What Does “No One Knows the Day or Hour” Mean? (Part 2)
By Xinjie
We can see from Almighty God’s words that no one knows when God descends to earth as flesh incarnate; not even the Son of man knows. Only God’s Spirit knows this. However, when God begins to do His work, the Holy Spirit bears testimony to the work of God incarnate, and then uses God’s followers to spread the gospel; people then gradually learn of it. It is just as in the beginning, Jehovah God used a prophet to predict the Messiah’s coming, but as to when or where the Messiah would arrive, only Jehovah God knew. When the Lord Jesus returned in the flesh to work, even He Himself did not know at first that He was the Messiah, that He had come to do the work of redemption. He lived a normal life like an ordinary human. Other people did not know that the Lord Jesus was Christ, the incarnate God Himself, either. After the Lord Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit began to bear witness to Him and the Lord Jesus began expressing the way for human repentance, displaying God’s signs and wonders, and healing the sick and casting out demons. Some people gradually came to recognize that the Lord Jesus was the Messiah. Those who first accepted the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, such as Peter and John, then began to travel all over, spreading the Lord’s gospel. The Lord’s salvation thus became known to more and more people, And this has been passed down through the ages to today. Now there are believers in every part of the world.
The Lord Jesus also gave these predictions for the last days: “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). “He that rejects Me, and receives not My words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). And the Bible records: “Sanctify them through Your truth: Your word is truth” (John 17:17). “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). When the Lord returns, He expresses truths that more numerous and lofty than those of the Age of Grace, in accordance with our stature. He judges and cleanses us with His words so that we may break free of the bonds of sin and thus be purified and transformed. So, when the Lord returns in the last days to appear and do work, there are certainly some who hear God’s voice and accept His work, and then travel to the four corners to spread the good news of the Lord’s return. This is the same as when we first gained faith in the Lord; we only accepted it after hearing others spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus. As is written in the Bible, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17).
Therefore, when we hear the news of the Lord’s return, we absolutely must not blindly reject it; we should seek with an open mind, ask those spreading the gospel what work the Lord has done since returning, and what words He has uttered. If their testimonies fit with the Lord’s prophecies, then this is proof that He has indeed returned to appear and do work, and by accepting and submitting we will be welcoming the Lord. Almighty God says, “[S]ince we are searching for the footprints of God, it behooves us to search for God’s will, for the words of God, for His utterances—because wherever there are new words spoken by God, the voice of God is there, and wherever there are the footsteps of God, God’s deeds are there. Wherever there is the expression of God, there God appears, and wherever God appears, there the truth, the way, and the life exist. In seeking God’s footprints, you have ignored the words ‘God is the truth, the way, and the life.’ And so, many people, even when they receive the truth, do not believe that they have found God’s footprints, and still less do they acknowledge the appearance of God. What a grave mistake!” (“The Appearance of God Has Ushered in a New Age” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
Throughout the entire world, there is only The Church of Almighty God openly testifying that the Lord has returned—that is, that Christ of the last days, Almighty God, has expressed many truths and has done the work of judging and cleansing people. The vast majority of Almighty God’s utterances are recorded in the book The Word Appears in the Flesh. God’s words have elucidated every aspect of the truth. They speak very plainly on the mysteries of God’s incarnations, the inside truths of the Bible, the purpose of God’s six thousand year management plan for mankind, the differences between His work and the work of man, as well as how God judges and cleanses people, how people should know God, how God determines the outcome and destination for every human, and so on. These truths are all related to God’s own work; they are all mysteries that clearly point out the path to salvation for us. We should engage in seeking to see whether this is indeed the Holy Spirit saying to the churches, and whether it is indeed God of the last days doing His work of judgment starting with His house. This is how we can verify whether or not Almighty God is indeed the Lord Jesus returned. I believe that as long as we have an aspiration to seek, God will lead us to welcome the Lord’s return! This is because, as the Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).
Source From: What Does “No One Knows the Day or Hour” Mean?
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