The Church of Almighty God -- The Inside Story of the Bible (3)

    Question: How will we believe in the Lord and receive life if we leave the Bible?

Answer: This question is very crucial. This is what we believers in God all want to know. The Lord Jesus once said, “Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life” (John 5:39-40). Before, we studied the Bible again and again, thinking that we could gain the eternal life from it. Actually, the Bible is only the testimony of God. If we want to gain the truth and life while believing in God, it’s not enough to rely on the testimony in the Bible. Almighty God says, “Christ of the last days brings life, and brings the enduring and everlasting way of truth. This truth is the path through which man shall gain life, and the only path by which man shall know God and be approved by God. If you do not seek the way of life provided by Christ of the last days, then you shall never gain the approval of Jesus, and shall never be qualified to enter the gate of the kingdom of heaven, for you are both a puppet and prisoner of history. … The steps of God’s work are vast and mighty, like surging waves and rolling thunders—yet you sit and passively await destruction, sticking to your folly and doing nothing. In this way, how can you be considered someone who follows in the footsteps of the Lamb? How can you justify the God that you hold on to as a God who is always new and never old? And how can the words of your yellowed books carry you across the threshold of the new age? How can they lead you to seek the steps of God’s work? And how can they take you up to heaven? What you hold in your hands is the letters that can provide but temporary solace, not the truths that are capable of giving life. The scriptures you read are that which can only enrich your tongue, not words of wisdom that can help you know human life, much less the ways that can lead you to perfection. Does this discrepancy not give you cause for reflection? Does it not allow you to understand the mysteries contained within? Are you capable of delivering yourself to heaven to meet God on your own? Without the coming of God, can you take yourself into heaven to enjoy family happiness with God? Are you still dreaming now? I suggest, then, that you stop dreaming, and look at who is working now, at who is now carrying out the work of saving man during the last days. If you do not, you shall never gain the truth, and shall never gain life” (“Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From Almighty God’s words, we understand that only Christ can express the truth, redeem mankind, and save mankind. Only if man comes to Christ can he receive the truth and life. The Bible can’t replace God’s authority and power and can’t bestow to man life on behalf of God, much less replace the Holy Spirit’s working. Only if we accept and obey Christ of the last days can we receive the Holy Spirit’s working and gain the truth and life. If man doesn’t accept the words expressed by Christ of the last days, he can’t gain life, because the Bible isn’t God but just the testimony of God’s work. Here we see that life isn’t from the Bible but from Christ. Only Christ is the Lord of the Bible and the spring of life.

The Church of Almighty God -- The Inside Story of the Bible(2)

      Question: Since Paul said that the Bible was all inspired by God, it can’t be wrong. Because Paul was God’s apostle, God told people through him that the Bible was all inspired by God and was God’s word. How dare you deny that?

Answer: The issue is very typical. Next, let’s fellowship about whether the epistles written by Paul and other apostles were inspired by God and whether they can represent God’s word. Then we’ll know how to treat these apostles’ epistles. I remember two passages of Almighty God’s word. Let’s read them before we fellowship. Almighty God says, “Paul’s letters in the New Testament to the churches were not the revelation of the Holy Spirit, nor words directly from the Holy Spirit; they were simply Paul’s exhortation, consolation, and encouragement to the churches during the time he worked, as well as a record of much work done by him. He wrote these letters to all the brothers and sisters in the Lord, and thereby exhorted those of the various congregations at that time to heed his counsel and follow all the ways of the Lord Jesus. He did not say that all churches now and forever must eat and drink his words, or that his words came entirely from God. He was simply communicating with his brothers and sisters according to the situation in the churches at the time, exhorting them and buoying their faith. He was simply preaching or giving admonishment and exhortation. He wrote those words according to his burden, offering them as a means of support. … Everything he said that edified others and had a positive effect was correct, but his words did not represent the words of the Holy Spirit, and did not represent God. To regard man’s letters, the record of man’s experiences as words spoken by the Holy Spirit to all of the churches, is a grave misunderstanding and the worst kind of blasphemy. … He was not a prophet or a foreteller, just a working apostle, a sent apostle, and so his own work and the life of his brothers and sisters were what mattered most to him. So he could not speak on behalf of the Holy Spirit; his words were not the words of the Holy Spirit, much less the words of God, because he was merely one of God’s creations and not God incarnate. … If people hold the letters or words like Paul’s to be the utterance of the Holy Spirit, and worship them as God, it shows that they are too undiscriminating. To put it baldly, are they not purely blasphemers? How can a human being speak on behalf of God? How can people prostrate themselves before the letters and words of a man, holding them to be a holy book, a heavenly book? Do God’s words simply fall off of man’s lips? How can man speak on God’s behalf? Think about it: When Paul wrote letters to the churches, how could they not be colored by his own ideas? And by his own will? … If you say that their letters are the words of the Holy Spirit, you are absurd, and it is blasphemous! The Pauline epistles and the other epistles of the New Testament are no different from the writings of spiritual men in modern times, and can be compared to the spiritual writings of men such as Lawrence or Watchman Nee. It was only that these writings were never incorporated into the New Testament. But these people in essence were the same: They were people used by the Holy Spirit for a period of time, and could not directly represent God” (“Concerning the Bible (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

The Church of Almighty God -- The Inside Story of the Bible(1)

      Question:  I’ve studied the Bible for more than twenty years. I’m sure that outside the Bible there is no God’s word. All God’s word is in the Bible. Any belief against or beyond the Bible is a heresy and is a fallacy.

Answer: Does the saying “outside the Bible there is no God’s word and any belief beyond the Bible is a heresy,” accord with the fact or not? All those who are familiar with the Bible know that in the compilation of the Bible, because of the compilers’ disagreement and omission, some of God’s words conveyed through the prophets were not included in the Old Testament. This is a generally acknowledged fact. How can we say that outside the Bible there are no God’s work and word? Aren’t those omitted prophecies of the prophets God’s words? The Lord Jesus said more words than those in the New Testament. In fact, most of His words are not recorded in the Bible. The Lord Jesus had worked for three and a half years, and He said countless words and gave many sermons. However, all of the Lord’s words recorded in the Four Gospels in the New Testament merely amount to His words in several hours. Compared with the Lord Jesus’ work and preaching in the three and a half years, that’s only a drop in the ocean. As John said, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25). This proves that not all of the Lord Jesus’ work and word are recorded in the New Testament. Thus, the saying “outside the Bible there are no God’s work and word” doesn’t accord with the fact. We should also know that whether the Old Testament or the New Testament, it came into being from man’s record after God finished one stage of His work. The Bible at the very beginning was only the Old Testament. All of the Lord Jesus’ work and word went beyond the Old Testament. If according to “any belief beyond the Bible is a heresy,” won’t we condemn the Lord Jesus? Brothers and sisters, from these facts we can see the saying “outside the Bible there are no God’s work and word and any belief beyond the Bible is a heresy” is groundless.

Almighty God's word -- Do You Know? God Has Done a Great Thing Among Men

The old age is gone, and the new age has come. Year after year and day after day, God has done much work. He came into the world and then in turn departed. Such a cycle has continued on through many generations. This day, God continues to do as before the work that He must, the work that He has yet to complete, for to this day He has yet to enter into rest. From the time of creation to this day, God has done much work, but did you know that the work God does this day is much more than before and the scale much greater? This is why I say that God has done a great thing among men. All of God’s work is very important, be it to man or to God, for every item of His work is related to man.

Videos of The Church of Almighty God -- God Becomes Flesh to Save Mankind

• Today is the day, have you seen?
• It's something for God
• to come among man.
• He's come to save man, defeat Satan
• —the reason for His incarnation.
• If not for this,
• He wouldn't work by Himself.
• God has taken on flesh
• to battle Satan and shepherd mankind,
• whose flesh is corrupted
• and whom God wants to save.
• God comes twice in the flesh
• to defeat Satan and save mankind.
• Only God can battle Satan
• in Spirit or in flesh.