Reading the Bible: I Have a New Understanding of “Shall Not Be Added To” in the Prophecies of Revelation

By Yuting, Japan

Hesitating After Hearing the Lord Has Come

After I believed in the Lord, I often heard my pastors say, “Now, we live in the last days. The Lord’s return is imminent, and outside the church many preach false ways, so we must not listen to them. This is because in Revelation 22:18–19 it says, ‘For I testify to every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add to these things, God shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.’ All of God’s words are in the Bible, and nothing can be added to or taken away from the Bible. If anyone adds to or takes away from whatever is in the Bible, they will be unable to enter the kingdom of heaven. In our belief in God, we only need to read the Bible. We don’t need to go outside the church to hear sermons.” The pastors’ words took root deep in my heart, and I kept their admonishment not to listen to sermons outside the church.

I Relinquish My Conceptions and Welcome the Second Coming of Jesus

By Chen Jing

Editor’s Note: Many people believe that the words spoken by the Lord Jesus upon the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30), meant that the Lord’s work to save mankind was then completed, that our sins are forgiven and we are saved, and we are now just waiting for the Lord to come and raise us up into heaven. But is this understanding correct? Does it accord with the facts of God’s work? Let’s read Sister Chen Jing’s experiences together, so that we may understand the true meaning of the words “It is finished.”

In the Bible, Paul says we should obey those in authority. If we put Paul’s words into practice, then we should always listen to the ruling regime. But the atheistic CCP is always persecuting religious people and acting as an enemy of God. Not only does the CCP forbid us from believing in the Lord, it also captures and persecutes those who spread God’s gospel. If we obey it and do not believe in the Lord or spread His gospel, then aren’t we siding with Satan in resistance and betrayal of the Lord? Won’t we then become those who are destined to perish? I really don’t understand this. When it comes to how we treat the ruling authority, what should we do to ensure we’re in accordance with God’s will?

Answer: In the Bible, Paul says we should obey the authorities. His words were as follows: “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation” (Rom 13:1-2).

Coming Home (Part 1)

By Muyi, South Korea

“God’s love overflowing is freely given to man, God’s love is around him. Man, innocent and pure, without a care to tie him down, lives in bliss in the eyes of God. … If you are a person of conscience and with humanity, you will feel warm, being cared for and loved, you will feel blessed with happiness” (“How Important God’s Love for Man Is” in Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs). Every time I start to sing this hymn of the word of God, it’s hard to keep down the emotions stirring inside me. That is because I was once far astray from God and went against Him. I was like a lost sheep, unable to find the road home, and it was God’s steadfast love that led me to return home. In what follows, I wish to share my experience of returning to God’s house with both those brothers and sisters who are part of the Lord as well as those friends who have not yet turned to God.

The Bible is testimony to God’s work; only through reading the Bible can those who believe in the Lord recognize that God created the heavens and earth and all things and see God’s wonderful deeds, His greatness and almightiness. In the Bible there are lots of God’s words and lots of testimonies of man’s experiences; it can provide for the life of man and be of great benefit to man, so what I’d like to pursue is, can we actually attain eternal life through reading the Bible? Is there really no way of eternal life within the Bible?

Answer:

Through reading the Bible we come to understand that God is the Creator of the heavens and earth and all things and we begin to recognize His wondrous deeds. This is because the Bible is a testimony to the first two stages of God’s work. It is a record of the words and work of God and the testimony of man during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. So, the Bible is very important to our faith. Think about it, if not for the Bible, how would we come to understand the Lord’s word and know the Lord? How else would we witness God’s deeds and begin to develop true faith in God? If we do not read the Bible, how else will we witness the real testimony of all the saints throughout the ages obeying God? So, reading the Bible is essential to the practice of faith, and no believer of the Lord should ever go astray from the Bible. You could say, he who goes astray from the Bible could not believe in the Lord.

For two thousand years, man’s belief in the Lord has been based on the Bible, and the coming of the Lord Jesus did not negate the Old Testament Bible. After Almighty God has done His work of judgment in the last days, everyone who accepts Almighty God will focus on eating and drinking the words of Almighty God and will seldom read the Bible anymore. What I would like to pursue is, after one accepts the work of Almighty God in the last days, what exactly is the correct approach one should have to the Bible, and how should one use it? What must one’s belief in God be based on in order for one to walk the path of belief in God and to attain God’s salvation?

Answer:

The Bible is a genuine record of the first two stages of God’s work. In other words, it is the testimony of the first two stages of God’s work, which conclude the guidance and redemption of mankind after the creation of the heavens and earth and all things, as well as of mankind.

Never Again Will I Delimit God to the Bible (Part 1)

By Ding Feng, China

Over the past few years, I have always toiled and busied myself in order to “protect the Bible and guard the flock,” yet I never expected that my wife, my mother and my father-in-law would be stolen away by Eastern Lightning, one after another. My wife also preached the way of Eastern Lightning to me, but I refused to accept it. In order to prove my loyalty to the Lord and, more importantly, to safeguard the Bible’s absolute authority, I took a devout oath before my brothers and sisters, saying, “God’s words and work are all recorded in the Bible and the Bible contains the whole truth. There are no words or work of God outside the Bible, and we must not betray the Bible no matter what!” In this way, I remained clinging to my own convictions, and I did not study the way of Eastern Lightning.

Many people believe that believing in God means never straying from the Bible and that straying from the Bible means betraying God. Is this kind of view correct?

The Answer from God’s Word:

The Jewish Pharisees used the law of Moses to condemn Jesus. They did not seek compatibility with the Jesus of that time, but diligently followed the law to the letter, to the extent that they ultimately nailed the innocent Jesus to the cross, having charged Him with not following the law of the Old Testament and not being the Messiah. What was their essence? Was it not that they didn’t seek the way of compatibility with the truth? They obsessed over each and every word of the Scripture, while paying no heed to My will and the steps and methods of My work. They were not people who sought the truth, but people who rigidly followed the words of Scripture; they were not people who believed in God, but people who believed in the Bible. Essentially, they were watchdogs of the Bible. In order to safeguard the interests of the Bible, and uphold the dignity of the Bible, and protect the reputation of the Bible, they went so far as to nail the merciful Jesus onto the cross. This they did merely for the sake of defending the Bible, and for the sake of maintaining the status of each and every word of the Bible in people’s hearts. So they preferred to forsake their future and the sin offering to condemn Jesus, who did not conform to the doctrine of Scripture, to death. …

We feel that all of God’s words are in the Bible and that anything outside of the Bible does not contain God’s revelations or words. Why is this type of statement wrong?

Bible Reference:

“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen” (Jhn 21:25).

What exactly is the relationship between God’s work and the Bible? Did God’s work come first or did the Bible come first?

The Answer from God’s Word:

It is nothing more than a historical record of God’s work, and a testament to the previous two stages of God’s work, and offers you no understanding of the aims of God’s work. Everyone who has read the Bible knows that it documents the two stages of God’s work during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. The Old Testament chronicles the history of Israel and Jehovah’s work from the time of creation until the end of the Age of Law. The New Testament records Jesus’ work on earth, which is in the Four Gospels, as well as the work of Paul; are they not historical records? …

Christian Movie | Explore the Bible | "Exploration of the 'Trinity'"

Christian Movie | Explore the Bible | "Exploration of the 'Trinity'" He was a leader of a house church in China. For many years, he had been exploring the mystery of the "Triune God": What’s the relationship between the three Spirits, the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit? What’s the difference of them? The Bible says that there is only one Spirit. If there is only one Spirit, why is it said that there are three? If there are three Spirits, how can they be one? One day, the words expressed by God who reappeared finally unlocked the mystery of the “Triune God,” which had puzzled him many years and puzzled the religious world for two thousand years….

CenSAMM Symposium The Millennium: A Mystery No More

CenSAMM Symposium The Millennium: A Mystery No More From June 28-29, 2018, at the Panacea Museum Gardens in Bedford, UK, the Centre for the Critical Study of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements (CenSAMM) held a symposium about apocalyptic literature, the final disaster, and the Millennium. The event was attended by such renowned religious experts and scholars as Christopher Rowland, Dean Ireland's Emeritus Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture, University of Oxford, Massimo Introvigne, Managing Director of CESNUR, the Center for Studies on New Religions in Italy, and Matthew Askey, a priest serving at Southwell Minster Cathedra in Nottinghamshire. During the symposium, Professor Introvigne gave a lecture entitled “Filming the Age of Kingdom”.Partly based on The Church of Almighty God musical Human Beings Have Regained the Sanctity They Once Possessed, this stimulating and refreshing lecture provided a clear interpretation of the appearance of the Millennial Kingdom (the Millennium). Recent years have seen increasingly severe disasters occurring across the globe. The world is becoming ever more chaotic, visions have appeared in the stars, and the prophecies of the Bible are all starting to come true. People have a sense of impending disaster, and some cannot help asking: Will the final disaster destroy the earth? Where will the Millennium appear? And who will be allowed to enter? During the symposium, internationally-renowned religious scholar Professor Introvigne communicated the mystery revealed by Christ of the last days, Almighty God:The Millennial Kingdom (the Kingdom of Christ prophesized in the Book of Revelation of the Bible) will appear on earth following the great catastrophe. For us, all mankind, this is great news!

Christian Crosstalk "Going Outside the Bible" | Can We Gain Eternal Life by Keeping to the Bible?

Christian Crosstalk "Going Outside the Bible" | Can We Gain Eternal Life by Keeping to the Bible? Xiang Yang works at a house church, and just like many religious believers, he thinks that God's words and work are all in the Bible, that believing in the Lord means believing in the Bible, that the Bible represents the Lord, and that if he abides by the Bible, he will enter the kingdom of heaven and gain eternal life. Brother Zhang Yi, who has just accepted God's work of the last days, has doubts about this view. The two engage in a humorous debate: Are all of God's words and work really in the Bible? Does the Bible really represent the Lord? By keeping to the Bible, can we enter the kingdom of heaven and gain eternal life? To find out the answers, please watch the crosstalk Going Outside the Bible.Recommended： Bible Prophecy Has Come True | "How Exactly Does the Lord Come" (Crosstalk)

He Finally Knew How to Escape Sin After Over 40-Year Belief in God

By Tiexin

Fallen So Far That the Lord Might Have Abandoned Me

At the age of 20, I was baptized and returned to the Lord. From the Bible, I knew that the Lord Jesus was personally crucified to redeem mankind and took on the sins of all people. As long as we prayed in the name of the Lord Jesus and repented to the Lord for our sins, the Lord would forgive our sins and bestow abundant grace upon us. I was moved by the Lord’s great love, and was determined to spend my life following the Lord’s teachings and expending for the Lord to repay His love.

What Kind of People Are the Poor in Spirit (Matthew 5:3)?

By Mei Juan

In one of my daily devotions, I read that the Lord Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). I put down the Bible and began to contemplate this, “The Lord likes and blesses the poor in spirit, and theirs is the kingdom of heaven. But what kind of people are the poor in spirit? Are the poor in spirit those who appear on the outside to be humble, gentle, and loving to others?” I contemplated this for quite a while, but found no light, and I thought about it into the afternoon, when I just happened to have a meeting, where I could discuss and explore this question with my brothers and sisters.