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 (1): You witness that the Lord Jesus has returned, and that He has appeared and worked in China, I believe that it is true because this is what the Lord Jesus had prophesied in the Bible: “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” (Mat 24:27). But we think that the Lord will return in the last days to bring us into the kingdom of heaven, or at least He should lift us to the clouds to meet with Him in the air. Just as Paul said in the Bible, “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1Ts 4:17). But why hasn't the Lord come as described in the Bible? What does Almighty God's judgment work in the last days have to do with us being brought into the kingdom of heaven?

Answer: Many people believe that when the Lord returns, He will lift the believers in the air to meet with them. What you are saying is based on the word of Paul, not of the Lord. We have no way of telling whether Paul’s word was from the idea of man or the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment. This was what the Lord Jesus said in prophesying His return: “But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only” (Mat 24:36). The Lord said it very clearly. When He returns, no one will know. Other than God, not even the angels will know. According to your idea, those who believe in the Lord would be lifted in the air to meet Him in the cloud. Is there any basis for this in God’s words? If you go by Paul’s word instead of the Lord’s word, then you are utterly wrong! Paul was only a man; he did not represent the Lord Jesus. How could he know that the Lord would lift His believers to the clouds when He returns? What was the basis of Paul’s word? Do we have to wait for the Lord’s return according to Paul’s words? Why don't we welcome the Lord according to the Lord Jesus’ word? This was what the Lord Jesus said in prophesying His return: “If therefore you shall not watch, I will come on you as a thief, and you shall not know what hour I will come on you” (Rev 3:3). What does it mean when someone only goes by Paul’s word but not the Lord Jesus’ word in believing in the Lord? Does it mean that Paul was the Lord and Christ? So whom do you believe in after all, Paul or the Lord Jesus? Isn’t this worthy of our rumination? The Lord’s second coming is to receive the saints into the kingdom of heaven. This is for certain. But no one can guess actually how the Lord will receive His followers into the kingdom of heaven. If we went by the concepts and imagination of man to understand it, assuming that the Lord would take people into the air to meet with them, that would be too unrealistic. We have all seen that Almighty God appears in China in the last days and expresses all kinds of truths for the cleansing and salvation of man; He is in the process of cleansing and making perfect all the wise virgins brought before His throne. God is determined to make this group of people overcomers before the catastrophe arrives. After making a group of overcomers, God unleashes the catastrophe to destroy this evil mankind that insanely resists God. After the catastrophe, God will appear to all peoples and all nations. Isn't this the real process of how the Lord will bring His followers into the kingdom of Christ upon His return? I feel that Almighty God’s work in the last days has completely fulfilled the prophecies of the Lord Jesus. “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). Since the Lord is already here on earth, yet we still want to go up in the sky, aren’t we going in the wrong direction? Since the Lord has come to earth, God has also predetermined for us to be born in the last days, to be brought before His throne, receive His work of judgment in the last days, be cleansed and made perfect by Him and finally enter the kingdom of Christ. What kind of a place has the Lord prepared for us? This refers to the kingdom of Christ being realized on earth, fulfilling the prophecy “that where I am, there you may be also.” This proves that when the Lord returns in the last days, He will come into His kingdom. God’s work of judgment that begins with the house of God is to make a group of overcomers out of the wise virgins who are the first to receive God’s work in the last days and then He’ll openly appear by descending on a cloud. Thus the kingdom of Christ is realized on earth. The fact of God’s work in the last days completely fulfills the prophecies of the Lord Jesus. Only through experiencing God’s judgment work in the last days can we see the fulfillment of the prophecies in the Bible. Relying on man’s notions and imagination to speculate on the prophecies is foolish and absurd! We should go by God’s word, not man’s, to meet the Lord’s return. If we go by man’s word, we will miss the chance of rapture at the Lord’s coming, unable to meet Him. We will have only ourselves to blame.

from the movie Screenplay of My Dream Of The Heavenly Kingdom

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.

Question 3: You say only those who obey the will of God receive the way of everlasting life. After we started believing in the Lord, we suffered and paid a price to spread the Lord’s gospel. We’ve shepherded the Lord’s flock, taken up the cross and followed the Lord, practiced humbleness, patience, and tolerance. Are you saying we haven’t been following God’s will? We know if we continue, we will become holy, and be raptured to the kingdom of heaven. Is this way of understanding and practice wrong?

Answer: You have the notion that if you labor, sacrifice, or do good deeds, you are obeying God’s will. But are these imagined notions of yours after God’s heart? Do they have a basis in God’s word? Let’s see what the Lord Jesus said: The Lord Jesus said: “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? and in your name have cast out devils? and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity” (Mat 7: 21-23). From the Lord Jesus’ words we can see that those who prophesy, cast out devils, and do many wonderful works in His name are the ones who suffer and do works for the Lord. They serve God, devote all their time to Him, and have many good behaviors. But, why does the Lord Jesus call them those who work iniquity? How should we understand this? By your notions, any who suffer and do work for the Lord and spend and sacrifice for Him are obeying God’s will. The chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees in Judaism also appeared to be very pious. They traveled far and wide to preach the gospel. So why did the Lord Jesus condemn and curse them? That’s something worth reflecting on, isn’t it? We can’t determine obedience to God’s will using the notions of man. True obedience to God’s will refers to people who can obey God’s work and words, practice God’s words, follow God’s commandments, and fulfill their duties according to God’s will and requirements. You say any who suffer and do work for the Lord are obeying God’s will. Then let’s evaluate them using the Lord Jesus’ requirements. What was the Lord Jesus’ most important requirement for man? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like to it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mat 22:37-39). But are we doing this? Obeying God’s will means loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind. No matter how much work we do, or how much we suffer, there must be no personal ambition or impurity, we must be devoted purely to obeying and satisfying God, to carrying out God’s will. We must be happy to sacrifice everything for God, without demand for recompense. In the face of trials and tribulation from God, we must not complain or betray Him, and put ourselves at the mercy of God’s arrangements. Like Abraham, Job, and Peter, when God’s trials come, we must accept with utter obedience and without complaint or question, and bear good and resounding testimony for God. This is obedience to God’s will. Given those demands, it should be obvious whether or not we are people who truly obey the heavenly Father’s will.

Question 2: The Lord Jesus and Almighty God are the same God, but do different work in different ages. The Lord Jesus did the work of redemption, and preached the way of repentance. In the last days, Almighty God does the work of judging and purifying mankind, and brings them the way of everlasting life. I still have another question, what is the difference between the way of repentance and the way of eternal life?

Answer: There is only one God, and His work of saving mankind can’t be done in one or two stages. Because there are three stages of work in God’s management plan to save mankind, the truth expressed by God in each stage is different, and gradually deepens, so that in the end it becomes perfect. God does different work across the ages based on the needs of man at the time, so the way God gives to man in each age is different. Knowing the difference between the way of repentance and the way of eternal life is very important. It is a truth every true believer in God must understand, because it’s related to how we know the truth and gain eternal life. Now we all know that the Lord Jesus did the work of redemption in the Age of Grace, and gave man the way of repentance. As the Lord Jesus said: “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat 4:17). Which is to say, man should confess his sins and repent before God if he wants to enter the kingdom of heaven. After man confesses previous sins, such sins will be forgiven. Man will no longer sin, repent and be born again. This is repentance. But at that time, the Lord Jesus only taught man to confess his sins and repent, not to commit sins, not to do evil, to deny himself, take up the cross, and follow the Lord, to love the Lord with all his heart, his soul, and his mind, to love others as himself, with humility, forbearance and patience, and to forgive others seventy times seven and so on. These are the ways for man to repent. When man confesses his sins and repents before the Lord Jesus, these sins will be forgiven, which qualifies man to pray before God and fellowship with Him, and enjoy the bountiful grace and truth given by God. But what we can’t deny is that even if man’s sins are forgiven, his sinful nature still exists, and he can still sin, oppose and betray God. This proves that though man’s sins can be forgiven, he can still sin, and can’t escape the satanic disposition to attain purification. The Lord Jesus only did the work of redemption, which merely allows man to confess his sins, repent, return to God, and enjoy the grace given by God. This shows that the truth expressed by the Lord Jesus is the way for man to repent. Just as Almighty God says: “At the time, Jesus only spoke to His disciples a series of sermons in the Age of Grace, such as how to practice, how to gather together, how to ask in prayer, how to treat others, and so forth. The work He carried out was that of the Age of Grace, and He expounded only on how the disciples and those who followed Him ought to practice. He did only the work of the Age of Grace and none of the last days. … The work of God in each age has clear boundaries; He does only the work of the current age and never does He carry out the next stage of work in advance. Only in this way can His representative work of each age be brought to the fore. Jesus had spoken only of the signs of the last days, of how to be patient and how to be saved, how to repent and confess, as well as how to bear the cross and endure suffering; never did He speak of what man in the last days should enter into or how to seek to satisfy God’s will” (“How Can Man Who Has Defined God in His Conceptions Receive the Revelations of God?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “The sins of man could be forgiven through the sin offering, but as for just how man can be made to sin no more, and how his sinful nature may be extirpated completely and transformed, he has no way of solving this problem. The sins of man were forgiven, and this is because of the work of God’s crucifixion, but man continued to live within the corrupt satanic disposition of old. This being so, man must be completely saved from his corrupt satanic disposition, so that his sinful nature may be completely extirpated, never to develop again, thus enabling the disposition of man to be transformed. This would require man to grasp the path of growth in life, to grasp the way of life, and to grasp the way to change his disposition. Furthermore, it would require man to act in accordance with this path, so that his disposition may gradually be changed and he may live under the shining of the light, so that all that he does may be in accord with the will of God, so that he may cast away his corrupt satanic disposition, and so that he may break free from Satan’s influence of darkness, thereby emerging fully from sin. Only then will man receive complete salvation” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The words of Almighty God clearly tell us that the Lord Jesus did the work of redemption, and what He gave us was only the way of repentance, but He didn’t give man the way of everlasting life to cast off his satanic nature and attain purification. So, in the last days, Almighty God has come, and on the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, He has done the work of “judgment beginning at the house of God” and gives us the way of everlasting life. Only by accepting the way of everlasting life given by Almighty God in the last days can we become obedient to the will of God, completely escape the dark influence of Satan, reach salvation, and enter the kingdom of God.

Do You Know the True Significance of the Lord Jesus’ Redemption?

By Xiaomo, China

The mention of “Jesus’ Redemption” always fills us with gratitude to the Lord. Two thousand years ago, to redeem us from the hands of Satan, the Lord Jesus was crucified and sacrificed for the sins of humanity, thereby forgiving all our sins. When we sin, as long as we repent and confess our sins to the Lord, our sins are forgiven, and we enjoy peace and joy. But recently, some brothers and sisters have been confused: Although our sins are forgiven by the Lord, we have never been able to escape the bondage of sin, we often lie and deceive, we are stuck in the cycle of sinning and confessing, and we cannot keep the Lord’s teachings. The Bible clearly tells us, “, there remains no more sacrifice for sins

In the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, Do You Know What God’s Hidden Intention Is?

Chengxin

One evening, as I sat at my desk after praying to God, I read the parable told by Jesus in Matthew 20:1-16, where the kingdom of heaven is likened to a landowner hiring workers for his vineyard, and it didn’t matter whether they went first thing in the morning or if it was in the noon or the afternoon that they went into the vineyard, their wages were all the same. When the workers who came first learned of this, they grumbled against the landowner, but the landowner replied by saying: “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? Is your eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen” (Mat 20:15-16). After reading these several lines of scripture from the Bible I knitted my brows and could not help but think: “It is reasonable to say that those who practice their faith in God for a long time, who forsake more and expend themselves more for the Lord and who toil and work for more years ought to be rewarded with more than those who come later, but in Scripture it says that the wages are the same for those who come early and those who come late, isn’t this God intentionally showing favoritism for those who come later?” I felt that I really didn’t understand these words, I didn’t understand what the Lord’s intention was in saying these words.