36 I Nearly Became the False Christ’s Funeral Gift
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| The Church of Almighty God pictures |
Zou Honglan
Yantai City, Shandong Province
I was formerly a leader of the “Hua Xuehe sect.” I had held such a belief: The Trinity (that is, the holy father Hua Xuehe, the holy son Guo XX, and the holy spirit Bi XX) are the true God, our belief is different from others’, only the “triune” God we believe in is to fulfill the whole Bible, and all the other denominations and sects will stream to our church in the future. Those who believe in our way all have the “moving” (the twitching of the flesh), which is the foreseeing that money can’t buy. When you need help and pray for this moving, it will answer you. How marvelous!
One spring day in 1999, a brother from the upper level came and told us, “Now there appears another false way called the ‘Eastern Lightning.’ Many people in our church are revealed to be tares overnight and they have all been taken away by its followers. From now on, you mustn’t receive any one without the ‘instruction’ from the above.” He also said, “This way is very powerful. Once you are involved in it, you will never get out. Do be careful! Those who go out from our church are tares and ones rejected by God.” Hearing that, I made a resolution: No matter how powerful the “Eastern Lightning” is, I will take a good care of the brothers and sisters of the church, lest they be captured. Then, I began to take action. I called together all the key members in my church to discuss how to deal with the “Eastern Lightning” followers. As a result of my efforts, all those who came to preach the gospel in our island left in disappointment. I secretly laughed at those sisters who came to preach: Are you people qualified to talk about believing in God with me? You are really overrating yourselves!
In 2000, our leader brought a message to us, saying, “The holy father has ascended to heaven (has died) to prepare the place for us. Seeing that we have not been holy, he has sent the ‘lord second’ to the prison to bear our sins. When the lord second comes out, God’s kingdom will appear.” Hearing that, I felt the day of salvation was close at hand. So I had more faith.
In May, 2001, a sister and I went to have a meeting with the leaders of the upper level, and I didn’t see many familiar faces as usual. The brother said that those people were dragged away by the “Eastern Lightning” followers. And he also told us that it was ordained by God and as long as we endured to the end, we would be saved, and that it was time for the tares to be separated from the wheat and those left would be gathered into the barn and become God’s people. Hearing that, I felt confused, thinking, “God is a God who loves men. He desires all men to be saved and not one to perish. How could so many people go out all at once? And they are all ones faithful to the Lord. Now, the churches are desolate, and people intrigue against each other. The Bible says that where there is division, there is desolation. Is it true that God does not work in the church? And even the leaders above also form cliques and scheme for power and gain.” At that time, I felt disoriented and really didn’t know what to do. I felt terribly bad in my heart.
It blew hard that day, and I couldn’t return to the island. So, after the meeting, I stayed the night at the home of the elder sister of one of my friends. (The sister had accepted the work of Almighty God.) Knowing that I was also a believer in God, the sister began to fellowship with me about the Bible. But I guarded against her, because my leaders above had said that the followers of the “Eastern Lightning” preached to others by fellowshipping about the Bible. So whatever she said, I just kept silence. And I kept my eyes tightly closed and knelt on the floor and prayed, “Triune God, please keep my heart and let the ‘moving’ (the twitching of the flesh) show me a way. Should I stay or leave?” However, it didn’t give me the answer, but my flesh just kept twitching, which made me distracted within. The sister persuaded me and said, “We believers in God are all of one family. What does it matter that we fellowship about our knowledge together?” Hearing that, I prayed more desperately. I beseeched God to seal her mouth and keep her silent and bind her feet and keep her away from me. Fearing to be “deceived,” I took refuge in the washroom and knelt on the floor and prayed, “O Triune God, I’ve been kneeling for long to cry to you. Why does the spirit of ‘moving’ keep moving but not direct me according to what I prayed and show me the way?” At that time, I suddenly remembered a brother in my church. While he was ill on the kang, others all persuaded him to go to hospital, but he said that he had the “moving” on him. He firmly believed that as long as he had the “moving,” he wouldn’t die. But in the end, though he still had the moving on him at the moment he died, he left this world forever. Thinking of that, I was seized with uneasiness. Nevertheless, I still thought, “The ‘triune’ God will keep me, and he will surely lead me out of the darkness. If not, I’m willing to repay him with my death.” The sister stayed with me till late into the night. She said to me with tears, “Sister, you don’t eat, drink, or sleep, ruining your health like this. Do you know how sad God’s heart is? Is Hua Xuehe you believe in God? If he were God, why didn’t he appear to you after you’ve been kneeling for such a long time with such great faith?” “You know nothing about it!” I thought to myself. “If Hua Xuehe were God,” the sister continued, “how could he be married to a created human being and have children? Isn’t it a shame?” These words shocked me. “Yes! How come I’ve never thought about this? Can God be the same as the created men? Is Hue Xuehe really not God?” Then the sister went on, “The Lord Jesus was crucified for men. He offered Himself once and accomplished the redemption forever. Does He need to die the second time? The Lord Jesus resurrected three days after His crucifixion, and He became a glorious body. Why was Hua Xuehe cremated and buried under the ground three days after he died? The Lord Jesus has redeemed all mankind; is there any need for your ‘lord second’ to be imprisoned to atone for your sins? Isn’t it a denial of the salvation of the Lord Jesus?” Unexpectedly, the final line of defense in my heart was broken by the sister’s series of questions. Though I didn’t respond to her, I was in a tumult and felt terrible. The sister’s words reminded me of Hebrews 9:28, which says, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin to salvation.” “This verse clearly tells us that God’s second coming has nothing to do with sin. But the Triune God I believe in says that he comes again to bear man’s sin. What’s all this about? There is no difference between Hua Xuehe’s death and others’ indeed. Am I really obsessed without any discernment? The Bible doesn’t say that there is the ‘lord second’ and that he has to be sent to prison to atone for man’s sin…”
The sister fellowshipped with me many times, and all that she had fellowshipped was good, so I struggled hard in my heart. “If I fellowship with her, what shall I do if it’s a false way? If I don’t fellowship with her, won’t I be forsaken in case it’s the true way? Moreover, over one hundred lives in our church are in my hand. This is by no means an insignificant matter!” After much thought, I decided to ask her to show me the word of Almighty God. “I will make a discernment from it.” I said to the sister, “If it can really convince me, I’ll believe it.” So, the sister took out a book and read these words to me: “If, during the present day, there is to emerge a person who is able to display signs and wonders, and can cast out demons, and heal, and perform many miracles, and if this person claims that they are the coming of Jesus, then this would be the counterfeit of evil spirits, and their imitation of Jesus. Remember this! God does not repeat the same work. Jesus’ stage of work has already been completed, and God will never again undertake that stage of work. The work of God is irreconcilable with the conceptions of man; for example, the Old Testament foretold the coming of a Messiah, but it turned out that Jesus came, so it would be wrong for another Messiah to come again. Jesus has already come once, and it would be wrong if ‘Jesus’ were to come again this time. There is one name for every age, and each name is characterized by the age.” “If in the last days a ‘God’ the same as Jesus appeared, one who healed the sick, cast out demons…, that ‘God,’ though identical to the description of God in the Bible and easy for man to accept, would not, in its essence, be the Spirit of God clothed in flesh, but an evil spirit clothed in flesh. For it is the principle of God’s work never to repeat what He has already completed. And so the work of God’s second incarnation is different from the work of the first.” After I heard this, I remembered it says in Matthew 24:24, “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” “Didn’t Hua Xuehe, whom I believe in today, show great signs and wonders? Could it be that the one I believe in is really a false Christ?”
Then, the sister read to me another two passages of God’s word. God says: “… how could God start a family and raise children on earth? Would this not be a disgrace? He possesses the normal humanity only for the purpose of carrying out work in a normal manner, not to enable Him to start a family as an ordinary man would. His normal sense, normal mind, and the normal feeding and attire of His flesh are sufficient to prove He has a normal humanity; there is no need for Him to start a family to prove that He is furnished of a normal humanity. This is completely unnecessary! God comes to earth, meaning the ‘Word’ becomes flesh; He is simply allowing man to understand His word and to see His word, that is, allowing man to see the work carried out by the flesh. His intention is not for people to treat His flesh in a certain way, but only for man to be obedient to the end, that is, to obey all words that issue forth from His mouth, and to submit to all the work that He does. He is merely working in the flesh, not intentionally asking for man to exalt the greatness and holiness of His flesh. He is simply showing man the wisdom of His work and all the authority He wields.” “Some people say, however, that God incarnate can be said to possess normal humanity only if He has a wife, sons and daughters, a family. Without these things, they say, He is not a normal person. I ask you then, does God have a wife? Is it possible for God to have a husband? Can God have children? Are these not fallacies?” When I heard that, I couldn’t listen anymore, and my tears kept rolling down. God’s words woke me up. “Over these years, the one I have been serving faithfully is actually a man through and through! I treated Hua Xuehe as God but rejected the coming of the true God and I even frenziedly resisted and blasphemed Him. I’m really blind, foolish, and ignorant. For so many years, I have listened to what they told me, and have never doubted about the ‘Triune God.’ And I even have never considered the important fact that they had wives and children. I was really fooled and didn’t have any discernment. If God didn’t save me today, I don’t know how much longer I would be fooled by them.”
In order for me to better understand the “Trinity,” the sister read me another passage of God’s word. God says: “If any among you says that the Trinity indeed exists, then explain what exactly is this one God in three persons? What is the Holy Father? What is the Son? What is the Holy Spirit? Is Jehovah the Holy Father? Is Jesus the Son? Then what of the Holy Spirit? Is not the Father the Spirit? Is not the substance of the Son also the Spirit? Was not the work of Jesus the work of the Holy Spirit? Was not the work of Jehovah at the time carried out by a Spirit the same as Jesus’? How many Spirits can God have? According to your explanation, the three persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one; if so, there are three Spirits, but to have three Spirits means there are three Gods. This means that there is no one true God; how can this kind of God still have the inherent substance of God? If you accept that there is only one God, then how can He have a son and be a father? Are these not all simply your notions? There is only one God, only one person in this God, and only one Spirit of God, much as it is written down in the Bible that ‘There is only one Holy Spirit and only one God.’” Hearing God’s words, I understood that actually men had divided God by studying letters according to their imaginations. Our sect especially went far. They even considered three persons as God. They said that the Old Testament was not complete and the New Testament had flaws and these three persons were to fulfill the whole Bible. Thinking about that, I found that their words were really a pack of lies and extremely absurd. I had never expected that over ten minutes ago, I firmly believed that the “triune” God was true but over ten minutes later I was conquered by God’s word. “O God! Thank You. If it were not for Your word, I don’t know how much longer I would be deceived. If it were not for Your salvation, wouldn’t I have become the funeral gift of the false Christ? O God! I can never repay Your love and Your grace. According to my doings, I should be shred into pieces. But You didn’t abandon me. I will give the rest of my life to You and expend myself for You to console Your heart!”
Since then, God’s word has been more and more clear to me as I read it. It is indeed the word the Holy Spirit says to the churches, and is the work of God Himself. I’m so blessed that I was born in the last days! Never did I dream that the Lord Jesus two thousand years ago has returned to China to do His work and that He has even chosen me and uplifted me! Dear brothers and sisters, did you hear the callings from God? Don’t stick to the old things anymore, much less circumscribe God’s work according to your imaginations, because only the One who can express the truth and supply man’s life is God. May we all humble ourselves and seek God’s footsteps sincerely!
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