152. 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 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 letters, and shackled by 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? If you only try to hold on to the past, only try to keep things as they are by standing still, and do not try to change the status quo and discard history, then will you not always be against God? The steps of God’s work are vast and mighty, like surging waves and rolling thunders—yet you sit passively awaiting destruction, clinging to your folly and doing nothing. In this way, how can you be considered someone who follows the footsteps of the Lamb? How can you justify the God that you hold on to as a God who is always new and never old? And how can the words of your yellowed books carry you across into a new age? How can they lead you to seek the steps of God’s work? And how can they take you up to heaven? What you hold in your hands are letters that can provide but temporary solace, not truths that are capable of giving life. The scriptures you read can only enrich your tongue and are not words of wisdom that can help you know human life, much less the paths that can lead you to perfection. Does this discrepancy not give you cause for reflection? Does it not make you realize the mysteries contained within? Are you capable of delivering yourself to heaven to meet God on your own? Without the coming of God, can you take yourself into heaven to enjoy family happiness with God? Are you still dreaming now? I suggest, then, that you stop dreaming and 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

153. My words are the forever unchanging truth. I am the supply of life for man and the only guide for mankind. The worth and meaning of My words are not determined by whether they are recognized or accepted by mankind, but by the essence of the words themselves. Even if not a single person on this earth can receive My words, the value of My words and their help to mankind are inestimable to any man. Therefore, when faced with the many people who rebel against, refute, or are utterly contemptuous of My words, My stance is only this: Let time and facts be My witness and show that My words are the truth, the way, and the life. Let them show that all I have said is right, that it is that which man should be furnished with and, moreover, that which man should accept. I will let all who follow Me know this fact: Those who cannot fully accept My words, those who cannot practice My words, those who cannot find a purpose in My words, and those who cannot receive salvation because of My words, are those who have been condemned by My words and, moreover, have lost My salvation, and My rod shall never stray from them.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. You Ought to Consider Your Deeds

154. God Himself is life, and the truth, and His life and truth coexist. Those who are incapable of gaining the truth shall never gain life. Without the guidance, support, and provision of the truth, you shall only gain letters, doctrines, and, above all, death. God’s life is ever-present, and His truth and life coexist. If you cannot find the source of truth, then you will not gain the nourishment of life; if you cannot gain the provision of life, then you will surely have no truth, and so apart from imaginations and notions, the entirety of your body shall be nothing but your flesh—your stench-ridden flesh. Know that the words of books do not count as life, the records of history cannot be feted as the truth, and the regulations of the past cannot serve as an account of words presently spoken by God. Only that which is expressed by God when He comes to earth and lives among man is the truth, life, God’s will, and His current way of working.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life

155. The truth is the most real of life’s aphorisms, and the highest of such aphorisms among all mankind. Because it is the requirement that God makes of man, and is the work personally done by God, thus it is called “life’s aphorism.” It is not an aphorism summed up from something, nor is it a famous quote from a great figure. Instead, it is the utterance to mankind from the Master of the heavens and earth and all things; it is not some words summed up by man, but the inherent life of God. And so it is called “the highest of all life’s aphorisms.”

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Those Who Know God and His Work Can Satisfy God

156. The truth comes from the world of man, yet the truth among man is passed on by Christ. It originates from Christ, that is, from God Himself, and this is not something man is capable of. Yet Christ provides only the truth; He does not come to decide whether man will be successful in his pursuit of the truth. Thus it follows that success or failure in the truth is all down to man’s pursuit. Man’s success or failure in the truth has never had anything to do with Christ, but is instead determined by his pursuit. Man’s destination and his success or failure cannot be heaped upon the head of God, so that God Himself is made to bear it, because this is not a matter for God Himself, but is directly related to the duty that the creatures of God should perform.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Success or Failure Depends on the Path That Man Walks

157. The truth is not formulaic, neither is it a law. It is not dead—it is life itself, it is a living thing, and it is the rule that a created being must follow in life and the rule a human must have in life. This is something that you must, as much as possible, understand through experience. No matter what stage you have arrived at in your experience, you are inseparable from God’s word or the truth, and what you understand of God’s disposition and what you know of what God has and is are all expressed in God’s words; they are inextricably linked with the truth. God’s disposition and what He has and is are, in themselves, the truth; the truth is an authentic manifestation of God’s disposition and what He has and is. It makes what He has and is concrete, and it makes a clear statement of what He has and is; it tells you more straightforwardly what God likes, what He does not like, what He wants you to do and what He does not permit you to do, which people He despises and which people He delights in. Behind the truths that God expresses, people can see His pleasure, anger, sorrow, and happiness, as well as His essence—this is the revealing of His disposition.

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

158. Whether the words spoken by God be plain or profound in outward appearance, they are all truths indispensable to man as he enters into life; they are the fount of living waters that enables man to survive in both spirit and flesh. They provide what man needs to stay alive; the principles and creed for conducting his daily life; the path, goal, and direction through which he must pass in order to receive salvation; every truth that he should possess as a created being before God; and every truth about how man obeys and worships God. They are the guarantee that ensures man’s survival, they are man’s daily bread, and they are also the sturdy support that enables man to be strong and stand up. They are rich in the truth reality of normal humanity as it is lived out by created mankind, rich in the truth by which mankind breaks free from corruption and eludes Satan’s snares, rich in the tireless teaching, exhortation, encouragement, and solace that the Creator gives to created humanity. They are the beacon that guides and enlightens men to understand all that is positive, the guarantee which ensures that men will live out and come into possession of all that is righteous and good, the criterion by which all people, events, and objects are measured, and also the navigation marker that leads men toward salvation and the path of light.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. Preface

159. The word of God cannot be made out to be the word of man, and still less can one make the word of man to be the word of God. A man used by God is not the incarnate God, and the incarnate God is not a man used by God. In this, there is an essential difference. Perhaps, after reading these words, you do not acknowledge them to be the words of God, but only as the enlightenment that man has gained. In that case, you are blinded by ignorance. How can the words of God be the same as the enlightenment that man has gained? The words of God incarnate open up a new age, guide all of mankind, reveal mysteries, and show man the direction he is to take in the new age. The enlightenment obtained by man is but simple instructions for practice or knowledge. It cannot guide all of mankind into a new age or reveal the mysteries of God Himself. When all is said and done, God is God, and man is man. God has the essence of God, and man has the essence of man. If man views the words spoken by God as simple enlightenment by the Holy Spirit, and takes the words of the apostles and prophets as words personally spoken by God, that would be man’s mistake.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Preface

160. The truth is the life of God Himself; it represents His disposition, His essence, and everything in Him. If you say that having a bit of experience means possessing the truth, then can you represent God’s disposition? You may have some experience or light regarding a certain aspect or side of a truth, but you cannot supply others with it forever, so this light you have gained is not truth; it is merely a certain point that people can reach. It is simply the proper experience and the proper understanding a person should possess: some actual experience and knowledge of the truth. This light, enlightenment, and experiential understanding can never substitute for the truth; even if all people had completely experienced this truth, and pooled together all of their experiential understanding, it still would not be able to take the place of that one truth. As has been said in the past, “I sum this up with a maxim for the human world: Among men, there is no one who loves Me.” This is a statement of truth; it is the true essence of life. This is the most profound of things; this is an expression of God Himself. You can keep on experiencing it, and if you experience it for three years you will have a superficial understanding of it; if you experience it for seven or eight years you will gain even more understanding of it—but any understanding you gain will never be able to substitute for that one statement of truth. Another person, after experiencing it for a couple of years, might gain a little understanding, and then a slightly more profound understanding after experiencing it for ten years, and then some further understanding after experiencing it for a lifetime—but if you both combine what understanding you have gained, even then—no matter how much understanding, how much experience, how many insights, how much light, or how many examples you both possess—all of that still cannot substitute for that one statement of truth. In other words, the life of man will always be the life of man, and no matter how much your understanding might accord with the truth, God’s intentions, and His requirements, it will never be able to be a substitute for the truth. To say that people have gained the truth means that they possess some reality, that they have gained some understanding of the truth, that they have attained some real entry to God’s words, that they have had some real experience with them, and that they are on the right track in their faith in God. Just one statement from God is enough for a person to experience for an entire lifetime; even if people were to experience it for several lifetimes or even several millennia, they still would not be able to completely and thoroughly experience a single truth. If people have merely understood a few superficial words, yet they claim to have gained the truth, would that not be complete and utter nonsense?

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

161. When people understand the truth, and live with it as their life, what life does this refer to? It refers to their ability to base how they live on God’s words; it means they have real knowledge of God’s words and a genuine understanding of the truth. When people possess this new life within them, the way they live is established upon a foundation of God’s word the truth, and they are living within the realm of the truth. People’s life is all about coming to know and experience the truth, and with this as its foundation, not surpassing that scope; this is the life that is being referred to when speaking of gaining the truth life. For you to live with the truth as your life, it is not the case that the life of truth is inside you, nor is it the case that if you possess the truth as your life, you become the truth, and your internal life becomes the life of truth; less still can it be said that you are the truth life. Ultimately, your life is still the life of a human. It is just that a human can live by God’s words, possess knowledge of the truth, and understand it to an in-depth degree; this understanding cannot be taken away from you. You experience and understand these things fully, feeling that they are so good and precious, and you come to accept them as the basis for your life; moreover, you live in reliance on these things, and no one can change that: This, then, is your life. That is, your life only contains these things—understanding, experience, and insights of the truth—and no matter what you do, you will base the way you live on them, and you will not go beyond this scope or past these borders; this is precisely the sort of life you will have. The ultimate objective of God’s work is for people to have this kind of life. No matter how well people understand the truth, their essence is still one of humanity, and is not at all comparable to the essence of God. Because their experience of the truth is ongoing, it is impossible for them to completely live out the truth; they can only live out the extremely limited bit of the truth attainable by humans. How, then, could they turn into God? … If you have a bit of experience with God’s words, and are living according to your understanding of the truth, then God’s words become your life. However, you still cannot say that the truth is your life or that what you are expressing is the truth; if such is your opinion, then you are wrong. If you have some experience with an aspect of the truth, can this in itself represent the truth? It absolutely cannot. Can you thoroughly explain the truth? Can you discover God’s disposition, and His essence, from the truth? You cannot. Everyone has experience with only one aspect and scope of the truth; by experiencing it within your limited scope, you cannot touch upon all of the truth’s myriad aspects. Can people live out the original meaning of the truth? How much does your little bit of experience amount to? A single grain of sand on a beach; a lone drop of water in the ocean. Therefore, no matter how precious that knowledge and those feelings you have gained from your experiences might be, they still cannot be counted as the truth.

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

162. God Himself is possessed of truth, and He is the source of truth. Every positive thing and every truth come from God. He can pass judgment on the rightness and wrongness of all things and all events; He can pass judgment on things that have happened, things that are happening now, and future things yet unknown to man. He is the only judge who can pass judgment on the rightness and wrongness of all things, and this means the rightness and wrongness of all things can only be judged by Him. He knows the rules for all things. This is the embodiment of truth, which means that He Himself is possessed of the essence of truth. If man understood the truth and achieved perfection, would he then have anything to do with the embodiment of truth? When man is made perfect, he has an accurate judgment of all that God does now and the things He requires, and he has an accurate way to practice; man also understands God’s will and knows right from wrong. Yet there are some things man cannot reach, things which he can only know after God tells him of them—man cannot know things yet unknown, things that God has not yet told him, and man cannot make predictions. Moreover, even if man obtained the truth from God, and possessed truth reality, and knew the essence of many truths, and had the ability to tell right from wrong, he would not have the ability to control and govern all things. That is the difference. Created beings can only ever obtain the truth from the source of the truth. Can they obtain the truth from man? Is man the truth? Can man provide the truth? He cannot, and that is the difference. You can only receive the truth, not provide it—can you be called the embodiment of truth? What exactly is the essence of the embodiment of truth? It is the source that provides the truth, the source of governance and sovereignty over all things, and it is also the standards and rules by which all things and all events are judged. This is the embodiment of truth.

—The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Eight: They Would Have Others Obey Only Them, Not the Truth or God (Part Three)

163. The truth is the reality of all positive things. It can be the life of man and the direction in which he travels; it can lead one to cast off their corrupt disposition, to come to fear God and shun evil, to become one who obeys God and a qualified created being, one whom God loves and who meets with His favor. Given its preciousness, what attitude and perspective should one have in regarding God’s words and the truth? It is quite obvious: For those who truly believe in God and have a heart of reverence for Him, His words are their lifeblood. Man should treasure God’s words, and eat and drink of them, and enjoy them, and accept them as his life, as the direction in which he makes his way, as his ready aid and provision; man should live, practice, and experience in accordance with the statements and requirements of the truth, and submit to its demands of him, to each of the statements and requirements that the truth grants to him, rather than subjecting it to study, analysis, speculation, and doubt. As the truth is man’s ready aid, his ready provision, and can be his life, man should treat the truth as the most precious thing, for he must rely on the truth to live, to come to satisfy God’s demands, fearing Him and shunning evil, and to find within his daily life the path on which to practice, grasping the principles of practice and achieving submission to God. Man must also rely on the truth to cast off his corrupt disposition, to become one who is saved and a qualified created being.

—The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Ten: They Despise the Truth, Publicly Flout Principles, and Ignore the Arrangements of God’s House (Part Seven)

164. In His expression of the truth, God expresses His disposition and essence; His expression of the truth is not based on mankind’s summaries of the various positive things and statements that mankind recognizes. God’s words are God’s words; God’s words are truth. They are the foundation and the law by which mankind should exist, and those so-called tenets that originate with humanity are condemned by God. They do not meet with His approval, and less still are they the origin or basis of His utterances. God expresses His disposition and His essence through His words. All the words brought forth by God’s expression are truth, for He has the essence of God, and He is the reality of all positive things. The fact that God’s words are truth never alters, no matter how this corrupt mankind positions them or defines them, nor how it views them or understands them. No matter how many words of God have been spoken, and no matter how much this corrupt, sinful mankind condemns and rejects them, there remains a fact that cannot be changed: Even in these circumstances, the so-called culture and traditions that mankind values cannot become positive things, and cannot become the truth. This is unalterable. Mankind’s traditional culture and way of existence will not become truth because of the changes or passage of time, and neither will the words of God become the words of man due to mankind’s condemnation or forgetfulness. This essence will never change; truth is always truth. What fact exists herein? All those sayings that are summarized by mankind originate in Satan—they are human imaginings and notions, even arising from human hot-bloodedness, and have nothing at all to do with positive things. The words of God, on the other hand, are expressions of God’s essence and status. For what reason does He express these words? Why do I say they are truth? The reason is that God rules over all the laws, principles, roots, essences, actualities, and mysteries of all things, and they are grasped in His hand, and God alone knows their origins and what their roots really are. Therefore, only the definitions of all things mentioned in the words of God are most accurate, and the requirements for mankind within God’s words are the only standard for mankind—the only criteria by which mankind should exist.

—The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part One)