A Catholic’s Story: Learning How to Distinguish the False Way From the True Way, My Reunion With God(Part 2)

How to Determine the True Way (2)

Brother Liu continued his fellowship, saying, “The second principle in determining the true way is to see if this way has truth. If it has truth, it should be able to direct people onto the right path, allowing them to live with an increasingly normal conscience, reason and humanity. This is like when the Lord Jesus came to do His work and issue the way of repentance, exhorting us to love God with all our heart and mind and teaching us to be patient, forbearing in our interactions with others, to love others as we love ourselves and to forgive others seventy times seven times, etc. We act in accordance with the Lord Jesus’ word and abandon everything to expend ourselves and travel all around for God. What’s more, we have more and more love and patience for our fellow man and do many good deeds. In the last days, building off of the work of redemption, Almighty God has issued all the truths which allow us to be free from sin and attain purity. These words expose the factual reality of man’s corruption by Satan. They expose how man has rebelled and resisted God, how he turns his belief in God into a form of transaction, how people engage in connivance and intrigue, and how they murder each other in cold blood, etc. At the same time, Almighty God’s word shows us the way to change our life disposition: For instance, it shows us how to live out our normal humanity, how to be honest people, how to serve God, be loyal to God and obey Him, etc. As our brothers and sisters experience the judgment and chastisement of God’s word and begin to understand the true nature of their corruption and the source of their resistance to God, as they see that they have been nearly irredeemably corrupted by Satan, lack the semblance of a real person and begin to hate and rebel against their own satanic disposition and focus on practicing the truth, their life disposition begins to change to various degrees. The life experience testimony articles written by our brothers and sisters have all been posted on The Church of Almighty God website as a resource for anyone who is investigating and seeking the true way. Some of our brothers’ and sisters’ experiences have even been made into films as testimonies to God’s love and salvation. From the experiences of our brothers and sisters, we can clearly see that the words issued by Almighty God are the life, the truth, and the way and can change, purify and save mankind.

“With regards to these things, I’ve also drawn some insights from my own experiences. In the past, I often saw the fact that I had been a believer for many years and had a fair amount of knowledge about the Bible as an advantage I had over others. I always thought I was better than everyone else. While working at the church, I never really considered the opinions and suggestions of my brothers and sisters. I just thought that my ideas were right and so I often acted according to those ideas alone. At home was no different: If my family didn’t obey me I would, in my absurd self-righteousness, blow up in a rage. Whenever I realized that I was living sinfully I would be remorseful, but as soon as the realization passed I’d be back to my old ways. I felt tormented, but couldn’t see a way out. After accepting Almighty God’s work in the last days and through my reading of God’s word, I came to realize that I was living according to the satanic principle, ‘I am my own lord throughout heaven and earth.’ My nature was wildly arrogant—I often flaunted my seniority over others and always thought I understood more than anyone else and so everyone should listen to me, while I never accepted any of their suggestions. I only repressed and damaged my fellow brothers and sisters and my family and had totally lost the conscience and reason required of normal humanity. This not only annoyed others, it also drew God’s disgust. Once I had realized all this, I began to despise myself and was no longer willing to live by my arrogant nature, but sought a path of practice in God’s words. I read a passage of God’s word that says, ‘Don’t be self-righteous; take the strengths of others and use them to offset your own deficiencies, watch how others live by God’s words and see whether or not their lives, actions and speech are worth learning from’ (‘Chapter 22’ of Utterances of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh). These words gave direction to my wayward heart. Now, when cooperating with brothers and sisters in fulfilling our duties, I would pray to God, consciously put my own thoughts aside, diligently listen to other people’s opinions, and absorb the strengths of others. At home I also practiced putting my personal thoughts and considerations aside. I stopped speaking so authoritatively to my family and got along well with everyone. When my wife saw how much I had changed for the better after putting my faith in Almighty God, she also accepted Almighty God’s work in the last days. I knew that the positive changes I had made were all the result of God’s work and I felt that Almighty God’s word is truth, can transform our corrupted dispositions and let us live with an ever greater human semblance.”

Listening to Brother Liu’s experiences, I felt a deep sense of clarity and excitedly said, “Brother Liu, your fellowship has helped me realize that the true way will have the work of the Holy Spirit, and allows our faith in God to grow deeper and deeper and our spiritual situation to continually improve. The true way contains the truth—the truth makes us sin less and less frequently and allows us to live more and more with a human semblance. Though I haven’t yet read the experience testimonies of your brothers and sisters in the church, from the fellowship you just gave, I can already see that Almighty God’s word and work really can change people. I’m willing to continue investigating!”

How to Determine the True Way (3)

When Brother Liu heard this, he excitedly nodded his head and said, “The third principle in determining the true way is to see if this way is capable of making people have an ever greater understanding of God and of making people’s relationships with God ever closer. This is like how the Lord Jesus’ followers were able to observe the Lord’s mercy toward humanity through His work, were deeply moved by His great love, realized that the Lord Jesus was the Redeemer of mankind and were thus willing to abandon everything to follow Him and spread His gospel. Almighty God of the last days has issued the truth, which elucidates God’s intentions and demands for mankind. For instance, God demands that man be honest, that he fear God and shun evil and that he seek the truth and be just. At the same time, Almighty God has also elucidated God’s disposition for us, allowing us to know God’s righteous disposition, His mercy and love, and His holy substance. From God’s word, we understand God’s joys and sorrows, what kind of person God loves and what kind He hates, and we see how God’s disposition is not only loving and merciful, but also majestic, wrathful, righteous and inviolable. This compels man to be fearful and adoring of God in his heart. Right now, many of our brothers and sisters are coming up against great adversity, but they’d happily risk their lives to follow God, expend for God and bear victorious testimony. This is all because they have experienced God’s work in the last days and have attained some of the results that come with true understanding of God. Having said all this, I trust now that we’re all capable of judging whether Almighty God’s work is the true way?”

Why the Priests Condemned the True Way

I nodded and thought to myself, “Almighty God’s word really gives a very clear account of how to distinguish between the false way and the true way. In the past, I only knew that the Lord Jesus was crucified for the redemption of humankind and that His work was the true way. After enjoying the gift of God’s grace and quitting gambling, I had an even more profound sense of God’s great love. However, I had no idea how to distinguish between the true way and the false way. Only today, through fellowshiping Almighty God’s word have I finally understood. It seems Almighty God’s word really is the truth!” Having come to this conclusion, I excitedly said, “Through this fellowship I’ve come to thoroughly understand that, as it turns out, Almighty God’s work is the true way and Almighty God really is the Lord Jesus come again. However, I still have one question: You say that Almighty God is the returned God, so why is it that the priests don’t allow us to investigate Almighty God’s way and even condemn Almighty God’s work in the last days?”

Brother Liu nodded his head and said, “If we understand the essential reason why the Pharisees opposed the Lord Jesus, it won’t be hard to figure out why the priests would prevent you from investigating Almighty God’s way. Sister, let’s read another passage of Almighty God’s word.” As he said this, he opened up the book of God’s word and passed it to me. I read, “Do you wish to know the root of why the Pharisees opposed Jesus? Do you wish to know the substance of the Pharisees? They were full of fantasies about the Messiah. What’s more, they believed only that the Messiah would come, yet did not seek the truth of life. And so, even today they still await the Messiah, for they have no knowledge of the way of life, and do not know what the way of truth is. How, say you, could such foolish, stubborn and ignorant people gain God’s blessing? How could they behold the Messiah? They opposed Jesus because they did not know the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work, because they did not know the way of truth spoken by Jesus, and, furthermore, because they did not understand the Messiah. And since they had never seen the Messiah, and had never been in the company of the Messiah, they made the mistake of paying empty tribute to the name of the Messiah while opposing the substance of the Messiah by any means. These Pharisees in substance were stubborn, arrogant, and did not obey the truth. The principle of their belief in God is: No matter how profound Your preaching, no matter how high Your authority, You are not Christ unless You are called the Messiah. Are these views not preposterous and ridiculous?” (“When You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus Will Be When God Has Made Anew Heaven and Earth” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

After I finished reading, brother said: “From Almighty God’s exposition of the Pharisees we can see that the Pharisees were particularly arrogant and self-righteous and they had a truth-hating nature. At that time, the Lord Jesus was doing His work, issuing the way of repentance, healing the sick, casting off evil spirits, and even performed many miracles. Anyone that sought with an open mind could see from the Lord Jesus’ word and work that He was the Messiah of prophecy and thus resolved to follow Him. The Pharisees clearly saw that the Lord Jesus’ word and work had power and authority, but they refused to seek and investigate. Rather, because of their wildly arrogant disposition, they clung to their own philosophies and notions and believed that when the Messiah came He would certainly emerge from the palace with a magisterial bearing and an imposing presence. They believed He would lead them in overthrowing the Roman government. However, when the Lord Jesus came, He was born to a carpenter’s family, had an average appearance and certainly didn’t lead the Pharisees in overthrowing the Roman government. To the contrary, He taught people to be accepting, patient and to love their enemy. For these reasons, the Pharisees condemned the Lord Jesus, saying He was merely man. Especially once the Pharisees observed that Jesus’ followers were growing in numbers, they put all their efforts into spreading lies defaming and condemning the Lord Jesus to protect their own status and income. Eventually, they nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross and suffered God’s punishment.

“As of now, many leaders in the religious world are again playing the role of the Pharisees. Almighty God appeared and has been performing His work for nearly thirty years now. Almighty God’s words were long ago issued through the internet and once those that love the truth, and yearn for and seek God’s appearance saw these words, they came to seek, investigate and eventually accept God’s work in the last days. So why is it that these priests don’t investigate, but rather do all they can to spread lies about, defame, condemn and resist the returned God? Could it really be that they’re trying to protect their brothers and sisters and worry that they’ll be deceived by the false way? Actually, this is just a false justification they use to deceive and entrap believers. If they really took responsibility for the lives of their brothers and sisters, as soon as they heard that God had returned, they would lead the way in seeking and investigating and would fellowship with their brothers and sisters on the truth concerning distinguishing the false way and the true way. However, that’s not what they did. On the contrary, the priests were wildly arrogant and conceited, clinging stubbornly to their own philosophies and notions, clinging to the words of the Bible and even thinking that any claim that God had returned must be false—they barely sought the truth at all. What’s more, they’re terrified that after the brothers and sisters hear the word that Almighty God has issued and accept God’s work in the last days, there will be no one left to follow and worship them and donate money. They’d rather forfeit the lives of countless brothers and sisters than give up their own status and livelihoods. This completely exposes their truth-hating antichrist nature. If we fail to recognize the God-resisting, truth-hating nature and substance of these priests and even follow them in rejecting and condemning the true way, then we’ll be sure to follow them on the road of resisting God while believing in God and will ultimately meet with annihilation!”

After hearing brother’s fellowship, I understood the root cause of the Pharisees’ resistance and condemnation of God. I also saw how the reason why the priests didn’t let us go listen to sermons in other churches and even condemned God’s work in the last days is because they were afraid that if all the believers welcomed God’s return, there would be no one left to protect them and support them financially. It’s no wonder, then, that the priests were so adamant in preaching about donation and used every possible method to force us to donate. The priests were only concerned about their own status and wealth and forfeited the lives of parishioners with little hesitation. Are they any different from the Pharisees? Thanks be to God for His guidance, which has enabled me to discern something of the truth-hating substance of the priests.

Leaving the Church and Joyfully Welcoming God’s Return

After that meeting, whenever I had time I would meet to fellowship Almighty God’s word with my brothers and sisters and watch The Church of Almighty God’s gospel films. One time, I attended an international meeting of brothers and sisters sharing their life experiences of welcoming God’s return in the last days. One sister shared a story about how her family had been deceived by the lies of the CCP and priests, and had prevented and distracted her from accepting God’s work in the last days. She eventually learned to distinguish lies from the truth through reading Almighty God’s word, which gave her more faith to follow Almighty God. This sister’s experience was very inspiring to me. I thought, “Faced with all these impediments and distractions, this sister was still able to stay strong in her faith and follow Almighty God. She was able to do this through the power invested in her through the word of Almighty God. Almighty God’s word truly has authority and power!” Later on, I watched several more videos detailing the experiences of brothers and sisters who had been arrested and persecuted by the CCP. I was amazed to see how, even in the face of the torture and cruelty of the CCP, these brothers and sisters were able to hold fast to Almighty God’s name, use Almighty God’s word to overcome the cruelty and torture and stand their ground in testimony. This gave me an even greater sense of the authority and power of Almighty God’s word. After a period of seeking and investigation, I confirmed that, without question, Almighty God’s work is the true way and The Church of Almighty God is the church in which God has returned to do His work in the last days.

As of recently, I’ve already entered into The Church of Almighty God and have become a member of God’s family. I read Almighty God’s word every day and once again feel the bliss of God’s presence and enjoy that feeling of peace and security that came when I first put my faith in God and received the work of the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to Almighty God!

Source From: Gospel of The Descent of The Kingdom