beginning at the house of God, expresses all of the truths for the purification and salvation of man, and brings us the only way for the pursuit of purification and salvation. Only if we gain the reality of the truth as our life, becoming those who obey and worship God, will we be qualified to be led into the kingdom of God and receive God’s promises and blessings. The three stages of work of God’s salvation of man are closely connected, each stage is indispensable, each goes higher and deeper than the last, they are all the work of one God, and only the three stages of God’s work are the complete work of mankind’s salvation.
The three names—Jehovah, Jesus, and Almighty God—are the different names God has taken in the Age of Law, the Age of Grace, and the Age of Kingdom. God takes different names because His work varies in different ages. God uses a new name to start a new age and represent the work of that age. God’s name was Jehovah in the Age of Law, and Jesus in the Age of Grace. God uses a new name—Almighty God—in the Age of Kingdom, fulfilling the prophecies in the Book of Revelation: “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write…. Him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God: and I will write on him my new name” (Rev 3:7, 12). “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, said the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Rev 1:8). Although God’s names and work in the three ages are different, there is only one God in substance, and the source is the same.
God’s work of saving man primarily includes three stages of work. He has used a different name in each age, but God’s substance never changes. The three stages of work are done by one God; thus, Jehovah, Jesus, and Almighty God are the same one God. Jesus was the appearance of Jehovah, and Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus, and so Almighty God is the one true God who created the heavens and the earth and all things, commands all things, and holds sovereignty over everything, and He is the everlasting and one and only Creator.
In the three stages of the work of saving man, God has revealed His entire disposition to man, allowing us to see that God’s disposition is not only mercy and love, but also righteousness, majesty, and wrath, that His substance is holiness and righteousness, and is truth and love, and that God’s disposition and God’s authority and power are not possessed by any created or non-created being. We believe that all the words God has said from the time of creation to the end of the world are the truth. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but God’s words shall never disappear, and each and every one of them shall be accomplished!
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.
We disdain all those who are against the Lord Jesus; in the end, they will all be annihilated. Who told them not to believe that the Lord Jesus is the Savior? Of course, there are times when we learn from the Lord Jesus and are compassionate toward the world, for they do not understand, and we should be tolerant and forgiving of them. Everything that we do is in accordance with the words of the Bible, for everything that does not conform to the Bible is heresy, and an evil cult. Such belief is deeply embedded in each of our minds. Our Lord is in the Bible, and if we do not depart from the Bible we shall not depart from the Lord; if we abide by this principle, then we shall be saved. We spur each other on, and support each other, and every time we gather together we hope that everything we say and do is in accordance with the will of the Lord, and can be accepted by the Lord. Despite the severe hostility of our environment, our hearts are filled with joy. When we think of the blessings that are within such easy reach, is there nothing we cannot forsake? Is there nothing we cannot bear to part with? All of this is implicit, and all of this is looked upon by the eyes of God. We, the handful of the needy who have been lifted from the dunghill, are the same as all ordinary followers of the Lord Jesus: We dream of rapture, and of being blessed, and of ruling all the nations. Our corruption is laid bare in the eyes of God, and our desires and greed are condemned in the eyes of God. Yet all of this happens so unremarkably, so logically, and none of us wonder whether our longing is right, much less do any of us doubt the accuracy of all that we hold to. Who can know God’s will? We do not know to seek, or explore, or even concern ourselves with the path that man walks. For we only care about whether we can be raptured, whether we can be blessed, whether there is a place for us in the kingdom of heaven, and whether we shall have a share of the water of the river of life and the fruit of the tree of life. Do we not believe in the Lord, and are we not followers of the Lord, for the sake of gaining these things? Our sins have been forgiven, we have repented, we have drunk the bitter cup of wine, and we have put the cross upon our back. Who can say that the price we have paid will not be accepted by the Lord? Who can say that we have not prepared enough oil? We don’t want to be those foolish virgins, or one of those who are forsaken. Moreover, we pray often, and ask the Lord to keep us from being deceived by false Christs, for it is said in the Bible that “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” (Matthew 24:23-24). We have all committed these verses of the Bible to memory, we know them back to front, and we see them as precious treasure, as life, and as the credentials for our rapture and salvation …
For thousands of years, the living have passed away, taking their longings and dreams with them, and no one truly knows whether they have gone to the kingdom of heaven. The dead return, and they have forgotten all the stories that once occurred, and still follow the teachings and the paths of the forefathers. And so, as the years pass and the days go by, no one knows whether our Lord Jesus, our God, truly accepts all that we do. We simply look forward to an outcome and speculate about all that will happen. Yet God has kept His silence throughout, and has never appeared to us, or spoken to us. And so we willfully judge God’s will and disposition according to the Bible and the signs. We have become accustomed to the silence of God; we have become accustomed to measuring the rights and wrongs of our behavior using our own way of thinking; we have become accustomed to using our knowledge, conceptions, and moral ethics to replace God’s demands of us; we have become accustomed to enjoying the grace of God; we have become accustomed to God providing assistance whenever we need it; we have become accustomed to holding out our hands to God for all things, and to ordering God about; we have also become accustomed to following doctrine, not paying attention to how the Holy Spirit leads us; moreover, we have become accustomed to days in which we are our own master. We believe in a God such as this, whom we have never met. Questions such as what His disposition is like, what His possessions and being are, what His image is like, whether or not we will know Him when He comes, and so on—none of these are important. What’s important is that He is in our hearts, that we all await Him, and that we are able to imagine what He is like. We appreciate our faith, and treasure our spirituality. We consider everything as dung, and tread all things underfoot. Because we are the followers of the glorious Lord, no matter how long and arduous the journey, no matter what hardships and dangers befall us, nothing can halt our footsteps as we follow the Lord. “A pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeded out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. On either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bore twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 22:1-5). Every time we sing these words, our hearts brim with surpassing joy and satisfaction, and tears flow from our eyes. Thanks be to the Lord for choosing us, thanks be to the Lord for His grace. He has given us a hundredfold now in this time, has given us eternal life in the world to come, and if He asked us to die now, we would do so without the slightest complaint. Lord! Please come soon! Do not delay a minute longer, for we desperately yearn for You, and have forsaken everything for You.
God is silent, and has never appeared to us, yet His work has never stopped. He looks upon all lands, and commands all things, and beholds all the words and deeds of man. His management is conducted in steps and according to His plan. It proceeds silently, without dramatic effect, yet His footsteps advance ever closer to mankind, and His judgment seat is deployed in the universe at the speed of lightning, immediately followed by the descent of His throne among us. What a majestic scene that is, what a stately and solemn tableau. Like a dove, and like a roaring lion, the Spirit arrives among us all. He is wise, He is righteous and majestic, He quietly arrives among us possessed of authority and filled with love and compassion. No one is aware of His arrival, no one welcomes His arrival, and, moreover, no one knows all that He will do. Man’s life remains unchanged; his heart is no different, and the days go by as usual. God lives among us like an ordinary person, as a most insignificant follower and an ordinary believer. He has His own pursuits, His own goals, and, moreover, He has divinity not possessed by ordinary men. No one has noticed the existence of His divinity, and no one has perceived the difference between His substance and that of man. We live together with Him, unconstrained and unafraid, for we see Him as nothing more than an insignificant believer. He watches our every move, and all of our thoughts and ideas are laid bare before Him. No one takes an interest in His existence, no one has any imagination of His function, and, moreover, no one has any suspicion about who He is. We merely continue our pursuits, as if He has nothing to do with us …
By chance, the Holy Spirit expresses a passage of words “through” Him, and though it feels very unexpected, we recognize that this is the utterance of God, and we readily accept it from God. That is because, regardless of who expresses these words, as long as they come from the Holy Spirit we should accept them, and cannot deny them. The next utterance could be through me, it could be through you, or it could be through him. Regardless of who it is, all is the grace of God. Yet no matter who the person is, we should not worship them, for regardless of anything else, they cannot possibly be God; we can by no means choose an ordinary person such as this to be our God. Our God is so great and honorable; how could He be represented by someone so insignificant? What’s more, we are all awaiting the arrival of God to take us back to the kingdom of heaven, and so how could someone so insignificant be qualified for such an important and arduous task? If the Lord comes again, it must be upon a white cloud, visible to all. How glorious that will be! How could He quietly hide among an ordinary group of people?
And yet it is this ordinary person hidden among people who is doing the new work of saving us. He does not clarify anything for us, nor does He tell us why He has come. He merely does the work He intends to do in steps, and according to His plan. His words and utterances become ever more frequent. From consoling, exhorting, reminding, and warning, to reproaching and disciplining; from a tone that is gentle and kind, to words that are fierce and majestic—they all instill both compassion and trepidation in man. Everything that He says hits home at the secrets hidden deep within us, His words sting our hearts, sting our spirits, and leave us ashamed and humiliated. We begin to wonder whether the God in this person’s heart really loves us, and what exactly He intends to do. Perhaps we can only be raptured after enduring such pain? In our heads we are calculating … about the destination to come, and about our future fate. Still none of us believes that God has assumed flesh and works among us. Even though He has been with us for so long, even though He has already spoken so many words face to face with us, we are still unwilling to accept someone so ordinary as the God of our future, much less are we willing to entrust control of our future and fate to someone so insignificant. From Him we enjoy an unending supply of living water, and thanks to Him we live face-to-face with God. We are only thankful for the grace of the Lord Jesus in heaven, and have never paid any attention to the feelings of this ordinary person who is possessed of divinity. He still does His work humbly hidden in the flesh, expressing His heart’s voice, seemingly insensible to mankind’s rejection of Him, apparently eternally forgiving of man’s childishness and ignorance, and forever tolerant of man’s irreverence toward Him.
Unbeknownst to us, this insignificant man has led us into step after step of God’s work. We undergo countless trials, are subjected to innumerable chastenings, and tested by death. We learn of God’s righteous and majestic disposition, enjoy, too, His love and compassion, come to appreciate God’s great power and wisdom, witness the loveliness of God, and behold God’s eager desire to save man. In the words of this ordinary person, we come to know the disposition and substance of God, come to understand God’s will, come to know the nature and substance of man, and see the way of salvation and perfection. His words cause us to die, and cause us to be reborn; His words bring us comfort, yet also leave us wracked with guilt and a sense of indebtedness; His words bring us joy and peace, but also great pain. Sometimes we are as lambs to the slaughter in His hands; sometimes we are like the apple of His eye, and enjoy His love and affection; sometimes we are like His enemy, turned to ashes by His wrath in His eyes. We are the mankind saved by Him, we are the maggots in His eyes, and we are the lost lambs that He thinks of finding day and night. He is merciful toward us, He despises us, He raises us up, He comforts and exhorts us, He guides us, He enlightens us, He chastens and disciplines us, and He even curses us. He worries for us night and day, He protects and cares for us night and day, He never leaves our side, and He devotes all His care to us and pays any price for us. Among the words of this small and ordinary flesh, we have enjoyed the entirety of God, and beheld the destination that God has bestowed upon us. Yet despite this, vanity still stalks within our hearts, and we are still unwilling to actively accept a person such as this as our God. Though He has given us so much manna, so much to enjoy, none of this can usurp the Lord’s place in our hearts. We honor this person’s special identity and status only with great reluctance. If He does not speak up to make us acknowledge that He is God, then we will never take it upon ourselves to acknowledge Him as the God that is soon to arrive yet has been working among us for so long.
The utterance of God continues, and He employs various methods and perspectives to admonish us what to do and express His heart’s voice. His words carry life power, and show us the way we should walk, and allow us to understand what the truth is. We start to be drawn to His words, we begin to focus on the tone and manner of His speaking, and subconsciously begin to take an interest in the heart’s voice of this unremarkable person. He makes painstaking efforts for us, loses sleep and appetite for us, weeps for us, sighs for us, groans in sickness for us, suffers humiliation for the sake of our destination and salvation, and His heart bleeds and sheds tears for our numbness and rebelliousness. Such being and possessions of His are beyond an ordinary person, and cannot be possessed or attained by any of the corrupted. He has tolerance and patience possessed by no ordinary person, and His love is not possessed by any created being. No one apart from Him can know all of our thoughts, or have such a grasp of our nature and substance, or judge the rebelliousness and corruption of mankind, or speak to us and work among us like this on behalf of the God of heaven. No one except for Him can possess the authority, wisdom, and dignity of God; the disposition of God and what He has and is are issued forth, in their entirety, from Him. No one apart from Him can show us the way and bring us light. No one apart from Him can reveal the mysteries God has not disclosed from creation until today. No one apart from Him can save us from Satan’s bondage and our corrupt disposition. He represents God, and expresses the heart’s voice of God, the exhortations of God, and the words of judgment of God toward all mankind. He has begun a new age, a new era, and brought a new heaven and earth, new work, and He has brought us hope, and ended the life we led in vagueness, and allowed us to fully behold the path of salvation. He has conquered our whole being, and gained our hearts. From that moment onward, our minds become conscious, and our spirits seem to be revived: This ordinary, insignificant person, who lives among us and has long been rejected by us—is He not the Lord Jesus, who is ever in our thoughts, and whom we long for night and day? It is He! It’s really Him! He is our God! He is the truth, the way, and the life! He has allowed us to live again, to see the light, and has stopped our hearts from wandering. We have returned to the home of God, we have returned before His throne, we are face-to-face with Him, we have witnessed His countenance, and have seen the road ahead. At the time, our hearts have been completely conquered by Him; we no longer doubt who He is, and no longer oppose His work and word, and we fall down, completely, before Him. We wish for nothing except to follow the footprints of God for the rest of our lives, and to be made perfect by Him, and to repay His grace, and repay His love for us, and to obey His orchestrations and arrangements, and to cooperate with His work, and to do everything we can to complete what He entrusts to us.
Being conquered by God is like a martial arts contest.
Each of God’s words strikes at our mortal spot, and leaves us sorrowful and afraid. He reveals our notions, reveals our imaginations, and reveals our corrupt disposition. Through all that we say and do, and every one of our thoughts and ideas, our nature and substance are revealed by His words, leaving us humiliated and trembling with fear. He tells us of all of our actions, our aims and intentions, and even the corrupt disposition that we have never discovered, making us feel we are thoroughly exposed, and even more feel completely convinced. He judges us for our opposition to Him, chastises us for our blasphemy and condemnation of Him, and makes us feel that in His eyes we are worthless, and we are the living Satan. Our hopes are dashed, we no longer dare to make any unreasonable demands and attempts upon Him, and even our dreams vanish overnight. This is a fact that none of us can imagine, and which none of us can accept. For a moment, our minds become unbalanced, and we do not know how to continue on the road ahead, do not know how to continue in our beliefs. It seems like our faith has gone back to square one, and that we have never met and been acquainted with the Lord Jesus. Everything before our eyes perplexes us, and makes us feel as if we have been cast adrift. We are dismayed, we are disappointed, and deep in our hearts there is insuppressible anger and disgrace. We try to vent, try to find a way out, and, what’s more, we attempt to continue waiting for our Savior Jesus, and pour our hearts out to Him. Though there are times when we are neither haughty nor humble on the outside, in our hearts we are afflicted with a sense of loss like never before. Though sometimes we may seem unusually calm on the outside, inside we endure rolling seas of torment. His judgment and chastisement have stripped us of all our hopes and dreams, have left us without our extravagant desires, and unwilling to believe that He is our Savior and capable of saving us. His judgment and chastisement have opened up a deep gulf between us and Him and no one is even willing to cross. His judgment and chastisement are the first time that we suffer such a great setback and such great humiliation. His judgment and chastisement have allowed us to truly appreciate God’s honor and intolerance of man’s offense, compared to which we are so lowly and impure. His judgment and chastisement have made us realize for the first time how arrogant and pompous we are, and how man will never be the equal of God, or on a par with God. His judgment and chastisement have made us yearn to no longer live in such a corrupt disposition, and have made us long to rid ourselves of such nature and substance as soon as possible, and no longer be detested by Him and disgusting to Him. His judgment and chastisement have made us happy to obey His words, and no longer willing to rebel against His orchestrations and arrangements. His judgment and chastisement have once more given us the desire to seek life, and have made us happy to accept Him as our Savior…. We have walked out of the work of conquest, stepped out of hell, stepped out of the valley of the shadow of death…. Almighty God has gained us, this group of people! He has triumphed over Satan, and defeated all of His enemies!
We are just such an ordinary group of people possessed of corrupt satanic disposition, we are the ones predestined by God before the ages, and we are the needy whom God has lifted from the dunghill. We once rejected and condemned God, yet now we have been conquered by Him. We have received life and have received the way of eternal life from God. No matter where we are on earth, despite persecution and tribulation, we cannot be apart from the salvation by Almighty God. For He is our Creator, and our only redemption!
The love of God extends forth like the water of a spring, and is given to you, and to me, and to him, and to all those who truly seek the truth and await the appearance of God.
Just as the moon always follows the sun, the work of God never ceases, and is carried out upon you, upon me, upon him, and upon all those who follow the footprints of God and accept the judgment and chastisement of God.
When mankind was corrupted by Satan, God began His management plan for the salvation of mankind. God has carried out three stages of work for the salvation of mankind. During the Age of Law, Jehovah God issued the laws and guided the life of mankind, making people know that they should worship God, and making them know what sin is. But with the arrival of the final stages of the Age of Law, mankind’s corruption became ever more profound, and people often violated the laws and sinned against Jehovah. They faced the risk of being condemned and put to death because of their violations. Thus, in answer to the needs of mankind, during the Age of Grace God assumed human form and became the Lord Jesus. He was nailed to the cross for the sake of mankind, and redeemed man from sin, enabling people to come before God and pray to God, confess and repent, be forgiven for their sins, and live under the riches of God’s grace and blessings. But because people’s sinful nature had yet to be resolved, and they still often sinned and opposed God, in the Age of Kingdom God once more became flesh, using the name of Almighty God to express all truths for the salvation and purification of mankind upon the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, expunging mankind’s sinful nature, causing mankind to cease its disobedience to God and opposition to God, allowing people to truly obey God and worship God, and ultimately leading mankind to a beautiful destination. Even though the work God has done in the Age of Law, Age of Grace, and Age of Kingdom has been different, and the names He has taken and disposition He has displayed have been different, the substance and aims of His work are the same—all are in order to save mankind, and all the work is done by God Himself. As Almighty God said, “From the work of Jehovah to that of Jesus, and from the work of Jesus to that of this current stage, these three stages cover the entire breadth of God’s management, and are all the work of one Spirit. From when He created the world, God has always been managing mankind. He is the Beginning and the End, He is the First and the Last, and He is the One who begins an age and the One who brings the age to an end. The three stages of work, in different ages and different locations, are surely carried out by one Spirit. All those who separate these three stages oppose God” (“The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
For thousands of years, few people have truly known that the Lord Jesus Christ is God Himself, that He is the appearance of God, and that the Lord Jesus is the incarnation of Jehovah. In fact, the Bible had long since prophesied this clearly. In the Book of Isaiah, it was said that “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin (or: when he shall render himself as an offering for sin)” (Isa 53:10). From this passage of the Bible it can be seen that for the Lord Jesus to serve as a sin offering means that Jehovah offered Himself as a sin offering, and that the Lord Jesus was Jehovah. The Lord Jesus also said, “he that has seen me has seen the Father” (Jhn 14:9). “the Father is in me, and I in him” (Jhn 10:38). “I and my Father are one” (Jhn 10:30). When the Lord Jesus said that “I and my Father are one,” He was saying that He and Jehovah are one Spirit. The words uttered by the Lord Jesus and those uttered by Jehovah are the same—they are both the truth, they are the utterances of one Spirit, and their source is the same; that is, the Lord Jesus and Jehovah are one God. Likewise, the source of the words expressed by Almighty God of the last days and those by the Lord Jesus is the same, they are the utterances of the Holy Spirit, they are the truth, and they are the voice of God. Those who believe in the Lord all know that greater number of prophecies in the Bible concern the return of the Lord and the work of judgment of God of the last days. As the Lord Jesus said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (Jhn 14:3). “And, behold, I come quickly” (Rev 22:12). “And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (Luk 21:27). “Behold, I come as a thief” (Rev 16:15). “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” (Jhn 12:48). In the First Epistle of Peter it was also said that, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17). It was spoken very clearly in these scriptures that the Lord Jesus would return during the last days, and would express words and do the work of judgment. When Almighty God arrives during the last days, He does the work of judgment beginning from the house of God upon the foundation of the work of redemption of the Lord Jesus, and expresses all truths for the purification and salvation of mankind. Although the work of Almighty God and that of the Lord Jesus are different, their source is the same—the one God! This completely fulfills the prophecy of the Lord Jesus: “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” (Jhn 16:12-13). The incarnate Almighty God of the last days is the embodiment of the Spirit of truth; Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus.
The Church of Almighty God waters and shepherds its believers in complete accordance with the words of God in the Bible and The Word Appears in the Flesh expressed by Almighty God, so that every believer can, under the guidance, provision, watering, and shepherding of the words of Almighty God, understand all of the truths in God’s words, possess the right outlook on life and values, have the right goals to pursue, follow the way of God, hold on to God’s commissions, glorify God by being the light of the world and salt of the earth, be praised by God, and be qualified to inherit God’s promises.
In the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus promised to His followers, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3).
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Christianity and the Church of Almighty God believe in the same God. People who understand the history of religion know that Judaism in Israel was born of the work that Jehovah God did in the Age of Law. Christianity, Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodoxy were all churches that emerged after the incarnate Lord Jesus did the work of redemption. The Church of Almighty God came to be when God became flesh during the last days to do the work of judgment. Christians in the Age of Grace read the Old and New Testament of the Bible, and Christians of the Church of Almighty God in the Age of Kingdom now read The Word Appears in the Flesh, which was personally spoken by God in the last days. Christianity abides by the work of redemption that the Lord Jesus did in the Age of Grace, and the Church of Almighty God accepts the work of judgment of the last days of the returned Lord Jesus, Almighty God. The difference between Christianity and the Church of Almighty God is that Christianity abides by the work that God did during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace, whereas the Church of Almighty God abides by the work of judgment beginning from the house of God that God has carried out during the last days. The differences between Christianity and the Church of Almighty God are akin to the differences between Christianity and Judaism: During the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus carried out the work of mankind’s redemption upon the foundation of the work of the Old Testament Age of Law. But the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees of Judaism did not recognize that the Lord Jesus was the incarnation of Jehovah, that He was the Messiah they were waiting for. They stubbornly clung to the laws and commandments of the Old Testament proclaimed by Jehovah God. They also crucified the merciful Lord Jesus, who had saved mankind, thus offending God’s disposition. God then discarded the whole of Judaism, which clung to the laws of the Old Testament, and turned His salvation to the Gentiles—who, after accepting and following the Lord Jesus, formed the churches of the New Testament, which were also called Christianity. Meanwhile, the Jews, who clung only to the work of Jehovah God of the Old Testament Age of Law and rejected the work of redemption of the Lord Jesus, formed what is called Judaism. From this it can be seen that Christianity and the Church of Almighty God believe in the same God—the Lord who created the heavens and the earth and all things. It’s just that the name and work of God people hold to are different: The Church of Almighty God abides by the new name of God during the Age of Kingdom, and accepts the new work carried out by God during the last days, while Christianity holds to the name of God during the Age of Grace, and accepts the old work that God did during previous ages. This is the most important difference between Christianity and the Church of Almighty God. The God that both believe in, however, is the same: The only true God who created the heavens and the earth and all things. This is a fact that no one can distort or deny!
