In 1991, I believed in the Lord Jesus because of my illness. After believing in Jesus, I relied on Him wholeheartedly and committed my illness into His hand. Several months later, I fully recovered from my illness and thus saw the power of the Lord, which increased my true faith in Him. Later, I was selected as a preacher in the church due to my zealous pursuit. I often went to the church to testify God and praise the great power of the Lord, helping brothers and sisters to have true faith in Him. I said to them, “Brothers and sisters, 2 Timothy 3:16 says, ‘All scripture is given by inspiration of God….’ That is to say, all words in the Bible are given by inspiration of God, and the whole Bible is giving testimony for the Lord. All that recorded in the Bible is being fulfilled. So, we should read the Bible a lot. Wherever we go, we should preach the Lord’s gospel in the way of testifying the words in the Bible and testifying the great power of the Lord Jesus, so that people all over the world will come before His throne and gain His salvation.” Seeing the brothers and sisters listen attentively to my preaching about the Bible, I felt greatly gratified.

Just like that, several years passed by. One day, when I read the Bible, I saw such a word of Paul in the Bible, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21) Paul’s word bewildered me, and I thought there might be something wrong with it: Why did Paul say that for to him to live was Christ? Isn’t Christ the Lord Jesus? How could he be on an equal footing with Jesus? Then another thought occurred to me: Since all scripture is inspired by God, isn’t Paul’s word also inspired by God? What is all that about? I thought about it for a long time but failed to figure out the answer. Although I wondered what that was all about, the fact remained that over two thousand years, all those who believed in the Lord read the Bible and took the scriptures as their principles. I felt rather confused about it but dared not make a conclusion groundlessly, so I could only bottle up the puzzle in my heart.

It was not until one day when Sister Chang, one of my close friends, came to my home and fellowshipped about Almighty God’s words with me that my puzzle was thoroughly solved. She read Almighty God’s words for me, “Not everything in the Bible is a record of the words personally spoken by God. The Bible simply documents the previous two stages of God’s work, of which one part is a record of the foretelling of the prophets, and one part is the experiences and knowledge written by people used by God throughout the ages. Human experiences are tainted with human opinions and knowledge, and this is something which is unavoidable. In many of the books of the Bible are human notions, human biases, and humans’ absurd comprehension. Of course, most of the words are the result of the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit, and they are correct understandings—yet it still cannot be said that they are entirely accurate expressions of the truth. Their views on certain things are nothing more than knowledge derived from personal experience, or the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit.” “In fact, apart from the books of prophecy, most of the Old Testament is a historical record. Some of the epistles of the New Testament come from people’s experiences, and some come from the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit; the Pauline epistles, for example, arose from the work of a man, they were all the result of the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment, and they were written for the churches, and were words of exhortation and encouragement for the brothers and sisters of the churches. They were not words spoken by the Holy Spirit—Paul could not speak on behalf of the Holy Spirit, and neither was he a prophet, much less did he see the visions that John beheld. His epistles were written for the churches of Ephesus, Philadelphia, Galatia, and other churches” (The Word Appears in the Flesh). After she read the words of Almighty God, I was a little surprised. Then, Sister Chang fellowshipped with me, “From Almighty God’s words we can see that not all the words in the Bible are the Holy Spirit’s personal utterance. The Bible comprises God’s words, God’s words conveyed by the prophets, and the words of men. Paul’s word doesn’t represent the word of the Holy Spirit. Actually, only a part of the words in the Bible are God’s words: Only the words of Jehovah God, the words of the Lord Jesus, and the words God revealed to the prophets are truly God’s words. Most of the Scriptures are historical records and man’s experiences. And in man’s knowledge and experiences there are mixed with man’s ideas and man’s erroneous understandings, which is inevitable. So not all scripture is inspired by God.”

After Sister Chang’s fellowship, I told her the question that had puzzled me for years, “In the past, when I saw the word of Paul in the Bible ‘For to me to live is Christ,’ I felt doubtful: How could man be Christ? But it is said that ‘All scripture is given by inspiration of God.’ So I felt they were quite contradictory. Now, through your fellowship, I know that not all scripture is the inspiration of God.” Sister Chang said with a smile, “Paul’s word ‘For to me to live is Christ’ is born purely of his own imagination. It has been neither testified by the Holy Spirit nor uttered by the Lord Jesus. Man is man, and God is God. Man can never become God. Only the Lord Jesus can be called Christ, and except for God, no one can be fit to be called Christ. Almighty God says: ‘God become flesh is called Christ, and so the Christ that can give people the truth is called God. There is nothing excessive about this, for He possesses the essence of God, and possesses God’s disposition, and wisdom in His work, that are unattainable by man. Those who call themselves Christ, yet cannot do the work of God, are frauds. Christ is not merely the manifestation of God on earth, but also the particular flesh assumed by God as He carries out and completes His work among man. This flesh cannot be supplanted by just any man, but is a flesh that can adequately bear God’s work on earth, and express the disposition of God, and well represent God, and provide man with life’ (The Word Appears in the Flesh). Only the flesh the Spirit of God is clothed with can be called Christ, because He possesses the substance of God’s Spirit and can express God’s disposition and what God has and is. Paul didn’t have the substance of God, and much less was Christ. He was only an apostle who once resisted God and later was used by God to spread the gospel. Paul’s words were not the truth, and his word ‘For to me, to live is Christ’ was even more a hostility to God. Just as Almighty God says: ‘His identity was merely that of a working apostle, and he was merely an apostle who was sent by God; he was not a prophet, nor a foreteller. To him, his own work and the lives of the brothers and sisters were of the utmost importance. Thus, he could not speak on behalf of the Holy Spirit. His words were not the words of the Holy Spirit, much less could they be said to be the words of God, for Paul was nothing more than a creature of God, and was certainly not the incarnation of God. His identity was not the same as that of Jesus. The words of Jesus were the words of the Holy Spirit, they were the words of God, for His identity was that of Christ—the Son of God. How could Paul be His equal? If people see the epistles or words like Paul’s as the utterances of the Holy Spirit, and worship them as God, then it can only be said that they are too indiscriminating. To speak more harshly, is this not simply blasphemy? How could a man talk on behalf of God? And how could people bow down before the records of his epistles and of the words he spoke as if they were a holy book, or a heavenly book? Could the words of God be casually uttered by a man? How could a man talk on behalf of God? And so, what say you—could the epistles that he wrote for the churches not be tainted with his own ideas? How could they not be tainted with human ideas? … If you say that his epistles are the words of the Holy Spirit, then you are absurd, and you are committing blasphemy! The Pauline epistles and the other epistles of the New Testament are equivalent to the memoirs of the more recent spiritual figures: They are on a par with the books of Watchman Nee or the experiences of Lawrence, and so on. It is simply that the books of recent spiritual figures are not compiled into the New Testament, yet the essence of these people was the same: They were people who were used by the Holy Spirit during a certain period, and they could not directly represent God’ (The Word Appears in the Flesh)”. Through the sister’s fellowship, I was relieved within. In truth, Paul’s word was not given by inspiration of God and Paul couldn’t represent God at all. I was very delighted that Almighty God’s words had solved the question that puzzled me for years. So, I borrowed a book of God’s word from the sister and continued my investigation.

Later I read Almighty God’s words: “Christ of the last days brings life, and brings the enduring and everlasting way of truth. This truth is the path by which man gains life, and it is the only path by which man shall know God and be approved by God. If you do not seek the way of life provided by Christ of the last days, then you shall never gain the approval of Jesus, and shall never be qualified to enter the gate of the kingdom of heaven, for you are both a puppet and prisoner of history. Those who are controlled by regulations, by letters, and shackled by history will never be able to gain life nor gain the perpetual way of life. This is because all they have is turbid water which has been clung to for thousands of years instead of the water of life that flows from the throne. Those who are not supplied with the water of life will forever remain corpses, playthings of Satan, and sons of hell. How, then, can they behold God? If you only try to hold on to the past, only try to keep things as they are by standing still, and do not try to change the status quo and discard history, then will you not always be against God?” (The Word Appears in the Flesh). What Almighty God says is extraordinarily great! Only Christ of the last days can bring man the enduring and everlasting way of truth, which is the only path through which man shall gain life, whereas the Bible, merely a history book and a record of God’s past works, cannot bestow life to man. The accounts of the Bible are limited and can’t speak clearly about God’s work. Only after Almighty God, Christ of the last days, comes and expresses millions of words of truth, can all mysteries be disclosed and all the perplexities of believers be solved. Through reading the words of Almighty God and fellowshipping with the sisters from the Church of Almighty God for a period of time, eventually I was certain that Almighty God is just the return of the Lord Jesus. Besides, I brought the over eighty brothers and sisters in my church before God, and they have accepted God’s new work and enjoyed the supply of life from God’s word.