Grasping the Principles of Discerning the True Christ From False Christs, I Need No Longer Fear Being Deceived
By Hui Min, Australia
On a Sunday morning, the sun just arose. I received my mom’s phone call while I was still sleeping.
“Minmin, are you going to church today?”
“I’m afraid I can’t go today. The final exams are coming and I have a lot of schoolwork to finish.”
“No matter how busy you are, you must pray to the Lord. Especially in a strange land, you must pray to Him more!”
“Hmm. OK.”
…………
Being Self-blamed After the Phone Call
I hung up and my drowsiness was gone. Thinking back to these years when, although I believed in the Lord, I had never adequately worshiped Him, I felt self-blamed in my heart …
When I was six years old, my little brother and I followed my mom in believing in the Lord Jesus. At that time, although I was too young to understand the sermons, I knew the first chapter in the Bible says that God is the Creator of all things. And it’s right that mankind believes in and worship God. From then on, we three attended the worship in the church together. Not long after, this was discovered by my grandpa, grandma and father, all of whom were unbelievers. They did their best to stop us believing in the Lord. However, they couldn’t stop my mom, so they took charge of me and my little brother and did not allow us to go to church. Because of their pressure, I didn’t dare to attend meetings every weekend afterward, and only on holidays could I seek the opportunity to sneak into the church to attend worship. In this secretive way, I reached my nineteenth birthday …
At the age of nineteen, I came to Australia to study. Getting rid of the obstruction of my family, I finally was free to worship God. However, I wasn’t happy for long. In the beginning, I visited several churches but felt none was proper: In some churches, when they worshiped God, everybody was reveling and dancing with many flashing and dusky lights, just like worldly people holding a concert. Some churches were far away from my home. … So I didn’t go to any of them again. It was not until two years later that I finally found a relatively suitable church. However, due to the heavy schoolwork, I had to find some time to go there. Thinking of this, I felt worried and ashamed in my heart, so I prayed and repented before the Lord.
The “War” After I Returned Home
In December 2017, the tense final exams were over and done with. I returned to my hometown in Malaysia and was reunited with my family. My mom happily told me that she had gotten acquainted with several sisters online who really loved the Lord, and that they had regular meetings to fellowship the Lord’s words together. Hearing her words, I felt it was very good to spend more time in the Lord’s presence. After several meetings, mom told me with excitement that the Lord Jesus has returned as the incarnate Almighty God, and that Almighty God has expressed a lot of words and performed the work of judgment beginning at the house of God in the last days. I was shocked by her words and immediately thought of the negative propaganda about The Church of Almighty God that I had read previously online. It said that they misused the name of the Lord Jesus and testified that the Lord Jesus had come back. Moreover, the Bible records that the Lord Jesus prophesied that false Christs would appear in the last days. I was afraid that my mom would take a wrong way, so I tried desperately to refute her. I said, “The Bible clearly records: ‘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’ (Mat 24:23–24). Therefore, whoever testifies the Lord’s return is a fraud, and we cannot believe it.”
Mom said, “Minmin, the last days is when false Christs arise, but it’s also the very time that the Lord returns. We cannot blindly condemn all those who preach the Lord’s second coming because of guarding against the deception of false Christs. Otherwise, we would easily miss the Lord’s return and even resist the Lord. Moreover, when reading the Bible, we cannot take meaning out of context. If we integrate them with the following two verses — ‘Behold, I have told you before’ (Mat 24:25), and ‘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) — we can know that in fact the Lord Jesus said this to tell us: In the last days, He will come again through incarnation as the Son of man. By saying ‘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’ (Mat 24:24), the Lord Jesus is to tell us the deeds of false Christs and false prophets. They mainly deceive man by imitating God’s past work and showing signs and wonders. Therefore, those who can show supernatural things such as great signs and wonders are just the ones we should guard against. In addition, in the last days, when it comes to the matter of welcoming the second coming of the Lord, not only should we learn to discern the deceptions of false Christs, but even more we should be wise virgins and focus on hearing God’s voice. This is the only way we won’t miss the opportunity to welcome the Lord’s return and be raptured to His presence.”
My mom’s fellowship made me calm down a little. I thought to myself, “So the Lord Jesus’ intention in saying these words is to tell us that false Christs primarily rely on signs and wonders to deceive people. He doesn’t mean that anyone who preaches about the Lord’s return is a fraud.” But then I thought, “Even if what mom said makes sense, it still cannot prove that Almighty God is the return of the Lord.” Therefore, I still held on to my notions and refused to accept. Mom continued, “The Lord Jesus said: ‘And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes; go you out to meet him’ (Mat 25:6). These words tell us that when we hear someone spreading the gospel of the Lord’s return, we should actively seek and investigate, and be wise virgins to welcome the Lord. If there is anything you don’t understand, you can speak out and we can seek together. If you blindly cling to your conceptions, it will be easy for you to resist the Lord.” Her words were reasonable, but I was in a very confused state of mind and wouldn’t listen to anything. I knew I had little knowledge of the Bible, so I was very afraid that I would take a wrong way because of having no discernment. I was much puzzled. All I could do was to keep praying and asking the Lord to give me wisdom and guide me to walk the way ahead.
In order to make me understand God’s work, mom would like the sisters to communicate with me, and they invited me to attend meetings and fellowship with them many times, but I rejected it all. Afterward, in every meeting, mom would purposely put the computer on speaker to let me listen and communicate with the sisters. But I was unwilling. As long as I saw her doing this, I would leave her side right away. I was so disobedient, but mom and the sisters still preached the gospel to me. Sometimes after the meeting, mom would message her gains to communicate with me, and the sisters would still send through my mom some words of God, movies and videos to me. However, I always closed my heart and never read or watched them.
An Unexpected Decision Became the Turning Point
One time, mom invited me to join their meeting group. I felt embarrassed to reject her and so I agreed. However, I thought to myself, “Even so, I won’t attend the meeting online anyway.” My attitude was so frigid, but the sisters still treated me with love. They frequently asked how I was doing, sent me some words of God, or wrote down their experiences to communicate with me. But I still didn’t read them at all. … Actually, sometimes I was very curious, thinking, “What power is it that gives them such great faith and love to preach the gospel to me? Why is it that mom’s condition becomes better and better and she is very active and longing to attend meetings? What do they talk about in meetings?” I had half a mind to know it. However, I was afraid that I would be deceived because of lacking discernment, so I said to myself, “I would better not join them because my stature is small.” Just like that, when my mom and I were locked in this kind of stalemate, the summer holidays slipped by.
In early March 2018, I returned to Australia and mom still attended meetings regularly as usual. One night, I tossed and turned and could not fall asleep. I knew my mom and the sisters would attend the meeting right away. Suddenly, there was a moving in my heart, making me eager to be online to see how they had the meeting, what the content was…. As I was thinking, my phone screen lighted up to remind me that mom and the sisters were communicating with each other in the meeting, so I decisively pressed the answer button. Because I had never intended to attend their gathering before, nor did I tell my mom that I would be online that night, the sisters were very happy and surprised when they saw me online. A sister asked me with concern, “It’s so late. Still not in bed? What made you join us?” I told her, “I’m free tonight. Out of curiosity, I’m online just for once to listen to your fellowship. Maybe, this is the moving of the Holy Spirit.”
The Gains From the Meeting and Fellowship
After hearing my words, she said gladly, “Thank God! Thank God! Man’s thoughts and ideas are in God’s hands. God’s deeds are so wondrous!” Then the meeting began, and Sister Bai posted a passage of God’s words: “Today, God has new work. You may not accept these words, they may feel odd to you, but I advise you not to reveal your naturalness, for only those who truly hunger and thirst for righteousness before God can obtain the truth, and only those who are truly devout can be enlightened and guided by God. Nothing will come of seeking the truth through quarreling. Only by seeking calmly can we obtain results. When I say that ‘Today, God has new work,’ I am referring to God’s return to flesh. Perhaps you do not mind these words, perhaps you despise them, or perhaps they are of great interest to you. Whatever the case, I hope that all those who truly yearn for the appearance of God can face this fact and give it careful consideration. It is best not to jump to conclusions. This is the way that wise people should act.”
Then she fellowshiped, “This passage of words is God’s exhortations for us. God observes our thoughts. He knows that when He comes to do His new work we cannot accept and are easy to judge and condemn it, so He exhorts us not to jump to conclusions. As true believers in God, we should have a heart that fears God, and whatever befalls us, we should seek humbly first. Only in this way can we have the opportunity to receive the enlightenment and illumination of the Holy Spirit, can we be certain whether or not it’s God’s work. As the Lord Jesus said: ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened’ (Mat 7:7–8).”
I was very touched by the sister’s fellowship. Especially when I read the words “not to reveal your naturalness” and “not to jump to conclusions,” I felt as if God was speaking to me face to face: Am I not the one who doesn’t investigate but judge first? I felt these words come from God, have power, and are heart-shaking. So I continued to listen to their fellowship. Then a sister fellowshiped with me about the way for the Lord to return and the mystery of the coming of the Son of man. After hearing this, I felt astonished. All their fellowship was in line with the Bible, and they explained the Lord’s will very clearly and didn’t deviate from the Lord’s way. I was vaguely aware that it was wrong of me to resist and close myself previously. After that meeting, I continued to attend several meetings with them and they fellowshiped with me about the truths of God’s three stages of work, God’s work of judgment in the last days, and more other aspects. After hearing their fellowship, I felt very clear in my heart. I felt the work of Almighty God is extraordinary and that I should investigate carefully and couldn’t blindly reject it as I had done before.
To Be Continued …
