The Origin and Development of the Church of Almighty God

3. The Origin and Development of the Church of Almighty God

In the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus promised to His followers, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:3) He also prophesied, “For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:27) In the last days, as promised and foretold by Himself, God has again become flesh and descended to the East of the world—China—to do the work of judgment, chastisement, conquest, and salvation using the word, on the foundation of the redemption work of the Lord Jesus. In this, the prophecies of the Bible that “Judgment begins with the house of God” and “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches!” have also been fulfilled. God’s work of the last days has ended the Age of Grace and ushered in the Age of Kingdom. As the gospel of the kingdom of Almighty God spread rapidly in Mainland China, the Church of Almighty God came into being. As proven by facts, the Church of Almighty God came into being entirely as a result of God’s work of the last days, and was not established by any man. This is because the chosen people in the Church of Almighty God pray in the name of Almighty God, obey His work, and accept all the truths expressed by Him. Thus it is evident that these chosen people believe in Christ who is incarnated in the last days, the practical God who is the Spirit realized in the flesh, instead of believing in a man. Outwardly, Almighty God is nothing more than an ordinary Son of man, but in substance He is the embodiment of God’s Spirit and is the truth, the way, and the life. His work and word are the direct expression of the Spirit of God and are the appearance of God in person. Therefore, He is the practical God who is incarnated.

In 1991, Almighty God, Christ of the last days, began to officially perform His ministry in China. Then, He expressed millions of words and began the work of judgment of the great white throne in the last days. Just as Almighty God says, “The work of judgment is God’s own work, so it must naturally be done by God Himself; it cannot be done by man in His stead. Because judgment is the conquering of man through the truth, it is unquestionable that God still appears as the incarnate image to do this work among men. That is to say, in the last days, Christ shall use the truth to teach men around the earth and to make all truths known to them. This is God’s work of judgment.” (from “Christ Does the Work of Judgment With the Truth” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) “God does the work of the word in the last days, and such words are that of the Holy Spirit, for God is the Holy Spirit and can also become flesh; therefore, the words of the Holy Spirit, as spoken of in the past, are the words of the incarnate God today. … For God to speak utterances to carry out work, He must become flesh, else His work cannot accomplish His goal.” (from “How Can Man Who Has Defined God in His Conceptions Receive the Revelations of God?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) Because of the appearance and utterances of Christ of the last days, ever more people who thirst for and seek the truth have been conquered and purified by the word of Almighty God, and have seen in God’s judgment and chastisement the appearance of God and the return of the Redeemer.

Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh—The Way to Know God

How to Know God’s Disposition and the Result of His Work

First, let’s sing a hymn: The Kingdom Anthem (I) The Kingdom Has Descended on the World

All people are cheering God. All people are praising God. All tongues are calling the one true God. The kingdom has come to the world.

1. All people are cheering God. All people are praising God. All tongues are calling the one true God. All people raise their eyes, watching the deeds of God. The kingdom has come to the world. God’s person is full and rich, God’s person is full and rich. Who doesn’t feel fortunate? (Who doesn’t feel fortunate?) Who wouldn’t dance for this? (Who wouldn’t dance for this?) O Zion! O Zion! Raise your flag of victory, celebrate God! Sing your song of victory, spread God’s holy name!

2. All things on the earth, make haste to cleanse yourselves, to offer sacrifice for God, to offer sacrifice for God! All stars in the sky! Return to where you were, to display God’s might in the universe! Closely God listens to people’s voices on earth; their songs saturated with endless love and respect for God. The day when all things, all things are revived, God Himself comes into the world. Just at this moment, flowers fully bloom, birds start to sing, all things rejoice! Flowers bloom, birds sing, all things rejoice! At the sound of the kingdom’s salute, the kingdom of Satan falls, shaken to pieces by the kingdom anthem, never to arise again!

3. People in the world, who dares to rise up and resist? For God has come upon the earth. Then following that, God has brought burning down, brought His wrath down, brought all disasters down, all disasters down. The kingdom of the world has become that of God! White clouds in the sky roll and billow by. Below the sky, below the sky, water in rivers and lakes toss and surge, playing a stirring, a stirring tune with joy. Nesting animals come out from their caves. All people in their sleep are woken by God. The day that all peoples have been waiting for has come in the end! They offer to God, offer to God the most beautiful songs! The most beautiful songs, offer to God!

Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh—The Way to Know God

Preface

Everyone should examine anew his life of believing in God to see whether, in the pursuit of God, he has truly understood, truly comprehended, and truly come to know God, whether he truly knows what attitude God bears to the various types of human beings, and whether he truly understands what God is working upon him and how God defines his every act. This God, who is by your side, guiding the direction of your progress, ordaining your destiny, and supplying your needs—how much do you, in the final analysis, understand and how much do you really know about Him? Do you know what He works on you every single day? Do you know the principles and purposes on which He bases His every action? Do you know how He guides you? Do you know the means by which He supplies you? Do you know the methods with which He leads you? Do you know what He wishes to obtain from you and what He wishes to achieve in you? Do you know the attitude He takes to the multifarious ways in which you behave? Do you know whether you are a person beloved of Him? Do you know the origin of His joy, anger, sorrow, and delight, the thoughts and ideas behind them, and His essence? Do you know, ultimately, what kind of God is this God that you believe in? Are these and other questions of the sort something that you have never understood or thought about? In pursuing your belief in God, have you, through real appreciation and experience of God’s words, cleared up your misunderstandings about Him? Have you, after receiving God’s discipline and chastening, arrived at genuine submission and caring? Have you, in the midst of God’s chastisement and judgment, come to know the rebelliousness and satanic nature of man and gained a modicum of understanding about God’s holiness? Have you, under the guidance and enlightenment of God’s words, begun to have a new outlook of life? Have you, in the midst of the trial sent by God, felt His intolerance for man’s offenses as well as what He requires of you and how He is saving you? If you do not know what it is to misunderstand God, or how to clear up this misunderstanding, then one can say that you have never entered into true communion with God and have never understood God, or at least one can say you have never wished to understand Him. If you do not know what is God’s discipline and chastening, then you surely do not know what are submission and caring, or at least you have never truly submitted to or cared for God. If you have never experienced God’s chastisement and judgment, then you will surely not know what is His holiness, and you will be even less clear as to what man’s rebellion is. If you have never truly had a correct outlook on life, or a correct aim in life, but are still in a state of perplexity and indecision over your future path in life, even to the point of being hesitant to go forward, then it is certain that you have never truly received God’s enlightenment and guidance, and one can also say that you have never truly been supplied or replenished by God’s words. If you have not yet undergone God’s trial, then it goes without saying that you will certainly not know what is God’s intolerance for man’s offenses, nor would you understand what God ultimately requires of you, and even less what, ultimately, is His work of managing and saving man. No matter how many years a person has believed in God, if he has never experienced or perceived anything in God’s words, then assuredly he is not walking the path toward salvation, his faith in God is assuredly without actual content, his knowledge of God too is assuredly zero, and it goes without saying that he has no idea at all what it is to revere God.