The Church of Almighty God -- How to Discern True Christ From False Christs

       Question : I believe that if we are faithful to the name of the Lord Jesus and the way of the Lord and do not accept the deception of false Christs and false prophets, if we are alert as we wait, the Lord will surely give us revelations when He comes. We don’t need to listen to the voice of the Lord to be raptured. The Lord Jesus said, “Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:23-24). Do you not acknowledge the deception of the false Christs and false prophets? So, we believe that all those who testify to the coming of the Lord are surely false. There is no need for us to search or examine. For when the Lord comes He will give revelation to us, and will surely not forsake us. I believe that this is the right implementation. What do you all think?

Answer: The Lord Jesus did indeed foretell that there would be false Christs and false prophets in the last days. This is a fact. But the Lord Jesus also clearly prophesied many times that He would come back. Don’t we believe this? When examining the prophecies of the Lord Jesus’ return, many people give priority to being wary of false Christs and false prophets, and spare no thought to how to welcome the arrival of the bridegroom, and how to hear the voice of the bridegroom. What’s the issue here? Isn’t it a case of not eating for fear of choking, of being penny-wise and pound-foolish? In fact, no matter how people guard against false Christs and false prophets, if they do not welcome the return of the Lord, and they cannot be taken before God’s throne, they are foolish virgins who are eliminated and forsaken by God, and their belief in the Lord is an utter failure! Key to whether or not we can welcome the return of the Lord is whether or not we are able to hear the voice of God. As long as we recognize that Christ is the truth, the way, and the life, we will have no difficulty in identifying the voice of God. If people can’t discern the truth, and only focus on the signs and wonders of God, then they will surely be deceived by false Christs and false prophets. If they do not seek and examine the true way, then they will never be able to hear the voice of God. Do they not wait for death, and bring about their own destruction? We believe in the words of the Lord: God’s sheep hear the voice of God. Those who truly have brains, and caliber, and can hear the voice of God will not be deceived by false Christs and false prophets. For false Christs and false prophets are without the truth, and unable to do the work of God. This is not something we need to be concerned about. Only those who are confused and brainless can be deceived by false Christs and false prophets. The clever virgins will not be deceived by false Christs and false prophets, because they have God’s care and protection. When God made man, the clever virgins were given the spirit of man and able to hear the voice of God. So God’s sheep hear His voice, which is ordained by God. Only foolish virgins devote themselves to guarding against false Christs and false prophets, and neglect to seek and examine the Lord’s return. If we wish to welcome the return of the Lord, and not be deceived by false Christs, then we must understand how false Christs deceive people. Actually, the Lord Jesus has already told us about the practices of false Christs. The Lord Jesus said: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24). The words of the Lord Jesus show us that false Christs and false prophets mainly rely on performing signs and wonders to deceive God’s chosen people. This is the primary manifestation of false Christs’ deception of people. In this, we must understand why false Christs and false prophets use the signs and wonders to deceive people. Above all, it is because false Christs and false prophets are utterly devoid of the truth. In nature and substance, they are extremely wicked evil spirits. So they have to rely on signs and wonders to deceive people. If false Christs and false prophets were possessed of the truth, they wouldn’t use signs and wonders to deceive people. Looked at in this way, false Christs and false prophets perform signs and wonders because that’s all they can do. If we can’t see this, then it will be extremely easy for them to deceive us. Only Christ is the truth, the way, and the life. The One who can express the truth, and show people the way, and give them the life is the One who is Christ. Those who are incapable of doing these are surely false Christs, they’re fakes. This is the basic principle of identifying false Christs and false prophets. All those who seek and examine the true way should abide by this principle to seek and ascertain the voice of God, and in this they do no wrong. Almighty God has already laid bare the practices of false Christs and false prophets. Let us read a passage of the words of Almighty God. Almighty God says, “If, during the present day, there is to emerge a person who is able to display signs and wonders, and can cast out demons, and heal, and perform many miracles, and if this person claims that they are the coming of Jesus, then this would be the counterfeit of evil spirits, and their imitation of Jesus. Remember this! God does not repeat the same work. Jesus’ stage of work has already been completed, and God will never again undertake that stage of work. … In the conceptions of man, God must always display signs and wonders, must always heal and cast out demons, and must always be just like Jesus, yet this time God is not like that at all. If, during the last days, God still displayed signs and wonders, and still cast out demons and healed—if He did exactly the same as Jesus—then God would be repeating the same work, and the work of Jesus would have no significance or value. Thus, God carries out one stage of work in every age. Once each stage of His work has been completed, it is soon imitated by evil spirits, and after Satan begins to follow on the heels of God, God changes to a different method; once God has completed a stage of His work, it is imitated by evil spirits. You must be clear about these things” (“Knowing God’s Work Today” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “Not ever does the work of God conform to the conceptions of man, for His work is always new and never old. Not ever does He repeat work of old but rather forges ahead with work never before done” (“How Can Man Who Has Defined God in His Conceptions Receive the Revelations of God?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

The words of Almighty God clearly tell us that God is always new and never old, and never does the same work. This is just like when Jesus came to work: He ushered in the Age of Grace, and brought to an end the Age of Law. He did one stage of the work of redemption, and rescued mankind from sin. In order that His work would be effective, He performed some signs and wonders. In the last days, Almighty God has come, He has ushered in the Age of Kingdom, and brought to an end the Age of Grace. But He does not repeat the work done by the Lord Jesus. Instead, based upon the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, He carries out the work of judgment beginning from the house of God. He has expressed all truths for the purification and salvation of mankind, and has resolved the source of man’s sin and his satanic disposition. He has thoroughly saved man from the influence of Satan, so that man is ultimately gained by God. And the false Christs? They are all evil spirits who fake Christ. They are incapable of doing work of ushering in a new age and bringing the old age to an end. They can only imitate the Lord Jesus by performing simple signs and wonders to deceive those muddle-headed people without discernment. But they are incapable of copying what Jesus did as raising the dead and feeding five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, or rebuking the wind and sea, which is totally beyond them. In substance, false Christs are wicked, they are evil spirits and totally devoid of the truth. And so, they have to rely on signs and wonders to deceive people. Or else they deceive and admonish people by imitating the tone of God’s words and simple words once spoken by God. Let us look at the words of Almighty God, “God become flesh is called Christ, and so the Christ that can give people the truth is called God. There is nothing excessive about this, for He possesses the substance of God, and possesses God’s disposition, and wisdom in His work, that are unattainable by man. Those who call themselves Christ, yet cannot do the work of God, are frauds. Christ is not merely the manifestation of God on earth, but instead, the particular flesh assumed by God as He carries out and completes His work among man. This flesh is not one that can be replaced by just any man, but one that can adequately bear God’s work on earth, and express the disposition of God, and well represent God, and provide man with life. Sooner or later, those fake Christs will all fall, for although they claim to be Christ, they possess none of the substance of Christ. And so I say that the authenticity of Christ cannot be defined by man, but is answered and decided by God Himself” (“Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From the words of Almighty God we can see that Christ is God become flesh, He is God’s Spirit realized in the flesh. That is, all that God possesses, including what God has and is, God’s disposition, and the wisdom of God are all realized in His flesh. Christ has the substance of divinity, and is the embodiment of the truth. He is always able to express the truth to provide to man, and tend to man in all places. Only Christ can do the work of redeeming mankind and saving mankind. No one else can imitate this, nor can they deny it. While most false Christs are possessed by evil spirits. They are supremely arrogant and ridiculous. In substance, they are evil spirits and demons. Thus, no matter what signs and wonders they perform, or how they misinterpret the Bible, or talk of profound knowledge and theory, they do nothing but deceive people, and harm them, and bring them to ruin. Nothing they do is edifying to people. All they do is bring ever more darkness to people’s hearts, they leave them with no path to tread, to be ultimately swallowed by Satan. It can be seen that all false Christs and false prophets are the incarnation of Satan, they are evil demons that have come to interrupt and disturb God’s work. Regardless of how many people they deceive, harm, or bring to ruin, they will soon fall, and perish of themselves, for they are without the slightest truth. If we truly understand the truth about how to differentiate between the true Christ and false Christs, then there is no way we could refuse to hear the voice of God or welcome the appearance of God for fear of being deceived by false Christs.

It is only because the words of Almighty God reveal the substance of false Christs and false prophets that we have some discernment. In substance, false Christs and false prophets are evil spirits, without the slightest truth. They can only perform some simple signs and wonders to deceive people. If we understand this truth, then we will no longer be deceived by false Christs and false prophets. You also mentioned that God will surely inspire man at His arrival. In fact, most people believe this: As long as they are faithful to the name and the way of the Lord, when the Lord comes they’ll be given revelations and directly taken into the kingdom of heaven without needing to hear the voice of God. This clearly goes against the words of the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches” (Revelation 2:7). The Lord Jesus clearly said that when the Lord comes He will surely utter words and express the voice of God. All who hear the voice of God, search and accept it will thus welcome the return of the Lord and be taken before God’s throne. Will it do if we hear people testifying to the coming of the Lord, yet do not search or examine it? How could it be feasible to merely await the revelation of the Lord? Could the Lord act in this way? Did the Lord say for us to await His revelation? No, He did not! Thus, such views are simply misleading and deceitful. Only ridiculous fools could say such things. If we await the revelation of the Lord according to this saying, then we can do nothing but wait for death, and bring about our own downfall. Let us look at the words of Almighty God, “Even more believe that whatever the new work of God, it must be substantiated by prophecies, and that in each stage of such work, all those who follow Him with a true heart must also be shown revelations, else that work could not be that of God. It is already no easy task for man to come to know God. Taken in addition to man’s absurd heart and his rebellious nature of self-importance and conceit, then it is all the more difficult for man to accept the new work of God. Man neither studies the new work of God with care nor accepts it with humility; rather, man adopts an attitude of contempt, waiting for the revelations and guidance of God. Is this not the behavior of a man who rebels against and opposes God? How can such men gain the approval of God?” (“How Can Man Who Has Defined God in His Conceptions Receive the Revelations of God?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). When it comes to the arrival of the Lord, if people blindly cling to their own conceptions and imaginings, if they do not seek the truth, or pay attention to hearing the voice of God, and merely await the revelation of God, then they will never welcome the return of the Lord. We all know that in the Age of Grace, among all those who followed the Lord Jesus, there was not one person who followed because they had first been given revelation. They all heard people’s testimony to the Lord Jesus, or heard the utterances and preachings of the Lord Jesus and recognized His voice, and thus they followed the Lord. Although Peter received revelation from God, and recognized that the Lord Jesus was Christ, the Son of God, that happened after He followed the Lord Jesus for a while. From the words and work of the Lord Jesus he had gained some knowledge of the Lord Jesus, and only then was he enlightened by the Holy Spirit. This is fact. In the last days, the incarnate Almighty God does the work of judgment beginning with the house of God. He has expressed millions of words and received countless followers, and not one of them received God’s revelation before following. All those who follow Almighty God were enlightened by the Holy Spirit whilst seeking and examining the words and work of Almighty God. They felt that the words of the Almighty God were all the truths, they recognized God’s voice, and only then did they accept God’s work of the last days and were taken before God’s throne. This fulfills the prophecy of the Book of Revelation: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Yet in the religious community, there are people who refuse to give up their conceptions and imaginings. They merely await the revelation of the God, and refuse to hear the voice of God. In particular, the pastors and elders not only do not seek and examine when faced with Almighty God’s work of the last days, but also fabricate rumors, and frantically oppose and condemn Almighty God. They even deceive believers, and try to stop them from examining the true way. These people have been revealed as tares and antichrists by God’s work of the last days. And they are the very people who are laid bare and eliminated by God. In fact, in the two times that God has become fleshes to work on earth, He does not reveal it to anyone in advance. For God is the Creator, and He has His own plan for His work. He does not work according to people’s conceptions and imaginations, nor does He ask for people’s advice, much less does He tell anyone in advance. By working in this way, God is fair to everyone. This perfectly demonstrates His fair and righteous disposition, and, moreover, shows the wisdom of God in His work. God’s sheep will hear the voice of God. God uses practical words and work to reveal those who love the truth, who’re weary of the truth, who are clever, stupid, good, and wicked. Just as the Lord Jesus said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). As believers in God, we should be humble, we should hunger and thirst for righteousness, and be pure of heart, just as Jesus asked. Like a clever virgin, we should focus on hearing the voice of God. We should seek and examine the truths expressed by Almighty God. And only in this way can we go to the wedding feast of the Lamb. If people only blindly guard against false Christs and do not seek and examine Almighty God’s work of the last days, if they still await the Lord’s revelation, then such people have become blind, foolish virgins, and shall be eliminated by themselves.

from:"The Church of Almighty God "