From November 20 to November 21, 2017, Ta Kung Pao and Wen Wei Po, two mouthpieces of the Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong, released 17 reports intensively to attack The Church of Almighty God, all in a span of two days. These reports cited the rumors and fallacies the CCP always uses to slander and condemn The Church of Almighty God, among which “cult” is the word of the highest frequency. As to this word the CCP uses to condemn the church, Professor Massimo Introvigne, a sociologist from Italy, the founder and director of the Center for Studies on New Religions, who has attended two international anti-cult academic conferences held by the CCP, will make his remarks in this episode.
Though many people believe in God, few understand what faith in God means, and what they must do to be after God’s heart. This is because, though people are familiar with the word “God” and phrases such as “the work of God,” they do not know God, much less do they know His work. No wonder, then, that all those who do not know God are possessed of a muddled belief. People do not take belief in God seriously because believing in God is too unfamiliar, too strange for them. In this way, they fall short of the demands of God. In other words, if people do not know God, do not know His work, then they are not fit for God’s use, much less can they fulfill the desire of God. “Belief in God” means believing that there is a God; this is the simplest concept of faith in God. What’s more, believing that there is a God is not the same as truly believing in God; rather, it is a kind of simple faith with strong religious overtones. True faith in God means experiencing the words and work of God based on a belief that God holds sovereignty over all things. So you shall be freed of your corrupt disposition, shall fulfill the desire of God, and shall come to know God. Only through such a journey can you be said to believe in God. Yet people often see belief in God as something very simple and frivolous. The belief of such people is meaningless and shall never gain the approval of God, because they tread the wrong path.
