Each and every time the Eastern Lightning is mentioned, many brothers and sisters in the Lord feel perplexed: Why is it that as the religious community as a whole becomes increasingly desolate and degenerate, as each denomination becomes increasingly guarded and conservative in condemning and banishing the Eastern Lightning, not only is the Eastern Lightning not becoming desolate and ebbing, but surging like unstoppable billows, sweeping across mainland China? Now that it has even expanded beyond China’s borders to foreign countries and regions, as it is being accepted by more and more people worldwide?
The work of God incarnate includes two parts. The first time He became flesh, people did not believe in Him or know Him, and nailed Jesus to the cross. The second time, too, people did not believe in Him, much less know Him, and once again nailed Christ to the cross. Is man not the enemy of God? If man does not know Him, how could man be the intimate of God? And how could he be qualified to bear testimony to God? Loving God, serving God, glorifying God—are these not deceitful lies?
Answer: To answer this question, let’s read two passages of Almighty God’s words and see how Almighty God phrased it. Almighty God says, “What is the most basic principle in seeking the true way? You have to look at whether or not there is the work of the Holy Spirit, whether or not these words are the expression of the truth, who is testified, and what it can bring you” (“Only Those Who Know God and His Work Can Satisfy God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
In 1996, I believed in the Lord Jesus because of my wife’s illness. Later, I became a church leader. To serve the Lord wholeheartedly, I resigned the secretaryship of our village. From then on, I worked for the Lord day in and day out, bustling about several churches for more than 70 miles around.
Question 1: If the “Eastern Lightning” is the true way, why is the CCP government so against them? Why do religious leaders condemn them with such fervor? The pastors and elders receive much persecution from the government too. So when they tell us about the “Eastern Lightning,” why would such servants of God have the same opinions and attitudes as those of the CCP government? What’s the reason behind this?
Answer: The Bible says, “the whole world lies in wickedness” (1 John 5:19). The Lord Jesus also said, “This is an evil generation” (Luke 11:29). So, to what extent has the world now become evil and dark? In the Age of Grace, the incarnate Lord Jesus who came to redeem mankind was nailed to the cross by the religious world and those in power then. In the last days, when Almighty God expresses the truth to judge mankind, He’s also condemned and opposed by both the religious world and the CCP regime, the regime of the great red dragon, and rejected by this age. This fulfills the Lord Jesus’ words, “For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation” (Luke 17:24-25). This prophecy of the Lord Jesus has now been fulfilled. All those who long for God’s appearance should find it clear that the Lord has arrived and is doing the work of judgment of the last days. The Lord Jesus’ prophecy is already fulfilled. Are any people still unclear about this fact? This atheistic regime and most religious leaders are Satan’s forces. They hate God and hate the truth. The Lord Jesus’ cruel crucifixion is proof of that fact. You see, the true way will always be rejected and condemned by godless regimes and the religious world. What’s more, those who preach and practice the true way will always face persecution and slander from the two. As the Lord Jesus said, “If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18-19). And it’s for this reason that through all ages, those who can accept and follow the true way and the true God, are that small portion of humankind who love and pursue the truth. While most people, because they follow Satan’s forces or fear persecution, dare not seek the true way, so they lose their chance to receive God’s salvation. That’s why the Lord Jesus once warned, “Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads to life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
I was born in a Catholic family. Since I was little, I attended Mass at church with my grandparents. Due to the influence of my environment and my belief in God, I learned to chant many different scriptures and practice various rituals.
In 2009, I arrived in Japan to study. One time, in a fellow student’s dorm room, I met by chance a Christian small group leader who had come to spread the gospel. I thought: Protestants and Catholics believe in the same God. They both believe in the LordJesus. As a result, I accepted the small group leader’s invitation to join him at the church. After listening to the pastors preach and hearing some brothers and sisters talk about the Bible, I had some understanding about the Lord Jesus’ life.
My name is Wu Xiangtao, and I was formerly in the Third Redemption sect (whose founder is Ji Sanbao). Because my stomach trouble was healed after I believed in God, I thanked “God,” Ji Sanbao, in my heart and resolved to repay the love of “God.” Over those four years, I had worked for “God” wholeheartedly regardless of others’ rumors and gossips, and I became the leader of two hundred and fifty people.
I was formerly a middle-level leader in “Pentecostal Church.” One day in December 1999, I received from our General Assembly a booklet entitled “Resisting the Temptation from the ‘Eastern Lightning.’” It said, “The ‘Eastern Lightning’ is a heresy, a cult, which claims that the Lord has been incarnated as a female. It’s a mafia. If you refuse to join them after hearing their messages, they will gouge your eyes, cut off your nose, break your arms or legs. And they are promiscuous…” After reading these words, I accepted them as true without thought and immediately called the co-workers together for a meeting.
Most followers of the Lord Jesus Christ hear about the Eastern Lightning from their pastors, elders, or preachers, but in actuality no one knows where the Eastern Lightning came from. When it comes to the origin of the Eastern Lightning, everyone has their own opinion: Some people believe it is nothing more than a new denomination in Christianity, others decry it as “heresy” or an “evil cult.” People have these absurd ideas because they don’t know the work of God.
Question 5: The religious pastors and elders often preach to believers that any preaching that says the Lord has come in the flesh is false. They base this on the Bible verses: “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” (Mat 24:23-24). We now have no idea how we should discern the true Christ from false ones, so please answer this question.
Answer:
The LordJesus did indeed foretell that there would be false Christs and false prophets in the last days. This is a fact. But the Lord Jesus also clearly prophesied many times that He would come back. Don’t we believe this? When examining the prophecies of the Lord Jesus’ return, many people give priority to being wary of false Christs and false prophets, and spare no thought to how to welcome the arrival of the Bridegroom, and how to hear the voice of the Bridegroom. What’s the issue here? Isn’t it a case of not eating for fear of choking, of being penny-wise and pound-foolish?
Question 27: The Bible is testimony to God’s work; only through reading the Bible can those who believe in the Lord recognize that God created the heavens and earth and all things and see God’s wonderful deeds, His greatness and almightiness. In the Bible there are lots of God’s words and lots of testimonies of man’s experiences; it can provide for the life of man and be of great benefit to man, so what I’d like to pursue is, can we actually attain eternal life through reading the Bible? Is there really no way of eternal life within the Bible?
Answer:
Through reading the Bible we come to understand that God is the Creator of the heavens and earth and all things and we begin to recognize His wondrous deeds. This is because the Bible is a testimonyto the first two stages of God’s work. It is a record of the words and work of God and the testimony of man during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. So, the Bible is very important to our faith. Think about it, if not for the Bible, how would we come to understand the Lord’s word and know the Lord? How else would we witness God’s deeds and begin to develop true faith in God? If we do not read the Bible, how else will we witness the real testimony of all the saints throughout the ages obeying God? So, reading the Bible is essential to the practice of faith, and no believer of the Lord should ever go astray from the Bible. You could say, he who goes astray from the Bible could not believe in the Lord. This is verified in the experiences of saints throughout the ages. No one dares deny the value and meaning of reading the Bible in the practice of faith. So, saints throughout the ages and believers all view reading the Bible as a very important matter. Some would even go so far as to say that, reading the Bible and prayer are as essential as our two legs are for walking, without either we fail to move forward. But the Lord Jesus has said, “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” (Jhn 5:39-40). Some people are confused. They think: Given that the Bible is a record of God’s word and man’s testimony, reading the Bible should give us eternal life. Then why is it that the Lord Jesus said there is no eternal life in the Bible? Actually, this is not such a difficult idea. As long as we understand the inside story and the substance of God’s words and work during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace as well as the effect achieved through these words and work, then we’ll naturally come to realize why it is that we cannot receive eternal life through the reading of the Bible. During the Age of Law, Jehovah God’s words were chiefly concerned with promulgating laws, the commandments and ordinances for man to follow. His words were mostly a kind of guide for humanity, which was still in their infancy, to live on earth. These words did not involve changing man’s life disposition. So God’s words during the Age of Law were all aimed at making people abide by the laws and the commandments. Though these words were truth, they represent the very rudimentary truth. During the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus’ words and work were focused on the work of redemption. The words He issued addressed the truth of redemption and taught people that they ought to confess their sins and repent and refrain from sinning and evildoing. These words also taught people the proper way to pray to the Lord and demanded that man should love the Lord with all their heart and soul, love their neighbor as themselves, be tolerant and patient, and forgive others seventy times seven times, etc. These are all included in the way of repentance. So, through reading the Bible, we can only understand the work of God during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. We come to realize that all things are created by God and learn how to live on earth and how to worship God. We understand what sin is, who are blessed by God and who are cursed by God. We come to know how to confess our sins and repent to God. We learn humility, forbearance, and forgiveness, and know that we ought to take up the cross to follow the Lord. We see for ourselves the unlimited mercy and compassion of the Lord Jesus, and realize that only by coming before the Lord Jesus in faith will we enjoy His abundant grace and truth. The words and work of God during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace as recorded in the Bible were the truth spoken by God according to His plan of saving mankind and the needs of mankind at that point in time. These truths were completely incapable of changing our life disposition and allowing us to attain purification, salvation, and perfection. Thus, the words issued by the Lord Jesus during the Age of Grace can only be called the way of repentance, but not the way of eternal life.
So what is the way of eternal life then? The way of eternal life is the way of truth which allows man to live forever, which is to say, it is the way which allows man to cast off the binds and restraints of his sinful nature, change his life disposition, and allows him to gain the truth as life, thoroughly break free of Satan’s influence, and become compatible with Christ. It allows man to know, obey, and revere God so as to never again sin to oppose or betray God. Only that which can achieve this effect may be called the way of eternal life. Man dies as a result of sin. If man attains the truth as life and solves the problem of sin, God will bless him with eternal life. So, only by receiving the salvation of God in the last days can we enjoy the way of eternal life which God grants to humankind. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jhn 11:25-26). This is sufficient to prove that mankind’s life and death is in the hands of God; this is God’s authority and no man can change their own fate. Only those who achieve salvation by accepting the work of God in the last days and gaining truth as their lives can obtain eternal life; this is absolutely certain. Therefore, after the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus in the Age of Grace was completed, He promised to return, and at that time the Lord Jesus said: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come” (Jhn 16:12-13). The truth expressed by the returned Lord Jesus is the only way of eternal life. This is sufficient to prove that Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. Why doesn’t the Bible contain the way of eternal life? It is primarily because the Bible records God’s previous two stages of work, but it does not contain the truths expressed by God in the last days of cleansing and saving mankind. Therefore, there is no way of eternal life within the Bible. However, this does not diminish the Bible as a testimony to God or the effect the Bible has on its readers. In fact, it is precisely because God who is testified to in the Bible is real, God creating heaven and earth and all living things is true, and testimonies of generations of saints submitting and being loyal to God are true that the position of the Bible in man’s heart has never changed. One could say that generations of saints matured due to the edification they received from the Bible. Even though the corrupt disposition of mankind persists and Satan’s nature still exists and a true cleansing has not yet been gained, nonetheless the saints’ faith in and loyalty to God has never wavered. In fact, many have been martyrs for the Lord, all of whom have borne a beautiful and resounding testimony to the Lord. These are the results of God’s work in the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. We can all clearly see that those with faith in the Lord are countless in number, and even though they have not been cleansed, their life disposition has not changed, and they do not have a true understanding of God, nonetheless their faith is true. God has not forsaken these people and He merely waits for the second coming in the last days where they will be caught up before Him, they will be cleansed by Him, made perfect. In this way, all who have true faith in the Lord and who love truth will gain the way of eternal life that is given by God in the last days. Now we should be clear on the issue of why the Bible cannot grant eternal life, right?
Almighty God’s Chastening Woke Up the Disobedient Me
Zhao Kaiyang
Zhumadian City, Henan Province
Pray to God
I started to believe in the Lord in the “Three-Self sect” in 1986. In 1990, I turned to the local church, the “Praise Church,” and became a leader. In June of 1999, I accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days. When I think back to my past, I am terribly ashamed of myself. Because I was blind, ignorant, and didn’t know God, I committed a mortal sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. But fortunately, Almighty God chastened and disciplined me in a timely manner, so that I woke up and returned before His throne.
God’s Judgment in the Last Days Makes the Overcomers Before the Disaster
Now Almighty God is still looking forward to the return of all believers in Jesus, and patiently waiting for all those who sincerely believe in God to come back. Almighty God says: “If people remain in the Age of Grace, then they shall never be free of their corrupt disposition, let alone know the inherent disposition of God. If people always live among an abundance of grace but are without the way of life that allows them to know God and satisfy God, then they shall never truly gain Him though they believe in Him.
Power and Position Lured Me to Keep Away from the True Way
Li Zhixin
Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province
I believed in the Lord in the Great Light Church in 1998. After turning to the Lord, I saw many miracles and received much grace, and all my illnesses were cured by the Lord. So, I pursued hard and was later appointed deacon responsible for a church of 500 believers.
In the winter of 1993, my mother died. This misfortune deprived me of the opportunity to continue my education. Lost and sad, I went to join a Christian meeting near my campus and became a believer in Jesus. There, I tasted the care and love I had never tasted before and found the direction of my life. So, I began to read the Bible and attend meetings in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Due to my zealous pursuit, I was soon selected as a leader and later became a full-time paid worker. From then on, I began to run around preaching the gospel and shepherding and sustaining the churches along with several senior workers. And we joined in union with all the other Seventh-day Adventist churches in China. And I became a co-worker in the Union of the Seventh-day Adventists who was in charge of the work in the three northeast provinces. Having gained fame, position, and money, I was filled with a sense of achievement, and I resolved to consecrate myself to the Lord and was ready to spread my wings on the spiritual path.
I believed in Jesus with my mother when I was a child. In 1989, I joined the Three Grades of Servants Church. At that time, the preacher often said in the meetings that the way the servants and the maidservants walked was the way of suffering that the Lord Jesus had walked, and that the servants were like Moses and Paul. Gradually, my love for the servant exceeded that for my parents, and even exceeded that for the Lord.
In the fall of 2002, Sister Zhao from my denomination, the Church of Truth, brought her niece, Sister Wang, to my home to tell me some great news that the Lord has come back. After a few days of reading the words of Almighty God and listening to the sister’s detailed fellowship, I understood that from the creation of the world until now God has performed three stages of work in order to save mankind. Other truths that I also came to know were God’s adoption of a different name during each stage of the work, the significance of God’s name for each age, and the mystery of God’s incarnation, etc.
I was once a preacher in the True Jesus Church. In October 1998, I accepted Almighty God’s gospel of the last days. When I knew that Almighty God I had resisted and slandered was the returned Savior Jesus whom I had been eagerly waiting for, I was very regretful and hated myself for being arrogant and not seeking the truth and thus becoming a Pharisee of the present age. It was Almighty God’s word that saved me and made me step onto the right track of believing in God and start a true human life.
