By Kai Lin, China

In April 2023, the upper leaders told me that a leader from Xingyuan Church had been arrested, and that two other leaders had also been questioned by the police at their homes, and due to security risks, they could no longer continue their work in the church. So the upper leaders asked me to go handle the work of the aftermath and support the brothers and sisters. After hearing the leaders say this, I really felt the weight of this responsibility, and I was also somewhat worried, thinking, “This environment is so harsh. Why did they arrange for me to go? What if I get arrested? So many brothers and sisters who were arrested end up being severely tortured. Some can’t withstand the torment and betray God, becoming Judases, while others are beaten to death or disabled. The methods used by the great red dragon to harm people are so cruel. If I am arrested and can’t endure the torture, become a Judas and betray God, then I won’t be saved. Wouldn’t my faith be in vain then?” But then I thought, “I can’t be so selfish and only think about myself. A leader has been arrested, the books of God’s words are in danger and urgently need to be moved, and the brothers and sisters are negative and weak and need to be supported and helped. I need to consider God’s intention and accept this duty.” So I agreed.

After arriving at Xingyuan Church, I learned that the homes of most brothers and sisters had been visited by the Judas Zhang Fen, so they were all security risks. At that time, only Sister Zhang Yu’s home was relatively safe and could be temporarily used for discussing work. But upon meeting Zhang Yu, I learned that a few years before, the police had arrested several sisters at her home, and that before Judas Zhang Fen was arrested, she had also visited Zhang Yu’s home. Hearing this from her made my heart skip a beat, “Will the police be secretly monitoring and watching? What if they arrest me? If I can’t endure the torture and become a Judas, will it not all be over for me? Should I stay or leave quickly? If I stay, I might be at risk of being arrested, but if I leave, there will be no way to discuss the work of handling the aftermath.” I prayed in my heart, asking God to guide me on how to practice. I thought of these words of God: “Is it easy for a person without humanity to gain the truth? It is difficult for them. When they encounter a period of suffering or have to pay some price, they think, ‘You guys go ahead first with all this suffering and paying the price, and after the results have pretty much been achieved, I’ll be along.’ What sort of humanity is this? Such behaviors are known collectively as ‘not possessing humanity.’ … When faced with danger, some people only care about hiding. Some protect others and don’t care about themselves. When something happens to them, some people endure, and some fight. These are differences in humanity” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. In Giving One’s Heart to God, One Can Obtain the Truth). God’s words made me understand that people with good character will protect others first when faced with danger, and that they are willing to endanger themselves to safeguard the interests of God’s house and fulfill their responsibilities. Those without humanity are selfish and despicable, prioritizing their own safety and scrambling to hide when danger approaches, showing no concern for the church’s work or the safety of brothers and sisters. In light of God’s words, I saw that I had been very selfish and that my character was very poor. When faced with danger, I considered myself first, fearing arrest and wanting to escape immediately, and showing no concern for the church’s work or my own duty. Although Zhang Yu’s home had some security risks, in comparison to other homes, it was currently a relatively safe home in the church. I could stay there temporarily to meet with brothers and sisters to discuss work, and move to another place when a more suitable one was found. If I really encountered special circumstances, I should pray to God and handle things with faith and wisdom. So I prayed to God, asking Him to grant me faith and the will to endure suffering.

The next day, I arranged for two brothers to come to Zhang Yu’s home to discuss work. Li Bin, who was from the same village as Zhang Yu, said to me when he saw me, “There are two evil people in my village near Zhang Yu’s home. They will call the police if they see strangers entering the village and find out that they are believers. Some brothers and sisters were arrested before in my village because one of these evil people reported them.” Hearing Li Bin’s words, I felt a bit scared, thinking, “I don’t know if the evil people saw me when I arrived. If I’m reported by them, I’ll definitely be arrested!” At that moment, I remembered a passage from God’s words and looked it up to read. God says: “Regardless of how ‘powerful’ Satan is, regardless of how audacious and ambitious it is, regardless of how great is its ability to inflict damage, regardless of how wide-ranging are the techniques with which it corrupts and lures man, regardless of how clever are the tricks and schemes with which it intimidates man, regardless of how changeable is the form in which it exists, it has never been able to create a single living thing, has never been able to set down laws or rules for the existence of all things, and has never been able to rule and control any object, whether animate or inanimate. Within the cosmos and the firmament, there is not a single person or object that was born from it, or exists because of it; there is not a single person or object that is ruled by it, or controlled by it. On the contrary, it not only has to live under the dominion of God, but, moreover, must submit to all of God’s orders and commands. Without God’s permission, it is difficult for Satan to touch even a drop of water or grain of sand upon the land; without God’s permission, Satan is not even free to move the ants about upon the land, let alone mankind, who was created by God. In the eyes of God, Satan is inferior to the lilies on the mountain, to the birds flying in the air, to the fish in the sea, and to the maggots on the earth. Its role among all things is to serve all things, to serve mankind, and to serve God’s work and His plan of management. Regardless of how malicious its nature, and how evil its essence, the only thing it can do is to dutifully abide by its function: being of service to God, and providing a counterpoint to God. Such is the substance and position of Satan. Its essence is unconnected to life, unconnected to power, unconnected to authority; it is merely a plaything in God’s hands, just a machine in service to God!” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique I). God’s words gave me faith and strength. God is sovereign over everything and controls all things. All things and events are in God’s hands. The CCP and evil people, no matter how rampant they are, are all in God’s hands. In God’s eyes, they are even inferior to the maggots on the earth. They are merely tools that render service for perfecting God’s chosen people. The great red dragon goes to great lengths to capture those who believe in God, but without God’s permission, it can’t do anything to us. Just like the CCP hunts and puts a bounty out on the heads of some brothers and sisters, the party expends so much human and material resources on searching, tracking, and watching, using all kinds of high-tech equipment for monitoring, but without God’s permission, they still can’t capture them. On that day, hearing that there might be evil people reporting me, I felt timid and scared. I saw that while I spoke of believing in God, when it really came down to it, God seemed absent from my heart. My faith in God was so small. Although the environment was harsh, whether I would be arrested or not was in God’s hands. This matter was up to God. With this in mind, I was no longer as afraid. I saw that the two brothers were living in fear and timidity, so I fellowshipped with them about God’s authority and sovereignty. After listening, they gained faith and were willing to do their duties.

Afterward, I wondered, “Why was I so afraid of being arrested and beaten to death? What aspect of the truth should I enter into?” I read that God’s words say: “How did those disciples of the Lord Jesus die? Among the disciples, there were those who were stoned, dragged behind a horse, crucified upside down, dismembered by five horses—every sort of death befell them. What was the reason for their deaths? Were they lawfully executed for their crimes? No. They were condemned, beaten, scolded, and put to death because they spread the Lord’s gospel and were rejected by the people of the world—that is how they were martyred. Let us not speak of the final outcome of those martyrs, or of God’s definition of their conduct, but ask this: When they arrived at the end, did the ways that they met the end of their lives accord with human notions? (No, it did not.) From the perspective of human notions, they paid such a great price to spread the work of God, but were ultimately killed by Satan. This does not accord with human notions, but this is precisely what happened to them. It is what God allowed. What truth can be sought in this? Was God allowing them to die this way His curse and condemnation, or was it His plan and blessing? It was neither. What was it? People now reflect on their deaths with much heartache, but that was how things were. Those who believed in God died that way, how is this to be explained? When we mention this topic, you put yourselves in their position, so are your hearts sad, and do you feel a hidden pain? You think, ‘These people did their duty to spread God’s gospel and should be considered good people, so how could they come to such an end and such an outcome?’ Actually, this was how their bodies died and passed away; this was their means of departure from the human world, yet that did not mean their outcome was the same. No matter what the means of their death and departure was nor how it happened, it was not how God defined the final outcomes of those lives, of those created beings. This is something you must see clearly. On the contrary, they used precisely those means to condemn this world and to testify to God’s deeds. These created beings used their most precious lives—they used the last moment of their lives to testify to God’s deeds, to testify to God’s great power, and to declare to Satan and the world that God’s deeds are right, that the Lord Jesus is God, that He is the Lord, and God’s incarnate flesh. Even down to the final moment of their lives, they never denied the name of the Lord Jesus. Was this not a form of judgment upon this world? They used their lives to proclaim to the world, to confirm to human beings that the Lord Jesus is the Lord, that the Lord Jesus is Christ, that He is God’s incarnate flesh, that the work of redemption He did for all humanity allows humanity to live on—this fact is forever unchanging. Those who were martyred for spreading the gospel of the Lord Jesus, to what extent did they perform their duty? Was it to the ultimate extent? How was the ultimate extent manifested? (They offered their lives.) That’s right, they paid the price with their lives. Family, wealth, and the material things of this life are all external things; the only thing that is related to the self is life. To every living person, life is the thing most worthy of being treasured, the most precious thing and, as it happens, these people were able to offer their most precious possession—life—as confirmation of and testimony to God’s love for mankind. Until the day they died, they did not deny God’s name, nor did they deny God’s work, and they used their last moments of life to testify to the existence of this fact—is this not the highest form of testimony? This is the best way of doing one’s duty; this is what it is to fulfill one’s responsibility. When Satan threatened and terrorized them, and, in the end, even when it made them pay the price of their lives, they did not abandon their responsibility. This is what it is to fulfill one’s duty to the utmost extent. What do I mean by this? Do I mean to have you use the same method to testify of God and to spread His gospel? You do not necessarily need to do so, but you must understand that this is your responsibility, that if God needs you to, you should accept it as something you are honor-bound to do. People today have fear and worry inside them, but what purpose do those feelings serve? If God does not need you to do this, what is the use in worrying about it? If God needs you to do this, you should not shirk this responsibility nor reject it. You should cooperate proactively and accept it without worry. No matter how one dies, they should not die before Satan, and not die in Satan’s hands. If one is going to die, they should die in God’s hands. People came from God, and to God they return—such is the reason and attitude that a created being should possess” (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). After reading God’s words, I understood that the disciples who followed the Lord Jesus suffered persecution from rulers and the religious world for propagating the Lord’s gospel, and they died in all manner of ways. But they paid the price of their lives to bear a beautiful testimony for God and to humiliate Satan. Although their bodies died, their souls were in God’s hands, and their deaths were remembered by God. We, who follow Christ of the last days, suffer the cruel persecution of the Chinese ruling party for propagating the gospel of the kingdom. Many brothers and sisters have been tortured after being arrested, but even on the brink of death, they didn’t deny God’s name or betray Him. Some have been persecuted to death but still didn’t become Judases. They gave their lives to bear witness to God, which was valuable and meaningful. But what about me? Seeing this dangerous environment, I feared being arrested and beaten to death, so I wanted to give up on my duty. I was truly afraid of death! If I only sought to preserve myself and drag out an ignoble existence, even if I protected myself perfectly, I would just be a walking corpse. If I didn’t do my duty well and had no good deeds or testimony before God, then even if I was alive in my flesh, I wouldn’t receive God’s approval, and when I die, I would be punished in hell. Understanding this, I was less constrained by the fear of death.

Later, I read another passage of God’s words and gained a further understanding of myself. God says: “Antichrists are extremely selfish and despicable. They do not have true faith in God, much less loyalty to God; when they encounter an issue, they only protect and safeguard themselves. For them, nothing is more important than their own safety. As long as they can live and won’t get arrested, they don’t care how much harm is done to the work of the church. These people are extremely selfish, they don’t think of the brothers and sisters at all, or of the work of the church, they only think of their own safety. They are antichrists. So when such things befall those who are loyal to God and have true faith in God, how do they handle them? How does what they do differ from what antichrists do? … When those who are loyal to God know clearly that an environment is dangerous, they still brave the risk of doing the work of handling the aftermath, and they keep the losses to God’s house to a minimum before they themselves withdraw. They do not give priority to their own safety. Tell Me, in this wicked country of the great red dragon, who could ensure that there is no danger at all in believing in God and doing a duty? Whatever duty one takes on, it entails some risk—yet the performance of duty is commissioned by God, and while following God, one must take on the risk of doing their duty. One should exercise wisdom, and one has need of taking measures to ensure their safety, but one should not put their personal safety first. They should consider God’s intentions, putting the work of His house first and putting the spread of the gospel first. Completing God’s commission of them is what matters most, and it comes first. Antichrists give top priority to their personal safety; they believe that nothing else has anything to do with them. They do not care when something happens to someone else, regardless of who it might be. As long as nothing bad happens to the antichrists themselves, they feel at ease. They are devoid of any loyalty, which is determined by the antichrists’ nature essence. In the environment of mainland China, is it possible to avoid taking on any risks and to ensure nothing bad happens while doing one’s duty? Even the most cautious person can’t guarantee that. But caution is necessary. Being well-prepared in advance will improve things a little, and it can help to minimize losses when something does go wrong. If there’s no preparation at all, the losses will be substantial. Can you see the difference between these two situations clearly? Therefore, no matter if it’s regarding gatherings or the performance of any kind of duty, it’s best to be cautious, and it’s necessary to take some preventive measures. When a loyal person performs their duty they can think a bit more comprehensively and thoroughly. They want to arrange these things as well as they can so that if something goes wrong, the losses are minimized. They feel that they must achieve this result. Someone who lacks loyalty doesn’t consider these things. They think that these things don’t matter, and they don’t treat them as their responsibility or duty. When something goes wrong, they don’t feel any sense of blame. This is a manifestation of a lack of loyalty. Antichrists show no loyalty to God. When they are assigned work, they accept it quite happily, and make some nice declarations, but when danger comes, they run away the fastest; they are the first to run, the first to escape. This shows that their selfishness and despicableness are particularly severe. They have no sense of responsibility or loyalty at all. When faced with a problem, they only know how to flee and how to hide, and think only of protecting themselves, never considering their responsibilities or duties. For the sake of their own personal safety, antichrists consistently display their selfish and despicable nature. They do not prioritize the work of God’s house or their own duties. Even less do they prioritize the interests of God’s house. Instead, they prioritize their own safety” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part Two)). God exposes that antichrists are really selfish and despicable, and that when danger comes, they are the first to run and escape, as if the work of God’s house, the interests of God’s house, and the lives of brothers and sisters don’t concern them. Pondering God’s words, I reflected on myself. Were the things I revealed not the same as those of an antichrist? When the leaders and workers were arrested, the church arranged for me to come and transfer the books of God’s words and support the brothers and sisters. This was crucial, but I worried that if I were arrested, couldn’t stand firm, and became a Judas, then my faith would have been in vain. So I didn’t want to do this duty. I thought about how I had enjoyed the watering and provision of so many of God’s words, yet in the face of difficulties, I only considered my own interests and safety, without protecting the interests of God’s house at all, and did not think about how to quickly transfer the books of God’s words or support the brothers and sisters. I was truly lacking in conscience and humanity! Realizing this, I prayed to God, “God, I always worry about being arrested, and I constantly want to escape from this environment and ignore the interests of the church. I am truly selfish! God, whether or not I will be arrested is in Your hands. If You permit me to be arrested, I won’t be able to escape, but if You don’t allow me to be arrested, the police can’t capture me. I am willing to submit to Your orchestrations and arrangements and fulfill my duty. Please give me faith and the will to endure suffering.” Afterward, I learned that the Judas hadn’t been to He Fang’s home, so I asked several brothers and sisters to gather there. Through reading God’s words and fellowshipping together, the brothers and sisters came to understand how to rely on God to experience amid persecution and tribulation. Everyone gained some faith and was willing to do their duties. The books of God’s words were also transferred safely.

One afternoon in November 2023, I received a letter from the upper leaders, saying that the leaders and several sisters from my hometown church had lost contact, and that this was likely because they had been arrested, and so they were asking me to go and look into the situation, and if anything were to happen, to handle the aftermath, and transfer the offerings and books of God’s words. I felt conflicted, thinking, “The environment at that church is so dire, and the brothers and sisters who have lost contact all know me. If they’ve been arrested, could I be implicated? It’d be so dangerous for me to handle the aftermath!” I was reluctant to go. Later, I read a passage of God’s words: “Some churches are in hostile environments in which people are often arrested, and because of this, it’s very easy for the houses where offerings are safeguarded to be sold out, and to be raided and searched by the great red dragon—the offerings may be plundered by demons at any time. Are such places appropriate for storing offerings? (No.) So, if they’ve already been put there, what’s to be done? Move them right away.… When a situation has just arisen and they foresee that the offerings are in danger, they should move them promptly, to keep them from being taken possession of and devoured by the great red dragon demon. This is the only way to ensure the safety of the offerings, and to avoid any pitfalls or slip-ups occurring. This is work leaders and workers should do. As soon as there’s the slightest sign of danger, as soon as someone is arrested, as soon as a situation arises, leaders’ and workers’ first thought should be whether the offerings are safe, whether they might fall into the hands of evil people, or be taken into their possession, or be snatched away by demons, and whether the offerings have suffered any losses. They should promptly take measures to protect the offerings. This is the responsibility of leaders and workers” (The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (12)). After reading God’s words, I understood that it is the responsibility of leaders and workers to protect the offerings and the books of God’s words. Since the CCP was cracking down on the church in my hometown and nobody was handling the aftermath, and I was relatively familiar with that church, I had to consider God’s intention and protect the church’s work. If I avoided handling the aftermath out of fear of being arrested, and if the offerings and books were to be snatched away by the great red dragon, then I would be committing evil. Realizing this, I returned to the church in my hometown that evening.

After returning, I learned that the church leaders had indeed been arrested, and that other brothers and sisters were also being arrested constantly. The books at some houses for storage were in urgent need of being transferred, but I couldn’t find a suitable place at that time, so I was in a difficult situation. Later, I watched the experiential testimony video Tested by a Double Predicament and the sister’s experience was very edifying for me. The sister, facing the dual predicament of police arrests and the lockdown due to the pandemic, still insisted on doing her duty. My current environment wasn’t that severe, so I needed to rely on God even more to do my duty well. Not long after, the upper leaders sent a letter saying that a house for storage had been found in another church, so we quickly arranged for a vehicle to transfer the books of God’s words over there. After that, with the cooperation of the brothers and sisters, the offerings and the books of God’s words were transferred to safe places. Through this experience, I gained some faith, and understood that no matter how dire the environment, persevering in one’s duty and protecting the church’s work is what a created being should do. Thank God!