Awake in the Tribulation of Persecution —A Seventeen-year-old Christian’s True Experience of Being Persecuted

Wang Tao    Shandong Province

I’m a Christian in the Church of Almighty God. Compared with the kids at my age, I’m the luckiest, for I was uplifted and selected by God and accepted the end-time work of Almighty God with my parents at the age of eight. At that time, although I was young, I was very willing to believe in God and read God’s word. As I constantly read God’s word and listened to the fellowship of the uncles and aunties, over the years, I understood some truths. As I grew older, I saw that the brothers and sisters all pursued the truth and practiced being honest and lived in harmony, without intriguing against each other as between my classmates at school. I felt that it was my happiest and most joyful time to stay with the brothers and sisters. Later, I heard these words in Fellowship and Preaching About Life Entering In, “To believe in God and pursue the truth and follow God in Mainland China, one has to tie his head to the waist of his trousers, which is absolutely true….” At that time, I didn’t understand the meaning of those words. Through the fellowship of the brothers and sisters, I knew that believers in Almighty God would be arrested by the police because China is an atheistic country without freedom of belief. But at that time, I didn’t believe those words. I thought that I was just a child, and even if I was arrested by the “policemen,” they wouldn’t hurt me. Not until later I personally experienced the police’s arrest and affliction did I see clearly that the “policemen” in my mind are actually a gang of devils!

Rise Up in the Dark Oppression

Mo Zhijian    Guangdong Province

I was born in a poor remote mountain village. People there burned incense and worshiped Buddha for generations. Temples were everywhere, and each household burned incense. No one believed in God. In 1995, my wife and I believed in the Lord Jesus in another place. After returning home, we began to preach the gospel. Later, the number of the believers gradually increased to over one hundred. Because more and more people believed in God, the local government was alarmed. One day in 1997, the police asked me to go to the local police station. The director of the County Public Security Bureau, the director of the County Bureau for State Security, the director of the County Administration of Religious Affairs, the chief of the local police station, and some policemen had already been waiting there. The director of the County Public Security Bureau questioned me, “Why do you believe in God? Who do you get in touch with? Where do you get the Bibles? Why don’t you go to the church to have meetings?” I answered, “The constitution stipulates explicitly that the citizens enjoy freedom of belief. Why don’t you allow us to believe in God freely?” The director of the County Administration of Religious Affairs said, “There is a scope for the freedom of religious belief. It’s just like a bird in a cage. Although its wings and feet are not bound, it can only move around in the cage.” Hearing his fallacy, I was very indignant. I said angrily, “Then the government is deceiving the common people!” Hearing my word, they knew they were in the wrong, so they had nothing to say and could only let me go home. At that time I had no knowledge of the CCP government’s substance of persecuting people in believing in God. In 1999, I accepted Almighty God’s end-time work. Only through reading God’s word and experiencing the crueler persecution of the CCP government did I see clearly that it is exactly the embodiment of satan the evil spirit and is God’s enemy. It is just as the Bible says, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world.” (Revelation 12:9)

God’s Best Protection for Mankind

Kuiqian Rizhao City, Shandong Province

My station in life, or status, was something I could never let go of, and when God created an environment that exposed me, I was only negative, complaining, and despairing. Only through refinement after refinement did I come to understand God’s good intentions, and that His testing of me was not to torment me. Rather, it was to cleanse me and make me perfect, to allow me to understand that believing in God for the sake of a station can only ruin me, thus allowing me to let go of improper views of pursuit, and to have a proper goal to pursue.

God Is the Power of My Life

Xiaohe    Henan Province

How time flies! Fourteen years have flashed by since I followed Almighty God. In these years, although I have undergone various trials and hardships and frustrations, with the company of God’s word and God’s love and mercy, I’ve been especially enriched in my heart. During these fourteen years, what was most deeply engraved on my heart was my being arrested in August, 2003. After I was arrested that time, I was cruelly tortured by the CCP police and was almost disabled. It was Almighty God who cared for and kept me and led me with his word of life time after time, so that I overcame the cruel tortures of the devils and stood testimony. In the experience, I deeply felt that the power of Almighty God’s word is transcendent and Almighty God’s life force is great. I firmly believed that Almighty God is the only true God who rules over everything and controls all things and is even more my only salvation and reliance. No hostile force can take me away from God’s hand or hinder my footsteps of following God.

The Ordeal in the Devil’s Den Made Me Taste God’s Love More Deeply

Fenyong    Shanxi Province

From my childhood, I lived under my parents’ best care, but in my heart I often felt lonely without reliance, and there was always an unexplainable distress binding me, which I couldn’t get free from. I often asked myself, “Why does man live? How on earth should man live?” But I never got the answer. In 1999, I fortunately accepted Almighty God’s end-time work. From then on, under the feeding and supplying of God’s word, my lonely heart received comfort and I always had a feeling of returning home, feeling very peaceful and secure. Only then did I know what happiness is. Later, I read God’s words, “The world in mankind’s heart where there is no God’s position is dark, hopeless, and empty. … God’s place and God’s life cannot be replaced by any man. What mankind needs is not only a just society where they have enough to fill their stomach and everyone is equal and free. What they need is God’s salvation and God’s life supply for them.” (from “God Is Sovereign over the Destiny of All Mankind” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) Then, I knew that what a living man needs is not eating well, dressing well, or enjoying well, but is God’s salvation and God’s supply to man’s life. Only thus can the emptiness in man’s heart be solved. I finally got the answer to the question I had been puzzled about for a long time: God is feeding every living being among all things. Man should live by relying on God and also live for God, and such a life is meaningful, because man’s life originates from God and God is the only redemption to man, the only hope for man, and even more the reliance for the existence of man. As I read more and more of God’s word, I understood some truths gradually. Later, I performed duty in the church and often had meetings and fellowshipped with the brothers and sisters. I lived fully every day. However, a sudden arrest by the police broke my tranquil life, pushing me into the devil’s den….

God’s Word Created Miracles of Life

Yang Li    Jiangxi Province

When I was a child, my mother died. I shouldered the family burden at a young age. After getting married, I was even more loaded down with the burden of life. Having fully tasted the hardship and misery of life, I gradually became depressed and silent and fiddled my life away day by day. In 2002, when the brothers and sisters preached Almighty God’s end-time work to me, I accepted it readily and also brought my husband and children before Almighty God. From then on, the brothers and sisters often came to my home to have meetings. We fellowshipped about God’s word and sang hymns and danced to praise God together. I felt great enjoyment in my heart and no longer felt distressed or worried. My children said that I was getting younger and younger and more and more cheerful. My family often read God’s word together. From God’s word, we understood many truths and also knew that God’s eager intention is to save man. To repay God’s love and bring those who had been afflicted by satan like me before God earlier to be saved, I went out to preach the gospel. Unexpectedly, I suffered the CCP government’s cruel persecution because of that….

Question 15: National leaders have labeled Christianity and Catholicism as cults, and labeled the Holy Bible as a cult book. These are generally acknowledged facts. As to why central government has labeled Christian house churches, and in particular The Church of Almighty God as cults, as my understanding and research inform me, I consider it to be like this: All who testify that God created all things, who testify that God is the Creator, that God created mankind, who testify that God rules over everything, and testify that God is the Lord of the universe, and controls the universe, and would have the human race revere only God, submit to God, and worship God, all these are cults. All who testify that God is righteous, holy, and great, who bear witness to God's love and salvation of the human race, who condemn Satan as the devil who corrupts the human race, and as an evil force that rules the world, especially who directly attack and condemn the Communist Party, all these are cults. All who testify that the Lord Jesus has returned, who bear witness for Christ incarnate, and talk of the words and work of an ordinary human as if it were the appearance and work of the Savior, and also publicize and testify that all of the words expressed by Christ are truth, calling upon the human race to accept God, to turn toward God, and to submit to God, and who do not yield to the Communist Party, all these are cults. All who testify that the words of God are truth, and higher than everything, who testify that the Holy Bible is God's word and that The Word Appears in the Flesh is truth, and do their utmost to eliminate and condemn Marxism-Leninism and the ideology and theory of the Communist Party, all these are cults. All who teach about and bear witness for Christ of the last days, who preach that God has returned, making all of the human race accept God's salvation, and who call upon people to abandon everything and follow God as the only way to get into the kingdom of heaven, all these are cults. This is my understanding of the central government's labeling all Christian house churches, in particular The Church of Almighty God, as cults. Do all of you know what a cult is by now? In China, the Communist Party is in control. The Communist Party is a Marxist-Leninist, atheist political party that opposes all theism. The Communist Party declares guilty as cults all religious groups that believe in God. This demonstrates the absolute authority of the Communist Party. Only the Communist Party is great, glorious, and correct. Anything that goes against or is hostile toward Marxism-Leninism is wrong; it is something that the Communist Party wants to ban. In China, it is necessary to esteem Marxism-Leninism and the Communist Party as great. Could it be that there is something wrong with this? You of The Church of Almighty God openly spread that Jesus has returned, and is none other than Christ of the last days, Almighty God. You also testify that Almighty God expresses truth to purify people, to save people, and that the kingdom of heaven has already arrived on earth. This has resulted in shaking up and dividing religious circles, leading to millions of people turning toward Almighty God. This has caused a giant sensation in China, and has brought severe confusion and unrest to society. In so doing, aren't you disturbing public order? The central government therefore declares The Church of Almighty God guilty of being a cult, and implements severe attack and suppression. You are all deceived and have gone astray. The government hopes that you waste no time in repenting, distancing yourselves from The Church of Almighty God, and joining the Three-Self Church. In this way, the government will no longer hold you criminally responsible.

Answer: You have explained very clearly the basis of the Communist Party labeling something cults. I feel, however, that the condemnation by the Communist Party is fallacious, and is absurd. Ultimately what is righteous, and what is evil, must be based on whether it tallies with truth, and whether or not the words of God can be a determining basis. First of all, we should all know, that only the one true God who created all things is the truth. God is the Most High, and is One whom the human race should worship. There are sayings, “There is a spirit watching right above your head,” “Humans act, and Heaven watches,” “The will of Heaven cannot be violated,” “Justice is in the heart of man,” “Good begets good, evil begets evil,” “No prayer can save offense of Heaven,” etc. All of these sayings prove that God is the Ruler of all things and He observes everything. God is truth, and all positive things come from God. Legal norms and moral standards in human society all come from the work of God, and from the words of God. Ever since creation, God has been expressing truth, guiding humans, redeeming humans, and saving humans. God is therefore man’s great Redeemer. Human beings’ belief in God, submission to God, worship of God, and following the way of God, all these are positive things, are the correct path of human life, and meet with God's blessing. On the other hand, all negative things, all evil things come from Satan. All those things that deny God, resist God, or are hostile to God, only these are evil things. So, what is a cult, ultimately? It can be said that all that is inimical to God, all that is in opposition to all of the truths that God has expressed, all that denies God, resists God, or condemns the work of God, and leads people to darkness, causing people to be far away from God, resist God, and become ever more wicked as they fall into evil, leading God to express wrath, and send down disaster, this kind of organization, this kind of evil power is what a cult is. Ever since the Chinese Communist Party came to power, it has spread atheism and the theory of evolution to deceive and corrupt the Chinese people, and has caused the Chinese people to go on a path of denying God, resisting God, and betraying God, thus offending the disposition of God, meeting the curses of God. In resisting God, the Chinese Communist Party has brought about endless calamity. The people are sunk into an abyss of suffering, are in unbearable pain, and flee abroad one after another. During so many years of power, the Chinese Communist Party has hated God exceedingly, and has opposed God, and has done lots and lots of evil, too numerous to record. The Chinese Communist Party is therefore the only real cult! In declaring Christian churches guilty of being cults, the Chinese Communist Party is totally confusing truth with falsehood, and distorting facts.