By Yuanzhi, Brazil

I was born in a small city in Northern China and in 2010, followed relatives to Brazil. Here in Brazil, I got acquainted with a Christian friend who brought me to church to listen to some sermons, after three visits I still hadn’t absorbed anything. I got really busy with work after that, so I didn’t go back to church again until one day in June, 2015, when my friend brought me to church once more. That time, I finally gained some understanding of the Lord Jesus as the Redeemer through what the brothers and sisters shared. In particular, when I first read Genesis, I realized that man was actually created by God, that God had created all things, and I felt that the Creator is truly wondrous. When I was in school all the textbooks had taught me that man evolved from primates, and all the things in the world were formed naturally—it turned out that I had been deceived for over two decades. Only after reading the Bible did I fully awaken, and from that point on, I believed in the Lord Jesus.

In late 2015, I went back to Brazil after five months in China. This time, I decided to find a steady job and settle down properly. However, things don’t always turn out as planned. Things weren’t going smoothly with work or my personal life, leaving me very agitated and anxious. One evening, I phoned that Christian friend to complain, and he told me, “Quiet yourself and pray to the Lord and see how the Lord arranges everything for you.” So, I quieted my heart and prayed to the Lord, “Lord Jesus! I’ve encountered some problems at work that I don’t know how to deal with. Lord, I hope that I may receive some help from You.” To my surprise, four days later, my boss called me and asked me to come back to work. I was ecstatic and thankful that the Lord Jesus heard my prayers. I received more of the Lord’s grace after that, so I started attending gatherings every week to repay His love, even if I had to take time off from work.

Starting in June 2016, not only was I attending church gatherings, but I also shared Bible verses with friends on Facebook, plus I would browse through Facebook for content so I could gain more understanding of the Lord. I added a lot of friends who would all share Bible verses with me when they had time. This was extremely rewarding for me. One day while browsing Facebook, I saw a video with a description “God Descends With Judgment”—this immediately grabbed my attention. Curious, I clicked on it. I was pleasantly surprised that it had been so well done. Simply put, it was spectacular! I was drawn in by the sonorous, powerful singing, lyrics that tugged at the heartstrings, and the enthusiasm of everyone in the performance. Giving it a closer look, I saw that the video was from The Church of Almighty God. I thought: “All the performers really throw themselves into it—it’s as if they’re singing for God to hear. The Church of Almighty God seems not bad at all! This is the first time that I’ve heard of them; if I get the chance I should get in touch with them.”

One day, I sent the link for that video to a Facebook friend, Sister Yang, with whom I frequently discussed the Bible. She really liked it too, and said that she was interested in learning more about The Church of Almighty God. She felt that this church was indeed very special and that it was filled with the Holy Spirit’s work. I then shared the video on my Facebook page, but to my surprise, one of my friends watched it and told me that The Church of Almighty God was no good, plus he sent me all sorts of negative stuff about it. Seeing all these materials that blasphemed Almighty God and condemned The Church of Almighty God really scared me and I thought: “This church seems fine—how could anyone have a problem with them?” When I went to give the video another look, I suddenly thought back to something my pastor had once said in a sermon, that false Christs will appear in the last days. If I stray from the Lord Jesus’ path, wouldn’t it all be over for me? I knew that was something that I couldn’t just disregard, so I decided not to watch it just then. I reached out to Sister Yang right away and explained the situation to her. Her response was, “We can’t just rely on one side of the story to determine whether it’s true or false. This is not in accordance with the Lord’s teachings. All of us who are believers in the Lord are awaiting His return, and right now, some people are saying that He has already come. We have to investigate this. We can’t just follow the herd, blindly judging and condemning it. Let’s find some people from The Church of Almighty God and look into it. We’ll see their true colors—nothing real can be made fake, and nothing fake can be made real.” I thought: “Sister Yang is right. This is indeed the first time that I’ve heard anyone preach the gospel that the Lord has returned, plus I have no idea whether that stuff on the Internet condemning The Church of Almighty God is true or false. I can see that the videos and movies shot by The Church of Almighty God are pretty good. I should go and learn about them—that’s the only rational way to approach the return of the Lord.” And so, I agreed to investigate Almighty God’s work of the last days with Sister Yang.

Sister Yang reached out through the contact details left at the end of the video and ended up in contact with Brother Zhang of The Church of Almighty God in North America. Once we were online with him, Sister Yang and I brought up the same question: “We both know that the Lord will return in the last days; however, the Lord Jesus said: ‘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). Brother Zhang, what do you think of this issue of false Christs emerging in the last days to deceive people?”

Brother Zhang said: “The Lord Jesus said these things to warn us: When He returns during the last days, false Christs will also emerge. The Lord’s will is to have us develop discernment so that we’re not deceived by false Christs. However, He didn’t say this so that we would just wholesale reject anyone who says that the Lord has returned, or even go so far as to judge and condemn them. This is our misunderstanding of the Lord Jesus’ words. The Lord Jesus was clear about what false Christs are: ‘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 24:24). The obvious hallmarks of false Christs are that they imitate the Lord Jesus’ work, showing signs, performing miracles, healing diseases and casting out demons. These are the areas where false Christs are most cunning and evil, and they are their primary distinctive features. Almighty God’s words are even more specific and incisive regarding the manifestations and hallmarks of false Christs. Almighty God said: ‘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. … 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). We all know that all that is false can only ride on the coattails of what is true and imitate it. False Christs are no exception. They are evil spirits and they lack the essence of Christ. They cannot do the work of Christ, they are unable to express the truth, and they are unable to express God’s disposition or all that God has and is. They cannot bring man the truth, the way, and the life. Therefore, false Christs can only imitate the work that the Lord Jesus has already done; all they can do is perform some signs and wonders to deceive foolish and ignorant people. There are some people who have been possessed by evil spirits, who presumptuously declare that they are the returned Lord Jesus, and imitate the Lord Jesus in doing things such as healing diseases and casting out demons, performing miracles, and preaching the way of repentance and forgiveness. There is no shred of a doubt that they are false Christs that deceive people. God’s work is always new and never old, always developing in a forward direction. He will never repeat old work that He has done before. This is just like when the Lord Jesus came to work; He brought a close to the Age of Law and opened up the Age of Grace. He did not repeat the work that Jehovah God had done of issuing the law to guide people in their lives, but instead, He performed His work of redemption upon the foundation of the work of the Age of Law. The Lord Jesus brought the way of repentance and forgiveness to mankind; as long as we come before Him, confess, and repent, the Lord will pardon our sins and forget our transgressions, making us fit to enjoy the abundant grace and blessings that the Lord bestows upon mankind. All of that work was new, and it could not have been done by any evil spirits or by Satan. This is the same for the returned Lord Jesus in the last days—Almighty God concluded the Age of Grace and began the Age of Kingdom. Almighty God did not repeat the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption—He does not cast out demons, heal the sick, or perform miracles for people. Instead, He expresses the truth and performs the stage of work of judging and cleansing man on the foundation of the work of redemption. He fully saves mankind from the domain of Satan and brings us into God’s kingdom. This is all new work from God that He has never before performed and could not be performed by any false Christ whatsoever. As long as we know that God’s work is always new and never old, and we understand the principles of discerning the true Christ from false Christs, we will naturally differentiate between the appearance and work of God and the deception of false Christs.”

I gained a great deal from Brother Zhang’s communication; his fellowship was very clear. False Christs can only repeat and imitate some of the work that God has done in the past, but they can never perform any new work, nor can they provide a new path for mankind. At this point, I understood the true meaning behind the Lord Jesus’ words: “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 24:24). Sister Yang also said that she had reaped a great harvest from this, so we made an appointment with Brother Zhang for the following evening so that we could continue listening to his fellowship.

I felt that what Brother Zhang from The Church of Almighty God had to share was wonderful and really edifying for me. However, when I thought of all those online rumors I was still a little apprehensive. After I went back to my church, I asked one of the elder brothers whether he knew anything about The Church of Almighty God. He told me that the pastor had said we shouldn’t have anything to do with them; he also told me about some things a number of pastors had said, judging, attacking, and condemning Almighty God. When I heard this I vacillated a bit. I lost no time letting Sister Yang know about this negative information and suggested that she cut off contact with The Church of Almighty God. However, Sister Yang seemed determined to investigate Almighty God’s work of the last days. She said to me, “Wherever the footprints of the Lamb lead me, I will follow. Recently, I’ve understood a number of truths by reading the words of Almighty God online and watching all sorts of videos and gospel movies from The Church of Almighty God. A lot of the confusion and the difficulties that stymied me in the past have been resolved. I feel that Almighty God’s words are the truth. Regardless of how others condemn The Church of Almighty God, I will look into this until I’ve gained total clarity.” I was unable to persuade Sister Yang, so I blocked both her and Brother Zhang on Facebook and didn’t dare contact them again.

However, not even two days had gone by before I started to go through a dry spell with work. Day in, day out, I had nothing to do except to make food at home. Since I was idle, I opened up YouTube to watch some movies, but strangely, every single time, movies, music videos, and choral works by The Church of Almighty God would appear. I started to think: “The videos and movies of The Church of Almighty God are put out so quickly. It’s astonishing! Anything that comes from God must certainly thrive, so could it be that The Church of Almighty God truly comes from God? Everything Brother Zhang talked about last time was in line with the truth. Maybe I should try to gain an understanding of The Church of Almighty God one more time. I can’t offhandedly refuse to investigate Almighty God’s work of the last days just because of what other people say.” However, as soon as I thought about what I had seen online condemning Almighty God as well as my pastor’s warning to not contact The Church of Almighty God, I thought perhaps I should not go any further. So, I decided to look for other videos to watch on YouTube. However, everywhere I looked, there were videos from The Church of Almighty God and I started to feel a sense of helplessness. In the end, my curiosity took over and I thought: “It doesn’t matter if The Church of Almighty God is good or not. I’ll just take a quick look at their videos, and if they really aren’t any good, then it’ll be a lesson on gaining discernment.” I then clicked on a video called Gospel Choir 9th Performance. This video attracted my interest because it was a genuine depiction of contemporary society that I really identified with. It portrayed human life so vividly, realistically, and genuinely. I cried and laughed along with it; my heart was very moved, and was filled with energy. I had this urge to immediately watch every single video produced by The Church of Almighty God. After that I started watching videos from The Church of Almighty God on a daily basis, and within one week I had watched all 17 episodes of the Chinese choral videos. The more I watched them the more of an affinity I felt for them. There seemed to be a force within my heart urging me to watch and investigate without delay. I thought: “I’ve watched so many videos of The Church of Almighty God; each and every one has been so beneficial to me, plus there hasn’t been a single negative word in any of them: It is all positive. Some of them expose the darkness of the world, some bear witness to God, and some guide man to return before God. There’s no adulteration of fleshly or worldly matters. The Church of Almighty God is filled with the Holy Spirit’s work. It is not at all like what the rumors say. Almighty God’s work in the last days is definitely worth looking into!”