Relevant Words of God:

My entire management plan, the six-thousand-year management plan, consists of three stages, or three ages: the Age of Law of the beginning; the Age of Grace (which is also the Age of Redemption); and the Age of Kingdom of the last days. My work in these three ages differs in content according to each age, but at each stage this work is performed according to the needs of man—or, to be more precise, is done according to the tricks that Satan employs in the war that I wage against it. The purpose is to defeat Satan, to reveal My wisdom and almightiness, to expose all of Satan’s tricks, and thereby to save the entire human race, which lives under Satan’s power. It is to reveal My wisdom and almightiness, and to bring to light the unbearable hideousness of Satan; even more than that, it is to allow created beings to discriminate between good and evil, to know that I am the Sovereign of all things, to see clearly that Satan is the enemy of humanity, a degenerate, the evil one, and to enable them to differentiate, with absolute clarity, between good and evil, truth and fallacy, holiness and filth, and what is great and what is ignoble. It is to enable ignorant humanity to bear witness for Me that it is not I who corrupt humanity, and that it is only I—the Creator—who saves humanity, and bestows upon people the things that they can enjoy; it is to allow them to know that I am the Sovereign of all things and Satan is merely a being that I created and that later betrayed Me. My six-thousand-year management plan is divided into three stages, and I work thus to achieve the effect of enabling created beings to bear witness for Me, understand My intentions, and know that I am the truth.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Real Story of the Work of the Age of Redemption

You must know that regardless of what work He does, the purpose of God’s work does not change, the heart of His work does not change, and His intentions toward man do not change. No matter how harsh His words, no matter how adverse the environment, the principles of His work will not change, and His intention of saving man will not change. Provided that it is not the revelation of the outcome or the destination of man, and is not the work of the final phase, or the work of bringing God’s entire plan of management to an end, and provided that it is during the time He works man, then the heart of His work will not change. It will always be the salvation of mankind. This should be the foundation of your belief in God. The purpose of the three stages of work is the salvation of all mankind—this means the complete salvation of man from the power of Satan. Though each of the three stages of work has a different objective and significance, each is part of the work of saving mankind, and each is different work of salvation carried out according to the requirements of mankind.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Knowing the Three Stages of God’s Work Is the Path to Knowing God

Today we will first summarize God’s thoughts, ideas, and His each and every move since He created mankind. We will take a look at what work He has carried out, from creating the world to the official start of the Age of Grace. We can then discover which of God’s thoughts and ideas are unknown to man, and from there we can clarify the order of God’s management plan, and thoroughly understand the context in which God created His management work, its source and development process, and also thoroughly understand what results He wants from His management work—that is, the core and the purpose of His management work. To understand these things we need to go back to a distant, still and silent time when there were no humans …

God Personally Creates the First Living Person

When God arose from His bed, the first thought that He had was this: to create a living person—a real, living human—someone to live with and be His constant companion; this person could listen to Him, and He could confide in and speak with him. Then, for the first time, God scooped up a handful of dirt and used it to create the very first living person according to the image that He had imagined in His mind, and then He gave this living creature a name—Adam. Once God had this living and breathing person, how did He feel? For the first time, He felt the joy of having a loved one, a companion. He also felt for the first time the responsibility of being a father and the concern that comes along with it. This living and breathing person brought God happiness and joy; He felt comforted for the first time. This was the first thing God had ever done that was not accomplished with His thoughts or even words, but was done with His own hands. When this kind of being—a living and breathing person—stood in front of God, made of flesh and blood, with body and form, and able to speak with God, He experienced a kind of joy He had never felt before. God truly felt His responsibility, and this living being not only tugged at His heart but warmed and moved His heart with every little move he made. When this living being stood in front of God, it was the first time He had the thought to gain more of such people. This was the series of events that began with this first thought that God had. For God, all of these events were occurring for the first time, but in these first events, no matter what He felt at the time—joy, responsibility, concern—there was no one for Him to share it with. Starting from that moment, God truly felt a loneliness and a sadness that He had never experienced before. He felt that man could not accept or comprehend His love and concern, or His intentions for man, so He still felt sorrow and pain in His heart. Although He had done these things for man, man was not aware of it and did not understand. Aside from happiness, the joy and comfort man brought to Him quickly brought with it His first feelings of sorrow and loneliness. These were God’s thoughts and feelings at that time. While God was doing all these things, in His heart He went from joy to sorrow and from sorrow to pain, and these feelings were mixed with anxiety. All He wanted to do was to make haste to let this person, this mankind know what was in His heart and understand His intentions sooner. Then, they could become His followers and share His thoughts and align with His intentions. They would no longer merely listen to God speak and remain speechless; they would no longer be unaware of how to join God in His work; above all, they would no longer be people indifferent to God’s requirements. These first things that God did are very meaningful and hold great value for His management plan and for human beings today.

After creating all things and mankind, God did not rest. He was restless and eager to carry out His management, and to gain the people He so loved among mankind.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III

God considers this instance of His management of mankind, of His salvation of mankind, as more important than anything else. He does these things not merely with His thoughts, and not merely with His words, and even less does He do them in a casual manner—He does all these things with His intentions, while having a plan, a goal, and standards. It can be seen that this instance of God’s work to save mankind holds great significance for both God and man. No matter how hard the work is, no matter how great the obstacles to it are, no matter how weak humans are, or how profound mankind’s rebelliousness is, none of this is difficult for God. God keeps Himself busy, He is expending His heart’s blood, and He is managing the work He wants to carry out; He is also arranging everything, and He is holding sovereignty over all those people He wants to work and all the work He wants to do—all of this is unprecedented. This is the first time God has used these methods and paid such a great price to carry out the massive undertaking of managing and saving mankind. While God is carrying out all this work, little by little He is expressing and releasing to mankind, without any reservation, His heart’s blood, what He has and is, His wisdom and almightiness, and every aspect of His disposition, and His expression and release of these things through these methods is unprecedented. So, in the entire universe, aside from the people who God aims to manage and save, no other creatures have ever been so close to God or had such an intimate relationship with Him. In His heart, the mankind which He wants to manage and save is foremost, and He values this mankind above all else. Even though He has paid a great price for them, and even though He is continually hurt and rebelled against by them, He has no complaints or regrets, He still doesn’t leave them or abandon them, and He keeps performing His work without cease. This is because He knows that sooner or later, the day will come when people awaken to the call of His words, are moved by His words, recognize that He is the Creator, and then return to His side …

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III

Regardless of what God does or the means by which He does it, regardless of the cost, regardless of His objective, the purpose of His actions does not change. His purpose is to work God’s words into man, as well as God’s requirements and intentions for man; in other words, it is to work into man all that God believes to be positive things in accordance with His steps, enabling man to understand God’s heart and to understand and comprehend God’s essence, and enabling man to submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements, thus allowing man to attain fear of God and shunning of evil—all of this is one aspect of God’s purpose in all He does. The other aspect is that, because Satan is the foil and service object in God’s work, man is often given to Satan; this is the means God uses to allow people to see in Satan’s temptations and attacks the wickedness, ugliness, and despicableness of Satan, thus causing people to hate Satan and be able to know and discern negative things. This process allows them to gradually free themselves from Satan’s control, accusations, disturbances, and attacks—until, thanks to God’s words, their knowledge of God, their submission to God, their faith in God, and their fear of God, they completely triumph over the attacks and accusations of Satan; only then will they have been thoroughly delivered from the power of Satan. People’s deliverance means that Satan’s defeat has been declared, it means that they are no longer the food in Satan’s mouth, that they are no longer to be devoured by Satan, and that they have instead been relinquished by Satan. This is because such people are upright, because they have faith in, submission to, and fear of God, and because they have made a complete break with Satan. They bring shame upon Satan, they make a coward of Satan, and they utterly defeat Satan. Their faith in following God, and submission to and fear of God defeat Satan, and make Satan completely give them up. Only people such as this have truly been gained by God, and this is God’s ultimate objective in saving man.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II

Such is the management of God: He hands mankind over to Satan—a mankind that simply does not know what God is, what the Creator is, how to worship God, or why they should submit to God—and allows Satan to corrupt them as it wants; step by step, He then reclaims them from the hands of Satan, until they fully worship God and reject Satan. This is God’s management. This may sound like a mythical tale, and it may seem perplexing. People feel like this is a mythical story because they have no inkling of how much has happened to man over the past several thousand years, much less do they know how many stories have occurred in the cosmos and the firmament. And even more so, it is because they simply cannot see with their mortal eyes the more marvelous, more fear-inducing world that exists beyond the material world. It feels incomprehensible to them because they have no understanding of the significance of God’s salvation of mankind or the significance of His management work, and do not understand what kind of mankind God actually desires. Is it one utterly uncorrupted by Satan, like Adam and Eve were? No! The aim of God’s management is to gain a group of people who worship God and submit to Him. Although these people have been corrupted by Satan, they no longer see Satan as their father; instead, they recognize the hideous face of Satan and reject it, and they come before God to accept God’s judgment and chastisement. They come to know the contrast between the ugly and the holy, and to recognize the greatness of God and the evil of Satan. A mankind such as this will no longer serve Satan, or worship Satan, or enshrine Satan. This is because they are a group of people who have truly been gained by God. This is the significance of God’s work of managing mankind.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Appendix 3: Man Can Only Be Saved Amid God’s Management

God created humans, He placed them upon the earth and has led them ever since, later He saved them and served as a sin offering for humanity, and at the end, He still must conquer humanity, save humans entirely, and restore them to their original likeness. This is the work that He has been engaged in from beginning to end—restoring humanity to their original image and likeness. God will establish His kingdom and restore the original likeness of human beings, which means that God will restore His authority upon the earth and among all created beings. Humans lost their God-fearing hearts as well as the function created beings ought to have after being corrupted by Satan. They all became enemies rebellious against God, lived under Satan’s power, and were subject to Satan’s manipulation; thus, God had no way to work among His created beings, and became all the more unable to gain their fear. Humans were created by God, and ought to worship God, but they actually turned their backs on Him and worshiped Satan instead. Satan became the idol in their hearts. Thus, God lost His place in their hearts, which is to say that the meaning behind His creation of humanity was lost. Therefore, to restore the meaning behind His creation of humanity, He must restore their original likeness and rid humanity of their corrupt dispositions. To reclaim humans from Satan, He must save them from sin. Only in this way can God gradually restore their original likeness and function, and finally, restore His kingdom. The complete destruction of those sons of rebellion in the end will also be for the sake of allowing humans to better worship God and better live upon the earth. Since God created humans, He will make them worship Him; since He wishes to restore humanity’s original function, He will restore it completely and without any adulteration. Restoring His authority means making humans worship Him and submit to Him; it means that God will make humans live because of Him and cause His enemies to be destroyed as a result of His authority. It means that God will cause everything about Him to persist among humans without resistance from anybody. The kingdom God wishes to establish is His own kingdom. The humanity He desires is one that worships Him, one that submits to Him completely and which is possessed of His glory. If God did not save corrupt humanity, then the meaning behind His creation of humanity would be lost; He would have no more authority among humans, and His kingdom would no longer be able to exist upon the earth. If God did not destroy those enemies who are rebellious against Him, He would be unable to gain His complete glory, nor would He be able to establish His kingdom upon the earth. To utterly destroy those among humanity who are rebellious against Him, and to bring into rest those who have been made complete—these will be marks of the completion of His work and of His great accomplishment. When humans have been restored to their original likeness, and when they can fulfill their respective duties, keep to their own proper places, and submit to all of God’s arrangements, God will have gained a group of people upon the earth who worship Him, and He will also have established a kingdom upon the earth that worships Him. He will have eternal victory upon the earth, and all those who are opposed to Him will perish for all eternity. This will restore His original intention in creating humanity; it will restore His intention in creating all things, and it will also restore His authority upon the earth, among all things, and among His enemies. These will be the marks of His total victory. Thenceforth, humanity will enter into rest and begin a life that is on the right track. God will also enter into eternal rest with humanity, and commence an eternal life shared by both Himself and humans. The filth and rebelliousness upon the earth will have disappeared, and all the wailing will have dissipated, and everything in this world that opposes God will have ceased to exist. Only God and those people to whom He has brought salvation will remain; only His creation will remain.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together

When the three stages of work come to an end, there will be made a group of those who bear witness to God, a group of those who know God. These people will all know God. They will be able to put the truth into practice, and possess humanity and reason. They will all know the three stages of God’s work of salvation. This is the work that will be accomplished at the end, and these people are the crystallization of the work of 6,000 years of management, and are the most powerful testimony to the ultimate defeat of Satan.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Knowing the Three Stages of God’s Work Is the Path to Knowing God

God has carried out His six thousand years of work through the present day, and revealed many of His deeds, primarily in order to defeat Satan and save all mankind. By means of this opportunity, God allows all things in heaven, all things upon the earth, all things within the seas, and even every last creature on earth, to see His almightiness and all of His deeds. By means of this opportunity of His defeat of Satan, He reveals all of His deeds to man, so that he may praise Him and extol His wisdom in defeating Satan. All things on earth, in heaven, and within the seas give glory to God, praise His almightiness, praise every one of His deeds, and shout His holy name. This is proof of His defeat of Satan; it is proof of His conquering of Satan. Even more so, it is proof of His salvation of mankind. The whole of God’s creation gives glory to Him, praises Him for defeating His enemy and returning victoriously, and extols Him as the great victorious King. His purpose is not merely to defeat Satan, which is why His work has continued for six thousand years. He uses Satan’s defeat to save humanity; He uses Satan’s defeat to reveal all His deeds and all of His glory. He will gain glory, and all the multitude of angels will see all His glory. The messengers in heaven, the humans upon earth, and all of His creations upon earth will see the glory of the Creator. This is the work that He does. His creations in heaven and on earth will all witness His glory, and He will return triumphantly after utterly defeating Satan, with all of humanity praising Him—this is a work that achieves two aims at once. In the end, all of humanity will be conquered by Him, and He will wipe out anyone who resists or rebels; in other words, He will wipe out all those who are of Satan.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. You Should Know How the Whole of Mankind Has Developed to the Present Day

All people need to understand the purpose of My work on earth, that is, what I ultimately intend to gain, and what level I must achieve in this work before it can be complete. If, after walking with Me to this day, people do not understand what My work is all about, then have they not walked with Me in vain? If people follow Me, they should know My intentions. I have been working on earth for thousands of years, and to this day, I continue to carry out My work thus. Although My work contains many projects, its purpose remains unchanged; though I am filled with judgment and chastisement toward man, for example, what I do is still for the sake of saving him, and for the sake of better spreading My gospel and better expanding My work among all the Gentile nations once man has been made complete. So today, at a time when many people have long been greatly disappointed, I still continue with My work, I continue the work I ought to do to judge and chastise man. Despite the fact that man is fed up with what I say, and he has no desire to concern himself with My work, I am still carrying out the work that is My due share, for the purpose of My work remains unchanged, and My original plan will not be broken. The purpose of My judgment is to enable man to better submit to Me, and the purpose of My chastisement is to enable man to better achieve change. Though everything I do is for the sake of My management, I have never done any work that was without benefit to man, for I intend to make all the nations beyond Israel as submissive as the Israelites, to make them into real human beings, that I might have a foothold in the lands outside Israel. This is My management; it is My work among the Gentile nations. Even now, many people still do not understand My management, because they don’t care about such things, and instead care about their own futures and destinations. No matter what I say, people remain indifferent to the work that I do, instead wholeheartedly focusing on their future destinations. If things go on in this way, how can My work spread? How can My gospel be preached throughout the world? You should know that when My work spreads, I will scatter you, and smite you just as Jehovah smote each of the tribes of Israel. All this will be done so that My gospel may spread all over the earth, so that My work may spread to the Gentile nations, thus enabling My name to be honored as great among adults and children alike, and My holy name to be extolled in the mouths of the people from all ethnicities and nations. In this final age, let My name be exalted as great among the Gentile nations, let My deeds be seen by the people of the Gentile nations, let them call Me the Almighty on account of My deeds, and let My words soon come to pass. I will make all people know that I am not only the God of the Israelites, but also the God of the people of all the Gentile nations, even those nations that I have cursed. I will make all people see that I am the God of all created beings. This is My greatest work, the purpose of My work plan for the last days, and the only work that I intend to accomplish in the last days.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Work of Spreading the Gospel Is Also the Work of Saving Man