On the next day, I went to Sister Gao’s house, and happened to meet some of her friends. They all accepted the work of
Almighty God in the last days and were in a gathering together fellowshiping to each other. We greeted each other, and Sister Li Min got right to the point by asking me: “Brother, what notions do you still hold? What aspects of God’s work in the last days do you still want to understand? We can fellowship together.” I said: “You mentioned that because the work of the Holy Spirit was moving forward in the last days, the church was made desolate. I can accept this, but we who believe in the Lord have already had our sins absolved, and the Lord does not see us as having sin. Why does God want to do a further step of the work of judgment? Aren’t we able to be raised into the heavenly kingdom without going through that step? When God judges a person, is that person not determined to be sinful? Mustn’t they all be punished? How can they still be raised into the heavenly kingdom?” Sister Li Min said: “As far as most people’s notions are concerned, the people whom the Lord returned to judge were those non-believers who did not believe in God. Because God judged people, people were determined as sinful and punished, and those who believed in God had their sins absolved. When the Lord comes, it is to raise them directly into the heavenly kingdom, not to judge them. So they refuse to accept God’s work of judgment in the last days. This is completely misunderstanding God’s will and demonstrates that a person does not know God’s work. Actually, the work of Almighty God in the last days—of expressing the truth and of judging and purifying man—is for the sake of raising believers up to the heavenly kingdom. We all know the Bible says: ‘
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God’ (1Pe 4:17). This prophecy tells us clearly that God’s work of judgment in the last days begins first with God’s household. That is, it begins with those people who believe in God with true hearts and accept God’s work in the last days. So, we consider the notion to be in error that believing in the Lord Jesus means one does not have to accept God’s work of judgment. In the last days, God uses His words to judge all those who come before His throne, and purifies and saves these people. Before the calamity, He makes a group of overcomers, and afterward when the calamity befalls the world He will reward the good and punish the evil. This is how God’s work of judgment in the last days proceeds. No one is able to escape from God’s work of judgment in the last days, but as for those people who accept and obey God’s judgment, they are purified, saved, and perfected. As for those who refuse and resist God’s work of judgment in the last days, although they can hide from the judgment of God’s word, they still cannot escape the catastrophe in the end. This is a fact! The reason why God wants to judge us in the last days is said very clearly in the word of Almighty God. Let us read together a section from the word of God. Almighty God says: ‘
You only know that Jesus shall descend during the last days, but how exactly will He descend? A sinner such as you, who has just been redeemed, and has not been changed, or been perfected by God, can you be after God’s heart? For you, you who are still of your old self, it is true that you were saved by Jesus, and that you are not counted as a sinner because of the salvation of God, but this does not prove that you are not sinful, and are not impure. How can you be saintly if you have not been changed? Within, you are beset by impurity, selfish and mean, yet you still wish to descend with Jesus—you should be so lucky! You have missed a step in your belief in God: You have merely been redeemed, but have not been changed. For you to be after God’s heart, God must personally do the work of changing and cleansing you; if you are only redeemed, you will be incapable of attaining sanctity. In this way you will be unqualified to share in the good blessings of God, for you have missed out a step in God’s work of managing man, which is the key step of changing and perfecting. And so you, a sinner who has just been redeemed, are incapable of directly inheriting God’s inheritance’ (‘Concerning Appellations and Identity’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). We understand from the word of God that in believing in the Lord Jesus our sins are merely forgiven. This does not mean that we do not sin nor that we are sinless. In reality, we all live in the vicious cycle of committing and then confessing our sin, and we still need God to express His word to judge and cleanse us. Once we are cleansed, we will be qualified to be raised into the heavenly kingdom. It is recorded in the Bible: ‘
You shall be holy; for I am holy’ (Lev 11:44). ‘Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord’ (Heb 12:14). God is pure and holy. Defiled and corrupt people may not see God’s face and are unfit to enter God’s kingdom. The work of redemption done by the Lord Jesus only absolved us of our sins, but did not exempt us from our corrupt dispositions and sinful natures. So our arrogance, conceit, deceit and craftiness, selfishness and despicableness, evil and greed, aversion to the truth, fondness for injustice, and other corrupt satanic natures still remain. These corrupt natures are precisely the source that leads us to sin and to resist God. If they are not disposed of, we will often sin, compete for fame and wealth, have jealousy and strife, lie and deceive, exalt ourselves, bear witness to ourselves, and more. Especially when God’s work doesn’t conform to our notions, we are still able to rely on our notions and imaginations in judging, denying, and accusing God, and resisting God’s work. How can people like this who resist God be raised into the heavenly kingdom? God expresses the truth and does the work of judgment in the last days, and His goal in doing so is to cleanse the corrupt satanic natures we hold within ourselves as well as to fulfill our dream of being raised into the heavenly kingdom. When we accept God’s judgment and break free of our corrupt disposition, we attain purification and transform. We will have the qualification to inherit God’s promise and to be brought by God into the heavenly kingdom.”