By Hosea, Vietnam

In August 2020, a sister invited me to an online gathering of The Church of Almighty God. By reading the words of Almighty God, seeking, and investigating, I felt certain that the word of Almighty God was the voice of God, and that Almighty God was the returned Lord Jesus. I was very thrilled and very excited. My older brothers were also looking forward to the Lord’s return. I knew I had to quickly tell them the good news so that they could also accept the work of God in the last days. So, I preached the gospel to my third brother, and he told our oldest brother, a church leader, about the news of the Lord’s coming. Unexpectedly, after my oldest brother found out, he came to my house in a fury that night.

As soon as my oldest brother came into the room, he asked me, “Hosea, you said the Lord Jesus has already returned and is doing a new stage of work?” I replied, “Yes, I was just about to tell you about this.” My brother then said to me angrily, “How could that be possible? The Lord Jesus has forgiven our sins. When He returns, He will directly lift us up into the kingdom of heaven. How could He possibly do new work?” I urged my brother not to be angry, and to just sit down and listen to what I had to say. I told him, “Although the Lord Jesus forgave our sins, we can still sin, and our sinful nature is still there. God says: ‘You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy’ (Leviticus 11:45). We can’t see the Lord if we aren’t holy, and we can’t enter the kingdom of heaven if we haven’t been cleansed of sin. We still need God to do the work of judgment to remove our sinful nature and solve the problem of sin at the root.” My brother seemed confused and said, “The Lord Jesus was crucified to bear all of our sins. The Lord no longer regards us as sinners. You say we haven’t been cleansed, but that is your own idea. The Bible doesn’t say that. Don’t you know what the Bible says? ‘For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation’ (Romans 10:10). Aren’t we already saved by believing in the Lord? Why would the Lord still need to do new work?” I quickly explained, “Brother, what you’ve said are Paul’s words, not the Lord Jesus’ words. The Lord Jesus never said that those who are saved by faith can enter the kingdom of heaven. The Lord Jesus says very clearly who can enter the kingdom of heaven: ‘Not every one that said to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of My Father which is in heaven’ (Matthew 7:21). Brother, we have to follow God’s will and act by God’s words to enter the kingdom of heaven. Do we meet this standard? We still often sin, and we can’t carry out the words of the Lord. The Lord Jesus asks us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Are we able to? Not only can we not love them, we can be jealous, hate them, and we often live in sin. We are not qualified to enter the kingdom of heaven. This is why God returns in the last days to speak to do the work of judgment. He does it to get rid of people’s sinful natures, solve the problem of our sin at the root, and thoroughly cleanse and save us. The Lord Jesus Himself prophesied, ‘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 1 Peter 4:17 says: ‘For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.’” Without waiting for me to finish speaking, my brother snapped back at me, saying, “Enough! You claim the Lord will do another stage of salvation work when He returns. Doesn’t that mean the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption is meaningless? Wouldn’t it be in vain?” After hearing what my brother said, I felt a little anxious. How could I fellowship so that he could understand God’s work and get rid of his notions? This is when I thought of a passage of Almighty God’s words: “Though Jesus did much work among man, He only completed the redemption of all mankind and became man’s sin offering; He did not rid man of all his corrupt disposition. Fully saving man from the influence of Satan not only required Jesus to become the sin offering and bear the sins of man, but it also required God to do even greater work to rid man completely of his satanically corrupted disposition. And so, now that man has been forgiven of his sins, God has returned to the flesh to lead man into the new age, and begun the work of chastisement and judgment. This work has brought man into a higher realm. All those who submit under His dominion shall enjoy higher truth and receive greater blessings. They shall truly live in the light, and they shall gain the truth, the way, and the life” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Preface). God’s words made my heart clear and bright. I said to my brother, “That God returns in the last days to do the work of judgment doesn’t mean that the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption is meaningless. The Lord Jesus forgave people’s sins so that they would no longer be condemned and executed by the law, but what the Lord Jesus did was only the work of redemption, not the work of purifying and saving people. We are all still living in sin. Without God’s work of judgment in the last days, we can’t escape sin and enter God’s kingdom.” When he saw he couldn’t refute me, he got very angry and said, “You’ve believed in Almighty God for a short time, but you’ve learned a lot. Whatever I say, you have something to refute me, so there’s nothing I can say to you!” After that, he left in a rage. I thought, “He believes in the Lord and has yearned for the Lord’s coming every day, so why, after hearing of the Lord’s return, did he not only not look into it, but actually get so angry? Maybe, because he has too many religious notions, he can’t get his head around it right away. I’ll have to find another chance to fellowship with him.”

Soon, my two sisters-in-law came to my house after learning that I believed in Almighty God. They said, “Hosea, you believe in Almighty God, you pray to that name, not the name of the Lord. This is betraying the Lord and becoming an apostate!” “The Lord Jesus alone is our God. We shall never depart from the name of the Lord to worship other gods. You must quickly confess your sins and repent to the Lord!” I explained to them, “You say that because you don’t understand yet. You haven’t read the words of Almighty God, so you don’t know that He is the returned Lord Jesus. Almighty God and the Lord Jesus are one Spirit and one God. God just uses different names in different ages. In the Age of Law, God’s name was Jehovah, but in the Age of Grace, God’s name was Jesus. God’s name changed, but can you say that the Lord Jesus and Jehovah were not the same God? Can you say that believing in the Lord Jesus was betraying Jehovah God? Almighty God, the Lord Jesus, and Jehovah are one God.” Then I showed my sisters-in-law a video of a reading of God’s words. Almighty God says: “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”). After reading God’s words, I fellowshipped with my sisters-in-law, “God’s name changes with the age and the stage of God’s work. God goes by different names in different ages, one name for each age, and each name represents the work of God in each age. In the Age of Law, God decreed the laws under the name ‘Jehovah’ and guided humankind to live on earth. In the Age of Grace, Jehovah God’s Spirit incarnated as the Lord Jesus and did the work of redemption for humankind. In the last days, God comes incarnate again as Almighty God to express the truth and do the work of judging and purifying people. From the outside, God’s name and work have changed, but the essence of God is immutable. It has always been the same God working to save humankind.” I also gave them an example: Someone worked in a hospital, and everyone called him “doctor,” but one day, he decides to teach, and everyone calls him “teacher,” and later, he goes to preach at a church, and others call him “pastor.” Do you see? His work has changed, and what others call him has changed, but he is still the same person. It’s still him. In the same way, God uses different names in different ages, but God’s essence and identity haven’t changed, and He is still the same God. When we pray in the name of Almighty God, we are not betraying the Lord and being apostates, we are welcoming the Lord and following His footsteps. As I was talking, my oldest brother and third brother suddenly came. My oldest brother interrupted me angrily. “Enough, enough, don’t talk to him anymore. There’s no winning with him. Whatever you say, he has an answer, so why bother?” My third brother said that I was wrong in my faith, and he told me to turn back as soon as possible. I said to him, “Brother, you too have heard the words of Almighty God and acknowledged that He is the Lord Jesus returned, so why don’t you dare follow Him? You believe in the Lord but you aren’t listening to His words, but the words of humans. Is this not foolish?” To this my third brother replied angrily, “You … you say Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus. Then go preach to the pastors. If the pastors say this is the true way, then let’s believe it together, but if not, then come back to the church and believe with us.” My sisters-in-law chimed in in agreement, saying, “Yeah, you’re all blood brothers. You can’t each go your own way.” When I saw how my brothers and sisters-in-law worshipped the pastors, I told them, “We believers should submit to and honor God above all. We can’t blindly obey what people say. Especially when it comes to welcoming the Lord, we can’t let the pastors decide. The Lord Jesus said God’s sheep hear His voice. We should focus on listening for God’s voice so that we can welcome the Lord. When the Lord Jesus came to work, those who believed in Judaism didn’t seek to hear God’s voice. They blindly followed the Pharisees in resisting and condemning the Lord Jesus. As a result, they lost the Lord’s salvation. This is a lesson for us.” But no matter what I said, my brothers and sisters-in-law just wouldn’t listen, and they insisted that it couldn’t be wrong to listen to the pastors. Seeing their attitude, I thought, “They worship the pastors so much that if the pastors accepts it, they might also accept it.”

One day in January 2021, Pastor Jaxon and Leader Elian came to my house, and I took the chance to preach the gospel to them. After a few introductory pleasantries, Pastor Jaxon asked, “You say that the Lord Jesus has returned in the flesh. Do you have any Biblical basis for this?” I said, “Matthew 24:37 says: ‘As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.’ And 24:44 says: ‘Therefore be you also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes.’ 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.’ These prophecies mention ‘the coming of the Son of man’ and ‘the Son of man comes.’ So, who is the Son of man? The Son of man refers to the incarnation of God. The Lord Jesus was the Son of man because He was the incarnation of God’s Spirit. The Spirit cannot be called the Son of man. So, the prophecy saying that the Lord returns as the Son of man in the last days means He will come incarnate. If the spiritual body of the Lord Jesus after resurrection descended upon clouds and appeared to all with great glory, then who would dare resist or condemn Him? In this case, how could the Lord Jesus’ prophecy of ‘First must He suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation’ be fulfilled? Only if God comes incarnate as the Son of man, who appears as an ordinary and normal person, in a form people don’t recognize, can He be condemned and rejected. Therefore, according to the Lord Jesus’ prophecy, the Lord returns incarnate in the last days, and this is absolutely certain!” Leader Elian said, “These Bible verses that mention ‘the Son of man’ refer to the Lord Jesus.” I said, “Brother Elian, the Lord Jesus speaks very clearly. These are prophecies about the Lord’s return, not the Lord Jesus.” Pastor Jaxon said, “The Bible clearly says: ‘And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory’ (Matthew 24:30). The Lord will return upon a cloud, but you say He will come incarnate. Don’t these things conflict? We are waiting for the Lord Jesus who comes on a cloud. Now, the time is near, all kinds of disasters have appeared, and the Lord is about to come on a cloud to take us to the kingdom of heaven. After all these years of belief in the Lord, you’re nearly there, but you just want to give it all up. It’s really a pity!” I said, “Pastor Jaxon, the prophecy you just mentioned is also true, but God’s incarnation doesn’t contradict His coming on clouds. I didn’t understand this question at first. Later, after reading the words of Almighty God, I realized that the Lord’s return happens in two steps. First, He comes secretly as the Son of man to express the truth to do the work of judgment, then after a group of overcomers is made, God sends great disasters to reward good and punish evil. After the disasters, God descends on clouds and appears openly to all. At that time, all those who resist and condemn Almighty God will weep and gnash their teeth, which completely fulfills the prophecy of the Lord coming on clouds, ‘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). So tell me, if God hadn’t come to do His work and disclose these mysteries, how would we humans have possibly known of them?” At that time, the pastor and the others were surprised to hear that and all fell silent. I read a passage of Almighty God’s words to them: “When you see Jesus descend from the heaven upon a white cloud with your own eyes, this will be the public appearance of the Sun of righteousness. Perhaps that will be a time of great excitement for you, yet you should know that the time when you witness Jesus descend from the heaven is also the time when you go down to hell to be punished. That will be the time of the end of God’s management plan and it will be when God rewards the good and punishes the wicked. For the judgment of God will have ended before man sees signs, when there is only the expression of truth. Those who accept the truth and do not seek signs, and thus have been purified, shall have returned before the throne of God and entered the Creator’s embrace. Only those who persist in the belief that ‘The Jesus who does not ride upon a white cloud is a false Christ’ shall be subjected to everlasting punishment, for they only believe in the Jesus who exhibits signs, but do not acknowledge the Jesus who proclaims severe judgment and releases the true way and life. And so it can only be that Jesus deals with them when He openly returns upon a white cloud. They are too stubborn, too confident in themselves, too arrogant. How could such degenerates be rewarded by Jesus? The return of Jesus is a great salvation for those who are capable of accepting the truth, but for those who are unable to accept the truth it is a sign of condemnation. You should choose your own path, and should not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and reject the truth. You should not be an ignorant and arrogant person, but someone who obeys the guidance of the Holy Spirit and longs for and seeks the truth; only in this way will you benefit” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. By the Time You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus, God Will Have Made Heaven and Earth Anew). Everyone present was stunned when they heard God’s authoritative words. After a while, the pastor said, “You just said these are God’s new words? That isn’t right. God’s words are all in the Bible, and there are none of God’s words outside the Bible. If any exist, they are additions to the Bible. Revelation clearly states: ‘I testify to every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add to these things, God shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book’ (Revelation 22:18–19). The Bible says that whosoever adds to these words or takes away from these words shall not receive the fruits of the tree of life.” I said, “Pastor Jaxon, when it says nothing can be added or subtracted, it is warning people not to arbitrarily add or delete prophecies in the Book of Revelation, it does not mean that God will no longer speak new words. The Lord Jesus Himself 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 Jesus said very clearly, when He returns in the last days, He will express many words to guide us into all truths. According to your understanding, when God returns in the last days, He will no longer speak and work. Then how will these words of the Lord Jesus be fulfilled and accomplished? God is the truth, the source of life, the ever-flowing fountain of living water. You delimit God’s words and work within the Bible, as if God could only say these words in the Bible. Isn’t this delimiting and belittling God?” Pastor Jaxon stopped talking after hearing my words. I thought, “I used to worship pastors. I thought they were familiar with the Bible and had knowledge of God. To my shock, they don’t understand the Bible, and they even delimit God’s work.”

After several debates, the pastor saw that I was firm in my belief, and then used many fallacies to mislead me, which I refuted using God’s words, and I testified to God’s work in the last days, but they didn’t listen at all. At the end of the debate, when Pastor Jaxon saw he couldn’t refute me, he didn’t say anything. Leader Elian, who came with him, said to me, “Hosea, we want you to stop believing in Almighty God because we are being responsible for your life. We are doing this out of love. We fear you will take the wrong path. People who understand the Bible like you should be leaders at the church and cooperate with our work. That would be wonderful.” When I heard him say this, I thought of the words of the devil who tempted the Lord Jesus in the Bible: “Again, the devil takes Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and shows Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and said to Him, All these things will I give You, if You will fall down and worship me” (Matthew 4:8–9). Their asking me to be a leader at the church was the devil’s temptation. They thought that if they seduced me with prestige and status, I would go with them. Prestige and status were far too important to them! They heard the news of the Lord’s coming, but rather than seek and investigate, they tried to lure me away from the true way. It was so insidious! So, I rejected them, saying, “I’m not going back to the church. Now, the Lord Jesus has returned to do new work. He no longer works in the churches of the Age of Grace. What good would it do me to go to church? We should accept God’s new work and follow God, or we will be abandoned and eliminated by the Lord! It’s just like when the Lord Jesus came to work. The disciples heard the words of the Lord Jesus, recognized the Lord’s voice, followed the Lord, and gained the Lord’s salvation, while those who kept the Old Testament laws in the temple were abandoned and eliminated by the Lord. Of all people, you should be most aware of this fact. The Lord has returned in the last days. If we don’t listen to His voice, how can we welcome Him? The Lord Jesus said: ‘My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me’ (John 10:27). Revelation also prophesied many times: ‘He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches’ (Revelation Chapters 2, 3). Also, ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me’ (Revelation 3:20). Pastor Jaxon, in welcoming the Lord, the most important thing is listening for the Lord’s voice. If we hear that someone testifies He has returned, we must put aside our notions, seek, and investigate. Otherwise, we won’t be able to welcome the Lord and enter the kingdom of heaven. There’s no use in continuing to try to persuade me. I have already welcomed the Lord and come to attend the Lamb’s wedding feast. No matter what, I will continue to follow Almighty God.” Seeing my resolute attitude, the pastor said he would give me a few more days to think things through, and he also forbade me from preaching the gospel in the church. He also told my family to keep trying to persuade me. After that, the pastor left in a huff. My family were very angry when they saw that I didn’t listen to the pastor, so they all came over to scold me, and my second brother even threatened me using violence. I said, “Please, what did I do wrong that you want to hit me? The Lord has come. I’ve just listened to His voice and welcomed Him. Why are you treating me like this? Are you still believers in God? Do you believe in God or do you believe in the pastor? Just for accepting God’s work of the last days, the pastor obstructs and disturbs me like this. I think these pastors and leaders are hypocritical Pharisees. Now God has returned, He is doing new work, and He has expressed so many truths, but they don’t seek and investigate themselves, and they hinder others from welcoming the Lord. They even use status to lure me away from the true way, saying it is for the sake of my life. Isn’t this just a lie? They are trying to entrap me and ruin me! The Lord Jesus exposed the Pharisees, saying: ‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in. … For you compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves’ (Matthew 23:13, 15). What’s the difference between these pastors and leaders and the Pharisees? How can you stand on their side?” But my oldest brother and second brother simply wouldn’t listen and even wanted to cut ties with me. It made me very sad to see them being so heartless. When they were in trouble, I tried my best to help them, but now they were treating me like this. How did the good brothers I knew in the past come to this? How were these people my family?

That night, I lay in bed and couldn’t sleep. Thinking about it was so painful that I couldn’t hold back the tears. I prayed to God, asking God to give me faith and guide me to understand His intention so that I could know how to experience this environment. I remembered that the Lord Jesus said: “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household” (Matthew 10:34–36). “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18). The Lord’s words are true, and the Lord’s prophecies were already fulfilled. Just because I accepted God’s work of the last days, my pastor and brothers tried to hinder and persecute me. They didn’t hate me, they hated God. After thinking about what had happened in recent days, I was grateful to God. God’s word helped me overcome the disturbance and hindrance of my pastor and family, and also gave me some discernment about them.

One day, a sister learned of my situation and sent me a passage of Almighty God’s words: “Do not be discouraged, do not be weak, and I will make things clear for you. The road to the kingdom is not so smooth; nothing is that simple! You want blessings to come to you easily, do you not? Today, everyone will have bitter trials to face. Without such trials, the loving heart you have for Me will not grow stronger and you will not have true love for Me. Even if these trials consist merely of minor circumstances, everyone must pass through them; it’s just that the difficulty of the trials will vary from one person to another. Trials are a blessing from Me, and how many of you come often before Me and beg on your knees for My blessings? Silly children! You always think that a few auspicious words count as My blessing, yet you do not recognize that bitterness is one of My blessings. Those who share in My bitterness will certainly share in My sweetness. That is My promise and My blessing to you. Do not hesitate to eat and drink and enjoy My words. When the dark passes, light gathers. It is darkest before dawn; after this time the sky gradually brightens, and then the sun rises. Do not be afraid or timid” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Utterances of Christ in the Beginning, Chapter 41). She fellowshipped with me, “We believe in Almighty God and have welcomed the Lord, but Satan doesn’t want us to be saved or gained by God, so it uses various means to hinder and disturb us. But God allows this. God wants to reveal our faith as true or false. Someone with genuine faith, God’s sheep, can stand up to the test. No matter how Satan disturbs them, they can persist in following God. Those who do not belong to God, who believe falsely, will withdraw when Satan disturbs them. This is the wisdom of God exercised based on the schemes of Satan. Now you are being disturbed and hindered by your pastor and family. This is a test. After experiencing this, you will understand some truth and see certain things clearly. You will also develop faith in God. These are things we can’t gain in a comfortable environment. This suffering is worthwhile!” After listening to the sister’s fellowship, I understood that the pastor’s and my family’s hindrance and disturbance seemed to be done by humans, but in fact, it was all Satan’s disturbance, trying to make me lose God’s salvation. Satan really is hateful! Through this incident, I gained some discernment of the pastor, and my desire to follow God grew firmer.

A few days later, seeing that I still believed in Almighty God, my uncle also came to dissuade me, saying that in matters of faith, I should listen to the pastors and go back to the church to believe in God. I said, “I have finally welcomed the Lord, so no matter what, I will follow Almighty God. I won’t go back to church. When the Lord Jesus came to work, the believers in Judaism thought the Pharisees knew better and followed them in resisting and condemning the Lord. As a result, they were cursed and punished. As believers in God, we must listen to God’s words. If the pastors’ words and actions aren’t in line with God’s words, we can’t listen to them. I told the pastors that God returns in the last days to express many truths, which is proved in the Bible, and the prophecies of the Lord Jesus, and they had no way to refute it, but they had no desire to seek at all, tried to stop me from welcoming the Lord, and wouldn’t let me preach the gospel to any of my brothers or sisters. Do you think what they did is in line with God’s words? You don’t seek and investigate God’s work of the last days. You listen to whatever the pastors say. You’ve never read the words of Almighty God, so how can you know whether they’re true or false? It’s like crossing a river. If one person says the water is deep and someone else says it’s shallow, who do you believe? Won’t you know the truth if you wade in yourself? If you believe in the Lord, but don’t listen to Him, and insist on listening to the pastors, in the end, when the pastors go to hell, won’t you also go to hell? Isn’t this the blind leading the blind into the pit?” My uncle then anxiously said, “Aren’t you afraid the pastors and the others will report you to the government and have you arrested?” I said resolutely, “No matter if they report me to the government, no matter what the government does to me, even if I am persecuted, I will follow Almighty God!” That day, my uncle continuously tried to persuade me, but I didn’t listen to him.

A week later, to prevent the pastor from bothering me again, I went to the pastors and leaders, told them I was determined to believe in Almighty God and would not go back to church, and asked them not to talk to me again. Unexpectedly, the pastor refused to give up, and said to me, “This Eastern Lightning you believe in is not the Lord’s return. If you keep believing, you are betraying the Lord.” I told him, “The Lord Jesus prophesied His return, saying: ‘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). Doesn’t the appearance of Eastern Lightning exactly fulfill His prophecy?” When Pastor Jaxon saw that he couldn’t refute me, he got angry and started judging and condemning God’s work. His words made me very angry. I remembered that the Lord Jesus said: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). God’s sheep hear His voice. These pastors don’t understand God’s voice, and they even judge and blaspheme God. They are not God’s sheep. They are of the devil. I said to them, “In the past, the Pharisees judged and condemned the Lord Jesus. Now you hear that the Lord has returned, but you don’t seek or investigate. Even though you see that Almighty God’s words are spoken so well, you still condemn and resist. Aren’t you just modern Pharisees?” The pastors and leaders were very angry when I said this, and they forced me to sign a statement saying that I no longer believed in the Lord Jesus. I found this somewhat bizarre and said, “Why would I sign that? Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus, and I believe in Almighty God, which is welcoming the Lord. How can you say I don’t believe in the Lord Jesus? Isn’t that distorting the facts? On what basis are you claiming that by believing in Almighty God I’m betraying the Lord Jesus? According to you, when the Lord Jesus came to work, the Lord’s disciples like Peter and John all left the temple and followed the Lord Jesus. Can you say that they betrayed Jehovah God? Certainly not. They kept up with God’s new work. In the same way, now the Lord Jesus has returned to do new work, and by believing in Almighty God I’m following the footsteps of the Lamb. How can this be a betrayal of the Lord Jesus? I will not sign anything like that!” I saw the pastors’ intention. When they made me sign the statement declaring that I didn’t believe in the Lord Jesus and instead believed in Almighty God, would this not mean I was denying that Almighty God and the Lord Jesus are one God? If I signed, it would become evidence for them to deny and condemn Almighty God. They were so sinister and malicious! If they took this declaration to the Vietnamese government, I would be persecuted. This was their despicable purpose! That night, we debated until after ten o’clock, but no matter what I said, it was as if the pastors couldn’t understand, and they were obstinate and unreasonable, so I had nothing left to say to them.

The next day, when my family heard this, they came to my house. My mother criticized me for supposedly abandoning them and for insisting on believing in Almighty God. I explained, “Mom, I haven’t abandoned you. I preached the gospel to you many times, but you don’t believe it. You don’t listen to God’s words, only the pastors’. This is your own choice.” My father and older brothers then said that they wanted to cut ties with me, to which I replied helplessly, “Then that’s up to you. I just believe in God, and you persecute me like this, making me choose between you and God, so of course I will choose God. But I never said you aren’t my parents and brothers. Those are your words.” After that, I stopped going to church. I thought the pastors and leaders wouldn’t bother me again. Unexpectedly, one day in April, the church co-worker who managed finances came to me and insisted I go to church to sign a declaration of non-belief in the Lord Jesus. I was furious, “These people won’t leave me alone. Why are they so hateful?” After I sent him away, I calmed myself and prayed to God, and I thought of a passage of Almighty God’s words. Almighty God says: “When God works, cares for a person, and looks upon this person, and when He favors and approves this person, Satan trails closely behind, trying to dupe the person and bring them to harm. If God wishes to gain this person, Satan will do everything in its power to obstruct God, using various evil ploys to tempt, disrupt and impair the work of God, in order to achieve its hidden objective. What is this objective? It does not want God to gain anyone; it wants to snatch possession of those whom God wishes to gain, it wants to control them, to take charge of them so they worship it, so they join it in committing evil acts, and resist God. Is this not Satan’s sinister motive? You often say that Satan is so evil, so bad, but have you seen it? You can see how bad mankind is; you have not seen how bad the real Satan is. Yet in the matter of Job, you have clearly observed just how evil Satan is. This matter has made Satan’s hideous countenance and its essence very clear. In warring with God, and trailing along behind Him, Satan’s objective is to demolish all the work God wants to do, to occupy and control those whom God wants to gain, to completely extinguish those whom God wants to gain. If they are not extinguished, then they come to Satan’s possession, to be used by it—this is its objective” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique IV). Contemplating God’s words, I saw Satan’s tricks more clearly. I saw that these pastors and elders belong to Satan. They are Satan’s accomplices. They tried every means to hinder and disturb my belief in Almighty God to take me away from God. They asked me to sign the declaration denying the Lord Jesus to give them an excuse to condemn me. Their hearts were so malicious! From start to end, they played the role of Satans.

Later, my family also saw through the pastors’ intentions, realizing they wanted me to sign the declaration so they could report me to the government, and my mother said to me, “Hosea, don’t sign that declaration. These pastors are terrible. You haven’t done anything wrong by believing in God, yet this is how they treat you. If you suffer any persecution, I won’t let them get away with it.” I used to worship the pastors. I thought they served the Lord and were good servants of the Lord and that helping them is loving the Lord, so I often gave offerings, both money and goods. When their cars broke down, I always repaired them, no matter how much it cost. Through this experience, I clearly see the real face of the pastors. In the name of protecting the flock, they hinder people from investigating the true way, and stop them from welcoming the Lord and entering the kingdom of heaven. They only want to keep us all under their control, so that we offer more money to them and support them. They are stumbling blocks that prevent people from entering the kingdom of heaven! It’s just as Almighty God’s words say: “There are those who read the Bible in grand churches and recite it all day long, yet not one among them understands the purpose of God’s work. Not one among them is able to know God; still less can any one among them accord with God’s will. They are all worthless, vile people, each standing on high to lecture God. They willfully oppose God even as they carry His banner. Claiming faith in God, still they eat the flesh and drink the blood of man. All such people are devils that devour the soul of man, head demons that deliberately get in the way of those trying to step onto the right path, and stumbling blocks impeding those who seek God. They may appear of ‘sound constitution,’ but how are their followers to know that they are none other than antichrists who lead people to stand against God? How are their followers to know that they are living devils dedicated to the devouring of human souls?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. All People Who Do Not Know God Are People Who Oppose God). I am grateful for God’s protection. It was the word of Almighty God that led and guided me step by step, allowed me to see through Satan’s tricks, see clearly how the pastors hate the truth and resist God, completely free myself from the bondage of evil servants and antichrists, and return to God’s house. My heart was filled with gratitude to God! Now, I enjoy the supply of God’s word every day, I preach the gospel and testify to God with my brothers and sisters, and I feel very fulfilled and happy!