2019 Christian Crosstalk "An Antichrist in the Church" | Be Careful! Don't Be Deceived by Pharisees

Brother Li is a believer who attends a house church. While he and his brothers and sisters are investigating the true way, their pastor says "God's words and works are all in the Bible, and anything outside the Bible is heresy" and "any who preach the Lord's return as incarnate flesh are false" to obstruct and prevent believers from seeking and investigating the true way. The Lord Jesus clearly 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). The Book of Revelation also prophesied, "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Revelation 2:7). The Lord will return in the last days, and people must attentively listen for the Lord's voice to be able to keep up with the Lord's footsteps, so why do their pastor openly deny the Lord's words and strive to prevent believers from receiving the Lord? Watch the crosstalk An Antichrist in the Church for the answers.

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Who Is the Obstacle on the Road to the Heavenly Kingdom

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꧁Who Is the Obstacle on the Road to the Heavenly Kingdom? ꧂ 

2018年2月26日

By Meng’ai, Malaysia

The year my husband died, I was deep in despair, and on top of that I had the added burden of raising my children. Hardship had suddenly befallen my life, but I had the love of the Lord with me all along and, with the help of my brothers and sisters, I got through this difficult time. To repay the Lord’s love, I continued to make donations and serve the church, and have been doing so for over thirty years. In this time, I have experienced the thriving of the church and seen the glorious event of the spreading of the gospel of the Lord Jesus. I’ve also witnessed desolation and helplessness in the church. I thought back to when the Holy Spirit first began to do the great work in the church, when we experienced enjoyment and gained much from listening to the pastor’s preaching. There was mutual love among the brothers and sisters just as if we were all one family, and everyone was united in spreading the gospel and bearing witness to the Lord. Later, without knowing what had happened, there was no longer any light in what the pastor preached. It was like everything was just the same old story repeated again and again, and the believers simply could not derive any nourishment or supply. Their faith and love gradually waned, and there were fewer and fewer people coming to gatherings. Those of us who participated in service were also just going through the motions. We all acted according to the wishes of the people in the ministry and not at all in the service of God, but rather we just exerted ourselves in front of other people and tried to please them. I knew that this kind of service was not in line with God’s will, and so it was very painful for me. I also felt helpless, with no idea how to walk the path ahead of me. I therefore hoped all the more for the Lord to return as soon as possible, so that all these problems would be solved.

Just when I was feeling at a loss, in 2016 I looked into the work of Almighty God in the last days. I read a great deal of the word of Almighty God and I listened to what the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God fellowshiped and what they bore witness to, and finally I understood that the Lord Jesus had long since incarnated and come into the world to express His words and perform the last days’ work of judgment beginning at the house of God, and He was doing all this to completely purify and save mankind and to bring mankind into the heavenly kingdom. The word of Almighty God made clear to me the mystery of the Lord’s return which I had thought about for so many years. I understood that the Lord’s return was divided into the two forms of the hidden advent and of coming openly. The Lord first becomes incarnate as the Son of man at the hidden advent to express His words and to judge and cleanse man, and to make a group of overcomers before the disasters. When the great disasters descend, He will reward the good and punish the evil, and He will come openly, appearing to all nations and peoples. At that time, the work of God incarnate at the hidden advent will already have ended, and all who resist and condemn God’s work in the last days will meet the disasters with much weeping and gnashing of teeth. The brothers and sisters also fellowshiped to me such truths as the three stages of God’s work to save mankind, the significance of God’s incarnation, and how God will perform the work of judgment in the last days. I then understood why before, in serving the church, we had not had God’s guidance, and why there was no path forward for us in reading the Scripture, prayer, and Bible study. I understood why we had not felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. God had already performed new work, concluded the Age of Grace and brought about the Age of Kingdom. The Holy Spirit was no longer working within the churches of the Age of Grace, so people’s spirits had withered and grown dark, devoid of any joy or contentment, and they could not obtain any sustenance in their spiritual lives. It was thanks to God’s guidance and direction that I was able to recognize God’s voice in the word of Almighty God, and I happily accepted the work of God in the last days. Afterward, the brothers and sisters would frequently share the word of Almighty God with me online. Seeing the movies, videos of choral dances, and music videos produced by The Church of Almighty God provided great sustenance to me, and I thanked God from the bottom of my heart for leading me before His throne. I enjoyed being shepherded and nourished by the word of God, and I entered a blissful life of living face to face with God.

One day, a wife of one of the pastors in the church sent me a message out of the blue, saying: “Why did you like a post by Eastern Lightning? You also allowed it to be posted on your timeline, and it goes against the Lord’s will to do so. If our parishioners see the post about Eastern Lightning, and become interested in the words of Almighty God, they’ll all go read up on Eastern Lightning, and then what will we do? You mustn’t get in touch with the people from Eastern Lightning again. You should delete their contact information right away….” I replied: “The gospel movies, hymns, and music videos of The Church of Almighty God are all quite good, and I’ve gotten a lot out of them. I should give it a like!” I wanted to send more messages to the pastor’s wife, but before I’d even finished my message, she said many things attacking and condemning Almighty God, and slandering The Church of Almighty God. I saw that she had no desire whatsoever to investigate this great matter of the Lord’s return, but just made whatever judgments and condemnatory remarks she saw fit. I didn’t want to talk about this with her anymore, so I just changed the subject.

A few days after this happened, Pastor Yang came looking for me to have a talk. After some pleasantries, Pastor Yang asked me, “Have you looked into any other religious groups online?” I didn’t know why Pastor Yang would ask me such a question, and I said, “My friends on Facebook belong to many different denominations, and if I think the articles they post are correct and good, I always try to understand them and see if there’s any new light in them. Are you saying it’s wrong to do this?” Pastor Yang asked me again, “Did you convert to Eastern Lightning two years ago? Why do you want to investigate Eastern Lightning? Also, do you frequently go looking for so-and-so (a sister who had accepted God’s work in the last days, whose pictures had been posted and who had been condemned and abandoned by the pastor of her original church)? …” Hearing the barrage of questions from Pastor Yang, I started to get annoyed, and said, “The Church of Almighty God is good, and within it there is the truth and the work of the Holy Spirit. I will follow along wherever there is the truth and the work of the Holy Spirit, and this is only proper. There is no new light in our church, and my spirit is darkened and can’t find any sustenance there. I want to find a church that has the work of the Holy Spirit, where my life can receive the nourishment of the truth. The teachings of Eastern Lightning appeal to me, and the words of Almighty God are all the truth. They allow me to obtain sustenance. I wasn’t wrong to investigate Eastern Lightning, and I am free to do so.” Pastor Yang said, “What the people from Eastern Lightning preach oversteps the Bible, and there are no other words of God than those that are within the Bible. If what they preach deviates from the Bible, then it is wrong.” I said, “I once heard a preacher say the same thing, and I used to be of the same viewpoint myself. But after reading the word of Almighty God, and hearing what the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God fellowshiped, I have come to know that this view is just our own notions and imaginings. It is not at all in accord with the truth and it does not tally with the facts. God is all-encompassing, and God is rich in wisdom. How can we delimit God’s words and work to just the Bible? The Bible says: ‘And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written’ (John 21:25). We can see here that the words and work of God recorded in the Bible are too limited in scope. Not all that the Lord Jesus said at the time was written down in the Bible, much less the words spoken by the returned Lord. On top of that, the work of Almighty God is built on the foundation laid by the Lord Jesus. The work of Almighty God and that of the Lord Jesus are the work of one God….” Pastor Yang didn’t listen to a word I said and had no interest whatsoever in seeking and investigating. He just continued to say things resisting and condemning Almighty God and The Church of Almighty God, and he asked me, “How did you learn about the website of The Church of Almighty God? Do you have their books? Have you preached the work of Almighty God to anyone else? Have you preached it to your children? Give me the names of the people in The Church of Almighty God….” He also demanded that I never again attend a gathering with people from The Church of Almighty God. If I didn’t listen to him and continued to be in contact with The Church of Almighty God, then he would expel me from the church, he would never again let me go to any church and would thoroughly smear my reputation. I was shocked by the Pastor Yang I saw right in front of me. How had Pastor Yang, who was always so good-natured and humble, and always spoke such gentle words, transformed into such a barbaric and unreasonable person? I told him, “It is my right to investigate the truth, and no one has any right to interfere with this. As for whether or not the teachings of Eastern Lightning are the true way, you should first of all not judge and condemn it blindly. You can go and investigate for yourself on the website of The Church of Almighty God, where they have a lot of content. There are all kinds of books of God’s words. Go see for yourself whether the word of Almighty God is the voice of the returned Lord Jesus….” Pastor Yang absolutely would not listen to what I was saying, but just kept on resisting and condemning. He threatened me, saying I must leave The Church of Almighty God. The more he spoke, the more Pastor Yang crossed the line. I became extremely indignant and said to him, “The Lord Jesus said: ‘Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged’ (Matthew 7:1–2). If you have never investigated the words and work of Almighty God, then how can you just make whatever judgments and condemnatory remarks you want? When you act like this, is it in a way that reveres the Lord?” Pastor Yang saw that I wasn’t listening to him and that I had refuted him, and so he didn’t say anything else.

In the following days, Pastor Yang started to keep an eye on me. This filled me with worry, and I lost my freedom of faith as well. In the church, there was only a hallway separating Pastor Yang’s office from my own. He kept popping into my office to see what I was up to, and sometimes he would say he was going to the toilet and then watch me from the corridor. One day, two sisters of The Church of Almighty God came to my office to chat. Once the sisters left, Pastor Yang went to find my assistant. My assistant later told me that Pastor Yang had asked her who these two people were, and why they had come…. Pastor Yang watched me the whole day as if he were keeping an eye on a criminal. It made me feel very oppressed and completely without freedom. One day, I did not go to the church, and was taking part in a gathering online with some brothers and sisters. Just then, as I was earnestly taking the meeting notes in my living room, Pastor Yang suddenly appeared behind me (the door was ajar, and whoever came could enter the room) and said, “What are you doing? What are you writing?” I jumped up in fright at the sudden and unexpected voice. I felt inwardly ill at ease at being disturbed by him in such a way, and whatever I did I could not return to a state of tranquility. I resented him intensely, and thought: “Investigating the true way in one’s belief in God is right and proper, and is a right that a Christian should have.” The Holy Spirit was no longer working within our church, and the parishioners were all negative, weak, and withered in spirit. They were living in an environment that had sunken down into darkness, and I was looking for a church in which the Holy Spirit was at work. How was it wrong to look for the footsteps of God? Why did he want to keep an eye on me? Why wouldn’t he let me be?

Not only was the pastor monitoring and disturbing me, but one elder even called me up to harass me. He told me: “What the people from The Church of Almighty God preach has overstepped the Bible. If you believe in the Lord, you cannot betray the Lord, who has given you so much kindness. You can’t be without a conscience….” I said in retort, “Almighty God and the Lord Jesus are one and the same God, and I have certainly not betrayed the Lord Jesus by believing in Almighty God. I am merely keeping up with the footprints of the Lamb….” However, no matter how I tried to explain it, the elder was just the same as the pastor. Other than saying condemnatory and blasphemous things, and obstructing me from accepting the work of Almighty God in the last days, he didn’t listen to one word of what I fellowshiped or advised. I didn’t want to talk with him anymore, so I just thought of some excuse to hang up. But the elder didn’t let me off the hook. He kept calling to harass me and said that, by my belief in Almighty God, I had forgotten the grace of the Lord and had betrayed Him. I remembered what was said in Revelation: “These are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Revelation 14:4). On the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, Almighty God is performing the stage of the work of judging and purifying people through words, and my acceptance of Almighty God’s work in the last days clearly showed that I was keeping up with the footprints of the Lamb. How could anyone say I was betraying the Lord Jesus? At first, when the Lord Jesus came to do work, the people who had believed in Jehovah left the law behind and they accepted the gospel of the kingdom of heaven that was being preached by the Lord Jesus. They followed the Lord Jesus, but had they forgotten the salvation of Jehovah? Was this a betrayal of Jehovah? Isn’t this a fallacy? After this took place, the pastor once again sent me some messages online blaspheming, resisting, and condemning Almighty God. Reading such hideous words made me feel disgusted and furious again. Only Satan was capable of uttering such blasphemies, and in their capacity as leaders in the church, how was it that they had no fear whatsoever of God and dared to say all manner of blasphemies? It reminded me of the words of the Lord Jesus: “But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come” (Matthew 12:32). Blaspheming against God is a major and terrible sin! I felt a lingering sense of dread on their behalf, but no matter what I said, they just closed their ears and refused to hear anything. They just kept condemning, resisting, and blaspheming. I just could not understand it: The elder and the pastor both had knowledge of the Bible and had studied theology, and the words of Almighty God were spoken with such clarity, so why was it that they would not seek or investigate His words? Why did they absolutely insist on condemning and resisting Almighty God?

from The Church of Almighty God

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Modern Day Pharisees’ Disruption Showed Me Their True Face

Pictures of the Church of Almighty God

Modern Day Pharisees’ Disruption Showed Me Their True Face

2019年4月20日

By Li Xianghe, South Korea

    In the eleven years my husband and I have been believers, we always attended gatherings at Pastor Jin’s church. He’s really well versed in the Bible and is quite well known in our area. In Bible studies he always explained things very systematically and I would go to him every time there was an issue I didn’t understand, and he’d resolve it using passages from the Bible. Every holiday I would take some fruit to pay a visit to him and he was always really warm with our entire family. He would always pray for us when something cropped up in our family and he was always very loving with the other believers, as well. I felt that Pastor Jin was genuinely serving the Lord so I looked up to him; I adored him. I felt that he was our spiritual father.

     Then, I had the good fortune of hearing Almighty God’s gospel of the last days, and after a period of time of reading Almighty God’s words and hearing brothers’ and sisters’ fellowship, I came to understand all sorts of truths: the mysteries of God’s six-thousand-year management plan to save mankind, the purpose of His three stages of work, the mysteries of God incarnating and doing work, how Satan corrupts people, how God judges and cleanses people through His words, as well as how God sorts people according to their kind and reveals every type of person’s destination and outcome, plus how to seek to attain full salvation and enter the kingdom of heaven. I saw how Almighty God’s words open up all the mysteries of the Bible, allowing me to understand truths I had never understood in all my years of faith. I became certain within my heart that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus. I accepted God’s work of the last days and also brought my two children before God; I began running my business while also performing my duty as well as I could.

    Once I was watching a gospel film on The Church of Almighty God website, and there was a pastor in it who wouldn’t accept Almighty God’s work of the last days and even used all sorts of tactics to crazily disrupt and hinder other believers from seeking and accepting it. I didn’t really dare to believe it because I felt that pastors were all people who devoutly served the Lord and always told members of their congregations to be watchful in their prayers to make sure they didn’t miss their chance at being raptured. If they heard that the Lord Jesus had returned wouldn’t they accept it joyfully? Why would they stand in the way? But not long after that, the plot of the movie played out in my own life….

    The Start of the Debate: Seeing the Pastor Scorn the Lord’s Return

    That day I was working at our fruit stand and listening to hymns of God’s words. Pastor Jin came by, smiled and greeted me, and then right away asked me why I had joined The Church of Almighty God. He said some things condemning it and advised me to go back to our former church. Hearing this angered me a bit, and I thought “You haven’t even looked into Almighty God’s work of the last days and you don’t understand the church, so how can you just condemn it like that?” But then I thought, “Pastor Jin probably hasn’t heard Almighty God’s words so he doesn’t know that it’s the true way. But he does understand a lot about the Bible and has served the Lord for many years and has always been awaiting the Lord’s coming. If he hears that the Lord Jesus has returned and has expressed truths to fully save mankind, he’d certainly happily accept it, right? If Pastor Jin accepted God’s work of the last days he could lead the other brothers and sisters in the church to accept it as well.” At this thought, I wanted to share the gospel with Pastor Jin, but because of my own limited understanding, I was afraid my fellowship wouldn’t be clear. I prayed to God within my heart, asking for His guidance. I then asked him, “Pastor Jin, how do you think the Lord will return and take us into the kingdom of heaven?”

    Utterly confident, he replied, “Isn’t it clearly stated in the Bible? ‘And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory’ (Matthew 24:30). So, when the Lord returns He’ll descend on a cloud in great glory for all mankind to see….”

    I quickly responded, “Pastor Jin, when investigating the Lord Jesus’ return we can’t just base it on one Bible verse. In fact, the Bible doesn’t just prophesy Him returning on a cloud; there are also a lot of prophecies about Him coming in secret, like ‘If therefore you shall not watch, I will come on you as a thief, and you shall not know what hour I will come on you’ (Revelation 3:3) and ‘Behold, I come as a thief’ (Revelation 16:15). These two verses very clearly prophesy that the Lord will return like a thief, which refers to Him coming in secret, so He wouldn’t let us know. So will the Lord’s coming be a secret, or will He openly come down on a cloud? On the outside, it looks like these passages are contradictory but the reality is that they aren’t. That’s because the Lord is trustworthy and His words cannot fail to come true. Since it was prophesied it absolutely has to come to be, so we can be certain that the Lord’s return will occur in two stages. First He’ll come in secret, and then He’ll appear openly. He has already become flesh and has been secretly working among mankind; He is Christ of the last days, Almighty God. Almighty God has already done the work of judgment beginning with the house of God and has uttered millions of words to purify and save mankind. He is separating the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares, and He is going to complete a group of overcomers before the great disaster. Once God’s secret work has been completed He’ll begin to rain down great disasters, rewarding good and punishing evil in accordance with every person’s deeds. He will then appear to all peoples on a cloud. At that time, everyone who has resisted, condemned, and refused to accept God’s work of the last days will fall into disaster, weeping and gnashing their teeth. This will fulfill this prophecy in Revelation 1:7: ‘Behold, He comes with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.’ But the people who recognized God’s voice from Almighty God’s words, returned before His throne, accepted His work of judgment in the last days and were cleansed will remain and will enter into God’s kingdom. It’s evident that the Lord Jesus’ period of time of working in secret is the time that God saves mankind, and by the time He openly appears it will be too late to accept His work. That will be the time of punishment! Pastor Jin, I didn’t understand any of this until I read Almighty God’s words. Only God can express the truth and unveil mysteries; Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus. You really should look into Almighty God’s work of the last days.”

    After I had finished, Pastor Jin said disdainfully, “You’re trying to debate with me with your level of Bible knowledge? Haven’t I been the one to teach you everything you know about the Bible?”

    Seeing that attitude from him, I felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over me. I thought, “Is this the same Pastor Jin I’ve known all these years? I always thought of him as a very humble person. He was always telling us that we had to be the wise virgins and watchfully await the Lord’s coming. Now that he’s heard that the Lord has returned, why wouldn’t he seek it at all, but have such a scornful attitude?” I couldn’t really make sense of it, but I still wanted to advise him to look into it, so I responded, “Pastor Jin, God’s wisdom surpasses all and we as humans cannot fathom it. How can we just arbitrarily delimit how the Lord should come and work? We all know that the Pharisees knew the Scripture like the backs of their hands, but when the Lord Jesus came to work, not only did they not recognize Him as the Lord but they didn’t even seek or investigate His new work. Instead, they arrogantly clung to the letter of the Scripture and delimited the Lord Jesus’ work and words based on their own notions and imaginings. Ultimately, they nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross and were punished by God. Pastor Jin, do you really think that knowing a lot about the Bible is the same as knowing God? We should learn a lesson from the Pharisees, and seek and investigate God’s work of the last days with an open mind. That’s the only way we can welcome the Lord’s appearance!”

    Pastor Jin was at a loss for a response to that, so he just said bitterly, “Since you’ve been an enthusiastic seeker over your years of belief in the Lord, I’ll be praying for you. You have to get out of that church as soon as possible!” He then left in a huff.

    After he was gone I thought about his attitude about the Lord’s coming and felt that he didn’t remotely seem like someone who was eagerly awaiting His return. But then I thought of how he had served the Lord for many years and had expended so much in his work for the Lord—wasn’t that out of hope for the Lord’s return? Maybe it was because I wasn’t adequately equipped with the truth and my fellowship wasn’t clear enough. I figured that when he came by again I’d do my best to talk with him about God’s work of the last days.

    Another Debate: The Pastor Threatens Me With Expulsion so I’d Give Up the True Way

    Hardly a few days went by and Pastor Jin came back to the fruit stand. I was really excited at first, thinking that he had been looking through the Bible and had gained understanding of the Lord’s return. But to my surprise, he said smugly, “Deacon Li, the Bible says, ‘You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven’ (Acts 1:11). This verse is very clear. The Lord Jesus went up into heaven on a white cloud, and when He returns He will certainly be on a white cloud as well.” Seeing that Pastor Jin was still so certain that the Lord would return on a cloud in the last days, I felt a little confused and thought, “Last time we talked about how the Bible also prophesies that He’ll come in secret. I thought that Pastor Jin would go back and engage in seeking, so why does he still think this?” Pastor Jin was going on and on about how the Lord should come on a cloud as if he were bound and determined to convince me of it, and I felt a bit of concern. “Although I’m totally certain that Almighty God’s work is the true way, I don’t understand enough the truth yet and he’s been a believer and a pastor for many years. He knows so much about the Bible. What if I don’t have enough discernment and I’m led astray by all those absurdities?”

    I quickly made a silent prayer to God and asked for His guidance so that I wouldn’t be deceived by the fallacies Pastor Jin was spouting. I then thought of a passage of God’s words that brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God had read for me: “Man believes that, following the crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus went back to heaven upon a white cloud, and took His place at the Most High’s right hand. Man conceives that similarly, Jesus shall descend, again upon a white cloud (this cloud refers to the cloud that Jesus rode upon when He returned to heaven), among those who have desperately yearned for Him for thousands of years, and that He shall bear the image and clothes of the Jews. After appearing to man, He shall bestow food upon them, and cause living water to gush forth for them, and shall live among man, full of grace and love, living and real. And so on. Yet Jesus the Savior did not do this; He did the opposite of what man conceived. He did not arrive among those who had yearned for His return, and did not appear to all men while riding upon the white cloud. He has already arrived, but man does not know Him, and remains ignorant of His arrival. Man is only aimlessly awaiting Him, unaware that He has already descended upon a ‘white cloud’ (the cloud which is His Spirit, His words, and His entire disposition and all that He is), and is now among a group of overcomers that He will make during the last days” (“The Savior Has Already Returned Upon a ‘White Cloud’” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s words clearly tell us that the “white cloud” is God’s Spirit, God’s words, and God’s disposition and all that He has and is. It’s not something physical at all. While God is working in secret we won’t see the Lord Jesus returning on a white cloud; it’s only after God’s secret work is completed that we’ll see that. This passage of God’s words is really clear; since I thought Pastor Jin would surely understand if he heard them, I read it out to him. Surprisingly, the moment I finished, before I could say another word, Pastor Jin pulled a long face and said with scorn, “The Bible is crystal clear on the issue of how the Lord will return. Why read another book? I’ve served the Lord as a pastor for many years—you really think you understand more than I do? Besides, if what you believe in were really the true way, why would leaders across the entire religious world condemn it? I urge you to turn back right away. At first I thought I could get Deacon Pu (my husband) to urge you to come back to our church—I never imagined you’d be so stubborn. If you insist on continuing to believe in Almighty God’s words, you can’t blame me for taking the necessary action. I’ll make a report in the church that you are believing in a heresy and I’ll have you expelled from the church. I’ll make sure everyone steers clear of you and casts you aside.”

    Hearing this left me stunned. I thought, “I’ve been a member of that church for more than a decade and the brothers and sisters there feel like my own family. Now that I’ve welcomed the Lord Jesus’ return, I wanted to share the gospel of the last days with you so that you could accept it and lead them into the fold as well. However, not only did you not seek or accept it, but turned the truth on its head and falsely claimed that my belief is heretical, wanting to kick me out of the church. That’s not how someone who’s been serving the Lord for all these years should behave.” I then thought of how my husband had yelled at me a few days earlier, “Pastor Jin said in church that anyone who believes in Almighty God will be expelled from the church. Aren’t you afraid of being kicked out if you keep believing in this? What will we do if the other brothers and sisters won’t have anything to do with us anymore? Some of them have already found out and they won’t even acknowledge us when they walk by the fruit stand. From now on you can’t go to The Church of Almighty God!” With all these facts laid out clearly before me, I finally realized that Pastor Jin was stopping believers from investigating God’s work of the last days by using threats of expulsion. It was so despicable, so sinister. I used to always think that he had served the Lord for all these years, that he was humble, and had love in his heart for other believers. But it turned out, he was a fake; he was deceiving others. Then that film popped into my mind—those pastors and elders of religious circles were pretending to be humble and pious in front of believers, but behind all that they were using all sorts of tactics, all sorts of methods to keep them from investigating and accepting God’s work of the last days. Seeing that Pastor Jin’s behavior was exactly the same as the pastors in that film, I felt a sense of revulsion and the high esteem I had held him in came crashing down in an instant. At that moment, I just continued to do my business and no longer paid him any mind. Seeing I was no longer paying attention to him, he slunk off.

    Continuing on the True Way but Cursed by the Pastor

    For the following two weeks, Pastor Jin would come to the fruit stand to talk to me from time to time, trying to convince me to return to his church, which I never agreed to. Seeing I wouldn’t listen to him, his humiliation morphed into anger.

    One day Pastor Jin stormed over to my fruit stand and, no longer referring to me as “Deacon Li”, said, “Xiangming’s mother (my son’s name is Xiangming), don’t be such a fool! The Bible clearly states ‘This same Jesus … shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven’ (Acts 1:11). So when the Lord returns He will definitely be on a white cloud—let go of this Almighty God stuff! On top of that, if you’re going to believe in that you can, but do you really need to drag your two kids into it? Deacon Pu has always had such a devout family, and even the kids’ grandparents were devout during their lives, too. I can’t let your family’s name be destroyed!” I was indignant hearing him say this and thought, “I’ve accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days which is keeping up with the footsteps of the Lamb and being raptured up before God’s throne. This is an incredibly wonderful thing, so how could you say I’m destroying my family’s name? What’s even more upsetting is that not only do you want to keep me from believing in Almighty God, but you’re even trying to control my children’s freedom of belief. How could you try to control our investigation of the true way?” I then rebuked him in my righteous anger: “God’s sheep heed God’s voice. No man can stand in the way of a person’s faith in God. My children have read Almighty God’s words and they understand that it’s God’s voice. That is the guidance of God! When I went to church before to seek and investigate, my children weren’t interested, but now they want to go to The Church of Almighty God with me. They have their own freedom of belief and I’m not putting limitations on them. Why would you try to restrict our children’s freedom of belief?” Pastor Jin couldn’t say anything to refute that, so he just said some angry, debased things to curse me and then stalked off. I was shocked by his behavior. Although I felt upset, I primarily felt confused. I thought, “Pastor Jin used to always pray for our family to be blessed, so why would he be so vicious today? Is it really because I’ve accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days that he’s so hateful and oppressive, that he’s cursing me this way?” I was really at a loss.

    After some time I shared Almighty God’s gospel of the last days with two sisters from my old church. They were happy to listen to Almighty God’s words and got in touch with me frequently. But not long after, Pastor Jin learned that they were looking into God’s work of the last days. I don’t know what sort of tactics he used to threaten them, but they stopped contacting me and started intentionally avoiding me. I felt not only upset, but angry, and I couldn’t help but think the Lord Jesus’ words rebuking the Pharisees: “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:13). Not only did Pastor Jin refuse to accept God’s work of the last days himself, but was doing everything in his power to stop the other brothers and sisters from seeking and investigating it. He was even threatening people with expulsion from the church to keep them from accepting Almighty God’s work of the last days. Isn’t that just like the Pharisees who stood in the way of believers accepting the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption? Not only did they refuse to accept God’s salvation themselves, but even dragged other brothers and sisters down into hell with them. That will certainly be damned by God!

    Through God’s Words I Clearly See the Pastor’s True Face

    At a later gathering I related all of this to the brothers and sisters there, and Sister Li read a couple of passages of God’s words to me, “Do you wish to know the root of why the Pharisees opposed Jesus? Do you wish to know the substance of the Pharisees? They were full of fantasies about the Messiah. What’s more, they believed only that the Messiah would come, yet did not seek the truth of life. And so, even today they still await the Messiah, for they have no knowledge of the way of life, and do not know what the way of truth is. How, say you, could such foolish, stubborn and ignorant people gain God’s blessing? How could they behold the Messiah? They opposed Jesus because they did not know the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work, because they did not know the way of truth spoken by Jesus, and, furthermore, because they did not understand the Messiah. And since they had never seen the Messiah, and had never been in the company of the Messiah, they made the mistake of paying empty tribute to the name of the Messiah while opposing the substance of the Messiah by any means. These Pharisees in substance were stubborn, arrogant, and did not obey the truth. The principle of their belief in God is: No matter how profound Your preaching, no matter how high Your authority, You are not Christ unless You are called the Messiah. Are these views not preposterous and ridiculous?” (“When You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus Will Be When God Has Made Anew Heaven and Earth” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “Those who read the Bible in grand churches recite the Bible every day, yet not one understands the purpose of God’s work. Not one is able to know God; moreover, not one is in accord with the heart of God. They are all worthless, vile men, each standing on high to teach God. Though they brandish the name of God, they willfully oppose Him. Though they label themselves believers of God, they are ones who eat the flesh and drink the blood of man. All such men are devils who devour the soul of man, head demons who purposefully disturb those who try to step onto the right path, and stumbling blocks that impede the path of those who seek God. Though they are of ‘robust flesh,’ how are their followers to know that they are antichrists who lead man in opposition to God? How are they to know that they are living devils who specially seek souls to devour?” (“All Who Do Not Know God Are Those Who Oppose God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Pictures of the Church of Almighty God

    Sister Li shared this fellowship: “God’s words very clearly explain the root of the Pharisees and the current religious leaders condemning and resisting God. It’s primarily because of their arrogant nature, that they don’t understand God’s work, and don’t seek the truth at all. They really uphold themselves; they despise and hate the truth. They’re just like the Jewish Pharisees, who were always in the temple explaining the Scripture and praying for believers, even standing in the corners of the streets praying, so they seemed to be really devout. However, when the Lord Jesus came to work, even though the Pharisees clearly saw that His words contained authority and power, they remained arrogant, stubbornly clinging to their own notions and imaginings, thinking that anyone who wasn’t called Messiah couldn’t be God. They thought that anyone who wasn’t saving them from the Roman government wasn’t God, so they didn’t seek or look into it, much less accept the Lord Jesus’ work. And so they could maintain their own status and living, they wantonly fabricated rumors and bore false witness to madly condemn and frame the Lord Jesus. They did everything they could to stop believers from following the Lord, ultimately colluding with the people in power to nail Him to the cross. This was an enormous sin. Though the Pharisees waved the flag of serving God, they were secretly doing their own business, working and expending themselves for the sake of their status and their living. When the Lord Jesus came to work and save mankind, they became enemies to Him so they could keep believers firmly controlled within their own grasp. Looking at the facts of how the Pharisees treated the Lord Jesus, their attitude toward the truth, and the way they crazily wrested people away from God, it’s clear that in essence, they were antichrists who hated the truth.

    Now take a look at the pastors and elders within the religious world today. They’re very familiar with the Bible, they’re able to explain a lot of Scripture and theology, on the outside they appear very humble and devout, and believers all think of them as people who wholeheartedly serve the Lord and really adore them. However, now that God has returned in the flesh to work, the pastors and elders don’t recognize Him at all, but instead behave in an arrogant, self-aggrandizing way; they stubbornly cling to their own notions and imaginings and completely lack hearts of reverence for God. They refuse to seek or investigate Almighty God’s work of the last days. Just think—they are well aware that The Church of Almighty God has borne witness for years that the Lord has returned; the words expressed by Almighty God as well as gospel films and all sorts of other videos bearing witness to God’s work of the last days have been online for a long time. People from all denominations who love the truth have heard God’s voice, and one by one have come before Almighty God through seeking and investigating God’s work of the last days. But how many of the pastors and elders in religious circles have made the effort to seek and look into God’s work of the last days? And how many have accepted it? Most religious leaders have condemned Almighty God’s work of the last days just based on their own notions and imaginings and have used all sorts of tactics to ensnare and control believers under the guise of protecting their flocks. They don’t allow members of their congregations to look into or accept the true way, but try to play a mad tug-of-war with God over His people. Doesn’t this expose them as antichrists? Take this Pastor Jin, for example: When encountering God’s work of the last days, not only did he refuse to seek, but he trotted out his old qualifications, thinking of himself as so well versed in the Bible and so familiar with the Bible, so he just blindly clung to the Bible verses about the Lord Jesus descending on a cloud. He refuted and refused to accept the prophecies that the Lord Jesus would come in secret, even doing his utmost to condemn Almighty God’s work of the last days as well as hinder believers and keep them from investigating the true way. Plus, he tried to delude, intimidate, and threaten believers who had already accepted God’s work of the last days, even using the tactic of cursing in his efforts at disruption. He doesn’t want to allow anyone to follow Almighty God. We can see from how the pastors and elders approach the Lord’s return that they have arrogant nature and have intense hatred for the truth; they won’t remotely accept the truth. They are the antichrists revealed by God’s work of the last days—they are the modern-day Pharisees! However, God is almighty, and He employs His wisdom based on Satan’s trickery, so God has us gain discernment through the pastors’ and elders’ disruption and hindrances so we can see through their true faces as hypocrites who hate the truth. That’s the only way we’ll be able to completely reject them within our hearts, escape from the grasp of those antichrists, and unwaveringly follow Almighty God.”

    Nodding, I said, “This fellowship really makes sense to me. I used to lack discernment in this area and was taken in by Pastor Jin’s apparent devoutness. I thought that he was genuinely serving the Lord, and when I saw that film where the pastors and elders clung to the Bible and stopped other believers from turning toward God, I still believed that Pastor Jin couldn’t possibly be that way, just relying on my own notions and imaginings. I thought that he has such a good understanding of the Bible and is a devoted servant of the Lord, so when he heard the news of the Lord’s return he would certainly seek with humility. But after experiencing his attempts at hindering and disrupting me time after time, I finally realized that God’s words reveal people’s nature and essence. It doesn’t matter if it’s a pastor or just a regular believer—as long as they refuse to accept the truth, are arrogant and resist God’s work based on their notions and imaginings, their essence is the same as the Pharisees’ was. I then became able to clearly see Pastor Jin’s deception and hypocrisy When he heard the Lord’s coming he didn’t have any intention of seeking or looking into it. Not only would he not accept it, but he just wildly condemned and resisted it, also standing in the way of other believers so they wouldn’t investigate or accept God’s work of the last days. When I refused to be constrained by him and still accepted God’s work of the last days, he did everything he could to disrupt me, even cursing me. He’s not genuinely serving the Lord at all! He doesn’t bring believers before God. On the contrary, he has believers follow him all the while resisting God’s work of the last days so that they miss out on God’s end-times salvation. He is a modern-day hypocritical Pharisee and is a roadblock, a stumbling block for others on the path of entering the kingdom of heaven. He’s an evil demon swallowing up our souls!”

Pictures of the Church of Almighty God

    Now when I think back on all of Pastor Jin’s attempts to stand in my way, I have a myriad of feelings, and I’m particularly grateful for God’s salvation! Every time he took Bible passages out of context in an attempt to mislead me, God enlightened and guided me to refute his fallacies. Also, the other brothers’ and sisters’ fellowship helped me see the pastors’ and elders’ essence of hating the truth and being enemies of God, keeping me from being confused by the fallacies Pastor Jin was spreading, and thus losing out on God’s salvation. I really give thanks for God’s protection so that I could escape from the deceptions and binds of the religious world’s Pharisees and antichrists, and return before God. I also have sympathy for those brothers and sisters who have been hoodwinked by the pastors and elders, who do not seek, investigate, or dare to accept Almighty God’s work of the last days. I’ve seen that as far as welcoming the Lord’s coming goes, we can’t just blindly follow another human being or believe whatever another person has to say—we must focus on hearing the voice of God, praying more and seeking the truth, and viewing things in accordance with God’s words. This is the only way we’ll be able to welcome the Lord’s return. Otherwise, we will lose God’s salvation!

from The Church of Almighty God

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A Small Blade of Grass That Grew Among the Brambles

A Small Blade of Grass That Grew Among the Brambles

2018年2月26日

By Yixin, Singapore

In November 2016 I became acquainted, through Facebook, with Brother Lin and Sisters Zhang and Xiaoxiao of The Church of Almighty God. They integrated some of the prophecies in the Bible, fellowshiped with me and bore testimony to God’s work of the last days. Their fellowshiping and testimonies made me understand that Almighty God is conducting the work of judging and cleansing people through words on the foundations of the work of redemption done by the Lord Jesus. Almighty God wishes to thoroughly save mankind from Satan’s power and rid us of our corrupt disposition so that we’ll no longer rebel against and resist God but instead will become people who truly obey and worship Him. From the words of Almighty God I came to understand that God’s work of the last days will reveal all of the wheat and tares, sheep and goats, wise virgins and foolish virgins, so that each will end up with its own kind and virtue will be rewarded while evil will be punished. I realized that Almighty God was the return of the Lord Jesus that I’d been waiting for and I joyously accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days.

One day, Sister Zhu from my original denomination asked me out of the blue what I’d recently been busy with, and so I told her that I’d been investigating Almighty God’s work of the last days. Sister Zhu had a lot of bad things to say about The Church of Almighty God and also blasphemed Almighty God. She urged me not to have anything to do with them. I said: “I’ve been in touch with some brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God for some time now and I’ve been fellowshiping really well with them. They have a fresh and clear way of fellowshiping truths and I’ve understood a lot of truths from listening to them. I’ve grown a lot, and benefited a lot, and they certainly aren’t like you’ve made them out to be. And Almighty God’s words are very practical and have resolved a lot of the bemusement I felt regarding some issues. Those words have given sustenance to my life and have indicated a way of practice for me …” On seeing that my attitude was unyielding, Sister Zhu changed the subject and asked me if I’d tell Sister Yun—who preached the gospel of the Lord to us—about my investigation into Almighty God’s work of the last days. I told her: “There are still many things that I don’t understand, but when I’ve finished looking into it I’ll tell everybody what I’ve discovered.” She agreed that I should have a clear picture before I said anything to Sister Yun.

So it was a surprise to me when 5 days later the boss of the salon I worked for came to me and said: “Yixin, Yun has asked me to pray for you. In fact, I don’t know how to pray but I’ll do my best …” On hearing this I immediately realized that Sister Zhu had already told Sister Yun about my investigation into Almighty God’s work of the last days. I felt that Sister Zhu hadn’t behaved very virtuously, and I was a bit annoyed with her. I felt that she’d deceived me and sold me out, and I started to feel that even my brothers and sisters in the Lord were untrustworthy … but just as I was thinking this my boss, without consulting me about anything, got the attention of the dozen or so colleagues in the salon and told them that I wasn’t a good Christian and that I was walking a deviant path. She went on to say many things in condemnation of The Church of Almighty God. This all happened so quickly that I didn’t know how to react, and I got very upset. So I prayed silently to myself: “Lord, they’ve heard that You have returned so why aren’t they at all interested in investigation? Why are they only listening to online rumors and saying all that stuff that opposes and condemns You? Almighty God has expressed so many truths, so doesn’t that prove that Almighty God is Your return? Why are they so opposed to my believing in Almighty God? Could it be me who’s wrong? Oh Lord, I don’t know what to do. Please lead me and guide me …”

At a later date, I told Brother Lin what had happened that day. Brother Lin found two passages of Almighty God’s words for me: “Satan is constantly devouring the knowledge that men hold of Me in their hearts, and constantly, with teeth bared and claws unsheathed, engaged in the last throes of its death struggle. Do you wish to be captured by its deceitful stratagems at this moment? Do you wish, at the moment that the last phase of My work is completed, to cut off your own life? Surely you are not still waiting for Me to dispense My leniency one more time? Seeking to know Me is the key thing, but neither should you neglect to pay attention to actual practice. I am revealing insights to you directly in My words, in hopes that you will be able to submit to My guidance” (“Chapter 6” of God’s Words to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “When God is working in the flesh, He is actually doing battle with Satan in the flesh. When He works in the flesh, He is doing His work in the spiritual realm, and makes the whole of His work in the spiritual realm real on earth” (“Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of GodBecome Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Brother Lin fellowshiped about these passages in this way: “We can see from God’s words that what happened to you was a spiritual battle and you came up against Satan’s testing. In the last days, God has incarnated in human flesh in order to speak and save people. From God’s words we can understand truths, know God’s work, know God’s disposition, and totally forsake Satan and go back to God. We can attain salvation and be gained by God. Satan always follows behind God in order to try and disrupt and disturb God’s work. Satan uses whoever it can to create rumors to slander and condemn Almighty God, the Christ of the last days, and prevent us from coming before God. Religious leaders and atheists in positions of power are the embodiment of Satan, and every time that God incarnates on earth to do His work they resist and condemn Him, disrupt His work, and prevent people from following Him. When the Lord Jesus did His work, the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees of that time were charged by Satan to do everything they could to condemn and oppose His work. They spread false rumors, made false testimonies, and slandered and blasphemed Him. They claimed that the Lord Jesus was exorcising demons through Beelzebub; they said that the Lord Jesus was inciting local citizens to not pay taxes to Caesar; they bribed some soldiers to give false testimonies stating that the Lord Jesus had not resurrected and that His body had been secretly taken by His disciples. When God of the last days incarnated to do His new work, the Chinese Communist government, who are attempting to turn China into atheist territory, along with many pastors and elders who want to protect their own livelihoods and status, began to spread countless lies and false testimonies about Almighty God and The Church of Almighty God in order to deceive, frighten and prevent people from investigating and accepting God’s work of the last days. A lot of people who don’t understand the truth, and are unable to discern properly, blindly believe these rumors and do Satan’s bidding by spreading these fallacies that disturb others and prevent them from accepting the true way. Such people become evil accomplices of Satan who oppose God. So, we must see through the atheist Communist government, which is the enemy of God, and see through those pastors, elders, and wicked people who prevent people from investigating God’s work, as they are the Pharisees of our times. We must see that all the rumors on the Internet are part of Satan’s scheme to prevent us from returning to God. If we want to investigate the true way, then we should only listen to God’s words and definitely must not listen to Satan’s rumors. This is how we will be able to stand on God’s side during the spiritual battle and bear testimony for God, and not be grabbed by Satan …”

Brother Lin’s fellowshiping helped me to understand the origins of the rumors. I now understood that the purpose of Satan in spreading rumors and disrupting and putting obstacles in my way is to prevent me from gaining God’s salvation of the last days. After thinking more about it, I realized that these people who were attacking me had never read Almighty God’s words, had never investigated Almighty God’s work of the last days, and were merely blindly listening to rumors and resisting and condemning Almighty God. Their minds have been completely messed up by Satan and they are doing Satan’s bidding and resisting God without even knowing it. A wise person would first meticulously read Almighty God’s words and conduct a thorough investigation before coming to a conclusion. But faith in God is a big thing, and I also was afraid of taking the wrong path, so I still had some worries in my heart. After getting home from work, I prayed to the Lord with tears in my eyes: “Oh Lord, I am very lost and confused, but I don’t want to become a blind believer in what others say. I want to act according to Your intentions, so please lead me and guide me.” I fell asleep, and sometime in the middle of the night I had a vague, sleepy feeling that something was pressing down on me. I struggled to open my eyes but couldn’t. Realizing that struggling was pointless, I hurriedly shouted: “Save me Lord Jesus!” I shouted this twice but it didn’t work. I could still feel the thing pressing down on me. I was at a loss about what to do, and got very scared. Suddenly, I thought about Almighty God, and so shouted twice, “Almighty God! Almighty God!”, and then woke up immediately. After waking, I was still a bit shaken, and it took a while before I fully gathered my wits. I thought about why calling out the name of the Lord Jesus hadn’t worked while calling out “Almighty God!” had woken me up straight away. Then I remembered that Brother Lin had told me that God has a name for each era and after God does the new work for each era the Holy Spiritprotects the name for the new era. So for believers to gain God’s commendation, care, and protection they must pray using the name of God for the new era. In this era, the Lord Jesus has already returned and is using the name Almighty God to end the Age of Grace and open up the Age of Kingdom. During the last days, God’s name is Almighty God, so when we pray we must use this name otherwise God won’t heed us. It was then that I realized that my nightmare hadn’t been spontaneous, but was God listening to my prayers and giving me proof that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus. Thank God! After realizing this, my heart swelled with strength and I now had the confidence to face the verbal attacks from my boss and colleagues.

from The Church of Almighty God

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