God’s Words From the Bible

“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

“He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life for My sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39).

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives to the death” (Revelation 12:11).

Words of Almighty God of the Last Days

In the vastness of the cosmos and the firmament, countless creatures live and reproduce, follow in an endless cycle the law of life, and adhere to one constant rule. Those who die take with them the stories of the living, and those who are living repeat the same tragic history of those who have perished. And so, mankind cannot help but ask: Why do we live? And why do we have to die? Who rules over this world? And who created this mankind? Was mankind really created by nature? Can mankind really control his own fate? … These are the questions mankind has asked ceaselessly for thousands of years. Unfortunately, the more that man has become obsessed with these questions, the more of a thirst he has developed for science. Science offers brief gratification and temporary enjoyment of the flesh, but is far from sufficient to free man from the solitariness, loneliness, and barely-concealed terror and helplessness deep within his soul. Mankind merely uses scientific knowledge that he can see with his naked eye and understand with his brain in order to anesthetize his heart. Yet such scientific knowledge is not enough to stop mankind from exploring mysteries. Mankind simply does not know who the Sovereign of the universe and all things is, much less the beginning and future of mankind. Mankind merely lives, perforce, amidst this law. None can escape it and none can change it, for among all things and in the heavens there is but One from everlasting to everlasting who holds sovereignty over everything. He is the One who has never been beheld by man, the One whom mankind has never known, in whose existence mankind has never believed—yet He is the One who blew the breath into mankind’s ancestors and gave life to mankind. He is the One who provides and nourishes mankind, allowing him to exist; and He is the One who has guided mankind up to the present day. Moreover, He and He alone is the One mankind depends on for survival. He holds sovereignty over all things and over all living beings in the universe. He governs the four seasons, and it is He who regulates the changes of the wind, frost, snow, and rain. He brings mankind sunshine and ushers in the night. It was He who laid out the heavens and earth, providing man with the mountains, lakes, and rivers and all of the living things within them. His deeds are omnipresent, His power is omnipresent, His wisdom is omnipresent, and His authority is omnipresent. Each of these laws and rules is the embodiment of His deeds, a revelation of His wisdom and authority. Who can exempt themselves from His sovereignty? And who can discharge themselves from His designs? All things exist beneath His gaze, and moreover, all things live under His sovereignty. His deeds and His power leave mankind with no choice but to acknowledge the fact that He really does exist and holds sovereignty over all things. Nothing apart from Him can rule over the universe, much less endlessly provide for this mankind. Regardless of whether you are able to recognize God’s deeds, and regardless of whether you believe in the existence of God, there is no doubt that your fate is ordained by God, and there is no doubt that God will always hold sovereignty over all things. His existence and authority are not predicated upon whether or not they are recognized and comprehended by man. Only He knows man’s past, present, and future, and only He can determine the fate of mankind. Regardless of whether you are able to accept this fact, it will not be long before mankind witnesses all of this with his own eyes, and this is the fact that God will soon bring to bear. Mankind lives and dies under the eyes of God. Man lives for the management of God, and when his eyes close for the final time, it is for this management that they close as well. Man comes and goes over and over again, back and forth. Without exception, it is all part of God’s sovereignty and His design.

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

If one’s birth was destined by one’s previous life, then one’s death marks the end of that destiny. If one’s birth is the beginning of one’s mission in this life, then one’s death marks the end of that mission. Since the Creator has set up a fixed set of circumstances for each person’s birth, it is certain that He has also arranged a fixed set of circumstances for their death. In other words, no one is born by chance, no one’s death is sudden, and both birth and death are necessarily connected with one’s previous and present lives. What the circumstances of one’s birth are like, and what the circumstances of their death are, are related to the preordination of the Creator; this is a person’s destiny, a person’s fate. Since there are many explanations for a person’s birth, there must also necessarily be various special circumstances for a person’s death. In this way, varying lifespans and different manners and times of their deaths came into being among mankind. Some people are strong and healthy, yet die young; others are weak and sickly, yet live to an old age and pass away peacefully. Some perish of unnatural causes, others die naturally. Some die far from home, others shut their eyes for the final time with their loved ones by their side. Some people die in midair, others beneath the earth. Some drown in water, others perish in disasters. Some die in the morning, others at night. … Everyone wants an illustrious birth, a brilliant life, and a glorious death, but no one can surpass their own destiny, no one can escape the Creator’s sovereignty. This is human fate. People can make all kinds of plans for their future, but no one can plan out how they are born or the manner and time of their departure from the world. Though people all do their best to avoid and resist the coming of death, still, unbeknownst to them, death silently draws near. No one knows when they will perish or how, much less where it will happen. Obviously, it is not man that holds the supreme power over life and death, nor some living being in the natural world, but the Creator, who possesses unique authority. Mankind’s life and death are not the product of some law of the natural world, but a result of the sovereignty of the Creator’s authority.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique III

The nearer one comes to death, the more one wants to understand what life is really about; the nearer one comes to death, the more one’s heart seems empty; the nearer one comes to death, the more helpless one feels; and so one’s fear of death grows greater by the day. There are two reasons such feelings manifest in people as they approach death: First, they are about to lose the fame or gain upon which their lives have depended, about to leave behind all that the eye beholds in the world; and second, they are about to confront, all alone, an unfamiliar world, a mysterious, unknown realm where they are afraid to set foot, where they have no loved ones and no means of support. For these two reasons, everyone who faces death feels uneasy, experiences panic and a sense of helplessness such as they have never known before. Only when someone has actually come to this point do they realize that when a person enters this world, they should first understand where human beings come from, why people are alive, who holds sovereignty over human fate, and who provides for and holds sovereignty over human existence—this understanding is the capital by which a person lives, and it is the essential basis for a person’s survival. They should not first learn how to provide for their family or how to pursue fame and gain, or how to be a cut above the rest in a group or how to live a more affluent life, much less how to get ahead of others or how to compete with ease in various kinds of contests. Though the various survival skills that people spend their lives mastering enable them to possess an abundance of material comforts, those skills never bring true consolation and steadiness to their hearts. Instead, they make people constantly lose their direction, have difficulty controlling themselves, and miss opportunity after opportunity to learn the meaning of life, and they give rise to hidden troubles in people about how to face death correctly—people’s lives are ruined in this way. The Creator treats everyone fairly, giving everyone a lifetime’s worth of opportunities to experience and know His sovereignty, yet it is only when death draws near, when its specter looms, that one begins to see the light—and then it is too late!

People spend their whole lives chasing after money and fame and gain; they treat these things as a lifeline, as their only means of support—as if possessing them would mean that they could live on and escape death. But only when they are about to die do they realize how far removed money, fame, and gain are from them, and, in the face of death, how weak and powerless they are, how vulnerable they are, and how lonely and helpless they are, with nowhere to turn. They realize that money or fame and gain cannot be traded for life, that no matter how wealthy a person may be, no matter how high their status, all are equally poor and insignificant in the face of death. They realize that money cannot buy life, that fame and gain cannot enable a person to escape death, that neither money nor fame and gain can lengthen a person’s life by a single minute, a single second. The more people feel this way, the more they yearn to keep on living; the more people feel this way, the more they dread the approach of death. Only at this point do they truly realize that their lives do not belong to them, are not theirs to control, and that one has no say over whether one lives or dies—it is beyond anyone’s control.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique III

At the moment a person is born, one lonely soul begins its experience of life on earth, its experience of the Creator’s authority which the Creator has arranged for it. Needless to say, for the person—the soul—this is an excellent opportunity to gain knowledge of the Creator’s sovereignty, to come to know His authority and to experience it personally. People live their lives within the laws of fate laid out for them by the Creator, and for any person with conscience and reason, coming to terms, over the decades of their life, with the Creator’s sovereignty and coming to know His authority is not a difficult thing to do. Therefore, it should be very easy for every person to recognize, through their own life experiences over several decades, that all human fates are preordained, and it should be easy to perceive or to conclude what it means to be alive. As one affirms these life lessons, one will gradually come to understand where life comes from, to grasp what the heart truly needs, what will lead one to the true path of life, and what the mission and goal of a human life ought to be. One will gradually recognize that if one does not worship the Creator, if one does not surrender under His dominion, then when the time comes to confront death—when one’s soul is about to face the Creator once more—one’s heart will be filled with boundless dread and turmoil. If a person has been in the world for several decades yet has not understood where human life comes from nor recognized in whose palm human fate rests, then it is no wonder that they cannot face death calmly. A person who has gained, in their decades of experience of human life, knowledge of the Creator’s sovereignty is a person with a pure comprehension for the meaning and value of life. Such a person has a deep knowledge of life’s purpose, with real appreciation and experience of the Creator’s sovereignty, and beyond that, is able to submit to the Creator’s authority. Such a person understands the meaning of the Creator’s creation of mankind, understands that man should worship the Creator, that everything man possesses comes from the Creator and will return to Him some day not far in the future. This kind of person understands that the Creator arranges man’s birth and has sovereignty over man’s death, and that both life and death are preordained by the Creator’s authority. So, when one truly grasps these things, one will naturally be able to calmly face death, to calmly let go of all one’s external things, to readily accept and submit to all that follows, and welcome the last life-juncture, arranged, as it is, by the Creator, rather than constantly dreading it and struggling against it. If one views one’s life as an opportunity to experience the Creator’s sovereignty and come to know His authority, if one sees one’s life as a rare chance to fulfill one’s duty as a created human being and to complete one’s mission, then one will surely have a correct outlook on life, will surely live under the Creator’s blessings and guidance, will surely walk in the light of the Creator, will surely know the Creator’s sovereignty, will surely surrender under His dominion, and surely become a witness to His miraculous deeds, a witness to His authority. Needless to say, such a person will surely be loved and accepted by the Creator, and only such a person can hold a calm attitude toward death and gladly welcome life’s final juncture. Obviously, Job held this kind of attitude toward death. He satisfied the conditions that enabled him to gladly accept the final juncture of life. He brought his life’s journey to a smooth conclusion and completed his mission in life, and then returned to be at the Creator’s side.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique III

In the scriptures it is written about Job: “So Job died, being old and full of days” (Job 42:17). This means that when Job passed away, he had no regrets and felt no pain, but departed naturally from this world. As everyone knows, Job was a man who feared God and shunned evil while he was alive. His righteous deeds were approved of by God and remembered by others, and his life may be said to have had worth and significance that exceeded all others’. Job enjoyed God’s blessings and was called righteous by Him on earth, and he was also tried by God and tempted by Satan. He stood firm in his witness for God and deserved to be called a righteous person by Him. In the decades after he was tried by God, he lived a life that was even more valuable, meaningful, grounded, and peaceful than before. Because of his righteous deeds, God tried him, and also because of his righteous deeds, God appeared to him and spoke to him directly. So, in the years after he was tried, Job felt and personally experienced life’s value in a more concrete way, attained a deeper sense of the Creator’s sovereignty, and gained a more precise and definite knowledge of how the Creator gives and takes away His blessings. The Book of Job records that Jehovah God bestowed even greater blessings upon Job than He did before, putting Job in an even better position to know the Creator’s sovereignty and to face death calmly. So Job, when he grew old and faced death, certainly would not have been anxious about his property. He had no worries, nothing to regret, and of course did not fear death, for he spent all his life walking the way of fearing God and shunning evil. He had no reason to worry about his own outcome. How many people today could act in all the ways Job did when he confronted his own death? Why is no one capable of achieving such a simple outward attitude? There is only one reason: Job lived his life in the subjective pursuit of belief, recognition, and submission to God’s sovereignty, and it was with this belief, recognition, and submission that he passed through the important junctures in life, lived out his last years, and greeted his life’s final juncture. Regardless of what Job experienced, his pursuits and goals in life were not painful, but happy. He was happy not only because of the blessings or approval bestowed on him by the Creator, but more importantly, because of his pursuits and life goals, because of the growing knowledge and true personal experience of the Creator’s sovereignty he attained through fearing God and shunning evil, and moreover, because of his personal experience, as a subject of the Creator’s sovereignty, of the wondrous deeds of God, and his tender yet unforgettable experiences and memories of interacting with God, and of becoming acquainted with and getting to know God. Job was happy because of the comfort and joy that came from knowing the Creator’s intentions, and because of the God-fearing heart he developed after seeing that He is great, wondrous, lovable, and faithful. Job was able to face death without any suffering because he knew that, in dying, he would return to the Creator’s side. It was his pursuits and gains in life that allowed him to face death calmly, allowed him to face his life being taken back by the Creator calmly, and all the more allowed him to face the Creator unsullied and free from care. Can people nowadays achieve the kind of happiness that Job possessed? Do you have the conditions necessary to do so? Since people nowadays do have these conditions, why are they unable to live happily, as Job did? Why are they unable to escape the suffering of the fear of death? When facing death, some people urinate uncontrollably; others shiver, faint, lash out against Heaven and man alike; some even wail and weep. These are by no means natural reactions that occur suddenly when death draws near. People behave in these embarrassing ways mainly because, deep in their hearts, they fear death, because they do not have a clear knowledge and appreciation of God’s sovereignty and His arrangements, much less truly submit to them. People react in this way because they want nothing but to arrange and govern everything themselves, to control their own fates, their own lives and deaths. It is no wonder, therefore, that people are never able to escape the fear of death.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique III

When one does not have clear knowledge and experience of God’s sovereignty and of His arrangements, one’s knowledge of fate and of death is bound to be muddled. People cannot see clearly that everything rests in God’s palm, do not realize that everything is subject to God’s control and sovereignty, do not recognize that man cannot cast off or break free from such sovereignty. For this reason, when their time comes to face death, they always have endless last words, they always have worries, and they always have regrets. They are weighed down by so much baggage, so much reluctance, so much confusion. This causes them to fear death. For any person born into this world, birth is necessary and death inevitable; no one can rise above this course of things. If one wishes to depart from this world painlessly, if one wants to be able to face life’s final juncture with no reluctance or worry, the only way is to leave no regrets. And the only way to depart without any regrets is to know the Creator’s sovereignty, to know His authority, and to submit to them. Only in this way can one stay far from human strife, from evil, from Satan’s bondage, and only in this way can one live a life like Job’s, guided and blessed by the Creator, a life that is free and liberated, a life with value and meaning, a life that is upright and openhearted. Only in this way can one submit, like Job, to the trials and deprivation of the Creator, to the Creator’s orchestrations and arrangements. Only in this way can one, as Job did, worship the Creator all one’s life and win His approval, hear His actual voice, and see Him appear. Only in this way can one live and die happily, like Job, with no pain, no worry, no regrets. Only in this way can one, as Job did, live in light, pass every one of life’s junctures in light, smoothly complete one’s journey in light, successfully complete one’s mission—to experience and come to know, as a created being, the Creator’s sovereignty—and pass away in the light, and thereafter stay at the Creator’s side as a created human being, approved of by Him.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique III

Whatever matter people find themselves dealing with, they should always approach it with a positive attitude, and this is even more true when it comes to the matter of death. Having a positive attitude does not mean waiting for death, going along with death, or actively pursuing death. What does it mean then? (Submitting.) Submission is an attitude toward the matter of death, and letting go of this matter and not thinking about it is the best approach. Some people say, “Why should I not think about it? If I don’t think this matter through, can I overcome it? Can I let it go?” Yes, you can. And why do I say this? Tell Me, was the time of your birth something you thought up? Your appearance, your age, the line of work you’re in, and the fact that you can believe in God and sit here listening to a sermon—are these all things you thought up? They are not; you have come to where you are today through the passing of days and months, through living a normal life. This is very natural. Death is the same. A person unconsciously lives to adulthood, to middle and old age, and finally death arrives. It will not come early because you always think about it, nor will it be averted because you don’t think about it. It does not change according to human will, so there is no need for you to think about it. If you are to face death in the near future, then thinking about it all the time will place an invisible pressure on you. This pressure will fill you with dread about life and living, causing you to not have a positive attitude, and instead making you even more despondent. A person who is facing death has no interest in or positive attitude toward anything; they are left only with despondency. When they think that they are going to die soon, that everything is over for them, and that no matter what they pursue or do, they cannot change the fact that they will die, they feel they no longer have anything to look forward to or any motivation, and that there is no meaning in them pursuing or doing anything. Consequently, everything they do has the element and nature of negativity and death to it. So, is it easy to not feel distressed or anxious about the matter of death? If this matter is simply a result of your own mental reasoning and imagination, then it is a false alarm, and you are scaring yourself—your death simply is not going to happen any time soon, so what’s the point of you thinking about it? This makes it even more unnecessary. What is supposed to happen will always happen; what is not supposed to happen will not happen no matter how you think about it. Fearing it is useless, as is worrying about it. Death cannot be avoided by worrying about it, nor will it pass you by just because you fear it. Therefore, if you feel constrained in your heart when it comes to death, you should entrust this matter to God through prayer. As long as we submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements, we can be freed from feeling constrained by death. When we die is a matter arranged by God. We just need to submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements in our hearts, and that is all. Isn’t it much simpler to practice this way? Another aspect is that you should have a positive attitude toward death. Tell Me, who among the billions of people all across the world has the blessing of hearing so many of God’s words, of understanding so many of the truths of life, and of understanding so many mysteries? Who is able to receive God’s personal guidance, provision, care, and protection? Who has these blessings? Very few people do. So, for all of you—you who are currently able to live in God’s house and receive His salvation and provision, and have enjoyed so many blessings—even if you were to die right now, it would be worth it. Based on this point alone, you should not be terrified of death, nor should you be constrained by the matter of death. Even though you haven’t enjoyed any of the glory and wealth of the world, yet you have received the pity of the Creator and heard so many of God’s words—isn’t this blissful? (It is.) No matter how many years you live in this life, it’s all worth it and you have no regrets, because you have been constantly performing your duty in God’s work, you have understood the truth, understood the mysteries of life, and understood the path and goals you should pursue in life—you have gained so much! You have lived a worthwhile life! Even if you can’t explain it very clearly, you are able to practice some truths and possess some reality, and that proves that you have gained some life provision and understood some truths from God’s work. You have gained so much—a true abundance—and that is such a great blessing! Since the beginning of human history, no one throughout all the ages has enjoyed this blessing, yet you are enjoying it. So, even if you were to die right now, wouldn’t you do so willingly? (Yes.) If you have this willingness, then there is true submission within your attitude toward death. If, in one respect, people have a true understanding of death, and on top of this, they cooperate actively and truly submit, and have the correct attitude toward death that they ought to, then don’t their feelings of distress, anxiety, and worry about death greatly diminish? (They do.) They do greatly diminish. …

Death is not an easy problem to solve, and it is man’s greatest difficulty. If someone says to you, “Your corrupt dispositions are so severe, and your humanity is bad, too. If you don’t earnestly pursue the truth and consequently do many evil things in the future, then you will go down to hell and be punished!” you may feel upset for a while after hearing this. Afterward, you might think to yourself, “I must earnestly pursue the truth, and I must repent!” and after getting a night’s sleep, you will no longer feel so upset. However, if you get a potentially fatal illness and may not have long to live, then that is not something that can be solved with a night’s sleep, and it cannot be let go of so easily. A period of tempering is required. Those who genuinely pursue the truth can emerge from the distress and anxiety of fearing death, and they can dispel the dread in their hearts by seeking the truth—as long as people seek the truth there is no problem they cannot solve. If people do not seek the truth and try to use human methods to resolve this problem, then they can only feel constantly distressed, anxious, and worried about it. When things are unsolvable, they take extreme measures to try to solve them. There are also some people who adopt a despondent, negative attitude, saying, “If I die, I die. Who’s afraid of death? After death, I’ll just be reincarnated and live again!” Can you be sure about that? You’re just looking to comfort yourself, and that doesn’t solve the problem. The reason for this is that all things and everything, visible or invisible, material or immaterial, are controlled and ruled in the hands of the Creator, and no one can control their own destiny. Whether it be toward sickness or death, the only attitude that people should have is that of understanding, acceptance, and submission; people should not approach these things according to their imaginings or notions, or seek a way out, much less reject or resist them. If you keep trying to resolve the issues of sickness and death using your own methods, then the longer you live, the more you will suffer, the more depressed you will become, and the more trapped you will feel. In the end, you will still reach a dead-end, and your outcome will truly be the same as your death—you will be completely dead. Whether you are facing a sickness that God has set up for you or facing death, if you can actively seek the truth, and recognize that as a created being you should submit to all of God’s arrangements, including major events like sickness and death, and you are able to submit to God without complaint even if you die, then this is being able to submit to God’s sovereignty and arrangements, and this is in accordance with God’s intentions. If you rely on the strength and methods of man to cope with all these things, and you try hard to resolve them or escape them, then even if you don’t die and you temporarily manage to avoid the difficulty of death, because you don’t harbor true understanding, acceptance and submission toward God and the truth, leading you to not bear testimony in this matter, then the final result will be that when you encounter this same issue again, it will still be a major test for you. You will still have the possibility of betraying God and falling, and this will undoubtedly be a dangerous thing for you. Therefore, if you really are now facing sickness or death, then let Me tell you, it’s better to take advantage of this real situation right now to seek the truth and resolve this matter from the root, instead of waiting for death to truly come, only to be caught off guard, to feel lost, perplexed, and helpless, and to consequently do things you will regret for the rest of your life and never be able to remedy. If you do such things, it could lead to an outcome of destruction for you. Therefore, no matter what you encounter, you should first face up to it and seek the truth, and begin your entry with the truths you should understand and the knowledge you should have. If you constantly feel distressed, anxious, and worried about such things as sickness and you live enveloped within these kinds of negative emotions, then you should start seeking the truth right now and resolve these problems as soon as you can.

—The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. How to Pursue the Truth (4)

People don’t know how to deal with their death, nor how to live in a way that is meaningful. Let us look, then, at God’s attitude toward dealing with the death of people. No matter what the aspect of the duty being performed, God’s aim is for people, in the process of doing their duty, to understand the truth, to put it into practice, to cast off their corrupt dispositions, to live out the likeness of a normal person, and to reach the standard for attaining salvation, rather than rushing headlong toward death. Some people get a serious illness or cancer and think, “This is God asking me to die and give up my life, so I will obey!” In fact, God did not say that, nor did such an idea occur to Him. This is nothing more than people’s misunderstanding. So what does God mean? Every person has a set lifespan, but these lifespans differ in length. Every person’s death happens at God’s appointed time, and is preordained by God. He brings a person’s death to pass according to the lifespan and time, place, and manner of death that He preordained for that person, rather than letting anyone die randomly due to some matter. God regards a person’s life as very important, and He also regards a person’s death and the ending of their physical life as very important. All of this is ordained by God. Looking at it from this point of view, whether God requires people to perform their duties or to follow Him, He doesn’t ask people to rush headlong toward death. What does this mean? It means that God doesn’t require you to be prepared to give up your life at any time for the sake of performing your duty or expending for God, or for the sake of His commission. You don’t need to make such preparations, you don’t need to have such a mindset, and you certainly don’t need to plan or think that way, because God doesn’t need your life. Why do I say that? It goes without saying that your life belongs to God, it was He who bestowed it, so what would He want it back for? Is your life valuable? From God’s perspective, it is not a question of whether or not it is valuable, but only what role you play in God’s management plan. As far as your life is concerned, if God wanted to take it away, He could do it at any time, at any place and at any minute. Therefore, any person’s life is important to themselves, and is important to their duties, obligations and responsibilities, and also to God’s commission. Of course, it is also important to their role in God’s overall management plan. Although it is important, God doesn’t need to take your life away. Why? When your life is taken away, you become a dead person, and have no further use. Only when you are alive, living among the human race that God holds sovereignty over, can you play the role that you are meant to play in this life, and fulfill the responsibilities and obligations that you are meant to fulfill, and the duties that God requires you to perform in this life. Only in this way can your life have value. So, do not casually utter the words “dying for God” or “giving up my life for God’s work,” and don’t keep saying them or hold them deep in your hearts; that is unnecessary. When a person constantly wants to die for God, and to offer themselves and give up their life for their duty, this is the most contemptible, unworthy, and despicable thing. Why do I say this? If your life is over, and you no longer live in this fleshly form, how can you fulfill your duty as a created being? If everyone is dead, who will be left for God to save through His work? If there are no human beings who need saving, how will God’s management plan be carried out? Would God’s work of saving humankind still exist? Could it still continue? Looking at it from these aspects, is it not an important matter for people to take good care of their bodies and lead healthy lives? Is this not worth it? It most certainly is worth it, and people should do this. As for those foolish people who casually say they want to die for God, and who can casually give up their lives and abuse their bodies, what kind of people are these? Are they rebellious people? (Yes.) These are the most rebellious people, and should be despised and rejected. When someone is able to casually say that they would die for God, it could be said that they casually think about ending their own life, giving up their duty, giving up the commission that God has entrusted to them, and preventing God’s words from being fulfilled in them. Is this not a foolish way of doing things? You may casually and readily say that you want to offer your life to God, but does God need you to do that? Your life inherently belongs to God, and if God wants to take it away, He can do so at any time. Even if you don’t offer your life up, will God ask you politely for it if He needs to take it away? Will He need to talk it over with you in order to do this? No, He won’t. But what would God want your life for? God’s work hasn’t ended yet—if God takes your life away and you are no longer able to do your duty, one person who does their duty will be missing from God’s work. Would He be satisfied by that? No, He wouldn’t be. Who would be happy about it? (Satan.) If you give up your life, what can you gain from doing that? And what can God gain by taking your life away? If you miss the opportunity to be saved, is it a gain or a loss for God? (A loss.) For God it is not a gain, but a loss. God allows you, as a created being, to have the life and assume the place of a created being in order to perform the duty of a created being and, by so doing, to be able to enter into the truth reality, submit to God, understand His intentions and know Him, follow His will, do your part in accomplishing His work of saving humankind, and follow Him to the very end. This is righteousness, and this is the value and meaning of your life’s existence. If your life exists for this, and you live healthily for this, then this is the most meaningful thing, and as far as God is concerned, this is true dedication and cooperation—for Him this is the most satisfying thing. What God wants to see is a created being that lives in the flesh casting off their corrupt disposition amidst His chastisement and judgment, rejecting the myriad of fallacious ideas instilled in them by Satan, and being able to accept the truths and requirements from God, fully submitting to the Creator’s dominion, fulfilling the duty that a created being should fulfill, and being able to become a true created being. This is what God wants to see, and this is the value and meaning of human life’s existence. Therefore, for any created being, death is not the ultimate destination. The value and meaning of the existence of a person’s life do not lie in dying. Rather, it is living for God, living to fulfill the duty of a created being, and living to follow God’s will and to humiliate Satan, that is the value of a created being’s existence, as well as the meaning of the existence of their life.

As regards God’s requirements toward people, the way God treats people’s life and death is completely different from that described in the saying “Bend to a task and strive to do your utmost until your dying day” in traditional culture. Satan constantly wants people to die. It feels uncomfortable seeing people alive, and is constantly figuring out how to claim their lives. Once people accept the fallacious ideas of traditional culture from Satan and devil kings, all they want is to sacrifice their lives for their country and nation, or for their career, for love, or for their family. They constantly hold their own lives in contempt, are ready to die and lay down their lives anywhere and at any time, and do not regard the life given to them by God as the most precious thing and as something that should be cherished. Unable to fulfill their duties and obligations during their lifetime, while they still possess the life that God has given them, they instead accept Satan’s fallacies and devilish words, ever intent on bending to their task and striving to do their utmost until their dying day, and readying themselves to die for God at any time. The fact is that if you really do die, then you do it not for God, but for Satan, and you will not be remembered by God. Because only the living can glorify God and bear witness to Him, and only the living can assume the proper place of created beings and fulfill their duties, and thereby leave behind no regrets, and be able to humiliate Satan, and bear witness to the wondrous deeds and sovereignty of the Creator—only the living can do these things. If you don’t even have life, all of this ceases to exist. Is this not so? (Yes.) Therefore, by putting forward the saying on moral conduct, “Bend to a task and strive to do your utmost until your dying day,” Satan is unquestionably toying with and trampling on human life. Satan does not respect human life, but instead plays games with it, making people accept ideas such as “Bend to a task and strive to do your utmost until your dying day.” They live by such ideas, and don’t cherish life or regard their own life as precious, so that they casually give up their life, that most precious of things which God gives to people. This is a treacherous and immoral thing. No matter when, as long as the end date that God ordained for you has not been reached, you should not speak lightly of giving up your life. As long as you still have a single breath left in you, don’t give up, don’t abandon your duty, and don’t abandon the Creator’s commission to you or what He has entrusted you to do. This is because the life of any created being exists only for the Creator, and only for His sovereignty, orchestration, and arrangements, and also exists and realizes its value only for the Creator’s testimony and His work of saving humankind. You can see that God has this view of human life, which is completely different from that of Satan. So, who truly cherishes human life? (God.) Only God, whereas people themselves do not know to cherish their own lives. Only God cherishes human life. Although human beings are not lovable or worthy of love, and are full of filth, rebelliousness, and the many kinds of absurd ideas and views instilled by Satan, and although they idolize and follow Satan, and even become enemies of God, nevertheless, because human beings are created by God, and they possess the breath and life bestowed by God, only He cherishes human life, only He loves people, and only He continuously cares for and cherishes humankind. God cherishes human beings—not their flesh, but their lives, because only human beings who have been given life by God can ultimately become created beings that truly worship Him and bear witness to Him. God has work, commissions, and expectations for people, these created beings. Therefore, God cherishes and treasures their lives. This is the truth. Do you understand? (Yes.) So, once people come to understand the intention of God the Creator, shouldn’t there be principles for how they should treat the life of their physical body, and deal with the laws and needs by which it survives? What are these principles based on? They are based on God’s words. What are the principles of practice? On the negative side, people must abandon the many kinds of fallacious views instilled in them by Satan, expose and recognize the fallaciousness of Satan’s views—such as the saying “Bend to a task and strive to do your utmost until your dying day”—which benumb, harm, and confine people, and abandon these views; in addition, on the positive side, they must understand precisely what God the Creator’s requirements are for humankind, and make God’s words the foundation of everything they do. In this way, people will be able to practice correctly without deviations, and truly pursue the truth.

—The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. What It Means to Pursue the Truth (12)

If a person wishes to live a valuable and meaningful life, they must pursue the truth. First, regarding all the major and minor matters you face in life, you should have a correct outlook, as well as correct thoughts and viewpoints. You should view all of these matters from the correct perspective and stance, rather than viewing the various problems you encounter in life using traditional thoughts and viewpoints, and radical and absurd thoughts and viewpoints. Of course, you also should not view these things through the eyes of worldly people. Instead, you should let go of these negative and incorrect thoughts and viewpoints. … To give another example, say someone gets cancer, and they’re afraid of dying. They refuse to accept the fact that they have cancer, and constantly pray for God to protect and heal them so they can live for a few more years. They carry the negative emotions of distress, anxiety, and worry with them as they endure one day after another. Unexpectedly, they don’t die, and enjoy the happiness of having escaped death. They feel that God is so good, and that He is truly great. Through their own efforts and repeated supplications, they have preserved their own life and avoided death, and in the end they get to go on living, just as they wished. Thus, they thank God for His protection and grace, for His mercy and love. Every day they offer thanks and praise to God, often weeping as they sing hymns in praise of God, and being moved to tears while pondering His words. They feel that God is so wonderful, that He truly has control over human life and death, and that it was God who gave them a second life. While doing their duty each day, they often consider how to put suffering first and pleasure last to repay God’s love, striving to do better than others in everything. As a result, they get to live a few more years, and feel content inside. But the good times don’t last. One day, their illness worsens, and the doctor gives them a terminal prognosis, telling them to make their final arrangements. Once more, they face death, feeling that it’s truly drawing near now—the thing they feared most is finally happening. Their heart sinks to the pit of their stomach. They are no longer of a mind to do their duty, have nothing to say in prayer to God, and no longer want to praise God, or hear Him speak any words or supply any truths. They no longer believe that God is love, and that God is righteous, merciful, and kind. They also regret that over the years they suffered so much, and never ate any good food, wore any nice clothes, or traveled anywhere to broaden their horizons—all of which are things they don’t have the chance to do now. Their heart is filled with pain, as well as complaints and resentment toward God. They begin to doubt and deny God, and then, with regret, they leave this world. Before they departed, was God still in their heart? Did they still believe in the existence of God? (They no longer believed.) How did this outcome come about? Didn’t it begin with the erroneous viewpoints that they held toward life and death from the very beginning? (Yes.) Not only did they hold incorrect thoughts and viewpoints from the very beginning, but even more seriously, they went on pursuing in line with their own thoughts and viewpoints, without ever giving them up. They pressed forward headlong down the wrong path without any hesitation. As a result, they ended up denying God and losing their faith in Him. Their journey of faith thus came to a close, and their life ended in this way. Did they attain the truth? Did God gain them? (No.) When they finally died, did the perspectives and attitudes toward death that they clung to change? (No.) Did they die with comfort, joy, and peace, or with regret, reluctance, and bitterness? (They died with reluctance and bitterness.) They gained nothing at all. They did not attain the truth, and God did not gain them either. So, was such a person saved? (No.) They were not saved. In their belief in God they ran about a lot and expended a great deal. Like others, they did their duty; outwardly there seemed to be no difference between them and anyone else. When they experienced illness and death, they also prayed to God and still did not abandon their duty. However, there’s something people ought to understand and see through to here: The thought and the viewpoint behind this person’s belief in God were consistently erroneous, and they were perpetually governed by their intent to gain blessings. Regardless of how much they suffered or how great a price they paid while doing their duty, they were always governed by the thought and viewpoint of intending to gain blessings. They hoped to use their suffering and the price they paid in exchange for the blessings of the kingdom of heaven, to achieve their aim of not dying. The goal they pursued was not to gain the truth, to achieve a change in their disposition, to submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements, to fulfill the duty of a created being, and to live a meaningful life. The goal they pursued was the exact opposite of this. It was to gain blessings, to satisfy their desire to enter the kingdom of heaven, and to escape disaster and suffering, so that what worried them most—the issue of their ultimate fate and outcome—would be completely resolved. And so, when they reached the end of the road, they gained nothing at all. Not only did they not gain the truth, but they ultimately denied God and lost faith in Him. Even as death approached, they still failed to understand how people should live and how a created being should treat the Creator’s orchestrations and arrangements. That is the most pitiful and tragic thing about them. Even when death was imminent, they still did not understand that throughout one’s life, everything is under the sovereignty and arrangements of the Creator. If the Creator wants you to live, then even if you get cancer, you won’t die; but if the Creator wants you to die, then even if you are young and strong, and free of illness, you may still die suddenly. All of this is subject to God’s sovereignty and orchestration—this is God’s authority, and no one can transcend it. Such a simple fact, yet they failed to understand it—isn’t that pitiful? (Yes.) Even though they believed in the existence of God and often attended gatherings and listened to sermons, gaining a bit of understanding of the truth, they never fully acknowledged that human destiny is in the hands of God, and that one’s life and death are in God’s hands, not determined by human will. No one dies because they wish to die, and no one lives on because they fear death and long to survive. They failed to grasp such a simple fact, they failed to see through it even when faced with impending death, and they still did not know that a person’s life and death are not determined by themselves but instead depend on the predestination of the Creator. Isn’t this tragic? (Yes.)

—The Word, Vol. 6. On the Pursuit of the Truth. How to Pursue the Truth (6)

If you acknowledge that you are a created being, you must prepare yourself to suffer and pay a price for the sake of fulfilling your responsibility to preach the gospel and for the sake of doing your duty properly. The price might be suffering some physical ailment or hardship, or suffering the persecutions of the great red dragon or the misunderstandings of worldly people, as well as the tribulations one undergoes when preaching the gospel: being sold out, being beaten and reviled, being condemned—even being mobbed and put in mortal danger. It is possible, in the course of preaching the gospel, that you will die before God’s work is completed, and that you will not live to see the day of God’s glory. You must be prepared for this. This is not meant to frighten you; it is a fact. Now that I have made this clear, and you have understood it, if you still have this resolve and are sure it will not change, and you stay loyal until death, this proves you possess a certain stature. Do not assume that preaching the gospel in these overseas countries with religious freedoms and human rights will be free from danger and that everything you do will go smoothly, that it will all have God’s blessings and be in company with His great power and authority. This is the stuff of human notions and imaginings. The Pharisees also believed in God, yet they took the incarnate God and crucified Him upon the cross. So what bad things is the current religious world capable of doing to the incarnate God? They have done so many bad things—judging God, condemning God, blaspheming God—there is no bad thing of which they are not capable. Do not forget that those who took the Lord Jesus and crucified Him upon the cross were believers. Only they had the opportunity to do this sort of thing. The nonbelievers did not care about those things. It was these believers who colluded with the government to take the Lord Jesus and crucify Him upon the cross. Moreover, 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—various forms of death befell them. What was the reason for their deaths? Is it that they engaged in some wrongdoing and were then executed by the law? No. They propagated the Lord’s gospel, but the people of the world did not accept it, and instead condemned, beat, and reviled them, and even put them to death—that is how they were martyred. Let us not speak of the final outcome of those martyrs, or of God’s verdict on their deeds, 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 propagate 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 propagate 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 manner of departure from the human world, yet that did not mean their outcome was the same. No matter what the manner of their death and departure was or how it happened, it was not how God determined the final outcomes of those lives, of those created beings. This is something you must see clearly. On the contrary, this was precisely the manner by which they condemned this world and bore witness to God’s deeds. These created beings used their most precious lives—they used the last moment of their lives to bear witness to God’s deeds, to bear witness 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 prove 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 redeeming all of mankind He did allows this mankind to live on—this fact is forever unchanging. To what extent did those who were martyred for propagating the gospel of the Lord Jesus 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 as confirmation of and testimony to God’s love for mankind. All the way up until their deaths, they did not deny God’s name, nor did they deny God’s work, and they used their last moments of life to bear witness to the existence of this fact—is this not the highest form of testimony? This is the best way of performing 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 bear witness to God and to propagate 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 duty-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. This is the final truth one should understand in preaching the gospel and performing their duty—one must pay the price of their life to propagate and bear witness to the gospel of God incarnate’s performance of His work and salvation of mankind. If you have this resolve, if you can bear witness in this way, that is wonderful. If you still do not possess this sort of resolve, you should, at least, properly fulfill the responsibility and duty that lie before you, entrusting the rest to God. Perhaps then, as the months and years pass and your experience and age increase, and your understanding of the truth deepens, you will realize that you have an obligation and a responsibility to offer your life to God’s gospel work, even until the last moment of your life.

It is now the proper time to start talking about these topics because the spreading of the gospel of the kingdom has already begun. Previously, in the Age of Law and the Age of Grace, some ancient prophets and saints gave their lives in preaching the gospel, so those born in the last days can also give their lives for this cause. This is not something new or sudden, much less is it an excessive requirement. This is what created beings ought to do and the duty they ought to perform. This is the truth; this is the highest truth. If all you do is shout slogans about what you want to do for God, how you want to fulfill your duty, and how much you want to expend and exert for God, it is useless. When reality hits home for you, when you are asked to sacrifice your life, whether you complain at the very last moment, whether you are willing, and whether you truly submit—this is the test of your stature. If at the moment that your life is about to be taken from you, you are at ease, willing, and submit without complaint, you feel that you have fulfilled your responsibilities, obligations, and duties to the end, and your heart is joyful and at peace—if you go like this—then for God, you have not gone at all. Rather, you are living in another realm and in another form. All that’s happened is that your manner of living has changed—you are not truly dead. As man sees it, “This person died at such a young age, how pitiful!” But in the eyes of God, you have not died or gone to suffer; rather, you have gone to enjoy blessings and come closer to God. This is because, as a created being, you are already up to standard in the performance of your duty in God’s eyes, you have now completed your duty, and God does not need you to perform this duty any longer among the ranks of created beings. To God, your “going” is not called “going,” you are “taken away,” “brought away,” or “led away,” and it is a good thing.

—The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Preaching the Gospel Is the Duty All Believers Are Bound to Fulfill

According to human notions, good is rewarded and evil punished, good people are recompensed with good and evil ones are recompensed with evil, and those who do no evil should all be recompensed with good and receive blessings. It would appear that all people who are not evil should be recompensed with good. This would be God’s righteousness. Is this not people’s notion? If they are not recompensed with good, would you then say that God is not righteous? For instance, during Noah’s time, God said to Noah: “The end of all flesh is come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth” (Genesis 6:13). He then ordered Noah to build the ark. After Noah accepted God’s commission and built the ark, a great downpour of rain fell upon the earth for forty days and nights, the entire world was submerged below floodwaters and, with the exception of Noah and his seven family members who boarded the ark, God destroyed all the humans of that age. What do you make of this? Would you say that God is not loving? As far as man is concerned, no matter how corrupt humankind may be, as long as God destroys them, this means that He is not loving. Is this correct? Isn’t this absurd? God did not love those that He destroyed, but can you say that He did not love those that survived and those that attained His salvation? Peter loved God to the utmost and God loved Peter—can you say that God is not loving? God loves those that truly love Him and He hates and curses those that resist Him and stubbornly refuse to repent. God is possessed of both love and hatred. This is true. People should not delimit or judge God according to their notions and imaginings, because mankind’s notions and imaginings, that is, their ways of viewing things, have no truth at all. One must know God based on His attitude toward man, on His disposition and essence. One absolutely must not try to delimit what essence God has based on the appearances of those things He does and addresses. Mankind is so deeply corrupted by Satan that they do not know at all the nature essence of corrupt mankind, much less what corrupt mankind really is before God, nor how they ought to be treated according to His righteous disposition. Consider Job, he was a righteous man and God blessed him. This was God’s righteousness. Satan made a wager with Jehovah: “Does Job fear god for nothing? Have not you made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face” (Job 1:9–11). Jehovah God said, “All that he has is in your power; only on himself put not forth your hand” (Job 1:12). So Satan went to Job and attacked and tempted Job, and Job encountered trials. Everything he had was stripped away—he lost his children and his property, and his whole body became covered in boils. Did Job’s trials embody the righteous disposition of God? You can’t say clearly, can you? Even if you are a righteous person, God has the right to subject you to trials and to have you bear witness to Him. God’s disposition is righteous; He treats everyone equally. It is not the case that righteous people do not need to undergo trials because they can withstand them or that righteous people must be protected. That’s not how it is. God has the right to put righteous people through trials. This is the revelation of God’s righteous disposition. Finally, after Job had finished undergoing trials and he bore witness to Jehovah, Jehovah blessed him even more than before, even better than before, and He gave him twice as many blessings. Furthermore, Jehovah appeared to him and spoke to him from out of the wind, and Job saw Him as though face to face. This was a blessing given to him by God. This was God’s righteousness. What if when Job had finished undergoing trials and Jehovah saw how Job had borne witness to Him in Satan’s presence and shamed Satan, Jehovah then turned away and ignored him, and Job did not receive blessings afterward—would this have God’s righteousness in it? Regardless of whether Job was blessed after the trials or not, or whether Jehovah appeared to him or not, it contains God’s good intention. Appearing to Job was God’s righteousness, and not appearing to him would also have been God’s righteousness. On what basis do you—a created being—make demands of God? People are not qualified to make demands of God. There is nothing more unreasonable than making demands of God. He will do what He ought to do, and His disposition is righteous. Righteousness is by no means fairness or reasonableness; it is not egalitarianism, or giving you what you deserve for your work, or paying you for whatever work you have done, or giving you your due according to what effort you expend. This is not righteousness, it is merely being fair and reasonable. Very few people are capable of knowing God’s righteous disposition. Suppose God had destroyed Job after Job bore witness to Him: Would this be righteous? In fact, it would be. Why is this called righteousness? How do people view righteousness? If something is in line with people’s notions, it is then very easy for them to say that God is righteous; however, if they do not see something as being in line with their notions—if it is something that they are incapable of understanding—then it would be difficult for them to say that God is righteous. If God had destroyed Job back then, people would not say He is righteous. Actually, regardless of whether people have been corrupted or not, and whether they have been profoundly corrupted or not, does God have to justify Himself when He destroys them? Does He have to explain to people on what basis He does so? Must God tell people the laws He has ordained? There is no need. In God’s eyes, someone who is corrupt and who is liable to resist God is without any worth; however God handles them will be appropriate, and it is all according to God’s arrangements. If you were displeasing to God’s eyes, and if He said that He had no use for you after your testimony and therefore destroyed you, would this be His righteousness? It would also be. You might not be able to understand this right now from the point of view of facts, but you must understand it in doctrine. What would you say—is God’s destruction of Satan an expression of His righteousness? (Yes.) What if He allowed Satan to remain? You don’t dare to say, do you? God’s essence is righteousness. Though it is not easy to understand what He does, all that He does is righteous; it is simply that people do not understand. When God gave Peter to Satan, how did Peter respond? “Mankind is unable to fathom what You do, but all that You do contains Your good intentions; there is righteousness in all of it. How can I not utter praise for Your wisdom and deeds?” You should now see that the reason God does not destroy Satan in the time of His salvation of man is that humans may see clearly how Satan has corrupted them and the extent to which it has corrupted them, and how God purifies and saves them. Ultimately, when people have understood the truth and clearly seen Satan’s hideous face, and beheld the monstrous sin of Satan’s corruption of them, God will destroy Satan, showing them His righteousness. The timing of Satan’s destruction contains God’s disposition and wisdom. Everything that God does is righteous. Though humans may not be able to perceive this, they should not make judgments at will. If something He does appears to humans as unreasonable, or if they have any notions about it, and then they say that He is not righteous, they are being most unreasonable. You see, Peter also found some things to be unfathomable, but he was sure that God’s wisdom was present and His good intentions were in those things, that people could not fathom them, and that there were very few things they could fathom. Thus, to know God’s disposition is not an easy thing.

—The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Part Three

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