“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:21-22).
God's Word | "The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)" (Excerpt 2)
Almighty God says, "God's saving of man is not done directly using the method of the Spirit and the identity of the Spirit, for His Spirit can neither be touched nor seen by man, neither can man draw near. If He tried to save man directly using the perspective of the Spirit, man would be unable to receive His salvation. If God did not put on the outward form of a created man, there would be no way for man to receive this salvation. For man has no way of approaching Him, much as no one was able to go near the cloud of Jehovah. Only by becoming a created human being, that is, only by putting His word into the body of flesh that He is about to become, can He personally work the word into all who follow Him. Only then can man personally see and hear His word, and moreover enter into possession of His word, and by this means come to be fully saved" (The Word Appears in the Flesh).
The church became desolate and my faith grew cold.
When I was in high school, I suddenly got tuberculosis. Tortured by the disease, I was miserable and helpless, and felt so close to death. In 1980, I started to believe in the Lord in a church near my home. Through reading the Bible, I came to know that it was God who created the heavens and earth and all things. Afterward, I persisted in attending meetings in the church and reading the Bible.
Later, I attended the theology classes held by the church. To my surprise, not long after that, the lung disease that had tortured me for years healed without treatment. I gave true thanks and praise to the Lord from the bottom of my heart. After that, my faith of expending for the Lord became greater, and I wrote a lot of testimony articles about how I was saved and called upon by the Lord. In 1994, I quit my job, and donated all my retirement pay and savings to the church. After a year of training, I formally became a preacher. Since then, I had been energetically preaching, working, and sustaining the church. Such situation lasted for four years.
Hello! In your letter you asked: “We are familiar with the Bible and work hard to practice the Lord’s word, but why are we still unable to break away from the bondage of sin?”
I want to share a bit of my understanding of this issue. We all know that, at the end of the Age of Law, man had been corrupted by Satan deeper and deeper and they no longer upheld the law. They lived in the midst of sin every day, facing the danger of being lawfully executed because their offerings were not adequate to atone for their sins. God couldn’t bear to see mankind become depraved and die under the law, so He was incarnated in the image of the Lord Jesus and was crucified for man as the sin offering and thereby He bore the sins of all mankind forever. From then on, people were delivered from the bondage of the law and were no longer executed for not being able to keep the law. Because of the Lord Jesus’ atonement, as long as we confess and repent to the Lord Jesus, our sins will be forgiven. But our corrupt disposition is deeply rooted and our sinful nature hasn’t been taken away, so we still live in a sin-and-confess state. Just as Almighty God’s words say: “The sins of man were forgiven through the agency of the incarnate God, but this does not mean that man no longer has sin within him. … Within man still exist filth, opposition, and rebelliousness; man has only returned to God through His redemption, but he has not the slightest knowledge of God and still resists and rebels against Him. Before man was redeemed, many of Satan’s poisons had already been planted within him and, after thousands of years of being corrupted by Satan, he has within him an established nature that resists God. Therefore, when man has been redeemed, it is nothing more than a case of redemption in which man is bought at a high price, but the poisonous nature within him has not been eliminated. Man that is so defiled must undergo a change before becoming worthy to serve God.”
The Lord Jesus’ redemptive work has spread to the ends of the earth, reached every home and become a household name, and it is also because of the Lord Jesus’ redemption that mankind has survived until today. There are many brothers and sisters who back up the viewpoint of “once saved, always saved,” with the words of the apostle Paul, “For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation” (Romans 10:10). They think: Since the Lord Jesus redeemed us through crucifixion, we have already been absolved of all our sins and saved by our faith, and once saved, we are always saved, and so long as we endure until the end, we will be directly raptured into the heavenly kingdom when the Lord returns. However, some other brothers and sisters can’t help but question: “Is it really so easy for us to be saved? Can we attain salvation and enter into the kingdom of heaven through faith alone?”
Pastors and elders of the religious world frequently preach to believers that the Lord Jesus' name can never change and that only by relying on the Lord Jesus' name can we be saved. Does this kind of view accord with the truth? Jehovah God said, "Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am Jehovah; and beside me there is no savior" (Isaiah 43:10-11). In the Age of Grace, God incarnate took the name Jesus. God is unchangeable, so how can His name change? Furthermore, Revelation prophesied that God will have a new name in the last days, so what is this all about? Many people are at a loss over this, but this short video will disclose the truth to you.
More attention:
Most in The Church of Almighty God are people from different sects and denominations who have believed in the Lord for many years.
This is my best praise songs, When I was singing this hymn, I felt that God is all in my life, I don't want to stay away, escape from and disobey God, I'm willing to enter the kingdom of heaven and never separate with God ……
Salvation is what we are after today, the salvation by God. And those who seek it must know themselves. It is necessary to know what fruits one must ultimately attain in order to live up to God’s standards. This is an absolute must. So what are the spiritual fruits one must achieve to finally measure up to God’s expectations? Only when man realizes that he is the son of hell will God finally be satisfied—His word is very clear about this fact. Much of it reveals to us that man is the descendant of Satan, and when God judges and chastises us He says that we are indeed children of the great red dragon, and that we are the offspring of Satan. From this we can see the benchmark we need to meet in order to know ourselves. Beyond that, we see from the word of God the deep corruption of mankind on account of Satan. And though many people are believers, God has no place in their heart, and very few people have a genuine fear of God. Corrupt mankind is just like Satan; man is a worshipper of Satan, a follower of Satan, and even the servant of Satan with a similar disposition. However Satan resists God, so corrupt mankind also resists; however Satan judges God, so does corrupt mankind judges; however Satan betrays God, corrupt mankind also betrays God. Human beings have become the descendants of Satan, and those born of Satan are most certainly identical to it in their nature. Now we see that all the philosophies, points of view, and knowledge within man are filled with Satan’s poison, that humans have become dominated by Satan’s poison, meaning that corrupt mankind’s nature is the same as that of Satan, Satan’s nature is mankind’s nature, the essence of Satan has become corrupt mankind’s nature. Mankind has a satanic disposition, and so he is born to be at odds with God. Evil is in his deeds, words and thoughts, and all the day it is wicked thoughts that come into his mind. In other words, mankind has been deeply corrupted by Satan. This is a necessary fruit you must gain in knowing yourself. There will come a day when you realize that you absolutely do not have any conscience or reason, and as a created being, you simply cannot worship God in a normal way. Besides, no matter how much of God’s grace and love you have enjoyed in your life, you do not know how to repay that love. In the service of God you show no consideration for His will. You only know how to satisfy yourself, to make sure your needs are met, and to achieve your own desires. At that very moment you will see that you yourself have been deeply and utterly corrupted by Satan, without the least bit of normal humanity, and with a nature that is resistant and hostile to God. Why does God wish to perfect man? Because only the perfected can serve Him, and only the saved can truly worship Him. Without the salvation of God incarnate, not one of corrupt mankind could be a true worshiper of God; they would just be using God, praying to Him like beggars daily, and doing so only for the sake of this or that personal gain; begging for help for our own selfish purposes, and treating God as nothing but the object of exploitation. So is this true worship? No, it is not. Thus, man’s prayers are highly exploitative, man is just looking to God for help, and is not truly worshiping Him. When God has answered his prayer, he isn’t even thankful, and doesn’t even think to return God’s love, which is just how senseless man’s behavior toward God is—he is absolutely conscienceless. He’s simply an animal in human attire. So, in knowing yourself it is imperative to realize just how lacking you are in humanity, and how before God you have no conscience and no reason, how you are ungrateful and even requite kindness with enmity. God indulges you ninety-nine times, and you’re all amens and hallelujahs, and He doesn’t satisfy you just that one time and suddenly you’re all grumbles and groans; you actually complain about Him. Isn’t this what’s called being an ingrate? When God does not meet man’s demands just once, they become indignant and consider God as an enemy; this is just how man is toward God. You must realize just how corrupt you are—you must be absolutely clear about this. The first precept is, understanding that man’s nature is Satan’s nature, which betrays God. This is the first part of knowing yourself, the first fruit to be achieved. The second precept is, knowing the life you live is a mirror image of Satan, with no resemblance to true humanity. The third precept is, realizing that you are most definitely Satan’s offspring, you are a child of the great red dragon, that you have sold out to the enemy by regarding Satan as a father. You treat the great red dragon as your father and you rebel against God. You see how the great red dragon persecutes God, you see its nature and its deeds, then look again to see if the substantial things of the great red dragon exist in mankind. We can see how maliciously and brutally the great red dragon and Satan exercise power to persecute and murder people. If corrupt men seize power and impose dictatorship, would they act like the great red dragon? Would they slaughter countless scores of people? Just look at the emperors of ancient China, which one took fewer lives? They were all the same. Therefore, if corrupt men seize power, they would be much like the emperors of old and the great red dragon; the only difference would be how many people they would slaughter. No single emperor could ever lead his subjects to worship God. They were all just like Satan the betrayer of God, only desiring to dominate their own people, disallowing them from worshiping God and finding the true way of God’s salvation; their nature was no different than that of the great red dragon. And part four of knowing yourself is, that you must realize the fact that corrupt mankind belongs to Satan, is dominated by Satan, follows Satan, and worships Satan. The whole human race follows the trend of the world. But what is the trend of the world? It is following Satan, which is definitely not what God desires. The trend of the world is the diametric opposite of the mind of God, it runs us faster on the road toward evil, it moves us further away from God and drags us deeper into the trap. If all human beings follow Satan, and if man has a satanic nature and lives in the image of Satan, then who is it that corrupt humankind belongs to? Some people believe in God, but their nature, essence and heart are completely given over to Satan. Although some people believe in God and are willing to pursue the truth and receive salvation, their nature always takes over, they often go against God, rebelling against Him, drifting away from Him, and frequently bemoaning and making complaints to Him in spite of themselves. If mankind’s heart has not been corrupted by Satan, if he is not controlled by Satan, then why can’t he act according to his own will? Why does he do what he would not? This just goes to show that man has a satanic nature, and that his very nature is one that will surely betray God. So God has said that there is always a chance that man will betray Him—a one hundred percent chance. Today we see some brothers and sisters in fervent search of the true way, and you see them in high spirits. Then you ask them if they are truly ready to accept Almighty God, and their answer is “yes.” And then you ask about a guarantee that they can follow God to the end. They answer back that they can absolutely guarantee it! Yet you never know when there will come a day that they are tempted or tried but cannot overcome it, and then they fall away from God. They can’t help it. For the moment there is no adversity, there are no tribulations, so people always think positive and feel willing to follow God to the very end, so that they can be saved and perfected and become eventual survivors. But willingness is meaningless; mankind doesn’t have his nature in his own hands, he just cannot control himself, so when encountering some unexpected adversity, or simply being tested like Job, people are likely to blame God, then rebel against Him and go to follow Satan, which they do in spite of themselves. But how come man does these things in spite of himself? It is because he has no control over his nature, he is not in charge of himself. Therefore, God has said that man will betray Him at any time, and the chances of that betrayal are one hundred percent. This is absolutely true, for God is the Creator and the Creator knows perfectly the extent of man’s corruption. These are the four results that you must achieve in knowing yourself and are the requirements and standards of God that you should live up to. If you can meet His standards, then that just goes to show that you truly know yourself, and that you are truly clear about your own nature, and your own corrupt essence, as well as who you truly belong to and the final destination and ending that you deserve.
My name is Christopher and I am a pastor from a family church in the Philippines. In 1987, I was baptized and returned to the Lord Jesus. By the Lord’s grace, in 1996 I became a pastor of the local church. At that time, apart from preaching in many places around the Philippines, I also preached in places like Hong Kong and Malaysia. Because of the work and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I felt that I had inexhaustible energy in my work for the Lord and an unceasing flow of words in my sermons. I would often go to support brothers and sisters when they were negative and weak. Sometimes members of their family who did not believe in the Lord were unfriendly toward me, yet I could be tolerant and patient and not lose faith in the Lord and I believed that the Lord could change them. So I felt like I had changed a great deal since believing in the Lord. However, since 2011, I have not felt the work of the Holy Spirit as strongly as before. Slowly, I have had no new enlightenment for my sermons and have not had the strength to break free from living in sin. I could not help getting angry at my wife and daughter and teaching them a lesson through my temper when I saw that they were not doing as I desired. I knew that this was not in keeping with the will of the Lord, but often I could not help myself. I felt particularly distressed about this. In order to free myself from a life of sin and confession, I put more effort into reading the Bible, fasting and praying and found spiritual pastors everywhere to seek and explore this together. But all of my efforts were useless and made no difference to me living in sin and to the darkness in my soul.
Then one evening in spring 2016, my wife asked me, “Christopher, I’ve noticed you’ve been very troubled recently. What is on your mind?” After hearing my wife ask this, I told her what was troubling me, “I’ve been wondering these last few years why I cannot break free from living in sin despite being a pastor and having believed in the Lord for many years. I cannot touch the Lord now. It is as if the Lord has forsaken me. Although I preach everywhere, as soon as I have free time, especially in the dead of night, I always feel a kind of emptiness and anxiety and this feeling just gets stronger and stronger. I think about how I have believed in the Lord for many years and how I have read the Bible a great deal and often resolved to bear the cross and conquer myself, but yet I am always bound by sins and am capable of telling lies and not abiding by ‘And in their mouth was found no guile’ (Revelation 14:5) in order to protect my own interests and face. When facing tribulations and refinement, although I know I have the Lord’s consent, I still cannot stop myself from complaining to the Lord and misunderstanding Him and I am completely unable to willingly deny myself. I am afraid that when the Lord comes, I will not be able to enter the kingdom of heaven because of living in sin like this!”
Mankind, who lives among all things, has been corrupted and deceived by Satan, but he still can’t forgo the water made by God, and the air and all things made by God. Mankind still lives and proliferates in this space created by God. Mankind still lives and proliferates in this space created by God. The instincts of mankind have not changed. Man still relies on his eyes to see, on his ears to hear, on his brain to think, on his heart to understand, on his legs and feet to walk, on his hands to work, and so on; all the instincts God bestowed upon man to gain His provision remain unchanged. Mankind’s faculties have not changed, through which he cooperates with God and fulfills the duty of a created being. His spiritual needs have not changed; his wish to find his origins has not changed. The yearning of mankind to be saved by the Creator has not changed. This is the situation of mankind, who lives under God’s authority, and who has endured the bloody destruction wrought by Satan. from The Word Appears in the Flesh
Good evening everyone! (Good evening Almighty God!) Today, brothers and sisters, let us sing a hymn. Find one that you like and that you have sung regularly before. (We’d like to sing a hymn of God’s word “Pure Love Without Blemish.”)
1. Love is a pure emotion, pure without a blemish. Use your heart, use your heart to love and feel and care. Love doesn’t set conditions or barriers or distance. Use your heart, use your heart to love and feel and care. If you love you don’t deceive, grumble, turn your back, look to get something in return. If you love you’d sacrifice, accept hardship and be one with God in harmony.
2. In love there’s no suspicion, no cunning, no deceit. Use your heart, use your heart to love and feel and care. In love there is no distance and nothing that’s not pure. Use your heart, use your heart to love and feel and care. If you love you don’t deceive, grumble, turn your back, look to get something in return. If you love you’d sacrifice, accept hardship and be one with God in harmony.
3. You would give your family, youth and future you may see, give your marriage up for God; you would give your all for Him. You would give your family, youth and future you may see, give your marriage up for God; you would give your all for Him. Or your love’s no love at all, but deceit, betrayal of God.
4. Love is a pure emotion, pure without a blemish. Use your heart, use your heart to love and feel and care. Love doesn’t set conditions or barriers or distance. Use your heart, use your heart to love and feel and care.
During our last meeting we shared a very important topic. Do you remember what it was? Let Me repeat it. The topic of our last fellowship was: God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself. Is this an important topic to you? Which part of it is most important to you? God’s work, God’s disposition, or God Himself? Which one interests you most? Which part do you want to hear about most? I know it’s difficult for you to answer that , because God’s disposition can be seen in every aspect of His work, and His disposition is revealed in His work always and in all places, and, in effect, represents God Himself; in God’s overall management plan, God’s work, God’s disposition, and God Himself are all inseparable from each other.
