By Jin Yu, South Korea
In 2005, I believed in the Lord Jesus with my husband. We read the Bible, attended meetings and prayed together. Whatever happened to us, we would consult the Lord’s words to solve it and practice according to His teachings. We enjoyed the joy of being with the Lord every day. Besides, our hearts were peaceful and secure, and we lived very happily. We also confidently expected that someday we would be able to welcome the return of the Lord and be taken back to the heavenly home.
Living in Sin, I Felt Confused
But later, lawlessness grew ever more rampant in our church and I was also gradually incapable of holding on the teachings of the Lord. At that time, my sister was often reviled and even hit by her husband after he got drunk. Therefore, I developed a hatred for my brother-in-law and didn’t want to talk to him anymore. I was disgusted at my brother too. This was because he always asked me to help him in life. In the beginning it was okay for me to do that; later on, I found it difficult to help him all the time. Thus, I was angry at my brother’s worthlessness and no longer willing to help him. I knew that hating others and losing my temper were sins, and were at odds with the will of the Lord. However, even if I entreated the Lord and confessed my sins every time, afterward I was still unable to control myself. I used to feel distress because I lived in the vicious cycle of committing and then confessing my sins. For this reason, I also asked pastors how to solve this problem many times. They always said to me, “The Lord Jesus has already forgiven our sins, and He doesn’t see us as sinners anymore. When He returns we will be taken into the kingdom of heaven.” But God’s words say: “Be you holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16). “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). Consequently, I began to worry: The Lord is holy, while I often live in sin and can’t break free of the bonds and control of sin. Going on in this way, can I gain the Lord’s approval? Can I enter the kingdom of heaven when He comes?
In 2015, I came to South Korea with my husband. Besides paying tithes, we dedicated money for thanking and for building every month. Because we donated over one million KRW every month, the pastors, elders and deacons all valued us. They always greeted us with smiles, while they gave the cold shoulder to those believers who donated much less money. Seeing that pastors and elders disdained for the poor and fawned over the rich and couldn’t treat people fairly, and that their actions were the same as the worldly people, I felt fed up with them. I thought they couldn’t keep the Lord’s teachings and lived in sin, so how could they lead us to cast off sins? Can we behold the Lord when He returns? I was extremely disappointed and puzzled. I could do nothing but pray to the Lord and ask Him to have mercy on me and to lead me.
My Husband Brought Bback the Good News
The Lord is faithful. He listened to my prayers. One day in February 2018, after returning home from work, my husband was in high spirits and said to me happily, “The Lord Jesus has come back.” I felt astounded, so I asked him, “Really? How did you know? Where did you hear about this?” He replied, “I have gone to The Church of Almighty God to investigate it. When I first heard the brothers and sisters there say that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus of the last days, and that He was incarnated to express His words and to do the work of judgment beginning with the house of God, my heart was filled with confusion. Then they read a passage of Almighty God’s words to me: ‘Perhaps, having heard the way of truth and read the word of life, you believe that only one in 10,000 of these words are in line with your convictions and the Bible, and then you should continue to seek in that 10,000th of these words. I still advise you to be humble, to not be over-confident, and to not exalt yourself too highly. With your heart holding such meager reverence for God, you will gain greater light. If you carefully examine and repeatedly contemplate these words, you shall understand whether or not they are the truth, and whether or not they are life.’ I came to realize this: When studying the true way, one must first hold a heart of humble seeking. Only in this way can I obtain God’s guidance. Moreover, after returning home, I kept recalling what they fellowshipped. I thought it was all in accordance with the Bible and very reasonable. When I went there to listen to their message a second time, they asked me to see a number of movies produced by The Church of Almighty God. What they fellowshipped in the films were the questions that had puzzled us for a long time, such as what is the root of our keep sinning, what is the way of resolving sins, what path should be followed in man’s belief in God, the difference between following God and following people, etc. All these aspects of the truth are made very clear. Besides, there are various kinds of videos, such as dancing and singing, short sketch, comic crosstalk, and stage performance, and so on. Through these many kinds of artistic performances, they show a variety of testimonies and the knowledge and harvest that they gain from experiencing Almighty God’s work of the last days. …” I was attracted by the words of my husband and thought, “Could it be true that the Lord Jesus has returned?” Next, he showed me the film “Stinging Memories” from The Church of Almighty God. Then I managed to quiet my heart, and saw it while at the same time praying to the Lord.
A Gospel Movie Resolves My Doubts
In the movie, Brother Wang said, “Lord Jesus absolves mankind’s sins, but that doesn’t mean we don’t sin. That doesn’t mean we have been freed from the control of our sins or have been cleansed. Lord Jesus absolves our sins. What does ‘sin’ really refer to in this context? We all know adultery, theft, etc. Anything that violates laws, commandments or God’s words is a sin. Any action that resists, condemns or judges God is also a sin. Any blasphemy against God is a sin, a sin that cannot be absolved! In the Age of Grace, Lord Jesus martyred himself for our sins. Only those that pray to the Lord and repent will not be condemned or sentenced to death. That is to say, God will no longer see them as sinners. People who are absolved of their sins can pray directly to God and share in His grace. That is the true meaning of ‘absolution.’ Although our sins were absolved by Lord Jesus, that doesn’t mean we have stopped sinning and resisting God. Because sinning is in our nature, we are still able to resist and betray God and take Him as our enemy. How can people like that be qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven? It’s just as Almighty God said, ‘A sinner such as you, who has just been redeemed, and has not been changed, or been perfected by God, can you be after God’s heart? For you, you who are still of your old self, it is true that you were saved by Jesus, and that you are not counted as a sinner because of the salvation of God, but this does not prove that you are not sinful, and are not impure. How can you be saintly if you have not been changed? Within, you are beset by impurity, selfish and mean, yet you still wish to descend with Jesus—you should be so lucky! You have missed a step in your belief in God: You have merely been redeemed, but have not been changed. For you to be after God’s heart, God must personally do the work of changing and cleansing you; if you are only redeemed, you will be incapable of attaining sanctity. In this way you will be unqualified to share in the good blessings of God, for you have missed out a step in God’s work of managing man, which is the key step of changing and perfecting. And so you, a sinner who has just been redeemed, are incapable of directly inheriting God’s inheritance’
“Lord Jesus’s work of absolution only absolved our sins; it didn’t resolve our corrupt nature. Our inner arrogance, selfishness, deceitfulness, and other aspects of our satanic nature still remain. This corruption is deeper than sin; it is much more tenacious than sin. It is the source of our resistance of God. If these satanic temperaments are not resolved, people will continue to sin, resist God and judge and condemn Him according to their own conceptions. When they suffer and are persecuted, they can deny God and betray Him as Judas did. When they hold positions of power, they establish independent kingdoms in resistance to God. Some people steal God’s offerings and offend His disposition; they will be condemned and extinguished by God. Now most pastors and leaders in the religious community do not implement the words of Lord Jesus. They interpret the Bible based on their own conceptions. They treat the words of biblical people as if they’re the words of God. They exalt people’s words instead of testifying about Lord Jesus’s words. This makes the faithful revere people and follow people. They have no place for Lord Jesus in their hearts. They become trapped and controlled by their religious leaders’ dominion. This is especially true when Lord Jesus returns to do His works. Those priests and leaders do not pursue or study God’s works. Instead, they condemn His works, judge Him and blaspheme against Him. They spread lies to trick their believers and lock them in the church. They publicly take God as their enemy and offend God’s disposition. This is the most serious resistance of God that there is. This is a sin that cannot be absolved! Their evil behavior in resistance to the Lord Jesus is even more egregious than the Pharisees’ was! Therefore, if people’s nature, their resistance of God, is not resolved, if their satanic corruption is not cleansed, they’ll be capable of any evil behavior in resistance of God. How can these kinds of people enter the kingdom of heaven? Therefore, God expressed many different aspects of the truth in the last days according to his management plan to save mankind and the actual requirements of corrupt humanity.His work fulfilled the prophecy in the Bible, ‘Judgment will start from God’s house,’ and resolved the key problem of mankind’s corrupt and satanic nature. These people are the ones who will gradually free themselves from their satanic nature, stop rebelling against and resisting God, and become able to obey and revere God; they are the ones who will be cleansed and enter the kingdom of heaven.”
After hearing Brother Wang’s fellowship, I understood the root of our sin: Actually, our sins have just been forgiven by the Lord Jesus, but our sinful nature is still deeply rooted within us and hasn’t been cast off. So, we still commit sins and confess them repeatedly, and can’t break free from the bondage of sins. The sinners like us can’t enter the kingdom of heaven.
When continuing to see the film, we heard Brother Zhang read the word of Almighty God, “When God becomes flesh this time, His work is to express His disposition, primarily through chastisement and judgment. Using this as the foundation, He brings more truth to man, shows more ways of practice, and so achieves His objective of conquering man and saving man from his corrupt disposition. This is what lies behind the work of God in the Age of Kingdom.” “By means of this work of judgment and chastisement, man will fully come to know the filthy and corrupt substance within his own self, and he will be able to change completely and become clean. Only in this way can man become worthy to return before the throne of God. All the work done this day is so that man can be made clean and be changed; through judgment and chastisement by the word, as well as through refinement, man can purge away his corruption and be made pure.” Then Brother Zhang said, “From Almighty God’s words, God uses the truths He espouses in the last days to judge and punish our corrupted humanity. Every word of His judgement displays His righteousness and all that He has and is; they are all words that give mankind life. Therefore, they are all the truth. These words of truth are judgments on our corrupt humanity. They punish, condemn, examine and cleanse us. God uses His words of truth to cleanse corrupt humans of their satanic natures. He resolves the problem of their true nature: corruption and resistance to Him. That is how God uses His works of judgment to cleanse, save and perfect humanity. … At the same time, Almighty God vividly exposes mankind’s satanic nature, the true essence of their corruption and the source of their sins. This makes people reflect on themselves and realize that they have satanic natures. They see that they live a completely demonic, satanic lifestyle. This allows them to truly repent and makes them willing to accept Almighty God’s punishment, judgment and trials. They then pursue the truth and a change in disposition based on God’s words of guidance. Gradually, they are able to free themselves from the controls and restrictions of Satan’s corruption. Eventually they are able to betray Satan and return to God. This allows people to resolve their sinning at the root.”
We repeatedly watched this film three times. After that, I thought the truth about which they fellowshipped was very clear and explicit. In addition, I found the way of breaking free of corrupt disposition; that is, I must accept the judgment and chastisement of God’s words. Only in this way can I be free of my corrupt disposition and be purified by God. Only Almighty God’s words can change us; only those who follow His work can be saved and be made perfect by Him. In the past, I was always vexed that I had lived in sin and that I constantly committed sins and then confessed them but couldn’t find the path of getting rid of sins. I wondered: I am incapable of setting myself free from sin, so I will be forsaken and eliminated by the Lord when He returns. Now, after reading the word of Almighty God, I felt that there was hope of ridding myself of sins.
Seeing Through Satan’s Harassment
When I had read and studied the words of Almighty God at home for three days, my husband just believed in God for five days, yet he read God’s words and saw films more than I did. Therefore he was already certain that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus. He got worried about his sister and brother-in-law who were also Christians, wanting them to catch up with God’s new work as soon as possible. So he told the good news of the Lord Jesus’ return to his sister who was in China, and to her husband, who lived in South Korea. Unexpectedly, not only did they not accept that, but they together with their pastors blocked us from examining the true way. During those days, our phones were very busy. The pastors and my sister-in-law gave us calls all the time. They all said I was deceived. This was because I just started believing in God and didn’t read much of God’s word. After hearing their words, my heart began to shake. My husband knew what I thought, so he fellowshipped with me, “These people made phone calls to disturb us. You have to see through Satan’s trickery. Don’t you remember the Lord Jesus said: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me’ (John 14:6)? In believing in God, if we wish to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must follow the words of the Lord Jesus. Only He is the gate of the kingdom of heaven. We ought to pray to God more often and read His words more, and should not follow what others say. Think back to when the Lord Jesus appeared and worked. Having no own views and firm stance, when the Jews saw Him perform miracles, they didn’t seek truth from it, but instead blindly believed the rumors of the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees. Consequently, not only did they lose the Lord Jesus’ salvation, but they resisted Jesus along with them and eventually were punished and cursed by the Lord. We should learn lessons from their failure. Now, I have already been fully convinced that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus. Thence, regardless of what they have said, I won’t waver in my resolve to believe in Almighty God.”
What my husband said awakened me to the reality: Yes, the people who believe in God must submit to His words. I have seen so many words of Almighty God, movies and videos. I have confirmed from my heart that the word of Almighty God is the truth. I must have my own position and opinion, and should not waver easily. In each age, when God appears and works, there are always some antichrists who rise to disrupt, condemn and resist God’s work. The Lord Jesus once said that God would reap and winnow, and separate the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats, and the good servants from the evil ones. If I have no discernment and blindly follow Satan’s evil forces, will I not become the tare revealed by God and be eliminated? With this thought, my wavering heart finally quieted down.
Certain About the True Way, I Feel Joyous
Later, I formally came to The Church of Almighty God for investigation. The brothers and sisters gave us a warm welcome, read the word of Almighty God to us, and let us watch videos and films. I got to understand many truths which I had not understood before, and started to have faith and strength inside. From then on, after coming back home from work, we saw the films and videos of The Church of Almighty God every day, for example, the gospel movie “Who Is He That Has Returned,” religious persecution movies “The Conversation” and “To the Brink and Back,” and so on. Each one of them made me receive great benefits. I was moved by the faith through which brothers and sisters would rather die than quit following God. Have a think: When brothers and sisters suffer the CCP demons’ torture, if it isn’t for the appearance and work of the true God, or God’s guidance and protection, who could bear this up? At the juncture of life and death, they were able to uphold loyalty to God and had such great faith. Weren’t they conquered by the word of Almighty God? Moreover, The Church of Almighty God has been constantly suppressed and oppressed by the CCP government, but God’s kingdom gospel is expanding like a raging fire and has spread throughout the universe. What comes from God must flourish! I was more convinced that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus.
What I didn’t expect was that a sister in our church called us when she knew we had believed in Almighty God. She said that she had watched online the films and various videos of The Church of Almighty God for a long time, and that she dared not tell anyone because she was afraid of interference of pastors and elders. Thank God! It really is the case that God’s sheep hear His voice! Now, she has come to The Church of Almighty God together with us. We attend meetings and read God’s words with the brothers and sisters, and fellowship and share our own experience and knowledge with each other. Our church life is free and liberated! It’s full of life and vitality here and is completely different from the desolation of our previous church. Thank God for His salvation! Under the watering of God’s words, I “grow up” day by day. I have more and more faith in being cleansed and saved.
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