Answer:

God’s appearance and work in the last days are just as the Lord Jesus prophesied. There are two parts—His secret arrival and His public arrival. The secret arrival refers to God being incarnated among mankind as the Son of man to utter His words, and do His work of the last days. This is His secret arrival. The public arrival is the Lord openly coming with the clouds, that is, the Lord arriving with tens of thousands of saints, visible to all nations and all peoples. When we currently bear witness to God’s work of judgment of the last days, many people have doubts: “You say that God has appeared and is doing work. Why haven’t we seen Him? When and how is God uttering His words? Has anyone recorded God’s words as He is saying them, or does He bring those words directly to us? Why does God speak among all of you? Why don’t we hear His voice or see Him?” … God has appeared in China, in the East; He expresses His voice and works in the image of the incarnate Son of man. There is nothing at all supernatural. God dons ordinary flesh, His appearance is that of an ordinary person, and He speaks and works amongst us. There is nothing supernatural. Some people say: “If this is not even a little bit supernatural, then is He God or not? If God is appearing and working, then His appearance and work should be supernatural.” Let me ask you, was the Lord Jesus supernatural when He worked? When He was speaking with Peter, could people in other places see it? When He was displaying signs and wonders in one place, could those in other places see it? Definitely not. The Lord Jesus was the Son of man in the flesh, and His work and His words were not supernatural; apart from His demonstrations of signs and wonders, there were no supernatural aspects. That is why people in other places could not hear His words or see His work—only those by His side were able to see, hear, and experience them. This is the practical and normal side of God’s work. Therefore, other religions and other denominations do not know of the work that God has done through The Church of Almighty God in China. Why do they not know? God does not work in supernatural ways. Only those He has worked among are able to see and hear it; those He has not worked among cannot hear His voice. When the Lord Jesus performed His work amongst the Jewish people, were we, the Chinese people, able to see or hear it? Were the British and the Americans in the West able to see and hear it? Then why were the Westerners and the Chinese in the East ultimately able to accept the work of the Lord Jesus? Because there were people who bore witness, who spread the gospel to us, and they gave this Bible that recorded the Lord Jesus’ words and work to us. When we prayed to the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit performed His work and was with us; He bestowed grace upon us, thereby we came to believe that the Lord Jesus is God and the Savior. This is how we came to believe. The Westerners say that “God has appeared and worked in China—why haven’t we known this? Why haven’t we been able to see and hear this?” Is this question easy to explain?

Are there prophecies from God in the Bible about the work of the last days? What did the Lord Jesus say about this? “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). What does this mean? It means God’s work of the last days is like lightning, coming out of the East. The Son of man will work in the East, allowing the Easterners to see the appearance of the great light first, to see the appearance of the true light, to see the appearance of God, and then very soon after, this great light will shine to the West just like lightning. That is, after the words of Almighty God came out of the East, they were published online and thereby spread to the West. When were the words of Almighty God published online? The Chinese edition was published online, at the latest, by 2007, or earlier in 2005. The English edition was probably put online in 2010. The words of God have been online for so many years, yet how many people from the religious world have gotten online to investigate them? Not many; very few do so. God’s way and the words He has uttered have long been online. People have now seen that the words of Almighty God are online, so why do those so-called devout believers in the Lord Jesus not investigate them? What is the issue here? Testimony of God’s way has already been given to people from all nations and all regions. If man never investigates them, ultimately suffering perdition and being annihilated, whose responsibility would that be? Who is responsible for this mistake? Is this mistake on God, or is it on man? It is on man. Why do we say that? Because the Lord Jesus said long ago, “Watch therefore: for you know not what hour your Lord does come” (Mat 24:42), “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him” (Mat 25:6), “My sheep hear My voice” (Jhn 10:27). The Lord Jesus said such things many other times: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Mat 7:7). This is God’s promise, and the Lord Jesus said things of this nature quite a few times. According to the words of the Lord Jesus, if man never seeks God, and never looks into it when he hears of someone bearing witness to God’s coming, instead blindly condemning them, saying things such as “All those that bear witness to God’s coming are heretics and heterodox members,” then these people who have not accepted God’s work even at the very end will fall into catastrophes and will die in the throes of their punishment in the disasters. Who should be blamed? Many people from religious communities are suspicious regarding this matter. “Why does God not appear to us? Why is He hidden from us? Why does He not let us know?” Has God ever said “When I secretly arrive to perform work, I shall appear and give revelations to all people”? What did God say? “If therefore you shall not watch, I will come on you as a thief, and you shall not know what hour I will come on you” (Rev 3:3). This was prophesied in the Book of Revelation. Therefore, if we as believers in the Lord hear that someone has borne testimony that “The bridegroom has arrived; the Lord has returned,” yet we do not actively investigate or accept God’s work of the last days, when we fall into catastrophe and die in our punishment, we cannot blame God. We should look for the problem from within ourselves to see in which aspects we have not done properly. Only this is fair. Looking back, how did you accept the Lord Jesus? Did the Lord Jesus come to you? Did the Lord appear to you? He did neither. You accepted the Lord Jesus because others preached the gospel and gave testimony on the Lord to you. Belief in the way comes from hearing about the way, while hearing about the way comes from the words of God. Now that someone has borne witness to you on this gospel and the fact that God has arrived to perform work, this is God’s love, mercy, and concern for you—should you not thus understand it? This is how a devout person should understand this. Therefore, do not be arrogant before God, do not think too highly of yourself, do not only think “When God comes He should first give revelations to me. He should first reveal it to me. If He arrives and does not reveal it to me, then He is not God, and I will not acknowledge Him.” What sort of people are these? What mistakes have they made? Do you dare to ascertain that God must reveal it to you when He arrives? What basis do you have for this? Did the Lord tell you “I shall first reveal it to you when I arrive”? Has He said such words to you? Do you think that you are above everyone else in the world, that you are the most important, that you love God the most? Are you above everyone else? Are you a very special created being? Can someone like that be easily saved? Why does God need to perform the work of judgment in the last days? It is because corrupt mankind is not fit to see God. All of corrupt mankind has Satan’s disposition; they are all particularly arrogant and conceited, and they all have very extravagant desires regarding God. They place themselves above all else, just slightly below the heavens and far above others, as if they are favored by Heaven. With this kind of corrupt disposition, anyone who has not accepted God’s judgment and chastisement is not fit to see God.

—Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life

There are many people, including religious people, who say: “If God has come, why haven’t I seen Him? Because I haven’t seen Him, that proves that God hasn’t come.” How does that sound to you? It sounds ridiculous and absurd. Can you see God’s coming? If you saw God’s real person you would be dead! So, how does God come? He incarnates Himself in the form of the Son of man, who speaks to save mankind. Would you be able to recognize God incarnate if you saw Him? Even if you saw Him, you wouldn’t recognize Him. This is just like when the Lord Jesus came. Many people saw the Lord Jesus, but how many of them recognized Him as Christ, the Son of God? Only one person: Peter, and that’s because the Holy Spirit enlightened him. What does this prove? It proves that corrupt mankind has no chance of seeing the spiritual body of God while they are in physical forms. If you should see God’s spiritual body you would be dead—you will never see His spiritual body. Being able to hear the voice of God is already quite a favor for corrupt mankind. When God worked in the Age of Law, how many people could hear God’s voice? Not many. We know that Job heard God’s voice, but did he see God’s face? No, he just heard Jehovah God speaking to him from within a whirlwind, so we can say that hearing God’s voice is equivalent to seeing His face. Moses heard God calling him, but did he see God’s face? Moses later saw the back of God, but not His face. So if you hear someone say: “You testify that God has come, but how come I haven’t seen Him? How come it hasn’t been on national TV or radio?” What do you think of this kind of talk? It’s very childish! Who saw the coming of the Lord Jesus? Only a few Jews of that time did. Those Jews at that time who, in the word of the Lord Jesus, heard the voice of God and heard authority and power followed Him. But in the end, how many really believed in the Lord Jesus and really followed Him? Very few. So when God incarnate comes during the last days clothed as an ordinary person, we don’t have to see the face of this person in order to see God’s face. Instead, when we hear His voice and see the truths that He expresses, we should accept them, obey them, and put them into practice. People who do this will gain truth and life, and will obtain God’s salvation. Is it tenable for people to say “I’ve got to see Christ’s face before I’ll accept Him”? Can the image of God incarnate represent God’s spiritual body? Can the image of the Lord Jesus represent the true image of God? No, it can’t. So the image that the incarnate flesh takes is temporary, and it is enough that people see He is just a normal, ordinary person. Most importantly, people must accept God incarnate, listen to His words and accept all of the truths that He expresses. This is the way to obtain God’s love and salvation! If you don’t listen to His words and accept all of the truths that He expresses then you will have no relationship with God, you will never win God’s praise. The truths that God expresses during the last days are all truths that purify and save people, and as such they are the most crucial truths. People who don’t accept them and put them into practice will certainly never attain God’s salvation.

—The Fellowship From the Above