Does God Have a Specific Gender? I Discover a New Interpretation (Part 2)

By Bao’en, Brazil

The Mystery of “the Father and the Son” Is Finally Revealed

Although I had come to understand this truth, I still wasn’t entirely clear on why God had incarnated as a woman in the last days, and so I asked, “Brother, it is recorded in Matthew chapter 3 verse 17 that, when the Lord Jesus was baptized, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ Also, when the Lord Jesus prayed, He called God in heaven His Father. The gender of ‘Father’ and ‘Son’ is male, and so this proves that God is male. So how can the Lord Jesus return as a female? I don’t understand this issue, so I wondered if you could fellowship with me about this?”

Does God Have a Specific Gender? I Discover a New Interpretation (Part 1)

By Bao’en, Brazil

Editor’s Note: When it comes to the question, “Does God have a specific gender?” I believe that many Christians will say, “It is clearly recorded in the Bible that when the Lord Jesus was being baptized, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’ (Matthew 3:17). Also, when the Lord Jesus prayed, He called God in heaven His Father, and surely these words ‘Father’ and ‘Son’ prove that God is male.” Therefore, when we hear someone testifying that the Lord Jesus has returned and that He has incarnated into female form, many brothers and sisters cannot get their heads around it. They believe that the Lord Jesus was clearly male, so how could the second coming of the Lord be as a female? Brother Bao’en of Brazil used to cling to this view too, and it was only when he heard a sermon that he was able to come to a new interpretation on this matter …

4. The Relationship Between Each of the Three Stages of God’s Work

Relevant Words of God:

From the work of Jehovah to that of Jesus, and from the work of Jesus to that of this current stage, these three stages cover in a continuous thread the entire gamut of God’s management, and are all the work of one Spirit. Since the creation of the world, God has always been at work managing mankind. He is the Beginning and the End, He is the First and the Last, and He is the One who begins an age and the One who brings the age to an end. The three stages of work, in different ages and different locations, are unmistakably the work of one Spirit. All those who separate these three stages stand in opposition to God.

from “The Vision of God’s Work (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

Chapter 3 You Must Know the Truths About the Three Stages of God’s Work

3. Knowing the Purpose and Significance of Each of the Three Stages of God’s Work

Relevant Words of God:

At this time, the significance, purpose, and phases of Jehovah’s work in Israel were to initiate His work on the whole earth, which, taking Israel as its center, gradually spread into the Gentile nations. This is the principle according to which He works throughout the universe—to establish a model and then broaden it until all people in the universe shall have received His gospel. The first Israelites were the descendants of Noah. These people were endowed only with the breath of Jehovah, and understood enough to take care of the basic necessities of life, but they did not know what kind of a God Jehovah was, or His will for man, much less how they should revere the Lord of all creation. As for whether there were rules and laws to be obeyed, and whether there was work that created beings should do for the Creator: Adam’s descendants knew nothing of these things. All they knew was that the husband should sweat and labor to provide for his family, and that the wife should submit to her husband and perpetuate the race of humans that Jehovah had created. In other words, this people, who had only Jehovah’s breath and His life, knew nothing of how to follow God’s laws or how to satisfy the Lord of all creation. They understood far too little. So even though there was nothing crooked or deceitful in their hearts and jealousy and contention seldom arose among them, nevertheless they had no knowledge or understanding of Jehovah, the Lord of all creation. These ancestors of man knew only to eat the things of Jehovah, and to enjoy the things of Jehovah, but they did not know to revere Jehovah; they did not know that Jehovah is the One they should worship on bended knee. So how could they be called His creatures? If this were so, what of the words, “Jehovah is the Lord of all creation” and “He created man in order that man might manifest Him, glorify Him, and represent Him”—would they not have been spoken in vain? How could people who have no reverence for Jehovah become a testimony to His glory? How could they become manifestations of His glory? Would not Jehovah’s words “I created man in My image” then become a weapon in the hands of Satan—the evil one? Would these words not then become a mark of humiliation to Jehovah’s creation of man? In order to complete that stage of work, Jehovah, after creating mankind, did not instruct or guide them from the time of Adam to that of Noah. Rather, it was not until after the flood destroyed the world that He formally began to guide the Israelites, who were the descendants of Noah and also of Adam. His work and utterances in Israel gave guidance to all the people of Israel as they lived their lives throughout the land of Israel, and in this way showed humanity that Jehovah was not only able to blow breath into man, that he might have life from Him and rise up from the dust into a created human being, but that He could also incinerate mankind, and curse mankind, and use His rod to govern mankind. So, too, did they see that Jehovah could guide man’s life on earth, and speak and work among humanity according to the hours of the day and of the night. He did the work only so that His creatures might know that man came from dust picked up by Him, and moreover that man had been made by Him. Not only this, but the work He began in Israel was meant so that other peoples and nations (who in fact were not separate from Israel, but rather had branched off from the Israelites, yet were still descended from Adam and Eve) might receive the gospel of Jehovah from Israel, so that all created beings in the universe might be able to revere Jehovah and hold Him to be great. Had Jehovah not begun His work in Israel, but instead, having created mankind, let them live carefree lives on the earth, then in that case, owing to man’s physical nature (nature means that man can never know the things he cannot see, which is to say that he would not know that it was Jehovah who created mankind, and even less why He did so), he would never know that it was Jehovah who created mankind or that He is the Lord of all creation. If Jehovah had created man and placed him on the earth, and simply dusted off His hands and left, rather than remaining among mankind to give them guidance for a period of time, then in that case all humanity would have returned to nothingness; even heaven and earth and all the myriad things of His making, and all of humanity, would have returned to nothingness and moreover have been trampled upon by Satan. In this way Jehovah’s wish that “On the earth, that is, in the midst of His creation, He should have a place to stand, a holy place” would have been shattered. And so, after creating mankind, that He was able to remain in their midst to guide them in their lives, and speak to them from within their midst, all this was in order to realize His desire, and to achieve His plan. The work He did in Israel was meant only to execute the plan He had set in place before His creation of all things, and therefore His working first among the Israelites and His creation of all things were not at odds with each other, but were both for the sake of His management, His work, and His glory, and also in order to deepen the meaning of His creation of mankind. He guided the life of mankind on earth for two thousand years after Noah, during which He taught humanity to understand how to revere Jehovah the Lord of all creation, how to conduct their lives and how to go on living, and most of all, how to act as a witness for Jehovah, render Him obedience, and give Him reverence, even praising Him with music as did David and his priests.

from “The Work in the Age of Law” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

Chapter 3 You Must Know the Truths About the Three Stages of God’s Work

2. You Must Know the Aim of the Three Stages of God’s Work

Relevant Words of God:

My entire management plan, the six-thousand-year management plan, consists of three stages, or three ages: the Age of Law of the beginning; the Age of Grace (which is also the Age of Redemption); and the Age of Kingdom of the last days. My work in these three ages differs in content according to the nature of each age, but at each stage this work befits the needs of man—or, to be more precise, is done according to the tricks that Satan employs in the war that I wage against it. The purpose of My work is to defeat Satan, to make manifest My wisdom and omnipotence, to expose all of Satan’s tricks, and thereby to save the entire human race, which lives under Satan’s domain. It is to show My wisdom and omnipotence, and to reveal the unbearable hideousness of Satan; even more than that, it is to allow created beings to discriminate between good and evil, to know that I am the Ruler of all things, to see clearly that Satan is the enemy of humanity, a degenerate, the evil one, and to allow them to tell, with absolute certainty, the difference between good and evil, truth and falsehood, holiness and filth, and what is great and what is ignoble. Thus will ignorant humanity become able to bear witness to Me that it is not I who corrupt humanity, and only I—the Creator—can save humanity, can bestow upon people the things that they can enjoy; and they will come to know that I am the Ruler of all things and Satan is merely one of the beings that I created and that later turned against Me. My six-thousand-year management plan is divided into three stages, and I work thus to achieve the effect of enabling created beings to bear witness to Me, and comprehend My will, and know that I am the truth.

from “The True Story Behind the Work of the Age of Redemption” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

Chapter 3 You Must Know the Truths About the Three Stages of God’s Work

1. What Is the Work of Managing Mankind?

Relevant Words of God:

The work of managing mankind is divided into three stages, which means that the work of saving mankind is divided into three stages. These three stages do not include the work of creating the world, but are rather the three stages of the work of the Age of Law, the Age of Grace, and the Age of Kingdom. The work of creating the world was the work of producing the whole of mankind. It was not the work of saving mankind, and bears no relation to the work of saving mankind, for when the world was created mankind had not been corrupted by Satan, and so there was no need to carry out the work of mankind’s salvation. The work of saving mankind only began when mankind had been corrupted by Satan, and so the work of managing mankind also only began when mankind had been corrupted. In other words, God’s management of man began as a result of the work of saving mankind, and did not arise from the work of creating the world. It was only after mankind acquired a corrupt disposition that the work of management came into existence, and so the work of managing mankind includes three parts, rather than four stages, or four ages. Only this is the correct way to refer to God’s management of mankind. When the final age comes to a close, the work of managing mankind will have come to a complete end. The conclusion of the work of management means that the work of saving all mankind has been completely finished, and that mankind has reached his journey’s end. Without the work of saving all mankind, the work of managing mankind would not exist, nor would there be the three stages of work. It was precisely because of mankind’s depravity, and because mankind was in such urgent need of salvation, that Jehovah concluded the creation of the world and began the work of the Age of Law. Only then did the work of managing mankind begin, which means that only then did the work of saving mankind begin. “Managing mankind” does not mean guiding the life of mankind, newly created, on earth (which is to say, a mankind that had yet to be corrupted). Rather, it is the salvation of a mankind that has been corrupted by Satan, which is to say, it is to transform this corrupt mankind. This is the meaning of managing mankind. The work of saving mankind does not include the work of creating the world, and so the work of managing mankind does not include the work of creating the world, and only includes three stages of work that are separate from the world’s creation. To understand the work of managing mankind, it is necessary to be aware of the history of the three stages of work—this is what everyone must be aware of in order to be saved.

from “Knowing the Three Stages of God’s Work Is the Path to Knowing God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

Knowing the Lord Jesus: Why Did the Lord Jesus Work Amongst Man in an Ordinary Form?

By Li Qian

I am a pastor and I’ve worked and preached for the Lord for many years. Each time I opened up the Bible, I saw the words written in Matthew 13:53–57 which say: “When Jesus had finished these parables, He departed there. And when He was come into His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, From where has this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not His mother called Mary? and His brothers, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? From where then has this man all these things? And they were offended in Him.” And also John 19:6–7 which say: “When the chief priests therefore and officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him. Pilate said to them, Take you Him, and crucify Him: for I find no fault in Him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.” Each time I read these words, I couldn’t help but think: “When the Lord Jesus was performing His work, many people denied His identity and essence because He appeared normal and ordinary, and they treated Him as an ordinary man. The Jewish chief priests, scribes and Pharisees in particular knew perfectly well that the miracles performed and the way preached by the Lord came from God, but not only did they not seek or investigate this way with a God-fearing heart, on the contrary, they relied on their conceptions and imaginings to judge the Lord Jesus as being nothing more than a carpenter’s son, and they blasphemed against the Lord, saying that He cast out demons by the prince of the devils. In the end, they colluded with the Roman authorities and crucified the Lord Jesus upon the cross. God is so supreme, so why would He deliberately choose such a normal, ordinary form to come amongst man and perform His work? If God had been born into a king’s family in a high and noble form and after the manner of a great man, then not just the Pharisees but all the people of Israel would have easily accepted the Lord Jesus’ gospel.” This issue perplexed me for a long time.