Finding the Way Back After Getting Lost（part-1) | Eastern Lightning

Xieli, USA

I’d always wanted a happy life with a high standard of living, so I came to the U.S.A. to work as hard as I could. After a few years of hard work and suffering, I was able to gradually get the things I wanted: my own company, my own car, my own house, etc. I was finally living the “happy” life that I’d dreamed of. During this period, I made friends with a few guys and enjoyed eating meals, drinking and having fun with them during our leisure time. We all got on pretty well together, and I thought I’d met a good bunch of guys. But then I came to realize that they were just drinking buddies who often talked nonsense, and when I was worried or depressed there was not one of them whom I could go to share my troubles with. Not only that, but they deliberately ripped me off: One of them lied to me about his mother in China being really ill and when I lent him some money he disappeared without trace. Another, from my home town, told a bunch of lies about needing finance for a project and cheated me of some money. And even the person nearest and dearest to me—my girlfriend—betrayed me and cheated me of a large sum of money that it had taken me years of blood, sweat, and tears to accumulate. The heartlessness of these people and the indifference of society made me depressed and disheartened. I lost confidence in my ability to keep on going, and it seemed that nobody could alleviate the bitterness and emptiness that I felt in my heart. After that, I often turned to eating, drinking and having fun to fill the emptiness in my heart, but these temporary physical pleasures were totally unable to resolve my spiritual suffering.

In the fall of 2015, fate determined that I became acquainted with my present wife. By that time, my wife had already accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days. When she told me the gospel of the kingdom, it all seemed well and good to me, but because I was so busy with work I said to my wife: “I don’t have time for faith in God, but if you want to believe, go ahead. Knowing in my heart that God exists is enough for me.” One day half a year later my wife let me watch one of The Church of Almighty God’s videos with her—The Days of Noah Have Come. What I saw in the video really startled me: When faced with disasters mankind was tiny and fragile, unable to withstand the slightest of blows. I suddenly felt that no matter how much money a person has, how much luxury they enjoy or how high their status is, it’s all meaningless. When disaster strikes and death is staring us in the face, all of these material things are worthless and useless. As Almighty God’s words say: “However, I must tell you that in the time of Noah, men had been eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage to such a point that it was unbearable for God to witness, so He sent down a great flood to destroy mankind and left behind only Noah’s family of eight and all kinds of birds and beasts. In the last days, however, those kept by God are all those who have been loyal to Him until the end” (“Do You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Men” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “Then look upon the present age: Such righteous men as Noah, who could worship God and shun evil, have ceased to exist. Yet God is still gracious toward this mankind, and absolves mankind during this final era. God seeks those who long for Him to appear. He seeks those who are able to hear His words, those who have not forgotten His commission and offer up their heart and body to Him. He seeks those who are as obedient as babes before Him, and do not resist Him” (“God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). In these words I could feel the urgency of God’s intention to save mankind. I thought about how in these times nobody seems to like positive things or wish for God’s return. People’s hearts are full of selfishness, arrogance, and craftiness. In order to gain fame and fortune they plot and scheme against one another, cheat one another, and even resort to killing one another to get what they want. People are slaves to their sensual desires, and constantly trample on morals and virtue and bury their conscience. People have lost all humanity, and the degree of corruption of mankind really is far beyond that of the age of Noah. But God hasn’t destroyed mankind because of this wickedness and corruption, but instead is employing various forms of disasters to warn mankind and give us the chance to turn around and move toward God. When I pondered over God’s words, my heart was deeply moved by God’s love. I also thought about how the world was becoming more evil and corrupt by the day, about how the disasters were getting bigger, and about how when God finally vents His rage on evil mankind and destroys mankind, all of the money and status that I’ve accumulated will not be able to save me. Only by coming before God and seeking the truth can a person gain protection. When I thought all of this through it was like waking from a dream, and my intuition told me that I should come before God and accept His salvation as this is the only way to be saved. If I were to lose the chance of salvation due to the temporary pursuit of physical pleasures then I’d regret it all of my life! Consequently, in May 2016 I began to believe in God and attend meetings.

Not long after believing in God, I was surfing the web and unintentionally came across some negative propaganda that condemned and blasphemed The Church of Almighty God. Reading the condemnation and blasphemy of Almighty God left me momentarily stunned. What was this “making people donate money and not respecting the boundaries between men and women” stuff? What I read seemed to make some sense and it became difficult for me to distinguish right from wrong, fact from fiction. I became confused and puzzled, and the burning fire of my faith in God was instantly extinguished by the negative stuff I was reading. And just at that moment I heard in the background my mother-in-law talking on the phone to my wife about donating money to the church, which made me even more inclined to believe what I was reading online. After that, I stopped my mother-in-law from donating any more money and also urged my wife to stop believing in Almighty God, to prevent the possibility of us being cheated. But my wife didn’t listen to me at all, and said to me firmly: “The reality of the situation is nothing like you’ve read online. The stuff online is all rumors, all false testimonies! …” Then she got a book of God’s words and started fellowshiping with me, but I’d already been totally convinced by the rumors and didn’t listen to her in the slightest. Not long after, some brothers and sisters came to our home, but I ignored them too. During those days I was living in darkness, and was constantly worried that my wife and my mother-in-law were being cheated. I was so worried that I couldn’t eat and couldn’t sleep well at night, and suffered greatly psychologically. Seeing the sorry state I was in, my wife tried to fellowship with me again. She opened up a book of Almighty God’s words and chose this passage to show me: “What I want is not human conceptions or human thoughts, even less do I want your money or your possessions. What I want is your heart, understand? This is My will, and even more it is what I want to obtain” (“The Sixty-first Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). My wife also read out some of the principles for the management of church life of The Church of Almighty God for me: “The church does not allow anyone to ask others to make offerings through preaching or any other reason. All those who are keen to talk about making offerings have ulterior motives” (“The Principles for Establishing a Church and the Management of Church Life” in Selected Annals of the Work Arrangements of The Church of Almighty God). Then she fellowshiped this with me: “In The Church of Almighty God there are strict required standards and principles for every aspect. As for donating money and other items, the words of Almighty God state very clearly that God doesn’t want our monies or objects. The principles for the management of church life also clearly stipulate that the church does not allow anyone to sermonize about donating money or employ any form of reasoning to encourage people to donate money. Since I’ve been following Almighty God, the church has never asked me to donate a single cent. Not only does the church not call on people to donate money, it even gives all the brothers and sisters who are true believers books, CDs, etc. free of charge. Now, my mother wants to give some money to help some of the brothers and sisters who are having financial difficulties. She’s doing it of her own free will; nobody is forcing her to do it. Anyway, helping people in need is a good deed, so there’s nothing to reproach her about, right?”

After reading Almighty God’s words and listening to my wife’s fellowship I suddenly remembered that one of the sisters had previously told me that The Church of Almighty God does not accept donations from new members, and anyone who wants to donate money or other items should pray a few times first until they are sure they are completely willing to do so and will never regret it. If the church thinks the money and other items are not being donated willingly, they absolutely will not accept them. When I remembered this, some of the worries and concerns that I had were somewhat alleviated, but the knot in my heart was not entirely loosened. My wife saw that I was still frowning, and knowing what I was thinking she said: “Don’t believe those rumors. Satan wants to disrupt and destroy God’s work of saving people, and prevent us from coming before God and accepting salvation, and so will say all sorts of garbage and give all sorts of false testimonies. God is holy and God detests mankind’s evil. As for those people who don’t have a good reputation and don’t know how to behave properly around members of the opposite sex, The Church of Almighty God never accepts them. This is something that Almighty God has spoken very explicitly about.” Then my wife read a passage of God’s words for me: “Many people will kneel down for mercy and forgiveness because the seven thunders peal. But this will no longer be the Age of Grace: It will be the time for wrath. As for all people who do evil (those who fornicate, or deal in dirty money, or have unclear boundaries between men and women, or who interrupt or damage My management, or whose spirits are blocked, or who are possessed by the evil spirits, and so on—all except My elect), none of them will be let off, nor any pardoned, but all will be cast down to Hades and perish forever!” (“The Ninety-fourth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Almighty God’s words are majestic and wrathful and cause people’s hearts to develop fear and reverence for God. I felt that God’s righteous disposition does not tolerate man’s offenses. God very much hates promiscuous people, and this kind of people will eventually suffer God’s righteous punishment. Realizing this got rid of some more of the concerns that were bothering me. My wife then fellowshiped the following with me: “When God was doing His work in the Age of Law anyone who acted promiscuously would be stoned to death. This amply shows God’s righteous, majestic, and wrathful disposition. In the Age of Kingdom, in terms of sexual relationships God’s administrative decrees are even stricter. As it says in God’s words: ‘Man has corrupt disposition and, moreover, he is possessed of emotions. As such, it is absolutely prohibited for two members of the opposite sex to work together when serving God. Any who are discovered doing so will be expelled, without exception—and no one is exempt’” (“The Ten Administrative Decrees That Must Be Obeyed by God’s Chosen People in the Age of Kingdom” in The Word Appears in the Flesh)

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Christian Life | A Different Experience of Job Seeking (Audio Essay) | Eastern Lightning

Liang Xin

In today’s society, there are all different kinds of major enterprises and there seems to be a myriad of employment opportunities, but year after year, college graduates are a dime a dozen. The market of qualified employment candidates is so overcrowded you can’t gain a foothold, so the difficulty of finding employment after graduation has become a very practical problem. For every young person on the cusp of entering society after school, the most headache-inducing issue that they have to face is finding work, particularly at a good company. Everyone puts on their best face and racks their brains trying to squeeze their way in—the competition and pressure are intense. I, approaching graduation, had no choice but to face the plight of finding a job just like everybody else. The only thing different about me is that I’m a Christian and I believe that everything is prepared by God. However …

Tossing Resumes to the Wind, the Arduous Path of a Job-Seeker

As recruitment banners from all sorts of major companies began appearing and all kinds of recruitment ads were put up all over campus, students all crowded in front of the advertising board with the intention of reading every single recruitment notice. Work locations, salary, and recruitment conditions were our primary daily topics of conversation. The atmosphere on campus became very tense; the students were just like soldiers preparing for war, wanting to find a position to their liking. We were all rolling up our sleeves, preparing for action.

One day, a top student who was in my dorm came back once again, dejected with her head hanging, and said listlessly: “It’s hopeless, again. Every company says to wait for news from them, but as soon as I leave I’m like another grain of sand on the beach.” In spite of myself, her words made my heart clench, and I thought: “Even for someone like her, the best student in our dorm, finding a job is this hard. What am I going to do?” She then went on to say: “Having a record of my grades is no use at all. Recruitment agencies aren’t looking at all of that. They look at how good-looking you are, how you carry yourself. If your external image isn’t good, you’re just wasting your breath.” This time her words really startled me: “It’s true! Society is very superficial now, so you either have to look good from the outside or have a way in through your family. Bookworms like her who are short, not that good-looking, and don’t have a nice demeanor, no matter how well they’ve done in school, they’re just making everyone else look better. I’m just like her—short, average-looking, and definitely fade into the background. How am I going to face looking for a job?” Thinking of all this, I started to fret over finding a job.

Over that period of time, some recruitment agencies came to our school, and I went along with some of my classmates to talk to them. As soon as we stepped into the school auditorium it truly was an ocean of people. There were long lines in front of each recruiter’s table, and job-seekers were all eagerly crowding forward, intent on getting their resume into the recruiter’s hands first. However, I heard that successfully signed contracts were few and far between. Beautifully designed resumes with photographs affixed to the front piled up on the floor, scattered everywhere, some even with footprints on them. I felt pang after pang of sadness over this, and I couldn’t help but let out a long sigh: “Who says going to college will guarantee you a good future? Even finding a job is an almost impossible task!” Students were rejected one after another, chipping away at their confidence. Some even gave up in despair and said helplessly: “Whatever, it looks hopeless. I’ll just sign anything and be done with it.” Seeing my classmates lose their confidence one by one, my heart climbed up into my throat. I thought of a company I had been interested in with flexible work times that wouldn’t interfere with attending gatherings—everything was a good fit. I had prayed to God and left the issue in His hands to allow Him to arrange this matter—but later that company still hadn’t sent out recruiters. I couldn’t help but become anxious. I thought: “Why hasn’t that company come out to recruit yet? If they don’t come and I keep on like this, I won’t get a job anywhere else. Won’t that delay my future prospects?”

Anxiously Awaiting, Why Not Leave It in God’s Hands?

When my classmates saw that I wasn’t looking at other companies, they all told me: “You’re waiting around for nothing. It’s not certain if that company is going to come recruit at the school this year. If they don’t come, you won’t even have a chance at a job. What will you do then? Your hands will be tied!” I couldn’t help but feel concerned, hearing them say this. I thought: “They’re right! If that company really doesn’t come, once these companies are done recruiting, it really will have been in vain. I’ve spent four years in college. If I have to pack my bags and go back to my hometown after all this, how could I face all my family and friends who have placed such great hopes in me?” But I once again turned my thoughts to God, always keeping in mind that God will prepare something for me. I thought and I thought, and I still decided to wait. But waiting made the days really drag by. I heard a few rumors that that company wasn’t coming to recruit at my school that year, and every time it really agitated me. I was constantly concerned for my future and my confidence in God was shrinking. One time, a family member called me to ask about my job hunt and I explained my situation to him. He asked me: “Do you have a second-level certificate for computer?” “I didn’t test for it.” He then asked: “Do you hold some office in your school?” “No.” “Are you a Party member?” “No.” Hearing this, he said: “Don’t even think about that company coming or not. Without any of those things, it’ll be hard for you to get a position anywhere!” His words were like a bucket of cold water dumped over me, soaking me from head to foot. My heart was thoroughly chilled. I thought: “It would be great if I had successfully tested for those certifications! If I had participated in those school activities more proactively, wouldn’t my chances of finding work be greater?” But it then occurred to me, “But the top student in my dorm has all sorts of certifications and isn’t it just as hard for her to find work? They don’t play a decisive role either.” I felt much calmer after thinking about that.

Day after day passed and the number of recruiting agencies dwindled. I was unbearably anxious but there was nothing I could do. I could only come in front of God and pray: “Oh God! I’m really suffering now and I can’t figure out what I should do about this issue of looking for a job. I’m afraid of losing my future prospects and of gaining nothing, ultimately becoming a laughingstock of my classmates. What should I do? God, please guide me.” After praying, I got out a notebook that I frequently wrote God’s words in and flipped through it. I stumbled upon a song praising God written by David: “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up on a rock. And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD. … When you said, Seek you my face; my heart said to you, Your face, LORD, will I seek. … Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of my enemies. Deliver me not over to the will of my enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psm 27:4-6, 8, 11-14). Seeing the words at the end, “wait, I say, on the LORD,” my heart was drawn to them. I continued reading: “That which My light shines upon, you must rely on Me to cast it away, live by Me always, be close to Me, and your actions must reveal My likeness. You shall fellowship with Me more when you are unsure of what to do, and I will guide you toward the right actions so that you may move forward. If you are unsure, do not take arbitrary actions; just wait for My time” (“The Twenty-ninth Utterance” of Utterances and Testimonies of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “You truly lack faith in My presence and often rely on yourselves to do things. ‘You can’t do anything without Me!’ But you corrupt people are always taking My words into one ear and out the other. Life nowadays is a life of words; without words there is no life, there is no experience, not to mention that there is no faith. Faith is in words; only by throwing yourselves more into God’s words can you have everything. Don’t worry about not growing up; life comes through growth, not through worrying.” “You are always apt to become anxious and don’t listen to My instructions. You always want to exceed My pace. What is that about? It is people’s wild ambitions. … Blind men! Why don’t you come to My presence more and seek? Why are you just acting blindly? You must see clearly! It is certainly not a person who is working now, but rather it is the Ruler of all, the one true God—the Almighty!” (“The Thirty-seventh Utterance” of Utterances and Testimonies of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

After reading God’s words I suddenly felt my heart brighten. I thought: It’s true! Aren’t I an arbitrary person who is blind and foolish, trying to rely on myself? Even though I had left the issue of work in God’s hands for Him to decide, when the matter wasn’t settled I lost confidence in God and still didn’t wait for God to arrange circumstances for me or have an attitude of seeking and obedience. Instead, I fretted over my own future and fate. Faced with the facts, I finally saw that my understanding of God’s almightiness and rule was just a slogan, was just doctrine, but my actual faith in God was truly paltry and could not stand the test of time at all, nor could it hold firm when God arranged the proper circumstances. I thought of David writing the song in praise of Jehovah God; it was because he had seen so many of God’s deeds and had a true understanding of God’s almightiness and rule. So no matter what sort of hardships he encountered, he was able to genuinely lean on God, believing that God was faithful and would certainly guide him. Pondering all of this, my heart suddenly brightened: So, God actually carefully arranged all of this for me in order to perfect my faith and obedience for Him. What I need to do at this time is to exalt God as great in my heart, to set aside my own worries and concerns, and to experience God’s work and words within this environment, waiting for His will to become evident. I then came in front of God and prayed: “Oh God! Although I said with my mouth that I was putting the issue of work in Your hands, yet as I saw the hope of finding work growing fainter and fainter, I just wanted to do it on my own and I no longer believed in Your almightiness and rule. Oh God, my faith in You truly is so small! Now I understand Your will, and I will no longer rely on myself when doing things. I will no longer live within my worries and concerns, allowing Satan to toy with me. I only want to hand everything over to You and wait for Your time. I believe that everything You prepare for me will be the best.”

I Will Never Fathom God’s Deeds

Around midday three days, later my phone rang. It was an acquaintance from the Office of Academic Affairs, who said to me anxiously: “You better hurry up and get yourself out there. The leader from that company you’ve just been waiting for has come recruit and they’ll probably be away tonight. Hurry up and get out there.” This wonderful, unexpected surprise was very exciting for me and I simply didn’t dare believe that the company I had been waiting and hoping for, was suddenly coming three days after my prayer. Just then a passage from God’s words surfaced in my mind: “Any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I felt amazed at how marvelous God is while quickly putting on a suit, grabbing my resume, and rushing to the recruitment center. The whole way there my mind was full of thoughts on what they would ask me and how I should answer. The more I thought the more nervous I got, so I quickly prayed to God, asking Him to calm me down. When I got there I saw a group of students outside who had gathered there some time ago. It seemed I was the last to receive the news. I went to the end of the line and watched one classmate after another go talk to the company leader, and they were all tactfully dismissed. They said they weren’t looking for female candidates, or they didn’t want anyone trying to test into graduate school—there were many reasons given for the rejection. My turn finally came. I very cautiously handed my resume to the leader—it was the very first resume I had handed over since the recruitment drive had begun, and it was the first one I had even printed. He looked it over and asked me if I had brought a copy of an employment agreement. I had. Unexpectedly, he didn’t ask me anything at all, but just said casually: “Sign it.” I didn’t dare believe my ears; it was just like being in a dream. When I finished signing it I felt like I was in a trance. Was I grateful, was I happy, was I excited? It was difficult to describe with words; all I could do was give my thanks and praise to God nonstop. I praised God and I praised Him more. Not only for getting a stable job, but even more because by going through that process, I had seen God’s wondrous ways and that all things and all events are under God’s rule and arrangements. Human thoughts and ideas are even more within His hands. God arranged the work for me, so no matter how high or how rigorous people thought recruitment conditions were, they could not change God’s rule or what He has determined. God’s words sprung to mind: “Without God’s work, no matter how good man’s doing, it will count for nothing, for the thoughts of God shall always be higher than the thoughts of man, and the wisdom of God is unfathomable to man” (“Only He Who Experiences the Work of God Truly Believes in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). This experience provided me with profound personal experience of these words from God.

This job-seeking experience allowed me to genuinely see that God’s marvelousness and unfathomableness completely exceeds my imagination. Although those days of waiting felt long and arduous, after undergoing them they became a precious treasure in my life. My faith in God was too small, so He wanted to perfect my faith through the process of waiting to have me learn to give my true heart to God, to obey His rule and arrangements in all things. Thinking of it now, I sincerely feel that no matter how long that wait was, it would have been worth it because God reveals His deeds in His own time, letting me see that His actions are everywhere, that He is the most trustworthy, most practical One who is worth a lifelong faith and dependence! All glory be to God!

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Testimony of a Christian: I Have Wealth More Valuable Than Money | Eastern Lightning

Finding the Way Back After Getting Lost

When my wife read out these words of God I recalled an incident that occurred in the spring of 2016. At the time, I hadn’t yet properly investigated Almighty God’s work of the last days. I was driving my wife and one of the sisters from the church to another state. On the way, we stopped so that my wife could attend to something, and when she got out of the car the sister also got out. It was cold and windy outside, and the sister stood beside the car stamping her feet in order to keep warm. I called to her to get in the car but she said: “It’s OK. I want to stand outside for a while.” It took a pretty long time for my wife to return, and only then did the sister get in the car. Seeing that she was visibly shivering from the cold my wife asked her: “It’s so cold outside. Why didn’t you stay in the car?” The sister replied: “There’s an administrative decree in our church that states that a man and a woman can’t be alone together or have physical contact. This is one of the requirements that God has of God’s chosen people, and we have to strictly abide by it.” On hearing this, I realized just how different The Church of Almighty God’s people are from ordinary people—even in the most trivial matters they keep themselves in check. When I recalled this incident I couldn’t help but thump my head in self-disgust for not properly investigating the facts and instead blindly believing those online rumors. When I thought about all of the times I’d interacted with the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God and seen how well-behaved they were with members of the opposite sex, how proper and decent they were in speech and action, how principled they were when dealing with people, it was obvious that those rumors online were far from the truth. At this point I felt very ashamed for blindly believing a bunch of online rumors that were slanderous distortions of the truth or outright fabrications, and for having doubts about Almighty God and The Church of Almighty God. I was such a confused idiot! My wife then continued with her fellowship: “God has incarnated in the mundane world to express truths, judge people, and cleanse people. In other words, God wants to thoroughly save people from Satan’s dominion. He wants to rid us of our corrupt dispositions—our arrogance, trickery, deceit, selfishness, vileness, evil, filth, etc., and help us to achieve transformation in our life disposition so that we may live as true human beings. God knows that mankind has been very deeply corrupted by Satan and so doesn’t have the capability to overcome sin. So in order to ensure that people don’t offend God’s disposition during the time when they are accepting God’s salvation, and thus avoid being eliminated and punished, God has laid out the administrative decrees of the Age of Kingdom in order to keep believers in check. Anyone who offends the administrative decrees will be punished by God, and serious offenders will be expelled from God’s house and lose any chance of salvation. God’s setting out of these administrative decrees for the church is so that we gain some real knowledge of God’s righteous disposition which is not to be offended, and also so that we have decrees to keep us in check. This way, there will always be a line that can’t be crossed for all our behaviors, and if we keep within these boundaries then we can generally avoid being tempted by Satan. This is God’s way of preserving us and, even more so, is God showing His true love for us!” While listening to my wife’s fellowship I found myself involuntarily nodding my head, and this is how the knot in my heart was completely untied and the suffering that had enveloped it was alleviated. After that, I once again began to participate in the church meetings.

Every time that I recall this experience there is always some lingering fear in my heart because I saw how damaging these rumors are and how I nearly got confused by them and lost the chance for God’s salvation of the last days. In the Age of Grace, the Israelites also got bemused by false rumors and ended up not admitting that the Lord Jesus was the coming of the Messiah. They abandoned the Lord Jesus and thus lost the Lord’s salvation. This made me realize just what huge obstacles such rumors are for people to accept the true way! But what I still couldn’t understand was why there are so many false rumors and false accusations about The Church of Almighty God online when it clearly is a good church. So, in a meeting, I brought up this question with the brothers and sisters so that we could openly fellowship about it. The brothers and sisters played for me one of the church’s gospel movies, Break Through the Snare, and this movie completely resolved my confusion. With a bit more fellowship from the brothers and sisters I was then able to understand even better that the use of rumors to disrupt and ruin God’s work is one of Satan’s most common methods. When the Lord Jesus came to do His work, the Jewish leaders, chief priests, scribes and Pharisees wanted to ensure that they kept permanent control over God’s people, and so they created many false rumors about the Lord Jesus. They blasphemed the Lord Jesus by saying that He relied on the prince of the devils to cast out demons, they falsely accused the Lord Jesus of not letting people pay their taxes to Caesar, and they also gave false testimony by saying that the Lord Jesus’ physical body was stolen by His disciples and that He didn’t resurrect. I’m sure that if the Internet had existed then those religious leaders would have put all of their rumors and false testimonies online in order to blaspheme, attack, and condemn the Lord Jesus more effectively. Nowadays, in the Age of Kingdom, Almighty God is doing the work of expressing words to judge and purify man, and the government of China and the pastors and elders in the religious community are acting as Satan’s tools. In order to achieve their goal of controlling and entrapping people, they are blaspheming and condemning Almighty God and are creating a mass of rumors and false testimonies in order to frame and discredit The Church of Almighty God. They want to confuse people and keep them in the dark, and attempt to make people abandon God’s work of salvation of the last days and follow them in resisting God. Satan really is just so evil and loathsome!

Then the brothers and sisters read out another two passages of God’s words for me: “On earth, all manner of evil spirits are endlessly on the prowl for a place to rest, are ceaselessly searching for the corpses of men to eat up” (“The Tenth Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “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?” (“The Six Utterance” of God’s Utterances to the Entire Universe in The Word Appears in the Flesh). They also told me that Almighty God’s words have told us the true situation regarding the spiritual battle, which is that in order to hinder people before they are able to come before God and achieve its goal of devouring them, Satan carries out all sorts of trickery. This includes spreading rumors and false testimonies on the Internet, getting religious leaders to harass and threaten believers, and getting family members to coerce them and prevent them from following Almighty God. In short, anything which makes us doubt, deny or move away from God comes from Satan. If people are unable to seek truths, then they will never be able to see through Satan’s trickery, will easily lose the chance to gain God’s salvation, and will go downhill and eventually be destroyed along with Satan. Thanks to God’s leadership I was able, through watching The Church of Almighty God’s gospel movies and listening to the fellowship of the brothers and sisters, to clearly see Satan’s evil and despicable essence and see through Satan’s schemes.

Since following Almighty God I’ve gained true release and freedom. Now, no matter what happens to me I can read God’s words and pray to God to help me find a path of practice. The brothers and sisters in the church all abide by God’s requirements and seek to become honest people. Their mutual relationships are uncomplicated and open, and they help and support each other as much as they can. As a member of the church, I never have to worry about someone trying to put me down, deceive me, or rip me off. I feel truly happy and content, and this is the life that I always want.

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What Does Christianity’s Frenzied Opposition to Christ Show? | Eastern Lightning

Amongst the many Christian denominations, each has their own teachings and understanding, what their believers practice and observe are different, and they each stick to their own views and refuse to give in to each other. However, they happen to hold the same view and speak with one voice on how to treat the second incarnate Christ and God’s work of the last days. They need only hear things like “The Lord Jesus has returned to flesh,” “God has done new work,” or the phrase “the Eastern Lightning" and they will deny, condemn and renounce it without hesitation, calling God’s work of the last days heresy. They frantically oppose and obstruct God’s work, and do their utmost to seal off the churches. Particularly, they do everything possible to make things difficult for, drive away, insult and verbally abuse the brothers and sisters who preach the gospel of the last days, and even beat them up and send them to the hands of those in power. These circumstances are just like how the Pharisees opposed the Lord Jesus, even worse than then.

Why do people who so anxiously long for the return of the Lord Jesus frenziedly oppose and reject His return? Why are people who have enjoyed measureless grace and love of Jesus Christ able to hate His return so much? Why do people have to drive Christ from among man? Why will people not rest until they have put God incarnate to His death? What is the reason for this? What problem does this illustrate? I would like to address my simple personal understanding of this issue from the following aspects:

I That Christianity can frenziedly oppose Christ indicates that people believe in God yet do not know God at all, nor do they know the essence of Christ.

Almighty God says: “Man’s resistance to and disobedience of God come from the fact that the substance of the incarnate God submits to the will of God, as well as from the normal humanity of Christ; herein lies the source of man’s resistance to and disobedience of God. If Christ had neither the guise of His humanity nor sought the will of God the Father from the perspective of a created being, but was instead possessed of a super humanity, then there likely would be no disobedience in any man. The reason man is always willing to believe in an invisible God in heaven is because God in heaven has no humanity and He does not have a single quality of a created being. So man always regards Him with the greatest esteem, but holds an attitude of contempt toward Christ” (“The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “If people do not know the essence of Christ, and do not understand the disposition of God, they are even less able to truly worship God. If people see only the ordinary and normal outward appearance of Christ and do not know His essence, it is easy for people to treat Christ as an ordinary man. They can adopt a disrespectful attitude toward Him, can cheat Him, resist Him, disobey Him, cast judgment on Him, and be opinionated. They can take His word as insignificant, can treat His flesh as they please, can harbor conceptions, and can blaspheme” (“Knowledge of the Incarnation” in Records of Christ’s Talks). “Those who did not know the Messiah were all capable of opposing Jesus, of rejecting Jesus, of slandering Him. People who do not understand Jesus are all capable of denying Him, and reviling Him. Moreover, they are capable of seeing the return of Jesus as the deceit of Satan, and more people shall condemn Jesus returned to flesh. Does not all of this make you afraid?” (“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). From God’s words we understand that the core reason why people believe in God yet resist God is because they do not know God and they do not know the essence of Christ. God was incarnated as an ordinary person and that is why people have become the implacable enemies of God. From Jesus’ incarnation, we know that although God was incarnated as an ordinary person, He was the flesh worn by God’s Spirit and His essence was divine and He was God Himself. This can never be changed. From outside, it seems that there is no difference between Christ and people, but their essences are entirely different. People are just created beings, but Christ is the Lord of creation, the authoritative and mighty God Himself. Regardless of how practical His speech and work is and regardless of how normal His humanity is, it cannot change His divine essence and divine being. He is completely and entirely God Himself. He is the Creator and Master of all things in the universe. People are created beings and do not have the faculty to know God, nor can they directly penetrate the spiritual realm. Plus the people of today have been corrupted by Satan for thousands of years, and they cannot tell right from wrong and are blind, ignorant, insensitive and stupid. They view people and things and judge right and wrong based on what they see with their own eyes and are totally unable to perceive their essence. Therefore people treat God incarnate in the same way. They just see the normal humanity of Christ but do not know Christ’s divine essence. This leads to people being unable to obey and worship Christ and viewing Christ as an ordinary man who has no ability or authority. So people dare to treat the incarnate Christ arbitrarily and dare to despise, slander, condemn, resist and persecute Christ as they wish and even stand as sworn enemies to Christ. Just as in the Age of Grace when God was incarnated the first time, those Jewish Pharisees condemned and cast Jesus aside. Was this not because they just saw Jesus’ normal humanity on the outside, but did not know Jesus’ divine essence? When Jesus came to Nazareth and preached and taught people in the synagogue, they all viewed Jesus as the son of a carpenter (See Mat 13:54-55). When Jesus preached elsewhere, they viewed Him as a Samaritan or a Nazarene. Thus they dared to frenziedly slander and blaspheme all the truths that Jesus uttered which did not match their notions and said that Jesus was possessed by demons and took up stones to cast at Him (See Jhn 8:48-59). When they saw that Jesus ate and drank, they judged and condemned Him as a gluttonous man, a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and sinners (See Mat 11:19). When Jesus healed people and cast out demons, they dared to boldly blaspheme that Jesus was relying on Beelzebub, the prince of demons, to cast out the demons (See Mat 12:22-24). When Jesus did good works on the Sabbath, the Pharisees condemned Jesus for disobeying the laws of the Old Testament, schemed to destroy Jesus (See Mat 12:12-14) and eventually crucified the innocent Lord Jesus on the cross. Likewise, today every denomination and sect keeps on proclaiming that they believe in Jesus Christ and they have the second coming of the Lord Jesus in their thoughts day and night, but when the Lord Jesus really arrives, they frenziedly oppose Him. They try by every means to deny and condemn Christ when He finally comes. Is this not also a result of not knowing Christ’s essence and just looking at Christ’s appearance? If people can really know God from His essence, and do not judge Christ based on His appearance, then they will be able to know Christ from His words and work and recognize that this Son of man who appears to be ordinary and normal is the Lord of creation who created all things in the universe and who is in charge of the universe. When people know that Christ’s essence is God Himself, they will not dare speak so boldly and arbitrarily and will not dare to oppose and condemn Christ so frenziedly. Therefore, if people have knowledge of the essence of Christ, they will know that Christ is venerable and formidable, as John the Baptist preached in the wilderness: “but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear” (See Mat 3:11). We can see that he held Christ in awe and veneration and it proves that at that time he had a little knowledge of God and knew that Christ is the great, honorable, glorious God Himself; otherwise he would not say such words. If people have knowledge of God’s essence, they will treat God as God and they will be able to respect God as great in their hearts. When they encounter something, they will be able to seek the will of God and seek how to act to please God. If people have knowledge of God’s essence, they will know God’s supremacy and honorableness and will know their own lowliness and insignificance, and in the presence of God they will have a heart that trembles with fear and will not dare to be arbitrarily riotous and commit wild acts and will be able to truly worship God, obey God and love God. People who do not know Christ can only use their own notions to judge the essence of Christ, and condemn Christ’s speech and work based on Christ’s appearance. They can make the mistakes that were made by the Pharisees, take the Pharisees’ path of opposing God and become enemies of Christ, and finally will be eliminated by God and receive God’s punishment.

II That Christianity can frenziedly oppose Christ indicates that people’s nature is already extremely corrupt and utterly venomous.

Think about the time when the Lord Jesus did work amongst Jews two thousand years ago. The reason why religious circles opposed and condemned the Lord Jesus was because He did not possess the image of God that they had imagined. Since Jesus’ work did not accord with their notions, they went bent on putting Jesus to death. In order to achieve this goal, they tried to find a handle against Jesus in every aspect and looked for all kinds of excuses to slander and frame Him and eventually forcibly crucified Him in the absence of any substantiated charge. Especially on the eve of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, they cruelly tortured Him with all kinds of torments and did everything possible to dishonor and ill-treat Him as they pleased. They platted a crown of thorns and put it on His head, spat on His face, struck Him with the fists and palms of their hands and scourged Him until He was lacerated and bruised all over. Not only that, but they also mercilessly crucified the Lord Jesus on the cross. Today, when the Lord Jesus has returned to flesh to carry out His work in Mainland China, this historical tragedy has reappeared in Christianity. The majority of priests and elders in the religious community have played the role of the Pharisees. They are so hateful toward Christ of the last days that they do all they can to oppose and reject Christ who has come to earth, using even more evil language and even crueler methods than those used by the Pharisees. They do everything possible to attack and oppose Christ, fabricating all kinds of rumors to frame and slander Christ, saying things like “The message that God has returned to flesh is fake and is to deceive people,” “If the believers of the Eastern Lightning spread the gospel to you and you do not accept, they will dig out your eyes and cut off your ears,” etc. They use these groundless and wild rumors to frighten people and hinder them from accepting the true way. They view the words of Christ as a pest and a thorn in the flesh. Once they get the book of God’s words, it is like they have caught a sworn enemy, and they condemn and blaspheme it, and then tear, burn or throw it into the latrines. They treat the brothers and sisters who spread the gospel of the last days even more mercilessly. They use all kinds of foul language to laugh at and humiliate them, hit them with sticks, scald them with boiling water, throw cold water and excrement over them, set their dogs on them, and report them to the police. In addition, some brothers and sisters have even been buried alive. Their hatred toward Christ of the last days is not second to that of the Jewish Pharisees toward the Lord Jesus. They stop at nothing to persecute the brothers and sisters who spread the gospel of the last days, even more than the Jews of those days who persecuted Jesus’ disciples. It is as if they were long ago sworn enemies of Christ. They, burning with a frenzy of rage, are determined to oppose Christ to the end; their hatred cannot be quelled unless Christ is crucified again. This has to be puzzling for people: The Jewish people of those days had believed in God for many generations and had listened to many of the teachings of Jesus and had seen many signs and wonders that Jesus had performed, but how could they still treat the Lord Jesus so cruelly and venomously? Why was the Lord Jesus looked upon by them as more sinful than a murderer (They chose to release the murderer Barabbas instead of Jesus)? Today, the priests and elders of the religious community have enjoyed so much of the Lord Jesus’ grace and blessings and moreover, they have known the failure of the Jewish people. Why would they still requite the kindness of Christ who has come in the last days with enmity? Why would they antagonize Christ even more frenziedly?

Let us look at what Almighty God says: “The source of man’s opposition and rebelliousness against God is his corruption by Satan. Because he has been corrupted by Satan, man’s conscience has grown numb, he is immoral, his thoughts are degenerate, and he has a backward mental outlook. Before he was corrupted by Satan, man naturally followed God and obeyed His words. He was naturally of sound sense and conscience, and of normal humanity. After being corrupted by Satan, his original sense, conscience, and humanity grew dull and were impaired by Satan. Thus, he has lost his obedience and love toward God. Man’s sense has become aberrant, his disposition has become the same as that of an animal, and his rebelliousness toward God is ever more frequent and grievous. Yet man still neither knows nor recognizes this, and merely blindly opposes and rebels. The revelation of man’s disposition is the expression of his sense, insight and conscience, and because his sense and insight are unsound, and his conscience has grown supremely dull, thus his disposition is rebellious against God. …

The source of the revelation of man’s corrupt disposition is nothing more than his dulled conscience, his malicious nature and his unsound sense; if man’s conscience and sense are able to return to normal, then he will become fit for use before God. It is simply because man’s conscience has always been numb, man’s sense has never been sound, and is increasingly dull that man is increasingly rebellious toward God, such that he even nailed Jesus to the cross and has refused God incarnate of the last days entry into his home, and condemns God’s flesh, and sees God’s flesh as vile and lowly. If man had but a little humanity, he would not be so cruel in his treatment of God’s incarnate flesh; if he had but a little sense, he would not be so vicious in his treatment of the flesh of God incarnate; if he had but a little conscience, he would not be so ‘grateful’ to God incarnate in this way. Man lives in the era of God become flesh, yet he is incapable of thanking God for giving him such a good opportunity, and instead curses the coming of God, or completely ignores the fact of God’s incarnation, and is seemingly against it and weary of it. … Man’s disposition has become supremely vicious, his sense has grown supremely dull, and his conscience has been completely trampled by the evil one and long ago ceased to be the original conscience of man” (“To Have an Unchanged Disposition Is to Be in Enmity to God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words, we can clearly see that no matter whether it be the Pharisees of those days who opposed Jesus Christ, or the modern-day priests and elders of the religious community who oppose the second incarnate Christ, they both are governed and driven by their malevolent nature. This fully shows that people have already been corrupted by Satan so much so that they have completely lost their humanity and have lost the conscience and reason that normal people should possess. Like Satan, their hearts are full of arrogance, conceit, reactionariness, evil, insidiousness, despicableness and maliciousness. It can be said that people have long become the embodiment of Satan after being corrupted by it for thousands of years, that their nature has become Satan’s nature, a God-opposing and God-betraying nature. However Satan attacks God, people too attack God, and however venomous Satan is, people are just as venomous. This is completely true. As it says in The Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life: “Mankind’s true face is completely the same as Satan’s. Satan wants to rise to the highest place and control everything. Mankind also wants to rise to the third heaven and wield power together with God. Satan wants to break free from God’s control so that it could do as it pleases. Man also wants to put God to one side so that he can be in complete control of himself. Satan wants to create its own world and man wants to create his own paradise. Satan hates God and it has been itching to topple God. Mankind also particularly hates God and nails God’s incarnate flesh to the cross two times. Satan’s ambition is great but man’s is even greater. How is man unlike Satan? He is even worse than Satan. Man is too cruel! Man would simply execute God, and he would not give God an escape route.” This passage of fellowship tells of the nature and the true face of man. Today who would believe that the horrifying and infuriating sinful acts of opposing Christ are actually done by these people who believe in the Lord, if it were not seen with our own eyes or personally experienced by us? All of these deeds and methods of opposing and hating Christ and taking Christ as their enemy are enough to prove that their nature has already been venomous to the extreme and that they have completely become the enemies of God and the embodiment of Satan. This is completely true!

III That Christianity can frenziedly oppose Christ also shows that people’s nature is wildly arrogant, and that they just blindly hold on to old things and their own notions and imaginations, but yet do not know the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work.

Almighty God says: “The reason that man opposes God stems, on the one hand, from the corrupt disposition of man, and on the other hand, from ignorance of God and lack of understanding of the principles of God’s work and His will toward man. These two aspects merge into a history of man’s resistance to God” (“All Who Do Not Know God Are Those Who Oppose God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “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. Today, do you all not abide by such principles?” (“Knowing the Three Stages of God’s Work Is the Path to Knowing God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words we can see that people oppose God and obstruct the work of the Holy Spirit not because God’s work is wrong, but because of their notions and their inherent arrogance and because their nature is too disobedient. Another reason is that people do not know the principles of God’s work and do not know the direction of the work of the Holy Spirit. God is a God who is always new and never old, and His work is elevated step by step. His work is always moving forward and never stops at a particular point. However, people are particularly conservative as well as arrogant and conceited, and they adhere to old ways and are unwilling to let them go. They always judge God’s new work based on the work He did previously and delimit God’s work within their own notions, thinking that God’s work is unchanging and that God will not do new work. Some people understand some simple words and doctrines from God’s previous work and think that they can fathom God’s work. They use some trivial things that God has given before and turn them around to attack and blaspheme God. It is precisely for this reason that many “experts” who oppose God’s new work have appeared. Thinking back to the Age of Grace, when the Lord Jesus was incarnated the first time, He did new work—He ended the Age of Law, initiated the Age of Grace, and brought people a new path for practice. However, the Pharisees of that time thought they had learned the laws of the Old Testament by heart, and it meant that they knew God best, so they delimited God’s work within their notions and within the Age of Law. These Pharisees were arrogant and conceited and stubbornly upheld themselves, and they held on to the letters of the prophecies about the Lord’s coming in the Old Testament, thinking that when God comes He should be called the Messiah, should go to the temple to preach, and should keep the Sabbath…. As a result, they totally ignored the new work that the Lord Jesus did and didn’t seek to examine it and treat it carefully, but instead used the laws and rules of the Old Testament to measure the new work that Jesus did. When they thought they did not tally with each other, they ran their mouths off, making arbitrary evaluations and judgments about, abusing, condemning and blaspheming God’s new work, saying that Jesus not entering the temple and not keeping the Sabbath violated the laws of Moses and that Jesus relied on Beelzebub, the prince of the devils, to cast out demons…. Are today’s Christians who frenziedly oppose the second coming of the Lord Jesus not committing the same mistake as the Pharisees of that time? Are they not ones who, based on some words of the prophecies regarding Jesus’ second coming in the Bible, think that God will work according to what they have thought, thereby delimiting Christ of the last days and His work within their imaginations? Facing Christ’s coming, they neither seek nor accept. They think: If God comes, He should descend upon white clouds and not come in the flesh. If God has been incarnated, He should let priests and elders know it first. If God has become flesh, He should make it known to all and let everyone see. If it really is the incarnate God, He should be called Jesus, not Almighty God. If it is God incarnate, He should continue to give people abundant grace, heal people and cast out the demons, and perform signs and wonders. If it is God’s incarnate flesh, He should say words of blessing, comfort and counsel, not words that severely chastise and judge people. If it is God doing judgment work, then it should be the judgment before the great white throne in the air, not His judgment of people through coming to earth in the flesh and uttering words…. In the end they have come to this conclusion: God cannot be incarnated a second time to do work. If anyone says “God has done new work,” it is heresy. Is their repetition of the mistake that the Pharisees made not because they hold onto their own notions and imaginations too much? Is it not because they do not know the direction of the work of the Holy Spirit? Is it not because they are too arrogant and too disobedient by nature? As it says in the word of God: “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? I ask you again: Is it not extremely easy for you to commit the mistakes of the earliest Pharisees, given that you have not the slightest understanding of Jesus? Are you able to discern the way of truth? Can you truly guarantee that you will not oppose Christ? Are you able to follow the work of the Holy Spirit? If you do not know whether you will oppose Christ, then I say that you are already living on the brink of death. Those who did not know the Messiah were all capable of opposing Jesus, of rejecting Jesus, of slandering Him. People who do not understand Jesus are all capable of denying Him, and reviling Him. Moreover, they are capable of seeing the return of Jesus as the deceit of Satan, and more people shall condemn Jesus returned to flesh. Does not all of this make you afraid? What you face shall be blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the ruination of the words of the Holy Spirit to the churches, and the spurning of all that is expressed by Jesus. What can you gain from Jesus if you are so befuddled? How can you understand the work of Jesus when He returns to flesh on a white cloud, if you obstinately refuse to realize your errors? I tell you this: People who do not accept the truth, yet blindly await the arrival of Jesus upon white clouds, will surely blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, and they are the race that shall be destroyed. You merely wish for the grace of Jesus, and merely want to enjoy the blissful realm of heaven, yet you have never obeyed the words spoken by Jesus, and have never received the truth expressed by Jesus when He returns to flesh. What will you hold up in exchange for the fact of Jesus’ return upon a white cloud? Is it the sincerity in which you repeatedly commit sins, and then confess them, over and over? What will you offer in sacrifice to Jesus who returns upon a white cloud? Is it the years of work with which you exalt yourselves? What will you hold up to make the returned Jesus trust you? Is it that arrogant nature of yours, which does not obey any truth?” (“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). Every one of us who believes in God acknowledges that we have been corrupted by Satan, but we do not understand to what degree we have been corrupted and always think that we are most obedient to God and most compatible with God. In fact, after people have been corrupted by Satan, their nature becomes ever worse through Satan’s processing. People are all stubborn, arrogant and do not obey the truth; they cling to their own fallacies and notions and imaginations, cannot distinguish right from wrong and do not accept the truth. The Pharisees are such an example. At that time, Jesus was an eyesore to them, and they continuously opposed and condemned Christ and eventually crucified God on the cross. This really is mankind’s sorrow! Is the reason for this not because people are too stubborn and do not accept the truth?

So how should we treat God’s new work in a way that accords with God’s will? Almighty God says: “The former age has passed; this is a new age. And in a new age, new work must be done. Particularly in the final age in which man will be perfected, God will perform new work ever more quickly. Therefore, without obedience in his heart, man will find it difficult to follow the footsteps of God. … All those of a disobedient nature who willfully oppose shall be left behind by this stage of God’s swift and furiously advancing work; only those who willingly obey and who gladly humble themselves can progress to the end of the road. In this kind of work, all of you should learn how to submit and how to put aside your notions. You should be cautious in every step you take. If you are careless, you will surely become one who is spurned by the Holy Spirit, one who disrupts God in His work.” (“Those Who Obey God With a True Heart Shall Surely Be Gained by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “The return of Jesus is a great salvation for those who are capable of accepting the truth, but for those who are unable to accept the truth it is a sign of condemnation. You should choose your own path, and should not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and reject the truth. You should not be an ignorant and arrogant person, but someone who obeys the guidance of the Holy Spirit and longs for and seeks the truth; only in this way will you benefit. I advise you to tread the path of belief in God with care. Do not jump to conclusions; what’s more, do not be casual and carefree in your belief in God. You should know that, at the very least, those who believe in God should be humble and reverential. Those who have heard the truth and yet turn their nose up at it are foolish and ignorant. Those who have heard the truth and yet carelessly jump to conclusions or condemn it are beset by arrogance. No one who believes in Jesus is qualified to curse or condemn others. You should all be someone who is rational and accepts the truth. Perhaps, having heard the way of truth and read the word of life, you believe that only one in 10,000 of these words are in line with your convictions and the Bible, and then you should continue to seek in that 10,000th of these words. I still advise you to be humble, to not be over-confident, and to not exalt yourself too highly. With your heart holding such meager reverence for God, you will gain greater light. If you carefully examine and repeatedly contemplate these words, you shall understand whether or not they are the truth, and whether or not they are life. Perhaps, having only read a few sentences, some people will blindly condemn these words, saying, ‘This is nothing more than some enlightenment of the Holy Spirit,’ or, ‘This is a false Christ come to deceive people.’ Those who say such things are blinded by ignorance! You understand too little of the work and wisdom of God, and I advise you to start again from scratch! You must not blindly condemn the words expressed by God because of the appearance of false Christs during the last days, and must not be someone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit because you fear deception. Would that not be a great pity? If, after much examination, you still believe that these words are not the truth, are not the way, and are not the expression of God, then you shall ultimately be punished, and be without blessings. If you cannot accept such truth spoken so plainly and so clearly, then are you not unfit for God’s salvation? Are you not someone who is not fortunate enough to return before the throne of God? Think about it! Do not be rash and impetuous, and do not treat belief in God as a game. Think for the sake of your destination, for the sake of your prospects, for the sake of your life, and do not play around with yourself. Can you accept these words?” (“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). Also, it is written in the Bible: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, said Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa 55:8-9). “These are they which follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Rev 14:4). We can see from this that, as created beings, what we should do is to seek, obey, follow and accept God’s new work. This is what our duty is. It is the least a believer should do.

Brothers and sisters of every denomination and sect, today the most high God has come to earth in the image of an ordinary person and uttered tens of thousands of words of the truth, with the objective of saving this most deeply afflicted mankind. God has been incarnated on earth to express truths and work to save us. He has suffered so much for us and has already paid such a painstaking price. How can we still harbor any opinions or notions when such vast salvation befalls us? As God’s words say: “Many are the sleepless nights that God has endured for the sake of the work of mankind. From up high to the lowest depths, He has descended to the living hell in which man lives to pass His days with man, has never complained of the shabbiness among man, has never reproached man for his disobedience, but endures the greatest humiliation as He personally carries out His work. How could God belong to hell? How could He spend His life in hell? But for the sake of all mankind, so that the whole of mankind can find rest sooner, He has endured humiliation and suffered injustice to come to earth, and personally entered into ‘hell’ and ‘Hades,’ into the tiger’s den, to save man. How is man qualified to oppose God? What reason does he have to once more complain about God? How can he have the gall to look upon God again? God of heaven has come to this most filthy land of vice, and has never vented His grievances, or complained about man, but instead quietly accepts the ravages[1] and oppression of man. Never has He hit back at the unreasonable demands of man, never has He made excessive demands of man, and never has He made unreasonable demands of man; He merely does all the work required by man without complaint: teaching, enlightening, reproaching, the refinement of words, reminding, exhorting, consoling, judging, and revealing.” “In coming among the family of a normal man, Jesus has suffered the greatest injustice. Even more humiliating is that He has come to this dusty world and humbled Himself to the very lowest depths, and has assumed a flesh of supreme ordinariness. In becoming a meager human being, does God Most High not suffer hardship? And is this not all for mankind? Have there been any times when He was thinking for Himself? After He was rejected and put to death by the Jews, and derided and mocked by the people, He never complained to Heaven or protested to earth. Today, this millennia-old tragedy has reappeared among this Jew-like people. Do they not commit the same sins? What makes man qualified to receive God’s promises? Does he not oppose God and then accept His blessings?” (“Work and Entry (9)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). In the face of God’s heartfelt words and God’s motherly love, do we still remain unmoved? Now is the period when God carries out His work of saving people, and it is the golden opportunity for us to pursue the truth and salvation. As long as we have the desire to seek God, He will certainly work upon us and make us understand His words and His will and gradually break away from corruption, so that we will enter our long-yearned-for “heaven”—the kingdom of God and enjoy the true human life. If we miss this good opportunity, when God’s salvation work is completely finished, we will regret it too late and feel remorse for a lifetime. At that time, even if we sorely regret, it will be to no avail and we will only fall into the darkness and await God’s righteous retribution and punishment. At the same time, we will realize this fact: God has really been incarnated in China and done work of saving people; whom we oppose and reject is indeed the returned Lord Jesus and what we wantonly condemn and blaspheme is exactly God’s appearance and work. But it will be too late if we do not become aware of that until then, because God’s six-thousand-year management plan has come to an end and all those who truly believe in God and have been saved have already entered the beautiful destination that God has prepared for them. The outcome is settled and can be changed by no one. As Almighty God says: “You believe in God, and so you must accept His words and obey His way. You must not just think of gaining blessings without receiving the truth, or accepting the provision of life. Christ comes during the last days so that all those who truly believe in Him may be provided with life. His work is for the sake of concluding the old age and entering the new one, and is the path that must be taken by all those who would enter the new age. If you are incapable of acknowledging Him, and instead condemn, blaspheme or even persecute Him, then you are bound to burn for eternity, and shall never enter the kingdom of God. For this Christ is Himself the expression of the Holy Spirit, the expression of God, the One whom God has entrusted to do His work on earth. And so I say that if you cannot accept all that is done by Christ of the last days, then you blaspheme the Holy Spirit. The retribution that should be suffered by those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit is self-evident to all. I also tell you that if you oppose Christ of the last days, and deny Him, then there is no one who can bear the consequences on your behalf. Furthermore, from this day onward you will not have another chance to gain the approval of God; even if you try to redeem yourself, you will never again behold the face of God. For what you oppose is not a man, what you deny is not some puny being, but Christ. Are you aware of this consequence? You have not made a small mistake, but committed a heinous crime. And so I advise everyone not to bare your fangs before the truth, or make careless criticisms, for only the truth can bring you life, and nothing except the truth can allow you to be reborn and behold the face of God” (“Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Kemu, Xingtai City, Hebei Province

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Almighty God's Word "God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind" (Excerpt, Stage Version) | Eastern Lightning

Almighty God says, "God created this world, He created this mankind, and moreover He was the architect of ancient Greek culture and human civilization. Only God consoles this mankind, and only God cares for this mankind night and day. Human development and progress is inseparable from the sovereignty of God, and the history and future of mankind are inextricable from the designs of God. … If mankind wishes to have a good fate, if a country wishes to have a good fate, then man must bow down to God in worship, repent and confess before God, or else the fate and destination of man will unavoidably end in catastrophe."

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CenSAMM Symposium The Millennium: A Mystery No More | Eastern Lightning

From June 28-29, 2018, at the Panacea Museum Gardens in Bedford, UK, the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM) held a symposium about apocalyptic literature, the final disaster, and the Millennium. The event was attended by such renowned religious experts and scholars as Christopher Rowland, Dean Ireland’s Emeritus Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford, Massimo Introvigne, Managing Director of CESNUR, the Center for Studies on New Religions in Italy, and Matthew Askey, a priest serving at Southwell Minster Cathedra in Nottinghamshire. During the symposium, Professor Introvigne gave a lecture entitled “Filming the Age of Kingdom”. Partly based on The Church of Almighty God musical Human Beings Have Regained the Sanctity They Once Possessed, this stimulating and refreshing lecture provided a clear interpretation of the appearance of the Millennial Kingdom (the Millennium).

Recent years have seen increasingly severe disasters occurring across the globe. The world is becoming ever more chaotic, visions have appeared in the stars, and the prophecies of the Bible are all starting to come true. People have a sense of impending disaster, and some cannot help asking: Will the final disaster destroy the earth? Where will the Millennium appear? And who will be allowed to enter? During the symposium, internationally-renowned religious scholar Professor Introvigne communicated the mystery revealed by Christ of the last days, Almighty God: The Millennial Kingdom (the Kingdom of Christ prophesized in the Book of Revelation of the Bible) will appear on earth following the great catastrophe. For us, all mankind, this is great news!

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Fallacy (4): Someone says, “If Almighty God’s work of the last days that you are spreading is the true way, then why isn’t it accepted by the elders, pastors, and priests?”

Response: Determining whether or not something is the true way based on whether the elders, pastors, and priests accept it is really unsound and unreliable. We all know that the work of Jesus Christ is the true way, and we believe it without any doubt. But when Jesus worked among the Jews, did the religious elite of that time—the chief priests, elders, and scribes—accept His work? Did they acknowledge that His work was the true way? Not only did they refuse to believe in Jesus and accept His work, but they did everything they could to prevent others from believing in and following Him. Could we draw the conclusion that it is not the true way just because the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees refused to accept the work of Jesus? It is clear that determining whether or not something is the true way based on whether the religious elite accept it is not at all sound. In truth, whether or not it is the true way cannot be determined based on the approval, acknowledgement, and acceptance of the elders, pastors, and priests. Neither can it be determined based on the judgments of any spiritual greats or celebrities. It must be determined based on whether it is God’s own work. If it is God’s work, it can surely express God’s disposition as well as bring the truth, the way, and the life to mankind, and it can surely save mankind from corruption and restore their life dispositions of normal humanity. If someone cannot express God’s disposition, do the work of God Himself, or save mankind from their corruption, then even if he is acknowledged by pastors, elders, or priests, that does not prove that his work is the true way. So, weighing whether or not something is the true way must be determined based on whether it is God’s own work, and not on whether the top leaders in the religious world accept it or not.

As for how to weigh whether something is the true way or the false way, Almighty God’s words clearly state: “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 to, 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, and 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. … God does not repeat His work, He does not do work that is not realistic, He does not make excessive requirements of man, and He does not do work that is beyond the sense of man. All the work He does is within the scope of man’s normal sense, and does not exceed the sense of normal humanity, and His work is according to man’s normal requirements. If it is the work of the Holy Spirit, man becomes ever more normal, and his humanity becomes ever more normal. Man has an increasing knowledge of his disposition, which has been corrupted by Satan, and of the essence of man, and he has an ever greater longing for the truth. That is to say, the life of man grows and grows, and the corrupt disposition of man becomes capable of more and more changes—all of which is the meaning of God becoming the life of man. If a way is incapable of revealing those things that are the essence of man, is incapable of changing the disposition of man, and, moreover, is incapable of bringing him before God or giving him a true understanding of God, and even causes his humanity to become ever more lowly and his sense ever more abnormal, then this way must not be the true way, and it may be the work of an evil spirit, or the old way. In short, it cannot be the present work of the Holy Spirit” (“Only Those Who Know God and His Work Can Satisfy God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The fact is, Almighty God has opened up the mysteries of His six-thousand-year management plan, and He has expressed all the truths for mankind to be purified and saved. Under His leadership, our understanding of God has become greater and greater, and we have seen God’s wondrousness and wisdom, almightiness and sovereignty, righteousness and holiness, greatness and honorableness, as well as His faithfulness and goodness. Our hearts have become more and more willing to love God and we have become closer to Him. At the same time, we have understood more and more of our own corrupt essence and have more and more of a thirst for the truth. As we enter into the truth, our life dispositions have had a gradual transformation, and the humanity that we live out has become more and more normal. Over just 20-odd years, Almighty God’s gospel of the kingdom has spread all over mainland China, and through the same wave of flourishing it is expanding to every corner of the earth in glory. This is in stark contrast to the desolation of the religious world today. The facts are enough to show that The Church of Almighty God has the work of the Holy Spirit, and the way of Almighty God is the true way that supplies people with life.

So why don’t today’s elders, pastors, and priests accept the work of Almighty God? Actually, they don’t accept the true way for the same reason that those chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees didn’t accept the work of the Lord Jesus and rejected Him. Next, we’ll analyze and dissect in detail the reasons that the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees didn’t accept the work of Jesus so that we can gain a clearer perspective on why today’s elders, pastors, and priests don’t accept the true way.

The first reason is that the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees of the time clung to the letters of the Bible, and they defined God within their own notions and imaginations. This is the primary reason they could not accept God’s work. They only focused on the letters of the Scripture, and they were full of imaginings about the prophecies in the Scripture about the coming of the Messiah. When the reality of God’s work did not match up with their imaginings, they would not let go of their own notions and imaginings to seek and to accept God’s work. Instead, they clung to their own notions and imaginations and desperately denied Christ and resisted the true way. Just as Almighty God revealed: “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?” (“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). We all know that the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees of the time were all well-versed in the Bible. When they read these words in the prophets: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be on his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David, and on his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on even for ever” (Isa 9:6-7), they made extrapolations based on the literal meaning of the prophecies about the coming of the Messiah: Since the coming Messiah would come to rule, then He would certainly act as their king just like David, and He would definitely lead them to overthrow the rule of the Romans and rescue them from the oppression and misery inflicted by the Romans. In addition, since the Messiah would come to be their king, without a doubt He would be born into a royal palace and would look extraordinary, and possess unusual talents. However, the truth and their notions and imaginings were like night and day. The Lord Jesus was not born into a royal palace—He was born in a manger. He did not live in a house of nobles, but He lived in a very average carpenter’s home. He did not look extraordinary—He looked no different from the most ordinary man. What was particularly out of line with their notions was that the Lord Jesus did not act as their king and lead them to overthrow the Romans’ rule as they had imagined. Instead, He instructed them to practice forgiveness and tolerance, and to love their enemies. Because there was nothing in the work of the Lord Jesus that was in line with their imaginings, they could not acknowledge at all that Jesus was the Messiah they had been waiting for, and they refused to accept His new work. They only believed in the letters of the Scripture, and they only believed in the God they imagined in their heads. They could not tolerate any new work of God that went against the letters of the Scripture and their imagination. Because the Lord Jesus did not match up with the Messiah in their notions and imaginations, the top leaders in the religious circles determined that Jesus was not the Messiah they had been waiting for. They also did everything possible to resist and condemn Jesus, and to slander the true way. In the end, they used the excuse that “Jesus has taken the name of God in vain and has not obeyed the law” to nail Him to the cross, thus committing a monstrous sin. Taking a look at these pastors, elders, and priests who do not accept Almighty God’s work in the last days, aren’t they just a mirror image of those chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees? They cling to the literal meaning of the prophecies in the Bible just the same, defining God within the boundaries of their own notions and imaginings. When they see that it says in the Bible that “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) and that “Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him” (Rev 1:7), they are full of imaginings about the Lord Jesus’ return. They believe that His return will certainly be Him descending upon a white cloud, and that it will certainly be public. They think that there will certainly be a great vision and a great miracle when He returns, that they will certainly be raptured up to heaven so that they may enjoy blessings with the Lord, and so on. However, the arrival of Almighty God has dealt a huge blow to their notions—He has not descended on a white cloud and openly revealed Himself as they have thought, but instead He was incarnated and arrived in secret. His work is not shaking the heavens or reverberating through the skies as they have imagined. It is quiet, humble, and hidden. He only expresses words and doesn’t display miracles. In addition, Almighty God has not lifted them up to heaven so that they may enjoy wonderful blessings alongside God, but instead He has expressed words of judgment and chastisement to expose people’s corruption and rebelliousness and transform people’s life dispositions. So, because Almighty God’s work is entirely out of line with their notions and imaginings, these pastors, elders, and priests condemn and resist Almighty God, Christ of the last days just like what the leaders of Judaism did to the Lord Jesus two thousand years ago. They reject Him, do their utmost to resist Him and seal off the churches to prevent believers from accepting the true way. They don’t accept it themselves and moreover don’t allow others to seek and to investigate it. The reason they do not accept God’s new work and rush to do evil is because they haven’t found a basis for God’s work of the last days in the letters of the Bible and because God’s return in the last days is not in line with their notions and imaginings. Therefore, they wantonly condemn and blaspheme Christ of the last days. This is entirely brought about because they have defined God within the limitations of their own notions and imaginings.

The second reason is that the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees of the time were stubborn and conservative. They did not understand the principles or direction of the work of the Holy Spirit, so they delimited God’s work within the law of the Old Testament. Almighty God says: “Do you wish to know the root of why the Pharisees opposed Jesus? … They opposed Jesus because they did not know the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work…” (“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). “Because there are always new developments in God’s work, thus there is new work, and thus there is also work that is obsolete and old. This old and new work is not contradictory, but complementary; each step follows on from the last. … The work of God is always new and never old, and it never forms doctrine and is, instead, continually changing and renewing to a greater or lesser extent. … The way in which man believes in God, however, is quite different: He clings to old, familiar doctrines and systems, and the older they are the more palatable they are to him. How could the foolish mind of man, a mind that is as intransigent as stone, accept so much unfathomable new work and words of God? Man abhors the God who is always new and never old; he only likes the antiquated old God who is white-haired and immobile. Thus, because God and man each have their own likes, man has become the enemy of God” (“Only Those Who Know the Work of God Today Can Serve God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words, we can see that the reason the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees resisted Jesus was because they clung to the old and did not recognize the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work. They did not know that God’s work is constantly moving forward and always changing. They did not know that God is always doing new things, amazing things and things that no man could ever imagine. This is why they delimited God’s work within the confines of the Bible, within the confines of the law. When the things Jesus did surpassed the Bible and were not done according to the law, they began to condemn Him and say that His work did not come from God. In the end, because Jesus “went against the Bible and did not obey the law,” they nailed Him to the cross. Just as it is written in the Bible: “Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keeps not the sabbath day” (John 9:16). “Pilate said to them, Take you him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God” (Jhn 19:6-7). Isn’t this what was pitiful about the Jewish Pharisees? Just the same, today’s pastors, elders, and priests are the modern-day chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees—they are equally conservative, they do not understand the principles or direction of the Holy Spirit’s work, and they do not know that God’s work is always moving forward, that it is always new and never old. They believe that God’s work never changes, that He cannot do new work or do work that man cannot conceive of. They think that God’s work must be done according to man’s notions and imaginings and according to what is recorded in the Bible, that it cannot go beyond the Bible. They delimit God’s work within the Bible and within the Age of Grace. This is why when Almighty God came to do His work and they discovered that it did not match up with the Bible and did not accord with the Bible or with their notions and imaginings, they try every possible means to resist and condemn Almighty God’s work, and accuse His new work as being “heresy.” This is a second important reason behind them not accepting Almighty God’s work.

The third reason is that by nature the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees were arrogant and conceited, and didn’t love the truth, which is another important reason that they did not accept God’s new work. They were self-assured in their familiarity with the Bible and their proficiency in the law, and on top of that, the common people obeyed their every word, so they became more and more arrogant, conceited and self-righteous. They upheld themselves more stubbornly and believed more in themselves; their belief in themselves even surpassed their belief in God. So, when they looked at Jesus with their physical eyes and saw that He was a common man and not at all like the Messiah in the prophecies, their arrogant nature burst out and ran rampant. Even though they knew that the Messiah would come, and they saw Jesus’ miracles with their own eyes and heard Jesus’ powerful and authoritative words with their own ears, they did not have any intention of seeking with humility or examining it with open-mindedness. Their arrogant nature drove them to only believe in their own notions and imaginings—they did not believe in any of God’s new work that was not in line with their own notions. So, they just stuck to their idea that Jesus was not the coming Messiah, and they tried every means to get something on Jesus, and arbitrarily condemned Him. As a result, they became eternal sinners who were hoping for the Messiah but stopped at nothing to resist and reject the Messiah. Just as Almighty God has said: “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). Today, pastors, elders, and priests of various denominations and sects are just the same. They are overly confident in their own gifts, caliber, and ability to recite the Scripture, and besides, they are highly esteemed among believers, so they become wildly arrogant, self-important and self-righteous, thinking that they are better and more capable than others, that they understand more than others, that their understanding is the purest and is absolutely correct. They also require that others obey them, taking their own notions and imaginings as the truth. So, when they are faced with God’s new work, they do not seek with humility and look into it with open-mindedness, but rather they speak arrogantly, make arbitrary judgments, and delimit it as they please. They say “He who doesn’t come on a white cloud is certainly a false Christ,” “No matter how good the preaching is, if it departs from the Bible, it’s not correct and it is not the work of God.” Aren’t these words just like the Pharisees’ words of delimiting Jesus’ work? They don’t have the slightest reverence for God or the slightest desire to seek. As long as God’s work is not in line with their notions, they think that it’s not right, and moreover, they do everything they can to deny, resist, oppress, and reject it. Not an iota of modesty, reverence, or intention to seek can be seen in them. No matter how authoritative and powerful God’s words are, and no matter how full of the truth they are, they just display a haughty demeanor of dismissiveness, of turning up their noses. They stubbornly rely on their own notions and imaginings to resist and condemn God’s work, and they don’t give the Holy Spirit the slightest chance to work. This is why they are still unable to receive revelation from God and recognize that Almighty God’s work is the true way. Instead, they are, as always, doing the work of condemning, resisting, disrupting, and dismantling. This is entirely because they are arrogant and conceited, incorrigibly obstinate and don’t seek the truth by nature, which has led them to take the path of antichrists.

The fourth reason is that the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees were really in love with status and enjoyed the benefits of their positions. Their ambition to desperately pursue status was another barrier to their acceptance of God’s new work. These chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees were all top leaders of the Jewish faith; they had very high status and prestige. The common Israelites all looked up to them and adored them. They became accustomed to hearing the adulation of the masses and enjoying always having a retinue. Their desire for status had been entrenched early on, just as the Lord Jesus revealed: “Beware of the scribes, which desire to walk in long robes, and love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the chief rooms at feasts…” (Luk 20:46). They were eager for people to adore them, do their bidding, and be perfectly subservient, and even to treat them as God Himself. However, the arrival of Jesus shook up their long-held positions. Jesus was doing new work outside of the temple that was outside of the law, and because of the Holy Spirit’s work, more and more people followed Him. This made those religious officials who so loved their status very afraid; they feared that the Israelites would abandon them to believe in Jesus, causing them to lose the status they had held for many years. When they saw that Jesus was becoming more and more popular and that many people under their leadership left to follow Him, they developed animosity and hatred for Jesus. In order to preserve their precarious positions, they adopted any means necessary to resist, condemn, and deny Jesus’ work, and they developed murderous intent toward Him. This is also clearly recorded in the Bible: “Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man does many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. … Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death” (Jhn 11:47-48, 53). We can clearly see from this that the chief priests and Pharisees thought of their status more highly, and in order to preserve it they would not even stop at the crime of framing and murdering Jesus. In the end, they nailed the merciful Lord Jesus to the cross. From beginning to end they had absolutely no intention of accepting the Lord Jesus’ work. Even though they later learned of the fact that the Lord Jesus was resurrected, they still did not have hearts of repentance; rather, they became even more uneasy, fearing that the people would hear of this and then believe in the Lord Jesus, causing them to lose their status and their livelihoods. In order to maintain their status, they bribed guards to fabricate rumors to cover up the fact of Jesus’ resurrection (see Mat 28). It is evident that fame and status had overtaken the hearts of those religious leaders long before that, turning them into sinners condemned by history who denied and defamed Jesus’ work. Likewise, the reason the pastors, elders, and priests in the religious world today reject and do not accept the work of Almighty God in the last days and adopt every means to resist, condemn, disrupt, and dismantle it is because their psychological states, nature, and essence are entirely the same as those of the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees who resisted the work of Jesus. The current pastors, elders, and priests in the churches also hold high positions and have good reputations, and they enjoy being flattered, supported, and looked up to by the believers. They stand up high in their pulpits, speaking with unbridled arrogance and issuing orders. They feel in their heart that they have long been the leaders of believers in God and they should enjoy the flattery, support, and adulation of the believers. In front of the people they always say that they are the servants of all and that they are caring for the flock on behalf of God, but essentially, they long ago sat themselves in God’s place and have wrested God’s followers into their own hands, making believers into tools for them to exercise their authority and revel in the blessings of status. This is why when God personally came among mankind to call and lead His flock, those religious leaders who were accustomed to being the heads of the flock were not happy to become subject to the name of Almighty God, and they were particularly unwilling to obediently hand God’s sheep back to Him, to allow Him to personally lead them and tend to them. They have done everything they can to condemn His work and to prevent His sheep from returning to Him. However, Almighty God’s work cannot be stopped—His sheep hear His voice. Many people have realized that Almighty God is the returned Jesus and they have returned to Him, and this has given rise to fear and unease in many of the religious leaders who lust for status. They are deeply afraid that Almighty God’s new work will attract more of the believers currently underneath them, and that they may even fully lose their positions they have held for many years, that they will lose the believers’ support, that they will no longer follow them. In order to maintain their own status and protect their own livelihoods, they are working under the guise of “protecting the flock and defending the truth,” stopping at nothing to seal off the churches and restrict the flocks and fabricating all kinds of rumors to slander and condemn God’s work in resistance to God’s arrival. Their ambition and love for status as well as their nature of disliking and hating the truth determine that they cannot possibly accept the truth. They have been abandoned by God long ago, and they will suffer the punishment of hell once God openly appears. These are the ugly consequences brought about by their unending pursuit of fame and status, and their greed for the blessings of their positions.

On the whole, it’s clear that the reason the pastors, elders and priests do not accept Almighty God’s work is not because it’s not the true way, but it’s because they cling to the letters of the Bible and define God within the confines of the Bible, within their own notions and imaginings. It is because they are too conservative and they do not know the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work so that they define God within the boundaries of His previous work. It is because their nature of arrogance and conceit and disobedience to the truth drives them to stubbornly uphold themselves and deny God. It is because their strong desire for status drives them to reject God’s return to their last gasp in order to protect their status. For all these reasons, they deny the true way and reject God, playing the role of modern-day Pharisees to the letter, and they have nailed God to the cross once again (that is, they have condemned God).

But there is a fact that cannot be denied: Even though the pastors, elders, and priests of various denominations and sects reject Almighty God’s work in the last days and they do their utmost to resist, condemn, disrupt, and dismantle it, God’s work has not been impeded due to their rejection, or their disruption and dismantling. Almighty God’s work in the last days has already been acknowledged and accepted by the majority of those who truly believe in God and thirst for the truth. All those who truly believe in God will come under the name of Almighty God, and this is already the main trend. It is a fact that God will accomplish immediately and cannot be stopped by any enemy forces. Almighty God’s work has already spread across all of mainland China and it is expanding to all corners of the earth. This is just like how the gospel of Jesus Christ spread at that time. Even though the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees then persistently resisted and condemned Jesus, and they even “put Him away” from the midst of the Jewish people, the gospel of Jesus Christ covered every corner of the universe, and was accepted by all those under the sun who longed for God’s redemption. We can see from this that no man can block the work of the true God, and no enemy force can destroy it.

Brothers and sisters, no longer believe that Almighty God’s work in the last days is not the true way just because the pastors, elders, and priests do not accept it. This viewpoint is too ridiculous, too absurd! Weighing whether or not it is the work of God cannot be based on whether the leaders accept it. God’s work is done according to His own plan, and based on the needs of corrupt mankind. It is not done based on the notions or imaginations of any pastors, elders, priests, or great spiritual figures. If we continue to weigh the true way based on whether or not they accept it, we will never find it, and we will never witness the appearance of the true God.

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