Readily Believed in Rumors, I Almost Lost God’s Salvation
Seeing Through the Source of Rumors and Satan’s Schemes
At a meeting, Brother Liu communicated a lot on the matter of rumors. He first read a passage of God’s word for me: “Those who truly follow God are able to withstand the test of their work, whereas those who do not truly follow God are incapable of withstanding any of God’s trials. Sooner or later they will be expelled, while the overcomers will remain in the kingdom” (“God’s Work and Man’s Practice”). Then, he said: “Every person who follows God’s work of the last days must go through the rumors. This is a spiritual battle. Those who follow God with a true heart can see things according to God’s words and facts, having discernment of Satan’s rumors and schemes. But those who follow God without a true heart are unable to seek God’s will in various environments. What they can do is blindly believing Satan’s rumors and fallacies. As a result, they fall into Satan’s schemes, and finally are forsaken by God’s realistic work for not knowing the truth.
If we are those who truly follow God, we should have a heart of seeking the truth. First, we shall see through the root of rumors. We all know that lies come from Satan, making us be away from God and betray God. Let’s look back at Adam and Eve, the ancestors of man, in the beginning they lived in Paradise and leading a happy life. Just because they believed Satan’s lies and betrayed God’s will, they were expelled from Paradise. At that time, God gave orders to them: ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die’ (Genesis 2:16–17). God’s words are earnest and sincere, and they showed God’s meaning straightforwardly. God told Adam and Eve what they could eat and what they couldn’t; what would happen if they disobeyed God’s words, and everything was clearly. But Satan told lies to bewitch the people, making man confuse concepts and doubt God’s word. The serpent said to the woman: ‘You shall not surely die: For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil’ (Gen 3:4–5). Satan uses some ambiguous words to sow discord between God and man, and its purpose is to make man believe its fallacies and betray God. Because we mankind don’t know the value of God’s word, nor do we understand what the intention is when God speaks; therefore, when we encounter the temptation of Satan, we can’t distinguish right from wrong, easily being a pawn of Satan’s hand and being used by it, and finally we will pay a heavy price. During the time when God saves man in the last days, if we believe rumors but can’t keep up with God’s new work, then we are going to be the subjects eliminated by God. Won’t you say so?” After hearing Brother Liu’s fellowship, I suddenly understood: It turns out that what I experienced was a spiritual battle. I almost lost God’s salvation for easily believing rumors. At the time, a few of us frequently nodded, saying, “Right! That’s right! We don’t understand the truth, and as a result, we’ve been tricked by Satan unawares. Aren’t we being sold to others but still helping them count their money?” Every one smiled embarrassedly. Brother Liu said with a smile: “Now, we’ve known the source of rumors and realized its damage to us, then can we still easily believe rumors?” We also replied with smiles: “No, we really can’t! No matter what we encounter, we should get to the bottom of exactly what happened. Brother, you use so practical examples to fellowship with us, it is easy to understand. Thanks be to God.”
And then, I asked another question: “Brother Liu, now I know that rumors are schemes of Satan. But there are so many words of slandering and attacking Almighty God, and they said that the Church of Almighty God was an underworld organization. I want to know what it is all about.” The Brother read another passage of God’s word: “The work of every age is begun by God Himself, but you ought to know that whatever the work of God, He does not come to start a movement or to hold special conferences or to establish any sort of organization for you. He comes only to carry out the work that He ought to do. His work is not restricted by any man. He does His work however He wishes; no matter what man thinks or knows, He focuses only on carrying out His work. Since the creation of the world, there have already been three stages of work; from Jehovah to Jesus, and from the Age of Law to the Age of Grace, God has never convened a special conference for man, nor has He ever assembled all mankind together to convene a special global working conference in order to expand on His work. He simply carries out the initial work of an entire age when the time and place are right, and through this ushers in the age to lead mankind in their lives” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (3)”).
Brother Liu said, “This question asked by sister is also a question that many brothers and sisters will encounter after they accept God’s work of the last days. If we want to understand this matter, we should first be able to distinguish what the Church of Almighty God is about and what underground underworld is. In God’s word we can see that God’s work is done by God Himself. From when Jehovah God gave the law to tell man how to live, to when the Lord Jesus ended the Age of Law and began the Age of Grace until the Lord Jesus’ name has been spread to the very ends of the universe, all these works can only be done by God Himself, can’t they? Including today’s Church of Almighty God, they can spread the gospel of the kingdom and God’s word and God’s name to countries all over the world in various rumors and persecutions and tribulations, also can spread God’s word in various methods on the internet, and many brothers and sisters seek and investigate God’s work of the last days after they read God’s words. From these phenomena, we can see the fact: ‘What comes from God shall increase;’ also, the work done by God is not restricted by any man, matter, thing, time, and geographical environment; but instead, God does His work in a very orderly manner according to His own plan, leading us followers of God to walk the way to salvation. In a word, we can see God never establish any sort of organization, He just has His plan. But as for underworld organizations, they are human organizations. Once underworld organizations are mentioned, the people all clearly know that these people commit murder, arson, and loot, that they are capable of doing all sorts of bad things. Who dare to rouse them? Who won’t circumvent the path when seeing them? From the facts that brothers and sisters endure the brutal persecution, we can see who the victims are. If the Church of Almighty God is an underworld organization, would these vulnerable, kind brothers and sisters endure persecution? Nevertheless, from these rumors we can clearly see that they are making wild accusations and playing the trick of a thief crying ‘Stop thief.’ From the facts of their evil deeds, we can see God’s wisdom: God uses these negative things to allow us to distinguish right and wrong. Isn’t that right?” We nodded firmly. Because when I heard the news of underworld organizations, I also worried about my family and children, and didn’t dare to contact brothers and sisters. Now I finally saw that the true intention of Satan’s rumors is to damage our relationship with God, making us away from God and lose God’s salvation of the last days. This is exactly its sinister motives.
In order to help us understand more clearly about this aspect of the truth, the brother read a passage of the fellowship and sermons from the above: “Some people study the work of God, they first look at whether the world welcomes and agrees with the Church of Almighty God, the Eastern Lightning, whether the religious circle welcomes and agrees with it. ‘If the world welcomes it, and especially, if the Chinese Communist Government declares that it is the true way, only then can we believe in it. If all the pastors and elders from the religious circle declare that this is the true way, that this is the return of the Lord Jesus, only then can we accept it.’ There are many confused people like this. … They are very careful in their examination, doing so in two steps: First examine the words of Almighty God, and see if they are the words of God. If they have accepted that these are truly the words of God, then they further examine if the Church of Almighty God is a real church. If the Church of Almighty God should be a criminal organization, while the words of Almighty God are real, doesn’t that still spell trouble for them? Is this possible? If this should be the case, then the Church of Almighty God is not a real church, but a criminal organization. Then who is preaching and bearing witness to God’s words? Who is bearing witness for Almighty God? If things are as they imagined, that the Church of Almighty God that is preaching God’s words and bearing witness for Almighty God is an organization of men, who are not of God, then isn’t the work of Almighty God just a sham? How could God allow people from a criminal organization, an organization of man, to exalt Him and bear witness for Him? Is this not a humiliation of God? Can God humiliate Himself? Some people are unable to see through this matter. They have acknowledged the words of God, yet they are unable to see clearly what type of a church the Church of Almighty God is, and they do not dare to believe in it. People from the Church of Almighty God say: ‘Can we meet and talk with you? Let us fellowship.’ ‘No, I am busy at the moment, I do not have time,’ while they are thinking: ‘I do not want to come into contact with you. What am I going to do if the people from your Church should kidnap me after I come into contact with you?’ These people cannot come close to compare with those saints who have martyred themselves for the Lord through the ages. When the Lord Jesus sent them to preach, it was as if throwing lambs into the midst of wolves, and those people dared to martyr themselves for the Lord. Now these people view the Church of Almighty God as a criminal organization. They have become timid and afraid. Is God disappointed by this? People are of little belief and they listen to the devil Satan, this is a tragedy of man.”
After Brother Liu finished reading, he fellowshiped about his understanding: To make sure whether it is the true way, the most important point is to depend on God’s word. Since it is God’s word, it shall be the truth and shall be able to supply our life and solve our practical problems; and only God can do that. Additionally, the brother shared his experience of how he broke free from rumors after accepting God’s work of the last days. I felt the same way so much. I found that I myself also belong to those who follow the majority. Even though I believed that the words in The Scroll Opened by the Lamb are God’s words, which can supply my life; I also felt that what Brother Liu said was enlightening and was in line with the Lord’s will; while I still wanted to see whether the religious world and the national government support God work of the last days, a and decided whether they follow God or not based on whether the majority accept or acknowledge God. Otherwise, how could I close my heart: I neither read God’s word nor contacted brothers and sisters as soon as I saw rumors on the internet say that the Church of Almighty God is an organization of men and an underworld organization? From this thing, I saw my pitiful situation after being corrupted by Satan: I had lost the ability of discerning good and evil, so I could easily believe rumors and forsake the truth. I also saw that Satan is too evil. It takes advantage of the Internet to fabricate kinds of rumors and lies to deceive us, and it just wants to prevent us from seeking the true way and keeping up with the footsteps of the Lamb, so that we’ll lose God’s salvation of the last days.
Getting Past the Rumors and Joyfully Welcoming the Lord’s Return
With the supply and help of Brother Liu, I crossed over the threshold of rumors and came back to God’s family again, living a church life with brothers and sisters. In the Church of Almighty God, I felt that brothers and sisters are all sincere. In the meeting, we no longer gossiped about things of the flesh, about life and work, instead we communicate God’s word together, solve our practical need, and seek how to practice God’s word. That allows me to taste the feeling of truly worshiping and praising God. Besides, on the website of the Church of Almighty God, there are a lot of gospel movies and songs and some new opus that are often uploaded regularly, which makes me taste the supply of the wellspring of living water of life. Under the water and supply of God’s word, I am certain that Almighty God is the second coming of the Lord Jesus. At the same time, I am grateful to God for His wondrous orchestrations time and again. God has arranged so many people in order to guide me to come before Him. I enjoyed so great grace from God. Therefore, I spread this great good news to my husband and a sister in the church. Through investigating, both of them were convinced and accepted God’s work of the last days, and they were willing to spread gospel to repay God’s love. All the glory be to Almighty God!
Dear brothers and sisters, if you have any understanding or enlightenment from God,
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