Do Those Who Believe in Almighty God Preach the Gospel for Money?

Do Those Who Believe in Almighty God Preach the Gospel for Money?

Feb 1, 2019

By Wang Li, China

Since I was small, I believed in Jesus along with my parents. After I got married, I went with my husband to Shanghai where we opened a factory. In 1991, we set up a meeting place in our factory and, at that time, more than 30 people attended meetings there. Everyone would sing hymns, pray and read the Bible together. The brothers and sisters all showed each other love, supported each other, and we all felt great enjoyment at our gatherings. Preachers from my home town came twice a year to give us sermons, and we gained sustenance from these visits. By 1997, the church was gradually becoming desolate and no one got any enjoyment from our meetings anymore. The preachers were not preaching any new light, and a few of them were vying amongst each other for power and profit, and they had begun to attack each other, and no one listened to anyone else. Disputes also began to break out among the brothers and sisters. Because their spirits were not being provided for, the faith of some of the brothers and sisters began to cool, and some even turned away and stopped believing in God, and in the end only between 10 and 20 of us were left. After 2000 in particular, the situation at our meeting place just got worse and worse. The preachers only ever said the same stale old words, the sermons were tedious, and brothers and sisters became even more dispirited and weak, with nowhere to turn to. My mind was also becoming occupied by more and more things, and my faith was nowhere near as strong as it had been. On October 1st, 2001, a brother came to my home and preached to me Almighty God’s gospel of the last days. He spoke to me for two whole days, talking about things from the Age of Law to the Age of Grace, and from the Age of Grace to the Age of Kingdom, and using a great many prophecies from the Bible and the facts of their fulfillment to clarify that God had indeed become flesh and had now come to perform His work of judgment beginning in God’s house. He also told me that God will save man utterly from the domain of Satan and will lead man into their beautiful destination. I had never before heard such a good sermon, and it did me a lot of good. It was as though a bright light had been lit in my heart. Never in my wildest dreams had I imagined that Jesus the Savior, whom I had longed for day and night, could really have returned already, and I had no way to express the joy I felt.

However, a week later, a preacher from my home town came to visit, and it just so happened that the sister in charge of watering me was at my home. The preacher said to us, “Some people are now preaching about Eastern Lightning and you must absolutely not receive them. What they preach is heresy. They pretend to believe in God but they go swindling and cheating people all over the place, and they particularly go for people with money. First, they rope you in, and as soon as you accept their gospel, they then take you for every penny….” These words hit me like a bucket of cold water, and I suddenly felt a chill from my head to my feet. I didn’t know what to do for the best. I knew that what I had now accepted was indeed the Eastern Lightning that was being preached around, and I looked at the sister who was watering me: Her clothes and makeup were all very plain and austere, and she didn’t look like someone with money. And so a doubt arose in my heart, and I asked myself: “Could it be that they really just want to cheat me out of my money? They are so loving toward me right now, but is this just a pretense? What shall I do if it really is as the preacher says?” The more I thought about it, the more uneasy I felt, and I wanted to ask the sister to leave. But then I thought how sensible her preaching was, and if by some chance this was the true way and I rejected it, then wouldn’t I lose my chance to attain salvation? Caught between a rock and a hard place, I was at a loss as to what to do, and so I said a silent prayer to God: “O God! God’s work of the last days that the brothers and sisters bear witness to does indeed sound reasonable. But the preacher says that what they believe in is heresy and that they cheat people out of their money. I have begun to doubt, and I don’t know who is preaching the right way. I ask You to enlighten me so that I may have discernment and see it all clearly.”

That night in bed, I felt very uneasy and upset, and I dared not go to sleep. I thought to myself: Will this sister take off with my things in the dead of night? So I constantly listened to any movements coming from outside my room, but in the end I was so tired that I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer, and I slipped unknowingly into sleep. The next day, I got up early and saw that the sister was still there, and I finally began to feel a little calmer. But I still felt worried, and I secretly observed every move the sister made. Especially when she gave me fellowship on God’s word, I observed her carefully, hoping to find some clues in the expression of her eyes or in her speech, but I discovered nothing. No matter what cunning questions I came up with, she always fellowshiped with me patiently and she used God’s words to resolve my problems. What’s more, her expressions and her words were likewise sincere. To be honest, although I was on my guard, each and every one of God’s words became etched on my heart, so that I felt how true and real they were, and I became utterly convinced. Despite this, I still felt guarded toward the sister, and I always chose my words to her with the utmost care, afraid that any slip-up would reveal to her my financial circumstances. Just as she was about to leave, I decided to try to tempt her, and I took out 1,000 yuan and gave it to her, saying that it was just a token for her trouble. But she said that she couldn’t take anything from me, and she said this with complete sincerity. Just then, I couldn’t help but doubt myself: The preacher from my home town said that these people were here to cheat me out of my money. But I’ve now tried to give her money without being asked for it, so how come she won’t take it? Is what the preacher said really true, or is it false?

Several days later, the sister came again to fellowship with me about God’s words, and I thought to myself, “Ah, she’ll probably want money this time.” But what actually happened made me feel ashamed of myself again, as she just fellowshiped God’s words with me and talked about God’s will, and never engaged in idle chitchat. Her speech and comportment were in fact totally proper, prudent and natural, and she had a pious attitude. I could find no fault with anything about her, and I couldn’t help but admire her. This forced me to doubt what the preacher from my home town had said but, most importantly, Almighty God’s words had dispelled my guarded heart, and they had drawn me in. God’s words say: “What I want is not human conceptions or human thoughts, even less do I want your money or your possessions. What I want is your heart, understand? This is My will, and even more it is what I want to obtain” (“Chapter 61” of Utterances of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “Just give Me your heart completely. Be clear! I do not want your money nor your things nor for you to zealously, deceitfully or narrow-mindedly come before Me to serve. Be quiet and of pure heart, wait and seek when problems arise, and I will give you an answer. Do not be in doubt! Why do you never believe My words to be true? Why can you not believe in My words? Stubborn to an extent and still like this at this time, you are too ignorant and not enlightened at all!” (“Chapter 39” of Utterances of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh). After reading these words, I felt very upset. The sister then gave me fellowship, saying, “God expresses the truth and performs His work of judgment in the last days in order to purify and save man, to enable us to cast off our satanic corrupt dispositions, so that we can have a God-fearing heart, accept God’s observation in all things, be honest people in a real and moral way in accordance with the requirements of God’s words, live out the reality of fearing God and shunning evil, truly come to obey God, worship God and love God, and become people who possess the truth and normal humanity. God wants our hearts, and He treasures our lives. He doesn’t want our money or our possessions.” She then went on with her fellowship, saying, “In The Church of Almighty God, no one is permitted to ask for offerings, or to appeal to people for offerings for any reason whatsoever. If someone appeals to people to make offerings, they are to be stopped, for this is what God loathes. If a brother or sister wants to make a donation, they may only do it by first praying many times, by being completely willing and by being sure to never regret it afterward, otherwise they will not be permitted to make their offering.”

The revelations of God’s words and the sister’s fellowship allowed me to understand God’s will to save mankind, and I saw that they had a genuine and sincere desire to bring me before God and were not scheming anything. The guards that I’d put up in my heart gradually vanished, and the great weight that had lain heavy in my heart for many days finally fell away. I felt as though a heavy burden had been taken from me, and I felt my whole being become much more relaxed. Just as the sister was about to leave, I forcibly stuffed 2,000 yuan into her pocket. This time, I really wanted her to have it, but despite my best efforts to persuade her, she still wouldn’t take it, and she said to me, “There are administrative decrees in God’s house. We cannot take brothers and sisters’ money or possessions, for that would be the action of a Judas.” After she had gone, I was overwhelmed with so many different feelings. “In today’s materialistic society,” I thought, “where money reigns supreme, many people work hard for money, including me, and they struggle on constantly in order to be able to eat well, wear nice clothes, live in a nice home and enjoy nice things. And yet these brothers and sisters who believe in Almighty God are not attracted by these monetary pleasures, but instead they suffer and preach the gospel unconditionally. No matter how much they are misunderstood by others, they still insist on performing their duty—is this not entirely the result achieved by the work of the Holy Spirit?” In these people, I saw that only a life in which one gives up physical pleasure and lives to satisfy God is a life of meaning and value, and I saw that my own pursuit for wealth and material things was so selfish, mean and degrading. I thought about this a lot, especially the two times I’d tried to give the sister some money and was refused, and I thought about how she had treated me with great sincerity and how she had gone out of her way to water me. All this had come from God’s love and He had taken responsibility for my life. If all this had not come from God’s guidance and leadership, how could anyone achieve it? And yet I had entertained sly schemes and had been guarded and suspicious with the sister, and I had tempted her with money. I had misunderstood the painstaking efforts God was putting into saving me, and I felt so indebted to God! I couldn’t help but weep tears of self-rebuke, and I saw how contemptible and without discernment I had been! The facts had proved that the brothers and sisters who were preaching Almighty God’s gospel were not doing so for money, but were performing their duty to lead people before God—it was simply not like the rumors said at all! At that moment, I couldn’t help but think of when the preachers from my home town had come to give us sermons, and each time they had taken the money I gave them for their trouble, and they had accepted it as a matter of course. Now I understood that the reason they made up all this baseless slander, saying that those who believed in Almighty God preached the gospel for money, was because they themselves were selling the gospel and using their sermons to make money. They were therefore afraid that, after I accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days, I would no longer listen to their sermons and they would no longer be able to enjoy my donations, and so they did everything they could to stop me from accepting the true way. These religious leaders were just out for their own personal gain, and they had no scruples about destroying my chances to attain God’s salvation—they have such black hearts! Having seen through Satan’s rumors and tricks, I proceeded without any hesitation and began to follow Almighty God.

By reading God’s words, I gradually came to understand some truths, I came to have some knowledge about the fact and substance of how I was corrupted by Satan, and I understood a great deal about God’s management work and His will to save mankind. In order to repay God’s love and to lead those who sincerely seek God into God’s house, I gave up my comfortable, easy life and, together with my brothers and sisters, I threw myself into the ranks of spreading God’s gospel of the last days.

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Jun 22, 2017

Many brothers and sisters are unable to take heed whenever they hear someone talking about Almighty God’s gospel of the last days, and don’t dare accept what is preached because they have been spooked by the sensationalized rumors fabricated within religious circles. 

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God's words in this video are from The Word Appears in the Flesh.

The content of this video:

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December 3, 2018

By Muyi, South Korea

“God’s love overflowing is freely given to man, God’s love is around him. Man, innocent and pure, without a care to tie him down, lives in bliss in the eyes of God. … If you are a person of conscience and with humanity, you will feel warm, being cared for and loved, you will feel blessed with happiness” (“How Important God’s Love for Man Is” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). Every time I start to sing this hymn of the word of God, it’s hard to keep down the emotions stirring inside me. That is because I was once far astray from God and went against Him. I was like a lost sheep, unable to find the road home, and it was God’s steadfast love that led me to return home. In what follows, I wish to share my experience of returning to God’s house with both those brothers and sisters who are part of the Lord as well as those friends who have not yet turned to God.

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If Eastern Lightning is the true way, then what is the basis of your confirmation? We believe in the Lord Jesus because He redeemed us, but what do you use to verify that Eastern Lightning is the true way?

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Question 2: If Eastern Lightning is the true way, then what is the basis of your confirmation? We believe in the Lord Jesus because He redeemed us, but what do you use to verify that Eastern Lightning is the true way?

Answer: On this point, let’s read two passages of Almighty God’s words to see what Almighty God says.

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As is well known, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seized power through lies and violence, and it relies on lies and violence to maintain its power. The CCP’s rule is nothing but lies, violence, and murder. The CCP propagates atheism, regarding religion as the spiritual opium of the people.

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Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power, it has never ceased in persecuting religious beliefs. The CCP has openly designated Christianity and Catholicism as cults, and the Bible as a cult book. Countless copies of it have been confiscated and burned. Since 1995, the CCP has included many house churches, including The Church of Almighty God (CAG), in cult lists and began its open repression and persecution.

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Su Mingyue is a preacher of a house church in mainland China. Over the years, she has been a devout servant of the Lord who insists on doing preaching work for the Lord and bearing the burden of work for the church. She goes by Paul's word in the Bible, feeling that merely believing in the Lord is enough to be called righteous and be saved by grace. Although man still sins constantly, his sins have been forgiven by the Lord, his image will be changed instantly to become holy and he will be raised into the kingdom of heaven when the Lord arrives.

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One time, the Chinese Communist government captured many Christians of the Church of Almighty God from a particular location late at night. This matter caused a huge commotion locally. It triggered discussions amongst the members of the Three-Self Church. Some people believed that the Eastern Lightning has suffered the Chinese Communist government's cruel suppression and persecution. It is too dangerous to believe in the Eastern Lightning, and it is safest to believe in the Three-Self Church. They will not suffer hardships and they will be able to enter the heavenly kingdom. Other people believed that the Eastern Lightning is indeed the true way, but the persecution and arrest it faces is too severe. If they were to believe, they thought that it is better to believe in secret. Once the Chinese Communist government topples, they can believe openly in Almighty God. Some people had investigated the Eastern Lightning and yet, they believed that the Eastern Lightning spreads the gospel and bears witness to the Lord with no regard to life or death and that they are praised by God. They thought that the people who hide inside the Three-Self Church are cowardly people who drift through life without purpose and that they are not worthy to enter into the heavenly kingdom. … After this heated discussion, was everyone able to know what kind of people are praised by the Lord and whether the fearful can enter into the heavenly kingdom?

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Li Tianhong

Lingbao City, Henan Province

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Did They Hear the Voice of God? | The Church of Almighty God

Zheng Chenggong

Lu Zheng was a Christian of the Justification by Faith Church. One day, he went to participate in a meeting as usual. No sooner had he entered the church than he found some more brothers and sisters didn’t show up. Only then did he realize that those who attended the church meetings were even fewer. What puzzled him the most was that those who pursued actively became less and less. Before, they read the Bible seriously and truly believed in the Lord. And they were generally recognized as good sheep in the church. Lu Zheng wondered: Where have these good sheep gone?

At the meeting, the pastor and the elder talked about the same old sermon: “Now we live in the last days. It is written in the Bible, ‘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 24:24). So we need to have discernment and never be deceived.” Yet the pastor, with an accent of anger, said, “Many believers in our church have turned to follow the Eastern Lightning. Even those veteran believers who understand the Bible have been stolen by the followers of the Eastern Lightning. From now on, whoever contacts the followers of the Eastern Lightning will be expelled from the church.” With his words, Lu Zheng came to know that many believers in the church have accepted the Eastern Lightning. But he was puzzled that they were the pillars in the church and they truly believed in God. They had their own ideas and could think for themselves. How could they be stolen by the followers of the Eastern Lightning so easily?

When the meeting was nearing its end, Lu Zheng, with this doubt, asked Pastor Cao, “Pastor Cao, how is it that Liu Yang and Wang Yue also accept the Eastern Lightning? They were the followers of the Lord and workers for the Lord. In the past, they were our church’s good sheep, lead sheep, but how could they so easily be stolen?” At Lu Zheng’s words, Pastor Cao said viciously, “Good sheep? Can good sheep be stolen? They are the people who are deceived….” Even before he had finished, other believers started to buzz.

Zhang Ming said, “That’s not the right way to think about it. Wang Yue, Liu Yang and others are true believers and have the firmest faith in the Lord. This is the generally acknowledged fact in our church.” Li Jian said, “Yes. They’ve believed in the Lord for years and know the Bible well. They are not the kind of people who have no thoughts and no minds of their own. They are very careful in seeking the true way.” Zhao Yong said, “Well. The day before yesterday I met Liu Yang on the road. Seeing his bulging bag, I asked him what he had got in his bag. He said those are the books of God’s words and he also showed me a book. On the book is written: The Word Appears in the Flesh. The book is very thick. So I asked how much it cost him and thought it must be expensive. He answered he got it without paying. The words in that book are the utterances of the returned Lord Jesus, that is, what the Spirit says to the churches prophesied in Revelation. Hey, Brother Zhang, you are a long-time believer and understand more. Are there prophecies about the word the Spirit says to the churches in Revelation?” Brother Zhang replied, “You are right. It’s indeed recorded in Revelation, ‘He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches’ (Revelation 2:7). Moreover, it has been said more than once. I’m wondering: The Lord Jesus once 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’ (John 16:12-13). Does the Spirit of truth really come? Have these good sheep heard the Lord’s utterances and been stolen?” Zhang Ming continued, “Those who can hear the Holy Spirit’s voice are truly the most blessed. If the Eastern Lightning is the true way, Liu Yang and the others will have it.” Liu Fu said, “It’s impossible. If the Lord comes, wouldn’t Pastor Cao know it? Wouldn’t he have already taken us to meet the Lord?” Brother Zhang said, “Don’t say that. Do you think the pastors and the elders are all true believers in the Lord? Doesn’t the Bible record the Parable of good servants and evil servants and Parable of Bad Tenants? The evil servants surely don’t know the Lord’s return.”

While all the people were just discussing this, suddenly Pastor Cao roared, “Be quiet!”

After the meeting finished, Lu Zheng returned home. He was still pondering on the words Pastor Cao and others said at the meeting. Particularly, Brother Zhang’s words greatly touched his heart. After thinking about this for a while, he knelt down and prayed, “O Lord, now our best sheep have all been stolen away by the Eastern Lightning. But I know those brothers and sisters who were stolen. They truly believe in God and thirst for and pursue the truth. How come they all turned to follow the Eastern Lightning? O Lord, is the Eastern Lightning the true way? May You resolve my confusion. Amen!” After the prayer, he clearly thought of the words of the Lord, “My sheep hear my voice” (John 10:27). “For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened” (Matthew 7:8). The Lord’s words enlightened him to have some level of understanding of the Lord’s will, which is for people to listen to His words. He thought it through and decided to visit Brother Liu Yang the next day to get his confusion straight …

---

What would I like to say:

They are all sobering onto prayer and looking out for His coming. We attend meetings, pray, work and preach the gospel more in order to be accepted by the Lord at this crucial moment and to enjoy the blessing of entering into the kingdom of heaven. Why they follow Eastern Lightning?

God’s kingdom gospel

Read more: Is Eastern Lightning the Return of the Lord Jesus?

                   The Church of Almighty God was founded by Almighty God personally

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Why are the “Eastern Lightning” opposed and condemned by the religious world?

Second Coming of Jesus

Why are the “Eastern Lightning” opposed and condemned by the religious world?

God has become flesh twice to personally carry out His work on earth to save man, yet each time He meets with strong resistance and condemnation and frenzied persecution from the religious leaders. The facts are shocking and puzzling: Why is God treated this way whenever He carries out a new stage of work? Why are the most frenzied and rampant resisters of God the leaders who know the Bible well and who have served the Lord for years? Why do they, the most faithful and obedient ones to God in their own eyes, always carry out misdeeds and go contrary to God, unable to be compatible with Him? Could it be that God’s work is an error? Could it be that what God does is unsatisfactory? Absolutely not! The main reason all denominations and sects act out a role of resisting God and become God’s enemies is this: On the one hand, they have no truth and have no knowledge of the work of the Holy Spirit or knowledge of God, and they always use their limited theological theories and knowledge as well as their conceptions and imaginations to restrict God’s work that is always new and never old. On the other hand, men are so deeply corrupted by Satan that they are all arrogant and haughty by nature, are unsubmissive to the truth, and particularly value position. These two aspects together have led to the tragedy of the true way being rejected and condemned again and again in human history.
Two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesus performed many miracles among the Jews, and He healed the sick, exorcised demons, spread the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, taught people to repent, and forgave them of their sins. There was no record of such work in the Old Testament, and it was the work that no one had ever done before. It was also of course the work none were capable of, for apart from God, no one had such great authority and power. What Jesus set out to accomplish at that time was to be crucified to bear man’s sins personally, bestow upon man an abundance of grace and peace and joy, and bring him out of the rules of the law through the work of the new age, so that he would no longer suffer punishment for failing to observe the law. Those under the law could receive God’s salvation and not perish only if they kept up with the work of Jesus. The chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees among the Jews, however, didn’t know the work of the Holy Spirit or what the work Jesus did was. In their conceptions, they believed that it was a betrayal of their God and purely the worst offense to not observe the law or pray in the name of Jehovah. Besides, as they considered that they were familiar with the Bible and had served Jehovah in the temple for many years, they believed what they held to was the truth, the most correct way; so, they regarded Jesus’ work a way outside the Bible, which ran counter to the Bible and the law. Hence, they would rather die than accept the message Jesus preached, and they even condemned Jesus’ work as heresy, a cult, and something deceiving people. Even though there was authority and wisdom to Jesus’ work and words and His miracles were unprecedented, and even though more and more people were testifying to Jesus’ deeds, they were still unwilling to investigate and seek this higher way. Rather, they were opinionated and stiff-necked and denied Jesus to be the Christ, the coming Messiah. Just as what Almighty God reveals: “Man is only able to accept one kind of work, or one way of practice. It is difficult for man to accept work, or ways of practice, that are at odds with them, or higher than them—but the Holy Spirit is always doing new work, and so there appear group after group of religious experts that oppose the new work of God. These people have become ‘experts’ precisely because man has no knowledge of how God is always new and never old, and has no knowledge of the principles of God’s work, and, what’s more, has no knowledge of the many ways in which God saves man. As such, man is utterly unable to tell if it is work that comes from the Holy Spirit, and if it is the work of God Himself. Many people cling to an attitude in which, if it corresponds with the words that came before, then they accept it, and if there are differences with the work of before, then they oppose and reject it.” (from “Knowing the Three Stages of God’s Work Is the Path to Knowing God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) A believer in God should at least have a fear of God and hunger and thirst for righteousness. Only then can he receive the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, come to know God’s new work, and follow God’s footsteps closely. The chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees of the Jews met Jesus many times, but instead of seeking the truth, they just tried every means to test Him and get something against Him. Nathanael and the Samaritan woman, as well as Jesus’ disciples and the other people didn’t have knowledge of God either and also had notions about God’s new work, but they could drop them and seek the truth. As a result, they recognized Jesus’ identity and God’s voice and obeyed and accepted the truth. Thus it can be seen that those religious elites were not only obstinate and hidebound but also arrogant and self-right, and they didn’t accept or submit to the truth at all.

As more and more Jewish people followed the Lord Jesus, the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees became more fearful because they worried that their expectation of having people forever obey them would become a vain hope. The authority and power of Jesus’ words and work were unmatched by them, which made them feel inferior and ashamed of themselves. Thus, they had an ever increasing sense of crisis: If Jesus existed, the temple would become more and more desolate, and they could not continue enjoying a life of being supported, regarded as supreme, and sustained by others. So, they took Jesus as their irreconcilable foe. To preserve their position, they tried in every way to frame Jesus and blaspheme and condemn His work, spreading the slander that He cast out devils through Beezlebub the chief of the devils, and bearing false witness against Him, saying that He spoke words against the holy place and the law. (cf. Acts 6:10-14) They were dead set on removing Jesus from the Jewish people, and finally crucified Him. Even when Jesus had been resurrected from the dead and His disciples had more power and were accompanied with wonders in preaching the gospel, which sufficiently proved that the way they preached had the work of the Holy Spirit and was upheld by the Holy Spirit, those chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees still didn’t consider why Jesus’ gospel could be so prosperous. In fact, these “honorable” figures who were well versed in the Bible and wealthy in knowledge simply scorned to investigate and seek from those villagers, fishermen, and “ignorant” common people, who had no standing or knowledge. On the pretext of “defending the law and guarding the right way,” they continued to use power to collude with those in office and further restrict and oppress and even frenziedly kill those disciples and other Jewish followers of Jesus, exerting all their efforts to hinder people from following the Lord Jesus. And they forbade anyone to spread Jesus’ name…. Their evil deeds aroused God’s wrath, and the whole Jewish nation suffered unprecedented destruction. They paid a bitter price for resisting and condemning God.

Today, in the last days, God has prepared a greater salvation for those who have been redeemed by His precious blood—judging and purifying man with His word, which is a newer and higher stage of work. Through this stage of work, man will be completely freed of his corrupt satanic disposition, break free from the bondage of Satan’s dark influence, and become a holy man who knows God, is compatible with God, and truly belongs to God, thus being saved and perfected. This is the last stage of work in God’s six-thousand-year management plan. During God’s work of the last days, Christ incarnate has expressed many words of life supplying man with the truth, ridding him of his corruption, and disclosing various heavenly mysteries. And by virtue of His wisdom, great power, and authority, God has the gospel of the last days spread to thousands of families, all corners of the country. Millions of people who thirst and seek the truth have left their denominations or sects and returned before Almighty God, and the unprecedented scene of “the peoples streaming to this mountain” has appeared, and it is spreading to the entire universe. However, in the face of so many truths, such a great wonder, and such testimonies of the Holy Spirit’s work, the religious people pay no heed to them and are not touched in the slightest. They neither study them with care nor accept them with humility. Like the Pharisees, they don’t know that the work of the Holy Spirit always progresses forward, and that it is always new and never old, which is a principle by which the Holy Spirit works. They don’t have the slightest knowledge of Almighty God’s work of the last days, yet they believe confidently that they have already gained the truth and known God since they have enjoyed a way higher than that of the Age of Law of the Old Testament, and they are versed in the Old and New Testament, and have worked and preached for many years. They also stubbornly believe in this: All the Lord’s words are in the Bible. Any way that is outside of the work of Jesus and the Bible is not the true way. Departing from God’s requirements for man in the Age of Grace amounts to going beyond Christ’s teaching. Only what they have accepted, known, and held to is the true way. Anything other than that is heresy, a cult. They constrain God within the Bible and within their conceptions and imaginations. No matter how high the work brought by Almighty God is, how much work of the Holy Spirit it has, how many ways of practice it brings, and how many facts there are to verify it, they do not acknowledge that it is from God. So they all are hostile to Jesus’ return and deny it, and they even blaspheme God’s incarnate flesh, and slander and condemn the work and words of Christ of the last days. Aren’t they stubborn, hidebound, arrogant, self-right, defiant of the truth, and blasphemous of the Holy Spirit like the Pharisees of those days? As Almighty God says: “If you only come to know God from one stage of His work, then your knowledge is too, too little. Your knowledge is but a drop in the ocean. If not, why would many of the religious old guard nail God to the cross alive? Is it not because man confines God within certain parameters? Do many people not oppose God and obstruct the work of the Holy Spirit because they do not know the varied and diverse work of God, and, furthermore, because they possess but a smidgeon of knowledge and doctrine with which to measure the work of the Holy Spirit? Though the experiences of such people are superficial, they are arrogant and indulgent in nature, and they regard the work of the Holy Spirit with contempt, ignore the disciplines of the Holy Spirit and, moreover, use their trivial old arguments to ‘confirm’ the work of the Holy Spirit. They also put on an act, and are wholly convinced of their own learning and erudition, and that they are able to travel across the world. Are such people not those who are despised and rejected by the Holy Spirit, and will they not be eliminated by the new age? Are not those who come before God and openly oppose Him myopic little people, who are merely trying to show how clever they are? With but a meager knowledge of the Bible, they try to straddle the world’s ‘academia,’ with but a superficial doctrine to teach people, they try to reverse the work of the Holy Spirit, and attempt to make it revolve around their own thought process, and short-sighted as they are, they try to behold in one glance 6,000 years of God’s work. Do these people have any reason to speak of? In fact, the greater people’s knowledge of God, the slower they are to judge His work. Furthermore, they only talk a little of their knowledge of God’s work today, but they are not rash in their judgments. The less people know of God, the more arrogant and overconfident they are, and the more wantonly they proclaim God’s being—yet they only talk of theory, and offer no real evidence. Such people are of no value whatsoever. Those who see the work of the Holy Spirit as a game are frivolous! Those who are not cautious when they encounter the new work of the Holy Spirit, who run their mouths off, are quick to judge, who give free rein to their natural instinct to deny the rightness of the Holy Spirit’s work, and also insult and blaspheme it—are such disrespectful people not ignorant of the Holy Spirit’s work? Are they not, furthermore, the ones of arrogance, inherently proud and ungovernable?” (from “Knowing the Three Stages of God’s Work Is the Path to Knowing God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh)

As those true believers in the Lord return to God’s family by the thousands, the spread of God’s work in the last days has gradually reached its climax. However, the magnificence of the work of the Holy Spirit hasn’t made those religious experts—who have been accustomed to leading and commanding others in a lofty position—examine themselves and lower their proud heads to seek and investigate. Instead, finding that they are in an increasing danger of losing their positions, they begin to worry that people will all return to Almighty God and “snub” and reject them. So, to change the situation, the pastors, elders, leaders, co-workers of every denomination and sect, brandishing the banner of “watching the flock for the Lord,” begin to print and distribute adverse materials, spread rumors on the internet, and use many other ways to wantonly blaspheme and attack Almighty God. They spread the slander that Almighty God’s words are written by man, not God’s words, and that there is drug in the book, and whoever reads it will be brainwashed. And they distort the facts and call white black, falsely accusing the Church of Almighty God of being the “sect of Eastern Lightning,” an underworld organization. By so doing, they deceive and threaten the believers so that they dare not approach or come into contact with God’s gospel at all, and the denominations and sects are sealed impenetrable and watertight. These religious leaders forbid the believers to read the books of the Eastern Lightning, listen to the messages of the Eastern Lightning, and receive the preachers of God’s salvation of the last days or even any stranger, which completely goes contrary to the teaching of entertaining strangers, as required by God in the Age of Grace. The most shocking thing is that as believers in God, they even collude with the government to do the evil deeds of selling out the Lord and the friends. They track, watch, and report the brothers and sisters who preach the gospel of the last days, and even act as the hidden traitors to provide information for the secret arrest of them. It seems that they only wish to catch all those who testify God and eliminate God’s new work to slake their hatred. They clearly know that Almighty God’s followers are all kind-hearted true believers in God, and that these people don’t have any ill intention in preaching the salvation of the last days, yet they savagely and rudely insult, drive, and even beat these gospel preachers. It is plain to see that these religious people have long lost the work of the Holy Spirit, and the substance of their nature is one of refusing to accept the truth, being tired of the truth, and hating the truth. Outwardly they run and spend themselves doing the work, yet they harbor ambitions and disobedience. They are actually seeking positions and running for profits, exerting every effort to satisfy their selfish desires.

Thus it can be seen that both the religious world of Judaism of that time and the religious people of all denominations and sects today act against God, the truth, and the true way determinedly again and again without “fearing death,” essentially because they have no knowledge of God’s working principles and of God’s new work and they are stubborn, hidebound, arrogant, and self-right, and don’t seek the truth at all. Moreover, it is closely related to their great ambition for position and bad character. Now is the critical time of transition from the old age to the new age. The spiritual war has reached its peak. If one still believes those religious people’s rumors and false testimonies and is at their beck and call, disregards, scorns, and sneers at God’s such work and words, is irresponsible for his own life, still says what others say, follows the crowd and comments on the work of the Holy Spirit casually and indulgently, doesn’t have any will and courage to set his face toward justice and be freed from the bondage and hindrance of Satan’s influence, and only muddles along drifting with the tides, he will never be able to see the countenance of the Creator, forever lose the opportunity to know God, and only become a puppet of the history, a sacrificial object of Satan, and fall into darkness, weeping and gnashing his teeth, and perish. And the scriptures in Isaiah 9:14-16 will be fulfilled: “Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and honorable, he is the head; and the prophet that teaches lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.” We must know that God will not choose any base person who does not thirst for the truth, believes in God in a muddled way, has no definite views and ground of his own, adores the powers, and veers with the wind. On the contrary, He is looking for and perfecting a group of “chaste virgins” who hold God to be great, are of clear and sober mind, simple and obedient, and sincerely thirst for and seek God. This is an absolutely true fact! Isn’t the lesson of the Israelites paid for in blood enough to wake you up?

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The Church of Almighty God | A Surprising Gain From Receiving a Stranger – Return of Jesus

A Surprising Gain From Receiving a Stranger – Return of Jesus

Feng ying

I used to be a preacher of a house church. One day in a co-worker meeting, Pastor Chen read a passage of the Bible, “I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7). And then he said, “Co-workers, now the Eastern Lightning followers say that the Lord Jesus has returned to do the work of judgment. And many good sheep in other churches have been stolen by them. How can we give an account to the Lord in the future if we fail to look after His flock well? So I decide that in order to protect the flock, no one is allowed to receive any stranger. And if anyone accepts the Eastern Lightning, he will be expelled from the church.” I was greatly shocked by his words, thinking, “Why have so many true believers in the Lord accepted the Eastern Lightning? How could that be? From now on I must be cautious and never receive strangers.”

In the following days, I went to every meeting place to communicate Pastor Chen’s words and asked the believers to obey them. After that, I breathed a sigh of relief, believing acting this way was devotion to the Lord. One day, an elderly sister came to my home in a fluster and said, “Fengying, a stranger came to preach the Eastern Lightning, and she said the Lord Jesus has already come back to express the truth …” “Where is she?” I immediately interrupted her. “I’ll go and have a look.” As soon as I got to the elderly sister’s house with her, I quickly walked up to the sister who came to preach the gospel and said, “You are the one preaching the Eastern Lightning?” “Yes, auntie,” She said with a smile. “The Eastern Lightning is the Jehovah God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus.” “Which verse of the Bible records that the Eastern Lightning is the Jehovah God?” I asked. “You’d better go now. We won’t believe whatever you are preaching.” Then she replied peacefully, “Auntie, have you forgotten that the Bible says, ‘Ask you of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain’ (Zechariah 10:1). Isn’t the LORD the God who makes the lightning?” Her words made me speechless, like giving me a head-on blow. In order to save my face, I fought back, “You can preach to those unbelievers if you will. Besides, we don’t know you. And the pastors and elders forbid us to receive strangers. Go now!” A sister said, “Right! We don’t know you. Go away!” But she said calmly, “Actually, we believers in the Lord should listen to the Lord’s word. The Lord Jesus has never said that no one is allowed to receive strangers; instead He said, ‘Whoever shall receive this child in my name receives me: and whoever shall receive me receives him that sent me’ (Luke 9:48). The Lord said that whoever receives the messengers that preach the gospel receives Him. But your pastors and elders don’t allow you to receive strangers, aren’t they disobeying the Lord’s teachings?” Another one said hastily, “If you don’t leave, I’ll call 110 and then you’ll go.” Everyone present attacked or threatened her, and she was driven away.

After the sister left, I couldn’t help thinking: This stranger’s words don’t depart from the Bible. And she is rather devout and doesn’t look like a bad woman. At night, my heart beat violently and I felt very uncomfortable. So I examined in what way I had offended the Lord. Then I remembered how I rejected the people who preached the Eastern Lightning in the past. Was my doing so against the Lord’s will? Thinking of this, I felt it hard to calm down. Recalling that the Lord Jesus taught us to love our neighbor as ourselves in the Bible, I got even more confused. So I prayed, “O Lord, I have worked, preached, and protected the flock for You. Why am I having a heart attack? Is it wrong for me not to receive the stranger? O Lord, I am so confused and don’t know what should I do to be after Your heart. O Lord, please guide me.” After the prayer, the words in the Bible that young sister said occurred to me, “Whoever shall receive this child in my name receives me: and whoever shall receive me receives him that sent me” (Luke 9:48). I pondered: Right! The Lord Jesus said we should even receive a child, and He never said not to receive strangers. So, is it wrong for me to reject that sister? Then I recalled what the pastors and elders said, thinking: They don’t allow us to receive strangers for the sake of the sheep’s life. They’ve done no wrong. I was really confused at the moment. So I prayed many times and entrusted the Lord with this matter, asking Him to guide me to understand His will.

A few days later, that young sister came to my home. I said, “These days there are many people preaching the Eastern Lightning, and our pastors and elders repeatedly ask us not to contact strangers. You are a stranger, and I don’t know you.” Then she said quietly, “Auntie, as a preacher, you should know that in the Bible there were many people who obtained unexpected blessing unawares just because they received strangers.

The Bible records: Abraham received three strangers, and then he had a son when he was one hundred years old. Lot received strangers, and when Sodom was destroyed, he and his two daughters survived. Rahab the harlot received strangers, and she and the others in her house were spared. The poor widow from Zarephath received a stranger, the prophet Elijah, and then the bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry; and when the son of the widow was seriously sick and there was no breath left in him, Elijah prayed to God and cured him. All of those who received strangers obtained God’s grace unawares. Just as the Lord Jesus said, ‘He that receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward’ (Matthew 10:41). These are the Lord’s teachings to us, and we should put them into practice. Auntie, is what I said true?” I replied, “Yes. We also frequently preach these at gatherings.” Then she said, “Auntie, if we merely talk about them without practicing them, we won’t gain the truth. Just like the Lord Jesus said, ‘Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man, which built his house on a rock’ (Matthew 7:24). From these examples recorded in the Bible, we can see that if we receive strangers, not only won’t we be deceived, but instead we will gain God’s protection and blessings. The Bible also says, ‘Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares’ (Hebrews 13:2). If no one had received the strangers just as what the pastors and elders said, then how could the gospel of Jesus Christ be spread from the western countries to our country? Do we know those missionaries from the West? The Lord Jesus said, ‘Go you into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature’ (Mark 16:15). Since those people went to all nations to preach the gospel, there must be lots of people who didn’t know them. Just like when the Lord Jesus’ disciples and Paul were spreading the Lord’s gospel everywhere, how could many people know them? So, is it in line with the Lord’s teachings that the pastors and elders said not to receive strangers? If we blindly believe those religious leaders’ words and refuse to receive strangers, aren’t we disobeying the Lord’s word and being foolish? Then how can we enter the kingdom of heaven if we just believe in the Lord but don’t obey His word? Isn’t it so, auntie?”

At her words, I thought: Right. People who believe in the Lord should obey the word of the Lord. Since the Lord Jesus never asked us not to receive strangers, is what the pastors and elders said wrong? Then I thought: No! The pastors and elders told us not to receive strangers in case we follow any other gospel. And what they said is for our good. Thinking of this, I said, “The Bible says, ‘I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ’ (Galatians 1:6-7). Thus the reason why we don’t receive strangers is that we fear to follow another gospel.” She smiled and said, “Auntie, a lot of people in the religious world don’t at all understand the verse of the Bible you mentioned. It is from an epistle that Paul wrote to the Galatian churches. But many people think it’s a teaching to the believers in the Lord in the last days. So they never have a proper attitude toward these words. At that time, Paul was preaching the gospel in another place, and he learned that many brothers and sisters in the Galatian churches had left the way of the Lord Jesus Christ and returned to the temple and continued to worship Jehovah and keep the laws. Paul was concerned about the churches, but he couldn’t go back to the Galatian churches immediately. So he wrote this epistle to exhort and remind the brothers and sisters in the churches. Just like he said, ‘O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been evidently set forth, crucified among you?’ (Galatians 3:1). The leaders, chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees of Judaism disturbed and deceived the Galatians, and asked them to deny the word of Jesus Christ. So Paul wrote an epistle, saying, ‘I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.’ In that age, there were two groups of people preaching the gospel. One preached the old way of God, the gospel of believing in Jehovah God and keeping the law; the other preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, there were some who troubled the Galatians, trying to pervert the gospel of Jesus Christ, and make them go back to keep the law. So Paul said in the epistle, ‘… preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed’” (Galatians 1:8).

After her fellowship, I felt brightened in my heart: So, this is what happened. How do the pastors and elders not know that? Since we all believe in the Lord, how could she know so much? And where does she get these? So I asked quizzically, “Sister Zhang, you are right. But how do you know all of these? The book in your hand is…” “Auntie, how could man know these things? I learned all of them from this book. This book is particularly different from any other book in the world, because the words in it are expressed by the second incarnate God Himself. It explains everything that man doesn’t understand and all the mysteries in the Bible, including what you don’t understand.” Her words reminded me of some believers who love the Lord in other churches. They had believed in the Lord for many years, yet easily accepted the Eastern Lightning, and no one could bring them back. It seemed that the Eastern Lightning really had the truth. Therefore, I received the book.

Then she fellowshiped a lot with me, such as the truth of the three stages of God’s work, the prophecies about the “Eastern Lightning,” and so on. I thought: What this young sister said is well-founded and illuminating, and I enjoyed it and learnt from it so much. I’m also a preacher, yet why do I not understand these? Before leaving, she left several tapes of the recitals of Almighty God’s words to me. I turned on the player from which a pleasing sound came, “Christ of the last days brings life, and brings the enduring and everlasting way of truth. This truth is the path through which man shall gain life, and the only path by which man shall know God and be approved by God. … Those who wish to gain life without relying on the truth spoken by Christ are the most ridiculous people on earth, and those who do not accept the way of life brought by Christ are lost in fantasy. And so I say that the people who do not accept Christ of the last days shall forever be despised by God. Christ is man’s gateway to the kingdom during the last days, which none may bypass. None may be perfected by God except through Christ. You believe in God, and so you must accept His words and obey His way. You must not just think of gaining blessings without receiving the truth, or accepting the provision of life. Christ comes during the last days so that all those who truly believe in Him may be provided with life. His work is for the sake of concluding the old age and entering the new one, and is the path that must be taken by all those who would enter the new age. If you are incapable of acknowledging Him, and instead condemn, blaspheme or even persecute Him, then you are bound to burn for eternity, and shall never enter the kingdom of God.” Hearing this, I felt both joy and sorrow with tears in my eyes, thinking: These words with authority can only be expressed by God Himself. The Lord Jesus also said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me’ (John 14:6). This is indeed God’s voice. At that time, the scene of my rejecting the brothers and sisters who came to preach the gospel to me time after time rose before my eyes. I was very distressed: How foolish and ignorant I am! During my years of belief, I have listened to what the pastors and elders said more than the Lord’s word, so that I didn’t dare to receive any stranger who preached the Eastern Lightning. Besides, not only did I not seek or investigate the true way, but I hindered my brothers and sisters doing that, thinking that this was devotion to the Lord. Never did I think that I was in opposition to God. However, God didn’t give up on me because of that, and instead He arranged for a sister to preach the gospel to me once more, giving me another opportunity to repent. When I received the sister, a stranger, God blessed me, and so I received the Lord and welcomed His return unawares. I thank God for His salvation of me, and I am willing to cooperate with Him to bring my brothers and sisters before Him to comfort His heart.

Not long after, I began to live the church life. Having meetings and performing my duty with my brothers and sisters, I was filled with joy. Thank God for His guidance. Later, I cooperated with some brothers and sisters and brought those who truly believe in the Lord in my former church before God. All the glory be to Almighty God!

Read more: The brief introduction of the Church of Almighty God

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The Church of Almighty God | The Discernment of the Wicked Servants Will Keep You from Being Deceived

Every true believer in God is expectantly waiting for the return of the Savior Jesus. But faced with the confusion and the varied statements in the church, many of the brothers and sisters who truly love the Lord are in a tight corner and at a loss what course to take.

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Why can the “Eastern Lightning” spread all over Mainland China despite bitter opposition?

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Why can the “Eastern Lightning” spread all over Mainland China despite bitter opposition?

When it comes to the Eastern Lightning, many brothers and sisters in the Lord will look upset and feel afraid. Yet most of them have such doubt in the heart: why has the Eastern Lightning spread all over Mainland China like mightily overwhelming surging waves rather than falling into desolation and decay even despite the strong defense and condemnation and rejection against it from all denominations and sects? The fact completely baffles the religious people. Actually, the reason is very simple. The Eastern Lightning, called by all denominations and sects, is no other than the Savior Lord Jesus returning upon a white cloud in the last days, the real and true God Himself who has become flesh again. Almighty God—Christ of the last days—has brought the work of judgment by which to change man’s disposition and purify, save, and perfect man, and expressed the truth that can be new life of man. Therefore, even if all denominations and sects in the whole world oppose, attack, persecute, blaspheme, and condemn the incarnate God of the last days and His work, what God wishes to achieve can never be thwarted or oppressed by anyone. God’s almightiness and wisdom can never be surpassed by any forces of Satan.

Many people believe that the way condemned by most people is surely not the true way. Does it accord with the truth? Let’s look back to the Age of Grace when God became flesh in Judea and carried out new work. From the beginning, the Judaists persecuted, blasphemed, condemned Jesus and tried every possible means to put Him to death. In the end, they, in collusion with the Roman authorities, arrested the merciful Lord Jesus and nailed Him to the cross. Even after the resurrection and ascent of the Lord Jesus, they spread rumors and slandered and accused John, Paul, and other apostles as the Nazarenes, cultists, and also made every effort to persecute, hunt, and afflict them. However, the work of Jesus could never be thwarted or destroyed by Satan, for God’s wisdom is always exercised based on Satan’s plots. It was because the wanton persecution and banishment of the Roman Empire forced the apostles to leave their homes and flee abroad that Jesus’ salvation was spread throughout the world and to the ends of the earth. Brothers and sisters, let’s consider this: Why was the way of Jesus resisted and opposed by so many people? Was it not the true way? Could it be that what Jesus’ apostles preached was not the salvation of God? Could it be that the way rejected and resisted is not the way of God? Could the number of its supporters be taken as the standard for judging whether it is the true way? Don’t think that the way resisted by most people is not the true way. As long as it is the work of God, even if all the people in the world oppose and reject it, the true way brought by God can never be denied. This is absolutely true. If one who believes in and follows God for many years doesn’t know God’s work and can easily be deceived and bound by Satan’s specious fallacies and rumors and become a person who believes in God yet follows Satan and who serves God yet opposes God, isn’t it distressing and regrettable? Many people don’t investigate and seek the true way with a humble heart, but follow others and buy into their ideas. They blindly follow others in judging and attacking God and His work and parrot their remarks. It’s very dangerous to do so. If they persist in their mistaken way, it will lead them onto a path of no return in the end. When the Jews opposed the Jesus’ apostles preaching the gospel in the temple, Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, said to them, “And now I say to you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nothing: But if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it; lest haply you be found even to fight against God.” (Acts 5:38-39) Shouldn’t his words be a warning to every believer in God today? Today, God became flesh again and came to China—the staunch bastion of atheism, the lair of the great red dragon—to carry out the work of judging and purifying man in the Age of Kingdom. His purpose is to fully save corrupt mankind from the dark influence of Satan and bring them into His kingdom so that they can enter into rest together with Him. However, the tragedy of history that the Jews opposed Jesus is repeated. As the work of God in the last days goes against the notions of the religious people in all denominations and sects, they not only don’t welcome the returned Jesus but instead spread various fallacies and rumors to slander the incarnate God and His work. They condemn the work of the incarnate God in the last days as a heresy, a cult, and even join hands with China’s ruling party to persecute and hunt the incarnate God. Their deeds are no different from the evil doings of the Judaists who framed and persecuted Jesus. Nevertheless, the true way is the true way, and God’s work is God’s work; regardless of their resistance and condemnation against God’s work of the last days, the kingdom gospel of God has still spread all over Mainland China and shocked the whole religious world.

Since it is the true way, why is it opposed by so many believers in God? The reason lies in two aspects. One is because man doesn’t know the direction of the Holy Spirit, that is, they don’t know that the work of God is always progressing forward. They don’t know how to seek the present work of God as a believer in God, but instead they know only to check God’s new work against His former work. Once they find any inconsistencies, they condemn the new work as a heresy, a cult. The other is because man is too arrogant and self-right to humbly seek the new work of God, and they hold fast to their ideas, taking their own thoughts as God’s thoughts, and refuse to accept any truth. From this, we can see that when God opens a new age, His new work is opposed by most people, not because God’s way is wrong but because man doesn’t know God’s work and refuses to seek the truth on account of their disposition of arrogance and self-right. If one thinks that the new work of God isn’t the true way because it is opposed by most people, it shows that he is absurd and preposterous. If one loses God’s salvation of the last days because of this, that would undoubtedly be an eternal loss.

How do we distinguish between the true way and the false way? God’s word tells us the principles for this. Almighty God says, “Knowing the work of God is no simple matter: you should have standards and an objective in your pursuit, you should know how to seek the true way, and how to measure whether or not it is the true way, and whether or not it is the work of God. What is the most basic principle in seeking the true way? You have to look at whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit, whether or not these words are the expression of the truth, who is testified, and what it can bring you. Distinguishing between the true way and the false way requires several aspects of basic knowledge, the most fundamental of which is to tell whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit. For the substance of man’s belief in God is the belief in the Spirit of God. Even his belief in God incarnate is because this flesh is the embodiment of the Spirit of God, which means that such belief is still the belief in the Spirit. There are differences between the Spirit and the flesh, but because this flesh comes from the Spirit, and is the Word become flesh, thus what man believes in is still the inherent substance of God. And so, in distinguishing whether or not it is the true way, above all you must look at whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit, after which you must look at whether or not there is the truth in this way. This truth is the life disposition of normal humanity, which is to say, that which was required of man when God created him in the beginning, namely, all of normal humanity (including human sense, insight, wisdom, and the basic knowledge of being man). That is, you need to look at whether or not this way takes man into a life of normal humanity, whether or not the truth that is spoken of is required according to the reality of normal humanity, whether or not this truth is practical and real, and whether or not it is most timely. If there is truth, then it is able to take man into normal and real experiences; man, furthermore, becomes ever more normal, man’s human sense becomes ever more complete, man’s life in the flesh and the spiritual life become ever more orderly, and man’s emotions become ever more normal. This is the second principle. There is one other principle, which is whether or not man has an increasing knowledge of God, whether or not experiencing such work and truth can inspire a love of God in him, and bring him ever closer to God. In this can be measured whether or not it is the true way. Most fundamental is whether this way is realistic rather than supernatural, and whether or not it is able to provide the life of man. If it conforms to these principles, the conclusion can be drawn that this way is the true way.” (from “Only Those Who Know God and His Work Can Satisfy God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) The words of Almighty God show us that we can discern the true way from the following three aspects.
First, we must see whether there is the work of the Holy Spirit. This is very important. Since it is the true way, it is surely the work of God Himself, and will surely be accompanied by the work of the Holy Spirit, upheld by the Holy Spirit. People believe in the incarnate God because He is the flesh in which God’s Spirit is embodied. All of His work is the work of the Holy Spirit, and it is also validated by the Holy Spirit. So people believe in Him and follow Him. For example, when Jesus was doing His work, though He appeared to be an ordinary, normal man, people could see that His work and word was accompanied and upheld by the Holy Spirit, because they see that His work and word were full of authority and power. He made the blind see, the lame walk, and the leper healed, fed five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes, and even raised the dead. He searched man’s hearts and minds and revealed man’s hidden things of darkness. And He also spoke the mysteries in heaven. People would feel peace and joy in their heart after following Him. At that time people followed the Lord Jesus and recognized Him as the coming Messiah all because they saw that all of His work was done by the Holy Spirit. This shows us that if it is the true way, there must be the work of the Holy Spirit. So, to judge whether it is the true way, we should first discern whether there is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Second, we should discern whether there is the truth expressed in it and whether man’s life disposition can be gradually changed and his humanity can become more and more normal. As we all know, God is the truth, the way, and the life. Each time God does a new stage of work, He will express the truth and thereby show man the ways of practice in the new age and give man the supply of life, so that man will live out a more and more normal humanity and gradually restore the original likeness that man had when he was created by God. This is an obvious characteristic of the true way. For example, when the Lord Jesus began the work of the Age of Grace, He expressed many truths for people at that time to practice. He taught them to love their neighbor as themselves, bear the cross, deny themselves, forgive others seventy times seven times, worship God in spirit and in truth, and so on. All those who truly believed in God underwent some changes in outward actions thanks to the teachings of the Lord Jesus, and they could be humble and patient as required by Him and lived out the likeness of normal man in some measure. So, if it is the true way, there must be the truth expressed in it, and it will make man’s humanity more and more normal and make them more and more like a real man.

Third, we can judge it by whether it can bring man more and more knowledge of God and whether it can arouse their love for God and draw them ever closer to God. As is known to all, the true way is the work of God’s own and can bring man to God, and by experiencing such work, man will gradually gain true knowledge of God and develop a love for God. For example, in the Age of Law, Jehovah decreed laws to guide man’s life on earth, and by experiencing His work, they knew that Jehovah alone was the only true God. They also knew that His disposition was majesty and curse and could not be offended, and thereby they had fear of God. In the Age of Grace, God was incarnated into the world and did the work of redemption of mankind, and people knew by experiencing the work of Jesus that God’s disposition was love and mercy and saw that God was not only Spirit but could become flesh and humble Himself to be a man and perform signs and wonders, healing the sick and casting out demons…. All the work Jesus did brought man a new knowledge of God and aroused more of their love for God. Therefore, if it is the true way, it can bring man more knowledge of God and His disposition.

Although God’s work is always progressing forward, as long as it is the work done by God Himself and the true way, it must meet the three conditions above. That is, there must be the work of the Holy Spirit, there must be the truth expressed in it, and it must bring man more and more knowledge of God and draw them ever closer to God. If we discern the true way by these three standards, we will tell true from false and keep pace with the present work of God and receive the truth, the way, and the life and greater promises and blessings from God.

Today, in the last days, God has new work, that is, He speaks words to judge and purify the corrupt mankind. This is a newer and higher work that God does as planned, based on the work of the Lord Jesus and according to the actual need of the mankind in the last days. If you calm down and seek and investigate it carefully, you will see that the new work is not only accompanied by the work of the Holy Spirit but also possessed of the truth and that it can bring you a more true, practical, and full knowledge of God. Let me share our experience and knowledge of God’s work of the last days according to the three standards.

Firstly, if it is the true way, it is accompanied by the work of the Holy Spirit. Almighty God has opened the Age of Kingdom and conducted new work. He has expressed words to judge and purify man and brought man new provision of life. Those true believers of God in all denominations and sects have all gradually come under the name of Almighty God. No matter how people oppose and what force stands in the way, God’s gospel of the last days, like mightily surging waves, has spread all over Mainland China, and a gratifying scene has appeared where all people are streaming to the holy mountain. Although we are from different denominations or sects, we get along well with and help each other. There is no division among us, and the church life is full of vitality. The brothers and sisters never weary of meetings. We take delight in singing hymns and receive enlightenment in prayers. In every meeting, we derive new supply from the word of Almighty God, know more of what we lack, and find the ways of practice from His word. We are fully confident, and are responsible and faithful for God’s commission. Our corrupt disposition has been changed in different degrees, and we can act by God’s word and love each other when we are together. When there arise different opinions, we can deny ourselves and listen to others’, letting the truth of God’s word reign in the church. In this stage of work, although God does not repeat the work of the Age of Grace, no longer healing the sick or casting out demons, we see the authority and power of His word from His work. As long as we accept and obey the work and word of Almighty God, we will be enlightened and illuminated by the Holy Spirit and free from passiveness or weakness, and perform our duty as a created being actively to care for God’s will. This is why the brothers and sisters in the Church of Almighty God are able to give up their fleshly enjoyment and do their best to preach God’s kingdom gospel everywhere. Regardless of whether they are refused, persecuted, cursed, or struck by the believers of other denominations and sects, they endure all these hardships willingly and never stop preaching God’s gospel of the last days to carry out God’s will. From these facts, we can see that Almighty God is full of authority and power and His work is accompanied and upheld by the Holy Spirit. However, the churches of all denominations and sects, which fail to follow God’s new work, are full of jealousy, strife, and divisions, and people work together in a different pace, walk together with a different mind. This is proof enough that there isn’t the work of the Holy Spirit in these churches. The Church of Almighty God is in vitality as it is accompanied by the work of the Holy Spirit, while the churches of all denominations and sects are stagnant and desolate because they have lost the work of the Holy Spirit. The sharp contrast shows us clearly which is the true way and which is outdated.

Secondly, if it is the true way, there must exist the truth, and it can show man the ways of practice for the new age, bring man new provision of life, and man will be increasingly transformed in life disposition and their humanity will become more and more normal. In the work of the last days, Almighty God has expressed a great variety of truths. There are truths concerning the work of God and truths concerning the practice and the entry for man in the new age, such as the purpose of God’s management, the principles of God’s work, the inside truth behind the works of the Age of Law and the Age of Grace, how God conducts His work of judgment, what the significance of God’s incarnation is, how mankind has developed until today, what the destination of mankind will be, what viewpoint believers ought to hold, what believers should pursue, why believers must submit to God, why only loving God is truly believing in God, what service is after God’s heart, and so forth. These truths allow us to gain much understanding of God’s will and much knowledge of the substance of our nature and the true condition of our corruption, and they also show us clearly the way to change our disposition. Through experiencing the work and word of Almighty God, we have known the impurities in our former belief in God: Although we were redeemed by God and received the abundance of grace, in our heart we were calculating every day how to gain more fleshly enjoyment and material blessings and gain our longed-for blessings from God. We journeyed to and fro for God’s work in order to gain blessings, crown, fame, and benefits, not for the sake of fulfilling our duty as a created being. Regardless of the abundance of grace from God, once God did something discordant with our notions, we would immediately resist and complain about God and even be in enmity to God openly or leave God. The original conscience and sense that man ought to have before God couldn’t be found in us, and we had been corrupted by Satan so much that we no longer had the likeness of humans. From the truths expressed by Almighty God, we gain true knowledge of the truth of our corruption and see that we are selfish and contemptible and without humanity. And we also understand the meaning of the work of God’s salvation for us and appreciate God’s devotion to saving mankind. In this way, our spirits are revived little by little and our conscience and sense are gradually restored. We no longer seek to satisfy our flesh but only pursue to devote ourselves to fulfilling God’s will, so we gradually have a normal relationship with God, a relationship between created beings and the Creator, have more and more love, obedience, and worship for God, and live more and more like a real man. In short, Almighty God has brought us the truths badly needed for the people of the last days, showed us the direction ahead in the new age, and given us the most actual provision of life. These facts are sufficient proof that the way of Almighty God is the true way.

Thirdly, if it is the true way, it brings man a new knowledge of God. Brothers and sisters, if you read the word of Almighty God personally and come into real contact with the brothers and sisters in the Church of Almighty God, you will find that they have gained a new knowledge of God by pursuing the truth expressed by Almighty God. They have known from their experiences of His work and word the righteous disposition of God and seen that God’s inherent disposition encompasses not only love and mercy but even majesty, wrath, and intolerance of man’s offense. Through experiencing the work and word of Almighty God, we have seen how God saves man by steps and how He vanquishes Satan with His wisdom, and we have truly known that God is almighty, wise, wondrous, and unfathomable and gained a truer understanding of His devotion to saving mankind, His true love for mankind, and His essence of goodness and beauty. In experiencing the work and word of Almighty God, we have corrected our former fallacious knowledge of God. For example, we have known that God is not only the God of the Israelites but also the God of all Gentile nations, He is the God of all creation, His work is always new and never old and follows no doctrines, and so on. All this shows that the work and word of Almighty God have increased man’s knowledge of God and made man gain a more real and full knowledge of God than they did in the Age of Grace. Only when God Himself does the work can it achieve such results. There is no doubt that the way of Almighty God is the true way.

As such, the conclusion can be drawn that Almighty God, who is condemned by the religious world, is the God Himself returning to flesh in the last days. Therefore, regardless of the opposition and attack from all denominations and sects and the slander and condemnation of all Satan’s forces, the spreading of God’s work of the last days has not been thwarted in the slightest. During the dozen years, the kingdom gospel has expanded all over Mainland China, and God’s name and God’s word have been spread to hundreds of millions of families. Those believers in all denominations and sects who pursue the truth and truly want God have returned to Almighty God. Millions of people are enjoying God’s words, experiencing God’s work and salvation, and praising God’s wondrous deeds. God has made a group of overcomers in China who are of one mind with Him. God’s work has eventually concluded with His glorification, and God will appear publicly to all nations and all lands soon. Spiritual siblings, remove your timidity and doubts and come to God with your sincere heart. Almighty God is watching, awaiting your return all along!

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