By Mikha, India

I became a believer as a child and resolved to serve the Lord for my whole life. After I grew up, I attended three years of seminary. Later I accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days. After accepting the gospel, I wanted to share the good news of the Lord’s return with my dad right away. He was a deacon at a local church who knew the Bible well, had served the Lord for years, and was loving toward others. He was a devout Christian. I figured he’d happily accept it when he heard the Lord had returned.

When I got home that night, I told him, “The Lord Jesus we’ve been waiting for has returned. He’s expressing truths and doing the work of judgment starting with God’s house. We have to accept His work of the last days to be cleansed and get into His kingdom.” To my surprise, he advised me, “The Bible prophesies that false christs will mislead people in the last days, so be careful and stay on your guard. Is there a biblical basis for what you’re saying about the Lord’s return and judgment work? If not, don’t be taken in!” I got out a Bible and said, “Of course there is. There are at least 200 verses that mention the Lord coming to perform His judgment, such as ‘For He comes to judge the earth: with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity’ (Psalm 98:9). And in John it says, ‘For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son’ (John 5:22). ‘He that rejects Me, and accepts 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 in 1 Peter there’s ‘For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God’ (1 Peter 4:17). These verses show that the Lord becomes flesh in the last days to express the truth and do the work of judgment.” He responded, “Becomes flesh? I’ve only seen the Bible say He’ll come on a cloud. ‘Behold, He comes with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him’ (Revelation 1:7). I’ve never seen anything in the Bible about the Lord coming in the flesh. There’s no way He’s doing judgment work in the last days in the flesh!” I shared this fellowship: “There are lots of prophecies of the Lord’s coming, not just about Him coming on a cloud, but also coming secretly in the flesh. Just as the Lord Jesus said: ‘Be you therefore ready also: for the Son of man comes at an hour when you think not’ (Luke 12:40). ‘Behold, I come as a thief’ (Revelation 16:15). ‘For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be’ (Matthew 24:27). And Luke 17:24-25 says, ‘For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in His day. But first must He suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.’ The Lord Jesus mentioned the Son of man’s coming plenty of times, all referring to the Lord coming in the flesh. If we delimit His coming to being on a cloud, how would those prophecies of Him coming in secret be fulfilled? Actually, the Lord comes in two ways in the last days. First He is incarnated and comes in secret to do the work of judgment beginning with God’s house, and then He comes on a cloud and appears to all peoples. If we don’t look at the prophecies of Him coming secretly but just the ones about Him coming on a cloud, that’s one-sided and arbitrary, and we could easily miss our chance to welcome the Lord.” My dad just frowned without saying anything, then he interrupted me angrily, “That’s enough! I’ve read the Bible since I was little and served the Lord for years. Don’t I know more than you? What do you know after only three years in a seminary?” I could see he couldn’t calm down for the moment and continuing to fellowship with him wouldn’t achieve results. So I just went back to my room. I tried a few more times after that but he was still resistant and even said, “Believing in the Lord is enough. We don’t need any other teachings. If you keep talking, get out of this house!” I was shocked and so upset that he’d do that. He’d believed in the Lord from a young age and served Him for many years, and he was especially gentle and humble with others. He’d always longed for the Lord’s coming, but now that He was here, my dad stuck to the literal words of the Bible without seeking and even blew his top. I felt my dad was being really stubborn. I was frustrated and lost some confidence in preaching the gospel when I saw my father so well-versed in the Bible, but so stuck in his notions.

When some brothers and sisters found out, they sent me some of God’s words to encourage me. I read these words of God: “Are you aware of the burden on your shoulders, your commission, and your responsibility? Where is your sense of historic mission? How will you adequately serve as a master in the next age? Do you have a strong sense of masterhood? How would you explain the master of all things? Is it really the master of all living creatures and of all physical things in the world? What plans do you have for the progress of the next phase of the work? How many people are waiting for you to be their shepherd? Is your task a heavy one? They are poor, pitiable, blind, and at a loss, wailing in the darkness—where is the way? How they yearn for the light, like a shooting star, to suddenly descend and dispel the forces of darkness that have oppressed man for so many years. Who can know the full extent to which they anxiously hope, and how they pine, day and night, for this? Even on a day when the light flashes past, these deeply suffering people remain imprisoned in a dark dungeon without hope of release; when will they weep no longer? Terrible is the misfortune of these fragile spirits who have never been granted rest, and long have they been kept bound in this state by merciless bonds and frozen history. And who has heard the sound of their wailing? Who has looked upon their miserable state? Has it ever occurred to you how grieved and anxious God’s heart is? How can He bear to see innocent mankind, whom He created with His own hands, suffering such torment? Human beings, after all, are the victims who have been poisoned. And although man has survived to this day, who would have known that mankind has long been poisoned by the evil one? Have you forgotten that you are one of the victims? Are you not willing to strive, out of your love for God, to save these survivors? Are you not willing to devote all of your energy to repaying God, who loves mankind like His own flesh and blood?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. How Should You Attend to Your Future Mission?). God’s words were really heartening for me. Now a lot of people don’t know God’s work and they’re bound by religious notions so they don’t seek or investigate though they hear the news of the Lord’s return. They’re in darkness, unnourished by God’s words. I’ve had the good fortune to hear God’s voice and follow the Lamb’s footsteps so I have the responsibility and obligation to share the kingdom gospel with them. Then they can hear God’s voice and be taken up before His throne, receiving the cleansing and salvation of God’s words. That is being considerate of God’s intention. My dad was a long-time, true believer in the Lord, and he’d always longed for the Lord’s return. He was just too tightly bound by religious notions so it was normal for him to not be able to accept it right away. I knew I had to rely on God and keep testifying God’s work of the last days to him with love to fulfill my responsibility.

My dad’s attitude softened a bit on the fifth day, so I kept preaching the gospel to him, bearing testimony to God’s judgment work of the last days. He said somberly, “In our faith in the Lord, believing in our hearts and confessing with our mouths means we’re justified and saved by faith. The Lord has taken on our sins, so when He comes He’ll take us up directly into the kingdom of heaven. We don’t need God to come to do the work of judgment.” I told him in fellowship that our sins are forgiven through our faith in the Lord, but we’re still always sinning and confessing. We’re not free of sin. “Dad, just think, you often tell people to be humble and patient and you’re meek with others but at home you get mad at Mom and argue with her a lot. You can’t keep the Lord’s teachings—” He cut me off angrily and wouldn’t let me say anything more. The next day I found another opportunity to fellowship with him, “Dad, the Lord teaches us to love our enemies. I’m not your enemy, but your son. I’m just telling you the facts about the Lord coming to work and you not only won’t seek or investigate it, but you lose your temper. This isn’t showing tolerance and patience. I know you don’t want to get mad. It’s because our sinful nature hasn’t been resolved so you can’t help but become hotheaded and reproach people. The Bible says: ‘Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord’ (Hebrews 12:14). The Lord Jesus also said: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant stays not in the house for ever: but the son stays ever’ (John 8:34–35). These words are really clear. The Lord is holy, and those who are not holy cannot see Him. We’re constantly sinning, we live in sin and aren’t remotely holy. How could we enter God’s kingdom? The Lord Jesus prophesied His return many times and that He would express truths and do the work of judgment to fully cleanse and save mankind, and bring people into the kingdom of heaven. Just as the Lord Jesus said: ‘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’ (John 16:12–13). The Lord has returned now and He’s uttered all the truths which cleanse and save mankind. He’s doing the work of judgment and chastisement to completely resolve people’s sinful nature. Only those who experience God’s judgment and chastisement and have their corrupt dispositions cleansed can enter God’s. Dad, we have to humbly seek God’s work of the last days. Just read Almighty God’s words and see if it’s God’s voice. You wouldn’t want to miss the chance of welcoming the Lord’s coming!” I wanted to play a short gospel skit—My Father, the Pastor—for him but he refused to watch it. He knew a lot of Bible knowledge and had some good outward behavior. He also frequently gave to the poor and sometimes went to help others even when he was short on cash, and he let the church use his property for free. But facing God’s new work, he stubbornly clung to his notions and imaginings and wouldn’t seek or investigate it. It reminded me of the Pharisees. I was afraid my dad would oppose God just like them and lose God’s salvation. I warned him, “Dad, the Pharisees knew the Bible well and seemed devout but they didn’t know the Lord at all. His work didn’t fit their notions and they didn’t seek with humble hearts, but clung to the literal words of the Scripture, madly resisting and condemning Him. They had Him crucified and were punished by God….” He cut me off before I could finish. “Are you talking to your father? You’re calling me a Pharisee?” I hastily responded, “I’m not calling you a Pharisee, Dad. I just want to remind you not to take their old path of serving God while opposing Him. You’ve followed the Lord for many years and have always been longing for His return. Now He’s here, yet you’re not seeking with humility but holding onto the literal words of the Scripture and your notions. You feel resistant to the Lord’s return and won’t accept it. If we treat God’s work of the last days with such an attitude, we’ll be condemned by God like the Pharisees and lose God’s salvation. Almighty God’s judgment work in the last days is God’s last and most critical and important stage of work for mankind’s salvation. It’s going to end very soon. He’s already made a group of overcomers before the great catastrophes, which will soon be upon us. If we don’t accept His judgment and cleansing of the last days, when the great catastrophes come, we’ll be plunged into them, weeping and gnashing our teeth.” This made my dad even angrier. He stood up and said, “That’s enough out of you! If you keep talking, you won’t be my son from now on, and you’ll get out of this house immediately!”

Hearing this from him was so upsetting. My father and I had been really close before. We often had heart-to-hearts, read the Bible together, and sought God’s intentions together. He also often taught me to be patient, tolerant, humble, and obedient. I never imagined he’d kick me out and even treat me like an enemy because I bore witness to God’s work of the last days to him. Following his lead, the rest of the family treated me coldly. I felt so lonely and helpless. I sent a message to brothers and sisters about it, and a sister sent me a passage of God’s words, which says: “Spreading the gospel is everyone’s duty and obligation. At any time, regardless of what we hear, or what we see, or what kind of treatment we encounter, we must always persist in this responsibility of spreading the gospel. Under no circumstances can we give up on this duty because of negativity or weakness. The duty to spread the gospel is not smooth sailing, but fraught with danger. When you spread the gospel, you will not face angels, or aliens, or robots. You will face only evil and corrupt humanity, living demons, beasts—they are all humanity that is surviving in this evil space and that has been corrupted deeply by Satan and resists God. Therefore, in the process of spreading the gospel, there are certainly all sorts of dangers, let alone petty slander, sneers, and misunderstandings, of which there are even more. If you truly regard spreading the gospel as a responsibility, as an obligation, and as your duty, then you will be able to regard these things correctly and even handle them correctly, and you will not at any time give up on your responsibility and your obligation, nor will you deviate from your original intention to spread the gospel and testify about God because of these things, for this is your duty. How should this duty be understood? The value and the primary responsibility of this life you live is to spread the good news of God’s work in the last days and to spread the gospel of God’s work” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Spreading the Gospel Is the Duty to Which All Believers Are Honor-Bound). God’s words encouraged me a lot. I saw that being rejected when preaching the gospel is really common. People are so deeply corrupted by Satan and they don’t love the truth. They’re also very arrogant and stuck in their own notions and imaginings. I couldn’t abandon my duty and responsibility in the face of difficulties when preaching the gospel. I thought of Peter traveling all over the place to preach in spite of his parents’ opposition. Later, he was judged, chastised, and tried and refined hundreds of times, and was perfected by God in the end. He lived out a meaningful life. I had to be like Peter, do my duty well and propagate the gospel to testify to God no matter how much I suffered or however my family misunderstood.

I packed up my things the next morning, getting ready to leave. My dad said, “You can stay if you still want to live with me, but you have to stop preaching Almighty God’s way.” I said resolutely, “Dad, you know I always want to serve the Lord. I went to the seminary wanting to learn more Bible truths and repay God’s love. But I read the Bible so many times without understanding any truth. I was feeling more spiritually dark and parched. Pastors and co-workers vie among themselves for fame and gain, plotting and scheming against one another. Some co-workers even steal church money. As for me, though I appeared to do some good things, I always wanted to show off and I was often jealous of others. For example, I stood at the front in morning and evening services to be seen. I was jealous of brothers and sisters in my worship group who could play instruments because I could only sing. I was jealous of people who did better on exams than me in the seminary. I couldn’t control these evil thoughts. I just couldn’t be freed from the bondage of sin. It was really painful. I finally found the answer when I read Almighty God’s words. Our sins are forgiven through our faith in the Lord and God doesn’t see us as sinful, but our sinful nature hasn’t been resolved. Accepting God’s judgment of the last days is the only way for us to be cleansed and get into the kingdom of heaven. I’ve heard God’s voice and I know the Lord has come, and the kingdom has descended. So I have the responsibility and obligation to propagate the kingdom gospel among more people so I don’t let God down.” He didn’t seem as resistant after hearing this. I could tell he was a little upset. He said, “You can go. I’ll pray for you. If Almighty God really is the returned Lord Jesus, I’ll accept Him. If not, you have to come back.”

I stayed in a small guesthouse after that, working for a living while continuing to preach the gospel. I often prayed to God, putting my father and the rest of my family in God’s hands. My dad called me out of the blue two weeks later and asked how I was. He sincerely told me he really regretted blowing up at me last time. He said he often told people to be humble, but he’d lost his temper with me and it was true he failed to keep the Lord’s commandments. Then he said, “Come back. I want to know more about Almighty God’s work of the last days.” I was so surprised and thrilled to hear this from him. He’d been very resistant to God’s new work but now he was reaching out in seeking. I knew God had heard my prayers. I offered up my thanks and praise to God. After I went back home, my dad said to me, “I often couldn’t sleep after you left. I recalled what you said each morning and night as I was falling asleep. I kept praying to the Lord and consulting the Scriptures and it really does say the Lord will do judgment work when He comes in the last days, that the Lord will come secretly at midnight in secret as the Son of man. He’ll stand at the door and knock, God’s sheep hear God’s voice, and only the wise virgins can hear God’s voice while the foolish virgins can’t…. I think everything you said is right. I’d never heard that before, but there are biblical bases for all of it and the facts line up. What you said involves prophecies of the Lord’s coming. If the Lord Jesus really has returned, this is a serious and major event. I have to seek this. I’m concerned I really have become a Pharisee and lost God’s salvation. I need to seek the truth about God’s work of the last days.” He then raised a question: “The Lord Jesus redeemed us through His crucifixion and took on all of our sin so He doesn’t see us as sinful, and when He comes we can go straight into heaven. Why does He also need to do this stage of judgment work?”

I was so happy to hear that my dad had that kind of understanding and seeking. To answer his question, we watched a clip from the movie Song of Victory called Why Does the Lord Come Back to Do the Judgment Work in the Last Days? The sister in it read two passages of Almighty God’s words: “Before man was redeemed, many of Satan’s poisons had already been planted within him and, after thousands of years of being corrupted by Satan, he has within him an established nature that resists God. Therefore, when man has been redeemed, it is nothing more than a case of redemption in which man is bought at a high price, but the poisonous nature within him has not been eliminated. Man that is so defiled must undergo a change before becoming worthy to serve God. By means of this work of judgment and chastisement, man will fully come to know the filthy and corrupt essence within his own self, and he will be able to change completely and become clean. Only in this way can man become worthy to return before the throne of God. All the work done this day is so that man can be made clean and be changed; through judgment and chastisement by the word, as well as through refinement, man can purge away his corruption and be made pure. Rather than deeming this stage of work to be that of salvation, it would be more apt to say it is the work of purification. In truth, this stage is that of conquest as well as the second stage in the work of salvation. It is through judgment and chastisement by the word that man arrives at being gained by God, and it is through the use of the word to refine, judge, and disclose that all of the impurities, notions, motives, and individual aspirations within man’s heart are completely revealed” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)). “The sins of man could be forgiven through the sin offering, but as for just how man can be made to sin no more, and how his sinful nature may be extirpated completely and transformed, he has no way of solving this problem. The sins of man were forgiven, and this is because of the work of God’s crucifixion, but man continued to live within his corrupt satanic disposition of old. This being so, man must be completely saved from his corrupt satanic disposition, so that his sinful nature may be completely extirpated, never to develop again, thus enabling the disposition of man to be transformed. This would require man to grasp the path of growth in life, to grasp the way of life, and to grasp the way to change his disposition. Furthermore, it would require man to act in accordance with this path, so that his disposition may gradually be changed and he may live under the shining of the light, so that all that he does may be in accord with the will of God, so that he may cast away his corrupt satanic disposition, and so that he may break free from Satan’s influence of darkness, thereby emerging fully from sin. Only then will man receive complete salvation” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)). Then she shared this fellowship, “The Lord Jesus’ redemption work in the Age of Grace just forgave man’s sins, but our sinful nature remains. This is our satanic nature and satanic dispositions, which are deeply rooted in our hearts and have become our lives. That’s why we can’t help but sin and resist God. Our satanic nature is the root of that. God can forgive our sins, but our sinful nature is deeply entrenched and it long ago became our very life. That can’t be forgiven. That’s why God has to express the truth to judge and chastise us to fully save us from the bonds of our satanic nature. God does the judgment work of the last days targeted at the satanic nature and dispositions inside of corrupt mankind. Some may ask if this can only be resolved through judgment and chastisement. If we undergo sufferings, pay a price, subdue our bodies, and exercise restraint, can we resolve our satanic nature? Absolutely not. Just as Paul said, ‘For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not’ (Romans 7:18). We’ve all had this kind of experience. We’ve suffered, paid a price, and subdued our bodies to escape sinfulness and transcend the flesh, but who has overcome Satan and become a person who is truly submissive to God? Almost no one. This shows that left to our own devices, we can’t resolve our satanic nature. We have to undergo God’s judgment, chastisement, trials, and refinement to gain the truth and completely resolve our satanic nature. Therefore, on the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ redemption work, in the last days, Almighty God judges and chastises man, expresses all truths which cleanse and save man, and reveals the mysteries of God’s 6,000-year management work, like the inside story of His work in the Ages of Law, Grace, and Kingdom and what’s accomplished in each, the significance of His judgment work in the last days and of His names, the mystery of the incarnation, the inside story of the Bible, how He ends the age, how Christ’s kingdom comes into being, and every type of person’s outcome. He also exposes the root of evil and darkness of the world and the truth of mankind’s corruption by Satan. He judges and exposes our satanic nature and dispositions that oppose God. And so on. We’ve undergone a few years of judgment and chastisement of God’s words, understood our God-resisting satanic nature, which satanic poisons and dispositions are within our satanic nature, and we’ve seen the truth of how Satan has deeply corrupted us. We’ve begun to gain some understanding of God’s righteous, unoffendable disposition and we’ve fallen down before God in regret, hating ourselves. We’ve started focusing on practicing the truth and living by God’s words. Our corrupt dispositions are slowly changing and being cleansed. We lie, sin, and resist God less. These are all results achieved through God’s judgment work of the last days. Only Almighty God’s judgment work in the last days is the work of fully cleansing and saving man. This is a fact.”

My dad watched the whole thing attentively. His words were few, but he said sincerely, “I get it now. I want to look into Almighty God’s work of the last days.” I gave him a copy of the book of God’s words, God’s Sheep Hear the Voice of God, and he started reading Almighty God’s words every morning. Even though sometimes he’d compare it against the Bible, after investigating for a while he saw that Almighty God’s words are the truth and are God’s voice. He became certain that Almighty God is the Lord Jesus returned and accepted His work of the last days.

Before long, our old pastor heard my dad had accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days and came with a missionary and another co-worker to try to stop and disturb him. My dad bore witness to God’s work of the last days to them and said earnestly, “I’ve served the Lord for years. I know the Bible well and I seem devout and faithful, but I didn’t seek the truth or humbly investigate when I heard the Lord had returned. I ignored all sorts of Bible prophecies about the Lord returning to do the work of judgment in the last days and even kicked my son out of the house when he preached this gospel with me. I’m so rebellious! I thought I understood the Bible really well and no one could convince me otherwise, but reading Almighty God’s words really moved me. Now I understand that only seekers of the truth can hear God’s voice and gain His salvation in the last days.” Hearing his fellowship and thinking back on how he’d resisted and accepted God’s new work, I was moved to tears. I thanked God from the bottom of my heart. I really saw that God’s words are the truth and can conquer the hearts of man. No matter how strong someone’s religious notions or how rebellious their disposition, if they have some desire to seek and read God’s words they will hear God’s voice and see His appearance. Just like the Lord Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).

My whole family, all seven of us, have now accepted Almighty God’s work of the last days, and I’m much more confident to preach the gospel now.