The Experience of Practicing the Truth | Eastern Lightning

Hengxin    Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province

Not too long ago, I heard “Sermons and Fellowship On Entry Into Life,” which led me to understand that only those who practice the truth can obtain the truth and ultimately become ones who possess the truth and humanity thus attaining God’s approval. From then on, I made a conscious effort to forsake my flesh and practice the truth in my daily life. Some time later, I happily discovered that I could practice some truth. For example, in the past I was afraid to show my darker side to others. Now I was consciously open with brothers and sisters, dissecting my corrupt disposition. Before, when I was pruned and dealt with, I would make excuses and shirk responsibility. Now I made a conscious effort to repudiate myself instead of trying to justify my bad behavior. In the past, when I experienced friction with my working partners, I was narrow-minded, petty and prone to sulking. Now when I encountered those situations I would forsake my flesh and exercise tolerance and patience with others. … Every time I thought of my progress in practicing the truth, I would feel extremely happy. I thought that my ability to practice some truth meant that I was a genuine practitioner of the truth. In this way, I unknowingly became haughty and self-congratulatory.

Whatever God Says Is the Very Judgment of Man | Eastern Lightning

Xunqiu   
Nanyang City, Henan Province

I used to think that God judged and chastised man only when He revealed man’s inherent corruption or conveyed harsh words that judged the end of man. It was only much later that an incidence led me to realize that even God’s gentle words were also His judgment and chastisement. I realized that every word God said was His judgment of man.

Judgment Is Light | Eastern Lightning

Judgment Is Light

Zhao Xia    Shandong Province

My name is Zhao Xia. I was born to an ordinary family. Due to the influence of dictums like “A man leaves his name behind wherever he stays, just as a goose utters its cry wherever it flies,” and “As a tree lives for its bark, a man lives for his face,” reputation and face became particularly important to me.

What Is the Nature of God’s Love? | Eastern Lightning

Siqiu 
Suihua City, Heilongjiang Province

Whenever I see the following passage of God’s word, “If you’ve always been very loyal and loving toward Me, yet you suffer the torment of illness, the constraints of life, and the abandonment of your friends and relatives or endure any other misfortunes in life, then will your loyalty and love for Me still continue?” (“A Very Serious Problem: Betrayal (2)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). I feel particularly unhappy—a sense of misery creeps up within me and my heart speaks its voiceless grievance: Dear God, how can You allow those that are loyal to You and love You to meet with such misfortune? As a result, I’ve had a hard time understanding the meaning of the man used by the Holy Spirit who said, “God’s last demand of man is loving and sincere.”

The Youth With No Regrets | Eastern Lightning

Xiaowen    Chongqing City

Reading God's Words

“Love is a pure emotion, pure without a blemish. Use your heart, use your heart to love and feel and care. Love doesn’t set conditions or barriers or distance. … In love there’s no suspicion,no cunning, no deceit. Use your heart, use your heart to love and feel and care. In love there is no distance and nothing that’s not pure” (“Pure Love Without Blemish” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). This hymn of God’s word once helped me get through the pain of a long and drawn-out life in prison that lasted 7 years and 4 months.

Every Word of God Is an Expression of His Disposition | Eastern Lightning

Hu Ke  
Dezhou City, Shandong Province

Every Word of God Is an Expression of His Disposition | Eastern Lightning

Whenever I saw these words spoken by God, I felt anxious: “Every sentence I have spoken holds the disposition of God. You would do well to ponder My words carefully, and you will surely profit greatly from them.” I felt anxious because understanding God’s disposition is so important both to man’s understanding of God and their seeking to love and satisfy Him. But when eating and drinking the words of God, I always felt like God’s disposition was too abstract, and I didn’t know how to understand it. Afterward, through fellowship from my leader, I came to know that I should understand what God likes and what He hates from His words, and thereby come to understand God’s disposition. I subsequently tried for a while to put this into practice and I saw some results. But I still felt at a loss regarding God’s words, “Every sentence I have spoken holds the disposition of God,” and had no idea how exactly to understand it.

Rising Up Through Dark Oppression | Eastern Lightning

Rising Up Through Dark Oppression

Mo Zhijian    Guangdong Province

I was born in a poor, remote mountain area where we have burned incense and worshiped Buddha for many generations. There are Buddhist temples all over the land where all the families would go to burn incense; no one had ever believed in God. In 1995, my wife and I were in another part of the country where we believed in the Lord Jesus; after we returned we began sharing the gospel and the number of people who accepted it slowly grew to over 100 people. Because more and more people were believing in God, it alarmed the local government.

The Riches of Life | Eastern Lightning

picture of church life 

Wang Jun    Shandong Province

Over the years since accepting the work of Almighty God in the last days, my wife and I have undergone this together under the oppression of the great red dragon. During this time, although I have had weaknesses, pain, and tears, I feel that I have gained a great deal from experiencing this oppression. These bitter experiences have not only made me clearly see the reactionary, evil nature and the ugly countenance of the great red dragon, but I have also recognized my own corrupt essence. It has also allowed me to experience God’s almightiness and wisdom. I have truly experienced and recognized the actual significance of God utilizing the great red dragon as a foil, from which my confidence in following God has become firmer and firmer.

I Am Unfit to See Christ | Eastern Lightning

Huanbao
Dalian City, Liaoning Province

The Picture is Form The Church of Almighty God

Since I first began believing in Almighty God, I have always admired those brothers and sisters who can receive the personal ministry of Christ, who can hear His sermons with their own ears. In my heart, I have thought how wonderful it would be if one day in the future I can hear Christ’s sermons, of course to see Him would be even more wonderful. But lately, through listening to His fellowship, I have come to feel deeply in my heart that I am not fit to see Christ.

God’s Best Protection for Mankind | Eastern Lightning

Kuiqian 
Rizhao City, Shandong Province 

God’s Best Protection for Mankind | Eastern Lightning

My station in life, or status, was something I could never let go of, and when God created an environment that exposed me, I was only negative, complaining, and despairing. Only through refinement after refinement did I come to understand God’s good intentions, and that His testing of me was not to torment me. Rather, it was to cleanse me and make me perfect, to allow me to understand that believing in God for the sake of a station can only ruin me, thus allowing me to let go of improper views of pursuit, and to have a proper goal to pursue.

Being Reborn Through the Word of God | Eastern Lightning

Being Reborn Through the Word of God | Eastern Lightning

Being Reborn Through the Word of God

Wang Gang    Shandong Province

I am a farmer and because my family is poor, I always had to travel all over to find temporary jobs to earn money; I thought that I could make a good life for myself through my physical labor. However, in reality, I saw that there were no guarantees for the legal rights of migrant workers like me; my salary was frequently withheld for no reason at all. Time and time again I was cheated and taken advantage of by others. After a year’s worth of hard work, I didn’t receive what I was supposed to receive. I felt that this world was truly dark! Humans treat each other just like animals where the strong prey on thae weak; they contest with each other, fight hand-to-hand, and I simply didn’t have a foothold to live on like this. In the extreme pain and depression of my spirit, and when I had lost faith in life, a friend of mine shared the salvation of Almighty God with me.Since then, I regularly gathered, prayed and sang with brothers and sisters; we communicated truth, and used our strengths to make up for each other’s weaknesses. I felt very happy and liberated. In the Church of Almighty God, I saw that the brothers and sisters didn’t try to outwit each other or make social distinctions; they were all purely open and got along with each other. Everyone was there to diligently seek truth in order to throw off their corrupt dispositions, and live like humans and obtain salvation. This allowed me to experience happiness in life and understand the significance and value of life. Therefore, I decided that I should spread the gospel and allow more people who live in darkness to come to God to receive His salvation and see the light again. Consequently, I joined the ranks of proclaiming the gospel and testifying of God. But unexpectedly, I was arrested by the CCP government for preaching the gospel and I suffered the extreme brutality of torture, cruel treatment and imprisonment.

Return of a Prodigal Son | Eastern Lightning

Wang Xin  
Harbin City

Christian The Church of Almighty God

In 1999, I became a leader due to the requirements of the work of the church. Although I felt deeply that I was not worthy of the job when I first started, after a while, due to my arrogant and self-righteous nature, my initial cautiousness gradually turned into exalting myself and testifying about myself. I cared about food, clothes, and enjoyment, greedily indulging in the blessings of my status. I even wanted to be on an equal footing with God. In the end, I was finally dismissed and sent home. It was only after this that I had an awakening and realized that “status” had made me give up on God and the truth; “status” had made me set up my individual kingdom; “status” had turned me into an antichrist; “status” made me embark on the road to death. It was only then that I discovered that I had strayed so very far from the right path and already fallen too deep.

God’s Words Have Awakened Me | Eastern Lightning

Miao Xiao  
Jinan City, Shandong Province

In the past, I used to always think that when God said “a puppet and traitor who flees from the great white throne” He was referring to those who accept this stage of work but end up retreating because they are unwilling to bear the suffering of His chastisement and judgment. Therefore, whenever I saw brothers and sisters back out from this path for whatever reason, my heart would be filled with contempt toward them: There goes another puppet and traitor fleeing from the great white throne who shall receive God’s punishment. At the same time, I felt I was behaving properly in accepting God’s judgment and was not far from receiving God’s salvation.

Tribulation Inspired My Love for God | Eastern Lightning

Tribulation Inspired My Love for God | Eastern Lightning

Tribulation Inspired My Love for God

Meng Yong    Shanxi Province

I am by nature an honest person, which is why I have always been bullied by other people. As a result, I have tasted the coldness of the world of man and felt my life empty and without meaning. After I started believing in Almighty God, through the reading of God’s words and living the church life, I enjoyed an earnestness and joy in my heart I had never felt before. Seeing the brothers and sisters of the Church of Almighty God love each other like a family made me realize that only God is righteous, and that only in the Church of Almighty God is there light. Through several years of personally experiencing Almighty God’s work, I have come to truly appreciate that the words of Almighty God can indeed change people and save people. Almighty God is love, and He is salvation.

Why does one have to pray, have meetings, and read God’s words while believing in God so as to receive a new life?

The answer from God’s word:

“Prayer is one of the ways in which man cooperates with God, it is a means by which man calls upon God, and it is the process by which man is touched by God’s Spirit. It can be said that those who are without prayer are dead ones without spirit, proof that they lack the faculties to be touched by God. Without prayer, they are unable to attain a normal spiritual life, much less are they able to follow the work of the Holy Spirit; without prayer, they sever their relationship with God, and are incapable of receiving God’s approval. Being someone who believes in God, the more you pray, the more you are touched by God. Such people have greater resolution and are more able to receive the latest enlightenment from God; as a result, only people like this can be made perfect as soon as possible by the Holy Spirit.”

from “Concerning the Practice of Prayer” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

Finally I Live Out a Little Like a Human | Eastern Lightning

Finally I Live Out a Little Like a Human

Xiangwang    Sichuan Province

I feel deeply chastised in my heart every time I see that God’s words say: “Cruel, brutal mankind! The conniving and intrigue, the jostling with each other, the scramble for reputation and fortune, the mutual slaughter—when will it ever end? God has spoken hundreds of thousands of words, yet no one has come to their senses. They act for the sake of their families, and sons and daughters, for their careers, prospects, status, vanity, and money, for the sake of clothes, for food and the flesh—whose actions are truly for the sake of God? Even among those whose actions are for the sake of God, there are but few who know God. How many do not act for the sake of their own interests? How many do not oppress and discriminate against others for the sake of maintaining their own status? Thus, God has been forcibly condemned to death innumerable times, countless barbaric judges have condemned God and once more nailed Him to the cross” (“The Wicked Must Be Punished” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

52 You say that God has come, but we dare not believe it. For it is written in the Bible, “Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” How should we discern the true Christ and the false ones?

The answer from God’s word:

“To study such a thing is not difficult, but requires each of us to know this truth: He who is God’s incarnation shall hold the substance of God, and He who is God’s incarnation shall hold the expression of God. Since God becomes flesh, He shall bring forth the work He must do, and since God becomes flesh, He shall express what He is, and shall be able to bring the truth to man, bestow life upon man, and show man the way. Flesh that does not contain the substance of God is surely not the incarnate God; of this there is no doubt. To investigate whether it is God’s incarnate flesh, man must determine this from the disposition He expresses and the words He speaks. Which is to say, whether or not it is God’s incarnate flesh, and whether or not it is the true way, must be judged from His substance. And so, in determining[a] whether it is the flesh of God incarnate, the key is to pay attention to His substance (His work, His words, His disposition, and many more), rather than external appearance. If man sees only His external appearance, and overlooks His substance, then that shows the ignorance and naivety of man. External appearance does not determine substance; what’s more, the work of God has never conformed with the conceptions of man. Did not the outward appearance of Jesus conflict with the conceptions of man? Were not His appearance and dress unable to provide any clues as to His true identity? Was not the reason why the earliest Pharisees opposed Jesus because they merely looked at His external appearance, and did not take to heart the words that He spoke? It is My hope that the brothers and sisters who seek the appearance of God will not repeat the tragedy of history. You must not become the Pharisees of modern times and nail God to the cross again. You should carefully consider how to welcome the return of God, and should have a clear mind of how to be someone who submits to the truth. This is the responsibility of everyone who is waiting for Jesus to return with the clouds. We should rub our spiritual eyes, and not fall prey to the words full of flights of fancy. We should think about the practical work of God, and should take a look at the real side of God. Do not get carried away or lose yourselves in daydreams, always looking forward to the day that the Lord Jesus suddenly descends among you on a cloud to take you who have never known Him or seen Him, and do not know how to do His will. It is better to think upon practical matters!”

from Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh

IX Questions and Answers About God’s Work of Judgment in the Last Days

Question 9: We accept God’s work of the last days, but how do we experience God’s judgment and chastisement so that we can receive the truth and life, get rid of our sinful nature, and achieve salvation to enter the kingdom of heaven?

Answer: How to experience God’s judgment and chastisement to receive the truth and life, and get rid of our sinful nature to achieve salvation and enter the kingdom of heaven. This question you have raised is very important, because this relates to the major issues of man’s ending and destination. To seek this aspect of the truth, we should first read a few passages of Almighty God’s word:

“True faith in God means experiencing the words and work of God based on a belief that God holds sovereignty over all things. So you shall be freed of your corrupt disposition, shall fulfill the desire of God, and shall come to know God. Only through such a journey can you be said to believe in God” (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh).

“The current process of speaking is the process of conquering. How exactly should people cooperate? By eating and drinking these words effectively and understanding them. People cannot become conquered by themselves. They must, from eating and drinking these words, come to know their corruption and filth, their rebelliousness and unrighteousness, and fall down before God. If you can understand God’s will and then put it into practice and, further, have the vision, and if you can completely obey these words and not exercise any of your own choices, then you will have been conquered. And it will be these words that have conquered you” (“The Inside Truth of the Conquering Work (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

“Paying attention to eating and drinking God’s words, paying attention to seeking the truth and God’s intentions in His words, and finding out God’s will in all things—this is the most fundamental and crucial means of practice. … Devoting all of your mind and body to God’s words primarily involves seeking the truth and God’s intentions in His words, paying attention to finding out God’s will, and understanding and gaining more truths in God’s words. … achieving the knowledge of God’s disposition and His loveliness, and knowing the various corrupt states of man, his corrupt nature, and what he truly lacks, and fulfilling God’s various requirements of man in order to satisfy God. Peter can correctly put all these things into practice according to God’s words, and nothing will be more after God’s heart, and there will be no better cooperation in experiencing God’s work” (“How to Walk the Path of Peter” in Records of Christ’s Talks With Leaders and Workers of the Church).

VIII Questions and Answers About the Inside Story of the Bible | The Church of Almighty God

Question 7: I’ve studied the Bible for more than 20 years. I found that although the Bible had more than 40 authors in different times, what they wrote has no mistake. This shows that God is the true author of the Bible. The Bible is from the Holy Spirit.

Answer: You mentioned the Bible had more than 40 authors. And you think there is no mistake. Is there really no mistake? Let’s fellowship about this issue. Actually, Christ of the last days, Almighty God, has disclosed these mysteries to us. Almighty God’s words say, “The genealogy of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament begins by saying that Jesus was a descendant of Abraham and David, and the son of Joseph. The Gospel goes on to say that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born to a virgin; in other words, Jesus was not Joseph’s son and was not descended from Abraham and David. But the record in the genealogy forcedly relates Jesus to Joseph. It goes on to describe the birth of Jesus, saying that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and that His mother was a virgin, and so He was not Joseph’s son. But the genealogy clearly states that Jesus was the son of Joseph. Because it was meant to be Jesus’ genealogy, the Gospel lists forty-two generations. When it goes to the generation of Joseph, it hurriedly adds that Joseph was Mary’s husband in order to establish Jesus’ descent from Abraham. Isn’t this a contradiction? The genealogy, with a list of Joseph’s ancestors, is clearly Joseph’s, but Matthew insists that it is Jesus’; doesn’t that therefore deny the fact of Jesus’ conception by the Holy Spirit? So, isn’t the genealogy written by Matthew from human mind? It is even something ridiculous! From this it is obvious that the book was not at all wholly from the Holy Spirit” (“Concerning the Bible (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words, we know that the genealogy written by Matthew wasn’t something of God’s will. How can God have a genealogy? Matthew knew that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit but still wrote a genealogy for Him, saying that He was the offspring of David and the son of Joseph. Wasn’t he denying that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit? Jesus had nothing to do with Joseph. Matthew’s words are contradictory. Obviously, writing this genealogy is not from the Holy Spirit but from man’s will. Let’s have a look at John 8:58, “Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am.” How can we explain this? Here we see that Jesus’ genealogy is from man’s will. It was written by Matthew after 50 A.D. The Holy Spirit didn’t directly instruct Matthew to write it.

VI Questions and Answers About Salvation and Final Salvation | Eastern Lightning

Question 1: The Bible says, “For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation” (Romans 10: 10). We’ve been saved through our faith in Jesus Christ. Remember: Once saved, always saved. When He comes, we will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Answer: “Once saved, one is always saved and will enter the kingdom of heaven.” This is how we interpret God’s work. But it is totally against God’s word. Lord Jesus never said one can enter the kingdom of heaven after being saved by faith, but that only he who does the will of the heavenly Father will enter. Only the word of Lord Jesus is the authority and the truth. Man’s imagination is not the truth, not the standard of entering the kingdom of heaven. We say that we are “saved by faith.” But “being saved” only means our sins are forgiven; we won’t be condemned or put to death by the law. It doesn’t mean that we can follow God’s way, break away from sin and be holy, nor that we can enter the kingdom of heaven. We are forgiven of our sins “by faith,” but the sinful nature still remains. We can still sin and resist God, living in a circle of sinning and confessing. How can such people enter the kingdom of heaven? The Bible says no man shall see the Lord without holiness. If a habitual sinner can enter the kingdom of heaven, it’s against the real situation in the kingdom of heaven. Do we dare say there are filthy and corrupt habitual sinners in the kingdom of heaven? Have we ever heard of a filthy evil person in the kingdom of heaven? The Lord is righteous and holy. Would He let a habitual sinner into the kingdom of heaven? Jesus once said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant stays not in the house for ever: but the Son stays ever” (John 8:34-35). Therefore, people bound by sin and who aren’t holy can’t enter the kingdom of heaven. If they can enter because they’re saved by faith, then why did the Lord Jesus say “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven”? Why did He say He would separate sheep from goats and tares from wheat? Therefore, “entering the kingdom of heaven after being saved by faith” is untenable. This point of view contradicts the word of the Lord Jesus!

from the movie script of Stinging Memories

From in“Classic Questions and Answers on the Gospel of the Kingdom Selections” | Eastern Lightning

Introduction：

    Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was created because of the appearance and work of Almighty God, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, Christ of the last days. It is made up of all those who accept Almighty God's work in the last days and are conquered and saved by His words. It was entirely founded by Almighty God personally and is led by Him as the Shepherd. It was definitely not created by a person. Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. God's sheep hear God's voice. As long as you read the words of Almighty God, you will see God has appeared.

Does the “judgment in the last day” spoken of in the Bible refer to Almighty God’s work of the last days?

The answer from God’s word:

“Some believe that God may sometime come to earth and appear to man, whereupon He shall personally judge the whole of mankind, testing them one by one without anyone being omitted. Those who think in this way do not know this stage of work of incarnation. God does not judge man one by one, and does not test man one by one; to do thus would not be the work of judgment. Is not the corruption of all mankind the same? Is not the substance of man all the same? What is judged is mankind’s corrupt substance, man’s substance corrupted by Satan, and all the sins of man. God does not judge the trifling and insignificant faults of man. The work of judgment is representative, and is not carried out especially for a certain person. Rather, it is work in which a group of people are judged in order to represent the judgment of all of mankind. By personally carrying out His work on a group of people, God in the flesh uses His work to represent the work of the whole of mankind, after which it is gradually spread. The work of judgment is also thus. God does not judge a certain kind of person or a certain group of people, but judges the unrighteousness of the whole of mankind—man’s opposition to God, for example, or man’s irreverence against Him, or disturbance of the work of God, and so on. What is judged is mankind’s substance of opposition to God, and this work is the work of conquest of the last days. The work and word of the incarnate God witnessed by man are the work of judgment before the great white throne during the last days, which was conceived by man during times past. The work that is currently being done by the incarnate God is exactly the judgment before the great white throne. The incarnate God of today is the God who judges the whole of mankind during the last days. This flesh and His work, word, and entire disposition are the entirety of Him. Although the scope of His work is limited, and does not directly involve the entire universe, the substance of the work of judgment is the direct judgment of all mankind; it is not work that is undertaken only for China, or for a small number of people. During the work of God in the flesh, although the scope of this work does not involve the entire universe, it represents the work of the entire universe, and after He concludes the work within the work scope of His flesh, He will immediately expand this work to the entire universe, in the same way that the gospel of Jesus spread throughout the universe following His resurrection and ascension. Regardless of whether it is the work of the Spirit or the work of the flesh, it is work that is carried out within a limited scope, but which represents the work of the entire universe. During the last days, God appears to do His work using His incarnate identity, and God in the flesh is the God who judges man before the great white throne. Regardless of whether He is the Spirit or the flesh, He who does the work of judgment is the God who judges mankind during the last days. This is defined based on His work, and is not defined according to His external appearance or several other factors. Although man has conceptions of these words, no one can deny the fact of the incarnate God’s judgment and conquest of all mankind. Regardless of how it is evaluated, facts are, after all, facts. No one can say that ‘The work is done by God, but the flesh is not God.’ This is nonsense, for this work can be done by no one except God in the flesh. … Because the one who is judged is man, man who is of the flesh and has been corrupted, and it is not the spirit of Satan that is judged directly, the work of judgment is not carried out in the spiritual world, but among man. No one is more suitable, and qualified, than God in the flesh for the work of judging the corruption of man’s flesh. If judgment were carried out directly by the Spirit of God, then it would not be all-embracing. Furthermore, such work would be difficult for man to accept, for the Spirit is unable to come face-to-face with man, and because of this, the effects would not be immediate, much less would man be able to behold the unoffendable disposition of God more clearly. Satan can only be fully defeated if God in the flesh judges the corruption of mankind. Being the same as man possessed of normal humanity, God in the flesh can directly judge the unrighteousness of man; this is the mark of His innate holiness, and of His extraordinariness. Only God is qualified to, and in the position to judge man, for He is possessed of the truth, and righteousness, and so He is able to judge man. Those who are without the truth and righteousness are not fit to judge others. If this work were done by the Spirit of God, then it would not be victory over Satan. The Spirit is inherently more exalted than mortal beings, and the Spirit of God is inherently holy, and triumphant over the flesh. If the Spirit did this work directly, He would not be able to judge all of man’s disobedience, and could not reveal all of man’s unrighteousness. For the work of judgment is also carried out through man’s conceptions of God, and man has never had any conceptions of the Spirit, and so the Spirit is incapable of better revealing the unrighteousness of man, much less of completely disclosing such unrighteousness. The incarnate God is the enemy of all those who do not know Him. Through judging man’s conceptions and opposition to Him, He discloses all the disobedience of mankind. The effects of His work in the flesh are more apparent than those of the work of the Spirit. And so, the judgment of all mankind is not carried out directly by the Spirit, but is the work of the incarnate God.”

from “Corrupt Mankind Is More in Need of the Salvation of God Become Flesh” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

God is ever unchanging. Then how can the Lord Jesus change His name to Almighty God?

The answer from God’s word:

“Each time God arrives on earth, He shall change His name, His gender, His image, and His work; He does not repeat His work, and He is always new and never old. When He came before, He was called Jesus; could He still be called Jesus when He comes again this time? When He came before, He was male; could He be male again this time? His work when He came during the Age of Grace was to be nailed to the cross; when He comes again will He still redeem mankind from sin? Will He still be nailed to a cross? Would that not be a repetition of His work? Did you not know that God is always new and never old? There are those who say that God is immutable. That is correct, but it refers to the immutability of God’s disposition and substance. Changes in His name and work do not prove that His substance has altered; in other words, God will always be God, and this will never change. If you say that the work of God always stays the same, then would He be able to finish His six-thousand-year management plan? You merely know that God is forever unchanging, but do you know that God is always new and never old? If the work of God never changed, then could He have brought mankind to today? If God is immutable, then why is it that He has already done the work of two ages? His work is always progressing forward, and so His disposition is gradually revealed to man, and what is revealed is His inherent disposition. In the beginning, God’s disposition was hidden from man, He never openly revealed His disposition to man, and man had no knowledge of Him, so He used His work to gradually reveal His disposition to man, but this does not mean that His disposition changes in each age. It is not the case that God’s disposition is constantly changing because His will is always changing. Rather, because the work of God is carried out in different ages, His inherent disposition in its entirety is gradually revealed to man, so that man is able to know Him. But this is by no means proof that God originally has no particular disposition and His disposition has gradually changed with the passing of the ages—such belief is nonsense. God reveals to man His inherent, particular disposition, what He is, according to the passing of the ages. The work of a single age cannot express the entire disposition of God. And so, the words ‘God is always new and never old’ are in reference to His work, and the words ‘God is immutable’ are in regard to what God inherently has and is. Regardless, you cannot define the six-thousand-year work in one point, or portray it with mere static words. Such is the stupidity of man. God is not as simple as man imagines, and His work will not stop in one age. Jehovah, for example, will not always stand for the name of God; God also does His work under the name of Jesus, which is a symbol of how God’s work is always progressing forward.

Some people believe that one must believe in God according to the Bible. Can one be saved by believing in God in the Bible?

Bible Reference:

“Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life” (John 5:39-40).

The answer from God’s word:

“Only the work of God can save man. The Bible cannot save man, it has not changed at all for several thousands of years, and if you worship the Bible you will never gain the work of the Holy Spirit.”

from “Concerning the Bible (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

Why do people always use the Bible to define God? Why is it wrong to define God within the Bible?

The answer from God’s word:

“The Bible has been accompanying man for several thousand years of history, and people all treat it as God, and in the last days people even replace God’s place with the Bible, which is a thing greatly loathed by God. So, in His leisure time, God has to make clear both the inside truth and the origin of the Bible. If not, in man’s heart the Bible can still take the place of God, and people will still condemn and measure God’s doings with the letters of the Bible. By explaining the substance and structure of the Bible and the flaws in it, God is not denying the existence of the Bible or condemning the Bible, but giving a proper and appropriate statement about it and showing what the Bible really is, correcting people’s erroneous knowledge about the Bible, so that they all can have an accurate view about the Bible, no longer worship the Bible, and no longer lose the direction—considering blindly believing in the Bible as believing in God and worshiping God, and even daring not to face the true background of the Bible and the flaws in it. After people all have a pure knowledge of the Bible, they will cast it off without any misgiving and accept God’s new word boldly. … Here, the truth God wants to tell man is that no theory or fact can replace God’s practical work and word, and no thing can take the place of God. If one cannot break away from the trapping of the Bible, then he can never possibly come before God. If one wants to come before God, he needs to first sweep away all the things in his heart that can replace God. Thus God will be satisfied. Although here God only gives explanations about the Bible, you should not forget that apart from the Bible, there are many other erroneous things that man truly worships, and that the only things that man does not worship are those truly from God. God just takes the Bible as an example to remind everyone: Do not take the wrong way, and do not go to extremes and fall into confusion again while you believe in God and receive God’s word.”

from A Brief Introduction to Part Three of The Word Appears in the Flesh

How do God’s three stages of work deepen stage by stage and cause man to be saved?

        The answer from God’s word:

“The work of managing mankind is divided into three stages, which means that the work of saving mankind is divided into three stages. These three stages do not include the work of creating the world, but are rather the three stages of the work of the Age of Law, the Age of Grace, and the Age of Kingdom. The work of creating the world was the work of producing the whole of mankind. It was not the work of saving mankind, and bears no relation to the work of saving mankind, for when the world was created mankind had not been corrupted by Satan, and so there was no need to carry out the work of mankind’s salvation. The work of saving mankind only began once mankind had been corrupted, and so the work of managing mankind also only began once mankind had been corrupted.”

from “Knowing the Three Stages of God’s Work Is the Path to Knowing God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

The Work of Spreading the Gospel Is Also the Work of Saving Man

         All people need to understand the purpose of My work on earth, that is, the final objective of My work and what level I must achieve in this work before it can be complete. If people, walking with Me to this day, do not understand what My work is all about, then have they not been walking with Me in vain? People who follow Me should know My will. I have been working on earth for thousands of years, and I am still doing so now. Although there are especially numerous items included in My work, its purpose remains unchanged. For example, although I am filled with judgment and chastisement toward man, it is still in order to save him, to better spread My gospel and further expand My work among the Gentile nations once man has been made complete. So now, at a time when many people have already greatly lost hope, I am continuing with My work, continuing the work I must do to judge and chastise man. Despite the fact that man is fed up with what I say and regardless of the fact that he has no desire to care about My work, I am still carrying out My duty because the purpose of My work remains unchanged and My original plan will not be broken. The function of My judgment is to get man to better obey Me, and the function of My chastisement is to allow man a better transformation. Although what I do is for the sake of My management, I have never done anything that was unprofitable for man. That is because I want to make all the nations outside of Israel just as obedient as the Israelites and make them into real men, so that I will have a foothold in the lands outside of Israel. This is My management; it is the work I am accomplishing in the lands of the Gentiles. Even now, many people still do not understand My management because they are not concerned with it, instead just thinking about their futures and destinations. No matter what I say, people are indifferent to My work, just focusing on the destinations of their tomorrow. So if that continues, how can My work be expanded? How can My gospel be spread throughout the world? You must know that when My work is expanding, I will scatter you, and I will strike you just as Jehovah struck the tribes of Israel. All this will be done so that My gospel may be enlarged over all the earth, so that My work may spread to the Gentile nations. Thus, My name will be magnified by adults and children alike and My holy name will be exalted by the mouths of people from all tribes and nations. In the final era, I will have My name magnified among the Gentile nations, make My deeds seen by the Gentiles so they will call Me the Almighty, and cause My words to soon come to pass. I will make all people know that I am not only the God of the Israelites, but the God of all Gentile nations, even of the nations I have cursed. I will let all people see that I am the God of all creation. This is My greatest work, the purpose of My work plan for the last days, and the only work to be fulfilled in the last days.

The Last Christ Is the Lord of the Judgment and the One Who Opens the Scroll. | The Church of Almighty God

1 Almighty God is all-powerful, all-achieving and utterly complete true God! He not only carries the seven stars, bears the seven Spirits, has seven eyes, opens the seven seals and opens the scroll, but more than that He administers the seven plagues and the seven bowls and opens the seven thunders; long ago He has sounded the seven trumpets! All things created and made complete by Him should praise Him, give glory to Him and exalt His throne. Oh, Almighty God! You are everything, You have accomplished everything, and with You all is complete, all bright, all emancipated, all free, all strong and powerful! There is nothing hidden or concealed, with You all mysteries are revealed. Furthermore, You judge the multitudes of Your enemies, You show Your majesty, show Your raging fire, show Your wrath, and even more You show Your unprecedented, everlasting, entirely infinite glory! All peoples should awaken and should cheer and sing without reserve, extolling the almighty, the all-true, all-living, bountiful, glorious and true God who is from everlasting to everlasting.

from “The Thirty-fourth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

In the Bible, there are indeed many prophecies about God’s work of the last days. But which words of God can confirm the fulfillment of these prophecies?

        The answer from God’s word:

“In the last days, when I open My scroll (the scroll refers to all the words of My mouth, the words I speak in the last time, which are all the content of My scroll), I will tell you this.”

from “The One Hundred and Tenth Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

“Man believes that, following the crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus went back to heaven upon a white cloud, and took His place at the Most High’s right hand. Similarly, man conceives that Jesus shall descend, again upon a white cloud (this cloud refers to the cloud that Jesus rode upon when He returned to heaven), among those who have desperately yearned for Him for thousands of years, and that He shall bear the image and clothes of the Jews. After appearing to man, He shall bestow food upon them, and cause living water to gush forth for them, and shall live among man, full of grace and love, living and real. And so on. Yet Jesus the Savior did not do this; He did the opposite of what man conceived. He did not arrive among those who had yearned for His return, and did not appear to all men while riding upon the white cloud. He has already arrived, but man does not know Him, and remains ignorant of His arrival. Man is only aimlessly awaiting Him, unaware that He has already descended upon a white cloud (the cloud which is His Spirit, His words, and His entire disposition and all that He is), and is now among a group of overcomers that He will make during the last days.”

from “The Savior Has Already Returned Upon a ‘White Cloud’” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

A Selection From the Four Passages of God’s Word on “Concerning the Bible” | The Church of Almighty God

1. For many years, people’s traditional means of belief (that of Christianity, one of the world’s three major religions) has been to read the Bible; departure from the Bible is not the belief in the Lord, departure from the Bible is an evil cult, and heresy, and even when people read other books, the foundation of these books must be the explanation of the Bible. Which is to say, if you say you believe in the Lord, then you must read the Bible, you must eat and drink the Bible, and outside the Bible you must not worship any book that does not involve the Bible. If you do, then you are betraying God. From the time when there was the Bible, people’s belief in the Lord has been the belief in the Bible. Instead of saying people believe in the Lord, it is better to say they believe in the Bible; rather than saying they have begun reading the Bible, it is better to say they have begun believing in the Bible; and rather than saying they have returned before the Lord, it would be better to say they have returned before the Bible. In this way, people worship the Bible as if it were God, as if it were their lifeblood and losing it would be the same as losing their life. People see the Bible as being as high as God, and there are even those who see it as higher than God. If people are without the work of the Holy Spirit, if they cannot feel God, they can carry on living—but as soon as they lose the Bible, or lose the famous chapters and sayings from the Bible, then it is as if they have lost their life. And so, as soon as people believe in the Lord they begin reading the Bible, and memorizing the Bible, and the more of the Bible they are able to memorize, the more this proves that they love the Lord and are of great faith. Those who have read the Bible and can speak of it to others are all good brothers and sisters. For all these years, people’s faith and loyalty to the Lord has been measured according to the extent of their understanding of the Bible. Most people simply don’t understand why they should believe in God, nor how to believe in God, and do nothing but search blindly for clues to decipher the chapters of the Bible. They have never pursued the direction of the work of the Holy Spirit; all along, they have done nothing but desperately study and investigate the Bible, and no one has ever found newer work of the Holy Spirit outside of the Bible, no one has ever departed from the Bible, nor have they ever dared to depart from the Bible. People have studied the Bible for all these years, they have come up with so many explanations, and put in so much work; they also have many differences of opinion about the Bible, which they debate endlessly, such that over two thousand different denominations have been formed today. They all want to find some special explanations, or more profound mysteries in the Bible, they want to explore it, and to find in it the background to Jehovah’s work in Israel, or the background to Jesus’ work in Judea, or more mysteries that no one else knows. People’s approach to the Bible is one of obsession and faith, and no one can be completely clear about the inside story or substance of the Bible. Thus, the result is that today, people still have an indescribable sense of magicalness when it comes to the Bible; even more than that, they are obsessed with it, and have faith in it. Today, everyone wants to find the prophecies of the work of the last days in the Bible, they want to discover what work God does during the last days, and what omens there are for the last days. In this way, their worship of the Bible becomes more fervent, and the closer it gets to the last days, the more credence they give to the prophecies of the Bible, particularly those about the last days. With such blind belief in the Bible, with such trust in the Bible, they have no desire to seek the work of the Holy Spirit. In people’s conceptions, they think that only the Bible can bring the work of the Holy Spirit; only in the Bible can they find the footsteps of God; only in the Bible are hidden the mysteries of God’s work; only the Bible—not other books or people—can clarify everything of God and the entirety of His work; the Bible can bring the work of heaven to earth; and the Bible can both begin and conclude the ages. With these conceptions, people have no inclination to search for the work of the Holy Spirit. So, regardless of how much of a help the Bible was to people in the past, it has become an obstacle to God’s latest work. Without the Bible, people can search for the footsteps of God elsewhere, yet today, His footsteps have been “contained” by the Bible, and extending His latest work has become double difficult, and an uphill struggle. This is all because of the famous chapters and sayings from the Bible, as well as the various prophecies of the Bible. The Bible has become an idol in people’s minds, it has become a puzzle in their brains, and they are simply incapable of believing that God can work exclusive of the Bible, they are incapable of believing that people can find God outside of the Bible, much less are they able to believe that God could depart from the Bible during the final work and start anew. This is unthinkable to people; they can’t believe it, and neither can they imagine it. The Bible has become a great obstacle to people’s acceptance of God’s new work, and has made it difficult to broaden this new work.

from “Concerning the Bible (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

How did the Bible come into being? What kind of book is the Bible? | Eastern Lightning

        The answer from God’s word:

“The things recorded in the Old Testament are Jehovah’s work in Israel, and that which is recorded in the New Testament is the work of Jesus during the Age of Grace; they document the work done by God in two different ages. The Old Testament documents the work of God during the Age of Law, and thus the Old Testament is a historical book, while the New Testament is the product of the work of the Age of Grace. When the new work began, these books became out of date—and thus, the New Testament is also a historical book. Of course, the New Testament is not as systematic as the Old Testament, nor does it record as many things.”

from “Concerning the Bible (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh