The way of life is not something that any person can possess, nor is it something that every person can easily attain. This is because life can only come from God, which is to say, only God Himself possesses the essence of life, and only God Himself has the way of life. And so only God is the source of life, and the ever-flowing wellspring of the living water of life. Ever since He created the world, God has done a great deal of work that bears with it the vitality of life, He has done much work that brings life to man, and He has paid numerous prices that enable man to gain life. This is because God Himself is eternal life, and God Himself is the way by which man can be resurrected. God is never absent from the heart of man, and He lives among people at all times. He is the driving force of man’s living, the root of man’s survival, and a rich resource for man’s survival after birth. He enables man to be reborn, and enables him to tenaciously live in his every role. Relying on His power and His inextinguishable life force, man has lived for generation after generation, while the power of God’s life has consistently been providing support among man, and God has paid a price that no ordinary man has ever paid. God’s life force can prevail over any power; even more so, it surpasses any power. His life is eternal, His power extraordinary, and His life force cannot be overwhelmed by any created being or enemy force. The life force of God exists and shines with brilliant radiance regardless of time or place. Heaven and earth may undergo great changes, but God’s life is forever the same. All things may pass away, but God’s life will still exist, for God is the source of the survival of all things and the root of their survival. Man’s life originates from God, heaven exists because of God, and the survival of the earth also stems from the power of God’s life. No thing possessed of vitality can transcend the sovereignty of God, and no thing with vigor can escape the scope of God’s authority. In this way, regardless of who they are, all people must surrender to the dominion of God, all people must live under God’s control, and none of them can escape from His hands.

Perhaps what you now desire is to gain life, or perhaps you desire to gain the truth. Whatever the case, you wish to find God, to find the God that you can rely on, and who can provide you with eternal life. If you wish to gain eternal life, you must first understand the source of eternal life and must first know where God is. I have already said that only God is immutable life, and only God possesses the way of life. Since God is immutable life, He is thus eternal life; since only God is the way of life, God Himself is thus the way of eternal life. As such, you should first understand where God is, and how to gain this way of eternal life. Let us now engage in fellowship on these two issues separately.

If you truly wish to gain the way of eternal life, and if you are voracious in your search for it, then first answer this question: Where is God today? Perhaps you would reply, “God lives in heaven, of course—He wouldn’t be living in your home, would He?” Perhaps you might say that God obviously lives among all things. Or you might say that God lives in each person’s heart, or that God is in the spiritual realm. I don’t deny any of this, but I must clarify the issue. It isn’t totally correct to say that God lives in the heart of man, but neither is it entirely wrong. That is because, among believers in God, there are those whose belief is true and those whose belief is false, there are those of whom God approves and those of whom He disapproves, there are those who please Him and those whom He detests, and there are those whom He makes perfect and those whom He eliminates. And so I say that God lives in but a few people’s hearts, and these people are undoubtedly those who truly believe in God, those of whom God approves, those who please Him, and those whom He makes perfect. They are the ones who are led by God. Since they are led by God, they are the people who have already heard and seen God’s way of eternal life. Those whose belief in God is false, those who are not approved by God, those who are despised by God, those who are eliminated by God—they are bound to be rejected by God, are bound to remain without the way of life, and are bound to remain ignorant of where God is. In contrast, those who have God living in their hearts know where He is. They are the people unto whom God bestows the way of eternal life, and they are the ones who follow God. Now do you know where God is? God is both in the heart of man and at man’s side. He is not only in the spiritual realm, and above all things, but even more on the earth upon which man exists. And so the arrival of the last days has taken the steps of God’s work into new territory. God holds sovereignty over everything among all things, and He is the mainstay of man in his heart, and moreover, He exists among man. Only in this way can He bring the way of life to mankind, and bring man into the way of life. God has come to earth, and lives among man, so that man may gain the way of life, and so that man may exist. At the same time, God also commands everything among all things, to facilitate cooperation with the management He does among man. And so, if you only acknowledge the doctrine that God is in heaven and in the heart of man, yet do not acknowledge the truth of God’s existence among man, then you shall never gain life, and shall never gain the way of truth.

God Himself is life, and the truth, and His life and truth coexist. Those who are incapable of gaining the truth shall never gain life. Without the guidance, support, and provision of the truth, you shall only gain words, doctrines, and, above all, death. God’s life is ever-present, and His truth and life coexist. If you cannot find the source of truth, then you will not gain the nourishment of life; if you cannot gain the provision of life, then you will surely have no truth, and so apart from imaginings and notions, the entirety of your body shall be nothing but your flesh—your stench-ridden flesh. Know that the words of books do not count as life, the records of history cannot be worshiped as the truth, and the regulations of the past cannot serve as an account of words presently spoken by God. Only that which is expressed by God when He comes to earth and lives among man is the truth, life, God’s intentions, and His current way of working. If you apply the records of words spoken by God during ages past to today, that makes you an archaeologist, and the best way of describing you is as an expert on historical heritage. That is because you always believe in traces of the work that God did in times past, only believe in the shadow of God left from when He previously worked among man, and only believe in the way that God gave to His followers in former times. You do not believe in the direction of God’s work today, do not believe in the glorious countenance of God today, and do not believe in the way of truth presently expressed by God. And so you are undeniably a daydreamer who is completely out of touch with reality. If now you still cling to words that are incapable of bringing life to man, then you are a hopeless piece of deadwood,^[a] for you are too conservative, too intractable, too impervious to reason!

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 He possesses God’s disposition, and the wisdom of 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. In this way, if you truly wish to seek the way of life, you must first acknowledge it is by coming to earth that God performs the work of bestowing the way of life unto man, and you must acknowledge it is during the last days that He comes to earth to bestow the way of life unto man. This is not the past; it is happening today.

Christ of the last days brings life, and brings the enduring and everlasting way of truth. This truth is the path by which man gains life, and it is the only path by which man shall know God and be approved by God. If you do not seek the way of life provided by Christ of the last days, then you shall never gain the approval of Jesus, and shall never be qualified to enter the gate of the kingdom of heaven, for you are both a puppet and prisoner of history. Those who are controlled by regulations, by words, and by the shackles of history will never be able to gain life nor gain the perpetual way of life. This is because all they have is turbid water which has been clung to for thousands of years instead of the water of life that flows from the throne. Those who are not supplied with the water of life will forever remain corpses, playthings of Satan, and sons of hell. How, then, can they behold God? If you only try to hold on to the past, only try to stand still and keep things as they are, and do not try to change the status quo and discard history, then will you not always be against God? The steps of God’s work are vast and mighty, like surging waves and rolling thunders—yet you sit passively awaiting destruction, clinging to your folly and doing nothing. In this way, how can you be considered someone who follows the footsteps of the Lamb? How can you justify the God that you hold on to as a God who is always new and never old? And how can the words of your yellowed books carry you across into a new age? How can they lead you to seek the steps of God’s work? And how can they take you up to heaven? What you hold in your hands are words that can provide but temporary solace, not truths that are capable of giving life. The words of scriptures you read can only enrich your tongue and are not words of philosophy that can help you know human life, much less the paths that can lead you to perfection. Does this discrepancy not give you cause for reflection? Does it not make you realize the mysteries contained within? Are you capable of delivering yourself to heaven to meet God on your own? Without the coming of God, can you take yourself into heaven to enjoy family happiness with God? Are you still dreaming now? I suggest, then, that you stop dreaming and look at who is working now—look to see who is now carrying out the work of saving man during the last days. If you do not, you shall never gain the truth, and shall never gain life.

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 submit to His way. You cannot only think of gaining blessings while being incapable of accepting the truth and incapable of accepting the provision of life. Christ comes during the last days so that He may provide all those who sincerely believe in Him with life. This work exists for the sake of concluding the old age and entering the new one, and this work is the path that must be taken by all those who would enter the new age. If you do not acknowledge Christ, and moreover condemn, blaspheme, or persecute Him, then you are bound to burn for eternity and shall never enter the kingdom of God. This is because 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 due retribution for those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit is self-evident to all. I also tell you this: If you resist Christ of the last days, if you reject Christ of the last days, then no one else can bear the consequences for this on your behalf. Furthermore, from that point onward you will not have another chance to gain the approval of God; even if you wish to redeem yourself, you won’t be able to behold the face of God again. This is because what you are resisting is not a man, what you are rejecting is not some insignificant person, but Christ. Do you know what the consequences of this are? You are not making a small mistake, but committing a heinous sin. And so I advise every person to not bare your fangs and brandish your claws or make arbitrary criticisms before the truth, for only the truth can bring you life, and nothing except the truth can enable you to be reborn and behold the face of God again.

Footnotes:

a. A piece of deadwood: a Chinese idiom, meaning “beyond help.”