Since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power, it has never ceased in persecuting religious beliefs. The CCP has openly designated Christianity and Catholicism as cults, and the Bible as a cult book.
Some people say: The work of Almighty God in the last days goes against the prophesy in the Revelation 22:18-19: “For I testify to every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add to these things, God shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” They say that this is adding to the book of prophecy in the Bible, and that whoever accepts and follows the work of Almighty God in the last days shall lose their part in the kingdom of heaven. But actually, this word is contrary to the real facts, and it overlooks the context of the Revelation and relies on man’s imagination and notions.
In the Holy Bible, the Book of Revelation comes from John the Apostle after he was banished by the Roman emperor to the island of Patmos. It is an account of all the visions he witnessed while imprisoned. It was sometime shortly after 90 A.D., before the New Testament had been laid out, before the completion of the New and Old Testaments. So, when this book is mentioned in Revelation 22:18-19, it absolutely does not refer to the complete Bible of today, nor is it referring to the Old Testament, rather, it is referring just to the Book of Revelation. In the Scripture it says that “if people do certain things to these prophecies.” And it does not mean to do things to the Bible. These people taking this book as today’s Bible have an issue with acceptance. We ought to pay attention to what has been added to or taken away from the Scripture by man, and this does not include God Himself, because these prophecies deal with the work that God will carry out in the future, they can only be proven to be true when God comes to carry out His work. So, man cannot add to or take away from this as he wishes. We cannot limit God’s work in the last days to the prophesies in Revelation because of these two lines of the Scripture, nor can we delimit God to the point where He is not able to carry out work that is not prophesied in the book of prophecy. Since God is the Creator, He is in charge of all things. He has total authority to carry out His own work outside of what is prophesied. This is something that cannot be blocked by any of His creation and cannot be delimited by anybody. In Deuteronomy 12:32 in the Old Testament it says: “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: you shall not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” When the Lord Jesus was carrying out His work in the Age of Grace, many of the laws and decrees set forth by Jehovah in the Old Testament were added to or diminished. For example, in the Age of Law it demanded of men that they take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but when the Lord Jesus arrived He said that you need not set yourself against evil men, even if someone strikes you on the right side of your face and then you turn and have them strike you on the left side of your face; the law dictated that you must hate your enemy, but the Lord Jesus said to love your enemy, and made people pray to this effect (See Mat 5:38-44). Through these examples we can see that in the eyes of those who abided by these laws, the things that Jesus did and said went beyond the law, He added things that went outside of the law. As a result, the Jews took the laws of Jehovah to condemn the Lord Jesus (See Jhn 19:7). You could say that this was an expression of man’s lack of reason, and man should not take God’s word where He requests man not to add nor diminish and turn this around to restrict God. Man should not use God’s old work that He carried out in the past to delimit His new work being carried out now. God is the Master of all creation. God carries out work according to His own management plan, His own free will. No matter how God carries out His work it is always righteous, because God’s essence is righteous; no matter how God carries out His work it is always the truth, because God’s essence is the truth; no matter how God carries out His work it is always able to bring life to those who believe in Him, because God’s essence is the source of life. God’s work, God’s word absolutely cannot be restricted by people, events, objects, place or time, much less be restricted by the letters of the Scripture. Almighty God says: “The work done by Jesus during the time of the New Testament opened up new work: He did not work according to the work of the Old Testament, nor did He apply the words spoken by Jehovah of the Old Testament. He did His own work, and He did newer work, and work that was higher than the law. Thus, He said: ‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.’ Thus, in accordance with what He accomplished, much doctrine was broken with. He took the disciples to the grain fields to pick and eat the heads of grain, He did not keep the Sabbath, and said ‘the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.’ At the time, according to the rules of the Israelites, whosoever didn’t keep the Sabbath would be stoned to death. Jesus, however, neither entered the temple nor kept the Sabbath, and His work had not been done by Jehovah during the time of the Old Testament. Thus, the work done by Jesus exceeded the law of the Old Testament, it was higher than it, and was not in accordance with it” (“Concerning the Bible (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The word of God enables us to know that in Revelation where it says not to add nor diminish that was God’s requirement to man. Man cannot take this requirement that God has of him and turn it around and put it on God, nor can man use the letters and regulations of the Bible to restrict and limit God or not allow Him to carry out new work or say things that go beyond the Bible. For if this were so, wouldn’t these things turn the world upside down, confusing cause and effect? The Book of Revelation comes from all of the visions witnessed by John after being moved by the Holy Spirit. At that time God had not yet carried out His work of the last days, so all that man had received was just God’s prophecies. But when God appears in the last days to carry out His work, His word becomes fact, and the prophecies also become true. In Revelation 5: 1-5 it says: “And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said to me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” These scriptures tell us that in the right hand of the One sitting on the throne there is a scroll that is sealed with seven seals. The One sitting at the throne is of course God, and the seals illustrate that the information contained in this scroll must be kept secret from man for a period of time, that he cannot know about it, that its mystery must be maintained. So who is able to unfold this scroll and uncover the mystery? “The Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David.” These words make it very easy for us to understand or think about the Lord Jesus. The first time that Jesus became flesh was in the tribe of Juda, and His flesh belonged to the Root of David. But in His thirty-three and a half years on earth, the only disposition that Jesus revealed was that of the lamb. Very rarely did He possess the wrath and majesty of the lion, and it is based on this point that people have difficulty with confirming that this lion is referring to Jesus. But in the following sentence it says He has triumphed, which makes us convinced that this lion is referring to Jesus. Jesus was nailed to the cross for mankind, He surmounted death and defeated Satan, becoming the triumphant King. This line from the Scripture definitively tells us that the Lord Jesus was triumphant, that only He can open the scroll, that only He can break open those seven seals. The Jesus that is being talked about here is the Lord Jesus who returns in the flesh in the last days. The Lord who returns at this time expresses a disposition like that of the lion. He is full of majesty and wrath. He breaks the seals from the scroll in the last days (the scroll of course contains the word of God), and He will speak in His own words to the people, carrying out the work of judgment beginning with the house of God, for He is no longer the Lamb who was nailed to the cross to atone for man’s sins. He is no longer led along and ordered about by man. When this time comes He will make known to all of mankind every secret contained in the scroll, which will allow man to understand the mysteries of the spiritual world, and God’s management plan for mankind, and his own nature and substance, and God’s righteous disposition, the principles of God’s work, and the wisdom and almightiness of God; this will allow man to find the right path to go down, the path that leads to the entrance into the kingdom of heaven, the path that will allow man to separate himself from injustice and gain purification. This is all God’s work in the last days. This is the new work of Almighty God in the last days that we are all experiencing right now. Revelation 10:1-4: “And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was on his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the earth, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.” These lines from the Scripture allow us to know that the voices of the seven thunders were not written by John. In other words, in the Bible there simply is not the voices of the seven thunders. In summary of these two lines from the Scripture, the details of this little book and the voices of the seven thunders are not recorded in the Bible. From this it can be seen that if man were to use the words about adding or diminishing to delimit God’s work, and delimit God to where He couldn’t have new things to say that go beyond the Bible, then how could this little book be opened? How could God carry out judgment in the last days? If God did not open this little book, how could man know the details of this little book? How could he understand all the truths and mysteries? How could man know what the details are of the voices of the seven thunders? And then how could the prophecies in the Bible be proven to be true? From this it’s clear to see that God must have new work to carry out and new words to say in the last days. Only then can all of the prophecies in the Bible be proven to be true. Today, Almighty God has come, expressing the words of life and the truths and mysteries that man has not understood for generations past, thus fulfilling the prophecies in Revelation. These truly are the voices of the seven thunders, and the lamb opening the scroll. This has already become an irrefutable fact! Almighty God says: “Those who obey The truth and submit to the work of God shall come under the name of the second incarnate God—the Almighty. They will be able to accept the personal guidance of God, and shall acquire more and higher truth and receive the real human life. They shall behold the vision that people of the past have never seen: ‘And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the middle of the seven candlesticks one like to the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like to fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shines in his strength’ (Revelation 1:12-16). This vision is the expression of God’s entire disposition, and such an expression of His entire disposition is also the expression of the work of God when He becomes flesh this time. In the torrents of chastisements and judgments, the Son of man expresses His inherent disposition through the speaking of words, allowing all those who accept His chastisement and judgment to see the true face of the Son of man, a face that is a faithful depiction of the face of the Son of man seen by John. (Of course, all this will be invisible to those who do not accept the work of God in the Age of Kingdom)” (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh).
We absolutely cannot continue to go down the old path of the Pharisees as God carries out His work in the last days. We cannot think, because God’s work and word in the last days are not recorded in the Bible, that these are additions. We must know that the work and word of Almighty God in the last days are not additions to the Bible, but rather they are the prophecies of Revelation coming about as predicted. It’s like in the Old Testament when it was prophesied that the Messiah would come. In the minds of the Israelites they all knew He would come to save them, and they also knew that a virgin female was pregnant with a child, and He was named Emanuel, who was to be a sin offering, among other things. However, as for the specifics on how He would come, and when He came how He would be a sin offering, they were not clear about these things. Moreover, these prophecies were just words, they were not facts that had already come about. But when Jesus came to carry out His work, all of the prophecies related to the Messiah that were recorded in the Old Testament were proven to be true, so then can we say that the New Testament (that is, the work of Jesus) is an addition to the prophecies in the Old Testament? Of course it’s not. Although when Jesus was carrying out His new work it did not conform to the Old Testament in the eyes of people of that time, nor did it conform to people’s notions, nor was it the same as the work and word of Jehovah, yet, what Jesus did was not diminishing or adding to the law, rather it was perfecting the law. The work of Jesus was a new stage of work being carried out on the foundation of the work from the Age of Law, it perfected the law, it gave man new things to put into practice, and a new understanding of God. It’s just as the Lord Jesus said: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Mat 5:17). Since the work of Jesus in the New Testament was not recorded in detail in the Old Testament, people thought that the work of Jesus went beyond the law of the Old Testament and added new commandments. However, in the eyes of God, He was just carrying out the work in His plan. The work of Jesus was a new stage of work being carried out on the foundation of the work from the Age of Law, it was an improved form of work, it accomplished the prophecies of the prophet. In the same way, God’s work in the last days shall accomplish the prophecy of the New Testament, it is the third stage of work based on God’s work of redemption. Can we say that this is adding to the Bible? Hasn’t the Bible already told us the answer to this question: “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” (Jhn 16:12-13). This stage of work by God in the last days fulfills the truth of these lines of the Scripture. The word of God in the last days has already revealed to man mysteries that were concealed for generations past, and it has brought us many truths that we had never before had access to. It has given us a path to being cleansed, a path that will allow us to enter into the kingdom. The work of Almighty God in the last days is the newest stage of work based on the two stages of work carried out by Jehovah and Jesus, and it is an improved form of work from the previous two stages.
Almighty God says: “The work done by Jesus was merely a stage higher than the Old Testament; it was used to begin an age, and to lead that age. Why did He say, ‘I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill’? Yet in His work there was much which differed from the laws practiced and the commandments followed by the Israelites of the Old Testament, for He did not come to obey the law, but to fulfill it. The process of fulfilling it included many actual things: His work was more practical and real, and, furthermore, it was alive, and not the blind adherence to doctrine. Did the Israelites not keep the Sabbath? When Jesus came He did not observe the Sabbath, for He said that the Son of man was the Lord of the Sabbath, and when the Lord of the Sabbath arrived, He would do as He wished. He had come to fulfill the laws of the Old Testament and to change the laws. All that is done today is based upon the present, yet it still rests upon the foundation of the work of Jehovah in the Age of Law, and does not transgress this scope. To watch your tongue, and not commit adultery, for example—are these not the laws of the Old Testament? Today, what is required of you is not only limited to the Ten Commandments, but are commandments and laws that are higher than those of before, yet this does not mean that what came before has been abolished, for each stage of God’s work is carried out upon the foundation of the stage that came before. That which Jehovah introduced to Israel, such as giving sacrifice, honoring your father and mother, not worshiping idols, not assaulting others, not cursing others, not committing adultery, not smoking, not drinking, not eating the dead, and not drinking blood, is it not the foundation for your practice even today? It is upon the foundation of the past that the work has been carried out up until today. Though the laws of the past are no longer mentioned, and new requirements have been made of you, these laws have not been abolished, and instead, they have been uplifted. To say that they have been abolished means that the previous age is outdated, yet there are some commandments that you must always honor. The commandments of the past have already been put into practice, have already become the being of man, and there is no need to reiterate commandments to not smoke, not drink, and so on. Upon this foundation, new commandments are laid down according to your needs today, according to your stature, and according to the work of today. Decreeing commandments for the new age does not mean abolishing the commandments of the old age, but lifting them higher upon this foundation, to make the actions of man more complete, and more in line with reality” (“The Vision of God’s Work (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). The word of God allows us to see that God’s work stage by stage really is its own complete entity. Each stage of work is based on the previous stage of work, and each stage is an improved form from the previous stage. We cannot split apart the work of God, to know God we must know God’s three stages of work. If we only know one or two of the three stages of work, then we will not have a comprehensive and complete understanding of God’s work of saving mankind. Only by knowing all three stages of God’s work can we know God’s entire disposition, and His wisdom and wondrousness. As an example, it’s like a person who gets full after eating three bowls of rice. This person couldn’t say they are full just from eating the third bowl. If they did not finish eating the first and second bowl then they would not be filled with the rice from these two bowls, so they could not be filled by the rice from the third bowl. Therefore, we cannot say that the work of Jesus is adding to or diminishing the Old Testament, and in the same way we cannot take the work and word of Almighty God in the last days and say that this is adding to or diminishing the New and Old Testaments. It would be absurd to accept such ideas.
Brothers and sisters, what is recorded in the Bible is just the work that God carried out in the Age of Law and the Age of Grace, as well as prophecies pertaining to God’s work in the last days, but it is not recorded in detail how this work in the last days will be carried out, or how mankind will be saved. So, we must view the Bible properly. When God has not come we must act in accordance with the teachings of the Bible. This is a requirement that God has of us that we must attain. But, when God opens up a new age to carry out new work, then we must carry out our actions in accordance with God’s current requirements, for only by following the footsteps of God will we be able to gain His praise. We cannot use the work that has been carried out by God that is recorded in the Bible to delimit God’s new work, much less say that God’s new work and new words diminishes the Bible, nor can we say that God’s work and word in the last days add things that go beyond the Bible. God was able to go beyond the law of the Old Testament to carry out His work in the time of the New Testament, and in the same way He can also go beyond the Bible to carry out His work in the last days. In the last days, the words expressed by Almighty God guide us to enter into all truths, so we can no longer refuse to accept God’s work and word in the last days with stiff necks. Brothers and sisters, we all must set aside our notions, and seek and study the work and word of God in the last days while keeping reverence for Him in our hearts, for God will enlighten us, allowing us to come to understand all truths. Let us follow the example of the disciples who came before us who followed Jesus, let us walk away from the Bible and follow the work that God is currently carrying out so that we may attain the salvation that we have looked forward to for so long!
Kang Jian, Shenyang, Liaoning Province
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The brief introduction of the Church of Almighty God
