Return to God

By Xiaocao Ever since I was little my mom would take me to church to read the sacred texts and attend Mass. We’d often leave at 3:00 or 4:00 a.m.; the church was really big and was always full, and sometimes there would even be parishioners standing at the entrance listening. After attending one Mass if I heard of another one being held I would really want to go to that one, too. I never failed to pray the Rosary every morning and evening and on the occasions I did forget I’d wake up halfway through the night and pray it before going back to sleep. But after a few years, for some reason Mass attendance had dropped by half or more and while listening to the priests some people would fall asleep or chat with each other. Some went to church to sell cosmetics, while some went to set people up with each other or chat about their home lives. I wondered, why was that happening? Weren’t they going to church to worship God? Plus, the priests didn’t pay any mind to all of that, but just kept on talking about the same old spiritual principles corresponding to the same times of the year. When they started talking we’d know what was coming next—it was all platitudes without any new light or new harvest to reap. Services had become just going through the motions and didn’t seem to help us know God at all. Plus the priests would hold Mass for parishioners who had given offerings of 500 yuan or more and had really good relationships with them, but they’d make all sorts of excuses not to do that for poorer members of the church who gave less. I wondered why the church had become like a marketplace where even the priests were seeking money—they were blinded by greed, disdainful of the poor and solicitous of the rich. Where were they leading us? It felt like there was a big stone blocking my heart and my faith became tepid, just as most other church members. Without any enjoyment in services, I just waited for the Father to say “Go in peace” so I could get home a little early. One time in 2003 when a Mass was about to begin, there was a dispute between two of the priests and that Mass was never held. The church ended up dividing into two factions. When I went somewhere else to attend a large Mass, everyone was talking about the church splitting up. I thought of something the Lord had said: “A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another” (John‎: ‎13:34–35). We were taught by the Lord to get along in harmony and have love for each other, but not only were the priests failing to guide us to carry out the Lord’s words, but they were attacking each other and setting up separate factions. They really didn’t appear to be what a Catholic should be. When some parishioners were discussing whether splitting up the church was in line with God’s will, one of the priests said, “This isn’t a matter for your consideration. There’s just one God and all you have to do is follow Him.” There were even some who shamelessly boasted, “If a Father does something wrong that’s for God to manage. Don’t worry about it.” I thought to myself, isn’t that to prevent us from having our own discernment, but just blindly following along? Some of the younger parishioners with family and secular entanglements would look to the priests for help, but they’d just halfheartedly explain it away, “These are just crosses that we have to bear.” They’d make no effort at pointing out a path of practice. Hearing this left them helpless and they just continued to live in the pain of their worldly entanglements, without a path to take. What the cause of so many problems cropping up in the church? I felt really lost without a direction or target, and I didn’t want to go to church anymore. I sat in my chair thinking back over the last few years of practicing my faith. I would get sleepy when reading the sacred texts and I wasn’t interested in attending Mass. I just observed the four major Catholic holidays, but I no longer enjoyed that feeling of peace and fullness from enjoying the Holy Spirit’s work. I thought of something I had memorized from the Catechisms: “Why are we in this world? We are in this world to worship God and to save our souls.” I couldn’t help but cry out in my heart, “Oh God, where are You, really? How should I follow You? God, where is the path You’re guiding me onto? If this continues on my soul will certainly end up in hell.” But no one could tell me the answer. In that moment, feelings of emptiness, sadness, distress, and helplessness all welled up. I was really suffering and on the verge of tears. One day in October, my mom said to me, “The Lord we’ve been waiting for has already come. I’ve been listening to some sermons these past couple of days—do you want to go too?” I was pleasantly surprised. I had just been hoping for God’s guidance—I hadn’t imagined that the Lord had already returned! That meant there had to be a path to take and all of my problems could be resolved—I knew I had to go listen to that sermon. I happily went along. The next day was rainy and cold; I went to the home of a friend from church with my mom, as planned. When we got to the entrance we saw that there were two sisters who had arrived early. They had come quite a ways, and in their hurry…

By Zhong Qi Early one morning, the birds were chirping outside the widow. As always, I got up and began to practice spiritual devotion. As I read the Lord’s words, “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12: 29-30), I could not help remembering that during meetings, the pastors and elders often told us that God is triune. And they also quoted the Lord Jesus’ words, “” (Matthew 28:19), saying that Jehovah God is the Holy Father, Jesus is the Holy Son, and that there is still the Holy Spirit, and that when the three persons are combined into one, They become the one true God. Then I thought: The Lord Jesus said God is the one and only God. Since there is only one God, how could He have three persons? In the verse, the Lord Jesus only said “… baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; Later, Sister Li came to mind. I thought: She has just come back from attending a training program in another place, and moreover, she has been a preacher for years. Maybe she can solve my puzzle. Thereupon, I went to Sister Li’s house. There, I happened to meet her friend, Zhang Mo, who was also a preacher. Then I told them my confusion about the idea of the Trinity, and they patiently fellowshiped with me. Zhang Mo said to me in a gentle voice: “Sister Zhong, the question you’ve brought up had also puzzled me for many years. It was not until recently that I got the answer from a book. Let’s read some words in this book together, and then you will know the answer to this question. Sister Li, would you like to read?” Sister Li said: “OK. These days I also read some words in this book. I found these words are very practical and full of authority and power, and are all the truth! They have answered this question very clearly. Let me read several passages of the words in this book: ‘Since all people say that God is the only one true God, then there is a single God, divisible at will by none! God is only one Spirit, and only one person; and that is the Spirit of God. If it is as you say, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, then are They not three Gods? The Holy Spirit is one matter, the Son another, and the Father yet another. They are distinct persons of different substances, so how then can They each be part of a single God? The Holy Spirit is a Spirit; this is easy for man to understand. If so, then the Father is even more so a Spirit. He has never descended onto earth and has never become flesh; He is Jehovah God in the heart of man, and He is certainly a Spirit as well. Then what is the relationship between Him and the Holy Spirit? Is it the relationship between Father and Son? Or is it the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of the Father? Is the substance of each Spirit the same? Or is the Holy Spirit an instrument of the Father? How can this be explained? And then what is the relationship between the Son and the Holy Spirit? Is it a relationship between two Spirits or the relationship between a man and a Spirit? These are all matters that can have no explanation! If They are all one Spirit, then there can be no talk of three persons, for They are possessed of a single Spirit. If They were distinct persons, then Their Spirits would vary in strength, and simply They could not be one single Spirit. This concept of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is most absurd!’ ‘What is the Holy Father? What is the Son? What is the Holy Spirit? Is Jehovah the Holy Father? Is Jesus the Son? Then what of the Holy Spirit? Is not the Father a Spirit? Is not the substance of the Son also a Spirit? Was not the work of Jesus the work of the Holy Spirit? Was not the work of Jehovah at the time carried out by a Spirit the same as Jesus’? How many Spirits can God have? According to your explanation, the three persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one; if so, there are three Spirits, but to have three Spirits means there are three Gods. This means that there is no one true God; how can this kind of God still have the inherent substance of God? If you accept that there is only one God, then how can He have a son and be a father? Are these not all simply your notions?’” (“Does the Trinity Exist?”). After Sister Li finished reading these words, Zhang Mo fellowshiped: “These words tell us that the idea of the Trinity of Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, is splitting God, it is a fallacy. There is only one God. And God is only one person, and His substance is the Spirit. So, the idea of the Trinity doesn’t exist at all. In the Age of Law, never did Jehovah God tell the Israelites that God is a Trinity. Also, Moses, the man used by God at that time, and prophets like Isaiah and Daniel, didn’t say that God consists of the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit. In the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus never said God is triune. When the disciples and apostles of the Lord traveled everywhere to preach and work, they didn’t bear witness that God is a Trinity. The…

By Su Xing, Taiwan “You believe in the Lord and yet you lose your temper at the drop of a hat. Why haven’t you changed at all?” This was my husband’s rebuke to me. I used to feel such distress that I was unable to live out the Lord’s teachings, and I often implored the Lord to lead me to cast off the bonds of sin. During my search, I heard the utterances of the second coming of the Lord, and I finally found the path to resolve my anger. I’d like now to tell you all about my experiences. I Live in Sin, Powerless to Free Myself In my daily life, I lived constantly within a cycle of sinning and confessing. For example, one time, because my child was too fond of playing and was too sloppy with his schoolwork, I grew angry and scolded him. My husband couldn’t stand by and watch me scolding him in such a way, so he criticized me for it. I didn’t accept what he said, so we got into an argument. This kind of scene became a regular occurrence, and every time my temper cooled after an outburst, I would feel very distressed and would reproach myself, especially when I thought of the verses: “Be you holy; for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16), and “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). The Lord is holy and yet I always lived in sin. I couldn’t stop myself from losing my temper and I couldn’t get along peacefully with other people, so how could I possibly delight the Lord? In order to bring about some change in myself, I strengthened my spiritual devotions, I read the Bible and prayed more, I attended gatherings with more zeal, and I would actively participate in every church service, but I still couldn’t resolve the issue of my fiery temper, and so I felt lost and disheartened. I often thought: The pastor says that, once we believe in the Lord and we pray and repent, then the Lord forgives our sins and we are made anew. So how come I don’t feel as though I have a new life, but instead just constantly commit sin, my spirit becoming ever darker, and I can’t feel the Lord beside me? And so, I often prayed to the Lord in tears: “O Lord! I can never control my anger and I cannot free myself from the bonds of sin. I ask You, Lord, to guide me to cast off sin.” I Understand the Root Cause of Sin One day in June, I met Sister Weiwei and Brother Kevin. They were both pious Christians, and we often gathered together to fellowship on the Bible. Their fellowships were filled with light and I found them to be highly beneficial. I also told them of my pain at living in sin and being powerless to free myself from it. One time, Brother Kevin said cheerfully to me, “The Lord Jesus whom we have yearned for has returned, and on the foundation of His work in the Age of Grace, He is performing the work of judgment through words. Only by keeping up with God’s new work can we obtain the supply of the water of life.” When I heard that the Lord had returned, I felt both happy and excited. I tripped over myself to ask the brother: “You said the Lord has returned—can it be true?” Brother Kevin said, “It is indeed true. He has returned in the last days to save us utterly from sin and to enable us to be free of this painful life of sinning and confessing. It fulfills precisely this biblical prophecy: “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin to salvation” (Hebrews 9:28). As we all know, the first incarnation of God performed the work of redeeming mankind and our sins were forgiven by the Lord. What is undeniable, however, is that we still continually commit sin and that we know perfectly well what the Lord requires of us, and yet we are very rarely able to put it into practice, and we live bound by sin. And what exactly is the reason for this?” I had always been confused about this and was never able to work it out. I really wanted to understand, and so I listened in earnest as Brother Kevin went on with his fellowship. Then the brother sent me two passages of God’s words, “At the time Jesus’ work was the redemption of all mankind. The sins of all who believed in Him were forgiven; as long as you believed in Him, He would redeem you; if you believed in Him, you were no longer a sinner, you were relieved of your sins. This is what it meant to be saved, and to be justified by faith. Yet in those who believed, there remained that which was rebellious and opposed God, and which still had to be slowly removed. Salvation did not mean man had been completely gained by Jesus, but that man was no longer of sin, that he had been forgiven his sins: Provided you believed, you would never more be of sin.” “For all that man may have been redeemed and forgiven of his sins, it can only be considered as God not remembering the transgressions of man and not treating man in accordance with his transgressions. However, when man, who lives in a body of flesh, has not been set free from sin, he can only continue to sin, endlessly revealing his corrupt satanic disposition. This is the life that man leads, an endless cycle of sinning and being forgiven. The majority of men sin in the day only to confess in the evening. This way, even if the sin offering is forever effective for man, it will…

By Dandan, United States The Trinity Becomes a Personal Mystery In May 2018, encouraged by a friend, I encountered the Christian faith for the first time. By reading the Bible I learned that heaven, earth, and all things were all created by God with His words, and we humans were personally created by God from dust. We didn’t evolve from primates at all. That we can go on living is entirely from the sustenance of God’s own breath. I was shocked, and my heart became full of reverence and gratitude to God. From then on I read the Bible every single day and attended gatherings enthusiastically, but there was quite a bit of the Scripture that I still couldn’t understand, particularly the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of the one and only God that the pastor spoke of. This was really confusing for me. Since the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are just one God, why would we say that there’s both a Father and a Son? I really wanted to figure this out, so I plucked up the courage to go ask the pastor. The pastor said, “The Father is Jehovah God. He’s mighty and very authoritative. The Son is the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is a spiritual body. They are three different persons and together they are called the Trinity of the one true God.” I still felt a bit bewildered after hearing the pastor’s explanation, but I knew that there is definitely just one God. Later on I switched to a new job, which was too far from the church, so I couldn’t attend services anymore. I never asked the pastor about that again, but the God Who is a Trinity, and the relationship between the Father and the Son, remained a mystery for me. Attending Online Gatherings and Exploring the Mystery of the Trinity I started feeling anxious because I couldn’t always attend services on the Lord’s day, so a sister from my old church recommended a small group online gathering to me. I was so happy. Even though Sister Keke who led the group was pretty young, her fellowship on the Bible was really full of light. After we had met a few times I understood God’s will in creating mankind, the parable of the ten virgins and differences between faithful and evil servants, as well as the root cause of the Pharisees’ failure in their faith. Plus, Sister Keke had really clear explanations for every question I asked, and I always gained something, so I asked her about this confusion that was within my heart. I said, “Sister, there’s a question that has been confounding me for quite some time. The pastor said that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the God of the Trinity. But I don’t understand, since there’s just one God, how could there be a Father and a Son? Could you explain this to me?” Sister Keke replied, “Thanks be to God! Sister, you’ve asked a great question. To understand the God of the Trinity, you must first know the root of this expression. In the Council of Nicaea in AD 300s, religious leaders from a number of countries began debating over God’s unicity and multiplicity. They finally proposed that God is a Trinity—this was based on human notions, imaginings and logic. From then on people have believed that God is made up of three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But in fact, the idea of the Trinity doesn’t appear in the Bible. God never mentioned it, nor did the prophets or disciples, and the Holy Spirit particularly hasn’t borne witness to it. So we can be certain that the idea of the Trinity is man-made, and it’s something that people have dreamed up from their own heads, something they thought of with their own logic. It’s not in line with the truth. The reality is that there’s just one God—the Creator, the one and only true God—who created heaven, earth, and all things. There are no separate persons of God. Genesis 1:2 tells us that in the beginning, God’s Spirit was hovering over the waters. We can see that God was originally a Spirit and He was also called the Holy Spirit, the Spirit, and the sevenfold Spirit, without shape or form yet encompassing all things, full of the universe and the world. In heaven, God is a Spirit without shape or form, but He can also become flesh to become the Son of man with shape and form, to live among us. God’s Spirit is everywhere and there is nothing He cannot do. There’s a passage of words that explains this very clearly. I’ll send it to you—please read it for us!” I read, “There is only one God, only one person in this God, and only one Spirit of God, much as it is written down in the Bible that ‘There is only one Holy Spirit and only one God.’ Regardless of whether the Father and the Son of which you speak exist, there is only one God after all, and the substance of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit you believe in is the substance of the Holy Spirit. In other words, God is a Spirit, but He is able to become flesh and live among men, as well as to be above all things. His Spirit is all-inclusive and omnipresent. He can simultaneously be in the flesh and throughout the universe. Since all people say that God is the only one true God, then there is a single God, divisible at will by none! God is only one Spirit, and only one person; and that is the Spirit of God” (“Does the Trinity Exist?”). After reading that, I thought, “So it turns out that the idea of the God of the Trinity didn’t come from God. God is a Spirit and is only one person! So then why did the…

Although our sins have been forgiven through our faith in the Lord, in real life we often commit sins and resist the Lord. How can we resolve our problem of committing sins?

“Money isn’t everything, but without it, you can do nothing.” Many people approve of this view, thinking that in today’s society, you need money to make others look up to you, and that without money, you are a second-class citizen. Once, I used to believe this as well, and I strove to earn money, but it only brought me endless bitterness and torment …

By Piao Zhenhui, South Korea Confusion: Seeking the Footsteps of the Lord In 2008, I received the Lord’s gospel spread by Aunt Hao. After that, I often went to church with her. From the Bible, I learned that it was God who created the heavens and the earth and all things, and human beings as well, and that after mankind became corrupt, the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross as a sin offering to redeem mankind. I was deeply moved by the great love of the Lord, so I pursued enthusiastically in accordance with God’s words, being honest, tolerant, and magnanimous. I had also been very keen on participating in all kinds of church activities. At that time, I had a strong faith in the Lord: Wherever I went, I would first find a church to worship the Lord; and whatever I did, I would always take the Lord Jesus as my reliance. I had also been expecting the day that I could welcome the return of the Lord. But a few years later, I found that whichever church I went to, the priests’ sermons there were old and boring, having no new light. In addition, my church friends paid little attention to practicing the Lord’s words. They even had no heart of reverence for the Lord when gathering. Some of them came to find a partner, and some to sell things; they were always competing over status and wealth, and their words and behaviors didn’t befit saintly propriety at all. The priest, however, turned a blind eye to such matters and even gave them free reign. What made me even more pained was that I was increasingly unable to keep the commandments of the Lord. When praying, I couldn’t feel the Lord’s presence, and I was continuously committing and confessing sins every day. Every time after I confessed to the priest, he would tell me to recite the rosary, saying that in this way my sins would be spared by the Lord. But after I did that, I still couldn’t rid myself of the bondage of sins. So I couldn’t help but feel a little worried: I always commit and confess sins; will the Lord Jesus forgive such a sinner like me? Could I still have a chance to welcome the return of the Lord? In 2013, I came to South Korea. In hope of finding my original heart of loving the Lord, I visited several churches here, and wanted to know how the faith of the believers in South Korea was and whether their churches were more thriving than those in China. However, every time I went to a church with joy, I came back with disappointment. I found the priests and believers here behaved the same way as those in China did; they all lived in sins and couldn’t keep the teachings of the Lord. I felt so depressed and gradually was unwilling to go to church. However, whenever I saw disasters occurring one after another all over the world from the news report, I would think: “The prophecies of the return of the Lord have basically come true, and the Lord might have come back already, but where is He?” I constantly prayed to the Lord in my heart: “Oh, Lord, where are You? How can I find You?” Discussion: The Reasons for the Desolation of the Church I will never forget one day in March of 2018. That day, when visiting one of my workmates, I got acquainted with her younger brother, Brother Zhang. He is also a believer of the Lord, and we were actually baptized in the same church. This made me feel a sort of closeness to him. In our conversation, when we talked about the widespread desolation of the church at present, Brother Zhang said, “The reason why the church is desolate nowadays, on the one hand, is that the priests and bishops no longer obey the way of the Lord and practice His words, or lead the believers to keep the commandments of the Lord; instead, they always exalt themselves and bear witness to themselves, and make people keep the instructions and rules summarized by them. The church was originally a place where people worshiped God, but because people don’t possess a heart of reverence and don’t respect God above all others, the church has become a religious venue, losing the work of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, it is because God has begun a new work and the work of the Holy Spirit has turned to it. Just as when the Lord Jesus launched the work of redemption in the Age of Grace, the temple was no longer upheld by the Holy Spirit, so it became a place for doing business. Those who accepted and followed the Lord Jesus all kept pace with the footsteps of the Lamb, obtained the work of the Holy Spirit and enjoyed the watering and supply of the wellspring of living water of God. And those who failed to follow the work of the Lord Jesus, however, lost the work of the Holy Spirit and fell into darkness and desolation. From these facts we can see that when the church gets desolate, we should seek God’s will and consider whether God has launched a new work in other places, and whether we should get out of the church and seek the work of the Holy Spirit. Just as Amos 4:7-8 in the Old Testament says: ‘I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up. People staggered from town to town for water. but did not get enough to drink.’ From the scripture we can see: When our church has no ‘rain,’ that is, has no work of the Holy Spirit, there is a church out there with ‘rain.’ Therefore, on the matter of the…

By Ouyang, United States Afraid of Being Deceived by False Christs I migrated to the United States in 2010. Because my job was keeping me busy and the place where I stayed had no Chinese churches, I didn’t attend any meetings. I only read the Bible at home or listened to some sermons downloaded online. There was one time when I was reading the Bible, I saw the Lord Jesus said, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:4-5). The Lord reminded us that when He returns, there will be false Christs and prophets deceiving men. At this moment, I thought about how I myself had been drifting through the world, had not been to any meetings or gone to church to listen to any sermons. I was very worried that I would be deceived by false Christs because I didn’t know how false Christs deceive people and I lacked discernment. When I saw the video End Time Events talking about how disasters were getting greater and greater and that the Lord Jesus would return at any time, I was especially more worried. I could only often pray to the Lord asking Him to protect me so I wouldn’t be deceived by false Christs. A Chance Encounter With an Evangelist On Thanksgiving Day 2017, I met Sister Yang on Facebook, and I got to know Sister Li from her. The three of us would have meetings together whenever we were free. Sister Li’s fellowshiping was fresh and had new light, which I had never heard before, such as fellowships on the origins of the Bible, the mystery of God’s incarnation, the difference between being saved and attaining salvation, the difference between God’s work and man’s work, and so on. Sister Li also often sent us words from spiritual books that were very beneficial. Seeing that Sister Li knew so many truths, I told her my concern. I said, “Sister Li, I have a question. The Lord Jesus said that there will be false Christs in the last days. I have small stature, I’m very worried that I will be deceived by them because I have no discernment. Could you please fellowship with me on how to distinguish between the true Christ and the false ones?” Sister Yang also said, “It is very important to understand this aspect of truth. If we do not have discernment and condemn the work of Christ as the work of a false Christ deceiving people, won’t we be the ones that blaspheme the Holy Spirit and resist Christ? The consequence would be very serious!” How to Distinguish the True Christ From the False Ones Sister Li agreed happily and fellowshiped with us, “In actuality, the vital point to discern false Christs is to have a knowledge of the substance of Christ. Once we have it, it is not difficult for us to discern the deception of false Christs. We all know that Christ is the embodiment of God’s Spirit and possesses a divine essence, so Christ can do the work of God Himself, and He is able to express truth to save man, to bestow life upon man and show man the way to practice. Just as the Lord Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life’ (John 14:6). I’ll send a passage of words to the group so that you can understand this aspect of truth better.” I read it carefully, “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 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.” Sister Li fellowshiped with us, “To determine whether He is the incarnate God, we cannot look at His external appearance, but should look at whether or not He can express the truth and do the work of God Himself. Christ can express the truth to supply man and save man, and the work Christ does cannot be done by anyone. Just like the Lord Jesus Christ, who brought the work of the Age of Grace based on that of the Age of Law. He healed the sick and cast out demons, made the lame walk and resurrected the dead. Besides, according to the needs of people at that time, He gave many preachings to make man confess and repent their sins, and taught man to love their enemies, forgive others seventy times seven, love one another and so on, which brought people the way to practice. From the work of the Lord Jesus, we can see that He possesses the authority and power of God, and that the work He does and the truth He expresses cannot be achieved by man. While most false Christs are possessed by evil spirits. They are extremely arrogant and absurd, and in substance they are demons and evil spirits. They…

There Was Such Enthusiasm in the Church in the Old Days Our family has been Catholic for generations and I was baptized when I was only a few months old. I remember always being woken with a start to the blaring sound of an alarm, and then having my parents drag me out of bed to hurriedly wash and dress before rushing off to our church to attend mass at night. My parents said that people who believed in the Lord in China were persecuted, and that priests and believers were often arrested and taken into custody, and so it was only safe for us to attend mass at nighttime. Although it was so dangerous, our brethren in the church were still very enthusiastic and devoted. No matter the weather, wherever a mass was being held, they would pass on the details one to another and they would fall over each other to bring the elderly and the young to attend. Everyone would sing hymns, as excited as if it were New Year, and many believers remained in high spirits despite staying up all night … Now the Church Has Become a Desolation In the blink of an eye, I was all grown up, but the church also underwent a great change. People attending mass got fewer and fewer, and most of those who did attend were elderly men and women; very rarely were young faces seen at mass. When the church held the occasional event, mass became lively and bustling, but it was as chaotic as an outdoor food market—there were people engaged in pyramid selling, direct selling, people selling insurance, people who were opening supermarkets and restaurants, and so on. Everyone was pretending to be there to attend mass but they were really there to find customers. When believers got together, they did not talk about how to worship the Lord or how to practice His word, but rather they talked about petty household affairs, or they tried to peddle their family produce; no one was there to sincerely worship the Lord. As time went on, the situation in the church got worse and worse. The priests’ sermons were unenlightening, and they would often wantonly condemn other denominations and would tell the congregation to be on our guard against them. They even split into cliques and separated themselves from other clergy members. Sometimes, because they clung to differing views, they would argue and fight amongst themselves, and the congregation also took sides and judged and verbally attacked each other, and none of the compassion or tolerance that used to be there was there any longer. Witnessing this scene in the church, I couldn’t figure out how it had come to be in such a state, and I felt an inexpressible sadness. In 2009, while I was studying abroad in Japan, I went to church to attend mass and saw that the church in Japan was just as chaotic as the church in China: The priests and the Catholic faithful spoke and acted like unbelievers, they all followed worldly trends, and they all engaged in one-upmanship and were snobbish with each other. The priests would be all smiles toward those with money and would snub those who had no money and speak to them in a brusque tone. Seeing this go on in a foreign country, I felt incredibly disappointed and confused, and I no longer felt as attached to the Lord as I had before. The morning and evening service I attended every day became a burden, and sometimes I just didn’t want to go to church to attend mass. Afraid that the Lord would condemn me to hell, however, I dared not stop going. Later, although I was forcing myself to go to church, my spirit was not being provided for and my heart felt empty. Sometimes, I would think: “How has the church become like this? Before, there were few believers and the CCP persecuted us, and yet we would still enthusiastically attend mass in the middle of the night. But nowadays, the more comfortable and easier our environment gets, conversely, the lazier people get—could it be because more people are believing in the Lord? Or because people have listened to so many sermons that there is no longer any mystique about it?” I felt so perplexed. In May 2018, my husband and I emigrated to the US with our daughter who was not yet one year old. After we’d settled down, we started to attend mass at a church near our home. Inconceivably, there were very few people in this huge, lavish church. The priest stood above us giving his sermon, while most people sat below him looked drowsy or were dozing off. Looking at the sparsity of people and the empty seats in such a big church, and seeing the expressionless, blank faces of the people sitting there, I couldn’t even express how I felt. I wanted to go online and find some good churches, but what I found was that many Catholic churches were filled with memorial plaques for the dead and people just burnt incense and made offerings, and some church priests invited monks to come and chant scriptures, and there were many scandals involving priests and bishops…. Seeing these circumstances, I thought of the words spoken by the Lord Jesus in the Bible: “My house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13). From China to Japan to the United States, from terra firma to the Internet, all Catholic churches were just the same. I suddenly felt that the modern-day Catholic church had entirely gone bad. Although it appeared to be quite lavish on the outside, it was no longer a sacred place. I was at a loss. The church had become so chaotic and stagnant, so why didn’t the Holy Spirit do something about it? In My Bewilderment, a Chance Encounter Reveals the Root Cause of the Church’s Desolation…

by Novo Philippines My name is Novo, I am a Filipino. Since I was little, I believed in God with my mother. I went to church with my brothers and sisters to listen to sermons. Even though I had believed in the Lord for many years, I felt that I was like an unbeliever. Within my heart, I would think about how to earn more money and live a better life all day long. Furthermore, I would frequently go out and drink with friends. Once I had extra money, I would go out and gamble. Even though I knew that what I was doing was bad and I would frequently pray to God saying that I would change these bad habits of mine, I basically never put it into practice. In this way, I became increasingly degenerated. I did not pray sincerely to God. Each week, I would only pray a few simple prayers in a perfunctory way. Sometimes, I felt very desperate because I knew that when the Lord returned, He would judge everybody’s actions. He would then decide whether each person would go to heaven or go to hell. I felt that I was a degenerate and that God would not forgive me. Afterward, I married and had kids. All I thought about was my wife and my children. When it came to my faith, I pushed it to the back of my mind. In order to provide a better future for my children and to achieve my desires to become rich, I decided to leave the country to find work. As a result, I came to Taiwan. Even after I found work, I still had not changed my past lifestyle. During my leisure time, I would still go out to drink and sing with my colleagues. I was living the life of an unbeliever. In 2011, I worked as a welder in a factory in Taiwan. One day in 2012, a colleague in Taiwan asked me if I was a Catholic. I replied that I was. Afterward, she invited me for Mass at her church. Then, one Sunday morning, at dawn, she came to the factory to pick us up and brought us to her friend’s house. There, I met Brother Joseph. He asked me, “Brother, do you expect the second coming of the Lord Jesus?” I said that I did. Joseph asked me again, “Do you know what work the Lord Jesus will do when He returns?” I replied, “He will sit upon a white throne and judge mankind and divide people into different groups. Afterward, God will decide, based on each man’s conducts and deeds, whether he will go to heaven or hell.” Brother Joseph continued to ask me, “If we told you that the Lord Jesus has already come and is doing the work of judgment, would you believe?” I was quite surprised when I heard him say this. I thought: Has the Lord Jesus already returned? How is this possible? Wouldn’t He judge us if He has already returned? I haven’t seen the judgment before the great white throne! However, I did not directly ask him these questions because I felt that God’s judgment is a mystery and God’s wisdom is unfathomable to man. My viewpoints may not be right. I felt it would be better for me to listen to their viewpoints first. As a result, I replied, “This is something that I do not yet dare confirm. Please continue to speak.” Afterward, Brother Joseph and others showed me many passages from the Bible that talked about the judgment work that He would do once He returned. Two verses from this selection are as follows: “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” (Jhn 12:48). “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1Pe 4:17). After I saw these predictions, I focused my attention on what these brothers and sisters had to say. I believed that what they had shared with me was the truth because I knew that the Bible had recorded the work of God. Afterward, Brother Joseph let us read two more passages of  God’s word: “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.” “In the last days, Christ uses a variety of truths to teach man, reveal the essence of man, and dissect his words and deeds. These words comprise various truths, such as man’s duty, how man should obey God, how man should be loyal to God, how man ought to live out the normal humanity, as well as the wisdom and disposition of God, and so on. These words are all focused on the essence of man and his corrupt disposition. In particular, those words that reveal how man spurns God are spoken in regard to how man is an embodiment of Satan and an enemy force against God. When God does the work of judgment, He does not simply make clear the nature of man with just a few words, but carries out revelation, dealing, and pruning over the long term. Such manner of revelation, dealing, and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words but with the truth that man does not possess at all. Only such manner of work is deemed judgment; only through such judgment can man be persuaded, be thoroughly convinced into submission to God, and gain true knowledge of God. What the work of judgment…