Each time when I see God’s words which are full of care and compassion for us, I am deeply touched and cannot help but shed silent tears. The scenes of my miserable past, my life that was coming to an end, and my fellow workers dying of poisonous substances are still very vivid and remain etched in my mind. I deeply felt that only God can reveal the actual fact of Satan’s afflictions of us mankind and only He can bring me the truth and comfort, enlighten me, and give me a new life.

The turmoil of the Cultural Revolution emerged when I was in high school, as a result, I had no chance to continue my education. Afterward, I was sent down to the countryside to work. When I was young, like most people, I thought: Atheism is scientific, while theism is the product of the backwardness of science; life comes out of nothing and is evolved from a lower to a higher form. At that time, I had a firm belief that as long as I persevered and worked hard, I would change my destiny successfully. I worked on the production line at the time, dealing with benzene and its derivatives every day. At the mention of benzene, many people know that only a small amount of it can cause aplastic anemia, namely leukemia. In our workplace, flowers and trees could not be seen. Even for those trees which had grown for many years, if they were exposed to the poisonous gas, they would wither the next day. Moreover, the air was reeking with the choking smell, so even birds were unwilling to fly over there. There was no sign of life. In such an environment, some people were poisoned, and they atrophied from 1.7 meters little by little and became a dwarf and died in the end; some were burnt to a “mummy” by a sudden escape of the mixed acid. What I remembered most was: A graduate of a well-known university got septicemia in the prime of his life. Even though he received several blood transfusions, yet it didn’t work. Ultimately, he died young, leaving his wife and son. More people had malignant tumor. They could do nothing but moan in pain in the hospital and soon died one after the other. Some died before retiring or in the year they just retired. … Such examples are too numerous. Consequently, nature’s fresh air became the most precious thing to us. Originally we could easily breathe in fresh and clean air, but at that time, it was unreachable for us. Owing to the bad working conditions, few people were willing to work in our chemical plant. So our factory was short-handed and each of us had to do two people’s work, which was harder for us. Because our chemical shop was high, I had to go upstairs and downstairs between the first floor and the third over and over again to distribute materials and operate the machine. After returning home from work, I couldn’t fall asleep for a long time because of the giddiness caused by the chemical odor. As a result, I was so tired that I used to collapse very often and had loose bowels, exhausted and muddle-headed.

In order to get rid of such hellish life, I made a choice to take academic courses with the belief “Elbow grease gives the best polish.” I thought as long as I learned more, then I could change my working atmosphere, be exposed to dangerous chemicals less, and not be so tired. I devoted every spare moment to my study, yet I felt dizzy all day, so the result of studying was not good—I would soon forget what I had learned. So, naturally, I failed and led a dark life for over twenty years. But later, because I achieved some success in the chemical experiment, I got a technical job, and gradually, I received many honors. However, all these could not cheer me up, because I had had high blood pressure since I was over forty years old. Besides, I always suffered terrible stabbing pains in my chest and was frequently stifled to wake up in a cold sweat at night. Being tired, I was inefficient in my work the next day. In order to relieve chest pains, I took red sage tablets three times a day under the supervision of a doctor. However, the drug has the effect of lowering blood pressure. If my blood pressure was too low, I often stumbled when standing up from a crouching position, so I had to stop the medication. One day when I had a physical examination, the result showed that my blood pressure was 180/120 and there was a lack of blood supply to the heart muscles. The doctor was astonished and said that my condition was quite dangerous, but I wasn’t surprised to learn that. I thought: I had never slept well for so many years. In order to improve technology, I work overtime and sometimes even keep at work continuously day and night. Nobody can stand it. As a matter of course, workers in chemical plants can retire at the age of 55. However, I chose to retire early because I could not put up with the smell of chemicals. But even so, I felt I had burned myself out. My state of health consisted in noxious work and overextending myself in the work.

Later, I began to learn the science of health preserving of TCM, deeming that traditional Chinese medicine was my only life-saving straw. Two to three years passed by, I learned a lot of knowledge of Chinese medicine, took a lot of medicine and spent a great deal of money, but in the end, I found it’s beyond me to live up to the easiest item in science of health preserving of TCM, “being indifferent to fame or gain and relaxed,” and “being peaceful to keep away from illness.” In the face of the lure of the material world, how could I keep calm? In order to cultivate my character and discipline myself, I went fishing in the mountain. The clear water and the fresh air refreshed my mind and really comforted my heart, but afterward, the feeling of unaccountable emptiness and loneliness came over me, which always made me live in a constant state of anxiety and feel uneasy. I felt really depressed and annoyed, for I seemed to have tried all kinds of ways of life, yet I still couldn’t find the right path.

This is what we people are like: We won’t call God from deep in our hearts unless we feel utterly helpless or reach the end of the road. Not until that time did I open the Christian gospel book, which had been sent to me by my relative yet laid aside by me for a long time, to seek whether there was a path in it. Astonishingly, it turned out that the true essence of life was in Jesus Christ. I saw many founders of modern science were pious Christians. The scientists who believed in Christianity were the mainstays in the development of science and the majority of Nobel Prize winners for natural sciences were pious Christians. The civilization and science of human society originated in the West, not the East. Many astronomers all agreed that all things in the universe were created by God. Human DNA had nothing to do with animal genes. Adam and Eve were the progenitors of mankind and man was created by God. Facing these solid facts, I was stunned and felt everything was now reversed. After pondering for a long time, I realized the omnipotent Creator truly exists. No wonder after I had tried my very best I could still not change my own destiny, and even could not protect my health, leading an empty and painful life. No wonder those famous scientists were very gifted. It turned out that the secret lay in believing in God. It is precisely as the Bible says, “The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10). How I longed to start a new life, complying with God’s teachings and not living such a hard life.

When facing the truth of the facts, I felt great shame and felt like I had been deceived and fooled. Only then did I know atheism was a product of backwardness of science, and evolutionism was untenable in the face of scientific evidence. It had long been abandoned as rubbish by Westerners. Only that God created man is the highest truth. From then on, I took Jesus Christ as my savior and then began to study the Bible, attend gatherings, and go to church. I prayed to the Lord everyday and hoped that the Lord Jesus’ great power and authority could bring me the miracle of life. One year later, I even dared to challenge myself to work overseas. Thanks be to God! I was lucky enough to get a working visa smoothly at my age. So I went abroad by myself. The labor abroad, as you could imagine, was so arduous that even youngsters felt terrified at it. Besides, the working hours were very long. For three long years, I carried it through under the Lord Jesus’ care and protection. What was more incredible to me was that in May of 2016, the results of my medical examination showed that my blood lipid and blood sugar were normal, and my electrocardiogram was normal as well. Still more surprisingly, the column of the doctor’s advice was empty, without a single word. All these let me know that they are the blessings the Lord Jesus brought to me.

Much more luckily, I accepted the work of the Age of Kingdom carried out by the return of the Lord Jesus—Almighty God. On November 4, 2016, the brothers and sisters in The Church of Almighty God told God’s six-thousand-year management plan to me patiently. They communicated from the Age of Law to the Age of Grace, and then the Book of Revelation to the Age of Kingdom, which was well-founded. I was convinced by their knowledge about the Bible. Such communication made me know more about God’s six-thousand-year management plan and God’s three stages of work. What I admired more was: Those who had followed Almighty God for ten to twenty years were well-spoken. They seemed so confident, yet never showed off themselves, always exalting God and bearing testimony to Him. They were unlike those people with a deep knowledge of the Scriptures whom I had seen in the religious community. Those people were arrogant enough to restrain and lecture people at every turn. From the brothers and sisters who believed in Almighty God, I saw that there were the truth and the work of the Holy Spirit in The Church of Almighty God, for their expression was admirable.

Then I began to read God’s words and watched various gospel videos. God’s words made me utterly convinced. I saw that God says: “If you rely on your knowledge and ability in your undertakings, then you shall always be a failure and shall always be bereft of the blessings of God…” (“God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind”). God also says, “Without the care, keeping, and provision of God, man cannot receive all that he was meant to receive, no matter how diligently he tries or how arduously he struggles” (“God Is the Source of Man’s Life”). I could not help but sigh in my heart: This is indeed the voice of the Lord Jesus and the words of God Himself. They are saying exactly a true portrayal of the first half of my life. In retrospect, I had strived hard and sought. In order to change my life, I had worked on chemical production line for many years at the cost of my own health, but there was not the slightest alteration in my life and I couldn’t sleep well because of the fumes of those toxic substances every day, feeling dizzy all day. I had made efforts to take academic courses, dreaming that I could have a change of scene one day so that I could no longer work so hard. Yet in the end I failed. When I achieved some successes in the chemical experiment, I was worn out by the torment of illness. Afterward, I looked for the scientific way to cultivate my character and discipline myself, but I always had a feeling of indescribable emptiness deep in my heart. I really could not get what I wanted by my individual efforts. My life didn’t change until I had found God. Then I discovered an earthshaking mystery that success lies in God, and does not depend upon my own exertions. These words are very true. They are so wonderful. I’d like to know what the second incarnation of God said, so I finished reading the book of God’s words as quickly as possible.

I read these words spoken by God, “Knowledge of ancient culture and history spanning several thousand years has closed off man’s thinking and notions and his mental outlook so tightly as to render them impervious and non-biodegradable.^[1] People live in the eighteenth circle of hell, where, just as if they have been banished by God into the dungeons, the light may never be seen. Feudal thinking has so oppressed people that they can barely breathe and are suffocating. They have not the slightest jot of strength to resist; all they do is endure and endure in silence…. Long ago, when man’s heart and soul was still in its infancy, the king of devils planted in it the seed of the tumor of atheism, teaching him such fallacies as ‘study science and technology; realize the Four Modernizations; and there is no such thing as God in the world.’ Not only that, it shouts out at every opportunity: ‘Let us rely on our industrious labor to build a beautiful homeland,’ asking each and every person to be prepared from childhood to render faithful service to their country. Man, unwitting, was brought into its presence, where it unhesitatingly arrogated all the credit (meaning the credit belonging to God for holding all of mankind in His hands) unto itself. Never did it have any sense of shame. Moreover, it shamelessly seized God’s people and dragged them back into its house, where it leaped like a mouse onto the table and had man worship it as God. What a desperado! It cries out scandalous, shocking things, such as: ‘There is no such thing as God in the world. The wind comes from transformations according to natural laws; rain comes when water vapor, meeting with cold temperatures, condenses into drops that fall to earth; an earthquake is the shaking of the surface of the earth due to geological changes; drought is due to dryness in the air caused by nucleonic disruption on the sun’s surface. These are natural phenomena. Where, in all this, is there an act of God?’ There are even those who shout out statements like the following, statements that should not be given voice: ‘Man evolved from apes in the ancient past, and the world today comes from a succession of primitive societies starting from approximately an eon ago. Whether a country flourishes or declines rests entirely in the hands of its people.’ In the background, it makes man hang it on the wall or place it on the table to pay homage and make offerings to it. At the same time that it cries out, ‘There is no God,’ it sets itself up as God, with summary roughness pushing God out of the bounds of the earth, while standing in God’s place and taking up the role of the king of devils. How utterly lost to reason!” (“Work and Entry (7)”). Just as God said, I was indoctrinated with these thoughts and believed in the theory of evolution and atheism, firmly believing that as long as I persistently worked hard, I could change my fate. Little did I know that these erroneous ideas had directed me to walk a winding path for so many years. Looking back on my own sufferings, I came to realize that those were all Satan’s affliction and trickery. These sayings were fallacies which would take us to hell. My own experience had informed me: Nothing is beyond God’s control. Without God’s blessings, all is futile. God’s words were like a sharp sword, analyzing atheism thoroughly. Thanks be to God. The more I read God’s words, the more I felt they were so good. I felt especially brightened in my heart. I could not help but praise God from the bottom of my heart: It is He who gives us every aspect of the truth which provides us with life.

Thinking back to these years, I thanked God for His selection of me after I had experienced suffering, otherwise how could I, such an atheist who believed only “One’s destiny is in his own hand” have the chance to know the Lord who created the heavens and the earth and all things? How could I know it is not I who rule my destiny but God? And how could I remember God’s love with deep gratitude? Then I thought: It is actually God’s careful arrangement that I could come abroad, so that I had an opportunity to know and accept the second coming of the Lord Jesus—Almighty God. I gave praise from my heart: God, You are so wise and so lovely. But for Your selection, I would have been among the throngs of people who struggled with illness desperately and have long been dead. Now I feel nothing is important, except that I can follow Almighty God, read His words every day, live under His guidance and spread His name. Because my life is given by God; it should be given to Almighty God!

Footnotes:

1. “Non-biodegradable” is intended as satire here, meaning that people are rigid in their knowledge, culture, and spiritual outlook.