Disasters Are Upon Us—What Is God’s Intention?
In recent times, disasters such as earthquakes, floods, swarms of locusts, fires, epidemics, and famines have continued to spread, and the scope of this spread has grown wider and wider. Of particular note is the novel coronavirus, a pestilence that has now made its way into every country on earth with many people dying as a result. When we see such disasters occurring so frequently, we become consumed with fear and feel at a loss, and all we can do is constantly call on the Lord for protection. Could the reason God allows disasters to happen simply be because He wishes for us to call on Him and ask Him for His protection? Just what is God’s intention? How can we obtain God’s protection when disasters strike? Today, let us discuss and explore this issue together so that we can understand God’s intention and find the path to receiving His protection. In truth, God allows disasters to befall us to serve as reminders and warnings to us. But what is He warning us about? We all know that in this world nowadays, people have become more and more evil and corrupted. All live their lives indulging in gluttony, pleasure-seeking and carnal, sensual desires. People vie with one another in pursuit of profit and are full of lies and violence. They lost their dignity and integrity, their conscience and their sense long ago, and sometimes do not even acknowledge the existence of God, and only a few thirst for the truth and long for the true light to appear. Even those who do believe in the Lord also follow the trends of the world in pursuing money, fame and fortune; they covet the pleasures of the flesh and live in sin, unable to escape. People in this world today are as evil and corrupted as those in Noah’s time. The Lord Jesus once prophesied, “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:37). We know from the words of the Lord Jesus that by the time of the last days when man will have become as corrupted as he was in the time of Noah, the Lord will have already returned. But people have become too corrupted, with no one actively seeking God or His appearance and work, and even when they hear someone testifying to the Lord’s return, they still do not actively seek the truth or look into it further. By allowing these disasters to occur, God is sending us warnings to awaken our apathetic hearts so that we can clearly see that the prophecy of the coming of the Lord has already been fulfilled and that the Lord returned long ago. We should seek the appearance of God without delay. If we cannot welcome the Lord before the great tribulation comes, we will only be swept away by the great tribulation and punished. The Lord Jesus also told us long ago, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6). “[S]eek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7). This means that people will be preaching and testifying when the Lord has returned. Upon hearing the words “the bridegroom comes,” people must actively seek out and investigate the Lord’s return, for only by so doing may they welcome the return of the Lord. As of now, in the whole world, only The Church of Almighty God is testifying that the Lord Jesus has returned. He has expressed the truth and carries out the work of judgment beginning with the house of God, thereby fulfilling the prophecies of the Lord Jesus: “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” (John 16:12–13). “He that rejects Me, and receives not My words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). And 1 Peter 4:17 says, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.” Almighty God carries out the work of judgment and chastisement on the basis of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus. Though we may believe in the Lord and receive forgiveness for our sins, our sinful nature is still inside us. So, what we live out are arrogance and conceit, crookedness and slyness, selfishness and base behavior, evil and greed and other satanic dispositions. We constantly sin, and rebel against and resist God, unable to cast off the bonds of sin. Therefore, when the Lord Jesus returns in the last days, He will still have to carry out the work of judging and purifying man, completely ridding mankind of our sinful nature, saving us from the influence of Satan, saving us from disasters, and bringing us into the kingdom of God. As Almighty God says, “Though Jesus did much work among man, He only completed the redemption of all mankind and became man’s sin offering; He did not rid man of all his corrupt disposition. Fully saving man from the influence of Satan not only required Jesus to become the sin offering and bear the sins of man, but it also required God to do even greater work to rid man completely of his satanically corrupted disposition. And so, now that man has been forgiven of his sins, God has returned to the flesh to lead man into the new age, and begun the work of chastisement and judgment. This work has brought man into a higher realm. All those who submit under His dominion shall enjoy higher truth and receive greater blessings. They shall truly live in the light, and they…