Testify God

The word “Christ” appears in the New Testament, and the men who followed the Lord Jesus called Him Christ. What is the meaning of Christ? Why is the Lord Jesus called Christ?

As Christians, every one of us wants to be blessed by God. Then, how should we act to receive God’s blessings? Perhaps, we can gain inspiration from the deeds of Noah and Abraham.

By Zheng Youming There are many verses in the Bible about God’s names. The names God takes all hold significance. Let’s see God’s names in the Old Testament: Jehovah: Exodus 3:15 states, “And God said moreover to Moses, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial to all generations.” Jealous: Exodus 34:14 states, “For you shall worship no other god: for Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” God used to be called Jehovah. He is our shepherd, and He is Jehovahnissi. What was recorded in the Old Testament was that God used the name Jehovah to do the work of guiding man through the Old Testament era. God’s names in the New Testament: Jesus: Matthew 1:21 states, “And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” Emmanuel: Matthew 1:23 states, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” It was recorded in the New Testament that God’s name was Jesus, and the name of Jehovah was no longer mentioned. At last the name Jesus spread to the ends of the earth. It’s not difficult to see from the Bible that God’s name was Jehovah in the Old Testament, and Jesus in the New Testament. Why does God take on different names? What do these names mean? And what are the significances of them? I was really curious about God’s names, but didn’t know the mysteries contained within all along. 1. What Does the Name Jehovah Mean? One day, by chance I saw some words in a book. It says, “‘Jehovah’ is the name that I took during My work in Israel, and it means the God of the Israelites (God’s chosen people) who can take pity on man, curse man, and guide the life of man; the God who possesses great power and is full of wisdom. …That is to say, only Jehovah is the God of the chosen people of Israel, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Moses, and the God of all the people of Israel. And so, in the current age, all the Israelites, apart from the tribe of Judah, worship Jehovah. They make sacrifices to Him on the altar and serve Him in the temple wearing priests’ robes. What they hope for is the reappearance of Jehovah. …The name Jehovah is a particular name for the people of Israel who lived under the law. In each age and each stage of work, My name is not baseless, but holds representative significance: Each name represents one age. ‘Jehovah’ represents the Age of Law, and is the honorific for the God worshiped by the people of Israel.” This paragraph makes it clear to us that although the Old Testament records many names of God, only the name Jehovah can represent the work of that age. There is only one name for each age. Each name represents one stage of work and one part of God’s disposition. The name Jehovah was God’s name which was personally testified to by God when He called Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, and is also a particular name for God in the Old Testament Age of Law. That is to say, the name Jehovah was taken for God’s work and saving His chosen people. From then on, God began the work of the Age of Law under the name Jehovah, decreeing laws and commandments to lead the newborn mankind to live on earth, requiring man to strictly abide by the laws, learn to worship God and honor God as great. Those who abided by the laws of Jehovah received His blessings and grace while those who violated the laws were stoned to death or burnt by the fire from heaven. Therefore, the Israelites under the law strictly abided by the laws, honored Jehovah’s name as holy, and lived for several thousand years under the leadership of Jehovah, right up until the work of the Age of Law concluded. The name Jehovah represents God’s disposition expressed toward man in that age—majesty, wrath, curse and mercy. The words in this book are wonderful, which solved my years of confusion right away. It turns out that there are so many mysteries about God’s name. God is so wise. Then why did God take the name Jesus in the New Testament? What is the representative significance of the name Jesus? I continued to seek. 2. What Does the Name Jesus Mean? At the mention of Jesus, we know it is God’s name witnessed by the angel personally sent by God. Just as Matthew 1:21 says, “And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:23 says, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Philippians 2:9-11 says, “Why God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” I continued consulting in that book and found it also mentioned the representative significance of the name Jesus, “‘Jesus’ is Emmanuel, and it means the sin offering that is full of love, full of compassion, and redeems man. He did the work of the Age of Grace, and represents the Age…

We always experience repeated spiritual battles and encounter all kinds of Satan’s temptations on the path to the kingdom of heaven. Especially when facing constraints on our belief, how will we be able to stand witness through this spiritual warfare and have a path to follow in the face of these temptations?

By Ming Li There was a time when all I thought about was money. Then, unexpectedly I got into a car accident, and in the midst of my helplessness and suffering, it was the word of God that showed me the reason behind why I had been living for money. At that point, I entered a new chapter in my life. I had no qualifications or skills, but even a little guy can have big dreams. I dreamed of one day becoming rich, of living the high life. I took a job as a foundryman in a factory in an effort to make more money than my peers. Though the money was good, the work was very damaging to my health. Most people can only work in a place like that for 3–5 years because over time people tend to get TB, asthma and other diseases. What’s more, the work was extremely dangerous: My workmates would often get their hands trapped and crushed in the machinery, eventually leaving them permanently disabled. But I put my safety out of mind in order to make more money, taking enormous risks every day to do the dirtiest, most tiring work. I risked my life for six years in that dangerous, punishing environment. My boss ended up forcing me to resign out of fear that I would become ill and he would be held responsible. Afterward, I started doing hard labor on construction sites to make some money. Come rain or shine, I always went to work so that I wouldn’t fall behind the others. Even when I felt exhausted and my back was sore and aching, I didn’t miss a day. As I watched more and more money coming in, I felt all the toil and tiredness were worthwhile. And then, my wife came to believe in God. She saw me always busily rushing around, struggling bitterly to make money, so she encouraged me to share her faith in God. However, I still believed that money was what mattered and that in this money-driven world, without money, nothing could be achieved. My wife saw that money had taken me captive and asked the brothers and sisters to preach me the gospel, but I had no time for that. On the pretext of needing to earn more, time and again I refused God’s salvation. Then all of a sudden, my car accident served as my rude awakening … One day in October 2014 at one o’clock in the afternoon, I noticed it was almost time to go to work, so I hurried to get on my motorbike and drove off. A truck came crashing into me as I was turning at a crossroads—I didn’t have time to dodge it, but just heard a thump. I was thrown five meters along with my motorbike. After falling unconscious for several minutes, I desperately summoned the strength to sit up, but my entire body was so numb that I didn’t even feel any pain. I couldn’t summon a single ounce of strength. I pulled up my trouser leg and saw that the bone of my right calf was broken; the bloody flesh barely held together by the skin. The back of my foot had been twisted around to the front. The people crowded around me were talking all kinds of nonsense. “He’ll be crippled after this….” “I’m afraid he’ll end up in a wheelchair.” Hearing this was as upsetting for me as if I had received a prison sentence. There was a buzzing sound in my head and the tears just came pouring out. I thought: That’s it, my life is really over. I spent half my life struggling to make money only to end up crippled. What use would all the money in the world be? How could I go on living if I was to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair? The more I thought about it the more upset I became, and I was overwhelmed with pain and suffering. It felt as if the sky had come crashing down. Around 20 minutes later and an ambulance came and took me to the county hospital where tests showed that my tibia was badly broken, and my fibulas shattered. I needed an operation as quickly as possible. By that time, my wife had also rushed to the hospital. I was quickly rolled into the operating theater. After the anesthetic from surgery wore off I was in agonizing pain. My wife quietly comforted me, saying: “I will pray for you. When you are suffering, call on Almighty God; God will help ease your pain.” She also had me listen to a hymn of God’s words, “Only God Loves Man Most.” I heard my wife say God would lessen my pain, so I listened to the hymn of God’s words again and again. Incredibly, my heart was suddenly soothed and my physical pain greatly eased. Every time my wounds hurt, I cried out from my heart, “My God! My wounds hurt so much, I can hardly bear it. My God! Save me!” What was amazing was that every time I called out to God, my physical pain greatly decreased and I could feel God helping me. At those moments I felt I had something to lean on. The brothers and sisters found out that I’d been in a car accident and they all hurried over to see me. They were even better than family even though we weren’t related. They warmly asked after my health, encouraged and comforted me, told me to have faith and to pray more. In this money-obsessed world where hearts are cold and compassion is rare, my brothers and sisters still cared for me this way—this love came from God. I was deeply moved. That night there was no one else in the ward, and my wife read me God’s word: “It is not humanity that holds the power of life and death, not some being in the natural world,…

Man understands a little of the work of today and the work of the future, but he does not understand the destination into which mankind will enter. As a creature, man should perform the duty of a creature: Man should follow God in whatever He does; you should proceed in whatever way I tell you to. You have no way of managing things for yourself, and you have no mastery over yourself; all must be left to the mercy of God, and everything is grasped within His hands. If the work of God provided man with an end, a wonderful destination, ahead of time, and if God used this to entice man and cause man to follow Him—if He did a deal with man—then this would not be conquest, nor would it be to work the life of man. Were God to use the end to control man and gain his heart, then in this He would not be perfecting man, nor would He be able to gain man, but instead would be using the destination to control him. Man cares about nothing more than the future end, the final destination, and whether or not there is something good to hope for. If man were given a beautiful hope during the work of conquest, and if, prior to the conquest of man, he were given a proper destination to pursue, then not only would the conquest of man not achieve its effect, but the effect of the work of conquest would also be influenced. That is to say, the work of conquest achieves its effect by taking away the fate and prospects of man and judging and chastising the rebellious disposition of man. It is not achieved by doing a deal with man, that is, by giving man blessings and grace, but by revealing man’s loyalty through stripping him of his “freedom” and eradicating his prospects. This is the substance of the work of conquest. If man were given a beautiful hope at the very beginning, and the work of chastisement and judgment were done after, then man would accept this chastisement and judgment on the basis that he had prospects, and in the end, the unconditional obedience and worship of the Creator by all His creatures would not be achieved; there would only be blind, ignorant obedience, or else man would make blind demands of God, and so it would be impossible to fully conquer man’s heart. Consequently, such work of conquest would be incapable of gaining man, nor, moreover, of bearing testimony to God. Such creatures would be unable to perform their duty, and would only strike bargains with God; this would not be conquest, but mercy and blessing. The biggest problem with man is that he thinks of nothing but his fate and prospects, that he idolizes them. Man pursues God for the sake of his fate and prospects; he does not worship God because of his love for Him. And so, in the conquest of man, man’s selfishness, greed and the things that most obstruct his worship of God must all be eliminated. In doing so, the effects of man’s conquest will be achieved. As a result, in the earliest conquest of man it is necessary to first purge the wild ambitions and most grievous weaknesses of man, and, through this, to reveal man’s love of God, and change his knowledge of human life, his view of God, and the meaning of his existence. In this way, man’s love of God is cleansed, which is to say, man’s heart is conquered. But in His attitude toward all creatures, God does not conquer only for the sake of conquering; instead, He conquers in order to gain man, for the sake of His own glory, and in order to recover the earliest, original likeness of man. Were He to conquer only for the sake of conquering, then the significance of the work of conquest would be lost. That is to say that if, after conquering man, God washed His hands of man, and paid no heed to his life or death, then this would not be the management of mankind, nor would man’s conquest be for the sake of his salvation. Only the gaining of man following his conquest and his ultimate arrival at a wonderful destination is at the heart of all the work of salvation, and only this can achieve the aim of man’s salvation. In other words, only man’s arrival at the beautiful destination and his entry into rest is the prospects that should be possessed by all creatures, and the work that should be done by the Creator. If man were to do this work, then it would be too limited: It could take man to a certain point, but it would not be able to bring man to the eternal destination. Man is not able to decide man’s destiny, nor, moreover, is he able to ensure man’s prospects and future destination. The work done by God, however, is different. Since He created man, He leads him; since He saves man, He will thoroughly save him, and will completely gain him; since He leads man, He will bring him to the proper destination; and since He created and manages man, He must take responsibility for man’s fate and prospects. It is this which is the work done by the Creator. Though the work of conquest is achieved by purging man of his prospects, man must ultimately be brought into the proper destination prepared for him by God. It is precisely because God works man that man has a destination and his fate is assured. Here, the suitable destination referred to is not man’s hopes and prospects purged in times past; the two are different. That which man hopes for and pursues are the yearnings of his pursuit of the extravagant desires of the flesh, rather than the destination due to man. What God has prepared for man, meanwhile, are the blessings and promises…