Collection of Sermons—Supply for Life | Eastern Lightning

The Church of Almighty God, Eastern Lightning, seeking the truth

2. Only Those Who Gain the Truth and Enter Into Reality Are Truly Saved

Just what is it to be saved or to attain salvation? This is the great mystery of faith in God. In the past, all people who believed in God held on to human conceptions and imaginings about this. They believed that as long as people sincerely believe in God, do not leave God, or betray God, when catastrophes befall them they will be able to receive God’s protection as a matter of course, and thereby survive the disasters, which means they have attained salvation.
Particularly during the Age of Grace, people who believed in the Lord Jesus thought, “As long as you believe in the Lord Jesus your sins will be forgiven, and once saved always saved.” There were all too many people who had these conceptions and imaginings. Is being saved and attaining salvation really so simple? In fact, genuine salvation refers to freeing oneself from the dark influence of Satan, genuinely turning to God, being able to submit to God and being in accord with God. It refers to people gaining the truth as their life so that we achieve a breaking free of the bonds and harassment of corrupt flesh, and so that in the truth we are able to be free and released. Even more, it refers to people being able to love God sincerely, achieve accord with God, and be gained by God. Only those believers in God who achieve these results are people who are truly saved. To put it more precisely, believers in God must gain the truth and enter reality before they are saved. This is certain beyond doubt.

We experience the work of God’s judgment and chastisement in the last days, in one regard, by accepting the judgment and chastisement of God’s words, in another, undergoing much pruning and being dealt with, as well as the suffering of trials and refinements, and we finally understand many truths. We not only understand the true meaning of God’s work in the last days is to save people and perfect people, but also have a true understanding of God’s righteous disposition and His omnipotence and wisdom in dominating all, and develop a heart that genuinely loves God. Because of this we are fully able to expend ourselves sincerely for God, evangelize and bear witness to God with all-out strength, and finally, in our hearts, taste the sweetness of the transformation of our life disposition that comes after we understand the truth and know God. We finally know what genuine salvation is, and are no longer dominated by confusion about just what attaining salvation is and whether or not we ourselves can be saved. We genuinely see that it is only by attaining understanding of truth and gaining truth in accepting and submitting to the work of God’s judgment and chastisement in the last days that we can genuinely break out of the bonds of Satan’s dark influence and our corrupt fleshly nature. Then we can truly turn to God and genuinely love God, obey God, and worship God. This is the only way for corrupt humanity to be saved. There is no other way but this. The incarnation of God in the last days to carry out the work of judgment and chastisement is in order to save humanity: “The final stage of conquering is meant to save people and also to reveal people’s endings. It is to disclose people’s degeneration through judgment and thereby get them to repent, rise up, and pursue life and the right path of human life. It is to wake up the hearts of the numb and obtuse people and to show, through judgment, their inner rebelliousness. However, if people are still unable to repent, still unable to pursue the right path of human life and unable to cast off these corruptions, then they will become unrescuable objects for Satan to swallow up. This is the significance of conquering—to save people and also to show their endings. Good endings, bad endings—they are all revealed by the conquering work. Whether people will be saved or cursed is all revealed during the conquering work.”

Believing in God is essential in order to be saved and live a true life, but people must understand that attaining salvation through belief in God is absolutely not as simple as people imagine, because after they have been corrupted by Satan they become corrupt humans who are of Satan and oppose God. Corrupt humanity is always resisting God, attacking God, and blaspheming God because Satan’s poison, satanic philosophy, and the satanic way of life completely control people’s hearts. These things make up people’s lives, make up people’s nature, and cause people to end up as one of Satan’s kind. That’s why people are able to resist God and rebel against God. In concrete terms, by living according to Satan’s philosophy, Satan’s laws, Satan’s logic, and Satan’s knowledge and reasoning, corrupt humanity is only able to deny God, rebel against God, and even turn into demons that hate the truth and resist God, and have no trace of humanity left in them. This is a fact, just as Almighty God has said: “All of you live in a place of sin and licentiousness; you are all licentious and sinful people. Today you not only can see God, but more importantly, you have received chastisement and judgment, received such deepest salvation, that is, received God’s greatest love. All that He does is true love for you; He has no ill intention. It is because of your sins that He judges you, so that you will examine yourselves and receive this tremendous salvation. All this is done to work man. From beginning to end, God has been doing His utmost to save man, and He is certainly not willing to completely destroy the men He created with His own hands. Now He has come among you to work; isn’t this even more salvation? If He hated you, would He still do work of such magnitude to personally lead you? Why should He suffer so? God does not hate you or have any ill intention toward you. You should know that God’s love is the truest love. It is only because of people’s disobedience that He has to save them through judgment; otherwise, they would not be saved. As you do not know how to lead a life or how to live, and you live in this licentious and sinful place and are licentious and filthy devils, He does not have the heart to let you become even more depraved; neither has He the heart to see you living in the filthy place like this, being trampled by Satan at will, or the heart to let you fall into Hades. He only wants to gain this group of you and thoroughly save you. This is the main purpose of doing the conquering work on you—it is just for salvation.” “When God becomes flesh this time, His work is to express His disposition, primarily through chastisement and judgment. Using this as the foundation, He brings more truth to man, shows more ways of practice, and so achieves His objective of conquering man and saving man from his corrupt disposition. This is what lies behind the work of God in the Age of Kingdom.” If corrupt humanity does not accept God’s salvation work of judgment and chastisement in the last days, it is impossible for them to receive purification and attain salvation, and impossible for them to gain the truth and live in the manner of true people because God’s disposition does not tolerate offense. When people possess the satanic nature to resist God they are capable of hating the truth, and denying God, rebelling against God, judging God, and resisting God, and the result of opposing God in these ways is self-destruction. Humans of the ancient and prehistoric ages were destroyed for resisting God, and now that God comes in these last days judging and chastising corrupt humanity in order to save them, this is also the last chance for humanity to be saved. If believers in God cannot accept the salvation and perfection of God’s judgment and chastisement in the last days, God will target them for destruction. God’s work in the last days is to resolve the crucial problem of mankind being controlled and guided by a sinful nature that is impossible for them to throw off. It’s to lead humankind out from under the dark influence of Satan in order to turn to God and submit to His work so that they can become people that obey God, worship God, and are in line with God’s intentions. To achieve such results, people must accept the judgment and chastisement of God in the last days, and from God’s work obtain the truth of God’s words as their life. This is crucial for throwing off the restrictions and bonds that their corrupt satanic nature has over their flesh. Only if people are possessed of a life of truth can they defeat Satan, overcome the flesh, and live according to God’s words, can they genuinely obey God, genuinely love God, genuinely worship God, and thus be able to overcome the satanic nature within them that is made up of Satan’s poison and Satan’s philosophy, completely throwing off the bonds and restrictions of the corrupt flesh, gaining release and freedom in the truth, and living a true life. This is what is crucial for belief in God to attain salvation by God.

All people who understand the truth by undergoing the judgment and chastisement of God in the last days possess a genuine, accurate knowledge of the two stages of redemption and judgment in God’s work of saving humankind. Ever since the Lord Jesus carried out the work of redemption in the Age of Grace, although the sins of humankind received forgiveness, the problems of humans’ sinful origins and satanic nature have never been resolved. Therefore, humankind has not truly been saved. Salvation, as discussed in the Age of Grace, actually only referred to obtaining forgiveness of sins, meaning that God no longer looked upon humans as sinners, and because of the forgiveness of sins humankind could pray directly to God and enjoy God’s grace. This is the true meaning of salvation in the Age of Grace. When Almighty God came, He has revealed clearly the purpose of the work of the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. Almighty God had this to say about salvation in the Age of Grace: “At the time Jesus’ work was the redemption of all mankind. The sins of all who believed in Him were forgiven; as long as you believed in Him, He would redeem you; if you believed in Him, you were no longer a sinner, you were relieved of your sins. This is what it meant to be saved, and to be justified by faith. Yet in those who believed, there remained that which was rebellious and opposed God, and which still had to be slowly removed. Salvation did not mean man had been completely gained by Jesus, but that man was no longer of sin, that he had been forgiven his sins: Provided you believed, you would never more be of sin.” So being saved refers only to the forgiveness of sins, and this kind of salvation cannot allow people to gain entry to the kingdom of heaven. In fact during the Age of Grace the Lord Jesus suggested that only people who received salvation could enter the kingdom of heaven. The Lord Jesus said, “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” It is receiving salvation that these words refer to. It is evident that in the Age of Grace being saved was merely laying a foundation and smoothing the way for receiving salvation in the Age of Kingdom. This confirms what Peter says in the Bible about those people “Who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1Peter 1:5) So the work of redemption that the Lord Jesus did has been to smooth the way and lay the foundation for God’s work of salvation in the last days. The work of judgment and chastisement in the last days that Almighty God—the returned Jesus—undertakes is the core and focal point of God’s work of salvation. It is just as Almighty God says: “In rescuing man off the cross, Jesus was only completing redemption work; He was not doing perfection work. Thus only half of God’s work was being done, and finishing the redemption work was only half of His whole plan.” Therefore, God became flesh in the last days to judge and chastise people with words, to work into people all the truth that they need, enabling them to truly know God, have their life disposition transformed, and become ones that obey God, worship God, and accord with God’s intention. It is only then that God completes His management plan to save humankind. Only when people accept the work of God in the last days, experience God’s judgment and chastisement, pruning and being dealt with, trials and refinement, gain the truth from God and possess God’s words as the reality of life will humankind have the ability to triumph over Satan and overcome sinful nature to be reborn as a new creation. In this way, Satan is no longer able to delude and corrupt this humankind that has the truth as their life, because when people gain the truth by which to live they naturally are able to live according to God’s words, genuinely obey God, worship God, and gain a true life. This is true salvation. Attaining salvation means that by gaining the truth people have gained new lives. Satan appears powerless in the face of people who have gained the truth. Satan’s fallacies, philosophy, and schemes are all repudiated and rejected by people who have gained the truth. Satan no longer has any means to delude and corrupt people who have gained the truth. All the heresies and fallacies of Satan that corrupt people are completely ineffective on people who have gained the truth, and are totally worthless. Nor does Satan have any status in the minds of people who have gained the truth, and is no longer idolized. Because Satan’s evil essence has been seen through, Satan is defeated and discarded by people who have gained the truth. It is such a humankind that is saved, the humankind that defeats Satan, stands witness, and is in accord with God’s intentions. This is the genuine meaning of being saved, and is precisely what the work of God in the last days is to achieve. Almighty God has said: “The work in the last days lays bare the work of Jehovah and Jesus and all mysteries not understood by man. This is done to reveal the destination and end of mankind and conclude all work of salvation among mankind. This stage of work in the last days brings everything to a close. All mysteries not understood by man must be unraveled to allow man to gain insight into such and have a clear understanding in their hearts. Only then can man be divided according to their kinds.”

It is by pursuing the truth and gaining the truth that people can attain salvation. If people have not gained the truth, then they surely still live in Satan’s domain, in bondage to corrupt flesh, still living in sin and always committing offenses. Just as in the Age of Grace, although their sins received forgiveness, people still constantly committed offenses, rebelled against God, and resisted Him. Their lives were a cycle of sinning and confessing, confessing then sinning. This is a fact that no one can deny. The task that the Lord Jesus undertook was the work of redemption for humankind. What those who believe in Jesus have only enjoyed is a life of peace and joy that comes when sins have been forgiven. Although they have been able to enjoy so much of God’s grace, their corrupt nature has not changed, and they have gone on as always resisting God and rebelling against God. How can we say such humans have been completely saved? Especially in the last days, human corruption has deepened to the point that the entire age has reached such an extreme of darkness and evil that the religious community is also in utter darkness. What people believe in and worship is a vague God, so believers in religious communities cannot in truth live like true humans, but just spend everyday living in the cycle of committing sins then confessing, confessing then committing sins. It is evident that Satan has turned humankind into unclean demons and devils, who don’t have the least likeness of true humans, and who are only able to commit sins and then confess them but are unable to practice the truth. Most of the leaders and pastors of the religious community serving God have resisted God from the beginning. Even up to the present, they are still resisting the work of God in the last days. They have already been the evil forces of Satan that are in enmity to God. Let me ask you, Are people who cannot free themselves from sin the ones who have received salvation? Are people who believe in God but resist God the ones who have received salvation? Those who enjoy God’s grace but carry out schemes to resist God, and work hand in hand with the great red dragon to persecute and hunt down Christ incarnate and condemn the work of God in the last days, are they the ones who have attained salvation? If people believe in God but still constantly rebel against God and resist God, if they fulfill their duties but still toy with God by going through the motions and deceiving God, are they the saved ones? In performing their duties, some cannot even refrain from going through the motions, from being greedy, malicious, destructive, and disruptive, and they do all they can to act immorally and lawlessly to the degree that they are without the least likeness of humans. How can we say that they have attained salvation? If so, then that is absurd in the extreme, twisting black into white! But God’s work is not as simple as people imagine, because God is a righteous and holy God, and God’s disposition does not tolerate human offenses, just as Almighty God has said:

“Since He created man, He leads him; since He saves man, He will thoroughly save him, and will completely gain him; since He leads man, He will bring him to the proper destination; and since He created and manages man, He must take responsibility for man’s fate and prospects. It is this which is the work done by the Creator. Though the work of conquest is achieved by purging man of his prospects, man must ultimately be brought into the proper destination prepared for him by God.” “Whether it be righteous judgment or heartless refinement and chastisement, all are for the sake of salvation. Regardless of whether today there is the classification of each according to kind, or the laying bare of the categories of man, all of God’s utterances and work are in order to save those who truly love God. Righteous judgment is in order to purify man, heartless refinement is in order to cleanse man, harsh words or chastening are all in order to purify, and for the sake of salvation.”

The purpose of the work of God’s judgment in the last days is to remove the corrupt satanic disposition from humans, allowing them to gain the truth, so that they no longer commit sins and resist God but are able to live according to God’s words, totally defeat Satan’s influence, and be free from sin. This is the result that God’s work will ultimately achieve. After we have gone through several years of God’s work in the last days, if we still cannot understand God’s intentions and have still not achieved the results that God demands, how can we say that we have attained salvation? Receiving salvation is absolutely not as simple as people imagine. It depends upon a person undergoing the judgment and chastisement of God’s words and trials and refinements step by step, upon them closely following each step of God’s work, and ultimately attaining the truth and the change of disposition to become a newly created person. Then such people themselves can defeat Satan and overcome sin by using the truth. They must develop a way of life in which they can consciously follow God’s words, completely submit to God and achieve accord with God before they can truly defeat Satan, overcome sin, and be gained by God. If a person can attain this result through experiencing God’s work, then that truly is attaining salvation. If someone believes in God without gaining the truth, they won’t stand firm when they encounter extraordinary trials, because they don’t have the truth as their life, and there is still a one hundred percent possibility that they will betray God. One cannot experience God’s work through one’s own imagination, thinking that attaining salvation is one hundred percent certain as they will surely follow God to the end and absolutely won’t betray God. In fact, to truly attain salvation one must complete every step of the work of God in the last days. One step less, one link in the chain less, is not enough. Some people, when faced with the persecution, arrests, and oppression of the great red dragon, don’t dare believe in God because they are so intimidated. Can they attain salvation this way? There’s a saying, “A miss is as good as a mile.” God’s work of testing and refining people in the last few years especially is the most crucial step and is indispensable. Believers in God must go through the ordeal of defeating the great red dragon before they can throw off the bondage and control of Satan’s influence, genuinely return to God, and be the true overcomers. If someone only half experiences God’s work, whoever they are they are quitting half way. For example, hens need to sit on their eggs for 21 days to incubate them before they are ready to hatch as chicks, but if they stop a few days before, the eggs will not produce chicks. And here, too, the length of time is important. As we experience God’s work we must follow the road to the end, for we can only guarantee receiving salvation if we experience all the steps in the work of God at the end of days. It won’t work if we miss one step out. We must undergo judgments and chastisements, endure pruning and dealing, as well as trials and refinements before truly understanding the truth, gaining the truth, and only then can our life disposition change. Those who believe in God for many years but do not genuinely experience the judgment and chastisement of God, never pursue the truth at all during all sorts of trials and refinements, but live on ignobly under the evil influence of the great red dragon, just trying to get through life, following the trends of Satan’s world, will absolutely not gain the truth or attain salvation. This is certain beyond doubt.

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