“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelled among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
“I am the way, the truth, and the life …” (Jhn 14:6).
“Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip? he that has seen me has seen the Father; and how say you then, Show us the Father? Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak to you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake” (Jhn 14:9-11).
Christian Movie "The Dark Hour Before the Dawn" (Official Trailer)
Since it came to power in mainland China in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party has been unceasing in its persecution of religious faith. It has frantically arrested and murdered Christians, expelled and abused missionaries operating in China, confiscated and burned countless copies of the Bible, sealed up and demolished church buildings, and tried to eradicate all house churches. A great number of Christians in house churches have been arrested and persecuted.
Su Mingyue was a preacher of a house church in mainland China. For many years, she had been godly in her service to the Lord, unremittingly working and preaching for the Lord and much burdened for the church work. Based on Paul's words in the Bible, she thought that believers in the Lord have already been justified through faith and saved through grace. Despite the fact that they still sin often, she believed that the Lord has forgiven the believers of their sins and that the Lord at His return will transfigure and sanctify them, and rapture them to the kingdom of heaven. But in recent years, the desolation of the church became greater, negativity and weakness prevailed among the believers, and their faith and love grew cold.
I was once a preacher in the True Jesus Church. In October 1998, I accepted Almighty God’s gospel of the last days. When I knew thatAlmighty God I had resisted and slandered was the returned Savior Jesus whom I had been eagerly waiting for, I was very regretful and hated myself for being arrogant and not seeking the truth and thus becoming a Pharisee of the present age. It was Almighty God’s word that saved me and made me step onto the right track of believing in God and start a true human life.
In the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus promised to His followers, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). He also prophesied, “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” (Matthew 24:27). In the last days, as promised and foretold by Himself, God has again become flesh and descended to the East of the world—China—to do the work of judgment, chastisement, conquest, and salvation using the word, on the foundation of the redemption work of the Lord Jesus. In this, the prophecies of the Bible that “Judgment begins with the house of God” and “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches!”have also been fulfilled. God’s work of the last days has ended the Age of Grace and ushered in the Age of Kingdom. As the gospel of the kingdom of Almighty God spread rapidly in Mainland China, the Church of Almighty God came into being. As proven by facts, the Church of Almighty God came into being entirely as a result of God’s work of the last days, and was not established by any man. This is because the chosen people in the Church of Almighty God pray in the name of Almighty God, obey His work, and accept all the truths expressed by Him. Thus it is evident that these chosen people believe in Christ who is incarnated in the last days, the practical God who is the Spirit realized in the flesh, instead of believing in a man. Outwardly, Almighty God is nothing more than an ordinary Son of man, but in substance He is the embodiment of God’s Spirit and is the truth, the way, and the life. His work and word are the direct expression of the Spirit of God and are the appearance of God in person. Therefore, He is the practical God who is incarnated.
The Appearance of God | The Origin and Development of the Church of Almighty God
In the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus promised to His followers, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). He also prophesied, “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” (Matthew 24:27). In the last days, as promised and foretold by Himself, God has again become flesh and descended to the East of the world—China—to do the work of judgment, chastisement, conquest, and salvation using the word, on the foundation of the redemption work of the Lord Jesus. In this, the prophecies of the Bible that “Judgment begins with the house of God” and “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches!”have also been fulfilled. God’s work of the last days has ended the Age of Grace and ushered in the Age of Kingdom. As the gospel of the kingdom of Almighty God spread rapidly in Mainland China, the Church of Almighty God came into being. As proven by facts, the Church of Almighty God came into being entirely as a result of God’s work of the last days, and was not established by any man. This is because the chosen people in the Church of Almighty God pray in the name of Almighty God, obey His work, and accept all the truths expressed by Him. Thus it is evident that these chosen people believe in Christ who is incarnated in the last days, the practical God who is the Spirit realized in the flesh, instead of believing in a man. Outwardly, Almighty God is nothing more than an ordinary Son of man, but in substance He is the embodiment of God’s Spirit and is the truth, the way, and the life. His work and word are the direct expression of the Spirit of God and are the appearance of God in person. Therefore, He is the practical God who is incarnated.
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.
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).
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.
