By Liu Wenhua

Hello Sister Yang Yang,

I’ve received your letter, and from it I’ve known that recently you’ve been investigating the way of Eastern Lightning. Through reading Almighty God’s words and watching some movies and videos produced by The Church of Almighty God, you’ve understood many truths which you previously did not understand and your thirsty heart has been thus watered and nourished, so you felt the way was probably true. However, you’ve been puzzling: Eastern Lightning is the true way, so why has it directly suffered the Chinese Communist government’s suppression and persecution?

Seeing that you have this confusion, I can understand your feelings because I once had the same experience when I investigated God’s work in the last days. And I also hesitated for a period of time about accepting this way. If God hadn’t arranged for a sister to resolve my confusion, I very likely would have lost my chance to receive His salvation.

It was one day in the spring of 2010. Sister Wang from my original church and her cousin Sister Xu came to my house, and Sister Xu preached the kingdom gospel of Almighty God to me. Not long after I began to investigate it, Brother Diao, the preacher of my original church, hastened to my house and said, “Sister Wenhua, I heard that you’re looking into the way of Eastern Lightning. I am not against your investigating the true way. But I can tell you, the way of Eastern Lightning you are investigating is being severely persecuted and condemned by the CCP. So how can it be the true way? I advise you to give them back the book The Word Appears in the Flesh.” After he left, my heart churned and I thought to myself, “The words of God that Sister Xu read to me and the truths she fellowshiped about with me were something I’ve never heard of in the past. She testified that the Lord Jesus only did the work of redeeming mankind, thus enabling us not to be condemned or cursed for violating God’s laws; what He had not done was God’s work of judging, purifying and thoroughly saving man in the last days. The redemption work of the Lord Jesus was to pave the way for God’s judgment work of the last days. On the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work, Christ of the last days, Almighty God has commenced the work of judgment starting from God’s house. Through expressing the truth, He judges and purifies our corrupt dispositions, thus allowing us to be free from the sinful nature, and attain cleansing and salvation to enter the kingdom of heaven. Moreover, from Almighty God’s words, I’ve seen that they are full of authority and power, and are not things that people could express. So Almighty God’s words should be God’s words and His work should be the true way. But since it is thus, why has this way met with the CCP government’s condemnation and suppression? What is this all about?” Just as I was wavering, Sister Xu came to my house to visit me. So I told her my question.

The truth behind the persecution was revealed.

Sister Xu patiently fellowshiped this with me, “Sister, the question you brought up is exactly what many people who first start investigating God’s work in the last days want to understand. And many brothers and sisters of every religion and every denomination dared not continue to investigate the true way because they didn’t see the real essence of this question clearly. So understanding its essence is necessary. In order to gain some clarity on this, we must first know why the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross by the Roman government. If we can see through this question, then it won’t be hard to understand the reason why Eastern Lightning has been furiously condemned and suppressed by the CCP government. Back when the Lord Jesus was born, He was already once hunted by Herod the Great. Herod the Great was consumed with hatred for the arrival of God. In order to keep his throne, he laid murderous hands on Jesus and had baby boys killed who were under two years of age in Bethlehem and its vicinity. That’s a historical fact. The first time God became flesh and worked in a nation of faith in God, but He was still hunted by Herod the Great and in the end nailed to the cross alive by the Jewish Pharisees and the Roman government, not to mention that today it is in the country ruled by the atheist CCP that the Lord Jesus who has returned to flesh—Almighty God comes to work. Won’t He be resisted and condemned even worse? The CCP is Satanism, and believes in Marxism-Leninism. It is the satanic regime. Since it came to power in China, it has been unceasing in its frantic persecution of religious faith. It has always viewed all religious groups as enemies and been implementing its attack and suppression. It has branded Protestantism and Catholicism as cults. It has condemned the Bible as a cultist book, has burned countless copies of it, and has banned its publication. Moreover, it has arrested, imprisoned, and persecuted countless Christians, Catholics, and the righteous. Throughout history, it has always advocated evil and cracked down on justice. It fights with heaven and the earth, and resists Heaven and God’s will. It is the devil Satan, the enemy of God, so it uses any means to persecute and hunt down God. Thus, it comes as no surprise that God’s work in China has been persecuted by the CCP. This fulfills the prophecies of the Lord Jesus, ‘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).

“In the last days, the Lord Jesus has been incarnated as the Son of man again; He is the Christ of the last days—Almighty God. He has secretly descended in China to appear and speak, which has shaken all of China. Those who love the truth and yearn for God’s appearance recognize that Almighty God’s words have authority and power, and are the truth, the voice of God. So they believe that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus, and one by one they come before Almighty God. This has aroused panic in the CCP, so it does its utmost to suppress and persecute The Church of Almighty God, and makes up all sorts of rumors to frame The Church of Almighty God. The satanic CCP regime knows now that in the world only the truth expressed by Almighty God can judge and save man, and that Almighty God’s truth has already been published on the Internet, so it can be sought and investigated by all mankind. The CCP is extremely terrified that once Almighty God’s words spread out among the people, all those who love the truth will turn to Almighty God. Then no one will follow and worship it, so that it will never again have a place to stand in China, so that it will never again be able to deceive and corrupt the people of the world. That is why the CCP extremely hates all the truth expressed by Almighty God for the salvation of mankind, hates The Church of Almighty God, and does everything it can to prevent people from accepting the true way and turning to Almighty God. The intention of the CCP’s resistance to God’s work of the last days like this is all to preserve its dark regime and establish an atheist region in China. It wantonly arrests and persecutes Christians, in the vain hope of banning God’s work and achieving its goal of forever controlling Chinese people. Just as God’s word says, ‘The king of devils has rampaged for several thousand years, right up until today, when it still keeps a close watch on the ghost town, as if it were an impenetrable palace of demons; this pack of watchdogs, meanwhile, stare with glaring eyes, deeply fearful that God will catch them unawares and wipe them all out, leaving them without a place of peace and happiness. How could the people of a ghost town such as this ever have seen God? Have they ever enjoyed the dearness and loveliness of God? What appreciation have they of the matters of the human world? Who of them can understand God’s eager will? Small wonder, then, that God incarnate remains completely hidden: In a dark society such as this, where the demons are merciless and inhumane, how could the king of devils, who kills people without batting an eye, tolerate the existence of a God who is lovely, kind, and also holy? How could it applaud and cheer the arrival of God? These lackeys! They repay kindness with hate, they have long since disdained God, they abuse God, they are savage in the extreme, they have not the slightest regard for God, they plunder and pillage, they have lost all conscience, they go against all conscience, and they tempt the innocent into senselessness. Forefathers of the ancient? Beloved leaders? They all oppose God! Their meddling has left all beneath heaven in a state of darkness and chaos! Religious freedom? The legitimate rights and interests of citizens? They are all tricks for covering up sin!’”

God’s work cannot be stopped.

Sister Xu continued fellowshiping, “Back in the days when the Lord Jesus did His work, He was forsaken by all the people of Israel at that time. Then, can we say that the Lord Jesus’ work is not the true way? Besides, there were those foreign missionaries who came to China to preach the gospel in the past. Who welcomed them? Who supported them? They sowed the seeds of the gospel in China with their own blood and even their own lives. At that time the missionaries suffered persecution in the same way. Then, can we say that what they preached was not the true way? God’s words say, ‘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.’ ‘You must know that all of the Israelites spurned and denied Jesus, and yet the fact of Jesus’ redemption of mankind still extended throughout the universe and to the ends of the earth. Isn’t this a reality that God made long ago?’ Time and facts will prove that the work out of God will increasingly flourish and all that comes from men will fall to ruin. From the persecution that God has suffered during His two incarnations, we see that the work of the true God must suffer the persecution and rejection of the world. And this is based on the Lord Jesus’ words, ‘The whole world lies in wickedness’ (1 John 5:19). But even so, God’s work cannot be blocked by any forces. Just as God says, ‘Today, God has returned to the world to do His work. His first stop is the grand assemblage of dictatorial rulers: China, the staunch bastion of atheism. God has gained a group of people by His wisdom and power. During this period, He has been hunted by China’s ruling party by every means and subjected to great suffering, with no place to rest His head, unable to find shelter. Despite this, God still continues the work He intends to do: He utters His voice and spreads the gospel. None can fathom the almightiness of God. In China, a country that regards God as an enemy, God has never ceased His work. Instead, more people have accepted His work and word, for God saves each and every member of mankind to the greatest extent possible. We trust that no country or power can stand in the way of what God wishes to achieve. Those who obstruct God’s work, resist the word of God and disturb and impair the plan of God shall ultimately be punished by God.’ Since Almighty God’s work of the last days unfolded, it has met with furious opposition and condemnation from the CCP, but God’s kingdom gospel has still spread through all of Mainland China, reaching an unprecedented extent, with millions of people coming under Almighty God’s name. God has gained a group of people who are of the same mind with Him. Now, the gospel website of The Church of Almighty God has already been opened to various nations and places around the world. The words of Almighty God are being accepted and spread by more and more people. The churches of Almighty God have been established in many democratic countries all over the world. The expanding of the kingdom gospel completely reveals God’s almightiness and wisdom!”

After hearing the words of God which Sister Xu read to me and her fellowshiping, I felt suddenly enlightened: It was really too absurd that I judged whether God’s work of the last days was right or wrong based on whether the CCP government accepted it or not. The CCP government has never acknowledged the existence of God, and its substance is hatred of the truth and is resistance to God, so what qualifications does it have to evaluate or decide whether something is the true way or the false way? My confusion was finally resolved, and I no longer worried about anything. So I happily accepted God’s work in the last days.

Sister Yang Yang, I hope this reply can resolve the confusion in your heart. If you have any questions, let’s discuss them together.

May God bless you!

Sister Wenhua