Brother Zhang went on with his fellowship, saying, “We can see from God’s words that Christ is the incarnation of the Spirit of God—He possesses a divine essence, He performs the work of God, He expresses the disposition of God, He can express the truth to supply and shepherd man at any time and in any place, and only Christ can perform the work of saving man. The Lord Jesus was Christ, for example, and His appearance and work brought the Age of Law to a close and began the Age of Grace. He also spoke His words to bestow mankind with the way of repentance, to enable them to know clearly God’s will and requirements and to give them a way to follow when difficulties arose. Through the words of the Lord Jesus, man understood how to pray to the Lord, how to get along with one another, how to forgive each other, and so on. Moreover, the Lord Jesus expressed His disposition of loving-kindness and mercy, He healed the sick, cast out demons and bestowed endless grace on man. Ultimately, He was crucified in order to redeem mankind, thus completing the work to redeem all mankind and saving us from the bonds and fetters of the law, as well as sparing us from the danger of being condemned and put to death for violating the law. These are just some of the things the Lord Jesus did, and no one else could have done them in His stead. From the work and words of the Lord Jesus, we can see that He is the truth, the way and the life. Similarly, God has once again become flesh in the last days and has ended the Age of Grace and begun the Age of Kingdom. He has uttered millions of words, He performs the work of judgment and purification, and He expresses the righteous disposition of God that is majestic, wrathful and unoffendable. The words spoken by Almighty God not only unveil the mystery of God’s entire management plan and the end and final destination of man, but they also expound in perfect clarity the truths we need to be purified and to attain true salvation according to our needs. For example, He explains how Satan corrupts man, the truth of man’s corruption at the hands of Satan, how God judges and purifies man’s corrupt dispositions, how man should believe in God and obey God, what kind of person God loves and what kind of person He detests and weeds out, how we should pursue in order to be made perfect by God, and so on. Through experiencing the judgment and chastisement of God’s words, we see clearly the essence and root of our corruption by Satan and we come to understand God’s righteous, holy and unoffendable disposition. We then cannot help but fall to the ground before God in true remorse, we become more and more reverential and obedient toward God and, gradually, we cast off our satanic corrupt dispositions, free ourselves from the bonds of sin and achieve the true salvation of God. The utterances and work of Almighty God bring us the truth, the way and the life—Almighty God is God Himself and He is Christ become flesh. False Christs do not possess the essence of God and they cannot express the truth, much less perform the work of saving mankind. They can only make specious pronouncements to deceive and harm people. When someone listens to them, they not only obtain no supply whatsoever, but furthermore, their hearts become darker and darker, sink lower and lower, they have nowhere to turn to, and they inevitably end up being devoured by Satan. Therefore, we are able to ascertain from God’s utterances, work and the disposition God expresses whether He is the incarnate Christ.”
After listening to the words of Almighty God and the brother’s fellowship, I thoroughly understood the truth of how to discern between the true Christ and false Christs. Only Christ is the truth, the way and the life, and only Christ can express the truth and perform the work of God Himself. All who call themselves Christ but who are incapable of expressing the truth and who cannot perform the work of saving man are false Christs. I had finally found the way forward and was no longer blindly guarded and passive for fear of being deceived by false Christs. Thanks be to God!
After that, Brother Zhang gave me fellowship on other truths, such as the mystery of the incarnation, the difference between God’s work and the work of man, the inside story of the Bible, and more. The more I listened, the more satiated I felt, and I looked forward every day to attending gatherings with the brothers and sisters. Each time a gathering ended, my mother and I would discuss the new light we had attained through the gathering, and slowly, I came to have some understanding of God’s work of the last days. After a period of seeking and investigating, I became certain that Almighty God was indeed the Lord Jesus returned. I then began to spread the gospel and to tell the news of the Lord’s return to even more people who longed for the appearance of God.
After the video was over, the pastor, two deacons and two church council members asked my mom and me to stay behind. The pastor asked us, “Are you two now believers in Almighty God?” We replied, “Yes.”
The moment we said this, one of the deacons suddenly sprang to his feet and, pointing at my mom, said ferociously, “So you now believe in Almighty God? From tomorrow, you are no longer permitted to teach Sunday school. Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll come to your home and take back the church’s money.”
My mom said, “You can take it whenever you like.”
The pastor asked angrily, “The entire religious world resists and condemns The Church of Almighty God. Why would you persist in having contact with them?”
My mom retorted, saying, “Pastor, does the religious world possess the truth? Did the Lord Jesus ever say that only by following the religious world can we welcome the Lord? When the Lord Jesus appeared and performed His work all those years ago, the Jewish leaders not only refused to seek or investigate His work themselves, but they also stopped believers from accepting it, and even made up rumors about the Lord Jesus, frantically resisting, judging and blaspheming Him. In the end, they offended God’s disposition and were thus cursed and punished by God. If we go by what you say, that any way the religious world resists and condemns is not the true way, then would that not mean that you are denying even the work of the Lord Jesus? You refuse to seek or investigate God’s work of the last days because the religious world resists and condemns The Church of Almighty God—does this accord with the truth? As the pastor and deacons of the church, why do you just arbitrarily condemn and judge Almighty God’s work of the last days without even bothering to look into it? Through reading many of Almighty God’s words, by seeing that Almighty God’s words are the truth and that they are the voice of God, we have become certain that Almighty God is the Lord Jesus returned.” To my surprise, they showed a contemptuous disregard for what my mom had said and didn’t accept it at all.
My mom opened an app on her phone and read Almighty God’s words to them. One of the church council members then spoke very arrogantly and made some blasphemous comments about Almighty God. My mom said angrily, “You are so unbelievably arrogant. These words are the truth—can you not hear it? Can you not understand the voice of God when you hear it? Are you really God’s sheep?”
With mirthless smiles, they stared at us haughtily. The pastor then said arrogantly, “The One we wait for is the Lord Jesus who has nail wounds in His hands and who comes with the appearance of a Jew. Apart from the Lord Jesus, we won’t accept anything, even if what Almighty God expresses is the truth.” Seeing how stubborn they were being, my mom and I gave up trying to talk to them. I saw that their behavior was exactly the same as that of the Pharisees who had resisted the Lord Jesus; they believed in God but they didn’t seek the truth, nor did they focus on listening for God’s voice. Instead, they were just arrogant and conceited, they stubbornly clung to their own notions and imaginings and they arbitrarily judged and resisted God’s work—they were indeed the ones who appeared to serve God but who actually resisted Him.
The pastor then threatened us, saying, “We’ll give you one month to reconsider. If you still persist in your belief in Almighty God in a month’s time, I’ll expel you from our church.”
I said indignantly, “No need to wait a month. Just expel us now. Having spent this time seeking and investigating God’s work of the last days, we’re already certain that Almighty God is the Lord Jesus returned. We have finally heard God’s voice, so even if you don’t expel us, we won’t be coming back to attend assemblies in this church anyway.”
The pastor lowered his voice and said slyly, “That won’t do. If we expel you now, what will the brothers and sisters think of us? They’ll say that we expelled you just for attending some gatherings online, and then we’ll look totally heartless. In a month’s time, we’ll tell the brothers and sisters in our church that we’ve gone to great lengths to counsel you and have given you more than enough time to reconsider, but in the end you persisted in believing in Almighty God and decided to leave the church, and only then did we expel you.”
Hearing the pastor say this, I felt disgusted, and I didn’t want to say one more word to them. I then started to walk out, pulling my mom along with me. Just as we were leaving, the pastor gave us a warning: “It’s up to you whether you believe in Almighty God or not, but I won’t allow you to have any contact with the brothers and sisters in our church anymore.”
When we left the church, it was already past one in the morning. As I thought back over what had just happened, I just couldn’t believe that the pastor, the preacher whom we’d always venerated for his morality and virtue could behave in this way. Just then, God’s words came to mind: “Those who read the Bible in grand churches recite the Bible every day, yet not one understands the purpose of God’s work. Not one is able to know God; moreover, not one is in accord with the heart of God. They are all worthless, vile men, each standing on high to teach God. Though they brandish the name of God, they willfully oppose Him. Though they label themselves believers of God, they are ones who eat the flesh and drink the blood of man. All such men are devils who devour the soul of man, head demons who purposefully disturb those who try to step onto the right path, and stumbling blocks that impede the path of those who seek God. Though they are of ‘robust flesh,’ how are their followers to know that they are antichrists who lead man in opposition to God? How are they to know that they are living devils who specially seek souls to devour?” (“All Who Do Not Know God Are Those Who Oppose God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
I’d always thought that the pastors and elders were servants of the Lord and that they should have the best understanding of the Bible and be most in accord with God’s will. I’d always thought that, when the Lord returned, they would definitely be able to welcome the Lord. I never would have imagined that when the pastor heard the news of the Lord’s return, not only would he not seek or investigate it, but he would also become so arrogant and self-righteous, stubbornly clinging to his notions and imaginings, and that he would judge and condemn both God and God’s work of the last days. He was completely lacking in a God-fearing heart, so much so that under the guise of “protecting the flock,” he obstructed and stopped believers from investigating God’s work of the last days just for the sake of maintaining his own status and livelihood. For those believers who did accept God’s work of the last days, the pastors and elders resorted to intimidating them with threats of expulsion from the church and even made the other brothers and sisters in their church reject them so that they wouldn’t be able to preach the gospel to their brothers and sisters. How sinister and malicious they were! In order to maintain their positions and livelihoods, the Pharisees at the time of Jesus wildly resisted and condemned the Lord and crucified Him upon the cross. The pastors and elders of today have exactly the same essence as the Pharisees—they are the antichrists who have been exposed by God’s work of the last days, and they are the demons who devour the souls of man. At that moment, I finally understood completely that when someone believes in God without knowing God and His work, then no matter how much they appear to suffer or how much they appear to expend themselves, they will always resist God and offend God’s disposition by relying on their arrogant and conceited satanic dispositions.
At that moment, I couldn’t help but express thanks and praise to God in my heart. Thinking back, I had been deceived by the sanctimonious appearance of the pastors and elders and had always idolized them, followed and obeyed them. When it came to the matter of welcoming the Lord, I had even gone along with them and resisted God. God exposing them for what they were allowed me to see, at last, the truth-hating, God-hating demonic essence of the pastors and elders, and I was then able to pass through the labyrinth they had set out for me and welcome the return of the Lord. I truly give thanks to God for saving me, and I wish to pursue the truth in earnest on the path of faith in God so that I may repay God’s love!
Source From: Gospel of The Descent of The Kingdom
