A Life Story, A Testimony—-How Was I Conquered by the Word of God
22 Almighty God Saved Me
Wang Haijun
Shenyang City, Liaoning Province
I. Resisting the Lord Blindly Because of Listening to the Rumors and Believing the Lies
Shutting the Door on the Lord in order to “Guard the Church” and “Defend the Way”
My name is Wang Haijun. I was a preacher of the Justification by Faith Church. Like
Praise God, worship Almighty God.
other brothers and sisters, I believed in God in order to go to heaven and gain eternal life, and I labored and worked in serving God in order to gain the crown of righteousness. But while I was desperately yearning for the Lord to return and reward me, I believed the rumors and shut the door on the Lord because of my foolishness and ignorance, becoming an opponent of God.
In 1999, a booklet called The Inside Story of the Eastern Lightning was circulated to our church, which says, “The ‘Eastern Lightning’ is a cult, a heresy. There is a kind of drug in its book, and one will be deceived if he reads it. Its followers give very profound preaching, and one will join them once he listens to it. The ‘Eastern Lightning’ is an underworld organization. If one joins it, he can never withdraw. Its followers will break the legs of those who withdraw or cut off their nose.” I swallowed all the words in it without thinking, and spread them brazenly. Moreover, I laid down several rules in the church to guard against the “Eastern Lightning”: No one shall have any contact with the believers of the “Eastern Lightning.” No one shall listen to their fellowship or read their book. No one shall receive any outside believer in God without my permission, and they must be brought to the church; violators must make a serious prayer of repentance, and such people will be helped or expelled according to how deeply they have been “poisoned.” The visiting believers are forbidden to preach in our church; they can only listen here.
At that time, Sister Wang in our church had accepted the “Eastern Lightning.” I forced her to make a prayer of repentance, but she refused. So, I drove her out of the church and did not allow her to attend the meetings anymore. Sister Zhang’s elder sister came from over twenty kilometers away to preach God’s gospel of the last days to her. She, however, was so frightened under my pressure that she hid herself and dared not even serve her sister a meal. Afterward, I still forced her to pray a prayer of repentance, and she was dumb with grievance and just shed tears. Whoever came to attend our church service could only listen, and was forbidden to preach. Anyone who mentioned the return of the Lord would be driven out. Later, two sisters from another place came to my home and said to me, “The Lord has come. Woe to those who do not accept…” I said contemptuously, “The Lord has come? Have you seen Him? Woe to whom? I think woe to you.” With that I drove them out and told them never to come again. After that, nearly one hundred people came to preach the gospel of the last days to me one after another. Some of them I brushed aside, some I rebuked angrily, displaying my devilish vicious features, some I pushed violently and mocked, derided, and even teased and insulted them, and some I threatened to dial 110 to drive away.
By 2000, our church had completely lost the normal church life. Guarding against the “Eastern Lightning” and telling the rumors about the “Eastern Lightning” occupied most of our meeting time, and there was no supply of the way of life at all. However, the more I guarded against the “Eastern Lightning,” the fewer people came to attend the meetings. The brothers and sisters became increasingly weak, and more and more of them dozed during sermons. The leaders committed adultery and were engaged in disputes, and the brothers and sisters intrigued against one another and colluded and connived. The church was already divided. In the autumn of 2001, though I desperately opposed the “Eastern Lightning” and stepped up efforts to seal off the church, over half of the people in our church, including my wife and my sister-in-law, accepted the “Eastern Lightning” behind my back. Only I was kept in the dark. When I knew the fact, I could do nothing about it. Even so, I frenziedly shouted these words: I will not accept the “Eastern Lightning” even if I am the only one left! At that time, I was fully aware that the church had completely lost the work of the Holy Spirit. When we preached, we could only do it by depending on the strength of our flesh, and the songs we sang were all sad ones about “the desolation of God’s temple.” The atmosphere was so gloomy. I knelt down before the Lord and prayed in bitter tears many times, asking Him to revive the church, but I got no “answer.” I then began to think deeply, “What exactly is the ‘Eastern Lightning’? Is it really like what the rumors say? Wherein is it ‘heretical’? It doesn’t matter if I cannot go to heaven, but what matters is the life of so many brothers and sisters. The Lord said that the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. Now, some of the Lord’s sheep have returned to the world, some have joined the ‘Eastern Lightning,’ and the rest are too passive and weak to rise up. If this continues, how can I give an account to the Lord when He comes? In order to get the Lord’s sheep back and prevent other brothers and sisters from being ‘deceived,’ I must ‘enter the tiger’s den’ and bring the whole thing to light.”
II. Seeing Through the Deceits by Listening to the Fellowship and Asking for a Proof
Receiving the Further Salvation by Getting the Answer to the Riddle Through Reading the Word of God
In April 2002, I began to greet the people of the “Eastern Lightning,” and I even invited them to my house for a fellowship. Sister Jiao, formerly a member of our church, came to communicate with me. Starting with the point that God’s six-thousand-year management plan consists of three ages, she talked about the three stages of God’s work. She said that in each age, the location, the object, and the way of God’s work, and the disposition God expresses are different from those in the other ages, but no matter what God does, the purpose of His work does not change, and it is to save mankind. … Sister Jiao talked for more than two hours, but to be honest, my mind was a complete blank, and I didn’t take her words to heart at all. In the end, before she finished her words, I said, “Please stop here. I accept it. Just give me the book.” In fact, my purpose in reading the book was not to seek the truth but to see whether there is a kind of drug in it. Sister Jiao gave me a copy of Judgment Begins With the House of God. After I read a few pages, she asked me what I felt about it. To be frank, I was neither touched nor shocked by it, and I thought to myself, “This isn’t like God’s word at all!” So I squeezed out a word: “It seems not as interesting as the Bible.” She said, “You still have many notions inside which are against God. You have to drop yourself and sincerely ask God to enlighten and illuminate you. God searches minds and hearts. If you don’t have a right attitude and a proper intention when reading God’s word, the Holy Spirit will not move you.” Instead of taking her words to heart, I just listened absent-mindedly. However, although I didn’t take in much of what she communicated this time, I found a serious problem and began to doubt the booklet The Inside Story of the Eastern Lightning: The booklet says that there is a kind of drug in the book of the “Eastern Lightning,” and one will be deceived once he reads it, and that one will join it once he listens to its followers’ preaching. Today, I have read the book of the “Eastern Lightning” myself and listened to its follower’s preaching personally, but why am I not deceived? Why am I not controlled by them? And why have I not joined them after listening to it? Then I thought: The booklet also says that the “Eastern Lightning” is an underworld organization, and one can never withdraw if he joins it, and that its followers will break the legs of those who withdraw or cut off their nose. There are some brothers and sisters around me who had accepted the “Eastern Lightning” but who were dragged back by me afterward, but I have never seen any of them has lost his arms or legs or his nose has been cut off because he left the “Eastern Lightning.” Furthermore, the “Eastern Lightning” has been preached in China for many years. If such things had happened, wouldn’t there have been thousands upon thousands of such “victims” throughout China? If that were the fact, would they not have reported the cases to the police? How could the news media have ignored such appalling cases? How could we have never heard or seen the radio or TV coverage of them? Pondering over these things, I gradually realized that what the booklet says are all falsehoods of the cheats and nonsense. Today, as I view those lies, I find that they are so obvious that one can see through them as long as he gives a little thought to them and takes a look at the reality. However, these small inferior tricks even cheated me for four entire years and nearly caused me to go down to hell and the lake of fire for stubbornly opposing God. What an awful consequence!
What I had personally experienced sobered me a lot. The three ages, the three stages of God’s work, the purpose of God’s work, and many other things, as talked about by Sister Jiao, appeared in my mind, scene after scene. I began to feel that her preaching was reasonable, yet I was still doubtful. So, I asked the Lord for a proof. I prayed, “O Lord Jesus! I am an ordinary mortal, like a worm or a maggot. I don’t know You, much less understand Your will, but I dare not oppose You anymore. Today I accept the third stage of Your work and accept Your new name—the Almighty. If I am wrong to do so, may You let me die within three days with my body bursting open like Judas’, so that my death will prove that it is not Your work and those ‘deceived’ ones will be turned back.” After the prayer, I wrote a note to state this matter. Three days passed, but nothing had happened. Then, I started to read the word of Almighty God seriously.
As I had a right state of mind and read the word of Almighty God with a heart that fears and adores God, when I read “The Savior Has Already Returned Upon a ‘White Cloud,’” tears blurred my eyes. Almighty God says: “I was once known as Jehovah. I was also called the Messiah, and people once called Me Jesus the Savior because they loved and respected Me. But today I am not the Jehovah or Jesus that people knew in times past—I am the God who has returned in the last days, the God who shall bring the age to an end. I am the God Himself that rises up at the ends of the earth, replete with My entire disposition, and full of authority, honor and glory. People have never engaged with Me, have never known Me, and have always been ignorant of My disposition. From the creation of the world until today, not one person has seen Me. This is the God who appears to man during the last days but is hidden among man. He resides among man, true and real, like the burning sun and the flaming fire, filled with power and brimming with authority. There is not a single person or thing that shall not be judged by My words, and not a single person or thing that shall not be purified through the burning of fire. Eventually, all nations shall be blessed because of My words, and also smashed to pieces because of My words. In this way, all people during the last days shall see that I am the Savior returned, I am the Almighty God that conquers all of mankind, and I was once the sin offering for man, but in the last days I also become the flames of the sun that burn all things, as well as the Sun of righteousness that reveals all things. Such is My work of the last days.” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh) I came to know that Almighty God, whom I had resisted and condemned, is the returned Lord Jesus and the incarnate Jehovah, and that Jehovah, the Lord Jesus, and Almighty God are one God. I was too blind to recognize God as a believer in Him! Later, I read these words of Almighty God: “God and man cannot be spoken of as equals. His substance and His work are most unfathomable and incomprehensible to man. If God does not personally do His work and speak His words in the world of man, then man would never be able to understand the will of God, and so, even those who have devoted their entire life to God would be incapable of gaining His approval. Without God’s work, no matter how good man’s doing, it will count for nothing, for the thoughts of God shall always be higher than the thoughts of man, and the wisdom of God is unfathomable to man. And so I say that those who have ‘seen through’ God and His work are ineffectual, they are all arrogant and ignorant. Man should not define the work of God; moreover, man cannot define the work of God. In the eyes of God, man is smaller than an ant, so how can man fathom God’s work? Those who are constantly saying, ‘God does not work in this or that way’ or ‘God is like this or that’—are they not all arrogant? We should all know that people, who are of the flesh, have all been corrupted by Satan. It is their nature to oppose God, and they are not on a parity with God, much less can they offer counsel for the work of God. How God guides man is the work of God Himself. Man should submit, and should not hold such and such a view, for man is but dust.” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh) “Yes! How can man fathom what God does? How can man see God’s work clearly? Who can be God’s counselor? But today, I, a man less than an ant, have even dared to condemn God’s work at will. I am too overconfident! God’s words have left me ashamed and humiliated. Almighty God is the returned Jesus. I am utterly convinced of this and cannot but acknowledge it after I have read God’s words and personally experienced those things. But why did I blindly condemn God’s work without seeking it in the past? Why did I fail to recognize God though I longed for Him to return every day? Why did I oppose God while believing in Him? Why was I so self-confident and so arrogant? Why did I become a Pharisee of modern times.” In God’s words, I found the answers to these questions. Almighty God says: “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? I ask you again: Is it not extremely easy for you to commit the mistakes of the earliest Pharisees, given that you have not the slightest understanding of Jesus?” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh) “I blindly opposed God’s work of the last days without listening to the message about it or investigating it; I readily believed the lies of the cheats without personally listening to the preaching of any gospel preacher; when the church was so desolate and divided and without the work of the Holy Spirit, I did not seek the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work but just held to the teaching of justification by faith; and I never knew God’s substance and firmly believed that ‘You are not Christ unless You are called Jesus,’ but I regarded myself as a man who is most after God’s heart and most worthy to be taken up to the third heaven by God to receive blessings. I was so foolish, stubborn, arrogant, and disobedient to the truth; how could I not oppose God? How could I possibly know God’s present work?” As I thought about this, I could not help but pray to Almighty God, “O God! In the past, I made careless criticisms on the pulpit to condemn Your work at will. I was too poor and blind to recognize that You are the returned Lord Jesus, and so I slandered and blasphemed You. I reviled, mocked, and insulted those brothers and sisters who came to preach the salvation of the last days to me, but they bore all that silently. They were the slain Abel, the persecuted Jacob, and the sacrificed Isaac, while I was the murderer Cain, the persecutor Esau, and the wild donkey-like Ishmael. …” I bitterly hate my past, but I have no way to make up for it. I only wish for brothers and sisters to draw revelation from my personal experiences and take warning from my past and not to repeat my blunder. Almighty God says: “The return of Jesus is a great salvation for those who are capable of accepting the truth, but for those who are unable to accept the truth it is a sign of condemnation. You should choose your own path, and should not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and reject the truth. You should not be an ignorant and arrogant person, but someone who obeys the guidance of the Holy Spirit and longs for and seeks the truth; only in this way will you benefit. I advise you to tread the path of belief in God with care. Do not jump to conclusions; what’s more, do not be casual and carefree in your belief in God. You should know that, at the very least, those who believe in God should be humble and reverential. Those who have heard the truth and yet turn their nose up at it are foolish and ignorant. Those who have heard the truth and yet carelessly jump to conclusions or condemn it are beset by arrogance. No one who believes in Jesus is qualified to curse or condemn others. You should all be someone who is rational and accepts the truth.” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh)
Dear brothers and sisters, I frenziedly opposed the second coming of the Lord Jesus because of believing the lies. Later, I entered the “Eastern Lightning” to investigate it thoroughly, for fear that I might go astray and lead the brothers into a ditch and be unable to give an account to the Lord. And I also asked the Lord for a proof. Finally, from the facts that I had personally experienced and the words of Almighty God that are like a sharp double-edged sword, I saw clearly that the “Lightning of the East” opposed frenziedly by me for four years was actually my long-expected Savior Jesus. Freed from the deception of the lies and the notions, I am desperately anxious to tell this fact, this great good news, to all the brothers and sisters who are sincerely longing for the Lord to return: The Savior Jesus has indeed come among men! My dear brothers and sisters! Don’t believe the lies of the cheats in the religious world anymore. If we hand our lives over to the liars and rumormongers, won’t we ruin our own lives? If we do not drop our notions and imaginations immediately, isn’t it that we have fallen right into the scheme of the evil one and into darkness and will miss the last opportunity for us to be saved by God? Only Christ of the last days can give man the way of eternal life and take man to a wonderful destination. Brothers and sisters, time is too short. There is only a little time left. Wake up quickly! For how miserable it is to be forsaken!
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