Learning How to Discern the True Christ and False Ones, I Have Welcomed the Lord’s Return（Part-2）
On the third day, I went to the auntie’s home again. I asked the brother, “The Bible recorded, ‘Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not’ (Mat 24:23). In the past time, when we had meetings in the church, the pastor and elder said that everyone who preached the coming of God was preaching a false Christ, and they always asked us to cling to the biblical prophecies in case we were deceived by false Christs in the last days. But through your fellowship about God’s three stages of work, I feel enlightened. I also feel that your fellowship has the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. But I don’t understand the truth about how to discern false Christs and what false Christs are. Today, I hope you can fellowship with me about them.”
After hearing what I said, the brother replied with a smile, “God’s words have already revealed the means of false Christs’ and false prophets’ deceiving people. Let’s read God’s words. God says, ‘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 the sick, and perform many miracles, and if this person claims that they are Jesus who has come, 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. … In the conceptions of man, God must always display signs and wonders, must always heal the sick and cast out demons, and must always be just like Jesus, yet this time God is not like that at all. If, during the last days, God still displayed signs and wonders, and still cast out demons and healed the sick — if He did exactly the same as Jesus — then God would be repeating the same work, and the work of Jesus would have no significance or value. Thus, God carries out one stage of work in every age. Once each stage of His work has been completed, it is soon imitated by evil spirits, and after Satan begins to follow on the heels of God, God changes to a different method; once God has completed a stage of His work, it is imitated by evil spirits. You must be clear about these things.’
“‘If a man calls himself God yet is unable to express the being of divinity, do the work of God Himself, or represent God, he is undoubtedly not God, for he has not the essence of God, and that which God can inherently achieve does not exist within him.’
“‘Apart from Christ, those who falsely claim to be Christ do not have His qualities. When juxtaposed against the arrogant and self-exalting disposition of those false Christs, it becomes apparent what manner of flesh is truly Christ. The more false they are, the more such false Christs show off themselves, and the more capable they are of working signs and wonders to deceive man. False Christs do not have the qualities of God; Christ is not tainted by any element belonging to false Christs.’
“God’s words tell us that His work is always new and never old, and that He never does the same work. Just like when the Lord Jesus came to do His work, He didn’t repeat the work in the Age of Law, but performed the next stage of His work of redeeming mankind on the foundation of the work done in the Age of Law. Almighty God of the last days has come to do the work. He also didn’t repeat the Lord Jesus’s work of the redemption of mankind; instead, He ends the Age of Grace and begins the Age of Kingdom. He speaks words to perform the work of purifying, saving and perfecting man, thoroughly resolving man’s sinful nature and corrupt disposition, saving man from the influence of Satan, and making man gained by God in the end. This shows that God never repeats His work, but instead His work is always moving forward and always going higher and deeper at every step. Conversely, the essence of false Christs is evil spirits. They can’t do the work of God, and they can only imitate some simple work that God has done after God’s work. Some false Christs have now emerged in various places in succession, such as Hua Xuehe of the Spirit-Spirit Sect (a poor translation of Ling-ling Jiao), Wu Yangming of the Established King sect, Ji Zhongjie of the Third Redemption sect, and so on. They don’t possess the substance of God, and they are incapable of expressing the truth and doing the work of bestowing life and the truth upon man at all. They can only imitate some simple work that the Lord Jesus has done and perform simple signs to deceive those foolish and ignorant people. However, major signs such as the Lord Jesus resurrecting the dead and feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish could never be done by false Christs. Their deeds are the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Lord Jesus, ‘For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders’ (Mat 24:24).
“In addition, everything that false Christs reveal is their satanic nature of arrogance. They don’t possess any divine substance, but they exalt themselves, show themselves off, even claim themselves to be God and let people treat them as God. They don’t possess any normal sense, and they are precisely evil spirits. God allows false Christs to appear so that we can truly distinguish and forsake them and at the same time, we can have real understanding of God’s work, which is God’s wisdom and wondrous deeds.”
Through the fellowship of the brother, I understood: God’s work is always new and never old, and God will not repeat His work. He did not come to perform signs and wonders this time. False Christs possess no divine substance, so they are incapable of doing the work of God and can only imitate some simple work that God has done. If there is to emerge a person who can heal the sick, cast out demons, and manifest miracles, he must be a false Christ. The brother’s fellowship solved my confusion, so I felt very happy.
Afterward, a sister from The Church of Almighty God came to have a meeting with me. She fellowshiped with me about how to know the substance of God. God’s words say, “To study such a thing is not difficult, but requires each of us to know this truth: He who is God’s incarnation shall hold the substance of God, and He who is God’s incarnation shall hold the expression of God. Since God becomes flesh, He shall bring forth the work He must do, and since God becomes flesh, He shall express what He is, and shall be able to bring the truth to man, bestow life upon man, and show man the way. Flesh that does not contain the substance of God is surely not the incarnate God; of this there is no doubt. To investigate whether it is God’s incarnate flesh, man must determine this from the disposition He expresses and the words He speaks. Which is to say, whether or not it is God’s incarnate flesh, and whether or not it is the true way, must be judged from His substance. And so, in determining [a] whether it is the flesh of God incarnate, the key is to pay attention to His substance (His work, His words, His disposition, and many more), rather than external appearance. If man sees only His external appearance, and overlooks His substance, then that shows the ignorance and naivety of man.” After reading this passage of words, she fellowshiped, “From God’s words, we can see that we should know God from His substance, rather than external appearance; that is, we should know God from His work, His disposition, and His words. God is the truth, the way and the life. Every time God becomes flesh, He does the work of starting a new age, brings forth one stage of the work He must do, and expresses God’s disposition and what He has and is. Just like when the Lord Jesus came to work, He concluded the Age of Law and opened up the Age of Grace, He saved mankind from the cross, He expressed the way of repentance, He taught people to love their enemies, to forgive others, and to be tolerant and patient, and so on. We have felt the Lord Jesus’ compassionate and loving disposition in the Age of Grace. Likewise, in the final age, Almighty God comes to conclude the Age of Grace and initiate the Age of Kingdom. He is carrying out a stage of the work of judgment and purification on the basis of the redemptive work. And He has expressed millions of words, and told us all the truths that we humans need to gain salvation. Through eating and drinking God’s words and experiencing God’s work, we have found the way to be free from sins, no longer suffer the bondage of sin, and have our life dispositions transformed and we have also seen God’s righteous disposition. From the work and word of Almighty God, we can absolutely confirm that Almighty God is God’s incarnate, and that He is God Himself appearing among men in the last days.”
Through fellowshiping about God’s words with the sister in our gathering, I finally understood what false Christs are, confirmed that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus and returned to Almighty God’s family. After accepting Almighty God’s work, I have understood many truths which I didn’t understand in the religious world, and many puzzling problems have been solved. I have enjoyed the pleasure of the Holy Spirit’s work in Almighty God’s family. I thank God for saving me time and time again from my heart. All the glory be to Almighty God!
Footnotes:
a. The original text reads “as for.”
Source from: find the shepherd.
Read more on our Knowing Jesus page.
