b. How God does the work of judgment, and what results this work can achieve
Words of Almighty God of the Last Days
Christ of the last days uses a variety of truths to teach man, to expose the substance of man, and to dissect the words and deeds of man. These words comprise various truths, such as man’s duty, how man should submit to God, how man should be loyal to God, how man ought to live out normal humanity, as well as the wisdom and the disposition of God. These words are all directed at the substance of man and his corrupt dispositions. In particular, the words that expose how man rejects God are even more so directed at how man is an embodiment of Satan, and an enemy force against God. In undertaking His work of judgment, God does not fully explain the nature of man in a few words; He exposes and prunes over the long term. All these different methods of exposure and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words; rather, the truth which man absolutely does not possess is used to carry out this work of exposure and pruning. Only methods such as these can be called judgment; only through judgment of this kind can man be subdued and thoroughly convinced about God, and moreover gain true knowledge of God. What the work of judgment brings about is man’s understanding of the true face of God and the truth about his own rebelliousness. The work of judgment has enabled man to gain much understanding of the intentions of God, of the purpose of God’s work, and of the mysteries that are incomprehensible to him. It has also enabled man to understand and know his corrupt essence and the root of his corruption, as well as to discover his ugly face. These effects are all brought about by the work of judgment, for the essence of this work is actually the work of opening up God’s truth, way, and life to all those who have faith in Him. This work is the work of judgment done by God.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Christ Does the Work of Judgment With the Truth
In the Age of Kingdom, God uses words to usher in the new age, to change the means by which He works, and to do the work of the entire age. This is the principle by which God works in the Age of Word. He became flesh and speaks from different perspectives, enabling man to truly see God, who is the Word appearing in the flesh, and behold His wisdom and wondrousness. God works in this manner in order better to achieve the goals of conquering people, perfecting people, and eliminating people. This is the true meaning of the use of words to work in the Age of Word. Through words, people come to know the work of God, the disposition of God, the substance of man, and what man ought to enter into. Through words, all the work God wishes to do in the Age of Word is accomplished. Through words, people are revealed, eliminated, and tried. People have seen these words, heard these words, and recognized the existence of these words. As a result, they have come to believe in the existence of God, the almightiness and wisdom of God, and God’s heart of loving and saving man. The term “words” may be ordinary and simple, but the words spoken from the mouth of the incarnate God shake the universe, they transform people’s hearts, transform their notions and old dispositions, and transform the way the whole world used to appear. Through the ages, only the God of today works in this way, and only He speaks thus and comes to save man thus. From this time forward, man lives under the guidance of God’s words, amid the shepherding and provision of His words; people live in the world of God’s words, amid the curses and the blessings of God’s words, and the majority of people live under the judgment and chastisement of His words. These words and this work are all for the sake of man’s salvation, for the sake of fulfilling God’s will, and for the sake of changing the original appearance of the world of old creation. God created the world using words, He leads all the people in the universe using words, He conquers and saves them using words, and ultimately He shall use words to bring the whole world of old to an end, thus completing the entirety of His management plan. Throughout the Age of Kingdom, God uses words to do His work, and to achieve the results of His work. He does not work wonders or perform miracles, but merely does His work through words. Because of these words, all people are nourished and supplied, and gain knowledge and true experience. In the Age of Word, man has been exceptionally blessed. He suffers no physical pain and simply enjoys the bountiful supply of the words of God; without needing to go blindly seeking or journeying forth blindly, from amid his ease, he sees the appearance of God, hears Him speak with His own mouth, receives that which He supplies, and watches Him personally doing His work. These are things that the people of ages past were unable to enjoy, and they are blessings that they could never receive.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Age of Kingdom Is the Age of Word
During the last days, God has come chiefly to speak His words. He speaks from the perspective of the Spirit, from the perspective of man, and from a third person perspective; He speaks in different ways, using one way for a period of time, and He uses these ways of speaking to change the notions of man and remove the image of the vague God from man’s heart. This is the main work done by God. Because man believes that when God comes He will heal the sick, cast out demons, perform miracles, and bestow material blessings upon man, God carries out this stage of work—the work of chastisement and judgment—in order to remove such things from the notions of man, so that man may know the practicality and normality of God, and so that the image of Jesus as He is in man’s heart may be removed, and the new image of God may occupy man’s heart instead. Once the image of God within man becomes old, then it becomes an idol. When Jesus came and carried out that stage of work, He did not represent the entirety of God. He performed some signs and wonders, spoke some words, and was ultimately crucified. He represented one part of God. He could not represent all that is of God, but rather He represented God in doing one part of God’s work. That is because God is so great, and so wondrous, and He is unfathomable, and because God only does one part of His work in every age. The work done by God during this age is chiefly the provision of the words of life for man; the exposure of man’s nature essence and his corrupt disposition; and the elimination of his religious notions, feudal thinking, outdated thinking, and knowledge and culture. These things must all be cleansed through being exposed by God’s words. In the last days, God uses words, not signs and wonders, to make man perfect. He uses His words to reveal man, to judge man, to chastise man, and to make man perfect, so that in the words of God, man comes to see the wisdom and loveliness of God, and comes to understand the disposition of God, and so that through the words of God, man beholds the deeds of God.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Knowledge of God’s Present Work
In truth, the work being done now is to cause people to rebel against Satan, their old ancestor. All judgments by the word aim to expose humanity’s corrupt disposition and to enable people to understand the essence of life. These repeated judgments pierce people’s hearts. Each judgment directly relates to their fate and is meant to wound their hearts so that they can let go of all those things and thereby come to know life, know this filthy world, know God’s wisdom and almightiness, and also know mankind, which is corrupted by Satan. The more chastisement and judgment is like this, the more man’s heart can be wounded and the more his spirit can be awakened. Awakening the spirits of these extremely corrupted and most deeply deceived of people is the goal of this kind of judgment. Man has no spirit, that is, his spirit died long ago and he knows not that there is Heaven, knows not that there is a God, and certainly knows not that he is struggling in the abyss of death; how could he possibly know that he is living in this evil hell on earth? How could he possibly know that this putrid corpse of his has, through Satan’s corruption, fallen into Hades of death? How could he possibly know that everything on earth has long been ruined beyond repair by mankind? And how could he possibly know that the Creator has come to the earth today and is searching for a group of corrupt people whom He can save? Even after man experiences every possible refinement and judgment, his dull consciousness still barely stirs and indeed is virtually unresponsive. How degenerate is humanity! And though this kind of judgment is like the cruel hail that falls from the sky, it is of the greatest benefit to man. If not for judging people like this, there would be no result and it would be absolutely impossible to save people from the abyss of misery. If not for this work, it would be very difficult for people to emerge from Hades, because their hearts long ago died and their spirits long ago were trampled by Satan. Saving you who have sunk to the deepest depths of degeneration requires calling out to you strenuously, judging you strenuously; only then will it be possible to awaken your frozen hearts.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only the Perfected Can Live a Meaningful Life
Today God judges you, chastises you, and condemns you, but you should know that the point of your condemnation is for you to know yourself. He condemns, curses, judges, and chastises so that you might know yourself, so that your disposition might change, and, even more than this, so that you might know your worth, and see that all of God’s actions are righteous and in accordance with His disposition and the needs of His work, that He works in accordance with His plan for man’s salvation, and that He is the righteous God who loves and saves man, and who judges and chastises man as well. If you only know that you are of lowly status, that you are corrupt and rebellious, but do not know that God wishes to reveal His salvation through the judgment and chastisement that He does in you today, then you have no way of experiencing things, much less are you capable of continuing forward. God has not come to strike down or destroy people, but to judge, curse, chastise, and save them. Until His 6,000-year management plan comes to a close—before He reveals the outcome of each category of man—God’s work on earth will be for the sake of salvation; its purpose is purely to make those who love Him complete—thoroughly so—and to bring them to surrender under His dominion. No matter how God saves people, it is all done by making them break away from their old satanic nature; that is, He saves them by having them pursue life. If they do not do so, then they will have no way to accept God’s salvation. Salvation is the work of God Himself, and the pursuit of life is something that man must take on in order to accept salvation. In the eyes of man, salvation is the love of God, and the love of God cannot be chastisement, judgment, and curses; salvation must contain mercy, lovingkindness, and, moreover, words of solace, as well as boundless blessings bestowed by God. People believe that when God saves man, He does so by moving him with His blessings and grace, so that he can give his heart to God. That is to say, His touching man is His saving him. This sort of salvation is done by striking a deal. Only when God grants him a hundredfold will man come to surrender before God’s name and strive to do well for Him and bring Him glory. This is not what God intends for mankind. God has come to work on earth in order to save corrupt mankind; there is no falsehood in this. If there were, He would certainly not have come to do His work in person. In the past, His means of salvation involved showing the utmost mercy and lovingkindness, such that He gave His all to Satan in exchange for the whole of mankind. The present is nothing like the past: The salvation bestowed upon you today occurs at the time of the last days, when each is sorted according to their kind; the means of your salvation is not mercy or lovingkindness, but chastisement and judgment, in order that man may be more thoroughly saved. Thus, all that you receive is chastisement, judgment, and merciless smiting, but know this: In this heartless smiting there is not the slightest punishment. Regardless of how harsh My words might be, what befall you are but a few words that might appear utterly heartless to you, and no matter how angry I might be, what come upon you are still words of reproach, and I do not mean to harm you or put you to death. Is this not all fact? Know that nowadays, whether it be righteous judgment or unfeeling refinement and chastisement, everything is for the sake of salvation. Regardless of whether today each will be sorted according to their kind or whether all sorts of people will be revealed, the purpose of all of God’s words and work is to save those who truly love God. Righteous judgment is brought to purify man, and heartless refinement is done to cleanse him; harsh words or chastening are both done to purify and are for the sake of salvation.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. You Should Put Aside the Blessings of Status and Understand God’s Intention to Bring Salvation to Man
God does the work of judgment and chastisement so that man may gain knowledge of Him, and for the sake of His testimony. Without His judgment of man’s corrupt disposition, man could not possibly know His righteous disposition, which brooks no offense, and nor would man be able to turn his old knowledge of God into a new one. For the sake of His testimony, and for the sake of His management, He makes His entirety public, thus enabling man, through His public appearance, to arrive at knowledge of God, to be transformed in his disposition, and to bear resounding testimony for God. The transformation of the disposition of man is achieved through many different kinds of God’s work; without such changes in his disposition, man would be unable to bear testimony to God and to accord with God’s intentions. The transformation of man’s disposition signifies that man has been freed from Satan’s bondage and from the influence of darkness, and has truly become a model and specimen of God’s work, a witness of God, and one who accords with God’s intentions. Today, God incarnate has come to earth to do His work, and He requires that man achieve knowledge of Him, submission to Him, and testimony to Him—man is to know God’s practical and normal work, he is to submit to all of His words and work which do not accord with the notions of man, and he is to bear testimony to all the work He does to save man, as well as all His deeds of conquering man. Those who bear testimony to God must have knowledge of God; only this kind of testimony is accurate and practical, and only this kind of testimony can shame Satan. God uses those who have come to know Him through undergoing His judgment, chastisement, and pruning, to bear testimony to Him. He uses those who have been corrupted by Satan to bear testimony to Him. He uses those whose disposition has changed, and who have thus gained His blessings, to bear testimony to Him. He does not need man to praise Him with his mouth, nor does He need the praise and testimony of the ilk of Satan, who have not been saved by Him. Only those who know God are qualified to bear testimony to Him, and only those who have been transformed in their disposition are qualified to bear testimony to Him. God will not allow man to intentionally bring shame upon His name.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Those Who Know God Can Bear Testimony for God
In His final work of concluding the age, God’s disposition is one of chastisement and judgment, in which He reveals all that is unrighteous, in order to publicly judge the myriad peoples, and to perfect those who sincerely love Him. Only a disposition such as this can bring the age to an end. The last days have already arrived. All things are sorted according to their kind, and divided into different categories based on their different qualities. This is precisely the time when God reveals people’s outcomes and destinations. If people do not experience chastisement and judgment, then their rebelliousness and unrighteousness cannot be exposed. Only through chastisement and judgment can the outcomes of all things be revealed. People only show their true colors when they are chastised and judged. Evil shall be put with evil, good with good, and all people shall be sorted according to their kind. Through chastisement and judgment, the outcomes of all things will be revealed, so that the evil may be punished and the good rewarded, and the myriad people surrender to the dominion of God. All this work must be achieved through righteous chastisement and judgment. Because people’s corruption has reached its peak and their rebelliousness is exceedingly severe, only God’s righteous disposition, one that is principally compounded of chastisement and judgment and is revealed during the last days, can fully transform people and make them complete, and reveal evil, and all the unrighteous will thus be severely punished. Therefore, a disposition such as this is imbued with the significance of the age. God’s disposition is revealed and disclosed for the sake of the work of each new age. It is not that God reveals His disposition arbitrarily and without significance. Suppose that, in the last days of revealing people’s outcomes, God were still to love people with infinite mercy and lovingkindness, and continue to be loving toward them, not subjecting them to righteous judgment but rather showing them tolerance, patience, and forgiveness, and pardoning them no matter how grave their sins were, without any jot of righteous judgment. When then would all of God’s management ever be brought to a close? When would a disposition such as this be able to lead people into mankind’s appropriate destination? Take, for example, a judge who is always loving toward people, a loving judge with a kindly face and a gentle heart. He loves people no matter what crimes they have committed, and he is loving to and forbearing with people no matter who they are. In that case, when will he ever be able to reach a just verdict? During the last days, only righteous judgment can sort people according to their kind and bring them into a new realm. In this way, the entire age is brought to an end through God’s righteous disposition of judgment and chastisement.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Vision of God’s Work (3)
Those who are able to stand firm during God’s work of judgment and chastisement in the last days—that is, during the final work of purification—will be the ones who will enter into the final rest alongside God; as such, all those who enter into rest will have broken free from Satan’s influence and been gained by God only after having undergone His final work of purification. These humans, who will have been finally gained by God, will enter into the final rest. In essence, God does the work of chastisement and judgment to purify humanity, and for the sake of the ultimate day of rest; otherwise no members of humanity could be sorted according to their kind, or enter into rest. This work is humanity’s only path to enter into rest. Only God’s work of purification will cleanse humans of their unrighteousness, and only His work of chastisement and judgment will expose those rebellious elements of humanity, thereby distinguishing those who can be saved from those who cannot, and those who can remain from those who cannot. When this work ends, those people who can remain will all be purified and enter a higher realm of humanity in which they will enjoy a more wonderful second human life upon the earth; in other words, they will enter into humanity’s day of rest and live together with God. After those who cannot remain have been chastised and judged, their true colors will be entirely exposed, after which they will all be destroyed and, like Satan, will no longer be permitted to survive upon the earth. The humanity of the future will no longer include any of this type of people; such people are not fit to enter the land of the ultimate rest, nor are they fit to enter into the day of rest that God and humanity will share, for they are the targets of punishment, they are evil, and they are not righteous people. They were redeemed once, and they have also been judged and chastised; they also once labored for God. However, when the final day comes, they will still be eliminated and destroyed due to their evil and as a result of their rebelliousness and inability to be redeemed; they will never again come into being in the world of the future, and will no longer live among the human race of the future. Whether they are spirits of the dead or people still living in the flesh, all evildoers and all those who have not been saved will be destroyed once the sanctified among humanity enter into rest. As for these evildoing spirits and humans, or the spirits of righteous people and those who do righteousness, regardless of what era they are in, all those who are evil will ultimately be destroyed, and all those who are righteous will survive. Whether a person or spirit will receive salvation is not entirely decided on the basis of the work of the final age; rather, it is determined by whether or not they have resisted or rebelled against God. People in the previous era who committed evil and could not attain salvation will, undoubtedly, be targets for punishment, and those in the current era who commit evil and cannot be saved will surely be targets for punishment, too. Humans are categorized on the basis of good and evil, not by which epoch they live in. Once thus categorized, they will not be punished or rewarded immediately; rather, God will only carry out His work of punishing evil and rewarding good after He has finished carrying out His work of conquest in the last days. Actually, He has been separating humans into good and evil ever since He started doing His work of mankind’s salvation. It is just that He will reward the righteous and punish the evil only after His work has come to an end; it is not that He will separate them into categories upon the completion of His work and then immediately set about the task of punishing evil and rewarding good. Rather, this task will be done only when His work is wholly finished. The sole purpose behind God’s ultimate work of punishing evil and rewarding good is to thoroughly purify all humans so that He may bring a purely sanctified humanity into eternal rest. This stage of His work is the most crucial; it is the final stage of the whole of His work of management.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together
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