To Seek and Investigate Is of the Utmost Importance!

Gao Tai

In 1997, because of my frequently quarreling with my husband and mother-in-law, I believed in the Lord Jesus after the persuasion of my neighbors. When I read about the Lord Jesus’ requiring man to love his enemies and forgive others seventy times seven times, I was deeply moved. Gradually, I no longer quarreled with my husband about family trifles, nor was I upset or sad when he or his mother was bad to me. And reading the Bible become part of my daily routine. One day, I saw the Lord’s promise in the Bible, “I go to prepare a place for you.

Where does the “Eastern Lightning” come from?

     Most believers in Jesus Christ have heard the “Eastern Lightning” from their pastors, elders, or preachers. But actually no one knows exactly where the Eastern Lightning comes from. There are different opinions about the origin of the Eastern Lightning among the denominations and sects. Some think that the Eastern Lightning is an emerging Christian denomination, some even condemn it as a cult.… People have such erroneous opinions of the Eastern Lightning because they do not have any knowledge of God’s work

     God’s work is continuously moving forward. However, because people do not know the principle of God’s work being always new and never old or the purpose of God’s work of saving mankind and because they have satanic disposition—being arrogant and self-right and obeying no one, each time when God does a new work, it will inevitably be blasphemed, persecuted, and condemned by the religious world which obstinately sticks to the old way, and those who accept the new work and preach the true way are imposed on various false charges and are misnamed. The records in the New Testament show us a fact: In order to deliver mankind from punishment for being unable to keep the laws, God was incarnated and began the work of redemption in the Age of Grace. At the time when Jesus worked in Judea, He performed many miracles and signs, healed and cast out demons, bestowed upon people rich grace, and expressed many truths. That was sufficient proof that Jesus was really and completely God Himself, the Messiah that would come. However, the Jewish chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah they had desperately longed for. They even slandered, judged, and condemned the work of Jesus as a heresy, a cult. As Jesus grew up in Nazareth and started doing His work in Nazareth, they called Jesus and His followers the Nazarenes. They also accused Paul of being a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. (cf: Act 24:5) What can we see from this fact? Every believer in the Lord knows this: When Jesus did the work in Judea, He ushered in the Age of Grace and did the new work of redeeming mankind fully according to God’s own management plan. Whether the Jews or the Gentiles, whether the Zelotes or the Sadducees, as long as they truly thirsted for and sought the true way and followed the only true God, they would be forgiven of their sins and receive God’s salvation. God didn’t need to establish and had never established any religion, organization, or party, so how could He found the sect of the Nazarenes? Therefore, the sect of the Nazarenes was an offensive term fabricated by the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees who “served” Jehovah in the temple for the purpose of attacking and framing Jesus and condemning His work. It was because of being deceived and controlled by these so-called servants of God that the Jews crucified Jesus and the entire Jewish nation was thus subjected to unprecedented destruction in the end.

     Similarly, to free man from the endless cycle of committing sins and confessing them and completely rid man of his corrupt satanic disposition and sinful nature so that he will become holy and be fully saved by God, God is incarnated again in the last days and expresses the truths to judge and chastise the corrupt mankind, carrying out a new work in order to utterly purify them. The brothers and sisters who accept God’s gospel of the last days and keep up with God’s new work have undergone the judgment, chastisement, trials, and refinements of God’s word, and seen clearly that Almighty God who expresses the truth in the last days is exactly the returned Lord Jesus.

Is Eastern Lightning the Return of the Lord Jesus?

We all know that the Lord Jesus had promised His disciples before He left: Surely I come quickly. Over thousands of years, countless Christians have held on to the promise of the Lord and expected His return all their life. They felt pity that they did not meet the return of the Lord Jesus before death. Many people are puzzled: The prophecy of the return of the Lord Jesus has already been fulfilled, but why is it that we haven’t seen the appearance of the Lord yet? In fact, the Lord Jesus has already returned to flesh as the Son of man and done the work in secret among people for many years. Christ of the last days—Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus!
     When the disciples asked about the signs of His return on the Mount of Olives, the Lord Jesus prophesied from His own mouth, “For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even to the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Mat 24:27) And He also prophesied, “For as the lightning, that lightens out of the one part under heaven, shines to the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.” (Luke 17:24-25) Both of these scriptures mention “the Son of man,” who is born of man and has the normal humanity. The Spirit cannot be called as “the Son of man,” and only God incarnate can be called so. This is sufficient to prove that when the Lord returns in the last days, He will still become flesh. The prophecy says “But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.” So the Son of man will suffer many things and be rejected; it also refers to God’s return to flesh. If God returned as the Spirit, would He suffer so much and be rejected by men?


     During about 20 years, the Church of Almighty God has been testifying that Eastern Lightning is Christ of the last days, Almighty God who becomes flesh, and the return of the Lord Jesus, and that millions of words of truth Almighty God expresses is the light to save man. However, the elders and pastors of the whole religious world not only didn’t seek or investigate it, but instead frenziedly judged, condemned, resisted, and blasphemed the Eastern Lightning. They even colluded with the atheistic CCP government to deceive common people and instigate them to oppose and resist the Eastern Lightning. Even so, they still failed to stop the steps of God’s work. The clever virgins, who believe in Godsincerely and can recognize the voice of God, return before Almighty God’s throne from all sects and denominations one after another. The scene of joy “All peoples will surely stream to this mountain” has appeared. Under Almighty God’s personal leading, God’s chosen people have broken through the suppression of the forces of darkness, and they keep practicing the truth and never lose the testimony. Almighty God has already made a group of overcomers in Mainland China. Today, the gospel of Almighty God has spread from China, the East, to all other countries in the world, without dramatic effect. These ironclad facts are the complete fulfillments of the prophecies concerning the return of the Lord. Like what Jesus suffered in His first incarnation, Almighty God, Eastern Lightning and Christ of the last days, also suffers the rejection from the world today. But He has still accomplished the work what He wants to do, not restricted by anything.
     Almighty God says, “Only when the light of the East gradually turns white will the darkness across the earth begin to turn to light, and only then will men find that I have long ago gone from Israel and am rising anew in the East. I cannot still be ‘born’ in Israel after I have ‘descended’ to Israel and then left from Israel, for My work leads all of the universe and the lightning flashes from the East to the West. This is the reason I have descended in the East and brought Canaan to the people of the East. …I gave My glory to Israel then moved it away from there, bringing the Israelites to the East, and bringing all men to the East. I have led them all to the ‘light’ so that they may be reunited and have association with it, and no longer have to search for it. I will let all who are in search see the light again and see the glory I had in Israel; I will let them see that I have long ago come down upon a white cloud among men, and see the countless clouds of white and clusters of fruit, and moreover, Jehovah God of Israel. I will let them see the ‘Master’ of the Jews, the longed-for Messiah, and the full appearance of Me who have been persecuted by kings throughout the ages. I will do the work of the entire universe and perform great works, revealing all My glory and all My deeds to man in the last days. I shall show My full countenance of glory to those who have awaited Me for many years, to those who have longed for Me to come upon a white cloud, to Israel that has longed for Me to once again appear, and to all mankind who persecute Me, so that all will know that I have long ago taken away My glory and brought it to the East. It is not in Judea, for the last days have already come!” (from The Word Appears in the Flesh) All these facts fully prove that Eastern Lightning is the return of the Lord Jesus in the last days and God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.

The CCP Government Is the Real Culprit Breaking Families

On August 28, 2016, a cross-border family search drama was presented at the Church of Almighty God in Seoul. Tian, together with her son, came from China to search for her husband. She cried and shouted, saying that her husband had abandoned the family after believing in Almighty God, and refused to return despite her twice coming to South Korea in an attempt to persuade him to go back to China. Besides, she claimed that the Church of Almighty God was to blame for her family’s breakdown. Meanwhile, the CCP successively published articles on Xinhua Net, one of the party media, and Northeast News Net which criticized in detail the Christians who dedicated themselves to God after believing in God, attacked the Church of Almighty God on the accusation that it split up the families of the believers, and condemned it as an offense that the Christians forsook their families to work and preach the gospel. The overseas protest and the domestic reports echoed one another and went hand in hand. Such allegations appear well-founded, but then, who will approve them? To be honest, I, as a Christian, was very surprised to see such an incident and the accusations above. How could it be connected with breaking families and committing a crime that the Christians leave their families to follow God? What is the real intention of the CCP government to make such absurd claims and create momentum home and abroad? Do the Christians break the law actually when they leave their families for the sake of their belief? Who is the real breaker of the Christian’s families? Who is the real culprit?

God is the Creator. Man’s all, including his life, is bestowed by God. It is God’s requirement of man that they, as creatures, believe in and follow Him, give up everything and expend themselves for Him, which is absolutely right and proper. Just as the Lord Jesus said in the Bible, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. … So likewise, whoever he be of you that forsakes not all that he has, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27, 33). “And Jesus said to him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62). The Lord Jesus’ words are the words of God, the Creator, which are God’s highest will toward man as well as the highest truth, exceeding the authority of the law of any country. This is public knowledge to the religious world, even to the whole mankind. When the Lord Jesus worked personally in the flesh, who among His apostles and disciples did not lay aside everything to follow Him? In order to preach the Lord Jesus’ gospel into China, who among the hundreds of foreign preachers did not forsake family and career to go to China? In modern times, many Christians gave up their families and marriages, and devoted their lives to following the Lord in spite of arrests and imprisonment. And throughout history, tens of millions of saints in Christianity have followed God according to His such requirement. Who dares to label Christianity a religion that destroys the believers’ families? Or who can condemn those saints? On the contrary, most people will not only not condemn them, but highly admire and imitate them. Just think: If the Christians all had clung to their own little families, and been reluctant to leave their husbands or wives, and children, how could have the Lord Jesus’ gospel been spread to the end of the earth? And how could have mankind received His great grace of redemption? Likewise, the Christians of the Church of Almighty God leave their families and relatives for the purpose of spreading the kingdom gospel. Is it not the same as what the saints did to spread the Lord Jesus’ gospel? Is this not practicing the Lord Jesus’ requirement of man? This is exactly the good and righteous deed to cooperate with God’s management plan of saving mankind. It fully conforms to the Bible and the truth, and is most after God’s heart and approved by God.