Those Who Do Not Accept Almighty God Cannot Be Saved and Enter the Kingdom of Heaven
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“Christ of the last days brings life, and brings the enduring and everlasting way of truth. This truth is the path through which man shall gain life, and the only path by which man shall know God and be approved by God. If you do not seek the way of life provided by Christ of the last days, then you shall never gain the approval of Jesus, and shall never be qualified to enter the gate of the kingdom of heaven, for you are both a puppet and prisoner of history. Those who are controlled by regulations, by letters, and shackled by history will never be able to gain life, and will never be able to gain the perpetual way of life. That is because all they have is turbid water that has lain stagnant for thousands of years, instead of the water of life that flows from the throne. Those who are not supplied with the water of life will forever remain corpses, playthings of Satan, and sons of hell. How, then, can they behold God? If you only try to hold on to the past, only try to keep things as they are by standing still, and do not try to change the status quo and discard history, then will you not always be against God? The steps of God’s work are vast and mighty, like surging waves and rolling thunders—yet you sit and passively await destruction, sticking to your folly and doing nothing. In this way, how can you be considered someone who follows in the footsteps of the Lamb? How can you justify the God that you hold on to as a God who is always new and never old? And how can the words of your yellowed books carry you across into a new age? How can they lead you to seek the steps of God’s work? And how can they take you up to heaven? What you hold in your hands is the letters that can provide but temporary solace, not the truths that are capable of giving life. The scriptures you read are that which can only enrich your tongue, not words of wisdom that can help you know human life, much less the ways that can lead you to perfection. Does this discrepancy not give you cause for reflection? Does it not allow you to understand the mysteries contained within? Are you capable of delivering yourself to heaven to meet God on your own? Without the coming of God, can you take yourself into heaven to enjoy family happiness with God? Are you still dreaming now? I suggest, then, that you stop dreaming, and look at who is working now, at who is now carrying out the work of saving man during the last days. If you do not, you shall never gain the truth, and shall never gain life.”
from “Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
“The work of God is that which you cannot comprehend. If you can neither grasp whether your decision is correct nor know whether the work of God can succeed, then why not try your luck and see whether this ordinary man is of great help to you, and whether God has done great work. 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. Though both were times of great corruption unbearable for God to witness, and mankind in both ages was so corrupt that he denied God as the Lord, all men in the time of Noah were destroyed by God. Mankind in both ages has grieved God greatly, yet God has remained patient with men in the last days until now. Why is this? Have you never given thought to this? If you truly do not know, then let Me tell you. The reason that God can deal graciously with men in the last days is not that they are less corrupt than men in the time of Noah or that they have shown repentance to God, much less is it that God cannot bear to destroy men in the last days where technology has advanced. Rather, it is that God has work to do in a group of men in the last days and this will be done by God incarnate Himself. Furthermore, God shall choose a part of this group as His objects of salvation, the fruit of His management plan, and bring such men with Him into the next age. Therefore, no matter what, this price paid by God has entirely been in preparation for the work of His incarnation in the last days. All you have this day is because of this flesh. It is because God lives in the flesh that you have the chance to live. All this good fortune has been gained because of this ordinary man. Not only this, but in the end every nation shall worship this ordinary man, as well as give thanks to and obey this insignificant man. Because it is He who has brought the truth, the life, and the way to save all mankind, ease the conflict between God and man, bring God and man closer together, and communicate thoughts between God and man. It is also He who has brought even greater glory to God. Is not an ordinary man such as this worthy of your trust and adoration? Is such an ordinary flesh not fit to be called Christ? Can such an ordinary man not be the expression of God among men? Is not such a man who helps mankind be spared disaster worthy of your love and for you to hold? If you reject the truths uttered from His mouth and also detest His existence among you, then what will be your fate?”
from “Do You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Men” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
“The work of judgment is God’s own work, so it must naturally be done by God Himself; it cannot be done by man in His stead. Because judgment is the conquering of man through the truth, it is unquestionable that God still appears as the incarnate image to do this work among men. That is to say, in the last days, Christ shall use the truth to teach men around the earth and to make all truths known to them. This is God’s work of judgment. Many have a sour taste in their mouths about the second incarnation of God, for man finds it difficult to believe that God shall do the work of judgment as an incarnation. But I must tell you that often the work of God greatly exceeds man’s expectations and is difficult for the minds of men to accept. For men are merely maggots upon the earth, while God is the supreme One that fills the universe; the mind of man is akin to a pit of foul water that gives rise only to maggots, whereas each stage of the work directed by the thoughts of God is the fruit of God’s wisdom. Man constantly wishes to contend with God; then I say it is self-evident who stands to lose in the end. I exhort you all not to regard yourselves with more importance than gold. If others can accept the judgment of God, then why can you not? How much higher do you stand above others? If others can bow their heads before the truth, why can you not also do so? The great trend of God’s work is unstoppable. He will not repeat the work of judgment again for the sake of your ‘merits,’ and you will sorely regret losing such a good opportunity. If you do not believe My words, then just wait for that great white throne in the sky to ‘pass judgment’ upon you! You must know that all of the Israelites spurned and denied Jesus, yet the fact of Jesus’ redemption of mankind still spread to the ends of the universe. Is this not the fact that God has long ago fulfilled? If you are still awaiting Jesus to take you up to heaven, then I say that you are an obstinate piece of deadwood.[a] Jesus will not acknowledge a false believer such as you who is disloyal to the truth and seeks only blessings. On the contrary, He will show no mercy in casting you into the lake of fire to burn for tens of thousands of years.”
“Do you understand now what is judgment and what is truth? If you now understand, then I exhort you to submit to judgment, otherwise you shall never have the opportunity to be commended by God or to be taken by God into His kingdom. Those who only accept judgment but can never be purified, that is, those who flee in the midst of the work of judgment, shall forever be detested and rejected by God. Their sins are much more, and more grievous, than those of the Pharisees, for they have betrayed God and are rebels against God. Such men who are not worthy even to do service shall receive more severe, everlasting punishment. God shall not spare any traitor who once claimed loyalty with words yet then betrayed Him. Such men shall see retribution through punishment of the spirit, soul, and body. Does this not reveal the righteous disposition of God? Is this not exactly the purpose of God’s judgment and revelation of man? God shall place all those who perform all kinds of wicked deeds during the time of judgment in the place where evil spirits live for their fleshly bodies to be destroyed at the will of the spirits. Their bodies shall give off the odor of a corpse, and such is their fitting retribution. God writes down in their record books each and every one of the sins of those disloyal false believers, false apostles, and false workers, then when the time is right, He casts them amidst the unclean spirits so their entire bodies may be defiled by the spirits at will and, as a result, they will never be reincarnated and shall never again see the light. Those hypocrites who did service at one time but are unable to remain loyal to the end shall be numbered by God among the wicked so that they walk in the counsel of the wicked, becoming part of the disorderly multitude. In the end, God shall destroy them. God casts aside and takes no notice of those who have never been loyal to Christ or dedicated any effort, and shall destroy them all in the change of ages. They shall no longer exist on earth, much less gain passage into the kingdom of God. Those who have never been true to God but are forced into dealing with God shall be numbered among those who do service for His people. Only a small number of such men can survive, while the majority shall perish along with those who are not qualified even to do service. Finally, God shall bring into His kingdom all those who are of the same mind as God, the people and sons of God as well as those predestined by God to be priests. Such is the fruit begotten by God through His work. As for those who can belong to none of the categories set by God, they shall be numbered among the unbelievers. And you can surely imagine what their outcome shall be. I have already said to you all that I should say; the road that you choose shall be your decision to make. What you should understand is this: The work of God never waits for any that cannot keep pace with God, and the righteous disposition of God shows no mercy to any man.”
from “Christ Does the Work of Judgment With the Truth” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Footnotes:
a. A piece of deadwood: a Chinese idiom, meaning “a hopeless case.”
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Those who wish to gain life without relying on the truth spoken by Christ are the most ridiculous people on earth, and those who do not accept the way of life brought by Christ are lost in fantasy. And so I say that the people who do not accept Christ of the last days shall forever be despised by God. Christ is man’s gateway to the kingdom during the last days, which none may bypass. None may be perfected by God except through Christ. 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.
from “Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Now is the time I determine the ending for each man, not the stage at which I began to work man. I write down in My book the words and actions of each man, as well as their path as My follower, inherent characteristics, and final performance. In this way, no manner of man shall escape My hand and all shall be with their own kind as I assign. I decide the destination of each man not on the basis of age, seniority, amount of suffering, or least of all, the degree of misery, but on whether they possess truth. There is no other choice but this. You must realize that all those who do not follow the will of God will be punished. This is an immutable fact. Therefore, all those who are punished are so punished for the righteousness of God and as retribution for their evil acts. I have not made a single change to My plan since its very inception. It is only that, to man, those to whom I direct My words seem to be diminishing in number, as are those of whom I truly approve. However, I maintain that My plan has never changed; rather, it is the faith and love of man that are ever changing, ever waning, to the extent that it is possible for each man to go from fawning over Me to being cold to Me or even casting Me out. My attitude toward you will be neither hot nor cold until I feel abhorrence and finally appoint punishment. However, on the day of punishment, I will still see you, but you shall no longer be able to see Me. I already feel that life among you is tedious and dull, so needless to say, I have chosen different surroundings in which to live so I can avoid the hurt of your malicious words and steer clear of your sordid behavior so that you may no longer slight Me and make a fool of Me. Before I leave you, I exhort you still to refrain from doing that which is not in accordance with the truth. Rather, you should do that which is pleasing to all and profits all men and your own destination, otherwise he who suffers in disaster will be none other than yourself.
My mercy is for those who love Me and deny themselves. And the punishment brought upon the wicked is proof of My righteous disposition and much more, testimony to My wrath. When disaster comes, famine and plague will befall all those who oppose Me and they will weep. Those who have committed all kinds of evil during their many years as My follower shall not be guiltless; they too will live in a constant state of panic and fear amidst the disaster that has scarcely been seen through the ages. And all My followers who have been loyal to no other shall rejoice and applaud My might. They will experience ineffable contentment and live in a joy that I have never before bestowed upon mankind. For I treasure the good deeds of men and abhor their evil deeds. Since I first began to lead mankind, I have been hoping for a group of men who are of the same mind with Me. And I have never forgotten those not of the same mind; I have loathed them in My heart, awaiting only the opportunity to see My retribution administered on those wrongdoers and relish in such. My day has finally come and I need no longer wait!
My final work is not only to punish man but to arrange the destination of each. Moreover, it is to receive acknowledgement from all for all that I have done. I want each and every man to see that all I have done is in the right and is an expression of My disposition; it is not the doing of man, least of all nature, that brought forth mankind. On the contrary, it is I who nourish every living being among all things. Without My existence, mankind can only perish and suffer the invasion of plagues. None will ever again see the beauteous sun and moon or the green world; mankind shall encounter only the frigid night and the inexorable valley of the shadow of death. I am mankind’s only salvation. I am mankind’s only hope and even more, I am He on whom the existence of all mankind rests. Without Me, mankind will immediately become stagnant. Without Me, mankind will suffer catastrophe and be trod upon by all manner of ghosts, even though none take heed of Me. I have done work that can be done by no other only in the hope that man repay Me with good deeds. Though few can repay Me, I still conclude My journey in the world and begin on the work that will next unfold, for My journey among men these many years has been fruitful, and I am very pleased. I care not about the number of men but rather about their good deeds. In any case, I hope that you do sufficient good deeds in preparation for your own destination. Then will I be satisfied; otherwise, none of you shall escape the disaster. The disaster is brought down by Me and of course orchestrated by Me. If you cannot work for good in My presence, then you will not escape suffering the disaster. In times of tribulation, your actions and deeds were not entirely appropriate, for your faith and love were hollow, and you only showed either fear or strength. Regarding this, I will only make a judgment of good or bad. My concern continues to be all for your actions and behavior, on which My determination of your end is based. However, I must make it clear that I will give no more mercy to those who were utterly disloyal to Me in times of tribulation, for My mercy only extends so far. Moreover, I have no liking for any who once betrayed Me, much less do I wish to associate with those who sell out the interests of friends. This is My disposition, regardless of who the person is. I must tell you this: Any who break My heart shall not again receive clemency, and any who have been faithful shall forever remain in My heart.
from “You Ought to Do Enough Good Deeds to Prepare for Your Destination” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
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As soon as I start fellowshiping about the truth with you it makes me so happy, why does it make me happy? Do you know? As creatures we all can hear the voice of God, can accept God’s word, this is the greatest blessing in life! Now in the last days, God has appeared and has begun to work, that is, the incarnate Almighty God has started His work of judgment for the last days; therefore those who can accept the work of Almighty God are the most blessed. Some religious people hear this and disapprove, they don’t acknowledge this sentence, they say: “Our Lord Jesus is the real God, the Lord Jesus is Christ. We don’t need to believe in Almighty God to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Do all religious people think in this way? Does this conform to God’s intentions? The Lord Jesus never said that if you believe in Him you can enter the kingdom of heaven, He didn’t say that. He didn’t say that if you accept the redemptive work He will forgive your sins and allow you entry into the kingdom of heaven. Nor did He say that if you stick to the name of the Lord Jesus, these three words, you can enter the kingdom of heaven. He didn’t say that. He said that in the last days, all those who hear the coming of the bridegroom and receive him and feast with him are the blessed. These people will be raptured and have the opportunity to enter the kingdom of heaven. The wise virgins can accept the return of the Lord; the foolish virgins will not welcome the return of the Lord. What is the outcome of the foolish virgins? They will be abandoned, eliminated! So, of those who believe in the Lord, only the wise virgins can accept the work of God in the last days, can recognize the voice of God from the truth expressed by Almighty God, and can see the certainty of the return of God. These types of people, the Lord is with them. They will sup with the Lord, eventually being purified, being saved and brought into the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, are all those people daydreaming who believe that “you just need to believe in Jesus Christ to enter into the kingdom of heaven”? You can say that, if you keep “the Lord Jesus” these three words and can’t accept the Lord’s work of the last days, then you are nothing but a foolish virgin, completely eliminated.
What is the key to believing in God? To believe in God we must accept God’s name and accept His present work. We should experience and obey God’s present work, only then can we be saved by God and receive the praise of God. When the Lord Jesus came, He gave a name, called “Jesus,” and those who believed in the Lord Jesus were saved. This “saved” is what form of saved? It doesn’t mean to be able to enter into the kingdom of heaven, but rather is to be removed from the condemnation and the curse of the law. If you believe in Jesus and break the law you will not be condemned, and the Lord Jesus can forgive your sins, this is separating yourself from the power of the curse of the law. Your sins will be forgiven. But, Jesus forgives your sins; can you still enter the kingdom of heaven? The Lord Jesus didn’t say that. What did the Lord Jesus say? The Lord foretold what type of work He would accomplish when He returns in the last days. When the last days come, if you accept His return, if you can hear His voice and accept His work of the last days, you will be put on the road to the kingdom of heaven. So Almighty God came in the last days and does His work of judgment. What does the work of judgment in the last days bring? It is the perpetual way of life. Why say that Christ of the last days brings us the perpetual way of life? Hasn’t the Lord Jesus also spoken many words when He came to do His work? Why can’t you say that the word of the Lord Jesus is the perpetual way of life? All of those who have believed in the Lord for many years and have experienced the work of the Lord Jesus all know that believing in the Lord Jesus can only bring the forgiveness of sins. After being forgiven from our sins, why do we keep sinning? Sinning then confessing one’s sin and then sinning again? Why can’t we remove ourselves from our fleshly bindings and our sinful nature? Why can’t we detach ourselves from sin, why can’t we live by God’s words, live out the image of the truth? This difficult problem is something that all those who believed in the Lord in the Age of Grace admitted to, isn’t that so? In the last days when the Lord Jesus returns, what work will be done? Does the Lord have any prophecies? The Lord said: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come” (John 16:12-13). This prophecy has now been fulfilled, being fulfilled by the work of Almighty God in the last days. Almighty God has expressed all the truths that believers in God should understand and enter. Then the truth that Almighty God expressed, is it the expression of the Spirit of truth? Almighty God has made known all the truths that God saves man with; these truths are essential to man and they are the perpetual way of life, that is, the way of eternal life. We all know, all across the world countless people are searching for a way of having eternal life. Scientists are also searching, and the world has come to a conclusion: We should keep researching medical science and health care. If the food we eat is healthy then we will keep healthy and living to be a hundred years old won’t be a problem. Is living to be a hundred years old eternal life? That’s not the way of eternal life. Does God have a way of eternal life? Yes. Why is that? How can you be so sure God has the way of eternal life? The answer is very simple. Firstly, God Himself is eternal life. Just look, how old is God? Does He have an age? God is the God of eternal life, God has no age, and therefore God Himself is eternal life. Secondly, God is omnipotent, He spoke, and it was done, He commanded, and it stood fast. God is able to do anything with one word, He made the heavens and earth and all things just by saying so. God said “Let there be light,” and there was light. Does the universe that God created have a lifespan? How long has heaven existed? How long have the various planets existed? How long has the sun, the moon, the stars existed? There is no age limit. Therefore, God Himself is eternal life, He has the way of eternal life, what He says happens: God can predetermine how long something can live, He just needs to say the word; God can return life to the dead with just saying; God can make us live forever with one word, then we will never die, He has this authority. So does God have the perpetual way of life? Is God Himself immortality? God is the omnipotent, He spoke, and it was done, He commanded, and it stood fast. Look at all the animals, all the organisms, all types of life have an age limit, and it’s all predetermined by God. God allows those who believe in Him to live forever, is this predestined by God? If people eat and drink the words of God and obtain the truth, totally understand all that God has expressed, accept it to the bottom of their hearts, make it their life, then these people will gain the approval of God. What type of approval is it? It is the obtaining of eternal life, immortality. What would the nonbelievers say? “This is not scientifically correct.” Is this correct? Science is not the truth, science can’t understand the deeds of God, and so only those nonbelievers of God will use scientific theories to confuse people. Isn’t that right? Do you believe in science or believe in the words of God? Those who believe in the words of God are the most blessed of people. Why do unbelievers only believe in science and don’t believe in the words of God? Unbelievers don’t understand a thing about God, isn’t that right? No matter how deeply we understand God, we know some things. We know He is almighty, we know that all things are predetermined by God, and that He is the Creator of all things and God has the authority and can give people eternal life. We can be sure of this, recognize this, this makes us more blessed than the unbelievers. We are more blessed than the unbelievers because we have knowledge of the Creator, the one true God. We all understand a little about His authority, His power, how He saves and purifies the human race and how He will bless us all in the end and what He promises us. All this that we know we can completely accept, without a trace of hesitation, therefore we can be saved and able to obtain the praise of God. Because unbelievers don’t believe in God their sin has been set, their outcome has been sealed. What is the difference between us and the unbelievers? It’s simply we believe in God and they don’t, so our outcome will be different from theirs. Do you think to “believe” is a simple matter? It’s not a simple thing! In some families, one of the couple believes in God and the other doesn’t, this could lead to a divorce, with them going their separate ways; some fathers and sons, one of them believes and the other doesn’t, this could lead to massive arguments and hostility, parting ways and leading separate lives. Because one believes and the other doesn’t, they are not on the same path as each other, they can’t relate to each other, and they can’t possibly live together. The work of God’s appearance puts people into their own category.
In the Age of Kingdom what is the name of God? Almighty God. Why do we need to believe in Almighty God? Because Almighty God is the only true God, who created the heavens and earth and all things. He is the manifestation of Christ in the last days. You can say that He is the Creator in human form that came to the world of man to express the truth and do His work of saving men. Also, from the truth that Almighty God has expressed in the last days, we’ve known how He will end this age and how He will exterminate by disasters all those who don’t believe in Him. We can see from this, after He has finished a step of work of salvation, after He has saved those who should be saved, and removed them from the influence of Satan and obtained them for Himself, then He will destroy mankind by disasters. On the one hand, He is doing the last days’ work and saving humankind thoroughly; on the other hand He is terminating this age. Then what is the next age? It is the coming of the Millennial Kingdom, thus fulfilling the prophecy. The Book of Revelation is the prophecy about God’s management plan for the end. Where does the Book of Revelation start from? It starts from when the Lord Jesus gave letters to seven churches. The Lord said how He would return. All the various religious factions would be divided according to the seven churches, and after they are divided, the church of Philadelphia would be raptured, and then how those churches would be handled with and what their outcome would be. Is that how the Book of Revelation started? From the beginning of the work of the last days to the end of the work of the last days. What is the final prophecy? The kingdom of Christ will appear on the earth, the kingdom of heaven will appear on earth. God’s tabernacle appears in the world of man. The throne flows with water of the river of life; the spectacle of the kingdom of the new millennium emerges. So, the Book of Revelation is a book of the prophecy about God’s management plan for the last days. From Christ of the last days appearing to work and utter His voice, until the actualization of the Millennial Kingdom. So we can be sure that Almighty God is the only name we must trust in to be saved in the last days. It is the name of God appearing in the last days, and is the only name by which we can enter the kingdom. It is our guide into the kingdom of heaven, and is the gate of the kingdom. So in the words of God, in His administrative decrees to the whole universe, God said, “All who worship Satan will be laid low by My burning fire—that is, except for those now within the stream, the rest will be turned to ashes.” Some people hear this and say, “Impossible, God is all merciful and loving, children are all innocent, they haven’t sinned, how could God bear to exterminate them?” How about this? Is this in accordance with God’s intention? Some people say: “The God we believe in is merciful and loving.” They just don’t believe this. Then from Jesus—the merciful God appearing to work, in these two thousand years how many wars have broken out? How many disasters? How many people have been killed, both children and adults? How do you explain this? Can you say that they aren’t the Lord Jesus’ disasters, but Satan’s? Is this reasonable? Can you explain it? You can’t.
Also, let me make another example. In the time of Noah, the world was filled with violence, and God didn’t bear to look. God said mankind had come to its end, they should be exterminated. God looked at the people of the earth; the only righteous man was Noah. He appeared and commanded Noah to build an ark, God then said: This age is too evil, the world is full of violence; I want to exterminate this human race. I want you to build me an ark, you and your family shall enter the ark; of every clean beast you shall take to you by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. This was roughly how it went. That happened after Noah was 500 years old. When Noah finished building the ark he was 600 years old, Noah and his family of eight and a variety of creatures all got on board the ark, and then God sent the flood. The flood lasted for forty days and forty nights, drowning all the people and all the creatures of earth, killing all living things. The only ones that were saved were the ones aboard the ark. Is that not a fact? Then again some people who believe in Jesus will say: “That’s not right, that’s impossible, because God is merciful and loving, the children haven’t sinned, and they shouldn’t die.” Are there people who say such things? What mistake have these people made? People can’t know God according to their notions and imaginations. People can’t fully fathom God because God’s wisdom is infinite, God’s omnipotence is unfathomable, God’s righteous disposition, mercy, kindness is something that can’t be fully understood. Many things on the outside can’t confine to people’s perception, dare you judge the righteousness of God? Dare you judge God has no mercy and love? Can it be that you are more almighty than God? Also, what do your two eyes see? You only see material things on the outside, a building has collapsed, a flood is coming, earthquake, a war has started, somebody has been beaten to death, been smashed to death, drowned, gone. You see this, and in the spiritual world, what type of spirits are these? How does God separate and handle all these spirits, do you know? You believe that when the body dies it’s cruel; in fact the death of one’s body is determined by God. It’s because mankind’s sins that they meet their deserved end; no matter how they die, how cruelly they die, it is punishment of their flesh which they deserve. Isn’t that right? Then can people judge God’s righteousness by the way people’s bodies die, or say that He isn’t merciful and loving? Is this saying reasonable? You don’t know how God deals with all spirits in the background, how He plans, and the death of people’s bodies is what people say, but God is just taking them back for another plan. What does God do after He takes back people’s spirits? You could say that it’s still God’s righteousness, and His mercy and love, can you recognize it? You can’t recognize it. Therefore, don’t rely on your two eyes to view only the surface of the world and then make judgments that “God is not righteous; God is not merciful.” That is wrong. Don’t rely on the concepts of people to criticize things done by God. That’s against the principles, against the facts, because people are unable to see things of the spiritual world. Matters of the spiritual world, angels know, evil spirits know, Satan knows, God dominates, of course God knows best. Therefore there are many things that people don’t understand, we need to search for the truth, don’t make blind judgments.
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Take a look at the religious circles, the Pharisees, chief priests, and scribes of Judaism: They all blindly judged the Lord Jesus. Why did they judge the Lord Jesus? Why did they resist and condemn the Lord Jesus? The Lord Jesus expressed many truths, and they all admitted this, so why did they still condemn and resist the Lord Jesus? These people all believed in God; they were the first generation of people in history to believe in God, in the name of Jehovah God. The second generation to believe in God believed in the name of the Lord Jesus. In the last days, people believe in the name of Almighty God. They were the first generation. So why did they nail the Lord Jesus to the cross? Is it because they relied on the concepts and ideas of man to judge the Lord Jesus? Which of the words spoken by the Lord Jesus resulted in this? The Lord said He was sent by God and God was inside of Him, He said He was doing God’s work, and God was expressing the words of God through Him. When the Lord Jesus spoke these words, the Jewish chief priests and scribes were outraged and said something like, “What You say is blasphemy, You are just an impostor pretending to have been sent by God, we can’t accept this!” Thus they started to condemn Him. Normally, when the Lord Jesus said He was sent by God, He was the manifestation of God, and God was speaking from inside Him, what should those Pharisees, chief priests and scribes do? They were mere men; they should have hurried to prostrate themselves before the Lord Jesus and obey the work and words of the Lord Jesus. But they were so arrogant and self-righteous. They thought they fully understood the Bible. They thought God in heaven was the boss and they were His right hand men. Would they have submitted under the authority of the Lord Jesus? No, they would not. If they couldn’t submit under the power of God then that was nothing more than arrogant condemnation and resistance. In the end they died. Why did they die? Because they stubbornly and arrogantly rejected the Lord Jesus—God incarnate and in the end they were cursed. So today Almighty God has come, what ending would be waiting for those who resist and condemn Almighty God? Almighty God says, “Whoever resists will die!” “Whoever resists will die,” this is absolute. In the Age of Kingdom God gave Himself the name of Almighty God. If you don’t accept Him, you will be destined to have no place in the kingdom; if you resist Him you will be destined to be cursed, and you will be punished. It’s as simple as that.
Some people will say: “In the religious circles there are so many godly people, so many people love God, don’t get married, keep their virginity, spend their money and dedicate their whole life to the Lord. Can it be that if they don’t accept Almighty God they should all die?” Is what they say right? What’s wrong with them? Are they able to live if they don’t accept Almighty God? Are they more powerful than God? If they don’t accept Almighty God, is it possible they cannot die? This is ridiculous. When the Lord Jesus came, the Jewish chief priest who resisted Him and condemned Him was cursed to “die”! Was this chief priest high placed? Was he much higher placed than the nuns in the convents? Much higher than the religious pastors and elders? With just one chief priest in all Judaism, was he in a high position? He was a chief priest who served God, but for resisting God he had to face death anyway. Given this circumstance, how should we understand God’s disposition? If you are a person of caliber, have intelligence, what do you think about this? No matter what type of person, he or she belongs to God’s creation. You may be a religious leader, a pastor, an elder or a priest. You may be a prophet, even an angel. But no matter who, any and all who resist God must meet with God’s curse, and in the end will be destroyed! Are angels superior? If they resist God, God will pull them down from the sky and hurl them back to the ground, isn’t that what happened to Satan and all the evil spirits who joined it? Isn’t that a fact? You are just a mere creation, what do you matter? Do you think that if you resist God you won’t die? Because in the past you loved God, you were devout, you worked hard and toiled for God, and you have done great services for God, if you resist God then you won’t die? Is this a sound idea? It is not. Some people say: “These people love God, have been devout their whole lives and have done countless good deeds.” How does God determine the outcome for people, do you know? Let us read a passage from God’s words: “Now is the time I determine the ending for each man, not the stage at which I began to work man. I write down in My book the words and actions of each man, as well as their path as My follower, inherent characteristics, and final performance. In this way, no manner of man shall escape My hand and all shall be with their own kind as I assign. I decide the destination of each man not on the basis of age, seniority, amount of suffering, or least of all, the degree of misery, but on whether they possess truth. There is no other choice but this. You must realize that all those who do not follow the will of God will be punished. This is an immutable fact. Therefore, all those who are punished are so punished for the righteousness of God and as retribution for their evil acts.”
On what grounds does God determine one’s destination? I will read again the key words in this paragraph: “I decide the destination of each man not on the basis of age.” This is the first point, not on the basis of age. God determines each person’s destination, that is, the Lord of creation determines each person’s destination, and that is done very seriously and conscientiously, for God is supremely diligent in His responsibilities. Why is God supremely righteous, supremely holy, supremely responsible in His tasks? Firstly: “not on the basis of age.” What does this mean? It is saying that it is not on the basis of “Those elderly people who believe in God will have a good destination; those who are young won’t.” Secondly: “not on the basis of … seniority.” What does “seniority” mean? For example, “Somebody has believed in God for a long time, and this person has done a lot of work, this person has position, this person is of a noble character and has high prestige, everybody likes him and he is popular.” It’s not based on this. Thirdly, “not on the basis of … amount of suffering.” “Suffering” means someone who believes in the Lord and has suffered a great deal and has been persecuted or has been imprisoned for a relatively long time, or has been to many places to evangelize, or has endured much slander, judgment, and persecution by unbelievers. The way God determines one’s outcome is not based on this. Fourthly, “not on the basis of … or least of all, the degree of misery.” This “degree of misery” means that someone has no truth, though having believed in God for many years, been quite diligent, and their intentions are good, so that all who look at them feel pity for them, and everybody thinks they should be shown a little special consideration. How God determines one’s destination is not based on this. The last clause reads: “but on whether they possess truth.” God determines one’s destination by “whether they possess truth,” not based on anything else. Know this! Then some people will ask, “why is it only by whether they possess truth, why is it not based on other things? Suffering, qualifications, seniority, age; why not base it on these?” From this we can understand God’s righteousness. All those things that were mentioned are external things that have nothing to do with the substance of people, the essence of their nature, or whether they have humanity or not. It’s like the question how do you judge whether a person has humanity? Some people say, “By whether they’re good looking. If someone is attractive they are people with a good humanity.” “Is that right? Some people say, “That person is old and has suffered a lot, so his humanity is good.” Is that right? Some people say, “Everybody likes this person, he has a good reputation. This is good humanity.” Is that right? So how can we be sure if somebody’s humanity is good or not? That is determined by whether one loves the truth, by whether one can or can’t accept the truth: If you can love and accept the truth then you are a kindhearted person, a genuinely good person. All those who don’t accept the truth, don’t love the truth have a bad human nature. Truth is the touchstone that reveals humanity, and separates the good from the bad. It is truth that most reveals people, God’s work that most reveals people, and fulfilling one’s duty that most reveals a person. Know this!
How can we judge whether one has humanity or not? We have discovered that so many people are very honest, and it seems as if they are so kind, for they take pity on the poor, take pity on beggars, and take pity on disadvantaged groups. Some even take pity on animals, adopting stray and abandoned dogs and cats. They buy chickens, ducks, and fish to keep them from being slaughtered and then set them free. Are these people kind enough? If it is just that they can’t accept the truth, can’t accept the work of God, then what type of people are these? They are not really kind. Real kindness is to love the truth; to love the truth is to love life. Those who love the truth are those who love life. Those who don’t love the truth don’t love life, and they don’t have life. Without loving the truth you are not a really kind person. Therefore, when you chit chat with many people, they are bright faced, gentle and amiable, and have a beaming smile, but as soon as you start preaching the gospel, testifying about God, or communicating the truth to them, they start to frown, get into a frenzy condemning you and resisting, getting red in the face with anger. What type of people are these? Are these good people? Are they the devil? They are the real devils. Now many people can’t differentiate among others, and always judge from outward behavior. Does this make it easy to be cheated? Many people, including Satan the Devil, can say things that people like to hear. They can all say things that sound benevolent, things that can make people happy, and in the end they do evil deeds and their true nature is revealed. Therefore, only judging by somebody’s appearance and only listening to what they say doesn’t mean that you can see somebody’s true essence. It doesn’t represent that you really understand people, know people.
Let’s take another look. There are so many so-called devout people, people with a so-called understanding of the truth of the Bible. They devote much and toil their whole life for God, but when Almighty God comes they disapprovingly glare at Him, condemn and resist Him. What type of people are these? These devils are revealing themselves for what they are. Some people say, “That’s not right, they did so much for the Lord, and expected no reward, isn’t it because of their love of the Lord?” Is that right? No, it is not right. Why is it not right? They devoted themselves to the Lord for their own purposes. People never do anything without wanting some kind of benefit. Just like Paul, they want to enter the kingdom of heaven and get a reward and gain laurels. Did Paul really love God? If Paul didn’t love the Lord Jesus, then why did Paul suffer so much and still spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus? If it was not for the love of God, then it was for his own purposes, right? His intention was clear: He wanted to go to heaven, for reward and laurels, not out of love for God. So in the end he said those words: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: From now on there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness…” (2 Timothy 4:7-8). He worked to the end and finally said these words, so it turns out that he did all this to accomplish his own goals. Therefore, through the time that he worked for God he never bore witness to what there was to love in the Lord Jesus and never bore witness that the Lord Jesus is God. He never witnessed all that the Lord Jesus is, the Lord Jesus’ disposition. Judging by this, did Paul really love the Lord Jesus in his heart? If he really did love the Lord Jesus, how would he have treated Him? He would constantly bear witness to Him. Because Paul only loved to stand witness to himself and show off, he would say, “I have toiled all these years for whom? It’s all for the Lord Jesus, I see how much the Lord Jesus loves me. If I can’t suffer a little for the Lord Jesus to accomplish His commission, then I’m shameful and not worthy to be called a man. When the Lord openly reveals Himself to me I will be too ashamed to see Him, unworthy of welcoming the Lord when He reveals Himself.” He should have said this. But did Paul’s books ever contain words like these? You can thumb through all of the books that Paul wrote but never will you find where he wrote how much he loved the Lord Jesus. You will never find it. Isn’t this right? Therefore, Paul didn’t love the Lord Jesus.
Based on the fact of how much Paul devoted to his work and his ending as we have seen, measure all those religious circles that work for the Lord, all those who worship Paul, all those whose pursuit is like Paul’s, spreading the gospel and bearing witness to the Lord. Do these people really love the Lord? All of their toil and so-called piety is not for their love of the Lord, but is merely to bargain and make a deal with the Lord; it’s totally just for their own good fortune. It’s in order to enter the kingdom of heaven and get their reward. Are these sorts of people’s expenditure and toil commemorated by God? So when God is thinking about their end what does He base His decision on? What does He base His decision on when deciding their destination? It’s written here: “I decide the destination of each man not on the basis of age, seniority, amount of suffering, or least of all, the degree of misery, but on whether they possess truth….” What is the meaning of “whether they possess truth”? It means practicing the words of God, when you understand the words of God and know His disposition, and finally understand the truth, you put it into practice. It is because you want to carry out the will of God that you expend yourself and suffer. In order to satisfy God you will pay any price, no matter how hard it is. You will not make a deal with God; nothing that you do for Him is because of a demand that you have of Him but is out of your duty as one of God’s creatures. It is because of the will of God, it is to satisfy God and console His heart. You will say: “Because in the past we were all corrupt people, we have all committed many sins and offended God. We have all hurt God. Now we have understood the truth. If we are people with conscience, we should live for God, for doing the will of God. To live for repaying the love of God!” Do people whose intention is to devote themselves to God and suffer for Him have the truth? These people have the truth. They do it all for the truth. To carry out the will of God they are willing to suffer and expend themselves. They don’t do it in order to make a deal with God, or for the purpose of selfish means, and certainly not for good fortune. This type of hard work, this sort of toil and effort and price is the testimony to one’s having the truth, the evidence that one has truth.
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All those who have experienced the judgment and chastisement of God, their purpose of spending for God has changed: “I don’t do it for reward or for laurels, I do it for carrying out the will of God, I do it to repay the love of God, for God’s love is great. God has given so much to save us, He has suffered so much, and if I don’t repay the love of God then I don’t deserve to be called man.” Someone asks, “So after you do your duties get old and die, then what?” They say, “I should submit to God’s orchestration and arrangement. Even if I am made to die in hell I shouldn’t complain. If I should die in hell then it’s because I don’t conform to God’s will, that’s God’s righteousness, I shouldn’t complain about it but I should instead thank God.” If somebody is really like this, does he count as having the truth? Does he count as being purified? If he has no intention of receiving blessings, and doesn’t strive for his own personal gain, does this count as being purified? Yes. Just like how some people show respect for their parents, they show respect not for property or inheritance, but to console their parent’s hearts, to repay them and thank them for bringing them up. How is this person’s humanity? This person has a conscience! Why do some people respect their parents? They do it for inheritance and property. How is this person’s intention? Is it totally selfish and contemptible? This is contemptible. Therefore, what are the benefits of accepting the work of God, knowing God and understanding many truths? Someone says that it can set us free from the dark influence of the devil Satan and can rid us of its shackles. Most importantly, what is the truth? What is it? Why do we need to pursue the truth? What effect can the truth have on the human race? What can it do? What does it change? What can it solve? What can it purify in us? What can it perfect in us? What can it be in us? Can you understand this? Should we understand all this? If you can’t understand all this, then how can you be willing to pursue the truth? To obtain the truth we should pay the price, it’s not like learning knowledge. Any branch of knowledge can be learned in just 3 or 5 years. If you study something for 10 years then you can pretty much get a handle on it. However, once you have been pursuing the truth for around three or five years, you can just about find the way to the truth and achieve some result; if you really want to obtain the truth fully, it requires a whole lifetime. Isn’t that true? Those who just start believing, ordinary people can’t understand the real value of the truth. They don’t know why we should pursue the truth. Therefore, after hearing Jesus’ words many Pharisees and scribes said, “Ah, these words are the truth, it carries authority and power!” But they just couldn’t accept it, they just resisted it, condemned it, they just didn’t know what the truth is, what is the consequence of blindly condemning the truth. Then let me commune with you about it.
The paragraph we read just now is the key words of God’s determination of people’s destination. God determines people’s destination based on whether or not they possess the truth. Some people say: “What is the truth? What on earth is the truth? Why does God only determine somebody’s destination based on whether or not they have the truth, and not based on other things?” Then how do we know God’s righteousness? Many people who believed in the Lord worked hard all their lives, and when they were approaching one’s end they thought they would certainly gain entrance into heaven. But in the end they were denied entry, the Lord cast them aside and didn’t pay any attention to them. They then started to distrust the Lord, even complained and said that the Lord was not righteous. What is the problem here? People don’t know the Lord, they don’t understand the Lord’s will and they rely only on their wishful thinking and toil and seek the Lord’s reward. Isn’t this completely absurd? This is indeed absurd. People with absurd ideas are easily led astray and make mistakes. They can’t see things accurately and solely rely on their wishful thinking to determine that must be the case, but in the end they judge things incorrectly. When you make misjudgments you have to pay the price. Some people say, “I abide by the name of the Lord Jesus, but I can’t accept the name of Almighty God. I think, the name of the Lord Jesus is reliable, for there is evidence for it in the Bible. I shall abide by the Bible.” This is a wrong decision and a misjudgment. To abide by the Lord Jesus but resist and condemn Almighty God will ultimately result in their being abandoned and punished, and their chances of entering the kingdom of heaven will be obliterated and their dream of getting into heaven will be utterly smashed. What is their mistake? Wrong decisions and a misjudgment. If you just follow the trend of abiding by the name of the Lord Jesus then you are finished, over. When the Lord Jesus came, the Jewish Pharisees, chief priests, scribes resisted and condemned Him, and religious followers of Judaism all followed their leaders to reject the Lord Jesus. Ultimately the Jewish state was destroyed; Judaism was desolate for 2 thousand years. Is this paying the price? A wrong decision, to deny the Lord Jesus, was to evoke a calamity from the sky. In the Age of Kingdom Almighty God came and those who believe in God were tested and revealed once again. Many people followed pastors and elders to abandon Almighty God and to continue to believe in the Lord Jesus. And in the end the religious circles became desolate and was turned into Babylon the Great. What does “turned into Babylon the great” mean? Babylon is a Gentile city, it is a destroyed city. Religious circles became Babylon the great, a Gentile city, which means God will take those religious people and deal with them as Gentiles, the unbeliever. These people all have to be destroyed. Therefore, the key is to accept the name of Almighty God. In the Age of Kingdom only those who believe in Almighty God may enter the kingdom, and be allowed their place in Christ’s kingdom.
So what type of person can accept Almighty God? Those who are able to hear the words of Almighty God and say: “This is the voice of God, not that of man!” After reading a few pages of the words of Almighty God, they say, “These are the words of God, men are unable to say this. I have read countless books from pastors and spiritual people, but they are unable to say such words as this. The words of Almighty God are the words of God, the utterance of God Himself!” Oh, to have this intuition, to see the words of Almighty God as the words of God. Aren’t these types of people wise virgins? How are the wise virgins so wise? To know the voice of God, this is spiritual intuition, is it not so? They can understand the voice of God and admit that God has come. God has come in the flesh, not a spiritual body. They say, “As soon as a normal man starts to speak and as soon as we listen, we realize it’s the voice of God, the more we listen the more we know it is the voice of God, the more He says the more we read, the more we discover the voice of God and the truth expressed by God. He is God.” From what Almighty God says we can see that God has come, God is speaking from the flesh. Is this a simple matter? Not simple at all. In fact, there is a group of people that have accepted Almighty God, and many of these people once believed in the Lord Jesus. They come from religious circles; they believed in the Lord Jesus but didn’t abide by the Bible. They didn’t abide by the name of the “Lord Jesus.” They thought that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus, and so they accepted Him; this is hard to come by and totally strange. There are so many ignorant and absurd people in the world, when they hear that God has come to China, they think, “China is an authoritarian state, our country is far more advanced than it, we can’t accept God is in China! If God came to a democratic country like America, England or France then we can accept it; if God came to China we wouldn’t accept that. That authoritarian country is backward.” How are these people so stupid? They always believe their own country and their own race to be the salt of the earth. They think, “God, if You have come and not to our country then we won’t accept You as God.” What sort of disposition is that? Do you want God’s work to fit with your own ideas and feeble concepts, is this possible? God is the Creator; God has His own management plan. Some people see the utterances of Almighty God, they are positive it is the voice of God and the truth. But because His reincarnation is in the form of a Chinese person they can’t accept it. If it was an American, an English or French person then they would accept Him. These people have not been taken before God’s throne and will not be able to enter the kingdom of heaven. Whose fault is it? Should they blame God for not being fair or should they blame their arrogant and stupid selves? Blame themselves for being arrogant and stupid. It serves them right, such arrogant and foolish people they are. Some people say: “I just don’t believe in it all, there are so many people in religious circles that don’t accept it, neither do I. I will just go with the trend of the religious circles and everybody else, I will see if God can destroy all the religious circles.” Are there such people who challenge God? What is the disposition of these people who challenge God? It is such sheer arrogance to challenge God.
Some people say: “Brother, some of what you say I approve of, some I don’t.” This is OK, to approve or not that’s one’s own personal matter. What I say, except for the words of God I read, is just my knowledge of God’s word, some people can accept it, some people can’t, this is normal. I can’t say that what they say is wrong. But people can’t challenge God. If you don’t obey, object or challenge God’s word, then who will be the one who suffers? You will be one who suffers, because you’re not God, you don’t have God’s omnipotence, why would God obey your command? Therefore don’t challenge God. Let’s take another look back at the time of Noah. Noah spent nearly a hundred years building the ark; in these one hundred years he also spread the gospel and bore witness for God. How many people heard of Noah talk about God sending the flood to destroy the earth, what would they have thought? They would have surely said: “Noah, you are crazy, you are just talking utter nonsense. God told you He’s going to destroy the earth with a flood, how? We have lived a long time and we’ve never heard of flood, why didn’t God tell us? How did He only tell you? I think it’s impossible. If God told us also and we saw God, then we would believe it too. If God only told you and not others then we don’t believe it, we think this is impossible. We even don’t know whether God really exists. What proof do you have?” Are there many people that say such things like this? There are many. All the people of that era didn’t believe what Noah said. So many people said: “Noah, I will watch you build the ark and let’s see if there will be a flood; if there isn’t a flood, I will see how you end up.” Some people said: “I’m not buying that, let me see how God will send a flood to drown us!” Were there such people who challenged Noah? Yes, that is for certain. One day Noah finished building the ark, all sorts of animals got on board the ark, as well as Noah and his family of eight. God made sure all these people and animals were inside and then the flood started to fall from the sky. It fell for 40 days and 40 nights. After 40 days and 40 nights just how deep was the water level of the flood? Even the highest mountains on earth were submerged under the water. Nobody could have escaped the flood, even if the tallest man on earth stood on the tallest mountain, he too would have drowned. Do you think there were many children at that time? Many, and all of them drowned. In the Bible does it say children under 12 would be saved? Does it say this? It does not. Then could it be that God has no mercy and love? God is benevolent and merciful, but He is also righteous. In the Age of Law, all those who hated and resisted God would be destroyed by God, until the third and fourth generation; all those who loved God would be blessed for a thousand generations. Were the offspring of all those who hated God and resisted God blessed? If their offspring were only one or two years old, under 12 then should they be destroyed? Why destroy them? Because their ancestors hated and resisted God and were cursed. So what can we see by this? God’s disposition is righteous and allows no offense, God’s disposition is merciful and He doesn’t harm the innocent, all of this He possesses.
Let’s take a look at after God destroyed Sodom, what happened to another city called Nineveh. God sent the prophet Jonah to preach the gospel and told people of this city that in 40 days God would destroy the city. He told them if they started to repent now there would still be enough time to be saved. As soon as the people of the city heard this news and the message reached the king, he and his men admitted guilt and repented their sins in sackcloth. After that God forgave and pardoned this city. At that time Jonah didn’t want to go, why didn’t he want to go? Because Jonah was an Israelite, he thought: Jehovah God is the God of Israel; Gentiles have no place to worship our God. God will not bless all you Gentiles; you should all just be destroyed. Such was his heart. Was Jonah a little petty? These sorts of people are not suitable for God to use; they are too petty and disobedient. After God disciplined him, God sent him again, and he went back. After he spread the messages of God all the people of Nineveh repented their sins and the whole city was forgiven. At that time there was a word of God, “And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?” (Jonah 4:11) Just looking at those one hundred and twenty thousand people, who couldn’t differentiate between their left and their right hands, God couldn’t bear to destroy them. Just see, does God have mercy and love? He is merciful and loving! Don’t believe just because God destroyed the entire city of Sodom that God has no mercy but only righteousness and majesty. However Nineveh is an exception. God pondered over the one hundred and twenty thousand people there who couldn’t discern between their left and their right hands, so when people in this city all wore sackcloth and ashes and repented their sins and turned toward God, God pardoned them, forgave them and decided not to destroy the city.
131-B-6
So how can we understand God’s disposition? We can’t just base this on one aspect; we need to take a look at many aspects. Right now just how wicked is this world? Is it as evil as Sodom? This world is too evil, there are so many countries in the world and not one welcomes God. There is not a single religious place that welcomes God. There is not a single religious place of earth where the pastor takes the believers and seeks the work of Almighty God and says: “Almighty God, You are our Lord Jesus Christ that we have been longing for. We all welcome You now, from pastors to common believers; we all accept Your work and welcome You to our church.” Does this kind of religion exist? Does this type of country exist? Does this kind of race exist? Does this world and this human race welcome the coming of God? It doesn’t. Do you understand this now?! There are many religious people that read the words of Almighty God, admit that it’s the truth but don’t accept it. There was a brother in the west, when he finished listening to my preaching he said, “What you say, some of it I object and some I don’t, but I am still willing to listen.” As soon as I heard this I was delighted. In the west it is a system of free democracy. People pursue all kinds of different things, everybody has their own concepts and everybody expresses their own ideas, and whatever ideas they do have they just say it. The parts I said that he agreed with he could accept it, what type of person is this? He can accept the truth, that’s not an easy feat! The parts that he didn’t accept he just said it. If what you say is in line with his concepts, and he thinks that it’s in line with the truth, he will accept. If what you say he thinks is not in line with the truth, he will just say, “I don’t accept that,” aren’t these sorts of people simple and pure? You can say that these sorts of people in the world are rather decent. So what types of people are indecent? Those who say, “What you say is in line with the truth, but there is one thing isn’t, so I don’t want to listen anymore; if you say something that is wrong and doesn’t sit well with my own concepts then I won’t admit to a single word of what you say. I am not listening, I refuse this.” These sorts of people are finished and they won’t obtain the truth. When the Jews listened to the Lord Jesus, did they completely condemn what He said? They didn’t completely condemn, they agreed with much of what He said, otherwise they wouldn’t have said “The words of Jesus have authority and power!” When they said His words have power and authority, does this mean they agreed? This is agreement. Then why did they still convict the Lord Jesus? Because Jesus said He was sent by God, God was speaking from inside of Him and doing the work of God. To this they responded, “So reading between the lines You are God, You were sent by God, do You think Yourself to be more superior than us chief priests? That won’t do, this is blasphemy and You are wildly arrogant. You say You’re God, this is terrible!” The Lord Jesus spoke of so many truths, and in their eyes all that He said had authority and power. But just because He said this sentence they convicted Him. “You can express the truth; however You can’t say that You are sent by God. If You say this then we convict and nail You to death!” Is this human race malevolent?
Some people after reading the words of Almighty God keep silent and don’t express their thoughts. As soon as they see the part where it says, “I come into the world of men,” “I have become flesh,” they say, “huh? What? You? Who are You? You dare say that You are God? That’s preposterous!” And so they convicted Him, “Heresy!” When they see “I” in the word of God, they oppose it. If God didn’t say “I” then it would be fine. They would treat His word as the revelation from God. As soon as God says “I,” they say, “You are sent by God? That’s horrific, totally impossible!” And so they start to strongly convict Almighty God. Tell me how are they different to those Jewish chief priests, scribes and Pharisees? They are of the same mold; they share the same rotten taste! Can you understand what I say? New fellow believers remember when I say something and it doesn’t really fit well with you, it’s very normal. If you listen to my words and believe there are some truths in them, and believe my words are beneficial, then you can listen to me as much as you like. If you listen more, then you will benefit and understand the truth. If you listen more, many things will become clear, and the way you see things will become more correct, and you will then approve more of what I say. If you don’t listen enough, then that won’t do. In Taiwan there was a brother. When he first started believing in God he listened to my preaching and some of what I said he didn’t accept because it didn’t fall in line with his notions and imaginations. But how is this man decent? He said, “I really trust in the words of Almighty God, the words of Almighty God are the truth, the man said something that didn’t comply with the truth and something that didn’t comply with people’s notions and imaginations.” He didn’t break or fall, but rather he continued to follow. After he followed for a few years he said: “Listening to the preaching often does have profit. When I first started, some of what you said I couldn’t accept, I just felt it was not right. No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t agree. However after a few years I realized it all makes sense and it’s absolutely correct. Now when I think back to the things you said, I can accept them all, and say amen to them!” What’s all this about? He’s had practical experiences and has entered into life. So, if we are unsure that some words are correct or not, don’t judge blindly, we should first listen. Many things only become clear little by little through experience, you can’t possibly understand straight away. For example, if someone who is 60 and someone who is 20 have a chat, would their views and opinions often collide? Their ideas and concepts would differ greatly. If a 60-year-old talked to someone of the same age, their views wouldn’t be vastly different and most of their opinions would be similar, why is this? Because their experience is equal, therefore their knowledge and concepts are very similar, right?
What is the meaning of pursuing the truth? First of all we need to be sure, what exactly is the truth? It is the expression of the life of God, what God has and is, God’s righteous disposition, and it is the revelation of the essence of the life of God. The truth is the life of God and what God has and is. It is the representation of God’s disposition and the essence of God’s life. So the truth is a priceless treasure. The effect the truth has on us is that it can cleanse our corruption. It can cleanse the poison of Satan from inside of us. It takes Satan’s poison from inside of us and its fallacies, exposes and cleanses them. After cleansing we can live the life of truth. When people gain the truth as their life, the way they look at things will change. The way that they view things will be consistent with God. Because people’s views are consistent with God, everyone who accepts the truth as life can be compatible with God, submit to God, worship God, love God from deep within their hearts and love God forever. We often say that God is the loveliest, God is worthy of people’s love, worthy of the praise of man. What does this refer to? It refers to the essence of God’s life; it refers to God’s life disposition. God’s life disposition is holy, therefore it is righteous. God’s life disposition is worthy of the praise of humanity, therefore the truth is the loveliest treasure. It can be the most precious thing to become our life. When people obtain the truth as life, they genuinely belong to God and never again do they belong to Satan the devil. When people obtain the truth as life, they utterly separate themselves from the influence of Satan. Because we have the truth as life within us, we are of a different breed from Satan, our views and opinions are not congruent with Satan and its world, we are completely against it. Is this the case? Does my opinion fit well with worldly people? Does it comply with religious people? Most of it doesn’t comply with theirs. So how did these views and opinions of mine come into being? Only after I ate and drank the words of Almighty God and experienced His work, and experienced countless times of pruning and dealing, judgment and chastisement did I change. This is what it means that the work of God can change people. After you have experienced a few years of the judgment and chastisement of God, you will speak as I do and our views and opinions will be similar.
So what exactly is the truth? The truths are realities of all positive things, only the truths are positive things. Things that don’t conform to the truth or belong to the truth are not positive things. In addition, what is the purpose of God expressing the truth? To give it to God’s chosen; also it is to give it to the people of the kingdom to be their life. If the people obtain these truths and make these truths their life, they would obtain eternal life, they would be immortal. Some people say that this “immortal” is not scientifically correct. Is that correct? No. Because science is not the truth, when science explains something it is explained very unclearly. Tell me, what can science explain? What can science understand? What can science solve? Science can make steel, can make iron, can make aluminum, can build a bicycle, build a plane, but can it solve the problem of the longevity of human? Can it cure every single illness? Can science see somebody’s soul? Can science see the work of God? Can science change life and life’s essence? Can science create a mosquito? What science can understand and explain is minuscule; it can merely create a few things in front of our eyes like chemicals and iron. God created the human race. After Adam and Eve sinned, how long can we corrupt people live for? Adam lived for 930 years, his offspring Methuselah lived for 969 years. These corrupt people could even live over 900 years, nearly a thousand years, so why did they live for so many years? That was commanded by God. God instructed Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If they eat the fruit from this tree they must die. After Adam ate the fruit he was doomed to die, doomed to die but he still lived for 930 years. So if he didn’t eat the fruit would he have ever died? Some people say, “This is not scientific!” They always weigh something based on science, is science the truth? Can science represent God? Is science almighty? Science is nothing. In front of God the science is nothing, if God doesn’t want us to develop these things He just needs to say the word and they will disappear. If God wants us to develop fast we will develop fast. If God blesses humanity, then it will develop quickly. Is this correct? Therefore, science is not the truth; science will never be able to explain the work of God. If God didn’t want Adam and Eve to die then their bodies would live forever, immortal, because God is so omnipotent. Isn’t this the case? God created all things; God’s deeds are so wonderful, inscrutable to human. So as He speaks, it is, and as He commands, it stands. We just need to believe the words of God, don’t believe in science. Of course, scientists have managed to research some rather small achievements and elementary knowledge, but it is all very minor, it’s not even worth mentioning in front of God, it is very insignificant. Therefore, don’t worship science, it is absolutely nothing. No matter how advanced science is, when the world gets destroyed it will be completely futile, when the act of God happens we won’t be able to withstand it, and we won’t be able to last even a second. Therefore in the spiritual world, what does our petty science count for? Nothing. In ancient times, the armies of Assyria fought against Israel. When the armies of Israel saw the mighty enemy army of one hundred and eighty-five thousand they prayed to Jehovah God. God then dispatched an angel, and in just one night the Assyrian Army was all slaughtered. Tell me, how did the angel attack them? Did the angel have a gun? The angel didn’t need a gun. How did the angel do such a feat? Nobody knows. Therefore the spirit and the spiritual body can easily take care of humanity’s mere flesh, blood and weapons; it’s an incredibly easy task! Do you understand? All of the material weapons and guns in the world are totally useless against spirits. So with regards to these facts, don’t listen to scientific theories of the unbelievers saying such things as, “This is not scientific, it’s not scientifically correct,” don’t listen to such fallacies. If you believe in such foolish theories, then you are stupid, understand? Believe in the truth and believe in God, that is the most important. What does believing in God refer to? To believe in God is to believe in God’s words, believe God is the Almighty, believe in God’s wisdom, believe that God’s words can accomplish anything, believe the words of God are the truth, believe that the words of God can be people’s life, purify people and save people. Most importantly, remember: The truth can set us free; the truth can purify and perfect us. The truth can change our destiny; the truth can give us a perfect destination. These words are of great importance, can you remember them?
131-B-7
Here, as soon as I mention faith in God, no matter what aspect of it, as long as it relates to the truth, to experience, to testimony; as long as it relates to the whole idea of doing one’s duty and having faith in God—there are so many things that need to be said; take any one or two words of God’s and they can be readily fellowshiped. After you have more experience in life, after at least ten years of experience, if you have received the illumination of the Holy Spirit and are used by the Holy Spirit, you can do it. Do you believe this is true? I had believed in religion for eight years, during which time the Holy Spirit directly guided me, and enlightened me and led me to preach. If you believe in the name of Almighty God for ten years or eight years, you will be much further ahead than I was after eight years in religion. So if the Holy Spirit uses you to do the work of witnessing for God, you will receive more than I did. God does not show favouritism, but considers whether you seek the truth or not. I am no stronger than you; in education and in caliber I am just ordinary, and in cultural knowledge I am behind you. But the Holy Spirit’s work leads me, makes me crave the truth, love the truth, and so emphasize the truth and strive for the truth. Then there is God’s dealing and pruning, judgment and chastisement, trial and refinement. If you have gone through much of these, you will know a little more and have more experience, and you will be able to communicate this more extensively. If you read God’s word but do not experience it, what you understand is just lifeless phrases. If you want to speak more, without experience, without knowledge, all you can do is learn to repeat the word of God, and after you have finished learning, all you can talk about is book knowledge. But after you have experience, when you combine the word of God with facts, with human experience, with human life, and then speak, then the words become living water and you will speak and speak. So how is the result of being able to bear witness to God achieved? It is not just a matter of hearing God’s word; you must figure out this truth, put it into action, experience it, make it your own life, make it the basis of your own way of looking at things, make it your basis for doing things, make it your own insight, your own point of view, your own intellectual knowledge. In this way, if you fellowship about these words again, the nature of your fellowship is different. This is the language of real life. The sphere is much wider. It’s not just a matter of words.
So for all the people who belong to the first group to have accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days, in all walks of life in all countries, you need to pursue the truth; God has given you a great commission. Those who have first accepted, and who first obtain the truth, certainly will be used by God, to water, to shepherd their own people, the chosen of God in their country. You first accept the work of Almighty God in the last days and if you in fact are pursuers of the truth, God will entrust you with a task, He will train you, and you will face trials; God will test your faith, to see how truly you believe, to see if you can be certain about God’s word, be certain about the appearance of God. For example, with some people, as soon as they believe, someone in their family falls ill; with others, when they believe, unbelievers rise up to persecute them and oppress them; with yet others, as soon as they believe, their family suffers a serious problem. “What is this? The true God comes, but as soon as I believe something bad happens, bad luck, a disaster? Is this really the true God?” Some people doubt, and don’t pray. Think about it, you believe in the true God, won’t the devils and Satan hate this? Will they just let it go? They will want to snatch you! They will create this or that sort of situation to create difficulties for you, to make you back off and leave Almighty God. Aren’t there people who face these kinds of trial? I dare say there are everywhere, whether in America or in Taiwan, or the Philippines, or Malaysia, there are people who face these trials. Because demons and Satan prowl everywhere seeking victims to devour, if you believe in Jesus they don’t respond to you, but if you believe in Almighty God this is critical in the spiritual world. This is an ideological war between the truth and falsehood! So when you face a trial do not doubt God; stand by your testimony. Everything is in the hands of God; all you have to do is stand by your faith. If testing does come to you, for example your child is sick, or your husband or wife is sick, if you really can submit to God unto death, you say, “Satan, take my child, my spouse, but I still believe in God! Even if they die right now, I believe in God!” Vow to God to stand by Him, to bear witness and shame Satan. In this prayer, in this statement, Satan is thus shamed, and will not dare to touch you. “Let them die, I still believe!”—how great are these words! Some people ask whether believers in Almighty God become ill. They do become ill and they also suffer disasters! Any kind of misfortune. In Mainland China many believers in Almighty God have been caught by the Chinese Communist government and threatened, “If you agree to give up your faith we will let you go; if you keep your faith, we will sentence you to labour reform, with a term of ten or twenty years; if you still persist in your faith, we will not only sentence you, we will take away your family’s jobs; your children will not be able to go to university, and we will cut off their source of income. If you believe in Almighty God, there is no place for you to survive in Mainland China!” Do you think that the satanic regime is ruthless? This is what the Communist Party in Mainland China does to believers in Almighty God. They don’t give you the right to live; if you believe in Almighty God, your children can’t apply to go to university, you ask for a job and they don’t give it to you, if you have public office they expel you from it, and they put you in jail. What can people do? Nothing. They can only stand by dependence on God, isn’t that so? It’s so.
The truth can give life to humanity. You obtain the truth and then obtain life. If you cannot obtain the truth, even if you believe in Almighty God and believe in the name of God in the Age of Kingdom, you can’t enter the kingdom. God says that you are just making up the numbers. He does not accept that you are a true believer, because you do not have the truth. So among those who believe in Almighty God, some have still died, and some new believers are still cured of cancer. There are those who are cured of cancer, and there are those who die of cancer; there are those who die after car accidents, and in disasters, there are those who are saved in fire and in floods; and there are miracles of God. There are many with this kind of testimony. What do these things say? If you truly believe in Almighty God, He will save you in a disaster. If you do not truly believe in Almighty God, and you only believe to receive blessings and enter the kingdom, when you get sick you may die all the same, and God will ignore you and not save you. From this, we can see God’s disposition. God is righteous to everyone, isn’t He? Yet those who believe in Jesus believe that God is compassionate and loving, and that He has only mercy and love, without righteousness, without majesty, without fury; that is wrong. The disposition that Jesus revealed was one aspect of God’s disposition in one age. After experiencing the work of God in the last days, people see that the disposition revealed in each age, including all of them together, combined together, is the complete disposition of God, a disposition dominated by righteousness. This is true knowledge of God. Thus when people experience one stage of God’s work, their knowledge of God is limited; they must experience the three stages of God’s work, especially the work of God in the last days, before the dominating theme of God’s righteous disposition can be truly and correctly known.
What can be done to achieve these results? There is only one way: carefully reading the word of Almighty God. Because you first believe, you may have notions about some words of God and can’t accept them, but you can’t reject all other words of truth; this is unfortunate and unfair. The word of God cannot be considered on the basis of human imagination. Someone says, “I accept as truth the word of God that accords with my notions and imaginations, but I don’t accept as truth what doesn’t accord with my ideas, even if it is correct; I have other notions about some things, and about other things I want to play the odds with God.” Is this the right attitude to have on the word of God? The word of God is the truth, and humanity cannot gamble with God. Twenty years ago I used to say, the work of God does not accord with people’s notions in some ways. Don’t gamble with God; if you gamble you will be put to shame. If you see that the word of God does not accord with your notions, what can you do? Pray to God and say, “Oh God, although what You say does not fit with what I think, I believe Your word is truth; my notions are not truth, and so I am willing to lay them aside, to turn against them, and submit to Your word.” It is just right to pray like this. Whatever notions you have about parts of the word of God, do not resist God, do not judge the word of God. God has said words like “rubbish,” “brood of Satan,” “beasts,” and some people say, “Aren’t these terms of abuse?” Now do you think these are terms of abuse? What are they? These are words that reveal the true face of reality. “When people are seriously corrupt, they have become the offspring of Satan, and they are like living ghosts.” Tell me, is this abuse? Among the whole of humanity only a few live out the true model of mankind, only a few have normal humanity, surely these words accord with fact? Some say: “I love God so much, and I can submit to God; I truly spend what I can for God. Can God say I am a beast? If God says that humanity are beasts, that refers to deeply corrupted people, not to me.” Is this reaction right? No, it’s wrong. They say that they love God above all and I believe these people are good, they have love of God. There are people in religion that love God. What should we say about people like this? How does God see this? Accepting that these people have a good humanity, that they truly love God, yet they have not undergone the judgment and chastisement of God, and in their love, in their submission there are human impurities. And because of the human impurities, their love of God cannot be approved by God. You have to see the word of God in this way, to interpret it in this way. So when a new believer reads the word of God, there can be parts of it that he or she has notions about and does not accept, that he or she feels are not correct. How should this be treated? Don’t make blind conclusions, put this to one side, and first read those parts of the truth that you can accept and affirm, and after you have read and understood those truths, and experienced them for a year or two, when you read those parts again it will be different. What you can’t accept in the first year you will be able to accept in two or three years when you read them again; something that you can’t accept in the first year, you will completely understand and accept ten years later. You will then regret your behavior in the beginning, saying, “I spoke in terms of judging God, because I couldn’t understand this statement.” Do you regret that now? So never gamble with God, we are His creation, we are corrupt mankind; the work of God is to save mankind, to purify us, and God truly loves mankind. He speaks the truth. He expresses the truth in order to save us.
The fact that there are parts of God’s word that do not accord with our notions is normal, because we are not the truth, we don’t own the truth, we cannot go straight to the spiritual world, and we cannot see the spiritual body of God. So how can you know that the word of God does not accord with reality? After you have experienced this for several years it will be different. So as for a truly devout person, even if he or she can see that something in the word of God does not accord with man’s notions and imaginations, he or she can submit to God, and reject his or her own self, and pray to God, “Oh God, no matter how Your word does not accord with my notions, I dare say Your word is truth, and although right now I do not understand, sooner or later one day I will understand that Your word is all truth.” You see, this is a devout person, and this is what a person with a heart that is in awe of God should say, and how he or she should pray. If people have this way of treating God’s word, this kind of person certainly can obtain the work of the Holy Spirit, be enlightened, and certainly can gain God, obtain the love of God, the favor of God, because this kind of person is pious, his or her heart truly loves God. A person who loves God will never judge God, a person who loves God will never misunderstand God, a person who loves God, whether or not he or she knows or understands God’s word, will still be able to submit to God, and believe that the word of God is the truth, and will be able to deny his or her own notions and imaginations. So a person who truly loves God will always seek truth in the word of God, and look for the right answers; everyone who truly loves God will be able to care for God’s will, and not do things against God, or do things to arbitrarily judge the work of the house of God. So a person who loves God is naturally a person who loves the truth. If a person says that he or she loves God, but does not love the truth, and does not read the word of God, and is full of notions about God, and cannot submit to the work of God, is this kind of love sincere? It’s not sincere. So all those who believe that they love God, these people’s humanity is certainly good. Since your humanity is good, and you have accepted the work of God, so what should you do? Read more of the word of God, and have a submissive heart to God, don’t form your own notions. With our notions we seek the truth, but don’t say because of some notions on some point, “I don’t believe, I don’t acknowledge it’s the true way, I don’t accept the work of Almighty God.” If you do this who will suffer? Won’t your own beautiful future be ruined? You will ruin your chance to enter the kingdom, isn’t that stupid? Won’t you suffer a great loss for this? Sometimes I may say something wrong. But I am a person, I don’t represent God. Treat my words as words of an ordinary person, they do not represent God. Just because I may have said something that doesn’t accord with your own notions and imaginations, this doesn’t mean that you should stop believing in Almighty God. This is what I don’t want to see. Don’t not believe in Almighty God just because I said one thing wrong. I don’t represent Almighty God, Almighty God represents Himself, and the words of Christ in the last days represent Almighty God. I do not represent Almighty God, do you understand? So new brothers and sisters in the faith, if what I am saying is right, if it is in accord with your notions and imaginations, just accept it; if it doesn’t accord with your notions and imaginations, or if you believe it doesn’t accord with the truth, then don’t accept it. But don’t let that influence your acceptance of Almighty God, and even more don’t let it stop you from entering the Church of Almighty God to do your duty, to experience the work of God; don’t lose a great deal for a small thing. I am not in charge of others. I don’t have any personal scores either way with anyone, I do the work of God’s house based on the word of God, and my fellowship is based on the needs and requirements of brothers and sisters. I do not condemn others, and I certainly do not try to define the fate of others in the future.
131-B-8
New believers are now living as members of the church, aren’t you? I would like to talk a little about the principles of living a life in the church. First, you work to feed your family and make ends meet. Don’t give up your job. God has never said that when you accept Almighty God you should give up work. Why then do some people give up their job and carry out their church duties full-time? That applies to people who pursue the truth, and whose family circumstances permit it. Where family circumstances do not permit, where the wife or husband does not earn money—if they don’t go to work what will they live on? If your circumstances don’t permit, but you insist on giving up work, is this the right thing to do? Whatever you do you need to consider whether your family circumstances permit, and then pray and look for a basis in the word of God. Don’t get carried away and act out of impulse. First of all, don’t give up your job just blindly: To give up your job you must have the right conditions, you must have enough to live on. You don’t seek to make a fortune, you don’t need to buy a luxury home; it’s a matter of having enough. You have someone who has resigned, and someone who goes to work, and that is fine. If your living conditions are such that even getting enough to eat is a problem, and you’re living from hand to mouth, that’s no good—how can you even think of giving up work? But there are some single people who say, “Would it be OK if I gave up work to do my duties, to seek the truth? Would the church look after food?” The church would do this; any full-time duty staff can be provided with food and accommodation by the church, and some who can live at home can either eat at the church or be provided with a minimum church living allowance. For this, people have to have a special gift; they can do their duty—the church needs them to do their duty—and then they can give up work and come to the church to do their duty. Where there are people of caliber with a good nature, the church elects them as leaders, and if they think they can be leaders as well as doing their work, and they have enough energy, that is OK. With some people the more work they do, the more there is work for them to do, the more the Holy Spirit enlightens them, and the more they feel they should perform their ministry and share fellowship in the truth. The church has more and more work like this. They think, “I can’t do any more my job, there is not enough time. I’ll have to give up my job.” Isn’t this a natural thing? When work develops to this stage, their stature also increases to this point: should they give up their job? In this kind of situation people could give up their job. You see there are some with special gifts, special talents, and the church needs just this kind of person. They can do full-time duty, and the church can be responsible for their living expenses. Furthermore, new believers should not go off and evangelize until they are properly equipped with the truth. If you are not well equipped, others will attack you, and you won’t know how to handle them, you won’t know what to say back to them. How can this work? For human beings, who are corrupt, accepting the true way is a most difficult thing and involves a spiritual war; it’s not a simple matter. New believers need to be well equipped with the truth before they spread the gospel, and they need to have training for this. Please understand this. Further, when the family faces trials or a certain environment, you should urgently seek the truth and pray to God. In praying to God, you may feel, “Prayer is over, but I haven’t heard the voice of God, and God hasn’t left any impression on my mind, what should I do?” Don’t be concerned, you have prayed, you have explained your difficulty; maybe after two or three days, three or five days, a week, you will be bright inside, there will be a way out of the problem. You will see it clearly. “I know what to do!” What do you think this is? Isn’t this the working of God? There has been an outcome. At the time you didn’t hear a voice, and you did not gain any revelation either, but after a few days there was this result, and you understand without words, without a voice. You have been enlightened; you know what to do. Isn’t this a hint from God? After you’ve had a lot of experience like this, you know how marvelous the work of God is. Praying to God doesn’t delay things; God does not delay things, because God is all powerful. The more you have this experience, the more you will have faith in God and the more you will feel that God is true. When an unbeliever asks you, “Have you seen God? What is God like? Where is God? Have you seen Him?” Then you can say, “I have seen Him, God is in my heart, very clearly, doing things to make me understand, to make me know; God is guiding me, I know; God is infinitely worthy of love!” You cannot have this testimony without experience! Still without seeing, the heart is set so truly on God, and the knowledge is so true: this is believing in God, this is truly believing, isn’t this right?
Some say, “Now in this degenerate world, what future do people have? The fate of mankind is tragic, slowly all must die. How can the fate of mankind be changed? How can the finality of death be changed?” I tell you this: If you gain the way of eternal life that Christ grants in the last days, your fate will change, your ending will change from inevitable death to not dying, to gaining eternal life. After the great disaster comes, you will see what God does, you are guaranteed not to die, and finally you will be a survivor in the Age of Millennial Kingdom. To avoid dying in the great disaster, there is one imperative: accept the truth. Someone may ask, “What is the basis for saying this?” When we began our meeting, we read this passage: “I decide the destination of each man not on the basis of age, seniority, amount of suffering, or least of all, the degree of misery, but on whether they possess truth. There is no other choice but this.” God defines the destiny of a person in accord with whether he or she possesses the truth, on nothing else. Not on how much you have suffered in religion, the price you have paid, or what qualifications you have, or your reputation. Even if you have extensive qualifications, or high renown, these are of no use; if you do not have the truth that God has expressed during this stage of His work, you will perish. This is the righteousness of God, the justice of God toward everyone. The king of devils and the evil demons go straight to hell when they die. They are nothing, but what capability do people have? The human soul with all its capability is pitiable, isn’t this so? So first of all, you must absolutely not be arrogant before God and God’s work; secondly, before the truth, do not be arrogant and act wildly, because this would be stupid and ignorant, and you will be the one to lose. Do not be presumptuous, but submit to the truth. I often say, the most basic change in someone’s life disposition is when you can submit to the truth: No matter who has said something, as long as it accords with the truth you can submit, you can accept, you can lower yourself, you can obey honestly, this is a change in life disposition, this is being a sensible creature. If someone is always defiant and unrestrained before the truth, and—no matter how true what others say may be—he’ll say, “I don’t give in, you said a hundred right things, but if one of them is not right I will oppose you, and I will not give in!” What kind of person is this? This is a demon. Demons first of all lie, and secondly they do not accept the truth; they are finished, there is no help for them. Those who lie are devils; they will lie to your face, knowing the case full well but not accepting it. These are demons; if they don’t accept the truth, they are finished, and nothing can be done for them.
Why are some people who believe in Almighty God expelled? They don’t accept the truth, they cause disruption and disturbance, always fighting for position—can this work out well? Isn’t accepting the truth most important? Isn’t submitting to the truth most important? The truth reigns in the house of God, and it is completely different from the world. The law holds power in the world, but in God’s house the truth holds power. The fact that the truth holds power means that whoever a person is, he or she has to obey the truth, under the authority of the word of God. These are the ones who are saved; no matter who, with whatever reputation, however high, do not obey the truth and cannot obey under the authority of God’s word, they are all a category who will be destroyed, they must all be destroyed. So people in the past for the sake of the Lord paid the price through hardship, and as they loved God, they suffered and paid the price. Does God accept this? God has come but you don’t accept this, this is a total breach of faith, you have betrayed God. You are a betrayer of God! Almighty God has already carried out the work of the last days; if you don’t accept this and you still believe in the Lord Jesus, you are a betrayer! You are the greatest traitor to the Lord Jesus! When the Lord Jesus comes again and you can’t recognize Him, you have believed in vain for so many years, isn’t that so? When the Lord Jesus came, those who believed in Jehovah God, including the chief priest, the scribes, the Pharisees did not believe in the Lord Jesus, and Jehovah God cursed the Israelites, making them homeless for two thousand years, making them devastated, slain, slaughtered, then Hitler came and several million were killed by him. Why were they killed? Because God came and you did not recognize Him, you did not know God, you kept God’s previous name, so how would God classify you? You are a betrayer, you betrayed God, God came and you did not recognize Him.
The Lord Jesus comes as Almighty God, but those who believe in the Lord Jesus don’t accept Him, so could He accept them? Actually He would not accept them. God would say: “Because I come and you don’t know Me, I deny you. You betray Me, you are traitors! You say you love Me, you say you obey Me, you say you suffered because of Me and paid the price, but I don’t accept that.” So, the Lord Jesus said, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22-23). So in this light, how many days do believers in religion have left? The period from Almighty God started working to the time of the great disaster is their final time, if they still don’t accept the work of Almighty God in the final time, then disaster will fall on them and destroy them. This is the final period, understand that! How long will it be before the gate of salvation shuts? In the past in religious circles exegetical scholars said in relation to the final rapture, “The church will be taken up before the disaster,” and now the four blood moons have come, the great disaster is about to fall, they say, “It can’t be taken up before the disaster, but may be taken up during the disaster,” and some say, “The church may be taken up after the disaster.” Exegetical scholars in their wisdom see that rapture before the disaster has not been verified, and then they change their view to say that the rapture would take place in the midst of the disaster. In fact, some are taken up before the disaster and some are taken up during the disaster, both are true. Now are we people taken up before the disaster, or in the midst of the disaster? We have been taken up before the disaster. We accepted the gospel before the great disaster. Some of these people have been made complete: They are the overcomers, that is, the overcomers made before the disaster, and now they bear testimony of that. What of some religious people who will be taken up in the middle of the disaster? They haven’t heard of the work of Almighty God, or they fail to investigate even when they know about it; they are muddle-headed. They will have accepted the gospel in the middle of the disaster. God says, “When I chastise the many peoples, those in the religious world will, in differing degrees, return to My kingdom.” “In differing degrees” means a number, a small proportion, will be taken up in the middle of the disaster. Those taken up in the middle of the disaster are a small number. Those that are not taken up? Their careers of believing in the Lord will have concluded, they will be eliminated, they are foolish virgins. They hear God’s voice but do not recognize it, not accept it, and they will be eliminated. It is like this. At present in the religious world there are many who have not accepted Almighty God, but can we be sure they won’t accept in the future? We can’t define them, because the great disaster has not happened yet! Do you know how many years it will be before the great disaster? Maybe at most three to five years, or it could happen in one to two years. When the disaster happens, people will immediately come in. How can this be explained? It is still rapture before the disaster, isn’t that right? We can’t fully understand this, but if we don’t spread the gospel, if we don’t bear witness to the gospel, can they be part of the rapture? Believing in the way comes from hearing of the way. If the gospel has not been spread, no-one bears witness to them who do have no faculty to contact the spiritual world, how can they know? They won’t know. So we people of the Church of Almighty God have to do our utmost to bear the testimony to God, to read the word of God to them, to communicate God’s word, to let them know and accept it. We carry this message, we witness this much; these people may acquire it, accept it, and they are blessed. If we don’t carry the message to them, and they can only depend on themselves to go online and find out, does it work? No-one bears witness to them. If we are Jonah then that is a problem. “We won’t bear witness to you, you deserve to die. God should have destroyed you, you are not Israelites, why should I preach to you? You are Gentiles.” And are there people spreading the gospel who still have their own notions? “I see you do not seem to be a good person, I won’t pass it on to you, I only tell people I like.” Isn’t this someone like Jonah? It’s not good to make your own choice. So look at who likes the truth, who can accept the word of God. If, as soon as we speak they are inspired, as soon as we speak they understand, this is just the person that God will save. If we communicate God’s word to them, bearing witness to Almighty God, and they never answer, and no matter how we speak they are not enlightened, but continue to condemn, continue to oppose, continue to reject, continue to repulse, make us tired. We are at the end of our forbearance and give up, “I won’t pass it on to you, it doesn’t work, you don’t have this good fortune, I won’t take the trouble for you,” then he or she is finished. Is it like this? If you see a person who loves God, understands spirit, loves the truth, has humanity, you can preach the gospel to him or her.
Now, people can see the situation: The great disaster is apparently not far off. Are there many days left? Not many now. Is it empty and vain to seek reputation and worldly standing? Is seeking after sensual gratification empty? Because there are not many days left, do not make long-term plans. God’s word directly speaks of not making long-term plans in the world. Now this world has come to this point. And how many of the prophecies made in the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation have been fulfilled? We see for certain, there is not long to go. Yet to pursue the truth is not something achievable in three to five months, one or two years, two or three years. It is a slow process. So if it is ten or eight years, it is not really enough to pursue the truth, though it is certainly more than enough to be saved. This is because after one or two years’ experience the vision takes root within you; after three to five years you can practice the truth, after five to six years or seven to eight years a change can be seen in your disposition, and in ten years or eight years a result can be seen. It takes this much effort, do you understand? The result is not something that can be gained in the short time of one to two years. So you should give yourself a little time as a margin of safety. Some people say, “When will God’s work finish? If the great disaster will be one or two years away, that’s OK, I will spend a lot of time for God in these two years. If the great disaster is still ten years away, that’s no good. With those ten years, I will be able to enjoy the world, enjoy the pleasures of the family. If there are those ten years, I can make much money, buy a nice home, drive a good car.” You see at the mention of ten years or more then they think of that. Leave one or two years to enter into life or be saved, and leave seven or eight years for pleasurable enjoyment—is this kind of person to be considered clever? How many years should you leave to enter into life or obtain the truth? This is something that most people will not find easy to understand. Some people say: “When will God’s work be finished? Please tell me a year before, so that I can give up work.” We just estimate, but who can be certain of this? Is this the case? But to see the prophecy in the Bible it is all fulfilled. When the four blood moons come out, the great disaster is near; as Israel’s exegetical scholars explain with comparative certainty, the great disaster is really coming. To judge by the situation for the fulfillment of prophecy from the Bible, the great disaster is near, and the day of God will soon arrive. So what should we emphasize in the last days? Since you have heard the voice of God, you should pursue the truth, and seek to know God in the word of God. Finally you can attain true obedience to God, and worship of God. And then you will have life. As soon as you have life, when the great disaster comes you will not die. If you do not have life, you must die. So when you believe in God: first, believe in the name of God; second, experience and obey the work of God; third, achieve knowledge of the disposition of God; these are the three steps to be saved and perfected. Finally, I will tell you one thing: The truth can change a person’s fate, the truth can bring you a good destination, a good ending. But to reject the truth, or not to accept the truth, will mean that your belief in God is just in vain.
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.
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