That year, my business collapsed and my marriage broke up. I was overwhelmed with great distress. At that time, my next-door neighbor preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus to me. She told me the story about how Jesus was nailed to the cross for the redemption of mankind. Feeling hopeless, I was deeply moved by the great love of the Lord Jesus, and only then did I realize that I could rely on the Lord in the time of my greatest pain.
I remember that at a meeting, Pastor Zhang preached, “John 16:8 says: ‘And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.’ The Lord Jesus was crucified to redeem us and has borne the sins of all. Today, those who have truly confessed their sins and repented to the Lord are all the ones who have been judged by God and have gained a new life, and they are no longer of sin. When the Lord comes back, they will be taken to the kingdom of heaven by Him. Brothers and sisters, if we are willing to accept the Lord’s judgment, we must confess to the Lord all our sins that we have done in our whole life, whether great or small, and truly repent to the Lord. Only then will He forgive all our sins. If anyone just confesses his sins casually, going through the motions, he will be forsaken by the Lord when He comes back and finds that he hasn’t confessed all his sins to Him….” After I returned home, I knelt before the Lord and confessed all my sins I had committed since my childhood, even the smallest ones. At that moment, I felt the Lord was in my heart, and that my whole being was released, as if I had received a new life. After that experience, I had this absolute conviction that as long as one confessed his sins and repented, he was receiving the judgment and would receive life. And I was full of strength within, believing that as long as I accepted the judgment of the Lord Jesus and reproved myself, I would be able to gain life and enter into the kingdom of heaven.
While I did hosting duty, I went to see the brothers and sisters in our church with Sister Cui. I often sustained them with that verse as Pastor Zhang explained it to us. At that time, the Lord especially blessed our church. The gospel preaching was thriving and all our brothers and sisters were full of faith. Soon I also became a good preacher.
However, several years later, the gospel work began to slow down quite markedly. Some brothers and sisters who pursued actively were converted to the Eastern Lightning, and even Pastor Zhu and Pastor He who had preached to us accepted the way of Eastern Lightning. I thought, “It seems normal that those brothers and sisters who don’t have much knowledge of the Bible were taken away by Eastern Lightning followers, but it is really incomprehensible that Pastor Zhu and Pastor He who know the Bible very well and who had preached and worked for the Lord for years unexpectedly turned to believe in Eastern Lightning.” Just when Sister Cui and I were about to go and reconfirm the faith of our brothers and sisters separately, Pastor Zhang urgently called the co-workers together. In the meeting, he said gravely, “Co-workers, I hastily gathered you here to discuss a very important issue. Now the followers of Eastern Lightning are stealing sheep from every church, and even Pastor Zhu and Pastor He have been taken away by them. Many pillars in every church who had believed in the Lord over ten years have also become members of Eastern Lightning. The followers of Eastern Lightning preach that the Lord Jesus has come back and started the work of judgment and chastisement by the word, and if people want to be cleansed, they must experience the judgment and chastisement of Almighty God’s word. That’s absolutely impossible! John 16:8 says clearly: ‘And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.’ As long as we accept the Lord Jesus’ judgment and confess and repent to Him, we are not of sin, and when He returns, we will enter the kingdom of heaven. So there’s no need for God to come again to do the work of judgment and chastisement. My co-workers, the Lord is at the door. If we can’t hold to the Lord’s way and can’t protect the Lord’s sheep, what will we use to give an account to the Lord when He returns? At that time, we will be abandoned like the five foolish virgins.” Hearing his words, I felt very frightened, thinking, “How come Eastern Lightning is so powerful? What have they actually preached to make those who believed in the Lord for over ten years accept their way? It seems that we must hurry up to water our brothers and sisters to ensure that the flock are looked after well and none is lost anymore.” Then I rushed about among our brothers and sisters, strengthening them with the words of Pastor Zhang, and I told them not to have any contact with Eastern Lightning followers.
One morning at the end of October, a sister in her fifties, who was a former member of our church, suddenly came to my house. I was so surprised to see her and didn’t know why she visited me that day, for I had once tried to persuade her to stay in our church when she insisted on leaving. As soon as she entered the room, she said with excitement, “Sister, our Lord has come back! This book is the word personally spoken by Him. You’d best read it!” As she said this, she held out a book in her hands to me. When I looked at it, I saw the title of the book—Judgment Begins With the House of God. At once, I flew into a rage and said, “Go, go, go! Take your book away quickly! I’ve already accepted the judgment of the Lord Jesus and He has forgiven all my sins. I can enter the kingdom of heaven directly when the Lord returns. We don’t need the Lord to come again to do the work of judgment. Obviously this is the book of Eastern Lightning. How dare you try to convert me with this book!” As I said these words, I got ever angrier. I thought to myself, “No wonder I couldn’t persuade you to stay in the church then no matter how hard I had tried. It turns out that you have accepted Eastern Lightning. You yourself couldn’t hold to the true way and betrayed the Lord, and now you even try to convert me to it. I have believed in the Lord for many years and have read the Bible over ten times. Do you think I am as undiscerning as you?” Seeing me being rude to her, the sister said kindly with a smile, “Sister, what I said is true. The Lord has really come back …” I cut her off, saying, “I’m busy, and have no time to talk to you. Go and do your own business.” The sister had to leave in embarrassment.
Unexpectedly, the next evening the sister came again. As she walked into the room, she said solicitously, “Sister, yesterday I saw you got a cold, so I came to see you today. Are you feeling better?” I felt a strong antagonism for her, but to save my face, I didn’t show her the door and just gave a snort as a reply. Seeing my coldness, she said softly, “Sister, the Lord Jesus we have waited for day and night has really come back. Listen to His word first, and then you will draw a conclusion whether this news is true or not.” At the mention of the Lord Jesus’ coming, I got annoyed and said, “Stop that! I only accept the Lord’s judgment, and I’m waiting for the Lord to take me!” Yet she was patient and said, “Sister, the Lord Jesus said: ‘… you love one another, as I have loved you’ (John 15:12). We are both the believers in the Lord and the members of one family in the spirit. You have a bad cold; would you mind if I stayed and took care of you tonight?” Her sincerity made me too embarrassed to refuse her offer. That evening she tended on me, fetching me water and medicine, but I just didn’t let her say anything about Eastern Lightning. The next morning before her departure, she said to me, “Sister, you are a true believer in God, so God moved me to tell you the great news of the Lord’s coming. Please listen first!” I refused her flatly, “The Lord certainly won’t abandon me, for He knows I am sincere with Him. Whatever happens, I will hold fast to the Lord’s way. No one can make me leave the Lord.” Just like that, I again rejected God’s salvation for me.
One afternoon a week later, when I came back from the church meeting, I saw a lady about forty standing at the gate of the community. She smiled at me warmly. From her eyes, I felt she was kind and friendly. She walked quickly to me and said with a smile, “Sister, I was here to preach the gospel to you. Our expected Lord Jesus has come back.” Hearing that, I thought, “Preach the gospel? How could there be so many Eastern Lightning followers?” I said with a scowl, “Don’t exert effort on me anymore. I have already received the judgment of the Lord Jesus. So I don’t need God to do the work of judgment and purification on me again. I advise you to stop rushing about and quickly go back to confess and repent to the Lord and ask for His forgiveness. Or else, you’ll become a betrayer of the Lord, and your outcome will be one of punishment and curse from God. Then it will be too late to regret….” I said a lot without a break, and the sister had no time to speak and had to leave. I was so numb that I never realized the sisters who preached the gospel of the kingdom to me were sent by the Lord. Although my heart remained hardened, God didn’t give up saving me.
Soon afterward, Sister Deng, my former co-worker, came to my house unexpectedly. I hadn’t seen her for a long time. After we chatted for a while, she asked about the recent condition of the brothers and sisters in our church. I said, “Now many brothers and sisters who had pursued actively accepted Eastern Lightning, and even Pastor Zhu and Pastor He were converted to it. They said that the Lord Jesus has come back and started the work of judgment and chastisement by the word. How is it possible? The Lord Jesus said, ‘And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment’ (John 16:8). We have been judged by the Lord and He doesn’t see us as sinners. Even though we sin, the Lord will forgive us. How is it possible for God to come again to do the work of judgment with the word?” At my words, Sister Deng smiled and said, “Sister Li, we think that we have been judged by the Lord Jesus and have gained life, and so we don’t need God to come again to do the work of judgment. Then, how do you explain God’s words that He will come to judge all peoples? John 12:47-48 says: ‘And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.’ And Matthew 12:36-37 says: ‘But I say to you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.’ These words of the Lord Jesus make it clear that He came not to judge the world but to save the world. Even though the Lord Jesus spoke some words of judgment at that time, yet because we are of small stature, we only acknowledge that we are sinners and don’t understand the things of human nature at all. Because we don’t know our nature, we can still resist God and rebel against God driven by our nature. So in order to completely resolve the things in our corrupt nature and get purified, we need God to do the work of judgment with the word in the last days. It is just as Almighty God says: ‘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 Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Therefore, in the last days God will come again to do the work of judgment, and this is fully compatible with the Bible.” When I heard this, my heart missed a beat. “I wished to get some help from you, but you have also accepted Eastern Lightning.” Then I thought, “Sister Deng has always pursued diligently and is strong-minded and not a muddled believer at all. Even such a good sheep was stolen by Eastern Lightning followers. Do Almighty God’s words really have such great attraction?” Then, Sister Cui’s words suddenly came to my mind, “Eastern Lightning followers are all glib talkers. Never hear their preaching, and if you do, you will be unable to stand firm, and then your years of belief in God will come to naught….” At this thought, my face immediately darkened. I invented an excuse, saying, “Sister, it’s been so long since we met last time. Let’s go out for a walk.” Sister Deng had to agree, and went with me. I led her directly to the bus stop and forced her to get on the bus, and then I turned toward home. On the way, I kept thinking, “It’s so strange that recently there’s always someone coming to preach Eastern Lightning to me. They are all earnest, and despite my outright rejection, they still come to preach it. Could the one whom Eastern Lightning followers preach be really the returned Lord Jesus?” When I thought of this, I was fearful, “Am I wrong in rejecting it?” When I got home, I immediately knelt down and prayed to the Lord, “O Lord, in recent days, several sisters have come to preach a gospel to me. They said You have come back and started the work of judgment. I don’t dare to accept it for fear of being deceived. Lord, please guide me. If You have really come back, may You prepare for me, allowing me to receive Sister Deng without any hindrance; if not, may You stop her steps.” God heard my prayer …
The next day after I had just finished my breakfast, Sister Deng came again. I felt assured that was the Lord’s preparation. I said to her, “Yesterday, I considered what you had fellowshiped for a long time. I feel it is well-founded, but I still cannot come around. I always believe this: I have already received the judgment of the Lord by confessing all my sins in my life; I have emptied myself before the Lord, and I’m no longer of sin; and when the Lord returns, I can be taken to the kingdom of heaven directly. So I think that there is no need for God to come again to do the work of judgment.”
Hearing that, Sister Deng said with a smile, “Sister, let us read two verses first. The Lord Jesus said: ‘I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come’ (John 16:12-13). ‘For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God’ (1 Peter 4:17). From these two verses, we can see that in the last days, God will come again to express the truth and do the work of judgment. The Lord Jesus only did the redemptive work, that is, redeeming us from sin through the salvation of His crucifixion so that we are qualified to come before Him. Meanwhile, through His teachings, He enables us to gain a little superficial knowledge of ourselves, but that doesn’t involve the change of our life disposition. So, if we want to be cleansed, we must accept the work of judgment and purification by the word of Almighty God—Christ of the last days.” Having said that, she took out from her bag a book entitled Judgment Begins With the House of God. “Let us see what Almighty God says about it,” she said. Then she began to read: “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 his 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. … Therefore, after that stage of work was finished, there still remained the work of judgment and chastisement. This stage is to make man pure by means of the word, and thereby give him a path to follow. … This stage is more meaningful than the previous one, as well as more fruitful, for now it is the word that directly supplies man’s life and enables the disposition of man to be completely renewed; it is a much more thorough stage of work. Therefore, the incarnation in the last days has completed the significance of God’s incarnation and completely finished God’s management plan for man’s salvation” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). After reading these words, Sister Deng fellowshiped, “Almighty God tells us plainly that the Lord Jesus only did the redemptive work in the Age of Grace but didn’t do the work of eradicating the root of man’s sin. The effect that stage of work has achieved on man is nothing but enabling man to receive Jesus’ salvation and confess his sin and repent. But because the root of sin is still within us, unremoved, we can continually sin. For example, in our dealings with others, we can intrigue against each other, struggle for fame and gain, and have jealous disputes with each other; some can pursue evil worldly trends, living in sins; some can blame God and betray God when encountering tribulations and trials; sometimes we can pass judgment on God and disobey God once God’s work is not in line with our notions; and so on. Since we still have so much corruption, how can we enter into the kingdom of God? The Lord Jesus once said, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant stays not in the house for ever: but the Son stays ever’ (John 8:34-35). As God is holy, He won’t permit those who are impure to enter into His kingdom; this is a heavenly law, and no one can break it. This shows us that it is not enough for us to only accept the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus and be forgiven of our sins. We have to accept the work of Almighty God in the last days—the work of judgment and purification by the word, because only those who have been judged and purified personally by Almighty God are qualified to be taken into God’s kingdom.” Then Sister Deng read me another two passages of Almighty God’s words concerning God’s work of judgment in the last days and fellowshiped much with me about them.
After listening, I was excited and said, “Almighty God’s words are very practical. My condition is indeed as His words say. I confess and repent to the Lord every day, but I still commit sins in spite of myself. It turns out that the Lord Jesus only did the redemptive work in the Age of Grace. Though we are forgiven of our sins by believing in the Lord, our sinful nature was not resolved and thus we still often sin and resist God involuntarily. God’s work of judgment and chastisement in the last days is to cleanse us with the truth so that we will be totally set free from the bondage of sin and gain the truth and life. Almighty God’s work of judging and purifying man with the word is really practical. I must investigate it carefully.”
When Sister Deng left, she gave me the book Judgment Begins With the House of God, and I was thrilled to bits with it. During the following few days, I read many pieces of Almighty God’s word: “The Mystery of the Incarnation (4),” “Christ Does the Work of Judgment With the Truth,” “The Age of Kingdom Is the Age of Word,” “How the Effects of the Second Step of the Work of Conquest Are Achieved,” “Concerning Appellations and Identity,” and so on. God’s words resolved my notions completely, and I was fully convinced that the words expressed by Almighty God are exactly the way of God’s judgment in the last days. The more I read them, the more I felt I was too foolish and absurd. I came to realize that facing God’s work of the last days, what I had displayed was all the ugliness of arrogance and conceit. Had it not been for God’s mercy on me, I would not have heard His words of judgment. I confessed to God time and again. And I recalled how God had paid a price for me and how I had resisted His work: In order to bring me before Him, God sent the brothers and sisters to preach the gospel to me time and again. But being stubborn and rebellious, I, living in my notions and imaginations, rejected God’s work of the last days. Especially when I saw the book Judgment Begins With the House of God, I didn’t even allow the sister to speak anything about God’s new work, asserting that I had received the judgment and didn’t need God to come again to do any work of judgment and purification. Then I thought of Pastor Zhang, who had got sore boils all over and died tragically, and Sister Cui, who was in the terminal stage of cancer. And I suddenly realized why they had such tragic outcomes: When God’s salvation of the last days came upon him, Pastor Zhang not only refused to investigate it but sealed off the church, threatening those believers who wanted to investigate the true way and preventing them from returning to Almighty God; when the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God preached Almighty God’s work of the last days to Sister Cui, instead of seeking, she wantonly slandered it and even told her husband and son to drive them off. Their suffering such disasters has revealed God’s righteousness. At that time, I remembered this verse in Revelation: “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4). I felt God was calling me to immediately turn back from the path of resistance to God and keep pace with God’s new work and accept His work of judging and purifying man, so that I wouldn’t end up being punished for resisting God. God’s love for me was inexpressibly great!
At that moment, I was extremely remorseful, tears streaming down my face. I hated myself: I am too blind to know God, and have always been stubborn and opinionated and living in my own notions and imaginations, so that I rejected the brothers and sisters who preached the gospel to me. Also, I have hindered many brothers and sisters from investigating God’s salvation of the last days. I should have been punished by God according to my rebellious deeds. When I thought of that, my heart wrenched, and I prostrated myself before Almighty God and prayed, “O Almighty God, I am too ignorant and have truly wounded Your heart. I hate myself for being too foolish to see Your deeds and thus having resisted You. But You didn’t forsake me and still gave me an opportunity to return to Your family. I don’t know what I can do to repay You; I only hope to go all out to bring those true believers in the Lord before You to receive Your salvation, so as to make up for my transgressions.” The next day, with the book of Almighty God’s word—Judgment Begins With the House of God, I went to the houses of those true believers in the Lord in my former church to preach the gospel to them, sincerely repenting to God and repaying His love through practical actions.