A Selection From the Ten Passages of God’s Word on “Work and Entry”
1. Ever since people began to tread the right track of life, there have been many things about which they remain unclear. They are still in a complete muddle about God’s work, and about much work they should do. This is due, on the one hand, to the deviation in their experience and the limitations in their capacity to receive; on the other, it is because God’s work has not yet brought people to this stage. So, everyone is ambiguous about most spiritual matters. Not only are you unclear about what you should enter into; you are even more ignorant about God’s work.
This is more than simply a matter of the shortcomings in you: It is a great flaw belonging to all those in the religious world. Herein lies the key to why people do not know God, and so this flaw is a common defect shared by all those who seek after Him. Not a single person has ever known God, or has ever seen His true face. It is because of this that God’s work becomes as arduous as moving a mountain or draining the sea. How many people have sacrificed their lives for God’s work; how many have been cast out on account of His work; how many, for the sake of His work, have been tormented to death; how many, their eyes filled with tears of love for God, have died unjustly; how many have met with cruel and inhumane persecution…? That these tragedies come to pass—is it not all due to people’s lack of knowledge about God? How could someone who does not know God have the face to come before Him? How could someone who believes in God and yet persecutes Him have the face to come before Him? These are not solely the inadequacies of those within the religious world, but rather are common to both you and them. People believe in God without knowing Him; it is for this reason alone that they do not revere God in their hearts, and do not fear Him in their hearts. There are even those who, with great pomp and circumstance, do the work that they envision by themselves within this stream, and go about doing God’s work according to their own demands and prodigal desires. Many people act wildly, holding God in no esteem but following their own will. Are these not perfect embodiments of people’s selfish hearts? Do these not manifest the overabundant element of deception people have?
from “Work and Entry (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
2. People may indeed be supremely intelligent, but how can their gifts take the place of God’s work? People may indeed care for God’s burden, but they cannot act too selfishly. Are people’s deeds really divine? Can anyone be positively assured? To bear witness to God, to inherit His glory—this is God making an exception and lifting up people; how could they be worthy? God’s work has only just begun, His words have only just begun to be spoken. At this point, people feel good about themselves; wouldn’t that simply be courting humiliation? They understand far too little. Even the most gifted theoretician, the most silver-tongued orator, cannot describe all of God’s abundance—how much the less can you? You had best not set your own worth higher than the heavens, but rather see yourselves as lower than the least of those rational people who seek to love God. This is the path by which you shall enter: to see yourselves as shorter than all others by a span. Why deem yourselves so high? Why place yourselves in such high estimation? On the long journey of life, you have taken but the few first steps. All you see is God’s arm, not the whole of God. It behooves you to see more of God’s work, to discover more of what you should enter into, because you have changed too little.
from “Work and Entry (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
3. In truth, out of the myriad things in God’s creation, man is the lowest. Though he is the master of all things, man is the only one among them that is subject to Satan’s trickery, the only one that falls prey in endless ways to its corruption. Man has never had sovereignty over himself. Most people live in the foul place of Satan, and suffer its derision; it teases them this way and that till they are half alive, enduring every vicissitude, every hardship in the human world. After toying with them, Satan puts an end to their destiny. And so people go through their whole lives in a daze of confusion, never once enjoying the good things that God has prepared for them, but instead being damaged by Satan and left in tatters. Today they have become so enervated and listless that they simply have no inclination to take notice of God’s work. If people have no inclination to take notice of God’s work, their experience is doomed forever to remain fragmented and incomplete, and their entry will forever be an empty space.
from “Work and Entry (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
4. In the several thousand years since God came into the world, any number of men with lofty ideals have been used by God to do His work over any number of years; but those who know His work are so few as to be almost non-existent. For this reason, untold numbers of people assume the role of resisting God at the same time that they take on His work, because, rather than doing His work, they actually do human work in a position conferred by God. Can this be called work? How can they enter in? Humanity has taken God’s grace and buried it. Because of this, over generations past those who do His work have little entry. They simply do not speak about knowing God’s work, because they understand too little of God’s wisdom. It can be said that, though there are many who serve God, they have failed to see how exalted He is, and this is why all have set themselves up as God for others to worship.
from “Work and Entry (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
5. For so many years God has remained hidden within creation; has observed through so many springs and autumns from behind a veiling mist; has looked down from the third heaven for so many days and nights; has walked among men for so many months and years. He has sat above all men quietly waiting through so many cold winters. Never once has He shown Himself openly to anyone, nor made a single sound, departing without a sign and just as silently returning. Who can know His true face? He has never once spoken to man, never once appeared to man. How easy is it for people to do God’s work? Little do they realize that to know Him is of all things the most difficult. Today God has spoken to man, but man has never known Him, because his entry in life is too limited and shallow. Seen from His perspective, people are wholly unfit to appear before God. They have too little understanding of God and are too far estranged from Him. Moreover, the hearts with which they believe in God are too complicated, and they simply do not hold the image of God in their innermost hearts. As a result, God’s painstaking effort, and His work, like pieces of gold buried beneath the sand, cannot emit a glint of light. To God, the caliber, motives, and views of these people are loathsome in the extreme. Impoverished in their capacity to receive, unfeeling to the point of insensibility, debased and degenerate, excessively servile, weak and without willpower, they must be led as cattle and horses are led. As for their entry in spirit, or entry in God’s work, they pay not the slightest heed, possessing not one jot of determination to suffer for the sake of the truth. For this kind of person to be made complete by God will not be easy. Thus it is vital that you set about your entry from this angle—that through your work and your entry you approach getting to know God’s work.
from “Work and Entry (1)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
6. When work is spoken of, man believes that work is to run to and fro for God, preach in all places, and spend for God. Though this belief is correct, it is too one-sided; what God asks of man is not solely to journey to and fro for God; it is more the ministry and supply within the spirit. Many brothers and sisters have never thought about working for God even after so many years of experience, for work as conceived by man is incongruous with that which is asked of by God. Therefore, man has no interest whatsoever in the matter of work, and this is precisely the reason why the entry of man is also quite one-sided. All of you should begin to enter by working for God, so that you may better experience all its aspects. This is what you should enter into. Work refers not to running to and fro for God; it refers to whether the life of man and what man lives out are for God to enjoy. Work refers to man using faithfulness they have to God and the knowledge they have of God to testify to God and minister to man. This is the responsibility of man and what all man should realize. In other words, your entry is your work; you are seeking to enter during the course of your work for God. Experiencing God is not only being able to eat and drink of His word; more importantly, you must be able to testify to God, to serve God, and to minister to and supply man. This is work, and also your entry; this is what every man should accomplish.
from “Work and Entry (2)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
7. There are many who only focus on journeying to and fro for God, and preaching in all places, yet overlook their personal experience and neglect their entry into the spiritual life. This is what causes those who serve God to become those who resist God. For so many years, those who serve God and minister to man have simply regarded working and preaching as entry, and none have taken their own spiritual experience as an important entry. Rather, they capitalize on the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit’s work to teach others. When preaching, they are much burdened and receive the work of the Holy Spirit, and through this they release the voice of the Holy Spirit. At that time, those who work feel smug and self-satisfied, as if the work of the Holy Spirit is their own spiritual experience; they feel that all the words they speak during that time are their own being…. After you have preached once in such a way, you feel that your actual stature is not as small as you believed. After the Holy Spirit works similarly in you several times, you then determine that you already have stature and mistakenly believe that the work of the Holy Spirit is your own entry and being. When you constantly have this experience, you become lax about your own entry. You then become lazy without noticing, and place no importance at all on your own entry. Therefore, when you are ministering to others, you must clearly distinguish between your stature and the work of the Holy Spirit. This will better facilitate your entry and better benefit your experience. Man regarding the work of the Holy Spirit as their own experience is the beginning of man’s degeneration. Hence, whatever duty you perform, you ought to regard your entry as a key lesson.
from “Work and Entry (2)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
8. One works to fulfill the will of God, to bring all those who are after God’s heart before Him, to bring man to God, and to introduce the Holy Spirit’s work and God’s guidance to man, thereby perfecting the fruits of God’s work. For this reason, it is imperative that you grasp the substance of working. As one used by God, all men are worthy of working for God, that is, all have the opportunity to be used by the Holy Spirit. However, there is one point that you must realize: When man does the work of God, man has the opportunity to be used by God, but what is said and known by man are not entirely the stature of man. You can only better come to know your deficiencies in your work, and receive greater enlightenment from the Holy Spirit, thereby allowing you to gain better entry in your work. If man regards guidance from God as man’s own entry and what is inherent within man, there is no potential for man’s stature to grow. The Holy Spirit enlightens man when they are in a normal state; at such times, man often mistakes the enlightenment they receive as their own stature in reality, for the Holy Spirit enlightens in a most normal way: by making use of what is inherent within man. When man works and speaks, or during man’s prayer in his spiritual devotions, a truth will suddenly become clear to them. In reality, however, what man sees is only enlightenment by the Holy Spirit (naturally, this is related to cooperation from man) and not man’s true stature. After a period of experience in which man encounters numerous real difficulties, the true stature of man is made apparent under such circumstances. Only at that time does man discover that man’s stature is not so great, and the selfishness, personal considerations, and greed of man all emerge. Only after several cycles of such experience will many of those who are awakened within their spirits realize that it was not their own reality in the past, but a momentary illumination from the Holy Spirit, and man had but received the light. When the Holy Spirit enlightens man to understand the truth, it is often in a clear and distinct manner, without context. That is, He does not incorporate the difficulties of man into this revelation, and rather directly reveals the truth. When man encounters difficulties in entry, man then incorporates the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and this becomes the actual experience of man. … Therefore, when you receive the work of the Holy Spirit, you ought to more so focus on your entry at the same time, seeing exactly what is the work of the Holy Spirit and what is your entry, as well as incorporating the work of the Holy Spirit into your entry, so that you may be better perfected by Him and allow the substance of the Holy Spirit’s work to be wrought in you. During the course of your experience of the Holy Spirit’s work, you come to know the Holy Spirit, as well as yourselves, and amidst the numerous instances of extreme suffering, you develop a normal relationship with God , and the relationship between you and God grows closer day by day. After countless instances of pruning and refinement, you develop a true love for God. That is why you must realize that suffering, smiting, and tribulations are not daunting; what is frightening is having only the work of the Holy Spirit but not your entry. When the day comes that the work of God is finished, you will have labored for nothing; though you experienced the work of God, you will not have come to know the Holy Spirit or have had your own entry. The enlightenment of man by the Holy Spirit is not to sustain the passion of man; it is to open up a way out for the entry of man, as well as to allow man to come to know the Holy Spirit, and from that develop a heart of reverence and adoration for God.
from “Work and Entry (2)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
9. God has entrusted much to humans and has also addressed their entry in countless ways. But because people’s caliber is considerably poor, many of the words of God have failed to take root. There are various reasons for this poor caliber, such as the corruption of human thought and morality, and a lack of proper upbringing; feudal superstitions that have seriously taken hold of the heart of man; depraved and decadent lifestyles that have lodged many ills in the deepest corners of the human heart; a superficial grasp of cultural literacy, with almost ninety-eight percent of the people lacking education in cultural literacy and, what is more, very few receiving higher levels of cultural education, so that people basically have no idea what is meant by God or the Spirit, but have only a vague and unclear image of God acquired from feudal superstitions; pernicious influences that thousands of years of “the lofty spirit of nationalism” have left deep in the human heart as well as the feudal thinking by which people are bound and chained, without an iota of freedom, with no will to aspire or persevere, no desire to make progress, remaining instead passive and regressive, entrenched in a slave mentality. And so on. These objective factors have imparted an indelibly filthy and ugly cast to the ideological outlook, ideals, morality, and disposition of humanity. Humans, it would seem, are living in a terrorist world of darkness, which none among them seeks to transcend, and none among them thinks of moving on to an ideal world; rather, they are content with their lot in life,[1]to spend their days bearing and raising children, striving, sweating, going about their chores, dreaming of a comfortable and happy family, of conjugal affection, of filial children, of joy in their twilight years as they peacefully live out their lives…. For tens, thousands, tens of thousands of years until now, people have been squandering their time in this way, with no one creating a perfect life, all intent only on mutual slaughter in this dark world, on the race for fame and fortune, and on intriguing against one another. Who has ever sought after God’s will? Has anyone ever heeded the work of God? All the parts of humanity occupied by the influence of darkness have long since become human nature, and so it is quite difficult to carry out the work of God, and people have even less heart to pay attention to what God has entrusted to them today. Anyway, I believe that people will not mind Me uttering these words since what I am talking about is the history of thousands of years. To speak of history means facts and, moreover, scandals that are obvious to all, so what point is there in saying that which is contrary to fact?
from “Work and Entry (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
10. The superstitious activities that people engage in are what God hates the most, but many people are still unable to let go of them, thinking these superstitious activities to be decreed by God, and even today have yet to shed them completely. Such things as the arrangements young people make for wedding feasts and bridal trousseaus; gifts of cash, banquets, and similar ways with which joyous occasions are celebrated; ancient formulae that have been handed down; all the meaningless superstitious activities conducted in behalf of the dead and their obsequies: these are even more detestable to God. Even Sunday (the Sabbath, as observed by Jews) is detestable to Him; and the social relationships and worldly interactions between man and man are all the more despised and rejected by God. Even the Spring Festival and Christmas Day, which are known to everyone, are not decreed by God, let alone the toys and decorations (couplets, New Year cake, firecrackers, lanterns, Christmas gifts, Christmas parties, and Holy Communion) for these festive holidays—are they not idols in the minds of men? The breaking of bread on the Sabbath, wine, and fine linen are even more emphatically idols. All the traditional festival days popular in China, such as the Dragon Heads-raising Day, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Laba Festival, and New Year’s Day, and the festivals in the religious world, such as Easter, Baptism Day, and Christmas Day, all of these unjustifiable festivals have been arranged and handed down from olden times to today by many people, and are thoroughly incompatible with the human race that God created. It is humanity’s rich imagination and ingenious conception that have allowed them to be passed down to today. They appear to be free of flaws, but are in fact tricks Satan plays on humanity. The more a place is thronged with Satans, and the more obsolete and backward that place is, the more deeply entrenched are its feudal customs. These things bind people tight, allowing absolutely no room for movement. Many of the festivals in the religious world seem to display great originality and to create a bridge to the work of God, but they are actually the invisible ties with which Satan binds people from coming to know God—they are all Satan’s cunning stratagems. In fact, when a stage of God’s work is finished, He has already destroyed the tools and the style of that time, without leaving any trace. However, “devout believers” continue to worship those tangible material objects; meanwhile they consign what God has to the back of their minds, studying it no further, seeming to be full of the love of God when they actually pushed Him out of the house long ago and placed Satan on the table to worship. Portraits of Jesus, the Cross, Mary, Jesus’ Baptism and the Last Supper—people venerate these as the Lord of Heaven, all the while repeatedly crying out “God the Father.” Isn’t this all a joke? To this day, many similar sayings and practices that have been passed down amongst humanity are hateful to God; they seriously obstruct the way ahead for God and, furthermore, create huge setbacks to humanity’s entry. Putting aside the extent to which Satan has corrupted humanity, the insides of people are completely filled up with things like the law of Witness Lee, the experiences of Lawrence, the surveys by Watchman Nee, and the work of Paul. There is simply no way for God to work upon human beings, because they have inside them too much of individualism, laws, rules, regulations, systems, and the like; these things, in addition to people’s feudal superstitious tendencies, have captured and devoured humanity. It is as if people’s thoughts are an interesting film narrating a fairy tale in full color, with fantastic beings riding the clouds, so imaginative as to amaze people, leaving people dazed and speechless.
from “Work and Entry (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
11. The best way to change human disposition is to reverse those portions of people’s innermost hearts that have been profoundly poisoned, allowing people to begin changing their thinking and morality. First of all, people need to see clearly that all these religious rites, religious activities, years and months, and festivals are hateful to God. They should break free from these bonds of feudal thinking and eradicate every trace of their deep-seated propensity to superstition. These are all included in humanity’s entry. You must understand why God leads humanity out of the secular world, and again why He leads humanity away from rules and regulations. This is the gate through which you will enter, and although it has nothing to do with your spiritual experience, these are the greatest obstacles blocking your entry, blocking your knowing God. They form a net which enmeshes people. Many people read the Bible too much and can even recite numerous passages from the Bible from memory. In their entry today, people unconsciously use the Bible to measure the work of God, as if the basis of this stage in the work of God is the Bible and its source is the Bible. When the work of God is in line with the Bible, people strongly support the work of God and regard Him with newfound esteem; when the work of God does not match up with the Bible, people become so anxious that they break into a sweat, searching in it for the basis of the work of God; if the work of God has no mention in the Bible, people will ignore God. It can be said that, as far as God’s work today is concerned, most people accept it with gingerly caution, give it selective obedience, and feel indifferent toward knowing it; as for the things of the past, they hold on to one half and abandon the other. Can this be called entry? Holding the books of others as treasures, and treating them as the golden key to the gate of the kingdom, people simply show no interest in what God requires of them today. Moreover, many “intelligent experts” hold the words of God in their left hand and the “masterworks” of others in their right, as if they want to find the basis of the words of God in these masterworks in order to fully prove that the words of God are correct, and they even explain God’s words to others by integrating them with the masterworks, as if they were at work. To tell the truth, there are many “scientific researchers” among humanity who have never thought highly of today’s latest scientific achievements, scientific achievements that are without precedent (i.e. the work of God, the words of God, and the path for life entry), so people are all “self-reliant,” “preaching” far and wide on the strength of their silver tongues, and flaunting “the good name of God.” Meanwhile, their own entry is in peril and they seem to be as far from God’s requirements as the creation is from this moment. How easy is it to do the work of God?
from “Work and Entry (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
12. It seems that people have already made up their minds to leave half of themselves to yesterday and bring half to today, deliver half to Satan and present half to God, as if this is the way to ease their conscience and feel some sense of comfort. People’s inner worlds are so insidious, they are afraid of losing not only tomorrow but also yesterday, deeply afraid of offending both Satan and the God of today, who seems to be and yet not to be. Because people have failed to cultivate their thinking and morality properly, they are exceptionally lacking in discernment, and they simply cannot tell whether or not today’s work is that of God. Perhaps it is because people’s feudal and superstitious thinking is so deep that they have long placed superstition and truth, God and idols, in the same category, not caring to distinguish between these things, and they seem unable to discriminate clearly even after racking their brains. That is why human beings have stopped in their tracks and no longer move forward. All of these problems arise from people’s lack of the correct kind of ideological education, which creates great difficulties for their entry. As a result, people never feel any interest in the work of the true God, but persistently stick to[2] the work of man (such as those whom they view as great men) as if it is imprinted with a brand. Are not these the latest topics that humanity should enter into?
from “Work and Entry (3)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
13. If man can truly enter in accordance with the Holy Spirit’s work, his life would quickly sprout like a bamboo shoot after a spring rain. Judging from most people’s current statures, no one is attaching any importance to life. Instead, people are placing importance on some inconsequential surface matters. Or they are rushing hither and yon and working aimlessly and randomly without focus, not knowing in which direction to go and much less for whom. They are merely “concealing themselves humbly.” The truth is, few among you know God’s intentions for the last days. Scarcely any of you know God’s footprint, and even fewer know what God’s ultimate accomplishment will be. Yet everyone, by sheer willpower, is accepting discipline and dealing from others, as if gearing up[3] and waiting for the day when they have finally made it and can relax. I will not offer any commentary on these “wonders” among people, but there is one point that you must all understand. Right now most people are progressing toward abnormality,[4] their entry steps already marching toward a dead end.[5] Perhaps many people think that is the Shangri-La that man longs for, believing it to be the place of freedom. In fact, it is not. Or one can say that people have already gone astray.
from “Work and Entry (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
14. God is incarnated in the Chinese mainland, what the compatriots in Hong Kong and Taiwan call the inland. When God came from above to the earth, no one in heaven and earth knew about it, for this is the true meaning of God returning in a concealed fashion. He has been in the flesh working and living for a long time, yet no one has known about it. Even to this day, no one recognizes it. Perhaps this will remain an eternal riddle. God’s coming into flesh this time is not something anyone is able to be aware of. No matter how large-scale and powerful the Spirit’s work, God always stays composed, never giving Himself away. One can say that it is as if this stage of His work is taking place in the heavenly realm. Even though it is perfectly obvious to everyone, no one recognizes it. When God finishes this stage of His work, everyone will awake from their long dream and reverse their past attitude.[6] I remember God once saying, “Coming into flesh this time is like falling into the tiger’s den.” What this means is that because this round of God’s work has God coming into flesh and being born in the dwelling place of the great red dragon, His coming to earth this time is accompanied even more so with extreme dangers. What He faces are knives and guns and clubs; what He faces is temptation; what He faces are crowds wearing murderous looks. He risks being killed at any moment. God did come with wrath. However, He came in order to do the work of perfection, meaning to do the second part of His work that continues after redemption work. For the sake of this stage of His work, God has devoted utmost thought and care and is using every conceivable means to avoid the assaults of temptation, concealing Himself humbly and never flaunting His identity. 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. As the new age was about to begin and the old one about to recede, God the Father began to deliberate the second part of His work and started preparing for it. In the past, this incarnation in the last days may not have been prophesied, and therefore that laid a foundation for the increased secrecy surrounding God’s coming into flesh this time. At the break of dawn, unbeknownst to any, God came to earth and began His life in the flesh. People were unaware of this moment. Maybe they were all fast asleep, maybe many who were watchfully awake were waiting, and maybe many were praying silently to God in heaven. Yet among all these many people, not one knew that God had already arrived on earth. God worked like this so as to more smoothly carry out His work and achieve better results, and it was also to avoid more temptations. As man’s spring slumber breaks, God’s work will have long been finished and He shall depart, bringing to a close His life of roaming and sojourning on earth. Because God’s work requires God to act and speak personally, and because there is no way for man to help, God has endured extreme pain to come to earth to do the work Himself. Man is unable to stand in for God’s work. Therefore God risked dangers several thousand times greater than those during the Age of Grace to come down to where the great red dragon dwells to do His own work, to put all His thinking and care into redeeming this group of impoverished people, redeeming this group of people mired in a heap of manure. Even though no one knows of God’s existence, God is not troubled because it greatly benefits God’s work. Everyone is atrociously evil, so how can anyone tolerate God’s existence? That is why on earth God is always silent. No matter how excessively cruel man is, God does not take any of it to heart, but just keeps doing the work He needs to do so as to fulfill the greater commission that the heavenly Father gave Him. Who among you has recognized God’s loveliness? Who shows more consideration for God the Father’s burden than His Son does? Who is able to understand the will of God the Father? God the Father’s Spirit in heaven is often troubled, and His Son on earth prays frequently over God the Father’s will, worrying His heart to pieces. Is there anyone who knows of God the Father’s love for His Son? Is there anyone who knows how the beloved Son misses God the Father? Torn between heaven and earth, the two are constantly gazing after each other from afar, side by side in Spirit. O mankind! When will you be considerate of God’s heart? When will you understand God’s intention? Father and Son have always depended on each other. Why then should They be separated, one in heaven above and one on earth below? The Father loves His Son as the Son loves His Father. Why then should He have to wait with such longing and long with such anxiety? Although They have not been separated for long, does anyone know that the Father has already been anxiously yearning for so many days and nights and has long been looking forward to His beloved Son’s quick return? He observes, He sits in silence, He waits. It is all for His beloved Son’s quick return. When will He again be with the Son who is wandering on earth? Even though once together, They will be together for eternity, how can He endure the thousands of days and nights of separation, one in heaven above and one on earth below? Tens of years on earth are like thousands of years in heaven. How could God the Father not worry? When God comes to earth, He experiences the many vicissitudes of the human world just as man does. God Himself is innocent, so why let God suffer the same pain as man? No wonder God the Father longs so urgently for His Son; who can understand God’s heart? God gives man too much; how can man adequately repay God’s heart? Yet man gives God too little; how could God not therefore be worried?
from “Work and Entry (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
15. Scarcely one among men understands God’s urgent heart because people’s caliber is too low and their spiritual sensitivity quite dull, and because they all neither notice nor heed what God is doing. So God keeps worrying about man, as if man’s beastly nature could break out at any moment. This further shows that God’s coming to earth is accompanied by great temptations. But for the sake of completing a group of people, God, laden with glory, told man of His every intention, hiding nothing. He has firmly resolved to complete this group of people. Therefore, come hardship or temptation, He looks away and ignores it all. He only quietly does His own work, firmly believing that one day when God has gained glory, man will know God, and believing that when man has been completed by God, he will fully understand God’s heart. Right now there may be people tempting God or misunderstanding God or blaming God; God takes none of that to heart. When God descends into glory, people will all understand that everything God does is for the well-being of mankind, and people will all understand that everything God does is so that mankind can better survive. God’s coming is accompanied by temptations, and God also comes with majesty and wrath. By the time God leaves man, He will have already gained glory, and He will leave fully laden with glory and with the joy of return. The God working on earth does not take things to heart no matter how people reject Him. He is just doing His work.
from “Work and Entry (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
16. God’s creation of the world goes back thousands of years, He has come to earth to do an immeasurable amount of work, and He has fully experienced the human world’s rejection and slander. No one welcomes God’s arrival; everyone merely regards Him with a cold eye. In the course of these several thousand years’ worth of hardships, man’s conduct has long ago shattered God’s heart. He no longer pays attention to people’s rebellion, but is instead making a separate plan to transform and cleanse man. The derision, the slander, the persecution, the tribulation, the suffering of crucifixion, the exclusion by man, and so on that God has experienced in the flesh—God has tasted enough of these. God in the flesh has thoroughly suffered the miseries of the human world. The Spirit of God the Father in heaven long ago found such sights unbearable and threw His head back and shut His eyes, waiting for His beloved Son to return. All He wishes for is that people all listen and obey, are able to feel great shame before His flesh, and not rebel against Him. All He wishes for is that people all believe that God exists. He long ago stopped making greater demands of man because God has paid too high a price, yet man is resting easy,[7] not at all taking God’s work to heart.
from “Work and Entry (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
17. Today you all know that God is leading people onto the right track of life, that He is leading man to take the next step into another age, that He is leading man to transcend this dark old era, out of the flesh, away from the oppression of the forces of darkness and the influence of Satan, so that each and every person may live in a world of freedom. For the sake of a beautiful tomorrow, and so that people may be bolder in their steps tomorrow, the Spirit of God plans everything for man, and in order that man may have greater enjoyment, God devotes all of His efforts in the flesh to preparing the path ahead of man, hastening the arrival of the day for which man longs. Would that you all cherish this beautiful moment; it is no easy feat to come together with God. Although you have never known Him, you have already long since been together with Him. If only everyone could remember these beautiful yet fleeting days forever, and make them their cherished possessions on earth.
from “Work and Entry (5)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
18. For thousands of years, the Chinese people have led the life of slaves, and this has so constrained their thoughts, concepts, life, language, behavior, and actions that they have been left without the slightest freedom. Several thousand years of history have taken vital people possessed of a spirit and worn them down into something akin to corpses bereft of a spirit. Many are those who live under the butcher’s knife of Satan, many are those who live in homes like the lairs of beasts, many are those who eat the same food as oxen or horses, and many are those who lie, insensate and in disarray, in the “netherworld.” In outward appearance, people are no different from primitive man, their place of rest is like a hell, and for companions they are surrounded by all manner of filthy demons and evil spirits. On the outside, human beings appear to be higher “animals”; in fact, they live and reside with filthy demons. Without anyone to tend to them, people live inside Satan’s ambuscade, caught in its toils with no way of escape. Rather than saying that they gather with their loved ones in cozy homes, living happy and fulfilling lives, one should say that human beings live in Hades, dealing with demons and associating with devils. In fact, people are still bound by Satan, they live where filthy demons gather, and they are manipulated by these filthy demons, as if their beds were a place for their corpses to slumber on, as if they were a cozy nest.
from “Work and Entry (5)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
19. Man lives side by side with the animals, and they get along harmoniously, without disputes or verbal disagreements. Man is fastidious in his care and concern for the animals, and the animals exist for the sake of man’s survival, expressly for his benefit, without any advantage to themselves and in complete and total obedience to man. To all appearances, the relationship between man and beast is a close[8] and harmonious[9] one—and filthy demons, it would seem, are the perfect combination of man and beast. Thus, man and the filthy demons on earth are even more intimate and inseparable: Though apart from the filthy demons, man remains connected to them; meanwhile, the filthy demons hold nothing back from man, and “devote” all they have to them. Daily, people cavort in the “palace of the king of hell,” frolicking in the company of the “king of hell” (their ancestor) and being manipulated by it, so that, today, people have become caked in grime, and, after spending so much time in Hades, have long since stopped wishing to return to the “world of the living.” Thus, as soon as they see the light, and behold the demands of God, and God’s character, and His work, they feel jittery and anxious, still yearning to return to the netherworld and reside with ghosts. Long ago did they forget God, and so they have ever wandered in the graveyard.
from “Work and Entry (5)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
20. Work and entry are inherently practical and refer to God’s work and man’s entry. Man’s complete lack of understanding of God’s true face and God’s work has brought great difficulties to his entry. To this day, many people still do not know the work God accomplishes in the last days or why God endures extreme humiliation to come into flesh and stand with man in weal and woe. Man knows nothing of the goal of God’s work, nor the purpose of God’s plan for the last days. For various reasons, people are always lukewarm and equivocal[10] toward the entry that God demands, which has brought great difficulties to God’s work in the flesh. People seem to have all become obstacles and, to this day, they still have no clear understanding. Therefore I will talk about the work that God does on man, and God’s urgent intention, so that all of you will become God’s loyal servants who, like Job, would rather die than reject God and will endure every humiliation, and who, like Peter, will offer your whole beings to God and become the intimates gained by God in the last days. May all brothers and sisters do everything in their power to offer their whole beings to God’s heavenly will, become holy servants in the house of God, and enjoy the infinite promises bestowed by God, so that God the Father’s heart can soon enjoy peaceful rest. “Accomplish God the Father’s will” should be the motto of all who love God. These words should serve as man’s guide for entry and the compass directing his actions. This is the resolve that man should have. To thoroughly finish God’s work on earth and cooperate with God’s work in the flesh—this is man’s duty. One day, when God’s work is done, man will bid Him farewell on an early return to the Father in heaven. Is this not the responsibility that man should fulfill?
from “Work and Entry (6)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
21. To man, God’s crucifixion concluded the work of God’s incarnation, redeemed all of mankind, and allowed Him to seize the key to Hades. Everyone thinks God’s work has been fully accomplished. In actuality, to God, only a small part of His work has been accomplished. He has only redeemed mankind; He has not conquered mankind, let alone changed the ugliness of Satan in man. That is why God says, “Although My incarnate flesh went through the pain of death, that was not the whole goal of My incarnation. Jesus is My beloved Son and was nailed to the cross for Me, but He did not fully conclude My work. He only did a portion of it.” Thus God began the second round of plans to continue the work of the incarnation. God’s ultimate intention is to perfect and gain everyone rescued from Satan’s hands, which is why God prepared again to risk dangers to come into flesh.
from “Work and Entry (6)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
22. In many places, God has prophesied gaining a group of overcomers in the land of Sinim. It is in the world’s East that overcomers are gained, so the landing spot of God’s second incarnation is without a doubt the land of Sinim, exactly where the great red dragon lies coiled. There God will gain the descendants of the great red dragon so that it is thoroughly defeated and shamed. God wants to awaken these deeply suffering people, to awaken them completely, and to have them walk out of the fog and reject the great red dragon. God wants to awaken them from their dream, have them know the essence of the great red dragon, give all their heart to God, rise up out of the oppression of the dark forces, stand up in the East of the world, and become proof of God’s victory. Only then will God gain glory. For just this reason, God brought the work that came to an end in Israel to the land where the great red dragon lies coiled and, nearly two thousand years after departing, has come again into flesh to continue the work of the Age of Grace. To man’s naked eye, God is launching new work in the flesh. But to God, He is continuing the work of the Age of Grace, only with a time separation of a few thousand years, and only with a change in work location and work project. Although the flesh image that God has taken in today’s work is quite a different person than Jesus, They share the same substance and root, and They are from the same source. Maybe They have many exterior differences, but the inner truths of Their work are completely identical. The ages, after all, are as different as night and day. How can God’s work stay unchanged? Or how can the work interrupt each other?
from “Work and Entry (6)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
23. Jesus took on the appearance of a Jew, conformed to the attire of the Jews, and grew up eating Jewish food. This is His normal human aspect. But today’s incarnate flesh takes the form of the people of Asia and grows up on the food of the nation of the great red dragon. These do not conflict with the goal of God’s incarnation. Rather, they complement each other, more fully completing the true significance of God’s incarnation. Because the incarnate flesh is referred to as “Son of man” or “Christ,” the exterior of today’s Christ cannot be equated with Jesus Christ. After all, the flesh is called “Son of man” and is in the image of flesh. Every stage of God’s work contains considerably deep meaning. The reason Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit is because He was to redeem sinners. He had to be without sin. But only in the end when He was forced to become the likeness of sinful flesh and took on the sins of the sinners did He rescue them off the cursed cross that God used to chastise people. (The cross is God’s tool for cursing and chastising people; mentions of cursing and chastising are specifically about cursing and chastising sinners.) The goal was to have all sinners repent and to use crucifixion to have them admit their sins. That is, for the sake of redeeming all mankind, God incarnated Himself in a flesh that was conceived by the Holy Spirit and took on the sins of all mankind. The commonplace way of describing this is offering a holy flesh in exchange for all sinners, the equivalent of Jesus being a sin offering placed in front of Satan to “beseech” Satan to return to God the entire innocent mankind that it had trampled. Thus to accomplish this stage of redemption work required conception by the Holy Spirit. This was a necessary condition, a “treaty” during the battle between God the Father and Satan. That is why Jesus was given to Satan, and only then did this stage of work conclude. However, God’s redemption work today is already of unprecedented magnificence, and Satan has no reason to make demands, so God’s incarnation does not require conception by the Holy Spirit, for God is inherently holy and innocent. So God incarnate this time is no longer the Jesus of the Age of Grace. But He is still for the sake of God the Father’s will and for the sake of fulfilling God the Father’s wishes. How can this be considered an unreasonable saying? Must God’s incarnation follow a set of rules?
from “Work and Entry (6)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
24. Many people look in the Bible for evidence, wanting to find a prophecy of God’s incarnation. How can man’s broken thinking know that God long ago stopped “working” in the Bible and has “jumped” outside of it to do with gusto the work that He had long planned but had never told man about? People are too lacking in sense. After only a taste of God’s disposition, they casually get up on a tall stage and sit in a high-class “wheelchair” inspecting God’s work, going so far as to start educating God with bombastic, rambling talk. Many an “old man,” wearing reading glasses and stroking his beard, opens up his yellowed “old almanac” (Bible) that he has been reading for a lifetime. Muttering words and eyes seemingly sparkling, he turns now to the Book of Revelation and now to the Book of Daniel, and now to the universally known Book of Isaiah. Staring at a page packed dense with tiny words, he reads in silence, his mind spinning ceaselessly. Suddenly the hand stroking the beard stops and begins pulling at it. Now and then one hears the sound of beard being broken. Such unusual behavior takes one aback. “Why use such force? What is he so mad about?” Back to the old man, his brows are now bristling. The silvered brows have landed like goose feathers precisely two centimeters from this old man’s eyelids, as if by chance and yet so perfectly, as the old man keeps his eyes glued to the mildewed-looking pages. He repeats the above sequence of actions several times, and then he can’t help but jump to his feet and begins chattering as if making small-talk[11] with someone, though the light from his eyes has not left the almanac. Suddenly he covers up the present page and turns to “another world.” His movements are so hurried and frightening, almost taking people by surprise. Presently, the mouse that had come out of its hole and had just started to “feel unfettered” during his silence was so alarmed by his uncharacteristic movements that it ran straight back into the hole, disappearing without a trace. Now the old man’s motionless left hand resumes its up-and-down beard-stroking motion. He moves away from the seat, leaving the book on the desk. Through the slightly ajar door and the open window, the wind comes in, uncaringly blowing the book shut, then open, then shut and open again. There is an inexpressible forlornness about the scene, and except for the sound of the book’s pages being rustled by the wind, everything seems to have fallen silent. He, with hands clasped behind his back, paces the room, now stopping, now starting, shaking his head from time to time, seemingly repeating “Oh! God! Would You really do that?” From time to time he also nods, “O God! Who can fathom Your work? Is it not hard to search for Your footprints? I believe You do not do unreasonable things.” Presently the old man’s brows scrunch together, his eyes squeeze shut, showing an embarrassed look, and also an exceedingly pained expression, as if he wants to slowly deliberate. This is really challenging this “grand old man.” At this late stage in his life, he has “unfortunately” come upon this matter. What can be done about it? I am also at a loss and powerless to do anything. Who made his old almanac grow yellowed? Who made his beard and brows all grow heartlessly like white snow on different places on his face? It is as if his beard represents his background. Yet who knew man could become foolish to this degree, looking for the presence of God in the old almanac? How many sheets of paper can the old almanac have? Can it really record all of God’s deeds? Who dares to guarantee that? Man actually seeks God’s appearance and tries to fulfill God’s will by overly parsing words.[12] Is trying to enter life this way as easy as it sounds? Is this not preposterous, false reasoning? Do you not find this laughable?
from “Work and Entry (6)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
25. God comes among man this day for the purpose of transforming their thoughts and spirits as well as the image of God in their hearts that they have had for thousands of years. Through this opportunity, He will make man perfect. That is, through man’s knowledge He will change the way they come to know Him and their attitude toward Him, so that their knowledge of God can start from a clean slate, and their hearts are thereby renewed and transformed. Dealing and discipline are the means, while conquest and renewal are the goals. Dispelling the superstitious thoughts man has held about the vague God has forever been the intention of God, and lately has become a matter of urgency to Him. I hope all people give this further thought. Change how each person experiences so that this urgent intention of God can soon be done and the last stage of God’s work on earth can be brought to a fruitful conclusion. Show your loyalty as you ought to, and comfort the heart of God one final time. I hope that none of the brothers and sisters shirk this responsibility or merely go through the motions.
from “Work and Entry (7)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
26. God comes in the flesh this time on invitation, and in light of the condition of man. That is, He comes to supply man with what is needed. He will enable every man, whatever caliber or breeding, to see the word of God and, from His word, see the existence and manifestation of God and accept God’s perfection of them. His word will change the thoughts and conceptions of man so that the true countenance of God is firmly rooted in the depths of man’s heart. This is God’s only wish on earth. No matter how great the nature of man, how poor man’s essence, or how man acted in the past, God pays no regard to these. He only hopes for man to completely renew the image of God they have in their hearts and to come to know the essence of mankind, thereby changing the ideological outlook of man. He hopes that man is able to deeply long for God and have an eternal attachment to Him. This is all that God asks of man.
from “Work and Entry (7)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
27. Knowledge of several thousand years of ancient culture and history has closed off the thinking and concepts and mental outlook of man so tightly as to be impenetrable and nondegradable. Man lives in the eighteenth level of hell, as if they have been banished by God into the dungeons, never to see the light. Feudal thinking has oppressed man such that man can barely breathe and is suffocating. They have not the slightest strength to resist and just quietly endure and endure…. Never has any dared to fight or stand up for righteousness and justice; they simply live a life, no better than an animal’s, under the abuse and assault of feudal lords, year after year, day after day. Man has never thought to seek God to enjoy happiness on earth. It is as if man has been beaten down, like the fallen leaves of autumn, withered and browned. Man has long lost their memory and helplessly lives in the hell by the name of the human world, waiting for the coming of the last day so that they may perish together with the hell, as if the last day that they yearn for is the day they shall enjoy restful peace. Feudal ethics have taken the life of man into “Hades,” so that man has even less ability to resist. Various kinds of oppression forced man to gradually fall deeper into Hades and farther away from God. Now, God has been a complete stranger to man, and man still hastens to avoid Him when they meet. Man does not acknowledge Him and isolates Him as if man has never known or seen Him before. … Knowledge of ancient culture has quietly stolen man from the presence of God and turned man over to the king of devils and its sons. The Four Books and Five Classics have taken the thinking and concepts of man into another age of rebellion, causing man to further worship those who wrote the Books and Classics, furthering their notions of God. The king of devils heartlessly cast out God from the heart of man without their awareness, while it gleefully took over the heart of man. From then on, man was possessed of an ugly and wicked soul with the face of the king of devils. A hatred of God filled their chests, and the maliciousness of the king of devils spread within man day by day until man was utterly consumed. Man no longer had freedom and was unable to break free from entanglement with the king of devils. Therefore, man could only stay in place and be seized, surrendering to it and becoming subjugated to it. It long ago planted the seed of the tumor of atheism within the young heart of man, teaching man fallacies such as “learn of science and technology, realize the Four Modernizations, there is no God in the world.” Not only that, it repeatedly proclaimed, “Let us build a beautiful homeland through our industrious labor,” asking all to be prepared from childhood to serve their country. Man was unconsciously brought before it, and it unhesitatingly took the credit (referring to God holding all of mankind in His hands). Never once did it feel ashamed or have a sense of shame. Moreover, it shamelessly captured God’s people into its house, while it leaped like a mouse onto the table and had man worship it as God. Such a desperado it is! It cries out such shocking scandals, “There is no God in the world. The wind is due to natural laws; the rain is moisture that condenses and falls in drops to the 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 phenomenon. Which part is an act of God?” It even shouts out[a] such shameless statements: “Man evolved from ancient apes, and the world today has progressed from a primitive society of approximately a billion years ago. Whether a country flourishes or falls is decided by the hands of its people.” In the back, it has man hang it upside down on the walls and place it on tables to be enshrined and worshiped. While it cries out, “There is no God,” it regards itself as God, pushing God out of bounds of the earth relentlessly. It stands in God’s place and acts as the king of devils. How utterly ludicrous! It causes one to be consumed by a poisonous hatred. It seems that God is its sworn enemy and God is irreconcilable with it. It schemes to chase God away while it remains unpunished and at large.[13] Such a king of devils it is! How could we tolerate its existence? It will not rest until it has disturbed the work of God and left it in tatters and a complete shambles,[14] as if it wants to oppose God until the end, until either the fish dies or the net breaks. It deliberately opposes God and moves ever closer. Its odious face has long ago been completely unmasked and is now bruised and battered,[15] in a terrible plight, yet it does not relent in its hatred of God, as if it wishes it could devour God entirely at one mouthful to relieve the hatred in its heart. How could we tolerate it, this hated enemy of God! Only its eradication and complete extermination will bring our life’s wish to an end. How can it be allowed to go on running rampant? It has corrupted man to such degree that man does not know the heavensun, and becomes deadened and obtuse. Man has lost normal human reason. Why not sacrifice our whole being to destroy and burn it to eliminate the fear of danger that remains and allow the work of God to reach unprecedented splendor sooner? This gang of scoundrels has come among men and caused utter unrest and turmoil. They have brought all men to the edge of a precipice, secretly planning to shove them down to be dashed to pieces and devour their corpses. They vainly hope to disrupt God’s plan and compete with God in a long-shot gamble.[16] That is by no means easy! The cross is prepared, after all, for the king of devils who is guilty of the most heinous crimes. God does not belong to the cross and has already left it to the devil. God long ago emerged victorious and no longer feels sorrow over the sins of mankind. He will bring salvation to all mankind.
from “Work and Entry (7)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
28. From top to bottom and beginning to end, it has been disturbing the work of God and acting in discord with Him. All the talk of ancient cultural heritage, valuable knowledge of ancient culture, teachings of Taoism and Confucianism, and Confucian classics and feudal rites has taken man into hell. Advanced modern-day science and technology, as well as developed industry, agriculture, and business are nowhere to be seen. Rather, it simply emphasizes the feudal rites propagated by the ancient “apes” to deliberately disrupt, oppose, and destroy the work of God. Not only has it afflicted man until this day, but it wants to consume[17] man completely. The teaching of the feudal code of ethics and passing down of knowledge of ancient culture has long infected man and turned man into devils big and small. There are but few who would readily receive God and jubilantly welcome the coming of God. Man’s face is filled with murder, and in all places, death is in the air. They seek to cast God out from this land; with knives and swords in hand, they arrange themselves in battle formation to annihilate God. Idols are spread across the land of the devil where man is constantly taught there is no God. Above this land permeates a nauseating odor of burning paper and incense, so thick that it is suffocating. It seems to be the smell of sludge that wafts up when the serpent twists and coils, and is enough that man cannot help but vomit. Besides, there can faintly be heard evil demons chanting scriptures. This sound seems to be coming from faraway in hell, and man cannot help but feel a chill down his spine. Across this land are scattered idols, with all colors of the rainbow, which turn the land into a dazzling world, and the king of devils keeps a smirk on its face, as if its evil plot has succeeded. Meanwhile, man is completely unaware of it, nor does man know that the devil has already corrupted him to such degree that he has become senseless and defeated. It wishes to wipe out God’s all in one blow, to again insult and assassinate Him, and attempts to tear down and disturb His work. How could it allow God to be of equal status? How can it tolerate God “interfering” with its work among men on earth? How can it allow God to unmask its odious face? How can it allow God to disrupt its work? How could this devil, fuming with rage, allow God to govern its court of power on earth? How could it willingly admit defeat? Its odious countenance has been revealed for what it is, hence one finds himself not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and it is truly difficult to speak of. Is this not its essence? With an ugly soul, it still believes that it is incredibly beautiful. This gang of accomplices! They come down among the mortals to indulge in pleasures and stir up disorder. Their disturbance causes fickleness in the world[18] and brings panic in the heart of man, and they have distorted man so that man resembles beasts of unbearable ugliness, no longer possessing the slightest trace of the original holy man. They even wish to assume power as tyrants on earth. They impede the work of God so that it can barely move forward and close off man as if behind walls of copper and steel. Having committed so many sins and caused so much trouble, how could they expect anything other than to wait for chastisement? Demons and evil spirits have been running amok on earth and have closed off the will and painstaking effort of God, making them impenetrable. What a mortal sin! How could God not feel anxious? How could God not feel wrathful? They cause grievous hindrance and opposition to the work of God. Too rebellious! Even those demons big and small become haughty on the strength of the more powerful devil and begin to make waves. They deliberately resist the truth despite clear awareness of it. Sons of rebellion! It is as if, now that their king of hell has ascended to the kingly throne, they become smug and treat all others with contempt. How many seek the truth and follow righteousness? They are all beasts like pigs and dogs, leading a gang of stink flies in a dung heap to wag their heads and incite disorder.[19] They believe that their king of hell is the most superior of kings, without realizing that they are nothing more than flies on rot. Not only that, they make slanderous remarks against the existence of God by relying on their pigs and dogs of parents. The minuscule flies think their parents to be as large as a toothed whale.[20] Do they not realize that they are diminutive, yet their parents are unclean pigs and dogs a billion times larger than themselves? Unaware of their own lowliness, they run amok on the basis of the putrid odor of those pigs and dogs and have the delusional idea to procreate future generations. That is absolutely shameless! With green wings upon their backs (this refers to their claiming to believe in God), they begin to become conceited and boast everywhere of their own beauty and attractiveness, secretly casting away their impurities onto man. And they are even smug, as if a pair of rainbow-colored wings could conceal their own impurities, and thus they persecute the existence of the true God (this refers to the inside story of the religious world). Little does man know that, though the wings of the fly are beautiful and enchanting, it is after all no more than a minuscule fly that is full of filth and covered with germs. On the strength of their pigs and dogs of parents, they run amok across the land (this refers to the religious officials who persecute God on the basis of strong support from the country betraying the true God and the truth) with overwhelming ferocity. It is as if the ghosts of the Jewish Pharisees have returned along with God to the nation of the great red dragon, back to their old nest. They have again begun their work of persecution, continuing their work spanning several thousand years. This group of degenerates is sure to perish on earth in the end! It appears that, after several millennia, the unclean spirits have become even more crafty and sly. They constantly think of ways to secretly undermine the work of God. They are wily and cunning and wish to replay in their homeland the tragedy of several thousand years ago. This almost goads God into giving out a loud cry, and He can hardly keep Himself from returning to the third heaven to annihilate them. For man to love God, he must understand His will and His joy and sorrow, as well as what He abhors. This will better advance the entry of man. The faster the entry of man, the more the heart of God is satisfied; the more clear man’s discernment of the king of devils, the closer man draws to God, so that His desire may be fulfilled.
from “Work and Entry (7)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
29. I have spoken so many times that God’s work of the last days is in order to alter each person’s spirit, to change each person’s soul, such that their heart, which has suffered great trauma, is reformed, thus rescuing their soul, which has been so profoundly harmed by evil; it is in order to awaken people’s spirits, to thaw their cold hearts, and allow them to be rejuvenated. This is God’s greatest will. Put aside talk of how lofty or profound man’s life and experiences are; when people’s hearts have been awakened, when they have been roused from their dreams and know full well the harm wrought by the great red dragon, the work of God’s ministry will have been completed. The day that God’s work is finished is also when man officially starts on the path of correct belief in God. At this time, God’s ministry will have come to an end: The work of God become flesh will have completely finished, and man will officially begin to perform the duty that he ought to perform—he will perform his ministry. These are the steps of God’s work. Thus, you should grope for your path to entry upon the foundation of knowing these things. All of this is what you should understand.
from “Work and Entry (8)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
30. Man’s entry will only improve when changes have occurred deep within his heart, for God’s work is the complete salvation of man—man who has been redeemed, who still lives under the forces of darkness, and who has never roused himself—from this gathering place of demons; it is so that man may be freed of millennia of sin, and be beloved of God, completely striking down the great red dragon, establishing God’s kingdom, and bringing rest to God’s heart sooner, it is to give vent, without reservation, to the hate that swells your breast, to eradicate those moldy germs, to allow you to leave this life that is no different from an ox or horse’s, to no longer be a slave, to no longer be freely trampled upon or ordered about by the great red dragon; you will no longer be of this failed nation, will no longer belong to the heinous great red dragon, you will no longer be enslaved by it. The demons’ nest will surely be torn to pieces by God, and you will stand beside God—you belong to God, and do not belong to this empire of slaves. God has long since loathed this dark society to His very bones. He gnashes His teeth, desperate to plant His feet upon this wicked, heinous old serpent, so that it may never rise again, and will never again abuse man; He will not excuse its actions in the past, He will not tolerate its deceit of man, He will settle the score for every one of its sins throughout the ages; God will not be in the least bit lenient toward this ringleader of all evil,[21] He will utterly destroy it.
from “Work and Entry (8)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
31. For thousands of years this has been the land of filth, it is unbearably dirty, misery abounds, ghosts roam its every corner, tricking and deceiving, making groundless accusations,[22] being ruthless and vicious, trampling this ghost town and leaving it littered with dead bodies; the stench of decay covers the land and pervades the air, and it is heavily guarded.[23] Who can see the world beyond the skies? The devil tightly trusses all of man’s body, it puts out both his eyes, and seals his lips firmly shut. 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 have ever 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 in the blink of 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, and have not a trace of kindness, 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! Who has embraced the work of God? Who has laid down their life or shed blood for the work of God? For generation after generation, from parents to children, enslaved man has unceremoniously enslaved God—how could this not incite fury? Thousands of years of hate are concentrated in the heart, millennia of sinfulness are inscribed upon the heart—how could this not inspire loathing? Avenge God, completely snuff out His enemy, do not allow it to run rampant any longer, and do not permit it to kick up as much trouble as it wishes anymore! Now is the time: Man has long since gathered all his strength, he has devoted all his efforts, paid every price, for this, to tear off the hideous face of this demon and allow people, who have been blinded, and have endured every manner of suffering and hardship, to rise up from their pain and turn their backs on this evil old devil. Why put up such an impenetrable obstacle to the work of God? Why employ various tricks to deceive God’s folk? Where is the true freedom and legitimate rights and interests? Where is the fairness? Where is the comfort? Where is the warmth? Why use deceitful schemes to trick God’s people? Why use force to suppress the coming of God? Why not allow God to freely roam upon the earth that He created? Why hound God until He has nowhere to rest His head? Where is the warmth among men? Where is the welcome among people? Why cause such desperate yearning in God? Why make God call out again and again? Why force God to worry for His beloved Son? Why does this dark society and its sorry guard dogs not allow God to freely come and go among the world which He created? Why does not man understand, man who lives amid pain and suffering? For your sakes, God has endured great torment, with great pain He has bestowed His beloved Son, His flesh and blood, to you—so why do you still turn a blind eye? In full view of everyone, you reject the arrival of God, and refuse God’s friendship. Why are you so unconscionable? Are you willing to endure the injustices in a dark society such as this? Why, instead of filling your bellies with millennia of enmity, do you stuff yourselves with the king of devils’ “shit”?
from “Work and Entry (8)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
32. The steps of God’s work on earth involve great hardship: Man’s weakness, deficiencies, childishness, ignorance, and everything of man—each is meticulously planned and scrupulously considered by God. Man is like a paper tiger that one dare not bait or provoke; at the merest touch he bites back, or else falls down and loses his way, and it is as if, at the slightest loss of concentration, he relapses, or else ignores God, or runs to his pig father and dog mother to indulge in the impure things of their bodies. What a great hindrance! At practically each step of His work, God is put on trial, and almost every step brings great danger. His words are sincere and honest, and without malice, yet who is willing to accept them? Who is willing to fully submit? It breaks God’s heart. He toils day and night for man, He is beset by anxiety for man’s life, and He sympathizes with man’s weakness. He has endured many twists and turns in each step of His work, for every word that He speaks; He is ever between a rock and a hard place, and thinks of man’s weakness, disobedience, childishness, and vulnerability … around the clock over and over again. Who has ever known this? Who can He confide in? Who would be able to understand? Ever does He loathe the sins of man, and the lack of backbone, the spinelessness, of man, and ever does He worry for the vulnerability of man, and contemplate the path that lies ahead of man; always, as He observes the words and deeds of man, does it fill Him with mercy, and anger, and always does the sight of these things bring pain to His heart. The innocent, after all, have grown callous; why must God always make things difficult for them? Feeble man is utterly bereft of perseverance; why should God always have such unabating anger toward him? Weak and powerless man no longer has the slightest vitality; why should God always chide him for his disobedience? Who can withstand the threats of God in heaven? Man, after all, is fragile, and in desperate straits, God has pushed His anger deep into His heart, so that man may slowly reflect upon himself. Yet man, who is in grave trouble, has not the slightest appreciation of God’s will; he has been trampled underfoot by the old king of devils, yet is completely unaware, he always sets himself against God, or is neither hot nor cold toward God. God has spoken so many words, yet who has ever taken them seriously? Man does not understand God’s words, yet he remains unperturbed, and without yearning, and has never truly known the substance of the old devil. People live in Hades, in hell, but believe they live in the palace of the seabed; they are persecuted by the great red dragon, yet think themselves to be favored[24] by the dragon’s country; they are ridiculed by the devil yet think they enjoy the superlative artistry of the flesh. What a bunch of dirty, lowly wretches they are! Man has met with misfortune, but he does not know it, and in this dark society he suffers mishap after mishap,[25] yet he has never woken up to this. When will he rid himself of his self-kindness and slavish disposition? Why is he so uncaring of God’s heart? Does he quietly condone this oppression and hardship? Does he not wish for the day when he can change darkness into light? Does he not wish to once more remedy the injustices toward righteousness and truth? Is he willing to watch and do nothing as people forsake the truth and twist the facts? Is he happy to keep enduring this maltreatment? Is he willing to be a slave? Is he willing to perish at the hands of God together with the chattels of this failed state? Where is your resolve? Where is your ambition? Where is your dignity? Where is your integrity? Where is your freedom? Are you willing to lay down your entire life for the great red dragon, the king of devils? Are you happy to let it torture you to death? The face of the deep is chaotic and dark, the common folk, suffering such affliction, cry to Heaven and complain to earth. When will man be able to hold his head up high? Man is scrawny and emaciated, how could he contend with this cruel and tyrannical devil? Why does he not give his life to God as soon as he can? Why does he still waver, when can he finish God’s work? Thus aimlessly bullied and oppressed, his whole life will ultimately have been spent in vain; why is he in such a hurry to arrive, and such a rush to depart? Why does he not keep something precious to give to God? Has he forgotten the millennia of hate?
from “Work and Entry (8)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
33. God has become flesh this time to do such work, to conclude the work that He has yet to complete, to bring this age to a close, to judge this age, to save the deeply sinful from the world of the sea of affliction and utterly transform them. The Jews nailed God to the cross, thus ending God’s travels in Judea. Not long after, God personally came among man once more, quietly arriving into the country of the great red dragon. In fact, the religious community of the Jewish state had long since hung the image of Jesus on their walls, and from their mouths people cried “Lord Jesus Christ.” Little did they know that Jesus had long since accepted His Father’s order to return among man to finish the second step of His uncompleted work. As a result, people were caught by surprise when they looked upon Him: He had been born amid a world in which many eras had passed, and He appeared among man with the look of one who is supremely ordinary. In fact, as the ages have passed, His clothing and entire appearance have changed, as if He had been reborn. How could people know that He is the very same Lord Jesus Christ who came down from the cross and was resurrected? He is without the slightest trace of injury, just as Jesus bore no resemblance to Jehovah. The Jesus of today has long since been without the bearing of times gone by. How could people know Him? The duplicitous “Thomas” always doubts that He is Jesus resurrected, he always wants to see the scars from the nails on Jesus’ hands before he can put his mind at rest; without having seen them, he would always stand upon a cloud of suspicion, and is incapable of placing his feet on the solid ground and following Jesus. Poor “Thomas”—how could he know that Jesus has come to do the work commissioned by God the Father? Why does Jesus need to bear the scars of the crucifixion? Are the scars of the crucifixion the mark of Jesus? He has come to work for the will of His Father; why would He come clothed and adorned as a Jew from several thousand years ago? Could the form that God takes in the flesh hinder the work of God? Whose theory is this? Why, when God works, must it be in accordance with man’s imagination? The only thing that God strives for in His work is for it to have an effect. He does not abide by the law, and there are no rules to His work—how could man fathom it? How could the conceptions of man see through to the work of God? So you’d best settle down properly: Do not fuss over trifles, and do not make a big deal out of things just that are new to you—this will stop you making a joke of yourself and people laughing at you. You have believed in God for all these years and yet still do not know God; ultimately, you are plunged into chastisement, you, who are placed “top of the class,”[26] are ascribed to the ranks of the chastised. You’d best not use clever means to show off your petty tricks; can your short-sightedness truly perceive God, who sees through from eternity to eternity? Can your superficial experiences fully lay bare the will of God? Don’t be conceited. God, after all, is not of the world—so how could His work be as you expected?
from “Work and Entry (8)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
34. Entrenched ethnic traditions and mental outlook have long since cast a shadow over the pure and childlike spirit of man, they have attacked the soul of man without the slightest humanity, as if bereft of emotion or any sense of self. The methods of these demons are extremely cruel, and it is as if “education” and “nurturing” have become the traditional methods by which the king of devils slays man; using its “profound teaching” it completely covers its ugly soul, dressing in sheep’s clothing to gain man’s trust and then taking advantage of when man is sleeping to completely devour him. Poor mankind—how could they know that the land upon which they were raised is the land of the devil, that the one who raised them is actually an enemy who hurts them. Yet man does not awaken at all; having sated his hunger and thirst, he prepares to repay the “kindness” of his “parents” in bringing him up. That is how man is. Today, he still doesn’t know that the king who raised him is his enemy. The earth is littered with the bones of the dead, the devil makes manic merry without cease, and carries on devouring the flesh of man in the “netherworld,” sharing a grave with human skeletons and vainly attempting to consume the last remnants of the tattered body of man. Yet man is ever ignorant, and has never treated the devil as his enemy, but instead serves it with all his heart. Such a depraved people are simply incapable of knowing God. Is it easy for God to become flesh and come among them, carrying out all His work of salvation? How could man, who has already plunged into Hades, be able to satisfy God’s requirements?
from “Work and Entry (9)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
35. Many are the sleepless nights that God has endured for the sake of the work of mankind. From up high to the lowest depths, He has descended to the living hell in which man lives to pass His days with man, has never complained of the shabbiness among man, has never reproached man for his disobedience, but endures the greatest humiliation as He personally carries out His work. How could God belong to hell? How could He spend His life in hell? But for the sake of all mankind, so that the whole of mankind can find rest sooner, He has endured humiliation and suffered injustice to come to earth, and personally entered into “hell” and “Hades,” into the tiger’s den, to save man. How is man qualified to oppose God? What reason does he have to once more complain about God? How can he have the gall to look upon God again? God of heaven has come to this most filthy land of vice, and has never vented His grievances, or complained about man, but instead quietly accepts the ravages[27] and oppression of man. Never has He hit back at the unreasonable demands of man, never has He made excessive demands of man, and never has He made unreasonable demands of man; He merely does all the work required by man without complaint: teaching, enlightening, reproaching, the refinement of words, reminding, exhorting, consoling, judging, and revealing. Which of His steps has not been for the life of man? Though He has removed the prospects and fate of man, which of the steps carried out by God has not been for the fate of man? Which of them has not been for the sake of man’s survival? Which of them has not been to free man from the suffering and oppression of dark forces that are black as night? Which of them is not for the sake of man? Who can understand God’s heart, which is as a loving mother? Who can comprehend God’s eager heart? God’s passionate heart and ardent expectations have been repaid with cold hearts, with callous, indifferent eyes, with the repeated reprimands and insults of man, with cutting remarks, and sarcasm, and belittlement, they have been repaid with man’s ridicule, with his trampling and rejection, with his miscomprehension, and moaning, and estrangement, and avoidance, with nothing but deceit, attacks, and bitterness. Warm words have been met with fierce brows and the cool defiance of a thousand wagging fingers. God can but endure, head bowed, serving people like a willing ox.[28] How many suns and moons, how many times has He faced the stars, how many times has He departed at dawn and returned at dusk, and tossed and turned, enduring agony a thousand times greater than the pain of His departure from His Father, enduring the attacks and breaking of man, and the dealing and pruning of man. God’s humility and hiddenness has been repaid with the prejudice[29] of man, with the unfair views and treatment of man, and His anonymity, forbearance, and tolerance have been repaid with man’s greedy gaze; man tries to stomp God to death, without compunction, and tries to trample God into the ground. Man’s attitude in his treatment toward God is one of “rare cleverness,” and God, who is bullied and disdained by man, is crushed flat beneath the feet of tens of thousands of people while man himself stands up high, as if he would be the king of the castle, as if he wants to take absolute power,[30] to hold court from behind a screen, to make God the conscientious and rule-abiding director behind the scenes, who is not allowed to fight back or cause trouble; God must play the part of the Last Emperor, He must be a puppet,[31] devoid of all freedom. The deeds of man are untellable, so how is he qualified to demand this or that of God? How is he qualified to propose suggestions to God? How is he qualified to demand that God sympathize with his weaknesses? How is he fit to receive God’s mercy? How is he fit to receive God’s magnanimity time and time again? How is he fit to receive God’s forgiveness time and time again? Where is his conscience? He broke God’s heart long ago, he has long since left God’s heart in pieces. God came among man bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, hoping that man would be charitable toward Him, even if only with a little warmth. Yet God’s heart is slow to be comforted by man, all He has received are snowballing[32] attacks and torment; man’s heart is too greedy, his desire is too great, he can never be sated, he is always mischievous and foolhardy, he never allows God any freedom or right of speech, and leaves God with no option but to submit to humiliation, and allow man to manipulate Him however he wishes.
from “Work and Entry (9)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
36. From creation until now, God has endured so much pain, and suffered so many attacks. Yet even today, still man does not relax his demands of God, still he scrutinizes God, still he has no tolerance toward Him, and does nothing but give Him advice, and criticize Him, and discipline Him, as if deeply fearful that God will take the wrong path, that God on earth is brutish and unreasonable, or running riot, or that He will not amount to anything. Man always has this kind of attitude toward God. How could it not sadden God? In becoming flesh, God has endured tremendous pain and humiliation; how much worse, then, to make God accept the teachings of man? His arrival among man has stripped Him of all freedom, such as if He were imprisoned in Hades, and He has accepted man’s dissection without the slightest resistance. Is this not shameful? In coming among the family of a normal man, Jesus has suffered the greatest injustice. Even more humiliating is that He has come to this dusty world and humbled Himself to the very lowest depths, and has assumed a flesh of supreme ordinariness. In becoming a meager human being, does God Most High not suffer hardship? And is this not all for mankind? Have there been any times when He was thinking for Himself? After He was rejected and put to death by the Jews, and derided and mocked by the people, He never complained to Heaven or protested to earth. Today, this millennia-old tragedy has reappeared among this Jew-like people. Do they not commit the same sins? What makes man qualified to receive God’s promises? Does he not oppose God and then accept His blessings? Why does man never face justice, or search for the truth? Why is he never interested in what God does? Where is his righteousness? Where is his fairness? Has he the gall to represent God? Where is his sense of justice? How much of that which is beloved of man is beloved of God? Man can’t tell chalk from cheese,[33] he always confuses black with white, he suppresses justice and truth, and holds unfairness and unrighteousness high up in the air. He drives away the light, and cavorts amid the darkness. Those who seek the truth and justice instead chase away the light, those who seek God trample Him beneath their feet, and hoist themselves into the sky. Man is no different from a bandit.[34] Where is his reason? Who can tell right from wrong? Who can uphold justice? Who is willing to suffer for the truth? People are vicious and diabolical! Having nailed God to the cross they clap and cheer, their wild cries are without cease. They are like chickens and dogs, they collude and connive, they have established their own kingdom, their meddling has left no place undisturbed, they shut their eyes and madly howl on and on, all cooped up together, and a turgid atmosphere pervades, it is bustling and lively, and those who blindly attach themselves to others keep emerging, all holding up the “illustrious” names of their forefathers. These dogs and chickens long ago put God to the back of their minds, and have never paid any attention to the state of God’s heart. Small wonder that God says that man is like a dog or a chicken, a barking dog that sets a hundred others howling; this way, with much ballyhoo he has brought God’s work into the present day, heedless of what God’s work is like, of whether there is justice, of whether God has a place on which to set His feet, of what tomorrow is like, of his own lowliness, and of his own filthiness. Man has never thought about things that much, he has never worried himself over tomorrow, and has gathered all that is beneficial and precious into his own embrace, leaving nothing to God except scraps and leftovers.[35] How cruel mankind is! He doesn’t spare any feelings for God, and after secretly devouring everything of God, he tosses God far behind him, paying no further heed to His existence. He enjoys God, yet opposes God, and tramples Him underfoot, while in his mouth he gives thanks to and praises God; he prays to God, and depends on God, while also deceiving God; he “exalts” the name of God, and looks up to the face of God, yet he also brazenly and unashamedly sits upon the throne of God and judges the “unrighteousness” of God; from his mouth come the words that he is indebted to God, and he looks at God’s words, yet in his heart he hurls invective at God; he is “tolerant” toward God yet oppresses God, and his mouth says it is for the sake of God; in his hands he holds the things of God, and in his mouth he chews the food that God has given him, yet his eyes fix a cold and emotionless stare upon God, as if he wishes to gobble all of Him up; he looks upon the truth but insists on saying that it is Satan’s trickery; he looks upon justice but forces it to become self-denial; he looks upon the deeds of man, but insists they are what God is; he looks upon man’s natural gifts but insists they are the truth; he looks upon God’s deeds but insists they are arrogance and conceitedness, bluster and self-righteousness; when man looks upon God, he insists upon labeling Him as human, and tries hard to put Him on the seat of a created being who is in cahoots with Satan; he knows full well they are the utterances of God, yet will call them nothing other than the writings of a man; he knows full well that the Spirit is realized in the flesh, God becomes flesh, but says only that this flesh is the descendant[36] of Satan; he knows full well that God is humble and hidden, yet says only that Satan has been shamed, and God has won. What good-for-nothings! Man is not even worthy of serving as guard dogs! He doesn’t distinguish between black and white, and even deliberately twists black into white. Can the forces of man and besiegement of man brook the day of God’s emancipation? After deliberately opposing God, man couldn’t care less, or even goes so far as to put Him to death, giving God no leave to show Himself. Where is the righteousness? Where is the love? He sits beside God, and pushes God to his knees to beg for forgiveness, to obey all of his arrangements, to acquiesce to all of his maneuverings, and he makes God take His cue from him in all He does, or else he is incensed[37] and flies into a rage. How could God not be grief-stricken under such influence of darkness, which twists black into white? How could He not worry? Why is it said that when God began His latest work, it was like the dawn of a new epoch? The deeds of man are so “rich,” the “ever-flowing wellspring of living water” ceaselessly “replenishes” the field of man’s heart, while man’s “wellspring of living water” competes against God without scruple;[38] the two are irreconcilable, and it provides to people in God’s stead without any reservation, while man cooperates with it without any consideration of the dangers involved. And to what effect? He coldly casts God to one side, and places Him far away, where people will pay Him no heed, deeply fearful that He will attract their attention, and profoundly afraid that God’s wellspring of living water will entice man, and gain man. Thus, after experiencing many years of worldly concerns, he connives and intrigues against God, and even makes God the target of his castigation. It is as if God has become like a log in his eye, and he is desperate to grab God and place Him in the fire to be refined and cleansed. Seeing God’s discomfort, man beats his chest and laughs, he dances for joy, and says that God has also been plunged into refinement, and says he will scorch clean the filthy impurities of God, as if only this is rational and sensible, as if only these are the fair and reasonable methods of Heaven. This violent behavior of man seems both deliberate and unconscious. Man reveals both his ugly face and his hideous, filthy soul, as well as the pitiable look of a beggar; after rampaging far and wide, he adopts a pathetic appearance and begs for Heaven’s forgiveness, resembling a supremely pitiable pug. Man always acts in unexpected ways, he always “rides on the back of a tiger to scare others,”[b] he joins in the fun whenever he can, he gives not the slightest consideration to God’s heart, nor does he make any comparison to his own status. He merely silently opposes God, as if God has wronged him, and ought not to treat him like that, and as if Heaven is without eyes and deliberately making things difficult for him. Thus does man ever secretly carry out vicious plots, and he does not relax his demands of God in the slightest, looking on with predatory eyes, glaring furiously at God’s every move, never thinking that he is the enemy of God, and hoping that the day will come when God parts the fog, and makes things clear, and saves him from the “tiger’s mouth” and takes revenge on his behalf. Even today, people still don’t think they are playing the role of opposing God that has been played by so many throughout the ages; how could they know that, in all they do, they have long since gone astray, that all they understood has long since been engulfed by the seas.
Who has ever accepted the truth? Who has ever welcomed God with open arms? Who has ever happily wished for the appearance of God? Man’s behavior has long since decayed, and his defilement has long since left the temple of God unrecognizable. Man, meanwhile, still carries on with his own work, ever looking down his nose at God. It is as if his opposition to God has become set in stone, and unchangeable, and as a result, he would rather be cursed than suffer any more mistreatment of his words and actions. How could people such as this know God? How could they find rest with God? And how could they be fit to come before God?
from “Work and Entry (9)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
37. I have spent many days and nights with man, I have resided in the world together with man, and I have never made any more requirements of man; I merely guide man ever onward, I do nothing but guide man, and, for the sake of mankind’s destiny, I ceaselessly carry out the work of arranging. Who has ever understood the will of the heavenly Father? Who has traversed between heaven and earth? I do not wish to spend man’s “old age” with him any longer, for man is too old-fashioned, he understands nothing, the only thing he knows is gorging himself on the feast that I have laid out, aloof from all else—never giving thought to any other matter. Mankind is too miserly, the clamor, gloom, and danger among man is too great, and thus I wish not to share the precious fruits of overcoming gained during the last days. Let man enjoy the rich blessings that he himself has created, for man does not welcome Me—why should I force mankind to feign a smile? Every corner of the world is bereft of warmth, there is no trace of spring throughout all the world’s landscapes, for, like a water-dwelling creature, he has not the slightest warmth, he is like a corpse, and even the blood that courses through his veins is like frozen ice that chills the heart. Where is the warmth? Man nailed God to the cross without reason, and afterward he felt not the slightest misgivings. Never has anyone felt regret, and these cruel tyrants are still planning to “capture alive”[39] the Son of man once more and bring Him before a firing squad, to put an end to the hate within their hearts. What benefit is there in Me remaining in this dangerous land? If I remain, the only thing I will bring man is conflict and violence, and no end of trouble, for I have never brought man peace, only war. The last days of mankind must be filled with war, and the destination of man must topple amid violence and conflict. I am unwilling to “share” in the “delight” of the war, I would not accompany the bloodshed and sacrifice of man, for man’s rejection has driven Me to “despondency,” and I haven’t the heart to look upon the wars of man—let man fight to his heart’s content, I wish to rest, I want to sleep, let demons be mankind’s companion during his last days! Who knows My will? Because I am not welcomed by man, and he has never awaited Me, I can only bid him farewell, and I bestow mankind’s destination unto him, leave all My riches to man, sow My life among man, plant the seed of My life in the field of man’s heart, leave him everlasting memories, leave all My love to mankind, and give all that man cherishes in Me to man, as the gift of love with which we long for each other. I would that we love each other forever, that our yesterday is the fine thing we give to each other, for I have already bestowed My entirety upon mankind—what complaints could man have? I have already left the entirety of My life to man, and without a word, have toiled hard to plow the beautiful land of love for mankind; I have never made any equitable demands of man, and have done nothing but simply submit to the arrangements of man and create a more beautiful tomorrow for mankind.
from “Work and Entry (10)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
38. The incarnation of God has sent shockwaves through all religions and sectors, it has “thrown into disarray” the original order of religious circles, and it has shaken the hearts of all of those who yearn for the appearance of God. Who is not adoring? Who doesn’t long to see God? God has personally been among man for many years, yet man has never realized it. Today, God Himself has appeared, and shown forth His identity to the masses—how could this not bring delight to man’s heart? God once shared joys and sorrows with man, and today He has been reunited with mankind, and shares tales of times gone by with him. After He walked out of Judea, people could find no trace of Him. They yearn to once more meet with God, little knowing that today they have again met with Him, and been reunited with Him. How could this not stir thoughts of yesterday? Two thousand years ago today, Simon Bar-Jonah, the descendant of the Jews, beheld Jesus the Savior, he ate at the same table as Him, and after following Him for many years felt a deeper affection for Him: He loved Him to the bottom of his heart, he loved the Lord Jesus profoundly. The Jewish people knew nothing of how this golden-haired baby, born into a chilly manger, was the first image of God’s incarnation. They all thought that He was the same as them, no one thought Him any different—how could people recognize this normal and ordinary Jesus? The Jewish people thought of Him as a Jewish son of the times. No one looked upon Him as a lovely God, and people did nothing but blindly make demands of Him, asking that He give them rich and plentiful graces, and peace, and joy. They knew only that, like a millionaire, He had everything one could ever wish for. Yet people never treated Him as one who was beloved; the people of that time did not love Him, and only protested against Him, and made irrational demands of Him, and He never resisted, constantly giving graces to man, even though man did not know Him. He did nothing but silently give man warmth, love, and mercy, and even more, He gave man new means of practice, leading man out of the bonds of the law. Man did not love Him, he only envied Him and recognized His exceptional talents. How could blind mankind know how great the humiliation suffered by the lovely Jesus the Savior when He came among mankind? No one considered His distress, no one knew of His love for God the Father, and no one could know of His loneliness; even though Mary was His birth mother, how could she know the thoughts in the heart of the merciful Lord Jesus? Who knew of the unspeakable suffering endured by the Son of man? After making requests of Him, the people of that time coldly put Him to the back of their minds, and cast Him outside. So He wandered the streets, day after day, year after year, drifting for many years until He had lived for thirty-three hard years, years which had been both long and brief. When people needed Him, they invited Him into their homes with smiling faces, trying to make demands of Him—and after He had made His contribution to them, they immediately shoved Him out the door. People ate what was provided from His mouth, they drank His blood, they enjoyed the graces He bestowed upon them, yet they also opposed Him, for they had never known who had given them their lives. Ultimately, they nailed Him upon the cross, yet still He made no sound. Even today, He remains silent. People eat His flesh, they eat the food He makes for them, they walk the way that He has opened up for them, and they drink His blood, yet they still intend to reject Him, they actually treat the God who has given them their lives as the enemy, and instead treat those who are slaves just like them as the heavenly Father. In this, do they not deliberately oppose Him? How did Jesus come to die upon the cross? Do you know? Was He not betrayed by Judas, who was closest to Him and had eaten Him, drunk Him, and enjoyed Him? Was the reason for Judas’ betrayal not because Jesus was nothing more than a normal little teacher? If people had really seen that Jesus was extraordinary, and One who was of heaven, how could they have nailed Him alive to the cross for twenty-four hours, until He had no breath left in His body? Who can know God? People do nothing but enjoy God with insatiable greed, but they have never known Him. They were given an inch and have taken a mile, and they make Jesus totally obedient to their commands, to their orders. Who has ever shown anything of the way of mercy toward this Son of man, who has nowhere to lay His head? Who has ever thought of joining forces with Him to complete God the Father’s commission? Who has ever spared a thought for Him? Who has ever been considerate of His difficulties? Without the slightest love, man wrenches Him back and forth; man knows not where his light and life came from, and does nothing but secretly plan how to once more crucify the Jesus of two thousand years ago, who has experienced the pain among man. Does Jesus really inspire such hate? Has all that He did long been forgotten? The hate that coalesced for thousands of years will finally shoot outward. You, the ilk of Jews! When has Jesus ever been hostile to you, that you should hate Him so much? He has done so much, and spoken so much—is none of it to your benefit? He has given His life to you without asking for anything in return, He has given you His entirety—do you really still want to eat Him alive? He has given His all to you without holding anything back, without ever enjoying worldly glory, the warmth among man, and the love among man, or all of the blessings among man. People are so mean toward Him, He has never enjoyed all of the riches on earth, He devotes the entirety of His sincere, passionate heart to man, He has devoted His entirety to mankind—and who has ever given Him warmth? Who has ever given Him comfort? Man has piled all pressure upon Him, he has handed all misfortune to Him, he has forced the most unfortunate experiences among man on Him, he blames Him for all injustice, and He has tacitly accepted it. Has He ever protested to anyone? Has He ever asked for a little recompense from anyone? Who has ever shown any sympathy toward Him? As normal people, who of you did not have a romantic childhood? Who did not have a colorful youth? Who does not have the warmth of loved ones? Who is without the love of relatives and friends? Who is without the respect of others? Who is without a warm family? Who is without the comfort of their confidants? And has He ever enjoyed any of this? Who has ever given Him a little warmth? Who has ever given Him a shred of comfort? Who has ever shown Him a little human morality? Who has ever been tolerant of Him? Who has ever been with Him during difficult times? Who has ever passed the hard life with Him? Man has never relaxed his requirements of Him; he merely makes demands of Him without any scruples, as if, having come to the world of man, He has to be his ox or horse, his prisoner, and has to give His all to man; if not, man will never forgive Him, will never go easy on Him, will never call Him God, and will never hold Him in high esteem. Man is too severe in his attitude toward God, as if he is set upon tormenting God unto death, only after which will he loosen his requirements of God; if not, man will never lower the standards of his requirements of God. How could man such as this not be despised by God? Such is not the tragedy of today? Man’s conscience is nowhere to be seen. He keeps saying he will repay God’s love, but he dissects God and tortures Him to death. Is this not the “secret recipe” to his faith of God, handed down from his ancestors? There is nowhere that the “Jews” are not found, and today they still do the same work, they still carry out the same work of opposing God, and yet believe they are holding God up high. How could man’s own eyes know God? How could man, who lives in the flesh, treat as God the God incarnate who has come from the Spirit? Who among man could know Him? Where is the truth among man? Where is true righteousness? Who is able to know the disposition of God? Who can compete with the God in heaven? No wonder that, when He has come among man, no one has known God, and He has been rejected. How can man tolerate the existence of God? How can he allow the light to drive out darkness of the world? Is this all not of the honorable devotion of man? Is this not the upright entry of man? And is the work of God not centered around the entry of man? I would that you conflate God’s work with man’s entry, and establish a good relationship between man and God, and perform the duty that ought to be performed by man to the best of his abilities. In this way, God’s work will subsequently come to an end, concluding with His glorification!
from “Work and Entry (10)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Footnotes:
1. “Content with their lot in life” indicates that people stick by the rules and do nothing that violates laws.
2. “Persistently stick to” is used mockingly. This phrase indicates that people are stubborn and intractable, holding onto outdated things and being unwilling to let them go.
3. “Gearing up” is said mockingly.
4. “Abnormality” indicates that people’s entry is deviant and their experiences one-sided.
5. “A dead end” indicates that people are walking a path that is antithetical to the will of God.
6. “Reverse their past attitude” refers to how people’s conceptions and views about God change once they know God.
7. “Resting easy” indicates that people are unconcerned about God’s work and don’t see it as important.
8. “Close” is used mockingly.
9. “Harmonious” is used mockingly.
10. “Equivocal” indicates that people do not have clear insight into God’s work.
11. “Small-talk” is a metaphor for the ugly face of people when they research into the work of God.
12. “Overly parsing words” is used to mock the experts in fallacies, who split hairs over the words but don’t seek the truth or know the work of the Holy Spirit.
13. “It remains unpunished and at large” indicates that the devil goes berserk and runs amok.
14. “A complete shambles” refers to how the devil’s violent behavior is unbearable to people.
15. “Bruised and battered” refers to the ugly face of the king of devils.
16. “A long-shot gamble” is a metaphor for the devil’s insidious, sinister schemes. It is used mockingly.
17. “Consume” refers to the violent behavior of the king of devils, which plunders people in their entirety.
18. “Fickleness in the world” indicates that if someone is rich and powerful, people curry favor with them, and if someone is penniless and without power, people ignore them. This phrase refers to the injustice of the world.
19. “Incite disorder” refers to how people who are demonic run riot, obstructing and opposing the work of God.
20. “A toothed whale” is used mockingly. It is a metaphor for how flies are so small that pigs and dogs appear as big as whales to them.
21. “Ringleader of all evil” refers to the old devil. This phrase expresses extreme dislike.
22. “Making groundless accusations” refers to the methods by which the devil harms people.
23. “Heavily guarded” indicates that the methods by which the devil afflicts people are especially vicious, and control people so much that they have no room to move.
24. “Favored” is used to mock people who seem wooden and have no self-awareness.
25. “Suffers mishap after mishap” indicates that the people were born in the land of the great red dragon, and they are unable to hold their heads up high.
26. “Top of the class” is used to mock those who fervently pursue God.
27. “Ravages” is used to expose the disobedience of mankind.
28. “Met with fierce brows and the cool defiance of a thousand wagging fingers, head bowed, serving people like a willing ox” is originally a single sentence, but here is split into two in order to make things clearer. The first sentence refers to the actions of man, whilst the second indicates the suffering undergone by God, and that God is humble and hidden.
29. “Prejudice” refers to people’s disobedient behavior.
30. “Take absolute power” refers to people’s disobedient behavior. They hold themselves up high, enshackle others, making them follow them and suffer for them. They are the forces that are hostile to God.
31. “Puppet” is used to ridicule those who do not know God.
32. “Snowballing” is used to highlight people’s lowly behavior.
33. “Can’t tell chalk from cheese” indicates when people twist God’s will into something satanic, broadly referring to behavior in which people reject God.
34. “Bandit” is used to indicate that people are senseless and lack insight.
35. “Scraps and leftovers” is used to indicate behavior in which people oppress God.
36. “Descendant” is used mockingly.
37. “Incensed” refers to the ugly face of man that is irate and exasperated.
38. “Without scruple” refers to when people are reckless, and have not the slightest reverence toward God.
39. “Capture alive” refers to the violent and despicable behavior of man. Man is brutal and not the slightest bit forgiving toward God, and makes absurd demands of Him.
a. The original text reads “Some even shout out.”
b. This is a Chinese idiom.
Read more:The Eastern Lightning is the manifestation of the Lord and His work.
No comments:
Post a Comment