Question 2: We believe, by putting our faith in and following the Lord, we can attain eternal life. The Lord’s word backs this up: The Lord Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jhn 11:25-26). “But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (Jhn 4:14). These passages are the Lord Jesus' promise. The Lord Jesus can grant us eternal life, the way of the Lord Jesus is the way of eternal life. And the Bible says, “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God stays on him” (Jhn 3:36). Is the Lord Jesus not the Son of man, is He not Christ? We could gain the way of eternal life by faith in the Lord. But you testify that Christ of the last days will bring us the way of eternal life. I don’t quite understand this, we are all followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is this not enough to attain the way of eternal life? So why do we also have to accept the words and work of Christ of the last days?

Answer: The Lord Jesus is God become flesh, is God’s appearance. The Lord Jesus said, “And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (Jhn 11:26). “… the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (Jhn 4:14). The Bible says, “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life” (Jhn 3:36). These words are all truth, they are all fact! Because the Lord Jesus is God become flesh, He has God’s substance and identity. He is Himself the way of everlasting life. All that He says and does is a natural manifestation of the life of God. All that He expresses is truth and what God has and is. So the Lord Jesus is Himself everlasting life, and can grant the way of eternal life. He can bring the dead back to life. By believing in the Lord Jesus, we believe in the only true God, and thus can receive eternal life. This is without question. The Lord Jesus’ resurrection of Lazarus is good proof that the Lord Jesus can grant us the way of eternal life, He has this authority. Then, why is it that the Lord Jesus did not grant the way of eternal life during the Age of Grace? This is because, the Lord Jesus came to be nailed to the cross in order to redeem mankind, not to do the work of purification and salvation as in the last days. The Lord Jesus’ work of redemption was only concerned with pardoning man’s sins, but it didn’t rid man of his satanic nature and disposition. So, by believing in the Lord, we were pardoned for our sins, but our satanic disposition was by no means cleansed. We still sin in spite of ourselves, resist and betray God. Isn’t this the truth? We need to be clear on something. The Lord Jesus’ redemptive work during the Age of Grace paved the way for the work of judgment in the last days, so, after the Lord Jesus had completed the work of redemption, He promised that He would come again. The Lord Jesus once said, “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” (Jhn 16:12-13). From the words of the Lord Jesus we can see only when the Lord comes again in the last days will He express all truth that purifies and saves man. Here, “the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.” These truths are exactly the truths that Almighty God of the last days expresses in purifying and saving mankind. They are the words the Holy Spirit says to the churches, and they are the way of eternal life which God has bestowed upon mankind in the last days. This is why the Lord’s followers were unable to obtain the way of eternal life in the Age of Grace. The Lord Jesus said, “And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” And the Bible also says, “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life.” But actually, the Lord said this to testify to the fact that He Himself is God’s appearance, and only He can grant man eternal life. The Lord Jesus’ promise that those who believe in Him would never die is a testimony to God’s authority. God is Himself the way of eternal life, God is capable of granting man eternal life. This is not to say that man has received eternal life upon accepting the Lord Jesus’ work. Everyone can understand this. Let’s think about it: If we could receive eternal life merely by experiencing the Lord Jesus’ work in the Age of Grace, then why did the Lord Jesus say He would return? If we only believe in the Lord Jesus but do not accept His return, then are we people who follow the Lamb’s footsteps? Are we people who truly believe in God? Will the Lord Jesus acknowledge people like this? Aren’t we forsaking and betraying God by doing this? Therefore, in our belief in God, not only do we have to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and experience the Lord Jesus’ words and work in the Age of Grace, but we also have to accept His return and experience the words and work of Christ of the last days. Only then will we truly believe in the Son and will be raised up before God’s throne to attend the wedding feast of the Lamb, and only people like this will receive eternal life, and that’s a fact.

3 Paths to Welcoming the Lord Jesus’ Return

By Yanjin

Being able to welcome the second coming of the Lord Jesus is the greatest wish of those who truly believe in the Lord. So how can we welcome the Lord Jesus? What follows is fellowship on the three main paths so that we may welcome the Lord’s return together.

Question 1: You bear witness to the fact that the Lord Jesus has returned and has been incarnated to do His work. This I just don’t understand. We all know that the Lord Jesus was the incarnation of God. Having completed His work, He was crucified and then resurrected, appearing before all His disciples and He ascended into heaven in His glorious spiritual body. Just as the Bible says: “You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven” (Act 1:11). So, biblical scripture confirms that when the Lord comes again, it will be His resurrected spiritual body appearing to us. In the last days, why is God incarnated in the fleshly form of the Son of man to do the work of judgment? What is the difference between the resurrected spiritual body of the Lord Jesus and His incarnation as the Son of man?

Answer: Most of the faithful believe that the returned Lord will appear to them in His spiritual body, that is, the spiritual body of the Lord Jesus in which He appeared to man for forty days after His resurrection. We believers are all clear on this matter. On the surface, the spiritual body of the Lord Jesus after He resurrected appears in the same image of His incarnate flesh, but the spiritual body is not constrained by the material world, space, and place. It can appear and disappear at will, leaving man shocked and amazed. Accounts of this are recorded in the Bible. Before the Lord Jesus was crucified, He had been speaking and working in normal humanity of the flesh. Whether He was expressing truth, interacting with men, or performing miracles, men felt He was normal in every way. What men saw was this flesh really and truly doing work and really and truly suffering torment and paying the price. In the end, it was this flesh that was nailed to the cross as the sin offering for man, thereby completing God’s work of redemption. This is widely acknowledged fact. Just think for a moment: If it were the Lord Jesus’ spiritual body doing work, would He be able to associate with and hold normal conversations with men? Could He really and truly suffer torments and pay the price? Could He be nailed to the cross? He could do none of these things. If it were His spiritual body doing the work, could we humans interact with Him easily? Would we betray our corrupt dispositions? Would we form conceptions about Him? Would we dare rebel against and judge God at will? That would be impossible! Men are all imbued with normal humanity, they are all subject to the constraints of the material world, space, and place. Man’s thinking process is also normal. If man were to come into contact with the work of the spiritual body, they would be frightened and seized with panic. Their thoughts would become crazed and maniacal. Faced with this kind of situation, God would be hard pressed to achieve success in His work of the salvation of mankind. So, the effect achieved by working within the confines of normal humanity far outpaces that within the spiritual body. Throughout the ages, God’s chosen people have never experienced the work of God’s spiritual body. It would certainly be unsuitable for the spiritual body to directly express truth, interact with people and shepherd the churches. The work of judgment that the second coming of God performs in the last days uses the expression of the word to purify, save, and perfect man, its goal is also to expose and eliminate men, parsing man out, each unto his own kind, and then rewarding the good while punishing the wicked. If God were to appear to man in the form of His spiritual body, all men, good or evil, would prostrate themselves before Him, then how would He separate the good from the evil? Also, if God were to appear in His spiritual body, man would descend into a panic, and chaos would erupt throughout the world. If that were the case, how would God go about normally conducting His work of judgment in the last days? How, also, would God be able to fulfill His plan of making complete a group of men that accord with God’s will before the calamities? So, in the last days, God still must take on a flesh as the Son of man with normal humanity. Only in this way can He work and live within human world, and only in this way can He express the truth and judge, purify man in a practical manner so that man may be wrested from the influences of Satan, be saved by God, and become God’s people. The incarnate Lord Jesus worked within normal humanity to achieve the redemption of humanity. The Lord Jesus’ resurrected spiritual body appeared to man just to prove that the Lord Jesus was the incarnation of God. This was done to strengthen man’s faith. So, God’s spiritual body only came to appear to man, not to do work. God’s incarnate flesh has to have normal humanity to be able to do work amongst man and achieve the redemption and salvation of mankind. So, if God wants to thoroughly save mankind in His work of judgment in the last days, He must be incarnated and do His work in normal humanity to achieve the best effect. He certainly will not appear to man as the Lord Jesus’ spiritual body to do the work of judgment in the last days. This is something that we, the faithful, all must become clear on.

Question 3: We’ve believed in the Lord for so many years, and we’ve maintained His name. We often read the Bible, pray and confess our sins to the Lord; we are humble, patient, loving toward others. We often do charity, donate, and sacrifice everything else to work for the Lord and spread the gospel to witness Him. Are we not practicing the Lord's words and following His way? How can you say we never had any reality of faith in the Lord or are an unbeliever? In the Bible, Paul said, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: From now on there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness …” (2Ti 4:7-8). Therefore, I think that our faith in the Lord will obtain His praise. When the Lord arrives, He will definitely rapture us into the kingdom of heaven.

Answer: Many believers think that as long as they keep the Lord’s name, read the Bible, pray and gather often, are able to sacrifice everything for the Lord and labor for the Lord, then they are true believers. They think that as long as they believe in the Lord this way, they’ll be lifted into the kingdom of heaven when He comes again. Is believing in God as easy as people think? If people believe in God like this, can they really obtain God’s approval? The Pharisees that were denounced and condemned by the Lord Jesus, isn’t that the way they believed in God too? They often prayed and worked hard and even traveled to the ends of the earth to spread the gospel. Then why has their faith failed to gain the Lord's approval and incurred His condemnation and curses instead? People that have read the Bible before understand that although the Pharisees read the Bible well, prayed often, spread God's work, suffered greatly, loved others, and appeared to be devout, true believers on the outside, in reality, God had no place in their hearts; they did not magnify God. In their faith, they did not focus on seeking the truth in God's words or understanding His will, much less practicing His words and following His commandments. They only focused on disseminating knowledge about the Bible and theological theory; they only focused on performing religious ceremonies, following the rules to glorify themselves, establishing themselves to be worshiped by others. They believed in God like that for many years and had no knowledge of God. They definitely did not become obedient and reverent toward God. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus did His work, they did not search for the truth. They only measured the Lord Jesus based on their own conceptions and imaginings. Regardless of how profound the Lord Jesus' preaching was or how much authority and power His work had, they did not search for or study them. They still fanatically resisted and condemned the Lord Jesus, then crucified Him on the cross. They were cursed and punished. Can the faith of the Pharisees be called true faith in God? Did God accept the faith of the Pharisees? Not only did the Lord Jesus not approve them, but He condemned and cursed them, saying, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” (Mat 23:13-36). The Pharisees only trusted their own conceptions and imaginings; they only believed in the vague God in heaven. They did not believe in the Lord Jesus incarnate who expressed the truth. They were all bored with the truth and hated the truth. They believed in God, but resisted God as well.

Question 2: It’s that the Lord Jesus once said: “I go to prepare a place for you. 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” (Jhn 14:2-3). The Lord Jesus was resurrected and returned to heaven to prepare a place for us, so that means the place He prepared should be in heaven. If the Lord has returned, it should be to rapture us into heaven, to first lift us up into the sky to meet with the Lord. What you’re bearing witness to now is that the Lord Jesus has returned, that He has become flesh and is on the earth speaking and working. So how is He going to lift us up to the kingdom of heaven? Is the kingdom of heaven on earth, or is it in heaven?

Answer: To understand whether the kingdom of heaven is actually in heaven or on the earth, first we must understand what the kingdom of heaven really is. Everyone knows that “heaven” usually refers to the celestial, to God. So naturally, the kingdom of heaven refers to God’s kingdom, and it is the kingdom where God is in power, it is Christ’s kingdom. So then is God’s kingdom on earth, or is it in heaven? First let’s look at what the Lord’s prayer says. “Our Father which are in heaven, Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Mat 6:9-10). The Lord Jesus’ words are very clear. The Lord requires that we pray for God’s kingdom to come down to the earth, so that His will may be carried out on earth. The Lord Jesus did not say that God’s kingdom would be established in heaven, and He particularly did not have us hope and pray for the day we would be raptured up to heaven. So isn’t always hoping to be taken up to heaven to enter into God’s kingdom out of line with the Lord’s words, and out of line with His will? Let’s take a look at a prophecy in Revelation： “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” （Rev 11:15）. “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” （Rev 21:2-4）. These two passages mention these two things: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ.” “New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.” “The tabernacle of God is with men.” These refer to the kingdom of Christ being realized on earth. Almighty God’s work of judgment in the last days is to establish the kingdom of Christ on earth. Before the great disaster comes upon the earth, God is going to make a group of overcomers, and this group will be the pillars of God’s kingdom. They are the ones who will rule alongside God in the kingdom of Christ. In the disaster, those who have been perfected by God will be the people of God’s kingdom. Those who have never accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days will be exposed and eliminated by God, and they will have no part of the kingdom of Christ. The prophecies in the Book of Revelation start with the utterances of God incarnate in the last days, and then go to the end of the great disaster when the kingdom of Christ is realized on earth, and then go on to the eternity of a new heaven and a new earth. When these prophecies are all fulfilled and completed, God’s management plan will fully be fulfilled. So, all those who accept Almighty God’s work in the last days, as long as they have been purified and perfected, will be the people of the kingdom of Christ. They are the ones who God will make into the group of overcomers before the disaster. They are those who are able to heed God’s words, and obey and worship Him. When the great disaster comes, those people will be protected and kept by God. But those who live in vagueness and imagination, who just long to be raptured into the sky and meet with the Lord but do not accept Christ’s judgment and purification in the last days will be dealt with in the disaster. Most people will be destroyed, and a minority of people will turn toward God through the crucible of the disaster. These are all true things that God is going to do soon.

Question (2): We have long heard that the Church of Almighty God has already testified to the return of the Lord Jesus. And He is Almighty God! He expresses truths and performs His judgment work of the last days, but the majority of people in religious circles all believe that the Lord will return by descending with the clouds. This is because the Lord Jesus clearly said: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Mat 24:30). The Book of Revelation also prophesied: “Behold, he comes with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him” (Rev 1:7). I also maintain the belief that the Lord will return by descending with the clouds to directly take us up into the kingdom of heaven. We refuse to accept the Lord Jesus who does not descend with the clouds. You say that the Lord's return is returning to the flesh and descending in secret. But nobody knows about this. However, the Lord openly descending with the clouds is absolute! That's why we are waiting for the Lord to descend with the clouds and appear openly to take us directly up into the kingdom of heaven. Is our understanding correct or not?

Answer: When it comes to waiting for the Lord to descend with the clouds, we must not rely on man’s notions and imaginations! The Pharisees committed a huge mistake in waiting for the arrival of the Messiah. They precisely used man’s notions and imaginations to measure the Lord Jesus who had already arrived. In the end, they nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross. Is this not a fact? Is waiting for the Lord’s arrival as simple as we think? If the Lord returns and works among mankind like the way the Lord Jesus in the flesh had done, and we don’t recognize Him, then would we also judge and condemn Him as the Pharisees had done and crucify Him once again? Is this a possibility? The Lord Jesus prophesied that He shall return and said many words about it, but you only hold on to the prophecy that the Lord will descend with the clouds and don’t seek or investigate other more important prophecies spoken by the Lord. This makes it easy to walk down the wrong path and be abandoned by the Lord! There is actually not just the “descend with the clouds” prophecy in the Bible. There are also many prophecies like that the Lord will come as a thief and descend secretly. For instance, Revelation 16:15, “Behold, I come as a thief.” Matthew 25:6, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him.” And Revelation 3:20: “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.” All these prophecies refer to God becoming flesh as the Son of man and descending in secret. “As a thief” means coming quietly, secretly. People won’t know He is God even if they see or hear Him, just as it was back when the Lord Jesus appeared and performed His work. From the outside, the Lord Jesus was just an ordinary Son of man and nobody knew He is God, which is why the Lord Jesus used “as a thief” as an analogy for the Son of man’s appearance and work. This is too befitting! Those who do not love the truth, no matter how God in the flesh speaks or works, or how many truths He expresses, they do not accept. Instead, they treat God in the flesh as a normal person and condemn and abandon Him. That is why the Lord Jesus prophesied that when He returns: “For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation” (Luk 17:24-25). Based on the Lord’s prophecy, His return shall be “the coming of the Son of man.” “Son of man” refers to God in the flesh, not the spiritual body of the resurrected Lord Jesus descending with the clouds to openly appear before all people. Why is that the case? Let’s think about it. If it were the spiritual body of the resurrected Lord Jesus descending publicly with the clouds, it would be incredibly powerful and shock the world. Everyone would drop to the ground and no one would dare resist. In that case, would the returned Lord Jesus still endure a lot of suffering and be rejected by this generation? Definitely not！That is why the Lord Jesus prophesied that His return shall be “the coming of the Son of man” and “as a thief.” In actuality, it is referring to God incarnated as the Son of man arriving in secret.

Unveiled: The True Meaning of “It Is Finished” Spoken by the Lord Jesus on the Cross

By Xiang’ai, Heilongjiang Province

Many brothers and sisters believe that what Jesus meant by saying “It is finished” when He was on the cross was that God’s work to save mankind was completed. But was this really the case? What exactly did He mean by saying “It is finished”? The following article will uncover the true meaning of the words “It is finished” that the Lord Jesus spoke upon the cross. Please read on …

The Lord Has Appeared in the East

Qiu Zhen, China

One day, my sister phoned me and said that she was back from the north and that she had something important to tell me. She asked me to come over right away. I had a feeling about what might have happened and went to my sister’s house after the phone call. As soon as I entered and saw that my sister was reading a book, I felt relieved. My sister saw that I had arrived, suddenly stood up and said: “Sister! This time in the north I got some good news: The Lord Jesus has returned!”

Breaking Through Satan’s Tight Encirclement (Part 1)

Zhao Gang, China

It was bitterly cold this past November in Northeast China, none of the snow that fell to the ground melted away, and many people who walked outside were so cold that they stuffed their hands into their armpits and walked along cautiously, bodies bent over. The other day in the early morning the winds were blowing from the northwest, when I, my brother-in-law and his wife and about a dozen brothers and sisters were sitting in my home on the warm kang (a heatable brick bed). Everyone had a copy of the Bible beside them and in their hands everyone was holding a copy of the book Judgment Begins With the House of God. Two sisters from The Church of Almighty God were fellowshiping on the truth concerning God’s three stages of work. The two sisters were drawing pictures of the three stages of work as they fellowshiped: “God’s work for the salvation of mankind can be divided into three stages, from the Age of Law to the Age of Grace and then to the Age of Kingdom. Each stage of work is newer and more improved and also more profound than the previous stage. The work done in the last days is the final stage of work, in which God expresses words to judge and cleanse man….” We nodded our heads as we listened, and our minds felt especially clear: Who would’ve thought that God’s management plan for the salvation of mankind would have so many mysteries! Besides God Himself, who else could speak of the mysteries of these three stages of God’s work so clearly? This truly is the work of God! We fellowshiped into the evening of the following day, and our whole group expressed a willingness to seek out and look into Almighty God’s work of the last days.

The Origin of Eastern Lightning’s Prosperity

The mention of Eastern Lightning perplexes many brothers and sisters in the Lord: Why is it that as the religious community as a whole becomes increasingly desolate and degenerate, as each denomination becomes increasingly guarded and conservative in condemning and banishing Eastern Lightning, not only does Eastern Lightning not become desolate or ebb, but surges like an unstoppable, billowing wave, sweeping across mainland China, and now that it has even expanded beyond China’s borders to foreign countries and regions, and is being accepted by more and more people worldwide? Faced with this fact, the religious people are thoroughly puzzled, while in fact the reason is quite simple: What the various denominations call Eastern Lightning is the returned Savior of the last days, riding down from the heavens upon a “white cloud”; it is the practical God Himself, who has returned to flesh! For this reason, despite the fact that every denomination in the world resists, attacks, or condemns God incarnate.