I Have Come to Know How to Distinguish Between the True Christ and False Christs (Part 2)

I Have Come to Know How to Distinguish Between the True Christ and False Christs

March 28, 2018

Chuanyang, United States

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

Later, when I read The Scroll Opened by the Lamb, a book of Almighty God’s word, I saw that the word of Almighty God opened up a lot of mysteries, such as the three stages of work carried out by God to save mankind, the work of His judgment in the last days, the beauty of His kingdom, etc., which gave me a deeper understanding of God’s work. My parched spirit felt quenched, and the more I read this book the more I loved it. I had used to get up at 5:30 AM, but since I got a copy of The Scroll Opened by the Lamb, I started getting up at 4:30 to read the word of Almighty God, and I would ponder over Almighty God’s words, which made my heart feel so satisfied.

One morning, as I was reading the chapter “Are You a True Believer of God?” I was really touched in my heart. Almighty God is the God who searches people’s hearts, and He has exposed our corrupt nature that we can never know by ourselves. That enabled me to see the real situation of my corruption by Satan. This was especially true when I read these words of Almighty God: “In any case, I say that all those who do not esteem the truth are all unbelievers and traitors of the truth. Such men shall never receive the approval of Christ. … You should understand that God does not belong to the world or any one person, but to all those who truly believe in Him, all those who worship Him, and all those who are devoted and faithful to Him.” While pondering over these words, I kept asking myself: Am I someone who truly believes in God? Is the truth what I esteem? What have I esteemed in these past years as I’ve believed in God? I thought about how I was the same as the majority of the brothers and sisters: On the outside I read the Bible and attended meetings, but I didn’t pay attention to experiencing and practicing the word of the Lord; rather I esteemed the sermons preached by pastors, and the letters in the Bible. I put my faith in the biblical knowledge and theological doctrines preached by these pastors. I never thought about whether or not what they preached actually contained the truth, or whether or not it conformed to the will of the Lord, and I certainly never used the Lord’s words to examine and measure what they were saying. I just believed whatever they preached. At that time, I realized: I really was so blind and ignorant that I blindly adored people! I thought back on the sermons from these pastors and elders. They were either sermons on giving offerings or ones about guarding against other denominations and sealing off the church, or they would just talk about the old things that had been spoken of for all those years. There was no new illumination, no new enlightenment, they had absolutely nothing to provide us with, nor could they solve the problem of our spirits being parched, and they certainly could not solve the issue of the church being in a state of desolation. This led to the brothers and sisters just going through the motions when they participated in meetings. During meetings some would chat, some would doze off, some would play on their phones…. I lived in this dark and desolate kind of church, but I did not know to seek God’s will, nor did I know to seek the work of the Holy Spirit. Apparently I was not someone who sought the truth or who truly believed in God. Almighty God says: “All those who do not esteem the truth are all unbelievers.” “God does not belong to the world or any one person, but to all those who truly believe in Him, all those who worship Him.” These words were so real, and they made me suddenly think about the Lord Jesus’ words: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (Jhn 14:6). I understood: God is the truth, God carries out His work in order to give man the truth, the way and the life, and the people who truly believe in God pay attention to seeking the truth and obtaining the truth. As a believer in God, I did not pay attention to seeking the truth, so was I not being foolish in my faith? If this was the way I believed in God, then how could I receive God’s approval? The words of Almighty God edified and benefited me so greatly! The more I read the word of Almighty God, the more I felt that I was lacking in so many ways. As a result, except for when I had to work, I spent all of my spare time reading the word of Almighty God. In my heart I felt sure that this was the true way. But I still felt perplexed because of these words said by the Lord Jesus: “Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Mat 24:23-24). I did not know what their intended meaning was, so I decided to seek it when Sister Zhu and the rest of them came again.

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

Sister Zhu and the rest of them came by my house at the time we scheduled, and I said to Sister Zhang: “These past few days I’ve been reading a lot from the word of Almighty God, and I feel that every sentence of Almighty God’s words is the truth, and that it is really what I need. Before, Sister Zhu tried again and again to invite me to look into the work of Almighty God, but since pastors had preached about how false Christs would appear in the last days to deceive people, I refused to look into the true way, and now I truly regret feeling that way. However, this confusion in my mind has still not been resolved, so I want to seek for fellowship. The Lord Jesus said: ‘Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect’ (Mat 24:23-24). How do you understand these words?”

Sister Zhang said: “Thanks be to God! May God lead us in this fellowship! As for the question that our brother has raised, first we must understand what aim and meaning the Lord Jesus had when He said these words. The Lord Jesus told us that when He returned He would become flesh again as Christ, as the Son of man, and in this passage the Lord said that false Christs would also appear, showing signs and wonders to deceive people. That is to say, the next time that God appears in the flesh, these false Christs will also appear. From this we can see that the Lord said these words in order to tell us that we must distinguish these false Christs so as not to be deceived by them, and not to tell us to always lock our doors and refuse to listen to anyone who spreads the good news of the Lord’s arrival. It would be a mistake to act like this, and it would be a total misunderstanding of the Lord’s intention. The Lord Jesus already prophesied: ‘And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him’ (Mat 25:6). ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me’ (Rev 3:20). ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me’ (Jhn 10:27). The Lord’s words make it very clear that when the Lord returns, He will use His voice to call God’s sheep, and through His voice God’s sheep will recognize Him and return to Him. That is to say, whether or not we are able to meet the Lord when He returns depends on whether or not we are able to recognize God’s voice. If we do not make an effort to listen to God’s voice, and constantly refuse those who spread the gospel of the Lord’s return, then wouldn’t we easily shut the door on the Lord and leave Him outside? From the words of the Lord we see that the distinguishing characteristic of false Christs is to work signs and perform miracles. By emulating the work that the Lord Jesus has performed in the past, they work some signs and wonders, like healing the sick and casting out demons, to deceive man. However, false Christs are the embodiment of evil spirits, so regardless of what kind of signs they work, they cannot express any truth. This is absolute. The words of Almighty God make the expressions and substance of false Christs abundantly clear. Let us look at several passages from the word of Almighty God and you will understand. Almighty God said: ‘If in the last days a “God” the same as Jesus appeared, one who healed the sick, cast out demons, and was crucified for man, that “God,” though identical to the description of God in the Bible and easy for man to accept, would not, in its essence, be the flesh worn by the Spirit of God, but by an evil spirit. For it is the principle of God’s work never to repeat what He has already completed. And so the work of God’s second incarnation is different from the work of the first’ (‘The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘If, during the present day, there is to emerge a person who is able to display signs and wonders, and can cast out demons, and heal the sick, and perform many miracles, and if this person claims that they are the coming of Jesus, then this would be the counterfeit of evil spirits, and their imitation of Jesus. Remember this! God does not repeat the same work. Jesus’ stage of work has already been completed, and God will never again undertake that stage of work. … If, during the last days, God still displayed signs and wonders, and still cast out demons and healed the sick—if He did exactly the same as Jesus—then God would be repeating the same work, and the work of Jesus would have no significance or value. Thus, God carries out one stage of work in every age. Once each stage of His work has been completed, it is soon imitated by evil spirits, and after Satan begins to follow on the heels of God, God changes to a different method; once God has completed a stage of His work, it is imitated by evil spirits. You must be clear about these things’ (‘Knowing God’s Work Today’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). Almighty God’s words make it very clear that false Christs are all evil spirits posing as Christ. Even though they call themselves God, they do not possess the least bit of the truth and certainly cannot carry out God’s work, since they do not have the substance of Christ. They are just able to follow on the heels of God to imitate the work that the Lord Jesus has already carried out, in order to deceive people. False Christs will never be able to bring the truth or a new path of practice to people. Everyone knows that all the knockoff products in this world are made by copying real products. False Christs are just the same, they heal the sick and cast out demons and perform some simple miracles to deceive people by copying the work carried out by the Lord Jesus, but there’s no way false Christs can perform such miracles as bringing the dead back to life and feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. So, anyone who calls themselves Christ, who says they are the Lord Jesus returned and who displays signs and wonders and heals the sick and casts out demons, these people are one hundred percent false Christs deceiving people. However, Christ is the incarnation of God Himself, He is the Spirit of God realized in the flesh, He has normal humanity and complete divinity, and He is absolutely God Himself. Almighty God said: ‘God become flesh is called Christ, and so the Christ that can give people the truth is called God. There is nothing excessive about this, for He possesses the substance of God, and possesses God’s disposition, and wisdom in His work, that are unattainable by man. Those who call themselves Christ, yet cannot do the work of God, are frauds. Christ is not merely the manifestation of God on earth, but instead, the particular flesh assumed by God as He carries out and completes His work among man. This flesh is not one that can be replaced by just any man, but one that can adequately bear God’s work on earth, and express the disposition of God, and well represent God, and provide man with life. Sooner or later, those fake Christs will all fall, for although they claim to be Christ, they possess none of the substance of Christ. And so I say that the authenticity of Christ cannot be defined by man, but is answered and decided by God Himself’ (‘Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). So, only Christ can carry out God’s own work, only Christ can express the truth, only Christ can express God’s disposition and provide for man and shepherd man. And only Christ can carry out the work of redeeming and saving mankind, only He can bring an end to the old age and usher in a new age. Also, God’s work is always new and never old, and God never repeats the same work, so, every time that Christ comes to carry out work He will always bring new work, expressing God’s disposition and what He has and is. Just like when the Lord Jesus came to carry out work, He ended the Age of Law and ushered in the Age of Grace, and He delivered the sermons that enabled people to confess their sins and repent, and He taught people to love their enemies and, among other things, to be humble, be patient and forgive others. The Lord Jesus revealed to man God’s loving and merciful disposition. Almighty God has come in the last days, and in the same way, He has ended the Age of Grace and ushered in the Age of Kingdom. He is carrying out the work of judging man and saving man with His words on the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, giving us all the truths we need to be cleansed and attain salvation, providing us with the path that shows us how to rid ourselves of sin and attain salvation, and expressing the righteous, majestic and wrathful disposition of God. Through the work and words of Almighty God, we absolutely are able to recognize that Almighty God is God incarnate and that He is God Himself appearing among men in the last days.”

Picture of The Church of Almighty God

After listening to God’s words and the fellowship from this sister, I felt like I had awoken from a dream, and that I finally understood how to distinguish between the true Christ and false Christs. This made me feel both happy and ashamed; I saw the pitifulness of myself as someone without the truth. I thought about why time and again I had refused the work of God in the last days. It was because I feared that I might be deceived by false Christs, with the result that I rejected the true Christ like someone not eating for fear of choking. When the Lord returned and knocked on my door I refused to listen to the voice of God. Time and again I shut the door and left the Lord outside. But God did not deal with me based on my transgressions, He did not give up on saving me, but rather He moved these brothers and sisters to come to my home to spread the gospel. God really did never leave me, God’s love really was so great! When I thought about how I had decided that everyone who witnessed for the returned Lord was preaching a false Christ because of the words I believed from pastors, how I had erroneously understood the word of the Lord, and how I had forsaken, condemned and resisted Almighty God, while believing that the conceptions I held on to were right, I felt that I had really been quite ridiculous! If I hadn’t read the word of Almighty God and listened to the fellowships of these brothers and sisters on how to differentiate between the true Christ and false Christs, then I would have never been able to distinguish between the true Christ and false Christs, and I would have only been deceived by the words of pastors and elders, and followed them in their resistance and refusal of God, thereby losing this extremely rare opportunity to attain God’s salvation. As I thought about this, I said to Sister Zhu and the others, “Through listening to the word of Almighty God and your fellowships I can distinguish between the true Christ and false Christs. Now I am convinced that Almighty God is the Lord Jesus returned, and I am willing to receive the work of Almighty God in the last days.”

After participating in the church life, I saw that the brothers and sisters understood many truths, and that I was quite lacking compared to them. I thought to myself: I must have Sister Zhu and the rest of them fellowship with me more on the word of God and help me so that I will more quickly understand the truth. As a result I discussed this with Sister Zhu, asking her if they could have fellowship meetings in my home, and she agreed right away. After this we gathered together every week to read the word of God and fellowship about the truth. I gradually came to have more and more knowledge of the words of God and understand more and more truths. I could feel in my heart that these words were the expressions of the truth. In that moment, I thought about the words the Lord Jesus had 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: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come” (Jhn 16:12-13). I felt all the more moved, and I saw that these words of the Lord had all come about as predicted. The word of Almighty God is “what the Spirit says to the churches.” Almighty God is in the process of guiding man to understand and gain entry into all truth. Only by accepting God’s work in the last days and only by accepting the truths expressed by God can you be cleansed, attain salvation and become someone who is after God’s heart. It was the word of Almighty God that brought me back to the house of God; that brought me before the throne of God. Now, every day I have God’s words to provide for me, guide me, bring me peace and happiness, and make me feel steadfast and brightened. I am willing to do all that I can to pursue the truth and follow Almighty God to the very end. All the glory be to Almighty God!

Source The Internet

Almighty God, Christ of the last days, is the returned Lord Jesus. Eastern Lightning, The Church of Almighty God was founded by God personally and is formed by all those who truly follow Almighty God. Only by following Almighty God's work in the last days can we be purified and brought into the wonderful destination. Dear brothers and sisters, have you followed God's footsteps?