By Lin Guang, China

At around 10 a.m. on March 20, 2014, I suddenly received a call from my wife while I was out running errands in which she urgently said, “Officers from the police station have come to arrest you. Do not come home!” I immediately became nervous upon hearing this and thought, “Where can I go? If I go to a brother or sister’s house, I’ll definitely make trouble for them. My only choice is to seek refuge at a friend or relative’s house.” I eventually decided to go to my daughter’s house. At around 2 p.m. on the same day, three plainclothes officers burst into my daughter’s house and one of them yelled, “You’re Lin Guang, aren’t you? We’re from the police station and we’ve been investigating you for years.” Without showing any identification, they then proceeded to force me out to their sedan. At the time, I was quite scared that they would beat me and force me to give up information about the church, so I prayed to God, “Oh God! Please give me faith and strength. No matter what the officers do to me, I will not be a Judas and betray You.” After praying, I was able to calm down.

At the police station, two officers immediately forced me into a tiger chair, locked my hands to the chair, took off my shoes and socks and affixed my feet with the leg irons. In a sinister, hateful voice, the police station director told me, “The order to arrest you today came directly from the provincial public security department and they requested that I arrest you myself. You must really be something! You better get talking quick and tell us everything you know!” With that, he placed one-inch half-length photos of over ten people in front of me and went through them one by one, asking me if I knew any of the people pictured. I saw a sister that I recognized and hurriedly replied, “I don’t know any of these people.” He then pointed at some items collected from my house including two Bibles, one copy of The Word Appears in the Flesh, several receipts for safekeeping books of God’s words, and 7,400 yuan and said, “This is clear evidence that you believe in Almighty God and are working against the CCP!” He then picked up the receipts and asked me, “Where did you put these books?” I became very nervous when I saw him holding those receipts and thought, “Those receipts are for over a thousand books. If I don’t tell him, he certainly won’t let me go, but if I do tell him, won’t that make me a Judas?” Realizing this, I hurriedly prayed to God, “Oh God! Please protect my heart and allow me to be quiet and calm before You. No matter what the police do to me, I will not be a Judas and will not sell out my brothers and sisters!” After prayer, I recalled this passage of God’s words: “Of everything that occurs in the universe, there is nothing in which I do not have the final say. Is there anything that is not in My hands?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God’s Words to the Entire Universe, Chapter 1). I could sense God’s authority through His words. All is in God’s hands and He holds sovereignty over all things! Wasn’t the fact that I relocated the books I had been keeping just a week ago a sign of God’s protection? Realizing this, I confidently replied, “Those books have already been passed on.” An officer continued his questioning, asking, “Where does the person who received the books live? What is their name? Who is their leader?” I replied, “I don’t know.” He glared at me and yelled, “Are you going to tell me or not? Don’t get smart just because I’ve been lenient with you!” He then marched over to me and viciously slapped me across the left and right sides of my face. Then two other officers came over and took turns slapping me. They slapped me at least over ten times and I began to see stars, my ears rang and my face stung with pain. Seeing that I still wasn’t speaking, an officer picked up a 2.5 cm thick electric cable and whipped me over ten times across the back, causing me to convulse all over with pain. I prayed to God in my heart, asking Him to give me faith and the will to endure suffering. A few of the officers viciously growled, “Take his clothes off and beat him hard. We’ll see if he talks then!” They then forcibly took off my clothes and continued whipping me while yelling, “Are you gonna talk or not?” They whipped me at least eight or nine times, with each crack sending searing pain throughout my body. But no matter how they grilled me, I didn’t say a word. Two other officers then came up and took turns slapping me across the face. They beat me until I felt so faint that I couldn’t open my eyes.

After some time, an officer came in with a basin full of water. He threw a pair of dirty pants into the water and then used a stick to lift the pants out of the water and splashed the water onto my head and body nonstop, leaving me feeling cold and in pain. Seeing that I still wouldn’t talk, they took a bamboo rod about the girth of a pinky finger and began pressing and twisting it into my nipples for two to three minutes, eliciting searing pain. I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth, but I felt like I couldn’t take it much longer, so I prayed to God, “Oh God! Please give me faith and the will to endure suffering. Allow me to overcome this suffering and stand firm in witness to You.” During prayer, I thought of how the Lord Jesus was beaten by soldiers until His whole body was covered with cuts and bruises, forced to trudge to the site of His crucifixion in shackles, and was finally brutally nailed up on the cross. The Lord Jesus sacrificed His life to redeem mankind. God’s love is so great! God’s love deeply motivated me. Thinking of how Peter, too, was crucified upside down, it occurred to me that the suffering I was going through was very negligible by comparison. I knew I had to emulate Peter, stand firm in my witness, and no matter how the police tortured me, even if it meant sacrificing my life, I had to satisfy God. Realizing all this, I gained faith, felt the pain in my body reduce, and began to experience a sense of calm. After that, the police continued alternating between torturing me with the bamboo rod and electric cable, but when they saw I still wouldn’t talk, they yelled, “You’re a stubborn one! We’ve never had someone as stubborn as you before! Even a hero would’ve caved by this point! What is it that sustains you?” I was so happy when I heard them say that. I knew that God had given me faith and the will to endure suffering, allowing me to overcome the torture. I felt that God was with me at my side and I had more faith—I would stand firm in my testimony to God even if it meant my death. I resolutely stated, “It is God’s word that sustains me!” Hearing that, the officers immediately intensified their torture, slapping me, pressing and twisting at my nipples, and beating me with the bamboo rod on my hands until they turned black and blue and went numb. An officer then said to me, “If you don’t talk, we will beat you to death tonight. No one will care if we kill you. You believers should all be killed!” I became enraged when he said that and thought, “Even if you kill me, I won’t say a word. Don’t expect to get the slightest bit of information out of me!”

Later on, seeing that I still wouldn’t talk, the police used the bamboo rod to press and twist into my big toes on both feet and used an electric cable to whip me over my feet. They kept alternating between whipping me, pressing and twisting into my nipples and big toes with the bamboo rod and slapping me. I was in so much pain that I ground my teeth, making a chattering sound. A police officer then said, “If you don’t talk, we’ll parade you through the streets tomorrow. Your relatives, friends, and family will all hate you and reject you. If you tell us, we won’t let anyone know you were arrested and you’ll save face.” I realized that this was Satan’s sinister plot and I thought of what the Lord Jesus said: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” (Matthew 5:10). Being mocked, insulted and slandered as I had been for believing in God were all forms of persecution for the sake of righteousness. This was not a humiliation, this was a glorious thing. No matter what other people thought, all that mattered to me was satisfying God. Realizing this, I just ignored the officer. Then another officer threatened me, saying, “Are you going to talk or not? If you don’t, we’ll beat you to death tonight and throw you out onto the highway. The cars will turn you into minced meat and no one will ever know what happened!” Hearing this, I thought, “These officers are truly malicious and there is nothing they won’t do. If they kill me, no one will ever know.” I thought of my old father who was in his 80s at home, as well as my wife, who suffered from many illnesses. “If they kill me, how will my father and wife take care of themselves?” I felt awful when this occurred to me and so I prayed to God. Later, I recalled this passage of God’s words: “In every step of work that God does within people, externally it appears to be interactions between people, as if born of human arrangements or from human disturbance. But behind the scenes, every step of work, and everything that happens, is a wager made by Satan before God, and requires people to stand firm in their testimony to God” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Loving God Is Truly Believing in God). God’s words helped me realize that Satan was trying to use the weakness of my flesh and my affection for my family to make me sell out my brothers and sisters and betray God. I couldn’t fall for its tricks. I then recalled something else that the Lord Jesus said: “He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life for My sake shall find it” (Matthew 10:39). God’s words gave me faith and strength. Even if they beat me to death, my soul would be in God’s hands, and even if it meant sacrificing my life, I had to stand firm in my testimony for God. Man has no control over his fate, and God holds sovereignty over our destinies, so my family’s future life was also in God’s hands. I was willing to submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements, so I prayed to God, “Oh God! All things and events are in Your hands, including my own life. No matter how the police torture me, even if it means my death, I will never betray You or sell out my brothers and sisters.”

Seeing that I still wouldn’t talk, the police took the ragged pants from the basin of water and splashed me on the head several times, twisted the bamboo rod into my nipples and big toes, and beat me hard over the instep of my feet. Each time they hit me, it would hurt so much that my whole body would go numb, my heart would convulse and I’d become short of breath. I grit my teeth, silently prayed to God, and still didn’t say a word. An officer then took a stinky sock, threw it in the basin to let it soak up the dirty water, and then rubbed it on my mouth. I shut my mouth tight, so he just rubbed it on my lips. Then, when I slightly relaxed my mouth, he stuck the sock in my mouth and began rubbing it on my teeth while saying, “Here, let me rinse out your mouth for you!” They then proceeded to take a basin of cold water from the refrigerator and splashed it on my head. After that, when I still refused to talk, they took a hammer and used the wooden handle to pry my mouth open and then brought over a half bowl of hot pepper oil and tried to pour it down my throat. When they found they couldn’t get the oil in because I had shut my mouth as hard as I could, they just rubbed it on my lips and the cuts on my nipples, not stopping until they had used all the oil. The searing pain was nearly unbearable and I continually trembled and shook in the tiger chair. My feet chafed against the iron shackles and eventually opened up two cuts on my heels that began to bleed. The pain was so bad that I thought I’d be better off dead and felt incredibly hopeless. I thought, “If you’re going to beat me, beat me to death and put me out of this misery.” When I began thinking about wanting to die, I realized this was wrong—if I died, how could I bear testimony for God? At that point, I thought of a passage of God’s words: “You can’t die yet. You must clench your fists and resolutely continue to live. You must live a life for God. When people have truth within them, they have this resolve and never again desire to die. When death threatens you, you will say, ‘Oh God, I am unwilling to die. I still do not know You. I still have not repaid Your love. I cannot die until I come to know You well.’ … If you don’t understand God’s intention, and you merely think about suffering, then the more you think about it, the more uncomfortable it becomes and the more negative you feel, like your path of life is coming to an end. You will begin to suffer the torment of death. If you put your heart and all your effort into the truth, and you are able to understand the truth, then your heart will be brightened, and you will experience enjoyment. You will find peace and joy within your heart in life, and when illness strikes or death looms, you will say, ‘I haven’t obtained the truth yet, so I can’t die. I must expend well for God, testify to God well, and repay God’s love. How I die in the end doesn’t matter, because I will have lived a satisfactory life. No matter what, I can’t die yet. I must persist and live on’” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. How to Know Man’s Nature). God’s words had a deep, touching impact on me. God was using this hardship to perfect my faith and love and allow me to attain the truth. I wanted to die and be spared the misery after suffering just a little bit—where was my testimony? I thought of how no matter how much Peter suffered and underwent hardship, he never complained about God, instead praying to seek God’s intention, submitting to everything that came from God and ultimately achieving the utmost love for God, submitting unto death, being crucified upside down for God and bearing a wonderful and resounding testimony. I had to emulate Peter—no matter how much I suffered, I should go on living and stand firm in my witness to humiliate Satan with my every last remaining breath. After that, an officer brought in a fan, set it to the highest setting, and let it blow on me for over ten minutes, making me so cold that I began to shiver. I thought to myself, “No matter what method you use, I will never speak.” They tortured me in this way from 3 p.m. until 4:30 a.m. of the following morning. Despite not getting a single word from me, they were finally so exhausted that they gave up and left.

On the morning of the second day, they took me to the detention house. My feet were so swollen that I couldn’t put on my shoes, and could only limp along with my feet halfway stuck into the shoes. Each step caused me searing pain. When an officer had me take off my clothes for examination and saw that I was covered with cuts and bruises, he asked, “Who beat you like this?” I was about to reply, when the deputy director hurriedly cut in, saying, “Those are bruises from gua sha, not from a beating.” When I entered the cell I was being detained in, an overweight inmate told me, “New arrivals need to be cleaned from head to foot with six basins of water. These are the rules.” Hearing this, I felt a bit nervous and thought, “It’s so cold out and it will certainly be freezing and painful to be washed with six basins worth of water. How will I endure that?” But to my surprise, when I took off my clothes and he saw I was covered in cuts and bruises, he told the other inmates, “His back, feet, and face are all black and blue, he has deep, blood-soaked gouges on both heels. He’s been beaten too severely, so he can be spared the six basins of water.” I felt deeply relieved and continually thanked God in my heart.

At 2 p.m. on the third day of my detention, I suddenly developed a bad headache, my heart began to race and I passed out on my concrete bed. At the time, I had a tight feeling in my chest like it had been bound up with rope and a heavy feeling like a large stone slab was weighing down on it. It was extremely uncomfortable and my headache was so bad that it felt like my head was going to explode. An inmate hurriedly called over to an officer who felt my heart and pulse and said, “His heart’s beating too fast, I can’t even count the beats.” Then, they sent me to the hospital, and upon examination my heart was found to be beating at 240 bpm and I had had a heart attack. I was admitted to the hospital, given an oxygen mask, and injected with a cardiotonic medicine. My hospital stay lasted four days and because the police were worried I’d try to escape, they handcuffed me to the bed and placed two armed guards at my door. On the night of the fourth day, they took me back to the detention house. Several of the officers asked about my situation, to which the officer that accompanied me just shook his head and said, “This one’s done for, he’s useless.” I remembered hearing other inmates say that inmates with serious injuries or diseases could be released after being held for around ten days or so. I thought that since I was so sick, I probably wouldn’t be held for too long and that perhaps God was opening up a way for me. I prayed to God, telling Him that I was willing to put my illness in His hands. No matter whether I lived or died, whether I continued to be incarcerated or was set free, I was willing to submit to His sovereignty and arrangements. For the next few days, I spent all day lying on my bed in severe pain, and cellmates took turns taking care of me for a week. I knew that God had orchestrated and arranged people, events, and things to help me and I continually gave thanks to Him! Because I had advanced heart illness and might stop breathing at any time, the officers at the detention house worried they’d be held responsible if I died while incarcerated, so they called my wife in after twenty-nine days of detention to arrange for my bail pending trial and released me to go home. I remember as I was leaving, the deputy director warned me, “We’ve released you, but you’re still under our control. Your wife is your guarantor. If you make any contact with believers going forward, we will arrest you and your wife next time. From now on, you will report every month to the local police station.” At the time, I didn’t reply and just thought, “You can monitor and control me, but you can’t control my God-following heart. I will continue to believe in God after being released.”

After being released from the detention house, my illness continued to worsen and episodes became increasingly frequent. Each time I had an episode, the pain would radiate from my heart to my back and from my spine up into my head. My headaches would get so bad that it felt like someone was tightening a vice on my head and my ears rang louder than a factory machine. My heart would feel extremely tight like it had been bound up in a rope and it would be difficult to breathe. I could only get some relief by taking deep, slow breaths. If the episodes didn’t improve on their own, I would have to go to the hospital for injections. I couldn’t do any manual labor and even carrying a basin of water was too much for my heart. Also, due to taking medicine for a long period of time, I developed very serious stomach issues. I was more or less a cripple and couldn’t do the slightest bit of work. What’s more, the medical bills put a huge strain on my family and made life extremely difficult. Whenever I thought about how as a man, I was unable to work and provide for my family, was a burden on my family, and how I had to suffer through the pain and torment of illness every single day, I felt incredibly tormented and miserable. Whenever I suffered like this, I thought of the experiences of Job and Peter. I read this passage of God’s words: “You undergo the trials of Job, and at the same time you undergo the trials of Peter. When Job was tested, he stood witness, and in the end, Jehovah was revealed to him. Only after he stood witness was he worthy of seeing the face of God. Why is it said: ‘I hide from the land of filth but show Myself to the holy kingdom’? That means that only when you are holy and stand witness can you have the dignity to see the face of God. If you cannot stand witness for Him, you do not have the dignity to see His face. If you retreat or make complaints against God in the face of refinements, thus failing to stand witness for Him and becoming Satan’s laughing stock, then you will not gain the appearance of God. If you are like Job, who in the midst of trials cursed his own flesh and did not complain against God, and was able to detest his own flesh without complaining or sinning through his words, then you will be standing witness. When you undergo refinements to a certain degree and can still be like Job, utterly submissive in front of God and without other requirements of Him or your own notions, then God will appear to you” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Those Who Are to Be Made Perfect Must Undergo Refinement). Pondering over God’s words, I realized that despite the fact that the CCP’s torment had left me riddled with illness, God was using this environment to perfect my faith and love. He was looking to see if I would submit to this orchestration and arrangement and stand firm in my testimony for Him through this refinement. When Job underwent trials, losing all his property and seeing his own children perish all within one day, and later breaking out in boils, he maintained a God-fearing heart and despite meeting with such suffering and hardship, he never complained about God and even praised God’s name. Then there was Peter, who underwent hundreds of trials, but never lost his faith in God and eventually was crucified upside down for God, submitting to God until his death. The suffering, trials, and refinement they underwent were many times greater than what I was going through, but they still never rebelled against or resisted God, and were able to willingly submit to Him without complaints regardless of whether they received blessings or suffered misfortune. I was willing to emulate them and refrain from complaining about God no matter how great the suffering and refinement I faced. I would resolutely stand firm in my testimony to God.

Through undergoing this persecution and arrest, I came to clearly see the demonic, truth-hating and God-hating essence of the CCP. They are just as God says: “This gang of accomplices in crime! They come down into the mortal realm to indulge in pleasures and cause a commotion, stirring things up so much that the world becomes a fickle and inconstant place and the heart of man is filled with panic and unease, and they have toyed with man so much that his appearance has become that of an inhuman beast of the field, supremely ugly, and from which the last trace of the original holy man has been lost. Furthermore, they even wish to assume sovereign power on earth. They impede the work of God so much that it can barely inch forward, and they close man off as tightly as walls of copper and steel. Having committed so many grievous sins and caused so many disasters, are they still expecting something other than chastisement?” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Work and Entry (7)). God created us, so believing in and worshipping God is perfectly natural and justified, but the CCP uses every method at its disposal to persecute and arrest believers, force them to betray God and follow it, and it fantasizes about having control over mankind, God’s creation. How shameless it is! These demons will ultimately be cursed and punished by God! In the course of my experience, I also witnessed God’s miraculous deeds, almightiness, and sovereignty. Each time that I felt like I couldn’t bear the suffering inflicted by their torture and torment, I would pray to and rely upon God and the suffering of my flesh would abate. When I felt miserable and negative, God’s words guided me to be strong and not be constrained by death. God also orchestrated and arranged people, events, and things to help me, allowing me to sense that He was at my side, taking mercy on my weakness. This was all God’s love for me and I now have more faith in God than ever.