The greatest hope for believers in the Lord is to welcome His return and be caught up into the kingdom of heaven. Now that the great catastrophes have begun, welcoming the Lord is a matter of utmost urgency. The religious world, based on the words in the Bible, “You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11), believes that since the Lord Jesus ascended to heaven in a spiritual body on a cloud after His resurrection, He will also return in a spiritual body, descending on a cloud. They are all waiting to see the spiritual body of the Lord Jesus descend from heaven on a cloud to take them into the kingdom of heaven. But will they actually succeed in welcoming the Lord this way? Why do believers base their belief in and welcome of the Lord on the words of angels rather than the words of the Lord Jesus? Who, after all, is the Lord, and who is God? When it comes to the crucial matter of welcoming the Lord’s return, should we believe the Lord’s words or the angels’ words? The words I just quoted were clearly spoken by angels. They only said that the Lord Jesus would return in the same way He left, but they said nothing else. Can we be certain from this that the Lord will return in a spiritual body? The Lord Jesus said: “But of that day and that hour knows no man, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mark 13:32). So how could the angels know how the Lord would return? Given this, can the angels’ prophecy be accurate? The Lord Jesus never said He would return and appear to man as a spiritual body. Instead, He repeatedly said He would come as “the Son of man” and as “the bridegroom.” For example: “For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:27). “For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in His day. But first must He suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation” (Luke 17:24–25). “At midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6). Based on the Lord Jesus’ prophecies, we can be certain that when the Lord returns, He will become flesh as the Son of man, appear and express the truth to do His work, and carry out the work of judgment of the last days to save a group of people and make them into overcomers. He will spread the gospel of the kingdom to all nations of the world, so that God’s kingdom may be realized on earth. God, appearing in the flesh to carry out His work, defeats Satan and all enemy forces, establishing His kingdom on earth. This fully reveals God’s great power and wisdom, and this is how God gains glory.

However, people have no understanding of God’s work at all. Relying only on their own notions and imaginings, they delimit the manner of the Lord Jesus’ return, thinking that He will come in a spiritual body. They will only accept Him when they see His spiritual body descending on a cloud. This is a fatal mistake. When people see His spiritual body arrive, they will think they have welcomed the Lord, but in reality, they will be met with woe. It is just as when Thomas saw the Lord’s spiritual body appear to him; only then did he believe and say, “My Lord and my God.” The Lord Jesus did not approve of him, but instead said: “Because you have seen Me, you have believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29). In the last days, the Lord has become flesh as the Son of man, expressing the truth to do the work of judgment. If you do not believe or accept this, but insist on waiting until you see the Lord’s spiritual body descending on a cloud to believe, you will miss your opportunity to be saved by God in the last days. When the Lord’s spiritual body descends, it will be the time when God’s work of judgment has concluded and when He rewards the good and punishes the evil. That will fulfill the prophecy in the Book of Revelation: “Behold, He comes with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him” (Revelation 1:7). By then, it will be too late. That will be the time when people will wail and gnash their teeth, beating their chests in despair. Let’s read a passage: “Many people may not care what I say, but I still want to tell every so-called saint who follows Jesus that, when you see Jesus descend from the heaven upon a white cloud with your own eyes, this will be the time of the public appearance of the Sun of righteousness. Perhaps that will be a time of great excitement for you. However, you should know that the time when you witness Jesus descend from the heaven will also be the time when you go down to hell to be punished, the time when the end of God’s management plan has been proclaimed, and when God rewards the good and punishes the evil. For the judgment of God will have ended before man sees signs, when there is only the expression of truth. Those who accept the truth and do not seek signs, and thus have been purified, shall have been brought before the throne of God and entered the Creator’s embrace. Only those who persist in the belief that ‘The Jesus who does not ride upon a white cloud is a false christ’ shall be subjected to everlasting punishment, for they only believe in the Jesus who performs signs, but do not acknowledge the Jesus who expresses severe judgment and releases the life and the true way. And so it can only be that Jesus deals with them when He openly returns upon a white cloud” (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). From this passage, we can see that woe awaits everyone who only waits for the Lord to descend on a cloud instead of accepting the Lord’s appearance and work in the flesh.