In the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, Do You Know What God’s Hidden Intention Is?

In the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, Do You Know What God’s Hidden Intention Is?

Chengxin

One evening, as I sat at my desk after praying to God, I read the parable told by Jesus in Matthew 20:1-16, where the kingdom of heaven is likened to a landowner hiring workers for his vineyard, and it didn’t matter whether they went first thing in the morning or if it was in the noon or the afternoon that they went into the vineyard, their wages were all the same. When the workers who came first learned of this, they grumbled against the landowner, but the landowner replied by saying: “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? Is your eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen” (Mat 20:15-16). After reading these several lines of scripture from the Bible I knitted my brows and could not help but think: “It is reasonable to say that those who practice their faith in God for a long time, who forsake more and expend themselves more for the Lord and who toil and work for more years ought to be rewarded with more than those who come later, but in Scripture it says that the wages are the same for those who come early and those who come late, isn’t this God intentionally showing favoritism for those who come later?” I felt that I really didn’t understand these words, I didn’t understand what the Lord’s intention was in saying these words.

One day, I ran into a fellow church member, and while we were talking I told him about what I had been confused about for so many years. The church member said: “I used to also have this kind of misunderstanding, always failing to understand God’s will, and it wasn’t until recently when I read a certain book that I came to understand this aspect of the truth. It just so happens that I have brought that book with me today, let’s take a look at it together.” Saying this, the church member took the book out of his bag and read me a passage: “No matter how much you are able to accept, no matter how much you have heard, how much you have understood, how much you live out or how much you obtain, there is one fact: The truth, the way and the life of God is bestowed freely on each and every person, and this is fair to each and every person. God will not favor one person over another due to someone being a new believer, who has only believed for a couple of months, or someone who has believed for two years, for 10 years or for 20 years; nor will He treat anyone differently because of their age, their appearance, their gender, the family they were born into or their family’s background. Each and every person obtains the same from God. He doesn’t make anyone obtain less, or make anyone obtain much more. To each and every person this is fair and reasonable. He provides for man in time and in proportion, not letting them go hungry, cold or thirsty” (“Man is the Greatest Beneficiary of God’s Management Plan”). After finishing reading, the church member continued to speak: “In the past I also thought if those people who believed in the Lord for a long time and expended themselves more for the Lord are rewarded the same as those who have believed in the Lord for a shorter time and who expended themselves less for the Lord, then wasn’t this God showing favoritism? After reading these words I finally got rid of the misunderstanding I had of God. As it turns out, God treats each and every person fairly, He doesn’t show favoritism to any one person, regardless of whether they are a new believer or if they have believed in God for many years, and regardless of their family background, what their appearance looks like, etc., God will always provide for each and every person in accordance with their needs. It’s the same with the truth that God bestows upon us when He is carrying out His work to save man, and it’s the same for the surroundings and opportunities that He arranges for each and every one of us, and whether or not we are able to ultimately gain the truth depends upon whether or not we ourselves love the truth and pursue the truth, are able to put the Lord’s word into practice or not, and are able to perform our duties to the best of our abilities in accordance with the Lord’s will and demands. If we do not love the truth, and if we do not pursue the truth, then we will not be able to do the things that God has entrusted us with in accordance with His will, and when we come across things that do not conform to our own conceptions, then we will not try to figure out and seek out God’s will, rather, we will rely on our own analyses, so much so that we will even misunderstand God and blame God. Those who do this, even if they have believed in God for many years and toiled and worked a lot, in the end they will obtain nothing, they will even lose the opportunity that God bestows upon them to obtain the truth, and in the eyes of God these people are evil-doers, they can only be eliminated and punished by God. Then there are some people who, although they have believed in God for only a short period, have hearts that thirst for and pursue the truth. Whenever things befall them they are able to pray to God often to seek the truth, and once they are able to come to an understanding of God’s will, they will put it into practice according to His word, their corrupt disposition will change little by little as they follow God and they obtain the truth and live out a normal humanity. Such people will have a good final destination.

“I thought back on when God led the Israelites out of Egypt and into the wilderness, how those able-bodied men and those tall ‘warriors’ that people looked up to did not seek God’s will, and even issued complaints to God, and how in the end they fell dead in the wilderness. But then those women and children who had pure obedience, who put things into practice according to God’s word and who obeyed God’s sovereignty and arrangements, in the end they entered into the good land of Canaan. In addition, the Jewish chief priests, scribes and Pharisees were familiar with the Scripture and proficient in the law, some even traversed oceans and continents to spread the gospel, feeling as though they were the ones who had believed in God the longest and toiled and worked the most, and so they were the most qualified to welcome the Messiah and to be selected by God. Yet, when the Lord Jesus came to carry out work, they knew that the Lord Jesus’ words were spoken with authority and power, but they were stubborn and arrogant, they were unwilling to set aside their positions to seek the truth. Even more so, they didn’t receive God’s new work, and they even used all of their knowledge of the Scripture to condemn and resist the Lord’s new work. In the end, in order to protect their own positions and livelihoods, they nailed the Lord to the cross, causing them to suffer the Lord’s curses and punishments. But all those disciples selected by the Lord and those Jewish people who followed the Lord, and the people from all the nations beyond Israel, even though they had not believed in God for as long as the Pharisees and did not have as much knowledge of the Scripture, and even more so had not toiled and worked, or traversed oceans and continents to spread the gospel as the Pharisees had, still they had hearts that revered God, and because they thirsted for and sought out the truth they received the Lord’s salvation.

“From this it can be seen that if we determine who is qualified to receive God’s reward and blessings based on who has believed in God for a long time and who has expended a lot of energy and toiled and worked a lot, then this kind of viewpoint does not conform to the truth, it is an erroneous way of thinking. God certainly does not issue rewards and punishments or decide people’s ends based on these external factors, rather, He looks at whether or not we have received the truth through believing in God, and whether or not we are people who follow the will of God. It’s just like what is said in the book: ‘I decide the destination of each person not on the basis of age, seniority, amount of suffering, and least of all, the degree to which they invite pity, but according to whether they possess the truth. There is no other choice but this. You must realize that all those who do not follow the will of God will be punished. This is an immutable fact’ (‘You Ought to Prepare a Sufficiency of Good Deeds for Your Destination’). ‘To God, no matter whether a person is great or insignificant, as long as they can listen to Him, obey His instructions and what He entrusts, and can cooperate with His work, His will, and His plan, so that His will and His plan can be accomplished smoothly, then that conduct is worthy of His commemoration and worthy of receiving His blessing. God treasures such people, and He cherishes their actions and their love and affection for Him. This is God’s attitude’ (‘God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself I’).

“These two passages clearly explain the standards by which God measures man and God’s attitude toward man. God has a righteous and holy disposition, He is fair and impartial toward each and every person, God does not look at whether a person is of low or high status, or at their seniority, or how long they’ve believed in God, or how much suffering they have endured, rather, He looks at whether or not a person pursues the truth, whether or not a person loves God and has a heart that obeys God, whether or not they are able to consider and satisfy God’s will in all things, as well as whether they will be able to ultimately gain the truth through their faith in God. Among those of us who believe in God, regardless of whether we are priests and elders or ordinary believers, each and every one of us who thirsts for and seeks the truth, who is humble and obedient is able to receive God’s enlightenment, and is able to receive God’s blessing just like those who came later to the vineyard; anyone who believes in God for a long time but does not pursue the truth, and instead holds on to fallacies, living within their conceptions and imagination, conceited with and showing off their seniority, no matter how much suffering they endure and how much they expend themselves, no matter how qualified they are, in the end they will not obtain the truth, and they will all be eliminated. This is a fact that nobody can change, and this is what has been decided by God’s righteous disposition.”

Hearing the church member’s fellowship, I came to understand that no matter how much God’s work does not conform to man’s conceptions, God is still righteous, we cannot be picky with or doubt anything that God does, we ought to let go of our conceptions and seek and obey. It’s just like what is said in the word of God: “Everything that God does is righteous. Though you are unable to discover it, you should not make judgment as you please. If it appears to you as irrational, or if you have a conception about it, and then say God is not righteous, this is the most unreasonable” (“How to Understand the Righteous Disposition of God”). God observes us from the bottom of our hearts, God has a thorough understanding of us, God knows best who truly believes in Him and who loves the truth, and who is a hypocrite and detests the truth, God decides our ends based not on how long we have believed in God or how much work we have carried out, but rather on whether or not in essence we love the truth and whether or not we will ultimately gain the truth through our faith in God. This truly is so fitting! Now I can see that my point of view that “God was showing favoritism for those who come later by making the wages the same for those who come early and those who come late to the vineyard” was mistaken!

Thanks be to God for solving this riddle in my heart, may all glory be to God!

Recommendation：if the Eastern Lightning is the true way, why has the CCP government consistently engaged in frantic oppression, arrests, and persecution against the Eastern Lightning?

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Christians’ Incredible Rebuttals to the CCP’s Rumors and Slander About Christ | Eastern Lightning

Du Guirong (Director of the brainwashing class of the 610 Office): Xiao Zhang, Xiao Zhou, I hear that many pastors and elders of the religious community say that who you believe in is a man and not Jesus Christ. Yet you witness that this man is the returned Lord Jesus, that is, Almighty God appearing at work. Do you know that the Communist Party has long condemned Christianity and Catholicism as cults? And you dare to witness that the Lord Jesus has returned, that is Almighty God; aren’t you bucking the head wind? How can the Communist Party spare you? The Communist Party even dares to designate Christianity and Catholicism as cults, and the Bible as a cultist book. This is an open fact. Don’t you know that? If the CCP dares to condemn and deny the world’s orthodox religions, why couldn’t it condemn Almighty God’s appearance and work? When the CCP could designate the Bible as a cultist book, why would it spare The Word Appears in the Flesh? The public security agencies have confiscated many copies of this book. Many people are studying it. I just don’t understand it. Why do you people have to believe in Almighty God? Why insist on witnessing that Almighty God is Christ of the last days? We understand everything about His family background. He is an ordinary person, just like Jesus that Christianity believes in. Jesus, the son of a carpenter, had parents and siblings. He was just an ordinary man. Yet the entire Christendom worships Jesus like God. Almighty God that you people believe in is also a man like Jesus. You insist on saying that He is God, this is quite inexplicable. You endured so much persecution and pain for believing in an ordinary man. Is it worth it? I hear that there are many people who gave up their families and careers to follow Almighty God. I doubt what you can ultimately get from believing in God like this? What is the basis for you to believe that He is God?

Teacher Huang (A teacher of the brainwashing class of the 610 Office): You believers of God are so incredible. For as long as I have lived, I have never seen any fact of God’s existence and dominance. Yet you insist on saying that this man you believe in is God. What is the basis for you to say this? Can He change the weather, perform miracles and wonders, ascend to sky or summon disasters? Can you clarify it?

Zhang Jingxin (A Christian): I know that the CCP is an atheist revolutionary party that doesn’t even recognize God in heaven. How could it recognize the incarnate God? So it is not surprising that the Communist Party feels so strange about our faith in the incarnate Christ. There are many people in religions who only recognize God in heaven, but not the incarnate Christ. So they are eliminated by the work of God. For thousands of years, God has carried out three stages of work to save mankind, God said a lot of words in every stage of His work. Mankind only came to accept God’s work because of God’s utterances. To the last days, the gospel of the Lord Jesus has spread to the ends of the earth. Increasingly more people believe in God, at least over two billion all together. Could you not have seen this fact? Churches are seen everywhere in democratic countries. The Christian, Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox churches all believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You should know about this. The Lord Jesus Christ is the incarnate God. For two thousand years, countless people have followed and witnessed for the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus was an ordinary person in semblance. Why do they firmly believe that the Lord Jesus is the Savior, the appearance of God at work? If you want to know what is the appearance of God and what is Christ, you have to read the Bible to see how the Lord Jesus preached and did His work and how the Holy Spirit witnessed for the Lord Jesus. Then you will know why people believe in the Lord Jesus. Incarnation itself is a great mystery. Christ of the last days, Almighty God, who appears and does His work has expressed all the truths for the cleansing and salvation of man and unveiled all the mysteries in the Bible. If you don’t believe in God, don’t read Almighty God’s word, how could you know the mysteries about God? Do you want to understand what incarnation is? If so, let us communicate about the word of Almighty God to see how Almighty God has spoken. Do you think we can do it?

Teacher Huang: We are trying to understand this matter. You go ahead and talk about it.

Zhang Jingxin: Almighty God says, “The meaning of incarnation is that God appears in the flesh, and He comes to work among man of His creation in the image of a flesh. So, for God to be incarnated, He must first be flesh, flesh with normal humanity; this, at the very least, must be true. In fact, the implication of God’s incarnation is that God lives and works in the flesh, God in His very essence becomes flesh, becomes a man” (The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Zhou Min (A Christian): Almighty God also says, “God become flesh is called Christ, and so the Christ that can give people the truth is called God. There is nothing excessive about this, for He possesses the substance of God, and possesses God’s disposition, and wisdom in His work, that are unattainable by man. Those who call themselves Christ, yet cannot do the work of God, are frauds. Christ is not merely the manifestation of God on earth, but instead, the particular flesh assumed by God as He carries out and completes His work among man. This flesh is not one that can be replaced by just any man, but one that can adequately bear God’s work on earth, and express the disposition of God, and well represent God, and provide man with life” (The Word Appears in the Flesh).

“He who is God’s incarnation shall hold the substance of God, and He who is God’s incarnation shall hold the expression of God. Since God becomes flesh, He shall bring forth the work He must do, and since God becomes flesh, He shall express what He is, and shall be able to bring the truth to man, bestow life upon man, and show man the way” (The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Zhang Jingxin: In these passages, Almighty God so clearly revealed the mysteries of incarnation. When we hear the word of God, we immediately understand what incarnation is all about. The truth can only be expressed by the incarnate God for the cleansing and salvation of mankind. Isn’t it the appearance and work of God? Are the world’s famous and great people able to express the truth? Aside from the incarnate God, no one can express the truth. Therefore the One who can express all the truths for the cleansing and salvation of mankind is naturally Christ and the appearance of God. This is beyond any doubt. Our belief in Almighty God is exactly because Almighty God has expressed all the truths for the cleansing and salvation of mankind, and done the judgment work in the last days. So we believe that He is the practical God incarnate, that is the Lord Jesus who has returned in the flesh in the last days. This is the basis for our belief in Almighty God.

Du Guirong: I know that all of you who believe in Almighty God do so because you have read the word of Almighty God, and you firmly believe that the word of Almighty God is all the truths and the voice of God. So you witness that Almighty God is Christ of the last days, the returned Lord Jesus who has performed judgment work in the last days. This is the basis for your belief in Almighty God. I believe that all of you who believe in Almighty God would not just casually believe in a man. However, we communists have never recognized the existence and dominance of God, let alone the word of God as the truth. The word of God is the truth to you, not to us. We only believe that science and Darwinism are the truth. That’s why we condemn your belief. We are taking two different paths. I see that there are many pastors and elders in the religious community who do not accept the Almighty God you believe in. How do you explain that?

Zhang Jingxin: It is not surprising that some pastors and elders of the religious community resist and condemn Almighty God because most people only believe in the God in heaven. Only a few people can accept and know the incarnate God. Two thousand years ago, when the Lord Jesus appeared to work, didn’t the chief priests, scribes and the Pharisees of Judaism resist and condemn the Lord Jesus? They even surrendered the Lord Jesus to the Roman government to be nailed on the cross. When God twice appeared in the flesh to work, He has expressed many truths and done work for the redemption and salvation of mankind. Although most people recognize the existence of God, they do not know about the incarnation of God. For this great mystery of incarnation, they have never been able to fathom. Therefore, each time God appeared to work in the flesh, many people were revealed and eliminated. In the last days, the incarnate Almighty God has judged and revealed people by expressing the truth. Upon hearing the many truths expressed by the incarnate God, those who love the truth heard the voice of God, recognized that it was the appearance and work of God, accepted and obeyed Christ. For those who do not love the truth, although they recognized the authority and power of God’s word, they had notions, they even condemned and resisted because the incarnate God appeared to be an ordinary person. Such people were revealed and eliminated as they were those who detested the truth. The people that God works to save are those who love and accept the truth. The people that God reveals and eliminates are those who loathe and hate the truth. This shows the wisdom and omnipotence of God! God’s disposition lies in the way of His work. The incarnation of God is indeed a great mystery that is not easy to penetrate! Many people have stumbled over this. This is how I accept and view it.

from the movie script of The Exchange: Account of an Interrogation

Recommendation：The Eastern Lightning is the manifestation of the Lord and His work.

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