Answer: You said that all of God’s words and work are contained within the Bible, that the Bible contains all of God’s salvation, and that God’s words and work will not appear elsewhere outside the Bible. The whole religious world also believes this. It seems no one can truly ascertain the validity of this view. In the past, we treated all issues according to the Bible. Now let me ask: Does this view of the religious world accord with the Bible? Is it in accord with God’s word? The Lord Jesus never said anything of the kind in the Bible. The Holy Spirit also never said anything like this. Actually, this is not such a difficult issue to explain. It can be said with certainty, this notion of the religious world has come completely from the conception and imagination of man. Why do I say this? We all know, the New and Old Testaments of the Bible are only a record of two stages of God’s work. As for the words and work of God during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace, do any here dare say that the Bible holds a complete record? Does anyone here dare say that all of the words of God delivered through the prophets during the Age of Law and all of the Lord Jesus’ words during the Age of Grace are recorded in the Bible? Actually, you’re all well aware many of the prophets’ books in the Age of Law are also not included in the Bible. This is commonly acknowledged! Many of the Lord Jesus’ words are not recorded in the Bible. The words of the Lord Jesus recorded in the Bible are just the tip of the iceberg! Just as the Gospel of John: “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” (Jhn 21:25). This passage from the Bible clearly states that the Bible is not a record of all of the Lord Jesus’ words and work. The Bible is only a very limited account. How could you say that all of God’s words and work are recorded in the Bible? Is this not in clear contradiction to fact? In this sense, are you not liars? The Lord Jesus foretold many times that He would come again. How could the words of the returned Lord Jesus be recorded in the Bible ahead of time? That’s impossible! We should be very clear. The Bible is a record of God’s work in the past. So many years after the writing of the Old Testament, the Lord Jesus came and carried out the work of redemption during the Age of Grace. Tell me, would the Lord Jesus’ words automatically get written down in the Bible? That would be impossible! God’s words and work had to be compiled before they could be the text in the Bible. In the last days, Almighty God has come to do the work of judgment starting from God’s house, and expressed all the truths to purify and save mankind. Could these truths automatically appear in the Bible? Impossible! The Church of Almighty God compiles all the truths expressed by Almighty God into the Bible of the Age of Kingdom, that is, The Word Appears in the Flesh. This Bible of the Age of Kingdom contains only the expression of God, there is not any of man’s words inside. You could say The Word Appears in the Flesh is the eternal way of life gifted to man by God in the last days. This is the precious treasure God has bestowed us. So the view that God’s words and work are all recorded in the Bible and that God’s words and work will not appear elsewhere outside the Bible is erroneous, absurd and completely the product of man’s notions and imaginations.

We can further clarify this issue by reading a few passages of Almighty God’s word. Almighty God says, “The things that are recorded in the Bible are limited; they cannot represent the work of God in its entirety. The Four Gospels have fewer than one hundred chapters altogether, in which are written a finite number of happenings, such as Jesus cursing the fig tree, Peter’s three denials of the Lord, Jesus appearing to the disciples following His crucifixion and resurrection, teaching about fasting, teaching about prayer, teaching about divorce, the birth and genealogy of Jesus, Jesus’ appointment of the disciples, and so forth. However, man values them as treasures, even comparing the work of today against them. They even believe that all the work Jesus did in His life amounted only to so much, as if God were only capable of doing this much and nothing further. Is this not absurd?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Mystery of the Incarnation (1)).

“At the time, Jesus only gave His disciples a series of sermons in the Age of Grace on such subjects as how to practice, how to gather together, how to supplicate in prayer, how to treat others, and so forth. The work He carried out was that of the Age of Grace, and He expounded only on how the disciples and those who followed Him ought to practice. He only did the work of the Age of Grace, and none of the work of the last days. … The work of God in each age has clear boundaries; He does only the work of the current age, and never carries out the next stage of work in advance. Only thus can His representative work of each age be brought to the fore. Jesus spoke only of the signs of the last days, of how to be patient and how to be saved, of how to repent and confess, and of how to bear the cross and endure suffering; never did He speak of how man in the last days should achieve entry, nor of how he should seek to satisfy God’s will. As such, is it not ridiculous to search the Bible for God’s work of the last days? What can you see by merely clutching the Bible? Be it an expositor of the Bible or a preacher, who could have seen the work of today in advance?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. How Can Man Who Has Delimited God in His Notions Receive the Revelations of God?).

“If you wish to see the work of the Age of Law, and to see how the Israelites followed the way of Jehovah, then you must read the Old Testament; if you wish to understand the work of the Age of Grace, then you must read the New Testament. But how do you see the work of the last days? You must accept the leadership of the God of today, and enter into the work of today, for this is the new work, and no one has previously recorded it in the Bible. … The work of today is a path that man has never walked, and a way that no one has ever seen. It is work that has never been done before—it is God’s latest work on earth. … Who could have recorded every single bit of today’s work, without omission, in advance? Who could have recorded this mightier, wiser work that defies convention, in that moldy old book? The work of today is not history, and as such, if you wish to walk the new path of today, then you must depart from the Bible, you must go beyond the books of prophecy or history in the Bible. Only then will you be able to walk the new path properly, and only then will you be able to enter into the new realm and the new work” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Concerning the Bible (1)).

You say that only by adhering to the Bible may we gain entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Now let me ask: Is there any evidence for this viewpoint in the Bible? Did the Lord Jesus ever say anything to this effect? Did the Holy Spirit ever say this? So where does this idea come from? There is a serious problem with this idea! The Bible was compiled by man, not God. Given that it was compiled by man, naturally some things were left out and errors were made for man had not received God’s salvation and perfection, and lacked the truth. Man was incapable of distinguishing what issued from God and what was from man. They were especially incapable of recognizing the deviations in the experiences and testimonies of men. Furthermore, lacking truth and discernment, man often chose what he liked according to his own imagination and notion, and expunged and eliminated that which issued from God but did not fall in line with his own thinking. He was thus even more prone to make mistakes. So, inevitably, man made mistakes while compiling the Bible. If our belief in God is based solely on the Bible, how can we be sure that we will be saved and enter into the kingdom of heaven? The Lord Jesus never said that only by adhering to the Bible can man enter into the kingdom of heaven. With regard to entering into the kingdom of heaven, the Lord Jesus said plainly: “Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Mat 7:21). The Lord Jesus put it very clearly: Only those that do the will of the heavenly Father shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. For those that still insist that only those that adhere to the Bible will enter the kingdom of heaven, let me ask: Does adhering to the Bible equal doing the will of the heavenly Father? Can the Bible stand in for the work of the Holy Spirit? Without the work of the Holy Spirit, can man achieve salvation by adhering to the Bible alone? Through the reading of the Bible alone, can man’s corrupt disposition be cleansed? Can his life disposition be changed? By coming to understand the Bible alone, can man know God? As everyone knows, the Pharisees had a very good understanding of the Bible. But why did they nail the Lord Jesus to the cross? When the Lord Jesus came, why did He curse the Pharisees, those great Bible interpreters? Does adhering to the Bible mean you can recognize the voice of God? Does it mean you’ve been raptured before God’s throne? Does it mean you’ve come to the wedding feast of the Lamb? Do you have an answer for these questions? The Lord Jesus said, “Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life” (Jhn 5:39–40). You take the Bible as a substitute for the Lord and the words and work of the Lord’s second coming. Is that not a betrayal of the Lord? Are you a servant to the Lord or a servant to the Bible? Are you serving the Lord or the Bible? If you don’t even understand the relationship between the Bible and the Lord, how do you expect to know Him? The Lord Jesus put it very clearly. You worship and put blind faith in the Bible. You believe that eternal life can be found through the Bible, and yet you fail to obey and worship the Lord. Is this not precisely the path that the Pharisees walked? Did the Pharisees not worship the Bible in place of the Lord? Did they not nail the Lord Jesus to the cross, incurring curses of the Lord? This is fact, there’s no denying it! Yet here you say that by adhering to the Bible you will receive entry into the kingdom of heaven, is this not absurd? You’ve believed in the Lord for years, you’ve served as elder and pastor and you still hold such absurd views. How are you any different from those hypocritical Pharisees? You’ve believed in the Lord for years and you still haven’t realized the true nature of this issue? After many years of faith, we should come to understand the Lord’s will. The Lord has come again in the last days to deliver all saints into the kingdom of heaven. As to how He delivers the saints into the kingdom of heaven, none of us is sure. But the Lord Jesus has said the wise virgins who hear the voice of the bridegroom shall go with the Lord to the feast. This proves that when the Lord comes again in the last days, those who have heard His voice and have gone with Him to the feast shall be delivered into the kingdom of heaven. Those who hear the voice of the Lord are the most blessed. Now let’s think for a moment, does reading the Bible by heart mean our ability to recognize the voice of the Lord? Does reading the Bible by heart mean our knowing the voice of the Lord? The Pharisees were deeply versed in the Bible and often interpreted Bible passages for others, and yet they still nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross. What went wrong? Thus, it’s clear, only those who love the truth and can hear the voice of God will welcome the Lord, and receive life from Him. Only they shall be delivered to the kingdom of heaven.

—the movie script of Who is My Lord