In the last days, the Lord Jesus has returned in the flesh and has expressed tens of millions of words of truth. He is carrying out the work of judgment beginning with the house of God. People from many countries who long for God’s appearance have read the words expressed by Almighty God. They are certain that this is God’s voice, and they have returned before Almighty God’s throne. By experiencing the judgment before the seat of Christ, their corrupt dispositions begin to be cleansed. However, some people in the religious world see that Almighty God has expressed so many truths, yet they still refuse to accept Him. They think, “The Lord Jesus said: ‘He that believes on the Son has everlasting life’ (John 3:36). The Lord Jesus is the Son of man, He is Christ, and His way is the way of everlasting life. We believe that as long as we believe in the Lord Jesus, we can gain eternal life. Why should we believe in Almighty God? Are you saying we can’t enter the kingdom of heaven even though we believe in the Lord Jesus? Impossible. The Lord won’t abandon us.” Is this view correct?

It’s true that the Lord Jesus said: “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life,” but He also said: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:12–13). What did the Lord Jesus mean by this? It means that only believing in Jesus of the Age of Grace is not enough. The most crucial thing is to believe in the return of Jesus, to believe in the second coming of the Lord Jesus, and to believe that the Spirit of truth has come to guide man into all truth. That is what’s most critical. Therefore, we can be certain that the Lord Jesus’ words, “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life,” can be comprehended this way: “Believing on the Son” means not only believing in the Lord Jesus, but also believing in the Son of man who returns in the last days. It is to believe in all the truths expressed by Almighty God in the last days. Only thus can we gain eternal life. If we only believe in the name of the Lord Jesus from the Age of Grace, it’ll be impossible for us to gain eternal life. Because in the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus only did the work of redemption; He did not do the work of judgment. Therefore, what people gained by believing in the Lord Jesus in the Age of Grace was very limited. We all know that over the past two thousand years of the Age of Grace, although the sins of all believers in the Lord have been forgiven, they still live in an endless cycle of sinning by day and confessing by night. No matter how hard they try to subdue their bodies, they cannot break free from the bondage of sin. Isn’t this a fact? No one has been able to understand why this is so, but Almighty God has made this matter completely clear.

Almighty God says: “Though Jesus came among man and did much work, He only completed the work of redeeming all mankind and served as man’s sin offering; He did not rid man of all his corrupt disposition. Fully saving man from the influence of Satan not only required Jesus to become the sin offering and bear the sins of man, but it also required God to do even greater work to rid man completely of his Satan-corrupted disposition. And so, after man was forgiven of his sins, God returned to the flesh to lead man into the new age, and began the work of chastisement and judgment. This work has brought man into a higher realm. All those who submit under His dominion shall enjoy higher truth and receive greater blessings. They shall truly live in the light, and they shall gain the truth, the way, and the life” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Preface). “You only know that Jesus shall descend in the last days, but how exactly will He descend? A sinner such as you, who has just been redeemed, and hasn’t undergone change or God’s perfection—can you be in line with God’s intentions? For you, you who are still of your old self, it is true that you were saved by Jesus, and you are not of sin because of the salvation of God, but this does not prove that you are without sin or impurity. How can you be sanctified if you have not undergone change? Within, you are full of impurities, and you are selfish and base, yet you still wish to descend with Jesus—you should be so lucky! You have missed a step in your belief in God; you have merely been redeemed, but you have not undergone change. For you to be in line with God’s intentions, God must personally do the work to change and cleanse you; otherwise you’ve only been redeemed and could not possibly become sanctified. In that case, you are unqualified to enjoy wonderful blessings together with God, for you have fallen a step behind in God’s work of managing man, which is the key step of changing and perfecting man. You, a sinner who has just been redeemed, are therefore incapable of directly receiving God’s inheritance” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Concerning Appellations and Identity). Almighty God’s words are very clear. People who only accept the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption have merely had their sins forgiven; they have not been cleansed of their sins and sanctified. They cannot gain God’s approval, and are certainly not qualified to gain eternal life. To gain eternal life in our faith, we must accept Almighty God’s work of judgment in the last days. Only by being cleansed of sin, understanding more truths, and obtaining higher truths can we live in the light and be qualified to inherit God’s promises. So, people cannot gain eternal life by believing only in the Lord Jesus. They must welcome the return of the Lord Jesus, accept all the truths expressed by Almighty God, resolve their sinful nature, and be cleansed of their sins to achieve a change in disposition. Only then can they gain eternal life. Anyone who sees that Almighty God has expressed so many truths but refuses to accept them is surely someone who is averse to the truth and hates the truth. These people will be abandoned and eliminated by God, and will fall into disasters. That is why Almighty God says: “I tell you this: People who do not accept the truth, yet blindly await the arrival of Jesus upon white clouds, are surely those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, and they are surely the category that shall be destroyed. You merely wish for the grace of Jesus, and merely want to enjoy the blissful realm of heaven, yet you have never obeyed the words spoken by Jesus, and have never accepted the truth expressed by Jesus when He returns to flesh. What will you hold up in exchange for the fact of Jesus’ return upon a white cloud? Is it the sincerity in which you repeatedly commit sins, and then speak your confession, over and over? What will you offer in sacrifice to Jesus who returns upon a white cloud? Is it the capital of the many years of work with which you exalt yourselves? What will you hold up to make the returned Jesus trust you? Is it that arrogant nature of yours, which does not submit to any truth?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. By the Time You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus, God Will Have Made Heaven and Earth Anew). “Christ of the last days brings life, and brings the enduring and everlasting way of truth. This truth is the path by which man gains life, and it is the only path by which man shall know God and be approved of by God. If you do not seek the way of life provided by Christ of the last days, then you shall never gain the approval of Jesus, and shall never be qualified to enter the gate of the kingdom of heaven, for you are both a puppet and prisoner of history. Those who are controlled by regulations, by words, and by the shackles of history will never be able to gain life nor gain the perpetual way of life. This is because all they have is turbid water which has been clung to for thousands of years instead of the water of life that flows from the throne. Those who are not supplied with the water of life will forever remain corpses, playthings of Satan, and sons of hell. How, then, can they behold God? You only seek to hold on to the past, to stand still and keep things as they are, and do not seek to change the status quo and discard history, so will you not always be antagonistic toward God? … look at who is working now—look to see who is now carrying out the work of saving man during the last days. If you do not, you shall never gain the truth, and shall never gain life” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life).