By Xinzao, South Korea
My husband and I met each other at a house church in China. After graduating from university, we came to South Korea together. Since the church was increasingly desolate, we no longer went there. After my daughter was born, we both hoped she would build a foundation of faith when she was a child, so we decided to attend meetings in a Presbyterian Church South Korea near my house.
I got acquainted with an aunt in the church. One day in January 2018, the aunt led Sister Lin to my home. After a brief self-introduction, Sister Lin came straight to the point and testified that the Lord Jesushas returned and done a new and outstanding work, which is the work of judgment beginning from the house of God prophesied in the Book of Revelation. Hearing this, I thought: “Which denomination is this? She is bearing witness that the Lord has returned and done a new work.” When I was thinking about this, Sister Lin took out a book from her handbag and gave it to me; I saw its name The Scroll Opened by the Lamb, which reminded me that it was mentioned many times in the New Testament that the Lord Jesus was the Lamb and He became the sin offering for mankind. So I was curious about what the book talked about. Sister Lin said: “The words in this book is not from people because we are unable to speak these words. It is only God in the flesh who can express these truths.” Subsequently, Sister Lin read for us a passage of the preface of it, and showed me some dance and song videos of The Church of Almighty God through her mobile phone.
After watching the videos, I felt that they were very good. However, from Sister Lin’s following fellowship, I learned that The Church of Almighty God is Eastern Lightning, and then I suddenly remembered that ten years ago my pastors warned us to guard against Eastern Lighting many times during gatherings. Thinking of this, I became alert instantly and couldn’t sit still, but then I thought: “What Sister Lin is fellowshiping is in line with the Bible and is also enlightened; why do I beware of her?” I then felt a bit confused and didn’t know what to do. At that time, Sister Lin seemed to see through my thoughts and said to me with a smile: “In treating the big matter of the Lord’s return, we should hold an attitude of seeking the truth, and should not lightly listen to others. We need to investigate whether the words of Almighty God is the truth and God’s voice. Only then will we not miss the opportunity to welcome the Lord’s return.” Meanwhile, my husband also persuaded me to look into the way first. I felt what they said made sense, thinking: “The Lord’s return is indeed such a big event that I can’t treat it carelessly. If Almighty God is actually the Lord’s appearance but I blindly abandon Him like this, won’t I offend the Lord?” Thinking of this, my heart calmed down a little. When Sister Lin was about to leave, she again and again invited my husband and me to investigate the local church of Almighty God. Finally, she gave us a copy of the book The Scroll Opened by the Lamb, and asked us to read it first. At that time, I thought: “That’s right. If I don’t read the book, how can I discern whether it’s the work of the Lord’s return?” So we received this book.
Afterward, my husband and I read the book whenever we had time. From Almighty God’s words, I understood many truths, such as the inside story of the Bible, the correct approach one should have to the Bible, the reason and the significance of God working in China, and other respects. The words of Almighty God are so bountiful that I understood the questions which had confused me for over ten years since I had started believing in the Lord. My husband and I were very excited, and we decided to go to the local church of Almighty God and look into God’s end-time work this weekend.
One day, My husband happened to see many negative news about The Church of Almighty God when he browsed the web. Especially, after seeing the news of the CCP government condemning The Church of Almighty God was an organization of man, and the May 28 Shandong Zhaoyuan Case, I became paralyzed right now as if a basin of cold water had been poured on my fervent heart. I thought to myself: “Why is there so much negative propaganda about The Church of Almighty God? If the fact is the same as the online words, we’d better not investigate the church.” Then I said to my husband: “This weekend we’d better not go to the local church of Almighty God. What if the words on the Internet are true? We need to be cautious.” Yet my husband shook his head and said: “How can you believe the words of the CCP government? Don’t you forget the CCP government has condemned all the house churches when we were in China? So, only after our actual investigation can we correctly decide whether the online words are rumors or facts. If we listen only to one side, we might miss the opportunity to welcome the Lord’s return. If so, we would regret it.” I felt his words made sense. I also thought that through reading Almighty God’s words during this period, I found that these words are all helping people to pursue the truth and walk the right path of life. But when I thought of these negative news on the Internet, I was still very scared. Finally I decided not to investigate. My husband couldn’t change my mind, so he had no choice but to invite Sister Lin to my house and ask her to fellowship with us.
The following day Sister Lin came. I told her all my misgivings caused by the negative propaganda on the Internet, and then she said: “Sister, about whether or not The Church of Almighty God is man’s organization, let’s read a passage of Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life. ‘In order to beguile and deceive the Chinese people, the CCP does it utmost to distort the truth and turn black-and-white on its head, insisting that the church of God is an organization of man, and normal church life as illegal disruptions of social order. This is the consistent rhetoric and means by which the Communist Party resists God and brutally persecutes God’s church. The Church of Almighty God is simply not an organization of man but the church of God. Each new stage of God’s work will produce a church. The Church of Almighty God came to be because of the appearance and work of God’s incarnation in the last days, and it is formed from those who accept the words and work of Almighty God in the last days. It is personally established by Almighty God, Christ of the last days, and is personally guided and shepherded by Himself. It is simply not an organization set up by a man. What comes from man is a human organization; however, what comes from God is not an organization but a church.’
“From this passage of fellowship, we can see if it is from man, it is a human organization; but if it comes from God, it is a church. The Bible also says, what comes from God shall increase, what comes from man shall decrease. Since 1991 when Almighty God formally began to do His work, the CCP government has never stopped suppressing and persecuting The Church of Almighty God. However, the gospel of God’s kingdom has still spread spectacularly. In only over 20 years, the gospel has spread not only across all of Mainland China but many other countries around the world. Now branches of The Church of Almighty God have been established in many foreign countries. This is completely the result achieved by God’s work. If it is a human organization, they would long ago have vanished under the CCP’s brutal persecution. Sister, as long as we quiet our hearts to seek, it’s easy for us to distinguish the rumors of the CCP slandering and condemning The Church of Almighty God are all deceptive lies, and are a type of CCP’s base means to block us from investigating the true way.” Later, according to my confusion of the May 28 Shandong Zhaoyuan Case, Sister Lin played for me a video, The Truth Exposed Behind the May 28 Zhaoyuan Case. In the video, a passage of commentary said: “Before implementing crackdown and massacre each time, the CCP invariably had to concoct false accusations, and create a series of public opinions as basis to establish the so-called legal foundation. The purpose was to deceive the public and pave the way for the ensuing suppression and massacre. In order to suppress and ban The Church of Almighty God and completely ban all house churches, the CCP played the same old trick once again and concocted the May 28 Zhaoyuan case as the basis of public opinions. This is exactly the CCP’s plot and intention in engineering this case. This is apparent to any discerning person. Unsurprisingly, after the occurrence of the Zhaoyuan case, the CCP promptly launched a comprehensive, escalating and more brutal operation of repression and persecution against The Church of Almighty God.” After this, I suddenly saw the light. I realized that the CCP was the invisible hand behind the May 28 Zhaoyuan case. Through Sister’s patient fellowship, I came to discern the rumors on the Internet and the base intentions of the CCP discrediting, smearing and framing The Church of Almighty God. Therefore, I decided to continue investigating the work of Almighty God of the last days with my husband, and we made an appointment to go to the local church of Almighty God.
Through Sister Lin’s fellowship, I had some discernment about the lies made up by the CCP, but on the way to the local church of Almighty God I still couldn’t help thinking of those terrible lies, and I felt anxious in my heart. My husband saw through my thoughts, and he said to me with a smile: “You are quite suspicious. Sister Lin has already known where our house is. If she wants to kidnap us, is it necessary for her to await us to investigate their church?” Hearing my husband’s words, I thought: “That’s right. If they are the same as what the lies said, they wouldn’t have asked us to their church.”
When we approached the church, at a distance we saw Sister Lin and some other brothers and sisters waiting for us at the gate. Because we were late, they had stood outside for more than half an hour in such a cold day. My husband and I felt so sorry about this. Their friendliness and warmth made me feel not only very moved but ashamed for my misgivings about them. Before entering the church building, I saw five large characters above the gate reading The Church of Almighty God. The building of the church openly stands on the street welcoming anyone who is willing to investigate the true way. Obviously, this is a formal church, which is utterly unlike what the online words said. When entering it, I saw each of the brothers and sisters was dignified and decent, and that they all greeted us warmly. Afterward, some brothers and sisters introduced us the website of The Church of Almighty God, where there are the words of Almighty God, annals of the work arrangements of The Church of Almighty God, dance and song videos, gospel movies and life experience articles written by brothers and sisters, etc. All the contents are open to the world, for people around the world who love the truth to seek and investigate. I thought: “Apart from The Church of Almighty God, none of the sects and denominations in the world dares to openly testify that the Lord Jesus has returned. The way that dares to face the entire mankind’s investigating can’t possibly be false.” So I began to think well of The Church of Almighty God. At lunchtime, the brothers and sisters treated us very well. Because we came here with our daughter, they took out of plenty of toys to look after her. Seeing this, I believed the way they lived was not fake. The church had nothing to do with a violent organization described by the online rumors. After I actually investigated The Church of Almighty God, my previous misgivings disappeared gradually, and then my husband and I decided to attend meetings in The Church of Almighty God.
During that period, my husband was taking his annual leave, so we entrusted my child to my mother’s care and almost every day, we went to the local church of Almighty God to attend meetings. At each meeting, what the brothers and sisters fellowshiped was the words of Almighty God, and the content of their fellowships was to help us know God and His work. They also shared with us their experiences and testimonies of how they practiced God’s words. And moreover they prayed in the name of Almighty God, which was not like the online words saying that the One who people of The Church of Almighty God believed in and worshiped was a person.
Afterward, my husband’s vacation was over, and I was also very busy. In order to enable us to have normal gatherings, some brothers and sisters went to my home to have meetings with us. Every time either two sisters or two sisters and one brother came to my home; I had never seen two people of different sexes came here. Later, in a meeting, I knew that the ten administrative decrees of the Church of Almighty God stipulates that it is absolutely prohibited for two members of the opposite sex to work together. The fourth administrative decree stipulates that: “Man has corrupt disposition and, moreover, he is possessed of emotions. As such, it is absolutely prohibited for two members of the opposite sex to work together when serving God. Any who are discovered doing so will be expelled, without exception—and no one is exempt.” Then I couldn’t help but think of the online rumors saying the people of The Church of Almighty God had unclear boundaries between men and women. They were purely a pack of nonsense.
Through our practical investigating The Church of Almighty God and contacting the brothers and sisters those days, the rumors made up by the CCP government all collapsed on themselves. I couldn’t resist feeling self-accusation for the fact that I once believed the lies and refused to investigate God’s work. Meanwhile, I felt very indignant: “The rumors on the Internet are really harmful to people! Now who knows how many people like me, because of believing the rumors, dare not to seek and investigate God’s work of the last days or to come to The Church of Almighty God.”
Through a period of investigation, my husband and I accepted the work of Almighty God of the last days. One month later, a good friend of mine, who went to church with us during our university days, came to South Korea to visit me. When meeting her, I couldn’t wait to tell her the good news that the Lord Jesus has returned. However, to my surprise, after hearing this, she immediately stood up and angrily said to us: “How can you believe in Eastern Lightning? Don’t you know now all of the leaders of every sect and denomination are condemning Eastern Lightning?” My husband replied: “We’ve read a lot of Almighty God’s words and investigated many times, and then we confirm that Almighty God is the Lord Jesus’ return—” Not until he finished his words did my friend interrupt him and fire questions at us: “How many years have you two believed in the Lord? Do you understand the Bible? Haven’t the pastors and elders believed in the Lord longer than you have? Don’t they understand the Bible more than you do? If Eastern Lightning is the true way, why do they not accept it?” After she left, I still couldn’t understand: “My friend has believed in the Lord since she was a child, and she knows lots of knowledge of the Bible. According to logic, that the Lord Jesus has returned is a piece of good news for her, but why does she not investigate the work of God in the last days? In addition, these pastors and elders believe in the Lord, and have worked and preached for many years, but why do they also not investigate Almighty God’s work of the last days?” A succession of questions occupied my mind.
In the following days, my friend ceaselessly called me and urged me to see the pastor of the church in China, and on the phone she also said many words of the pastor condemning The Church of Almighty God. Furthermore, when the pastors and elders from the church in South Korea learned that we had believed in Almighty God, they constantly called us and asked for meeting us. They also repeatedly warned us not to read the book of Eastern Lightning, saying that the preaching of The Church of Almighty God was very profound, and that we were easily deceived because our stature was small and we didn’t understand the Bible very well. Under their continual disturbances, I then didn’t have my own mind, and thought it over and over again: “During this period, Almighty God’s words I have read indeed make me understand many truths, and I also confirm within my heart that Almighty God is really the Lord Jesus’ appearance. However, why do pastors and elders not accept but along with the CCP government condemn and resist Almighty God? Is my faith wrong?” The more I thought about it, the more troubled I felt. Without realizing it, I was a little shaken again. In the following week, I did not want to read God’s words, nor to attend meetings. I was at loose ends, just watching TV at home all day long. My husband worried about me very much when seeing me like this, so he persuaded me to seek fellowship with the brothers and sisters to resolve my issues, but I was always escaping and did not want to see them.
Later, after repeated exhortations by my husband, I decided to find the brothers and sisters to figure out my issues. After seeing them, I poured out all my confusion of these days. One brother read a passage of the Bible to me: “Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and dig a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to farmers, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the farmers, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the farmers took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did to them likewise. But last of all he sent to them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him” (Matthew 21:33-39).
He fellowshiped: “This parable of the evil farmers told by the Lord Jesus was aimed at the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees who served God in the temple in the Age of Law. At that time God entrusted them to shepherd the sheep, but when the Lord Jesus came to do His work, they condemned and resisted Him, and blocked believers from following the Lord Jesus as well. Likewise, in the last days, when God returns in the flesh to save mankind and to find His sheep, the leaders of the religious world are unwilling to give sheep back to God, and then the history of Pharisees resisting the Lord Jesus two thousand years ago is repeating itself. Although these leaders of the religious world are familiar with the Bible, they don’t have a heart that fears God at all. They’re afraid that if the believers all believe in Almighty God then no one will follow them anymore or donate money to them, so in order to protect their status and their livelihood, under the banner of being loyal to the Lord and protecting His flock they have manufactured all kinds of vicious rumors to frenziedly resist and condemn God’s work of the last days and done their best to prevent believers from investigating the true way and returning to God. What they do is the same as the treatment of the Pharisees toward the Lord Jesus. They are exactly the evil servants revealed by the work of God in the last days. Let’s have a look at how the words of Almighty God expose them. Almighty God says: ‘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, 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?’ The substance of the religious leaders are clearly revealed by Almighty God’s words. They are definitely not true believers of the Lord, but contemporary Pharisees who block people from investigating the true way and antichrists who lead people to resist God. We need to see through their essence lest we become subject to their confusion.”
The words of God and the fellowship of the brother made me feel enlightened a lot in my heart. I clearly saw that present-day pastors of the religious world are just like the evil farmers. The Lord entrusted them to shepherd and look after the sheep, but when the Lord Jesus has returned and wants to get back these sheep, they’re afraid that if believers all follow Almighty God then no one will listen to their preaching or donate money to them, so they try to usurp the Lord’s sheep for themselves and prevent believers from investigating the true way. All they have been doing is protect their own interests. They are really very despicable! It is I myself who am to blame. Because without discernment, I was deceived by them, and even didn’t want to contact with the brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God. I was really too ignorant.
After that, the brother read a passage of Almighty God’s words: “In the nation of the great red dragon, I have carried out a stage of work unfathomable to human beings, causing them to sway in the wind, after which many quietly drift away with the blowing of the wind. Truly, this is the ‘threshing floor’ I am about to clear; it is what I yearn for and it is also My plan. For many wicked ones have crept in while I am at work, but I am in no hurry to drive them away. Rather, I shall disperse them when the time is right. Only after that shall I be the fountain of life, allowing those who truly love Me to receive from Me the fruit of the fig tree and the fragrance of the lily. In the land where Satan sojourns, the land of dust, there remains no pure gold, only sand, and so, meeting with these circumstances, I do such a stage of work. You should know that what I gain is pure, refined gold, not sand. How can the wicked remain in My house?”
He then fellowshiped: “In the last days, God becomes flesh and works in China, allowing the antichrist forces in religious circles and the CCP government to disturb and obstruct His work. It’s sure that God’s wisdom is present here. On the one hand, through their persecution, rumors and attacks, we can see through the CCP’s evil and reactionary substance of resisting God and the hypocritical and truth-hating antichrist essence of the religious leaders. On the other hand, these can also reveal different kinds of people, such as unbelievers, true believers and fake believers, sheep and goats, wheat and tares, good servants and evil servants, wise virgins and foolish virgins, and so on. The rumors can merely bind the tares, but not the wheat. That’s because all the people who belong to God will surely return before God. Those who, under the persecution of the CCP government and religious leaders, are able to see through the rumors and still have faith in following God are wise virgins, and in the end they have the hope of being perfected by God and becoming overcomers, and becoming the pillars in God’s kingdom. This exactly fulfills the prophecy of the Book of Revelation: ‘Him that overcomes will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out’” (Revelation 3:12).
After hearing his fellowship, I felt brighter and brighter inside. It turned out that the persecution of the CCP government and the disturbance of the antichrist forces in religious circles are used by God to do service for perfecting and revealing people. Therein lies God’s wisdom. I felt it very fortunate for me to obtain God’s mercy. Although I was deceived by the rumors because I had no discernment, God still arranged for some brothers and sisters to patiently fellowship the truth with me time and again. Through this, I finally could distinguish the lies made up by the CCP, and see clearly the sinister motives of the CCP government and the religious leaders using the rumors to deceive and devour people. All of this was God’s grace for me. I thanked God very much for His salvation from the bottom of my heart.
Afterward, as long as I had time I would go to The Church of Almighty God to attend meetings. Through God’s words, I come to understand more and more truths, and when encountering something that are at odds with my conceptions, I no longer guard against it or resist it like before, but take the initiative to seek fellowship with some brothers and sisters. By reading God’s words, I understand God wishes more people to accept His salvation. Now a number of brothers and sisters from the denominations have been deceived by CCP’s rumors, or confused and controlled by antichrists of the religious world, so I want to preach the gospel to them. I hope to use my personal experience to help them soon see through Satan’s tricks, break free from the bondage of the rumors, and return before Almighty God, Christ of the last days, to accept His salvation. All the glory be to God!
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