Letter Replying | The Church of Almighty God

📧  📝 Question From Brother Jack:


You said that for man to break free from sin and become holy, he must accept God’s judgment of the last days. Then how does God judge and purify man in the last days? For many years I’ve often wondered. What a joy to be without sin. Then life wouldn’t be painful!


📤  📝 Letter Replying:

Hello brother Jack,

Thank you for your kind attention to the Church of Almighty God. As to how Almighty God judges and purifies man in the last days, let’s read Almighty God’s word first! Almighty God says, “when God becomes flesh this time, His work is to express His disposition, primarily through chastisement and judgment. Using this as the foundation, He brings more truth to man, shows more ways of practice, and so achieves His objective of conquering man and saving man from his corrupt disposition. This is what lies behind the work of God in the Age of Kingdom” (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh).

“In the last days, Christ uses a variety of truths to teach man, reveal the essence of man, and dissect his words and deeds. These words comprise various truths, such as man’s duty, how man should obey God, how man should be loyal to God, how man ought to live out the normal humanity, as well as the wisdom and disposition of God, and so on. These words are all focused on the essence of man and his corrupt disposition. In particular, those words that reveal how man spurns God are spoken in regard to how man is an embodiment of Satan and an enemy force against God. When God does the work of judgment, He does not simply make clear the nature of man with just a few words, but carries out revelation, dealing, and pruning over the long term. Such manner of revelation, dealing, and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words but with the truth that man does not possess at all. Only such manner of work is deemed judgment; only through such judgment can man be persuaded, be thoroughly convinced into submission to God, and gain true knowledge of God. What the work of judgment brings about is man’s understanding of the true face of God and the truth about his rebelliousness. The work of judgment allows man to gain much understanding of the will of God, of the purpose of God’s work, and of the mysteries that could not be understood by man. It also allows man to recognize and know his corrupt substance and the roots of his corruption, as well as to discover the ugliness of man. These effects are all brought about by the work of judgment, for the substance of such work is actually the work of opening up the truth, way, and life of God to all those who have faith in Him. This work is the work of judgment done by God” (“Christ Does the Work of Judgment with the Truth” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

“Through this work of judgment and chastisement, man will fully come to know the filthy and corrupt substance within him, and he will be able to completely change and become clean. Only in this way can man be worthy to return before the throne of God. All the work done this day is so that man can be made clean and be changed; through judgment and chastisement by the word, as well as refinement, man can cast away his corruption and be made pure. Rather than deeming this stage of work to be that of salvation, it would be more apt to say it is the work of purification” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

“God does the work of judgment and chastisement so that man may know Him, and for the sake of His testimony. Without His judgment of man’s corrupt disposition, man would not know His righteous disposition that allows no offense, and could not turn his old knowledge of God into a new one. For the sake of His testimony, and for the sake of His management, He makes His entirety public, thus enabling man to achieve the knowledge of God, and change his disposition, and bear resounding testimony to God through God’s public appearance. Change is achieved in the disposition of man through different kinds of God’s work; without such changes in man’s disposition, man would be unable to bear testimony to God, and could not be after God’s heart. Changes in man’s disposition signify that man has freed himself from Satan’s bondage, has freed himself from the influence of darkness, and has truly become a model and specimen of God’s work, has truly become a witness of God and someone who is after God’s heart” (“Only Those Who Know God Can Bear Testimony to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

From God’s word, we can see that in the last days, God expresses the truth to judge and chastise corrupt mankind. All the words God judges man with are the expression of His righteous disposition, what He has and what He is, and the words that can be man’s life. Therefore, they are all truths. For corrupt mankind, these words of truth are judgment themselves. They’re chastisement, condemnation, and searching, and purification. With the word of truth, God purifies the satanic disposition within corrupt mankind, and resolves their nature and substance of resisting God. This is the significance of God purifying, saving and perfecting man with judgment. In the judgment of the last days, Almighty God expresses truth and reveals all the mysteries of God’s six-thousand-year management plan, and reveals the purpose of God’s three-stage work of salvation and the substance of each stage of work. He especially points out the way for man’s disposition to become transformed and purified. Meanwhile, He thoroughly reveals man’s nature and substance which are corrupted by Satan, plus the truth of his corruption and the root of his sin. Then man can understand that his nature is the very nature of Satan, and sees that he is living in the likeness of Satan, the devil, so he truly repents, and willingly accepts God’s judgment, chastisement, trials and refinement, and is led by God’s word to pursue the truth and the transformation of his disposition. And he gradually breaks from the bondage of his satanic corrupt disposition, rebels against Satan, leaves the darkness and returns to God. And so, man’s sinful nature is radically resolved.

What’s more, by experiencing and practicing God’s word, man gradually learns many truths, such as what is salvation, what is full salvation, what is doing God’s will, what is following man’s own path, what is following God, what is following man, what are Pharisees, whom God saves, and whom God eliminates, and so on. Most importantly, in the judgment and chastisement of God’s word, man learns that God’s righteous disposition is not to be offended. Because of knowing God, man comes to fear God and shun evil and live by God’s word. As man understands the truth and knows God more deeply, he’s more obedient to God and has more reality of practicing the truth. So man unknowingly breaks away from sin and becomes holy. This result can never be achieved in the Lord’s believers who refuse to accept God’s work of the last days. So, only by accepting the judgment and chastisement of Almighty God’s word in the last days can man understand the truth and know God, break away from Satan’s influence, abolish his satanic disposition, and live by the truth and God’s word. This is the real meaning of being saved.


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

Pictures of the Church of Almighty God

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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Gospel Movie clip "Song of Victory" (4) - Signs of the Lord Jesus' Second Coming

Pictures of the Church of Almighty God

When the Lord Jesus came to do His work, He preached the gospel of the heavenly kingdom everywhere on a grand scale, and it reverberated throughout the entire religious world and the Jewish nation. On the day that the Lord Jesus returns to do His work, it has shaken people from every sect and group, and caused a sensation across the entire world. Have you noticed the signs of the Lord's second coming? Have you welcomed His return?

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Storyline:

The judgment work of Almighty God in the last days has reverberated throughout every sect and group. Following the spreading of the kingdom gospel, Almighty God's words are accepted and spread by more and more people, true believers in God who thirst for Him to appear have been returning one by one before God's throne. In the meantime, the Chinese government and religious pastors and elders have ceaselessly repressed and persecuted the Church of Almighty God from start to finish. The heroine of this movie, Zheng Xinjie, is a member of the Church of Almighty God who spreads the gospel. She has faced the deranged oppression and attacks from the Chinese Communist government and religious leaders. Together with her brothers and sisters, relying on God, how will she triumph over these dark, satanic forces to sing a song of victory? …

Read more: Eastern Lightning

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Hearing God's Voice | Gospel Movie "A Late Answer"

Pictures of the Church of Almighty God

Tang Jie served the Lord zealously for nearly forty years and expected the return of the Lord Jesus eagerly all the time. Having given up her family and her career, she established many house meeting places. As the work of the Holy Spirit shifted, the church became desolate gradually. She tried every possible way to revive it, but in vain. During this process, God’s gospel of the last days came upon her church. To “defend the Lord’s way,” she wrote a pamphlet to fabricate rumors against, slander, and attack Almighty God’s work of the last days, and sealed her church to hinder the believers from listening to the messages. However, increasingly more believers returned to Almighty God. At the end of her tether, Tang Jie fell into misery, confusion, and helplessness….

By chance, Tang Jie and two preachers of the Eastern Lightning had a fierce debate on the truth. After that, she not only understood the real reason for the desolation of the church, but also knew that God has already been incarnated and begun the judgment work of the last days. She realized that she was resisting the Lord Jesus she had been eagerly expecting for years, and was following in Pharisees’ footsteps of serving God yet resisting God. So she truly fell down before God and offered a “late” answer….

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

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The Words of The Returned Christ Have Overturned The Tables of My Own Self Idolatry

My name is Brett Jones.  I live in Alpine, Utah.  And this is a testimony of how I came to recognize and to accept the current work of Almighty God in my life.  I hope that this testimony will be of inspiration to you.

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