Have You Paid Attention to the Church of Almighty God?

The Church of Almighty God has gradually been the focus of the advanced minds in today’s society. Many people fix their eyes on its development trend and they can’t help marveling and feeling amazed: Why can this Church, persecuted cruelly by the CCP government, develop so rapidly under a great deal of opposition? Why can the Church of Almighty God have their own choir and filmmaking group while setting up churches around the world in such a short time? Why can these unprofessional Christians actually make so many wonderful films that convey positive energy?

All those who have seen the websites and films of the Church of Almighty God know that their films are testifying Christ of the last days—Almighty God. These films, based on God’s chosen people’s personal experiences of the end-time work and word of Almighty God, reflect the deep-seated things of mankind and the key problems that need to be solved urgently. These films create the precious positive energy to the world, and they are adequate to awaken all those who have conscience throughout the world.

As for the chosen people of the Church of Almighty God, the name they pray in is Almighty God, what they accept is the truth expressed by Almighty God, what they obey is the work of Almighty God, and what they practice is the word of Almighty God. So, the One they believe in is Almighty God—the Christ incarnated in the last days. Outwardly, Almighty God is an ordinary person. But in substance He is the embodiment of God’s Spirit. He possesses full divinity. His word is the direct expression of God’s Spirit and is the truth, the way, and the life. Almighty God is the incarnate practical God. All those who submit under the name of Almighty God are conquered because they have seen the appearance of Almighty God and accepted Almighty God’s judgment and chastisement in the end time. Then, they start performing their duty to repay God’s love, spreading Almighty God’s word and witnessing His work by means of films and choir performances. The Holy Spirit thereby works greatly. Thus, Almighty God’s end-time work has been worldwidely testified, and God has gained many people who sincerely love Him from different counties and places. God’s work has been accomplished! Just as Almighty God says, “Throughout the universe I am doing My work, and in the East, thunderous crashes issue forth endlessly, shaking all denominations and sects. It is My voice that has brought all men to the present. I let My voice be that which subdues man; they all fall into this stream and all submit before Me, for I have long ago reclaimed My glory from all the earth and issued it forth anew in the East. Who does not long to see My glory? Who does not anxiously await My return? Who does not thirst for My reappearance? Who does not long for My loveliness? Who would not come to the light? Who would not see the richness of Canaan? Who does not long for the return of the ‘Redeemer’? Who does not adore the Great Almighty? My voice must spread throughout all the earth; I wish to speak more to My chosen people. The words I utter shake the mountains and rivers like mighty thunders; I speak to all the universe and to mankind. Hence My words become man’s treasure, and all men cherish them. The lightning flashes from the East even to the West. My words are such that man loathes to give them up and finds them unfathomable, but moreover, man rejoices in them. Like a newborn infant, all men are glad and joyful, celebrating My coming. Because of My voice, I shall bring all men before Me. Thenceforth, I shall formally enter among men so that they come to worship Me. The glory I give forth and My words make it such that all men come before Me and see that the lightning flashes from the East, and that I have also descended unto the ‘Mount of Olives’ of the East. They will see that I have already long been on earth, no longer the ‘Son of the Jews’ but the Lightning of the East. For I have long since been resurrected, gone away from among men, then reappeared among men with glory. I am He who was worshiped before the ages, and the ‘infant’ forsaken by the Israelites before the ages. Moreover, I am the all-glorious Almighty God of the present age! Let all come before My throne to see My glorious countenance, hear My voice, and watch My deeds. This is the entirety of My will; it is the end and climax of My plan, as well as the purpose of My management. Let every nation worship Me, every tongue acknowledge Me, every man trust Me, and every people be subject unto Me!” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh)

                                          source from: Find the Shepherd

“Eastern Lightning” Is the Return of the Lord Jesus

We all know that the Lord Jesus had promised His disciples before He left: Surely I come quickly. Over thousands of years, countless Christians have held on to the promise of the Lord and expected His return all their life. They felt pity that they did not meet the return of the Lord Jesus before death. Many people are puzzled: The prophecy of the return of the Lord Jesus has already been fulfilled, but why is it that we haven’t seen the appearance of the Lord yet? In fact, the Lord Jesus has already returned to flesh as the Son of man and done the work in secret among people for many years. Christ of the last days—Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus!

When the disciples asked about the signs of His return on the Mount of Olives, the Lord Jesus prophesied from His own mouth, “For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Mat 24:27) And He also prophesied, “For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.” (Luke 17:24-25) Both of these scriptures mention “the Son of man,” who is born of man and has the normal humanity. The Spirit cannot be called as “the Son of man,” and only God incarnate can be called so. This is sufficient to prove that when the Lord returns in the last days, He will still become flesh. The prophecy says “But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.” So the Son of man will suffer many things and be rejected; it also refers to God’s return to flesh. If God returned as the Spirit, would He suffer so much and be rejected by men?

During about 20 years, the Church of Almighty God has been testifying that Eastern Lightning is Christ of the last days, Almighty God who becomes flesh, and the return of the Lord Jesus, and that millions of words of truth Almighty God expresses is the light to save man. However, the elders and pastors of the whole religious world not only didn’t seek or investigate it, but instead frenziedly judged, condemned, resisted, and blasphemed “Eastern Lightning.” They even colluded with the atheistic CCP government to deceive common people and instigate them to oppose and resist “Eastern Lightning.” Even so, they still failed to stop the steps of God’s work. The clever virgins, who believe in God sincerely and can recognize the voice of God, return before Almighty God’s throne from all sects and denominations one after another. The scene of joy “All peoples will surely stream to this mountain” has appeared. Under Almighty God’s personal leading, God’s chosen people have broken through the suppression of the forces of darkness, and they keep practicing the truth and never lose the testimony. Almighty God has already made a group of overcomers in Mainland China. Today, the gospel of Almighty God has spread from China, the East, to all other countries in the world, without dramatic effect. These ironclad facts are the complete fulfillments of the prophecies concerning the return of the Lord. Like what Jesus suffered in His first incarnation, Almighty God, Eastern Lightning and Christ of the last days, also suffers the rejection from the world today. But He has still accomplished the work what He wants to do, not restricted by anything.

Almighty God says, “Only when the light of the East gradually turns white will the darkness across the earth begin to turn to light, and only then will men find that I have long ago gone from Israel and am rising anew in the East. I cannot still be ‘born’ in Israel after I have ‘descended’ to Israel and then left from Israel, for My work leads all of the universe and the lightning flashes from the East to the West. This is the reason I have descended in the East and brought Canaan to the people of the East. … I gave My glory to Israel then moved it away from there, bringing the Israelites to the East, and bringing all men to the East. I have led them all to the ‘light’ so that they may be reunited and have association with it, and no longer have to search for it. I will let all who are in search see the light again and see the glory I had in Israel; I will let them see that I have long ago come down upon a white cloud among men, and see the countless clouds of white and clusters of fruit, and moreover, Jehovah God of Israel. I will let them see the ‘Master’ of the Jews, the longed-for Messiah, and the full appearance of Me who have been persecuted by kings throughout the ages. I will do the work of the entire universe and perform great works, revealing all My glory and all My deeds to man in the last days. I shall show My full countenance of glory to those who have awaited Me for many years, to those who have longed for Me to come upon a white cloud, to Israel that has longed for Me to once again appear, and to all mankind who persecute Me, so that all will know that I have long ago taken away My glory and brought it to the East. It is not in Judea, for the last days have already come!” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh) All these facts fully prove that “Eastern Lightning” is the return of the Lord Jesus in the last days and God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.

Source: “Eastern Lightning” Is the Return of the Lord Jesus

I Shed Remorseful Tears Before the Almighty God

I. Having Listened to the Rumors and Believed the Lies, I Blindly Resisted God;

For “Guarding the Church” and “Defending the Way,” I Shut Out the Lord.

Wang Haijun

Shenyang City, Liaoning Province

I am Wang Haijun, formerly a preacher in the “Justification by Faith Church.” Like other brothers and sisters, I believed in God for the purpose of going to heaven and gaining eternal life, and I served God for the purpose of gaining the crown of righteousness. While I was earnestly expecting the Lord to return to reward me, I actually shut the door on the Lord and became one who resisted God, because I was foolish and ignorant and believed the rumors.

In 1999, a copy of the material called The Inside Story of the Eastern Lightning was circulated from some other church to our church. It said that “the Eastern Lightning” was a cult and a heresy, that their book contained a magic drug, and that once one read it, he would be bewitched. It said that those people had evil spirits in them, and that once one listened to their fellowship, he would be deceived into joining them. It also said that “the Eastern Lightning” was an underworld organization, that if one joined it, he couldn’t withdraw, and that those who had withdrawn either had their legs broken or their noses cut off. I swallowed everything in that material without thinking and publicized it wildly. Besides, I established in the church the rules to guard against “the Lightning”: No one is allowed to have contact with “the Eastern Lightning,” or listen to their fellowship, or read their books. If any outside believer comes, bring him to the church, and no one is allowed to receive him privately. Any violator must offer a sincere prayer of repentance. He will be disciplined or excommunicated according to how deeply he has been “poisoned.” The outside believers can only listen and not preach.

At that time, Sister Wang in our church accepted “the Eastern Lightning.” I forced her to offer a prayer of repentance, but she refused. So, I drove her out of the church and did not allow her to attend meetings anymore. Under my pressure, Sister Zhang, when her elder sister traveled more than forty li to preach God’s end-time gospel to her, was so frightened that she hid herself and did not dare to serve her sister even a meal. Afterward, I still forced her to offer a prayer of repentance. This made her feel so wronged that she could not speak but only shed tears silently. Later, two out-of-town sisters came to my home and said to me, “The Lord has come. Woe to those who do not accept…” I said contemptuously, “The Lord has come? Have you seen him? Woe to whom? I think that a great disaster is hanging over your head!” With these words, I drove them out. After that, of nearly one hundred people who preached the end-time gospel to me, some were brushed aside by me, some were angrily rebuked by me, some received violent pushes, mockeries, and taunts, even teases and humiliations from me, and still some were driven away by my threat to call the police.

By 2000, our church had completely lost the normal church life. Guarding against “the Lightning” and talking about the “rumors about the Lightning” occupied most of the meeting time, and there was no supply of the word of life at all. The more we guarded against “the Lightning,” the smaller the number in the church became. The brothers and sisters became weaker and weaker, and there were more and more people who dozed during sermons. The leaders committed sexual immorality and were engaged in disputes, and the brothers and sisters intrigued against one another and formed factions among themselves. The church had already fallen apart. In the autumn of 2001, though I frenziedly resisted “the Eastern Lightning” and stepped up efforts to seal the church, more than half of the people in our church, including my wife and my sister-in-law, accepted “the Eastern Lightning” behind my back. Only I was kept in the dark. When I knew the truth, “flowers had fallen off” and I could do nothing. Even so, I still frenziedly shouted a slogan: “Even if I am the only one left, I will not accept ‘the Eastern Lightning’!” At that time, I knew that the church had completely lost the working of the Holy Spirit. When preaching, we depended solely on the strength of the flesh, and when singing, we only sang sad songs like “The Desolation of God’s Temple.” The atmosphere was so dead. Many times, I knelt down before the Lord, wept bitterly, and prayed to him to revive the church, but I got no “answer.” Then, I fell into deep thinking: “What is ‘Lightning’? Is it really like what is said in the rumors? Wherein is it ‘cultish’? Wherein is it ‘heretical’? It doesn’t matter that I cannot go to heaven, but what about so many brothers and sisters? The Lord says that the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Now, of the Lord’s sheep, some have returned to the world, some have joined ‘the Lightning,’ and the rest have become so passive and weak that they cannot pick themselves up. If this continues, how can I give an account to the Lord when he comes? To get the Lord’s sheep back and to stop the brothers and sisters from being ‘deceived,’ even if I have to climb up the mountain of swords or plunge into the sea of flames, I will venture into it. I must ‘personally go into the tiger’s den’ to bring the whole thing to light.”

II. By Listening to the Fellowship and Asking for Evidence, I Saw Through the Trick; Through Reading God’s Word, I Solved the Riddle and Regained the Salvation.

In April 2002, I took the initiative to greet the people of “the Eastern Lightning” and invited them to my home for a fellowship. The one who fellowshipped with me was Sister Jiao, who was once in our church. She fellowshipped about the three stages of God’s work, beginning with the fact that God’s six-thousand-year management plan is divided into three ages. And she said, “In each age, the place God works in, the people God works on, the way of God’s working, and the nature God expresses are all different, but no matter how God works, the purpose of his work does not change, and it is always for saving mankind….” Honestly speaking, Sister Jiao fellowshipped for more than two hours, yet my mind was almost a blank and I did not take her words to heart at all. In the end, before she finished her fellowship, I said, “Stop here. I accept! Just give me the book.” In fact, I wanted to read the book not for the purpose of seeking the truth but to see whether it contained a magic drug. Sister Jiao gave me a book called Judgment Begins from the House of God. I read several pages, and she asked me what I felt about it. To be honest, at that time I was neither moved nor shocked but thought to myself, “It doesn’t seem to be God’s word at all!” So I squeezed out a word: “It does not seem to be as enjoyable as the Bible.” Sister Jiao said, “You still have many notions inside. You have to drop yourself and sincerely ask God to inspire you and enlighten you. God searches minds and hearts. If you don’t have a right attitude and intent when reading God’s word, the Holy Spirit will not move you.” I did not take her words to heart but only nodded mindlessly. However, although I did not take in much of the content of that fellowship, I found a big issue—the facts did not agree with the publicity material. So I started to doubt that material, The Inside Story of the Eastern Lightning. “The material says: The book of ‘the Eastern Lightning’ contains a magic drug, and once one reads it, he will be bewitched. Those people have evil spirits in them, and once one listens to their fellowship, he will be deceived into joining them. Well, today I personally listen to their fellowship and personally read the book of ‘the Eastern Lightning,’ but how come I’m not bewitched? How come I’m not controlled by them or deceived into joining them once I listen? The material also says: ‘The Eastern Lightning’ is an underworld organization. If one joins it, he cannot withdraw. Those who have withdrawn either have their legs broken or their noses cut off. However, there are also some brothers and sisters around me who once accepted ‘the Eastern Lightning’ and were won back by me afterward, and I have not seen that they lost their limbs or noses because of leaving ‘the Eastern Lightning.’ Besides, ‘the Eastern Lightning’ has been preached in China for many years. If what the material says were true, wouldn’t there be thousands upon thousands of ‘victims’ throughout China? If that were the case, could they not report them to the police? Then how could the news media ignore such major appalling cases? How come we have never heard or seen the radio or TV coverage of them?” After much thought, I gradually realized that what the material said were all lies of cheats, words of demons. Today, as I look back to those lies, I find that they are not very clever and can be seen through as long as one gives them some thoughts and pays more attention to realities. However, the small inferior tricks that the cheats performed cheated me for as long as four years, so that I almost went to hell with the cheats and became fuel in the lake of fire.

The fact I had personally experienced made me much more awake. The three-stage work that Sister Jiao fellowshipped about recurred to me, scene after scene. I began to feel that her fellowship was reasonable, yet I still felt unassured. So, I asked the Lord for evidence. I prayed, “O Lord Jesus! I am an ordinary mortal like a maggot or a worm. I don’t know you, much less understand your intention; but I do not dare to resist you anymore. Today I accept the third stage of your work and your new name the Almighty. If it is wrong for me to accept, then let me die within three days with my body bursting open like Judas, so that my death can prove that this is not your work, and can also make those ‘deceived’ turn back.” After the prayer, I wrote a note to state this matter. However, three days passed, and nothing happened. Then, I started to read God’s word seriously.

I righted my mentality and came before God to enjoy God’s word with fear and admiration. When I read this piece of God’s word, “The ‘Savior’ Has Already Returned on the ‘White Cloud,’” tears blurred my eyes. God says: “I was once called Jehovah, and I was once called Messiah by people. And people once called me the Savior Jesus out of love for me. Today, I am no longer Jehovah or Jesus whom people knew before but the God who has returned in the end time and who will end the age and the God Godself who arises from the ends of the earth filled with all my nature and full of authority, honor, and glory. People have never contacted or known me and never known my nature. From the creation of the world until today, no one has ever seen me. This is the God who appears to people in the end time and yet who is hidden among them, living among them true and real, like the burning sun and the flaming fire, full of power and filled with authority. No one and no thing will not be judged in my word. No one and no thing will not be purified by the burning fire. In the end, all nations will be blessed because of my word and will be crushed because of my word. I will make all people in the end time see that I am the returned Savior and I am the Almighty God who conquers all mankind. And I will make all people see that I was once man’s sin offering, but in the end time I become the fire of the burning sun that burns all things and the sun of righteousness that reveals all things. This is my work in the end time.” Later, I also read these words of God: “‘God’ and ‘man’ cannot be mentioned in the same breath. His substance and his work are most unfathomable to man and most incomprehensible to man. If God does not personally work and speak among men, man can by no means understand God’s will. In that case, even those who dedicate their whole life to God cannot receive God’s approval. If God does not work, no matter how well man may work, it is in vain, because God’s thoughts are always higher than man’s thoughts and God’s wisdom cannot be fathomed by any man. So, I say that all those who ‘see through’ God and God’s work are incapable ones and arrogant and ignorant men. Man should not limit God’s work. Besides, man cannot limit God’s work. Man is even smaller than an ant in God’s eyes. How could he fathom God’s work? Aren’t all those who repeatedly say, ‘God does not work like this. God does not work like that’ and ‘God is like this. God is like that,’ the ones who speak arrogant words? We all should know that fleshly men are all ones corrupted by satan and they resist God by nature and cannot be equal with God, much less give counsel on God’s work. It is God’s own work how he leads man. Man should just obey and should not have this or that kind of opinion, because man is only dust.” “Yes! How can man fathom the things of God? How can man see through God’s work? Who can be God’s counselor? But today, I, a person smaller than an ant, have the audacity to condemn God’s work at will. I am too devoid of self-knowledge!” God’s words made me feel too ashamed to show my face.

The Almighty God is precisely the returned Jesus. Only after reading God’s word and personally experiencing these facts was I convinced in heart and in mouth.

When I came before God and recalled my past, I hated myself all the more. I asked myself why I blindly condemned God’s end-time work without seeking, why I expected God’s return every day but was so blind and foolish, why I believed in God yet resisted God, why I trusted in myself so much and was so arrogant, and why I, who had believed in God and served God for many years, became a Pharisee infamous throughout history. I felt grief-stricken and extremely remorseful, but I could not get the answers. Later, God’s word untied the knot in my heart and caused me to know myself. God’s word says: “Do you want to know the root of the Pharisees’ resisting Jesus? Do you want to know the substance of the Pharisees? They were full of fancies about Messiah. And they only believed that Messiah would come but did not pursue the truth of life. So they are still waiting for Messiah today, because they do not know the way of life and do not know what is the way of truth. As they are so foolish and so ignorant, do you think that they will receive God’s blessing? Can they see Messiah? They resisted Jesus, because they did not know the direction of the Holy Spirit’s working, because they did not know the way of truth from Jesus’ mouth, and even more because they did not know Messiah. Because they had never seen Messiah or stayed with Messiah, they all made the mistake of holding onto the name of Messiah vainly but resisting the substance of Messiah unscrupulously. And the substance of these Pharisees is stubborn, arrogant, and disobedient to the truth. The principle of their believing in God is: Regardless of how high is the way you preach or how great is your authority, as long as you are not called Messiah, you are not Christ. Isn’t their such viewpoint very absurd and very ridiculous? Let me ask you again, ‘You do not have any knowledge about Jesus, so won’t you very easily repeat the mistake the Pharisees made at that time? …’” Yes, I frenziedly resisted God’s end-time work without seeking or investigating it. I readily believed the lies of cheats without fellowshipping with any believer in the Almighty God face to face. I held on to “justification through faith” and did not seek the direction of the Holy Spirit’s working although our church had become so desolate, disunited, and devoid of the working of the Holy Spirit. I firmly believed “as long as you are not called Jesus, you are not Christ,” but I never knew God’s substance and even regarded myself as one who was most after God’s heart and most worthy of being taken up to the third heaven by God to receive the reward. I was so foolish, stubborn, arrogant, and disobedient to the truth; how could I not resist God? How could I know God’s present work? God! In the past, I spoke at random and condemned your work at will on the platform. I was so poor and blind that I did not know you are the returned Jesus and thus slandered and blasphemed you. God! I abused, mocked, and humiliated the brothers and sisters who preached the end-time salvation, but they bore it silently. They were the Abel who was killed, the Jacob who was persecuted, and the Isaac who was offered up, while I was the Cain who killed, the Esau who persecuted his brother, and the Ishmael who was like a wild donkey. I bitterly hate my past but cannot make up for it. I only hope that brothers and sisters can gain inspiration from my personal experience. May brothers and sisters take warning from my past and not repeat my mistake anymore. God’s word says: “Jesus’ coming again is a great salvation to those who can accept the truth, but it is a mark of being condemned to those who cannot accept the truth. You should choose your own path. Do not do things of blaspheming the Holy Spirit and rejecting the truth. Do not be ignorant and arrogant people. You should be ones who obey the guidance of the Holy Spirit and thirst for and seek the truth. Only this will be good to you. I advise that you should walk the path of believing in God carefully and cautiously. Do not make judgments casually, much less believe in God casually and carelessly. You should know that a believer in God should at least have a meek heart and a heart of fearing God. Those who hear the truth but sneer at it are all foolish and ignorant people. Those who hear the truth but casually make judgments about it or condemn it are all arrogant people. Every believer in Jesus is not qualified to curse or condemn others. You all should be ones who have sense and accept the truth.”

Dear brothers and sisters, I once went into “the Eastern Lightning” to taste personally, for fear that I would take the wrong way and lead the brothers and sisters into a ditch, and thus be unable to give an account to the Lord. I also once asked the Lord for evidence. Before the facts I personally experienced and before the Almighty God’s word like a sharp two-edged sword, I saw clearly that “the Eastern Lightning” I had frenziedly resisted for four years was actually my long-expected Savior Jesus. Coming out of notions and deceptions, I am desperately anxious to tell all the brothers and sisters who are sincerely expecting the Lord’s return this real fact, this great good news: The Savior Jesus has indeed come to the world! My dearly beloved brothers and sisters! Do not believe those lies of cheats anymore. If we hand our lives over to the makers of lies and rumors, won’t we ruin our lives? If we do not drop our notions immediately, won’t we fall right into the scheme of the evil one and fall into the darkness and thus miss the last chance to be saved by God? Brothers and sisters, time is so short. There is only a little left. Wake up quickly! How pitiful it is to be cast away!

                                                     source from: The Church of Almighty God

How I Accepted Almighty God’s New Work

Wang Xiufang

Fushun City, Liaoning Province

In 1991, I believed in the Lord Jesus in the Seven-day Adventist Church. The church was greatly revived in the first couple of years. The number of the believers gradually increased, and at peak time, it reached several thousand. As a co-worker of the church, I busied myself working for the Lord every day, waiting for the Lord’s advent.

After the year 2000, I found the situation of the church began to deteriorate. The brothers and sisters lost their love and faith gradually. Not only I was weak and feeble, unable to give nourishing messages, but other preachers also repeated the same messages. The believers were tired of those preachings and attended the meetings reluctantly. Later, some simply arrived at ten o’clock though the meeting started at eight, and many dozed during the preaching. At the same time, more and more evil things occurred in the church. Some preachers went back to the world because of this. Some preachers and leaders even committed adultery and squandered the church money, and their expenditures couldn’t match the record in the account book. To scramble for power and profit, the leaders used many means to exclude each other, attack each other, and form cliques. The believers weren’t sincere to each other anymore, and they all guarded against each other and watched each other to prevent themselves from suffering loss. How could this be a church redeemed by the Lord Jesus’ precious blood? I didn’t understand why the church fell into such a state and why it was more and more tiring to believe in the Lord. I prayed to the Lord again and again, “O Lord! May You purify our church and illuminate the brothers and sisters. May You revive it and bestow on us faith and power to follow You…” However, no matter how I prayed, the church wasn’t recovered.

Then, a series of disasters happened on the Sabbaths: A preacher was hit by a car on his way back from preaching and was bedridden ever since; a preacher’s husband died in a car accident; the son of an elderly sister was killed, and so on. It should be that “if a person believes in the Lord, his whole household will be blessed,” and “the Sabbath should be the day for God to bestow blessings.” But now we had disasters on the Sabbaths instead. All this showed that we had really lost God’s care and keeping. I didn’t understand why God hid His face from us. Meanwhile, the brothers and sisters of the “Eastern Lightning” continuously came to our church and the believers’ homes to preach the gospel of the last days. We never treated them kindly, but just abused them or beat them. However, they never got angry or lost heart, but kept running around and exhorting us patiently with a smile. Even the bitter cold, scorching heat, or heavy rain or snow couldn’t hinder their steps. I remember that in one year they came to preach the gospel to us as usual even on the “first day of the Spring Festival.” Indeed, holidays and weathers never stopped them. By contrast, the brothers and sisters in our church were already at home celebrating the festival. Looking around the empty church, I was lost in thought, “How nice it would be if we could be like them!” I was really impressed by their faith and love. I often pondered, “We all say that they have gone astray and have believed in an evil spirit. However, the peace, goodness, meekness, kindness, joy, and patience they live out are all from God! They are all the fruit of the Spirit! But none of what we did to them, cursing, condemning, beating, or calling the police, is in accordance with the Bible’s teaching! Aren’t we the great whore if we are joined with the government?” I sank into a great confusion.

Just when I was at a loss how to revive the desolate church and felt greatly puzzled about the “Eastern Lightning,” my husband brought the gospel back home. One day in June 2002, he came back with a book of Almighty God’s word. He said to me, “For three years, we have been running around holding big or small revival meetings and trying many other ways to revive the church. But instead of being revived, the church lost God’s keeping and became more and more desolate. The Scripture says, ‘Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman wakes but in vain.’ (Psalms 127:1) The fact shows that the Holy Spirit has stopped working in our church. In the beginning, there was Jehovah’s glory in the temple. But when Jesus began to work, the temple lost God’s care and keeping and became a den of thieves. That was because the Holy Spirit’s work had moved forward and God had done a new work. When the new work starts to prosper, the old work becomes desolate. Now our church is desolate because God has done a new work. As we refused to accept it and even slandered and attacked it after hearing the message, our church is in such a mess today. Before, we didn’t understand why the brothers and sisters of the ‘Eastern Lightning’ have so much faith and love and give up everything to preach the gospel of the last days. Now I know the reason. It’s because after they accept Almighty God’s new work, they have kept pace with the Holy Spirit’s work and have the work of the Holy Spirit. Their power comes from God—Almighty God! This is a true picture of Amos 4:7: ‘And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain on one city, and caused it not to rain on another city: one piece was rained on, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered.’ The ‘rain’ here refers to the Holy Spirit, and the ‘city’ refers to the church. They are now in the city where it rains, but we are in the city where it doesn’t. Isn’t it true? …” What he said accorded with the Bible and the actual situation of the church. And from his words, I understood why God hid His face from us. But then I thought, “If the ‘Eastern Lightning’ is the true way, why do they break others’ legs when they don’t accept their way?” So I asked, “According to what you said, the ‘Eastern Lightning’ is the true way. But in Guard Against the Eastern Lightning it says that if one doesn’t accept their way, they will break his arms or legs. How do you explain that?” “Those are all rumors!” said my husband angrily, “We didn’t see the fact either, but haven’t we also said many groundless words to frighten the brothers and sisters?” His words reminded me. Yes, I did spread the words in the booklets, such as “they will beat you to death if you want to drop out after accepting their way.” So I was rendered speechless. He continued, “Before, we held fast to the Bible and took the Bible as God. We thought that God couldn’t do anything beyond the Bible. Does God have to consult us, men less than an ant, when doing things? Is God greater or the Bible? Are we believing in God or the Bible?” “Right! I’m believing in God. If God has done a new work, I must follow Him.” But when I picked up the book of Almighty God’s word, I suddenly remembered what was said in the adverse materials, “That book is long-winded, full of words of rebuke; they couldn’t be God’s words at all.” So I hesitated again. “I shouldn’t believe it easily, lest I be deceived.”

Several days later, I met several brothers who preached Almighty God at a sister’s home. During the fellowship, I openly put forward my view that “God shouldn’t say words of rebuke and shouldn’t be long-winded.” One brother opened the Bible and read Matthew 16:23 and 23:33, and then said to me, “In Matthew 16:23, Jesus said that Peter was Satan, and in Matthew 23:33, He called the Pharisees vipers. Aren’t those words of rebuke? Can we say that Jesus is not the Lord then? Do you know why Jesus spoke in that way?” I was tongue-tied. I thought to myself, “I have believed in the Lord for so many years, but I have never thought about this.” The brother continued, “These stern words of the Lord Jesus were directed at man’s satanic poison of resisting and disobeying God within him. Satan wanted to make use of Peter’s fleshly emotion for Jesus to hinder Jesus from going to the cross and thus ruin God’s plan. But Peter didn’t know it. So the Lord Jesus directly exposed Satan’s scheme, so that Peter could know about it. The Pharisees held on to the law and resisted Jesus’ work. And they tested Jesus by sending people to question Him in an oblique way, attempting to get a handle against Him. They acted one way in public and another in private. Didn’t it show that they were crooked and crafty? So, Jesus said that they were vipers, which was exactly their substance. The reason why we have this notion is that we know too little of God’s disposition. We know that God is love and mercy and is gentle and patient. But we shouldn’t forget that God’s disposition also includes majesty, wrath, righteousness, holiness, and hatred for all evils. God is not only the living water, but also a consuming fire that purifies man. So, we shouldn’t understand God’s words literally, but should know their deep meaning!” Then the brother opened the book of God’s word and asked me to read these words: “Today it is different from before. Today when He saves you, it is the last days to divide people into their kinds, and He does not save you by means of mercy and lovingkindness but saves mankind more thoroughly by chastisement and judgment. So, all that you receive is chastisement and judgment and merciless smiting. But you should know that there is not the slightest punishment in such merciless smiting. No matter how stern My words are, what comes to you is only a few words devoid of human kindness in your eyes. No matter how great My anger is, what comes to you is still words of teaching, and I do not have any intention to hurt you nor have the intention to put you to death. Aren’t all these facts?” “Although the words I speak are stern, they all are salvation to people, because I only speak words but do not punish people’s flesh. These words cause all people to live in the light, know the existence of the light, realize the preciousness of the light, and even more know that these words are of great benefit to man and know that God is salvation. Although I have spoken many words of chastisement and judgment, no facts have come to you. I have come just to do the work, just to speak. Although My words are stern, I speak them to judge your corruption and disobedience. My purpose in doing so is still to save people from Satan’s domain, that is, to save people with the word, not to hurt people with the word. I speak stern words for achieving the results of the work. Only if I do the work this way can people know themselves and break away from their disobedient disposition. The greatest significance of the work of the word is to enable people to practice the truth on the precondition of understanding the truth, so that they can be transformed in their disposition and can know themselves and God’s work.”

From God’s words I understood that whether God’s words are gentle or stern, they are for saving men. No matter in what way God says them, they are the manifestation of God’s love. I also read these words of God: “Even today, your transgressions and disobediences are still too many to count. So, it is no wonder that I am always nagging before you. I do not want to be with you like this, but for the sake of your future and your destination, I will still nag once again here. I hope that you will understand and even more hope that you all can believe every word I speak, much more understand My deep meaning from My words.” After reading God’s motherly words, I was speechless. “God exhorts and persuades us earnestly and patiently for the purpose that we can have a better destination. But I was full of notions about God’s word and refused to listen to it and dared not read it. I really grieved God too much! Today, after hearing God’s words, I understand God’s thoughtful and kind intention in speaking this way and see that I am really disobedient and unworthy of God’s salvation.” God’s words removed my notions and made me certain that this is God’s voice of loving and saving man. I thanked Almighty God that He opened my heart so that I could accept His new work.

After my husband and I accepted Almighty God, the believers of our former denomination came to my home one after another to persuade us. One day, while my husband was outside preaching the gospel, more than ten of them came to my home and asked me where he had gone. I said, “He didn’t tell me.” Instantly, the room was in an uproar. “He’s finished. He has been kidnapped.” “They can do anything to him!” … An elderly sister plumped herself down on the floor and sobbed as she slapped her thigh, “My child! You must come back alive!” At that time, my elder sister came with several other sisters, her eyes red and swollen. Upon seeing me, she gnashed her teeth and raised her hand high to beat me. Someone held her, and then she cried aloud sadly, “Why don’t you believe in something else? Why do you believe in the ‘Eastern Lightning’?” Everyone in the room began to weep, and the room was filled with cries. “Probably the rumor that ‘her husband has been kidnapped’ will be spread everywhere from now. And many people will believe it to be true.” I thought to myself when I saw the scene. And I knew more clearly how the rumors were made up. At that time, I hated myself bitterly. “Because I had no discernment and followed others in spreading rumors and even made up rumors, the brothers and sisters who are ignorant of the fact have misunderstandings about Almighty God and would rather die than believe in Almighty God. I ruined their life. We fabricators of the rumors really should deserve to be cursed to death by God.” Thinking of this, I really wanted to slap myself hard. Tears of regret flowed down my face. “O Almighty God! I was so ignorant and blind. I followed others to condemn Your work and fabricated lies to slander Your coming. I hindered the brothers and sisters from accepting Your new work. I’m really guilty of the most heinous sin. Today, You didn’t condemn me according to what I did, but still gave me the opportunity to be saved. Your love for me is really so great! I will not disappoint Your grace of salvation. I will make up for my past indebtedness to You by what I do.”

Dear brothers and sisters and co-workers in the Lord, we are all expecting the Lord’s coming. Almighty God is exactly the returned Lord Jesus. Our hope has already been realized! Even though it does not accord with our imagination, it is the fact. Now the cry “the bridegroom comes” can be heard all over Mainland China. If you are a seeker of God, you should ponder it, investigate it, and accept it, and this is the best choice.

A Confession by a Son of Sin

Liang Meihua

Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province

Your kind attention and your last admonition awake me from my deep sleep for years

My unatonable transgressions are a painful memory for me striking my conscience

Being at a loss I pray to you with trembling searching my heart with bitter repentance

….

Whenever I hear the hymn “A Repentance,” tears gush out from my eyes. My feelings of pain, remorse, and self-reproach are beyond expression. I bitterly hate myself for being so blind and foolish that I did not know God’s work and became a ferocious wolf which hindered the lambs from entering into the kingdom and became the foremost of sinners who resisted Almighty God’s work. I bitterly hate myself for being so numb and obtuse that although I was disciplined by God many times, I did not examine myself but instead stepped up efforts to resist Almighty God. If it had not been for Almighty God’s extremely great mercy and salvation, I would have long since died an unnatural death. Here, to make up for the pain and grief I have brought to God and for my indebtedness to God, I cannot but expose my taint and evil deeds to you brothers and sisters so that you can take warning from them and therefore break free from being bound by the rumors and come before Almighty God soon.

I was formerly one of the eminent co-workers of the Pentecostal Church and was in charge of many churches in Daqing area, such as the church in No.3 Factory, the church in No.7 Factory, and so on. In early 1999, the leader above gathered us several eminent co-workers together and said, “Search in the Bible immediately and write material for refuting ‘the Eastern Lightning,’ the more terrible and the more frightening the better. As long as it can stop people from believing in Almighty God, it will be fine, however you fabricate it. No matter what, we should stop people from joining ‘the Eastern Lightning,’ because it has departed from the Bible and is a sect, a cult. Our doing so is to protect the flock faithfully for the Lord. After you compile the material for resisting ‘the Eastern Lightning,’ print it and then distribute it to the churches.”

To prevent the brothers and sisters from being taken captive by the “sect,” I became very zealous and searched in the Bible day and night and compiled the material sentence by sentence and item by item with several other co-workers. After seven days and nights of elaborate fabrication, a “collection of lies” entitled On the Eastern Lightning Being a Cult finally came out. In obedience to our leader’s words, we added a large number of alarmist words to the material, for example, “Those people of ‘the Eastern Lightning’ are extremely brutal. They are specially trained. They are an underworld gang and have knives and guns. Once you join them, you cannot withdraw. If you try to, they will make your eyes blind, cut off your ears, break your legs, or hack off your arms. …” Those bloodcurdling rumors and fallacies quickly spread among the brothers and sisters, and they all believed them to be true and no longer dared to contact the people of “the Eastern Lightning.” Our publicity against it achieved the expected “result” very soon, and I felt elated as if having made a great contribution. Although I had spent over one thousand yuan of my savings printing the material (including traveling expenses and telephone charges), I considered that the money was worth spending and the Lord would remember my “contribution.” From then on, I bustled about tirelessly on the path of resisting Almighty God.

One day, I heard that two believers in Almighty God came to one of the meeting places nearby, so I immediately took the booklet we had compiled, got on my bike, and went to stop them. When I was crossing a street, somehow my bike suddenly leaned to one side and lost its balance. I fell all at once from the bike and it fell on me. My arm was bruised outright, and a piece of skin on my right calf was scraped off by the pedal and blood oozed out. “O Lord, I’m doing the work for you. It’s because I worry that the lambs will be taken captive by ‘the Eastern Lightning’ that I go there in a hurry. How come you let me fall? Oh, it must be satan’s disturbance. The Lord will definitely not treat me in this way.” As I thought, I stood up. Because the bicycle chain was broken, I had to push the bike and hobble there. The moment I entered the room, I saw one of the sisters preaching. Extremely angry, I roared, “Who told you to come? How shameless! You even dare to steal the sheep openly. How dare you! I’ve got to teach you a lesson today!” As I reviled, I grabbed the jacket of the sister who was preaching and slapped her on the left cheek. Seeing me striking that sister, the other sister immediately came up and shielded her. At the time, I had lost my reason already. I punched her on the chest, and she was sent reeling against the door, almost falling. Before she had regained her footing, I hustled them out of the door. Even so, my anger was not slaked. And I shouted at them, “If you dare come again next time, I’ll break your legs!” Seeing that they left sadly in tears, I did not have the slightest compassion for them, nor did I feel that I had gone too far. Instead, I rejoiced in my heart: I had finally kept the Lord’s sheep.

Several days later, I carried the booklet and went to the church in No.7 Factory to preach. While I was walking along the roadside, a Xiali car suddenly rushed toward me. Scared and at a loss, I suddenly slipped and fell into a hollow by the roadside, lying on my back. That car brushed past the hollow, crashed into a tree at the roadside, and stopped. Although I did not get hurt, I had been scared out of my wits. And I got a long cut on my new down-jacket with a branch. Distressed and angry as I was, I did not regret at all what I had done. Instead, I thought, “It’s all the fault of this gang of people of ‘the Eastern Lightning.’ They almost made me lose my life. I’ll give them a good beating wherever I see them. I must have my revenge!” Failing to go to No.7 Factory, I could only go home. When I got home, I who was depressed still did not recover from the fright. I threw myself headfirst onto the bed and burst into tears. I cried out in my heart, “O Lord, it’s for your sake that I go to guard the flock, but how come there are always accidents happening to me and I’m haunted with fear every day? O Lord, is it because I don’t have enough faith? O Lord, you know I’m faithful to you. Please keep me and give me strength.”

One Sunday afternoon, I heard that over twenty people in the church in No.3 Factory had been “taken captive” by people of “the Eastern Lightning,” so I immediately carried the booklet and got to the church in No.3 Factory in a hurry. After my much preaching, threatening, and coercing, I finally got those over twenty people back. This time I felt extremely happy, thinking that the Lord must have heard my prayer and helped me. So, I hummed a hymn and took a Gangtian three-wheeler to go home. “I have finished the race; I have fought the good fight. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness…” Just when I was singing happily, a big truck suddenly dashed like crazy toward the three-wheeler I was riding on. Then, with a crash, the three-wheeler was hit seven or eight meters away, and I felt dizzy all of a sudden and then was thrown out of the three-wheeler. When passersby helped me up, I was unaware of whether I was dead or alive, standing there dumbly like a wooden chicken. “Fortunately, she’s not hurt.” “She narrowly escaped death.” “Heaven has eyes!” The passersby all started talking at once. Then, I regained my senses gradually and staggered home. Having lost the Lord’s care and keeping, I felt empty in my heart. I collapsed before the Lord and cried out tearfully, “O Lord, where are you? Why have you left me? O Lord, please tell me why accidents never keep away from me. What should I do?” After that accident, I felt very confused and lost, not knowing wherein I had offended the Lord. I became less active in resisting Almighty God than before. And I fell into an extremely weak state, eagerly expecting the Lord to give me clear guidance.

In the twinkling of an eye, late fall came. At a host home of our church, I met one brother and two sisters. Since they were all relatives of the host family, I was off my guard and naturally began to chat with them. I found that they spoke modestly and behaved naturally, and that they not only had good humanity, but also had rich experiences of life and deep knowledge of God. I began to admire them in my heart, so I decided to fellowship with them for a few more days so that I could gain more to supply the brothers and sisters after I went back.

With that in mind, I had a very harmonious fellowship with them. They fellowshipped about the truths that believers in God should know God and understand God’s intention, and so on, from which I received great supply. So five or six days passed in a flash. When they said that the Old Testament recorded the work of the Age of the Law done by Jehovah and the New Testament recorded the work of the Age of the Grace done by Jesus, I vaguely sensed that they seemed to be of “the Eastern Lightning,” for I had long since heard that “the Eastern Lightning” specially preached the three stages of works. I became alert instantly and thought to myself, “If only they are not of ‘the Eastern Lightning.’ If they are, then there must be one more stage of work that they have not spoken out. I’ll hear them out and then decide. If they don’t speak of the third stage of work, they are not of the Eastern Lightning.”

As the saying goes, “Nothing is to be afraid of but the most unlikely.” However, what came to me was exactly the most unlikely. My concern unfortunately came true. They eventually spoke out that God had done a new work, that is, the third stage of work—the work of judging and purifying man with the word. They also said that it was the fulfillment of Revelation. Hearing that, I collapsed all at once. “I’m finished! How could I have delivered myself to them? Actually, I’ve been in the tiger’s mouth all these days, but how come I didn’t realize it at all? They are exactly of ‘the Eastern Lightning.’ What should I do now?” At that time, my legs began to shake, and my hands also trembled. I thought to myself, “This time, I’ll have to die here. They definitely won’t let me off, because I beat their people some time ago. They are cultists after all, so how could they not take revenge? But it’s already late now, and even if I want to leave, there is no bus. O Lord, I didn’t die in those accidents but will die at the hands of these people. Could this be your will? Am I really going to be martyred for this?” When I still felt terrified, the brother suggested a break. “Now it’s the opportunity for me to escape. Go while the going is good!” I intended to take the chance of going to the latrine to run away, but those two sisters wanted to go with me. I thought, “Now I won’t make it. They are to keep an eye on me. It will be even worse if I fail to escape and get caught by them. I’d better pretend to be well-behaved for the time being, and try to run away by taxi after getting through the night.”

After I went back into the room, I simply refused to sit inside but insisted on sitting at the door, so that I could observe their actions, and once anything happened that was unfavorable to me, I would run away even at the risk of my life. I planned so in my heart. At the same time, I watched intently every act and move of theirs. When I saw that the brother took a fruit knife about half a foot long from the kitchen, I went pale at once. “I’m finished! I’m finished! Could it be that they have known it’s me who made up the material against them, and therefore will really cut off my ears? Or maybe they have noticed that I’m not as attentive as I was in the past days when listening to the message, so they want to frighten me into obedience. O Lord, please save me from the jaws of death!” Unexpectedly, the brother picked up an apple from the table and began to peel it. Then, I felt relaxed a bit. “Sister, have an apple!” the brother said to me with a smile. Looking at the brother’s acts, I thought to myself, “They don’t seem to be that cruel!” But then I thought, “No, I should stay alert. This gang of people are too crafty. Maybe they are just disguising themselves. I must not fall for it.” I put the apple cautiously on the table but did not move my eyes away from the brother’s hand. At that moment, the brother put his hand into his pocket. And I became nervous again. “Alas! He is drawing a pistol. This time he’s really going to take action. O Lord, I’ll indeed be martyred for you today!” I was so scared and nervous that my heart almost flew up into my mouth. However, the brother took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his hands. Then, my heart fell back into place. “It seems that they won’t take action tonight, for I didn’t contradict them. I’ve pretended obedience, saying yes to whatever they said. Maybe I could escape this misfortune.” Just when I was feeling restless, one of the sisters passed me a glass of water. My nerves which had just been somewhat soothed became frayed again. “I’m finished again. Stabbing me with a knife might cause me to shout; shooting me with a pistol will produce a sound. So, they’re simply going to poison me to death, as no sound will be made. This gang of people are really wicked! I can’t drink. There must be poison in it. I can’t be fooled.” Thinking of that, I said firmly, “No.” The sister seemed to have read my mind. She said, “Oh, it’s too hot. Let me cool it for you.” As she said that, she poured the water in and out of two glasses and left some in one. Then, she gently took a sip of it and said, “It’s not hot anymore. Now you can drink, sister.” This time I took the glass but did not drink immediately, for I wanted to see if the sister would die or not. “I’ll drink it if nothing happens to her. Underworld men are extremely cruel and merciless. Maybe it’s nothing unusual for them to have one die with me.” As I considered, I observed the sister. After a while, nothing happened; then I felt relieved and drank it up in two or three gulps. Actually, I already felt parched because I had been sweating profusely from fear.

I calmed my heart down a little bit. Thinking back to what had happened just now, I couldn’t help blushing at my oversensitive reactions. They had been so sincere, but I had guarded against them like that. I was in no way like a believer in God! Wasn’t it that I believed in God but had no God? At that time, it was already late, so we all went to bed. Lying in bed, I could not fall asleep but was lost in a myriad of thoughts. The scenes of these days appeared in my mind one by one like a film. “I haven’t seen anything odd in their behavior during these days. Instead, I find that they are very reasonable, gracious in speaking, and sincere in treating others. To be frank, my living out really cannot compare with theirs. During the fellowship, whenever I came across something that I did not understand, they always guided me patiently and never got angry. The songs they sang these days are so moving and can really evoke the love for the Lord. Their fellowship about the knowledge of God is indeed helpful. Besides, in these days, they gave me care in every possible way. Such real love does not seem to be pretended. Isn’t love from God? What is this all about? Have I resisted wrongly? Not likely. The salvation of the Lord Jesus’ cross has perfected everything, and we only need to wait for the Lord to return and take us to heaven. How could he do another stage of work?” Thinking of that, I was at a loss. “O Lord, I really don’t know what to do now, but I believe that you will surely guide me. These days, I’ve been too scared and only relied on my own brain rather than on you. O Lord, I am wrong. I’m willing to commit myself to you. Please lead me to know whether it’s right or wrong. And show me the way I should go,” I prayed silently in my heart.

The next day, as I had quieted my heart before God, my fear was all gone. Then, I decided to get the fact straight. I said to the brother and sisters, “What you have fellowshipped during these days makes some sense to me, but I want to ask a question. If you can fellowship about it clearly, I’ll accept.” They said gladly, “Sister, go ahead.” I said, “We have already been saved through faith in Jesus. The salvation of Jesus’ cross has perfected everything. How come there is the third stage of work of the word?” With regard to my question, the brother began to fellowship, “Sister, the salvation you mentioned refers to the fact that Jesus has already redeemed us from sin, that is, he has redeemed us through the crucifixion and saved us from the cross. We do not belong to sin because the Lord has borne it for us. But before we were redeemed, satanic poisons had been planted in us. Now, we have only been redeemed, but those filthy things still exist in us. Without undergoing transformation, such filthy men are not qualified to see God. The Scripture says: ‘…holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.’ Let us think about the condition that we are in. No one dare say that he himself has been completely holy, because even today we are still living in the condition of committing sins in the day and confessing them at night. We haven’t become holy but only been justified through faith and forgiven of our sins. This only means that God does not treat us according to our transgressions. However, we men who live in the flesh have no proper ways to break away from sin at all. The root of sin can in no way be removed through only practicing patience and bearing the cross. So, it is necessary for God Godself to do a work of taking away men’s sins. The work of the word that God does today is to disclose all the corrupt disposition in men through the judging, refining, and disclosing of the word so that they are convinced in heart and in mouth. And on the basis of that, God points out to them more ways to practice, thereby completely taking away their sins.” After listening to the brother’s fellowship, I was convinced inwardly. Thinking of my own condition, I was more clear that I could not be freed from sin by relying on my own patience. Then, the brother continued, “It’s the truth expressed by God Godself that enables us to have such knowledge today. It’s because God does the third stage of work of the word, which has unlocked all the mysteries, that we have understood that the ‘three stages of works’ are the greatest vision in God’s six-thousand-year management plan and are the center of God’s saving mankind. These three stages of works are the work of the Age of the Law, the work of the Age of the Grace, and the work of the word of the Age of the Kingdom. The work of the Age of the Law was to lead the Israelites to live and make them conscious of their sins by issuing the law. The work of the Age of the Grace was that the Lord was crucified and became men’s sin offering so that their sins were borne and forgiven. The work of the Age of the Kingdom is to take away men’s sins through the judgment of the word. These three stages of works complement each other, and none of them is dispensable. They comprise the entire work done by one God. Also, the three stages of works have fulfilled the words in the Scripture: God is the Beginning and the End; God is the One who sows and also the One who reaps; God is the Almighty who was, and who is, and who is to come.” Then, in regard to my question, the brother read a passage of God’s word: “You only know that Jesus will descend in the end time, but how will he descend? Such a sinner as you who has just been redeemed, could you be after God’s heart without being transformed or perfected by God? It is true that Jesus has saved you, who are an old man now. You are not of sin, and this is because of God’s salvation, but it does not prove that you have no sin or filthiness. You have not been transformed, so how could you be holy? You are still filled with filthiness within, selfish and contemptible, and yet you want to descend with Jesus. Could there be such a good thing? You lack a process in your believing in God. You have only been redeemed but have not been transformed. To be after God’s heart, you need God to personally work to transform and purify you. Otherwise, you, who have only been redeemed, cannot possibly be holy. Then you will not be qualified to enjoy the good blessings with God, because you miss one stage in God’s work of managing man, that is, the crucial stage of transforming and perfecting man. So, you, a sinner who has just been redeemed, cannot directly inherit God’s inheritance.” After hearing the brother’s fellowship and God’s words, I was convinced in heart and in mouth. I lowered my head quietly and could not restrain my tears. There was only one thought in my mind: “I have indeed resisted God!” Then I thought of the things that had happened to me recently: After I compiled the “booklet,” I suffered from either diarrhea or a headache almost every day, and sometimes my head hurt so badly that I kept hitting it against the wall. Besides that, I also had three accidents. Actually all those were not accidental, but the discipline of the Lord. However, I did not wake up but still condemned and resisted God’s work frenziedly. Now, before the truth and the facts, the rumors collapsed by themselves, so I saw with my own eyes that “the Eastern Lightning” I had been slandering, condemning, and resisting was the true way.

At that very moment, my opened heart tightened again. Worry and fear welled up inside me. In retrospect, I had committed numerous transgressions: compiling the rumors into a booklet to attack God, beating and abusing the gospel preachers, and hindering so many souls from turning to God. “Since I am so grievously sinful, will the Lord still want me?” Thinking of that, I really couldn’t help myself and suddenly burst into tears. My cry startled the brother and sisters, and they all anxiously asked me what the matter was. So, I got off my chest how I had resisted Almighty God and been disciplined. “The Lord won’t want a son of disobedience like me anymore!” I cried. “It’s all because of satan’s ravages that man doesn’t know God. It’s satan that has blinded man’s eyes so that man is unable to distinguish good from evil. As long as man can turn back, God’s tolerance is as boundless as the sea and sky, and his forgiveness and mercy are above all the heavens!” the sister said in tears to comfort me. Then, she read me another passage of God’s word: “There are many people who resist God, but among these many people there are many different cases of resisting God. People who believe in God are many and various. Likewise, people who resist God are many and various, different from one another. None of those who do not have a clear knowledge of the purpose of God’s work can be ‘saved.’ No matter how people resisted God before, when they understand the purpose of God’s work and make efforts to satisfy God, God will blot out all their past sins.” After reading these words of God, the sister said, “Actually, God has already spared you. The three accidents coming upon you were only God’s discipline, and God didn’t strike you down. His will is to save all those who can be saved.”

After I heard God’s words and the sister’s fellowship, my eyes brimmed over with tears again. Grateful tears streamed down incessantly. My feelings at that time were beyond expression. I only wished to offer the rest of my life fully to God so as to make up for my past transgressions. I took the book of God’s word in my hands. Then I hugged the sister tightly. Thus, after all these ups and downs, I, a son of disobedience, finally returned to God’s family.

Dear brothers and sisters, through my personal experience this time, I have tasted the boundless love and salvation of Almighty God and also tasted the bitter fruits that my disobedience, resistance, self-rightness, and blindness have brought to me. So, I sincerely hope that the brothers and sisters who are deceived by the rumors can come out of the dense fog soon. Don’t harbor too many misgivings and fears; believe that God is almighty. As long as we rely on him with a sincere heart, he will surely lead us to break through the dominion of all darkness and guide us into all the truth. Dear spiritual brothers and sisters, seek boldly! Run quickly toward Almighty God! This is because Almighty God is the returned Jesus and is the God who provides us with everything.