Today I’d like to talk about how to discern false Christs from the true Christ. Some may ask what that has to do with our faith in God. Quite a lot. Does everyone know who Christ is? If you do know that Christ is the Savior come to earth, now that the disasters are coming and the last days are upon us, do you think you need a Savior? If you need a Savior, do you know which one you need to save you? Do you know how to welcome the Savior? Do you think this is important and relevant to you? As an example, 2,000 years ago, our Savior Jesus came to redeem mankind, and expressed many truths. The Jewish people at that time knew His words were authoritative, powerful, and were all the truth. But because He wasn’t named Messiah and He didn’t save them from Roman rule like they’d imagined, they didn’t acknowledge the Lord Jesus as Christ. They condemned and blasphemed Him as deceiving people and in the end had Him nailed to the cross alive. What were the consequences? Was God incarnate being crucified by the Jewish people a simple matter? It was certainly damned by God. We know that 60 years later, the Israeli nation was wiped out by Titus of Rome. How long was Israel a destroyed nation? Nearly 2,000 years! Because they had the Savior crucified, the Israelites paid an extremely heavy price. So then, is welcoming the Savior critical? Who can afford to offend the Savior on earth? If you don’t know or accept Him, but even oppose and condemn Him, you are finished—utterly finished, and you’re certain to perish. If you want to be saved and survive the disasters, you must accept the Savior! Almighty God is here now, and He is the Savior come down, expressing truths and doing the last days’ judgment work to save mankind from sin and from the disasters. But would you recognize Him? Would you accept Him? Although many acknowledge that Almighty God’s words are powerful and authoritative, when they see that He didn’t come on a cloud and He’s not called Lord Jesus, they steadfastly refuse to accept Almighty God. They even follow along with the religious world, condemning and blaspheming Him, saying that the Lord coming incarnate would be a false Christ, that this is deception. And the religious antichrist forces are on the same page with the Communist Party demons, madly hunting Christ, trying to destroy Him. They persecute those who share God’s kingdom gospel and are dying to entirely destroy The Church of Almighty God and drive God out of humanity. This is committing the tremendous sin of crucifying God all over again, and they’ll certainly be damned and punished by God. Just as Almighty God says, “Woe be unto those who crucify God” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Wicked Will Surely Be Punished). “Wherever the incarnation appears is a place from which the enemy is exterminated. China will be the first to be annihilated; it will be laid to waste by the hand of God. God will give absolutely no quarter there” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Interpretations of the Mysteries of “God’s Words to the Entire Universe”, Chapter 10). So, people’s attitude toward the Savior determines whether they survive or are wiped out.

Now everyone knows that being able to welcome the Savior relates to someone’s success or failure in faith, and relates to their final outcome and destination! So, moving on, let’s talk about how the Savior returns in the last days. Based on traditional notions held by the religious world, the Lord is certain to come on a cloud and take believers up into the sky to meet with Him. This is absolutely mistaken. This is just a human notion and is not remotely in line with the Lord’s words. The Lord Jesus personally prophesied “the coming of the Son of man,” “the Son of man is revealed,” “the Son of man comes,” and “the Son of man in His day.” He repeatedly emphasized “the Son of man,” which shows that when the Lord returns, He is incarnate as the Son of man again, and this is Christ’s appearance to mankind. There’s no two ways about it. Some may ask, “If it’s the Son of man incarnate, isn’t He the same as the Lord Jesus? He must look like a regular person. There are people all over the world claiming to be Christ returned. Some say one person is Christ, some say another is. So which one is true, and which ones are false? How can we welcome the Savior?” This is where most people get stuck when they’re looking into the true way. In fact, this isn’t a difficult question. As long as we earnestly ponder the Lord Jesus’ prophecies, we’ll find the path. The Lord Jesus said, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:12–13). “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6). “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). “Then if any man shall say to you, See, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; so that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:23–24). The Lord spoke very clearly. When the Lord Jesus returns in the last days, He’ll utter many more words and guide man to understand and enter into all truths. So He reminded people over and over again that the key to welcoming the Lord is to hear God’s voice. And if we hear someone bear witness that “the bridegroom comes,” we have to be the wise virgins, and seek and listen for God’s voice. That’s the only way to greet the Lord. It’s the only path to welcoming His return. Christ has come in the last days, so of course He is expressing more truths for mankind’s salvation, but false Christs just rely on showing some signs and wonders to mislead people. This is a key principle that the Lord Jesus told us for discerning false Christs from the true Christ. According to this principle, we can know if it’s a true or false Christ by whether they express the truth. If they can, it must be Christ. Those who cannot express the truth must be false Christs. If someone claims to be Christ but they cannot express any truth, instead relying on signs and wonders, it is without a doubt the facade of an evil spirit, a false Christ come to misguide people. When we go by the Lord Jesus’ words to discern true Christ from false ones, it’s very simple, isn’t it? But unfortunately, religious adherents don’t seek the truth or seek God’s voice according to the Lord’s words. So afraid of being misled by a false Christ, they won’t even seek the Lord’s appearance and work. Isn’t that cutting off your nose to spite your face, being penny wise but pound foolish? They blindly cling to Scripture about the Lord coming on a cloud, condemning and rejecting the work of Christ of the last days. As a result, they lose their chance to welcome the Savior and fall into the disasters. Isn’t that a result of their foolishness and ignorance? This fulfills these Bible verses: “Fools die for want of wisdom” (Proverbs 10:21). “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6).

As for how to know the true Christ from false ones, let’s go into detail on the topic according to Almighty God’s words. Almighty God says, “The incarnate God is called Christ, and Christ is the flesh donned by the Spirit of God. This flesh is unlike any man that is of the flesh. This difference is because Christ is not of flesh and blood; He is the incarnation of the Spirit. He has both a normal humanity and a complete divinity. His divinity is not possessed by any man. His normal humanity sustains all His normal activities in the flesh, while His divinity carries out the work of God Himself” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Essence of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father).

“God become flesh is called Christ, and so the Christ that can give people the truth is called God. There is nothing excessive about this, for He possesses the essence of God, and possesses God’s disposition, and wisdom in His work, that are unattainable by man. Those who call themselves Christ, yet cannot do the work of God, are frauds. Christ is not merely the manifestation of God on earth, but also the particular flesh assumed by God as He carries out and completes His work among man. This flesh cannot be supplanted by just any man, but is a flesh that can adequately bear God’s work on earth, and express the disposition of God, and well represent God, and provide man with life. Sooner or later, those who impersonate Christ will all fall, for although they claim to be Christ, they possess none of the essence of Christ. And so I say that the authenticity of Christ cannot be defined by man, but is answered and decided by God Himself” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life).

“He who is God incarnate shall possess the essence of God, and He who is God incarnate shall possess the expression of God. Since God becomes flesh, He shall bring forth the work He intends to do, and since God becomes flesh, He shall express what He is, and shall be able to bring the truth to man, bestow life upon him, and point the way for him. Flesh that does not have the essence of God is decidedly not the incarnate God; of this there is no doubt. If man intends to inquire into whether it is God’s incarnate flesh, then he must corroborate this from the disposition He expresses and the words He speaks. Which is to say, to corroborate whether or not it is God’s incarnate flesh, and whether or not it is the true way, one must discriminate on the basis of His essence. And so, in determining whether it is the flesh of God incarnate, the key lies in His essence (His work, His utterances, His disposition, and many other aspects), rather than external appearance. If man scrutinizes only His external appearance, and as a result overlooks His essence, this shows that man is benighted and ignorant” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Preface).

“There are some who are possessed by evil spirits and cry out vociferously, ‘I am God!’ Yet, in the end, they are revealed, for they are wrong in what they represent. They represent Satan, and the Holy Spirit pays them no heed. However highly you exalt yourself or however strongly you cry out, you are still a created being and one that belongs to Satan. … You are unable to bring forth new paths or to represent the Spirit. You cannot express the work of the Spirit or the words that He speaks. You are unable to do the work of God Himself, and that of the Spirit you are unable to do. The wisdom, wonder, and unfathomability of God, and the entirety of the disposition by which God chastises man—all of these are beyond your capacity to express. It would therefore be useless to try to claim to be God; you would have only the name and none of the substance. God Himself has come, but no one recognizes Him, yet He continues on in His work and does so in representation of the Spirit. Whether you call Him man or God, the Lord or Christ, or call Her sister, it does not matter. But the work He does is that of the Spirit and represents the work of God Himself. He does not care about the name by which man calls Him. Can that name determine His work? Regardless of what you call Him, as far as God is concerned, He is the incarnate flesh of the Spirit of God; He represents the Spirit and is approved by the Spirit. If you are unable to make way for a new age, or to bring the old to an end, or to usher in a new age, or to do new work, then you cannot be called God!” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Mystery of the Incarnation (1)).

“If, during the present day, there is to emerge a person who is able to display signs and wonders, cast out demons, heal the sick, and perform many miracles, and if this person claims that they are Jesus who has come, then this would be a counterfeit produced by evil spirits which imitate Jesus. Remember this! God does not repeat the same work. Jesus’ stage of work has already been completed, and God will never again undertake that stage of work. The work of God is irreconcilable with the notions of man; for example, the Old Testament foretold the coming of a Messiah, and the result of this prophecy was Jesus’ coming. This having already happened, it would be wrong for another Messiah to come again. Jesus has already come once, and it would be wrong if Jesus were to come again this time. There is one name for every age, and each name contains a characterization of that age. In the notions of man, God must always display signs and wonders, must always heal the sick and cast out demons, and must always be just like Jesus. Yet this time, God is not like that at all. If, during the last days, God still displayed signs and wonders, and still cast out demons and healed the sick—if He did exactly the same as Jesus—then God would be repeating the same work, and the work of Jesus would have no significance or value. Thus, God carries out one stage of work in every age. Once each stage of His work has been completed, it is soon imitated by evil spirits, and after Satan begins to follow on the heels of God, God changes to a different method. Once God has completed a stage of His work, it is imitated by evil spirits. You must be clear about this” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Knowing God’s Work Today).

After reading this, aren’t we all a little clearer on what Christ is, and how to know the true Christ from false ones? Christ is God incarnate, the Spirit of God clothed in the flesh as the Son of man. From the outside, Christ is just a regular, normal person. But His essence is entirely different from that of a regular person. Christ has the Spirit of God within Him, He is the embodiment of God’s Spirit, so He has a divine essence. Essentially, Christ is the one true God, the Lord of creation! Christ can express the truth, and God’s disposition and what He has and is anywhere, anytime. He can perform the work of man’s redemption as well as the work of man’s judgment and purification. Outside of Christ, no created human, angel, or satanic evil spirit could express the truth, much less save mankind. There is no doubt about this. So, the key to discerning the true Christ from false ones is mainly seeing if they express the truth, if they can do the work of man’s salvation. This is the most critical and basic principle. We all know that the Lord Jesus expressed many truths and preached the way of repentance, and He performed many signs and wonders, completing the work of mankind’s redemption. He initiated the Age of Grace and ended the Age of Law. The Lord’s words had so much power and authority and they were suffused with God’s disposition, with what He has and is. We know in our hearts that the Lord Jesus was Christ in the flesh, the appearance of God. Almighty God has come in the last days, expressing millions of words of the truth, and doing the work of judgment beginning with God’s house. His words have not only unveiled the mysteries within the Bible, but also those of God’s 6,000-year management plan. This includes the aims of God’s management plan, the inside truth of His three steps of work, how Satan corrupts mankind, how God works step-by-step to save mankind, the mysteries of the incarnation, the inside truth of the Bible, every type of person’s outcome, how Christ’s kingdom is realized on earth, and more. All these mysteries have been unlocked. Almighty God also judges and exposes man’s sinful, anti-God nature and corrupt disposition. He provides a path to cast off corruption and be cleansed, and so on. Almighty God’s words are so rich, and they are all mysteries and truths people have never heard before. They’re so eye-opening and fulfilling, and anyone who reads them has to admit that they really are the truth. God’s chosen people undergo the judgment of His words and understand many truths; they’re gradually cleansed of corruption, bearing resounding witnesses of casting off sin and triumphing over Satan. This fulfills the Lord Jesus’ prophecy: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come” (John 16:12–13). This proves that Almighty God is “the Spirit of truth.” He is the appearance of Christ of the last days, the Savior come to earth.

Now I think everyone should be clear that Almighty God is Christ, the Savior. This isn’t just talk, but it is proven based on the truths He expresses and the work He does. What about false Christs? They’re constantly shouting, “I am Christ.” You can ask them, “Can you express truth? Can you reveal the truth of man’s corruption? Can you save mankind from sin?” They can’t do a single one. They’re stunned in the face of these questions. False Christs are nothing but counterfeits of Satan or evil spirits, completely lacking God’s life and essence. So, they can’t ever express the truth or perform the work of cleansing and saving mankind. All they can do is spread false doctrines that appear true or show some signs and wonders to fool people. Some false Christs have some gifts, and they may write their own books, and can expound upon profound biblical knowledge. But all the things they share are human ideas and theories, and no matter how good they sound to man, they’re not the truth. They can never provide sustenance for man’s life or help people know God and the truth, and they particularly can’t save us from sin so we can become cleansed. This is a clear fact. A false Christ totally lacks the truth, but they have ambition in spades, and want people to worship them like God. So what do they do? They imitate God’s past work, showing some simple signs and wonders to pretend to be Christ, and mislead others with some small favors. If a believer doesn’t love the truth, but just wants to eat their fill and bask in some grace, and performing signs and wonders is their only standard for judging whether someone is God, then it’s easy for them to be misled. In fact, false Christs’ tricks can only fool dimwits and idiots. God’s sheep, the wise virgins, will never be taken in by a false Christ, because they love the truth and they listen for God’s voice. When they hear God’s voice, they accept it and follow it. God determined this long ago. Just as the Lord Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). “My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand” (John 10:29).

Now I think we’re all clear on how to discern the true Christ from false Christs. Christ is God in the flesh, the truth, the way, and the life. Christ’s divine essence is mainly manifested in His ability to express the truth and do God’s own work. No matter how unremarkable He may appear, and no matter how lacking power and status He is, whether He’s embraced or rejected by humans, as long as He can express the truth, God’s disposition, and what God has and is, and He can do salvation work, then He is God’s appearance. There is no doubt about this. The truths expressed by Almighty God, His work to judge and cleanse mankind entirely prove that He is God in the flesh, that He is the appearance of Christ. We have to accept and follow Christ of the last days, Almighty God, to gain the truth, be fully saved, and enter God’s kingdom. But now many people see the religious pastors and leaders and the Communist Party’s satanic regime madly opposing and condemning Almighty God, so they think Almighty God’s work isn’t the true way. Their reasoning is: If this were God’s work, it would all be smooth sailing, and everyone would be utterly convinced. Looking at it this way is incredibly foolish! This is failing to see that man has been deeply corrupted to the point of being God’s enemy and having no room for God. Did people welcome the Lord Jesus when He came? Didn’t the Jewish people link forces of the Roman government to crucify Him? Would you say that the Lord Jesus’ work wasn’t the true way? And how are people treating Almighty God, now that He’s come in the last days? The religious world’s antichrist forces are doing everything to resist and condemn Him, the satanic regime of the CCP is madly hunting Him, using every tactic to wipe out God’s appearance and work. This fulfills what the Lord Jesus 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). What does this mean? The true way has always been oppressed! Christ expresses the truth to save man, so it’s inevitable that He’ll be opposed, condemned, and pursued by Satan’s evil forces. If there’s a claim that someone is Christ, but they don’t express the truth and they’re not rejected of this generation, if they’re not madly condemned and attacked by Satan’s forces, that proves they’re not Christ. More than anything, Satan hates God’s appearance and work, and hates the Savior’s coming. Satan knows that when the Savior comes, people have a chance at salvation, at understanding the truth and seeing through Satan’s tricks. Then they can gain discernment, reject it, fully turn toward God and be gained by God. Then Satan is fully defeated, and its last day is before it. Do you think Satan would take that lying down? Without understanding this, but just clinging to your own notions and failing to investigate Almighty God’s work, or even going along with the religious world’s antichrist forces, condemning and resisting Almighty God, will have terrible consequences. Let’s see what Almighty God has to say. “Those who wish to gain life without relying on the truth spoken by Christ are the most ridiculous people on earth, and those who do not accept the way of life brought by Christ are lost in fantasy. And so I say that those who do not accept Christ of the last days shall forever be loathed by God. Christ is man’s gateway to the kingdom during the last days, and there are none who can go around Him. None may be perfected by God except through Christ. You believe in God, and so you must accept His words and obey His way. You cannot only think of gaining blessings while being incapable of receiving the truth and incapable of accepting the provision of life. Christ comes during the last days so that all those who truly believe in Him may be provided with life. His work is for the sake of concluding the old age and entering the new one, and His work is the path that must be taken by all those who would enter the new age. If you are incapable of acknowledging Him, and instead condemn, blaspheme, or even persecute Him, then you are bound to burn for eternity and shall never enter the kingdom of God. For this Christ is Himself the expression of the Holy Spirit, the expression of God, the One whom God has entrusted to do His work on earth. And so I say that if you cannot accept all that is done by Christ of the last days, then you blaspheme the Holy Spirit. The retribution to be had by those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit is self-evident to all. I also tell you that if you resist Christ of the last days, if you spurn Christ of the last days, there will be no one else to bear the consequences on your behalf. Furthermore, from this day onward you will not have another chance to gain the approval of God; even if you try to redeem yourself, you will never again behold the face of God. For what you resist is not a man, what you spurn is not some puny being, but Christ. Do you know what the consequences of this will be? You will not have made a small mistake, but committed a heinous crime. And so I advise everyone not to bare your fangs before the truth, or make careless criticisms, for only the truth can bring you life, and nothing except the truth can allow you to be reborn and behold the face of God again” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life).