The Conversion of a Son of Disobedience |
In
the fall of 1996, I accepted the Lord Jesus in the True Jesus Church.
Later, I became a preacher, responsible for shepherding over thirty
churches in my parish.
At
a co-worker meeting in 1999, Elder Li from Shenyang said to us, “In
recent years, there has arisen a sect called ‘Eastern Lightning.’
They preach that the Lord has been incarnated the second time, even
as a female. They grow so rapidly in number that nothing can stand in
their way. Whoever believes in Jesus is a target hunted by them. They
belong to an underworld organization. In order to convert a believer
in the Lord, they either seduce him with beauty and buy him off with
money or threaten him with violence. If he refuses to obey them, they will break his arms or legs, or cut off his nose or ears.
Many elders, deacons, and believers of our denomination have been taken captive by them. Now they have come to Changtu area, so you must take stringent precautions and keep a good watch over the flock lest any brother or sister be taken captive by them. …” I did not doubt about his words at all. From then on, whichever church I went to, I wantonly spread the elder’s words and even made up the rumor: “This gang of people of ‘Eastern Lightning’ are promiscuous, extremely filthy.” In order to better prevent the brothers and sisters from being converted to “Eastern Lightning,” I personally taught them in detail how to guard against and resist it.
Many elders, deacons, and believers of our denomination have been taken captive by them. Now they have come to Changtu area, so you must take stringent precautions and keep a good watch over the flock lest any brother or sister be taken captive by them. …” I did not doubt about his words at all. From then on, whichever church I went to, I wantonly spread the elder’s words and even made up the rumor: “This gang of people of ‘Eastern Lightning’ are promiscuous, extremely filthy.” In order to better prevent the brothers and sisters from being converted to “Eastern Lightning,” I personally taught them in detail how to guard against and resist it.
One
day, Brother Li, who had been out of touch with me for many years,
came to my home unexpectedly. I little thought that he came to preach
God’s end-time gospel to me. When he showed me a book of God’s word, I blasphemed angrily, saying, “Take it away! It’s the
devil’s word. I won’t read it.” Seeing me so implacable, he
could not but put away the book of God’s word. Before he left, he
advised me very sincerely, “Do not say blasphemous words anymore!”
However, I did not take his advice seriously.
Once,
on the way home from Jilin Province, our elder and I heard that a
sister in Diaobingshan Church who was specially cultivated by us had
accepted “Eastern Lightning.” This news made my blood boil. As
soon as I got home, I went to question that sister, but I only met
her younger sister. I knew she had also accepted Almighty God, so I
took this opportunity to try to “save” her. However, no matter
how I persuaded her, she was not swayed at all; on the contrary, she
asked me in return, “You said that the Lord would come this day or
that day, but in the end it was not fulfilled. Now the Lord has
really come; why don’t you believe it?” I argued irrationally,
“Although what we said has not been fulfilled, the female Christ
you believe in is even more false and is a downright deceiver. …”
I kept on blaspheming and slandering Almighty God in a rude and
arrogant manner, giving her no more chance to speak. She, with an
imploring look, indicated to me anxiously to stop saying such things,
yet I simply paid no attention to it. Instead, I ordered her husband
(a believer in our denomination who had not accepted Almighty God) to
keep a strict watch on her, and frightened him with these words: “If
you do not keep an eye on her, one day she will run away with someone
else and become his wife.” Afterward, I went to the church and gave
the brothers and sisters strict orders that they must make a clean
break with them and never contact them again, so as not to be
“deceived” by them. At the same time, I expelled from our church
a brother whom we suspected of having accepted “Eastern Lightning.”
In those days, I, as if possessed, did my utmost to resist “Eastern
Lightning” and pledged to fight to the death in defending our True
Jesus Church.
In
November 1999, several brothers and sisters in a church in Kaiyuan
area accepted Almighty God. On learning of that, I hurried to
“rescue” them with several teachers. When we arrived there, I
found that all of them were the believers who pursued the Lord very
hard at ordinary times. I felt very puzzled why such good brothers
and sisters could believe in “Eastern Lightning.” In order to win
them back, we racked our brains, spoke many blasphemous words against
Almighty God, and frightened them with such words as “if you
believe in ‘Eastern Lightning,’ your family will be ruined.”
However, none of them returned though we had exercised all our
skills. During this time, a sister asked me a question: “How do you
understand the biblical prophecy concerning Christ’s second coming
in Luke 17:25: ‘But first he must suffer many things and be
rejected by this generation.’?” To tell the truth, I had taught
the Bible for years, but I had never paid attention to this verse.
Nervous but stubborn, I prevaricated and answered irrelevantly, “The
True Jesus Church is the last living Jesus….” Then, she asked me
several more verses concerning the Lord’s second coming. I felt
surprised inwardly, for the questions she raised seemed very simple
but I found it hard to answer them. So, I had no choice but to talk
some rambling stuff to fob her off. I did feel that my answers were
self-contradictory, but I, at my wit’s end, was still unwilling to
seek.
At
the end of 2001, a brother in Shuangjingzi Church phoned and asked me
to hurry to his home and discuss how to deal with the sisters who
would preach Almighty God to him. Hanging up the phone, I took the
material slandering Almighty God and went there in great haste. After
I arrived, we had a thorough discussion and made this decision: We
will listen to their fellowship first, and then try to get something
on them to humiliate them. The next morning, there came three
sisters. Unperturbed, I observed their words and gestures carefully,
intending to see how they would seduce us with their beauty, buy us
off with money, or threaten us with violence. However, all the
morning I neither caught them out in their fellowship nor saw them do
anything like those in the rumors, but I only found them sober and
decent, friendly and polite. That made me very disappointed. After
lunch, in order to find another opportunity to achieve my ulterior
ends, I gave them my address and telephone number, pretending to be
willing to have a fellowship with them again. Two days later, they
came to my home and fellowshipped a lot with me, but I still did not
get anything on them. I only increasingly felt that they were better
than us and superior to us in every respect, totally different from
those in the rumors. Later, they called and invited me over for
another fellowship. Having got nothing on them twice, I lost my
patience. So, I dropped my mask and showed my true colors by refusing
their invitation and speaking many blasphemous words at will. But
after this event, I began to doubt the words such as “Those of
‘Eastern Lightning’ seduce people with beauty and buy them off
with money….” Later, when I heard that there were two teachers in
Xifeng who had been beaten up due to their refusal to accept “Eastern
Lightning,” I really hoped to meet them and find out the truth
about their being beaten up.
In
the spring of 2002, all the teachers in our denomination were to
attend a parish meeting in Shenyang City. At Sujiatun Station, I
happened to meet those two teachers from Xifeng. So, I hastily asked
them, “I heard that you were beaten up and tortured in Qingyuan
County by those who preach ‘Eastern Lightning.’ How did they use
violence on you? And how did they tempt you with money and beauty?”
However, they said nothing about their being beaten up, tortured, or
tempted, but only talked about how those from “Eastern Lightning”
fellowshipped with them and read God’s word to them, how they tried
hard to urge them to stay and advised them to make an investigation,
and so on. Their answer puzzled me greatly. “Where does the word
‘they have been beaten up’ come from?” Then Elder Li, beside
them, said, “In order to win people, those of ‘Lightning’ show
great hospitality to them, buying fruits and cooking good meals for
them.” His remark reminded me of what he had said before, and I
realized his words were inconsistent. So I could not help but raise
more doubts. “The two teachers before my eyes have dealt with those
of ‘Eastern Lightning’ many times and not accepted their way so
far, but not a hair of their heads is injured. Isn’t this rather
inexplicable?” In the face of this fact, I felt the word was too
untrustworthy that “if you refuse to accept ‘Eastern Lightning,’
they will break your legs, or cut off your nose or ears.” Although
I had such knowledge, I, foolish and stiff-necked, still stuck to my
former belief and continued resisting “Eastern Lightning” instead
of seeking it.
Though
we tried every means to resist “Eastern Lightning,” I found that
more and more brothers and sisters left our churches and joined
“Eastern Lightning” and that in Kaiyuan area, there were even
several churches in which all the believers accepted Almighty God.
Then look at the situation of our churches: Less and less people
attended the meetings. As for those who came to the meetings, they
either slept or chatted, or talked about how to resist and guard
against “Eastern Lightning” to kill time, and left as the
meetings broke up. The teachers raised jealousy and strife among
themselves, and some even played mahjong, smoked, or drank. What
puzzled me more was that adultery even occurred in our churches.
Among the brothers and sisters, some suffered relapses and new
illnesses, some met sudden death, and some encountered natural
calamities or man-made misfortunes. Such cases were very common and
nothing new…. Seeing that the churches of “Eastern Lightning”
were on the upgrade and became more and more prosperous, whereas our
churches were on the decline and turned more and more desolate, we
got very worried, not knowing what to do. So, after we teachers and
elders gathered together and discussed how to deal with the situation
of the churches, we decided to take such methods as holding
Pentecostal meetings, praise meetings, and Bible study meetings and
running training courses to strengthen the faith of the believers and
revive the churches, thus resisting “Eastern Lightning.” However,
each time after we held such a meeting, our churches were not
revived, but on the contrary, became even more desolate. For nearly a
year, from January to the late fall of 2003, we co-workers and
teachers had seldom contacted each other, nor had ever a co-worker
meeting been held in our parish. Seeing our extremely desolate
churches and my own weak and feeble state, I really felt that I had
been at the end of my tether. I could not help but lament, “O Lord!
Have I come to a dead end on the path of my belief in you? What
should I do?”
Just
when I was in the depths of despair, God’s salvation came to me
once again.
One
day in September 2003, a co-worker in Guanshan, Changtu County,
called and invited me to his home the next afternoon. And he said
that eight teachers and Elder Li from Shenyang would be there too.
After we met, we started a special discussion on the issues such as
“why the Lord has not come as we preached,” “how we can be
saved,” and so on. It continued until past nine at night, but
nothing came of it. Eventually, Elder Li announced, “From now on,
let’s go our separate ways.” Just then the phone rang. It was
Brother Han from Inner Mongolia. Knowing that we were having a
meeting, he said he would come to see us. The next day, Brother Han
arrived. During our fellowship, he raised many practical questions,
which left us at a loss for words. From Brother Han’s fellowship, I
concluded that he must have accepted “Eastern Lightning.” That
made me unable to calm down, and I thought, “Brother Han is a wise
man with insight and discernment, and he is unlikely to easily change
his belief. If he can accept Almighty God, it shows that ‘Eastern
Lightning’ is really worth investigating.”
That
afternoon, as we left there, Brother Han invited me to his place for
a fellowship when I had time; I readily consented. After I got home,
I told my wife about it, and she was a little worried that I might
run into danger if I went there. Considering again and again the many
practical matters that I had experienced during this period of time,
I thought that this trip would not be dangerous. So, I told my wife
all the things I had heard and seen during this period, such as the
desolation of the churches, the elder having bound the brothers and
sisters with his inconsistent rumors and lies for a long time, the
real living out of humanity of the believers in Almighty God whom I
had contacted, Brother Han having accept “Eastern Lightning.”
Finally, I said, “If we don’t seek or investigate it, it will be
too late for us to regret by the time we find that ‘Eastern
Lightning’ is really the true way.” At my words, my wife was
reassured and agreed to my going to seek and investigate it.
When
I arrived at Brother Han’s place, the brothers and sisters there
received me hospitably. Then we had a fellowship from seven in the
evening to midnight in which Brother Han explained to me in detail
the relations between Jehovah in the Age of the Law, Jesus in the Age
of the Grace, and Almighty God in the Age of the Kingdom, the purpose
and significance of God’s work in different periods, the principle
of God’s working in an ever-new and never-old way and his work’s
changing continuously, and so on. After I heard his fellowship, my
misgivings cleared up. I came to understand the principle of God’s
working and the meaning of “keeping up with the Lamb’s footsteps”
and know that the reason for the desolation of our churches was
because God had already made a new start and done a new work, but we
failed to keep up with the pace of the Holy Spirit’s working and
lost the working of Holy Spirit as a result of sticking to the old
work. In light of my being unable to accept “God’s being
incarnated as a female this time,” the brother read me two passages
of God’s word: “Every
stage of work God does has practical significance. At that time when
Jesus came, he was a male; this time when God comes, he is a female.
From this you can see that God’s creating both man and woman can be
for his work and that with God there is no distinction of gender.
When his Spirit comes, he can put on any flesh as he likes, and this
flesh can represent him. Whether this flesh is male or female, he can
represent God as long as he is God’s incarnated flesh. … God has
been incarnated twice. Needless to say, his incarnation in the end
time is the last one, and he has come to manifest all his deeds. If
in this stage God were not incarnated to personally work for people
to see, then in their notions they would forever believe that God is
only male and not female.” “People always believe that God is
male and that God always loathes women and will not save women. If
that were the case, wouldn’t all women who were created by Jehovah
and who have also been corrupted never have the opportunity to be
saved? Then wouldn’t it have been meaningless for Jehovah to create
the woman, Eve? Wouldn’t women perish eternally?”
Pondering over these words, I deeply felt that the work of God was so
wise. God’s being incarnated as a female this time has not only
corrected people’s erroneous knowledge of God, but removed their
notion that God must be a “male,” so that they have gained a
correct knowledge of God: God is Spirit and with God there is no
gender difference. And they have also understood that every stage of
God’s work has its practical significance, so the created man
should not draw any conclusion about God’s work.
The
next morning, we read and fellowshipped about many pieces of God’s
word such as “The Mystery of Incarnation (1),” “The Mystery of
Incarnation (2),” “The Mystery of Incarnation (3),” “The
Mystery of Incarnation (4),” “How Could Those Who Circumscribe
God Within Their ‘Notions’ Receive God’s ‘Revelation’?”
and so on. From those words of God, I knew many things that I had
never known before, and I had a deeper understanding of the purpose
and significance of God’s incarnation, so that I knew that God is
incarnated to open a new age and end the old age and to bring man the
truth, the way, and the life, and that if God did not do this work,
man would have no bright way to go on. Then, I came to realize my
poverty, pitifulness, blindness, and ignorance. The words of God were
clear and comprehensive, which made me fully certain that Almighty
God was the returned Jesus, the last Christ, the true God. When I
accepted God’s new work with full conviction, the brothers and
sisters gladly offered prayers of praise and thanksgiving to God for
my coming before Almighty God. Their impressive prayers shocked my
heart, and I enjoyed the sweetness I had never tasted in the spirit.
Facing the simple, kind, and upright brothers and sisters, I felt
those slanderous rumors stored up in my heart had already dissolved
and disappeared without a trace. I expressed my heartfelt feelings to
God: “O God! On the path of my belief in you, I have not come to a
dead end, but I am advancing toward a higher and more beautiful
state.”
In
the afternoon, I got home and told my wife excitedly, “Almighty God
is the true God! The returned Jesus!” Then, I called the co-workers
in our churches together and related my personal experiences to them
in detail. They all showed willingness to make an investigation.
After some time, over 50 brothers and sisters in the churches I
directly shepherded all returned before Almighty God. However, when I
preached God’s gospel to the co-workers in other churches, some
jeered and sneered at me, others called the police to arrest me.
After that, they joined hands to close the churches to me, allowing
no believers to receive me. In the past I was a “good brother” in
their hearts, but now I became an “enemy” in their eyes and an
object of their attack. Confronted with the brothers and sisters’
rejection, I remembered my yesterdays, the shameful history of my
resisting and slandering Almighty God, and my evil deeds of echoing
what others said, spreading false information, and fabricating rumors
and lies against God. I felt extremely guilty and ashamed. “I hate
myself for being so disobedient and arrogant. I never investigated or
sought God’s new work with a humble heart but frenziedly condemned
and resisted the incarnated Almighty God, thus committing monstrous
sins. Little did I know that the one I had offended was the ruler of
the heavens and the earth and all things, and that the one I had
offended was God Godself who begot me, nurtured me, and provided me
with everything. Not until today have I seen that I am really worse
than a beast, and that the sins I have committed are too numerous to
record. And I realize that I am a most foolish and ignorant person
and a Pharisee of the new age who has nailed God onto the cross. If
God had not given me another opportunity to be saved, I still could
not know that I had been committing sins, and even less could I stop
my evil deeds of condemning, resisting, and blaspheming Almighty God.
Thank God for his salvation! Thank God for his tolerance and
forgiveness! I am willing to offer up my everything to God and
dedicate my whole being to the spreading of God’s kingdom gospel.”
Brothers
and sisters of all sects and denominations, seek! Investigate! As
long as we have a little desire to seek, Almighty God will open our
spiritual eyes so that we will see the mysteries that we have never
seen and receive the truths that we have never heard. Brothers and
sisters, Almighty God is precisely the Savior Jesus who has returned
in the end time. God has come to the world and done a new work. He
has held a great feast for us and prepared a beautiful heaven and
earth for us. Before the door of his salvation is closed, Almighty
God welcomes your coming all the time!
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