3. Almighty God and the Lord Jesus are incarnations of the same God
Relevant Words of God:
Among humans, I was the Spirit that they could not see, the Spirit that they could never engage with. Because of My three stages of work on earth (creation of the world, redemption, and destruction), I appear in their midst at different times (never publicly) to do My work amongst them. The first time I came among humans was during the Age of Redemption. Of course, I came into a Jewish family; as such, the first to see God’s coming to earth were the Jews. The reason I did this work in person was that I wanted to use My incarnate flesh as a sin offering in My work of redemption. Thus, the first to see Me were the Jews in the Age of Grace. That was the first time I worked in the flesh. In the Age of Kingdom, My work is to conquer and perfect, so I again do My shepherding work in the flesh. This is My second time working in the flesh. In the final two stages of work, what people engage with is no longer the invisible, intangible Spirit, but a person who is the Spirit realized as flesh. Thus, in the eyes of man, I again become a human, with none of the look and feel of God. Moreover, the God that people see is not only male, but also female, which is most astounding and puzzling to them. Time and time again, My extraordinary work has shattered old beliefs held for many, many years. People are stunned! God is not merely the Holy Spirit, the Spirit, the sevenfold intensified Spirit, or the all-encompassing Spirit, but is also a human—an ordinary human, an exceptionally common human. He is not only male, but also female. They are similar in that They are both born to humans, and dissimilar in that one was conceived by the Holy Spirit and the other was born to a human, though derived directly from the Spirit. They are similar in that both incarnate fleshes of God carry out the work of God the Father, and dissimilar in that one performed the work of redemption while the other does the work of conquest. Both represent God the Father, but one is the Redeemer, filled with lovingkindness and mercy, and the other is the God of righteousness, filled with wrath and judgment. One is the Supreme Commander who launched the work of redemption, while the other is the righteous God who accomplishes the work of conquest. One is the Beginning, the other the End. One is sinless flesh, while the other is flesh that completes the redemption, continues the work, and is never sinful. Both are the same Spirit, but They dwell in different fleshes and were born in different places, and They are separated by several thousand years. However, all Their work is mutually complementary, never conflicting, and can be spoken of in the same breath. Both are people, but one was a baby boy and the other was an infant girl. For all these many years, what people have seen is not only the Spirit and not only a human, a male, but also many things that do not jibe with human notions; as such, humans are never able to fully fathom Me. They keep half-believing and half-doubting Me—as if I do exist, yet am also an illusory dream—which is why, to this day, people still do not know what God is. Can you really sum Me up in one simple sentence? Do you truly dare to say, “Jesus is none other than God, and God is none other than Jesus”? Are you really so bold as to say, “God is none other than the Spirit, and the Spirit is none other than God”? Are you comfortable saying, “God is just a human clothed in flesh”? Do you truly have the courage to assert, “The image of Jesus is the great image of God”? Are you able to use your eloquence to thoroughly explain God’s disposition and image? Do you really dare to say, “God created males only, not females, after His own image”? If you say this, then no female would be among My selected, much less would females be one class of humankind. Now do you truly know what God is? Is God a human? Is God a Spirit? Is God really a male? Can only Jesus complete the work I am to do? If you choose only one of the above to sum up My essence, then you are an exceedingly ignorant loyal believer. If I worked as incarnate flesh once, and only once, would you delimit Me? Can you really understand Me thoroughly at a single glance? Can you really sum Me up completely based on what you have been exposed to during your lifetime? If I did similar work in both My incarnations, how would you perceive Me? Would you leave Me forever nailed to the cross? Could God be as simple as you claim?
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. What Is Your Understanding of God?
Jesus and I come from one Spirit. Even though We are unrelated in Our fleshes, Our Spirits are one; even though the content of what We do and the work that We take on are not the same, We are alike in essence; Our fleshes take different forms, but this is due to the change in era and the differing requirements of Our work; Our ministries are not alike, so the work We bring forth and the dispositions We reveal to man are also different. That is why what man sees and understands this day is unlike in the past, which is because of the change in era. For all that They are different in the gender and the form of Their fleshes, and that They were not born of the same family, still less in the same time period, Their Spirits are nonetheless one. For all that Their fleshes share neither blood nor physical kinship of any kind, it cannot be denied that They are the incarnate fleshes of God in two different time periods. That They are the incarnate fleshes of God is an irrefutable truth. However, They are not of the same bloodline and do not share a common human language (one was a male who spoke the language of the Jews and the other a female who only speaks Chinese). It is for these reasons that They have lived in different countries to do the work that it behooves each one to do, and in different time periods too. Despite the fact that They are the same Spirit, possessed of the same essence, there are no absolute similarities between the outward shells of Their fleshes. All They share is the same humanity, but as far as external appearance of Their fleshes and the circumstances of Their birth are concerned, They are not alike. These things have no impact on Their respective work or on the knowledge that man has of Them, for, in the final analysis, They are the same Spirit and none can separate Them. Even though They are not related by blood, Their entire beings are in the charge of Their Spirits, which allocate to Them different work in different time periods, and Their fleshes are of different bloodlines. The Spirit of Jehovah is not the father of the Spirit of Jesus, and the Spirit of Jesus is not the son of the Spirit of Jehovah: They are one and the same Spirit. Similarly, the incarnate God of today and Jesus are not related by blood, but They are one, this is because Their Spirits are one. God can do the work of mercy and lovingkindness, as well as that of the righteous judgment and of chastisement of man, and that of calling down curses on man; and in the end, He can do the work of destroying the world and punishing the wicked. Does He not do all of this Himself? Is this not the omnipotence of God? He was able both to promulgate laws for man and to issue him commandments, and He was also able to lead the early Israelites in living their lives on earth, and to guide them in building the temple and altars, holding all the Israelites under His dominion. Because of His authority, He lived on earth with the people of Israel for two thousand years. The Israelites dared not rebel against Him; all revered Jehovah and observed His commandments. Such was the work that was done by virtue of His authority and His omnipotence. Then, during the Age of Grace, Jesus came to redeem the whole of fallen humankind (not only the Israelites). He showed mercy and lovingkindness to man. The Jesus that man saw in the Age of Grace was filled with lovingkindness and was always loving toward man, for He had come to save humanity from sin. He was able to forgive men their sins until His crucifixion completely redeemed humankind from sin. During this period, God appeared before man with mercy and lovingkindness; that is, He became a sin offering for man and was crucified for the sins of man, so that they might forever be forgiven. He was merciful, compassionate, patient, and loving. And all those who followed Jesus in the Age of Grace likewise sought to be patient and loving in all things. They were long-suffering, and never fought back even when beaten, cursed, or stoned. But during the final stage it can no longer be so. The work of Jesus and Jehovah was not entirely the same even though They were of one Spirit. The work of Jehovah did not bring the age to an end, but guided the age, ushering in the life of humankind on earth, and the work of today is to conquer those in the Gentile nations who have been deeply corrupted, and to lead not only God’s chosen people in China, but the entire universe and all humankind. It may appear to you that this work is being done only in China, but in fact it has already begun to spread abroad. Why is it that people outside China seek the true way, time and time again? It is because the Spirit has already set to work, and the words spoken today are directed toward people throughout the universe. With this, half of the work is already under way. From the creation of the world to the present, the Spirit of God has set this great work in motion, and has moreover done different work in different ages and among different nations. The people of each age see a different disposition of His, which is naturally revealed through the different work that He does. He is God, filled with mercy and lovingkindness; He is the sin offering for man and man’s shepherd; but He is also man’s judgment, chastisement, and curse. He could lead man to live on earth for two thousand years, and He could also redeem corrupted humankind from sin. Today, He is also able to conquer humankind, who does not know Him, and to prostrate them under His dominion, so that all submit to Him fully. In the end, He will burn away all that is unclean and unrighteous within people throughout the universe, to show them that He is not only a merciful and loving God, not only a God of wisdom and wonders, not only a holy God, but furthermore, a God who judges man. To the evil ones among humankind, He is burning, judgment, and punishment; to those who are to be perfected, He is tribulation, refinement, and trials, as well as comfort, sustenance, the provision of words, dealing, and pruning. And to those who are eliminated, He is punishment and retribution. …
Not only is God a Spirit, He can also become flesh. He is, moreover, a body of glory. Jesus, though you have not seen Him, was witnessed by the Israelites—the Jews of that time. He was at first a fleshly body, but after He was crucified, He became the body of glory. He is the all-encompassing Spirit and can do work in every place. He can be Jehovah, or Jesus, or Messiah; in the end, He can also become Almighty God. He is righteousness, judgment, and chastisement; He is curse and wrath; but He is also mercy and lovingkindness. All the work He has done is capable of representing Him. What manner of God do you say He is? You cannot explain. If you truly cannot explain, you should not come to conclusions about God. Do not draw the conclusion that God is forever a God of mercy and lovingkindness just because He did the work of redemption in one stage. Can you be certain that He is only a merciful and loving God? If He is merely a merciful and loving God, why will He bring the age to an end in the last days? Why will He send down so many disasters? According to people’s notions and thoughts, God should be merciful and loving to the very end, so that every last member of humankind can be saved. But why, in the last days, does He send down such great disasters as earthquake, pestilence, and famine to destroy this evil humankind, which regards God as an enemy? Why does He allow man to suffer these disasters? As for what manner of God He is, no one among you dares to say, and none is able to explain. Can you be certain that He is the Spirit? Do you dare say that He is none other than the flesh of Jesus? And do you dare say that He is a God who will forever be crucified for man’s sake?
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Two Incarnations Complete the Significance of the Incarnation
To people, the work of the second incarnate flesh seems utterly unlike that of the first, so much so that the two seem to have nothing in common, and nothing of the first’s work can be seen this time. Though the work of the second incarnate flesh is different from the first, that does not prove that Their source is not one and the same. Whether Their source is the same depends on the nature of the work done by the fleshes, and not on Their outer shells. During the three stages of His work, God has been incarnated twice, and both times the work of God incarnate inaugurates a new age, ushers in a new work; the incarnations complement each other. It is impossible for human eyes to tell that the two fleshes actually come from the same source. It goes without saying that this is beyond the capacity of the human eye or the human mind. But in Their essence, They are the same, for Their work originates from the same Spirit. Whether the two incarnate fleshes arise from the same source cannot be judged by the era and the place in which They were born, or other such factors, but by the divine work expressed by Them. The second incarnate flesh does not perform any of the work that Jesus did, for God’s work does not adhere to convention, but opens up a new path each time. The second incarnate flesh does not aim to deepen or solidify the impression of the first flesh in people’s minds, but to complement and perfect it, to deepen man’s knowledge of God, to break all the rules that exist in people’s hearts, and to wipe out the fallacious images of God in their hearts. It can be said that no individual stage of God’s own work can give man a complete knowledge of Him; each gives only a part, not the whole. Though God has expressed His disposition in full, because of man’s limited faculties of understanding, his knowledge of God still remains incomplete. It is impossible, using human language, to convey the entirety of God’s disposition; moreover, how can a single stage of His work fully express God? He works in the flesh under the cover of His normal humanity, and one can only know Him by the expressions of His divinity, not by His bodily shell. God comes into the flesh to allow man to know Him by means of His various work, and no two stages of His work are alike. Only in this way can man have a full knowledge of God’s work in the flesh, not confined to one single facet. Though the work of the two incarnate fleshes is different, the essence of the fleshes, and the source of Their work, are identical; it is just that They exist to perform two different stages of the work, and arise in two different ages. No matter what, God’s incarnate fleshes share the same essence and the same origin—this is a truth no one can deny.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God
I was once known as Jehovah. I was also called the Messiah, and people once called Me Jesus the Savior with love and esteem. Today, however, I am no longer the Jehovah or Jesus that people knew in times past; I am the God who has returned in the last days, the God who shall bring the age to an end. I am the God Himself that rises up from the end of the earth, replete with My entire disposition, and full of authority, honor, and glory. People have never engaged with Me, never known Me, and have always been ignorant of My disposition. From the creation of the world until today, not one person has seen Me. This is the God who appears to man in the last days but is hidden among man. He resides among man, true and real, like the burning sun and the blazing flame, filled with power and brimming with authority. There is not a single person or thing that shall not be judged by My words, and not a single person or thing that shall not be purified through the burning of fire. Eventually, all nations shall be blessed because of My words, and also smashed to pieces because of My words. In this way, all people during the last days shall see that I am the Savior returned, and that I am the Almighty God that conquers all of mankind. And all shall see that I was once the sin offering for man, but that in the last days I also become the flames of the sun that incinerate all things, as well as the Sun of righteousness that reveals all things. This is My work in the last days. I took this name and am possessed of this disposition so that all people may see that I am a righteous God, the burning sun, the blazing flame, and so that all may worship Me, the one true God, and so that they may see My true face: I am not only the God of the Israelites, and I am not just the Redeemer; I am the God of all creatures throughout the heavens and the earth and the seas.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Savior Has Already Returned Upon a ‘White Cloud’