I was born in the countryside. I came from a line of humble farmers and on top of that our family was few in number, so we were often bullied. When I was 13 years old, there was a child beaten by someone from outside of our village. The villagers falsely accused my father of instigating it and they said they were going to search our house and confiscate our property, take away our pigs and even beat my father. There was also a time when another villager took our fishing net and kept it as his own. When my father went to get it back, the villager actually hit my father, relying on his own power and influence. My father had to just eat humble pie as he knew that he had neither money nor power. My mother told my brothers and me that we must fight for ourselves in the future, and never live a life of oppression like this. Being young and detesting the injustice in society, I was determined that in the future I would stand out from the crowd and earn their respect, and never be oppressed. So I studied very hard, but I wasn’t smart enough and I couldn’t get into any universities, so I chose to pursue development in the army and joined easily by going through connections.
I used to be someone who would chase after the trends of the world, I wanted to abandon myself to a life of pleasure, and I just cared about the pleasures of the flesh. I would often go with my friends to KTV all night long, I would go for joyrides in the middle of the night, I would go fishing out on the ocean, and travel all around in search of fine foods. I’d see others around me, and they too were all striving to eat well, wear nice things, and enjoy good things. I felt that these were the things that a man must work for in his life, that this is why you must work hard to earn money, that this is the goal in life that everyone should have. Only with these things would life not be in vain. In order to obtain these things, I didn’t care what distance I had to travel, so I crossed the ocean to come to America, and after struggling for several years, I opened my own business. I had my own car and my own house. I was living the blessed life that I had dreamed about. Every day I would eat, drink and pursue pleasures until I was full and my heart was content. I thought that it was only by living in this way that life had any meaning, and that is until I received the work of Almighty God in the last days. Only after experiencing the judgment and chastisement of God did I become aware of what a truly significant life is, and then I set out walking down the bright path of life.
Since the Chinese Communist Party took power, it has been frantically suppressing religious beliefs. The Chinese Communist Party's religious policy and China's human rights conditions have been roundly denounced by democratic countries and international human rights organizations. China's definition of "cult" and its use of cult as a pretext to attack religious beliefs have particularly drawn serious doubts and criticisms of the international community. The guests in this episode are Professor Massimo Introvigne, founder and director of the Center for Studies on New Religions in Italy and Professor Holly Folk from the University of Western Washington of the United States.They have an in-depth discussion and exchange of views on the CCP's definition of "cult" and on the issue of the CCP's condemnation of The Church of Almighty God under the pretext of cult. So, how do the professors look at the CCP's use of cult as a pretext to suppress and persecute religious beliefs? Please have a look!
When I was a child, my mother died. I shouldered the family burden at a young age. After getting married, I was even more loaded down with the burden of life. Having fully tasted the hardship and misery of life, I gradually became depressed and silent and fiddled my life away day by day. In 2002, when the brothers and sisters preached Almighty God’s end-time work to me, I accepted it readily and also brought my husband and children before Almighty God. From then on, the brothers and sisters often came to my home to have meetings. We fellowshipped about God’s word and sang hymns and danced to praise God together. I felt great enjoyment in my heart and no longer felt distressed or worried. My children said that I was getting younger and younger and more and more cheerful. My family often read God’s word together. From God’s word, we understood many truths and also knew that God’s eager intention is to save man. To repay God’s love and bring those who had been afflicted by satan like me before God earlier to be saved, I went out to preach the gospel. Unexpectedly, I suffered the CCP government’s cruel persecution because of that….
On the night of July 21, 2012, we had a huge flood here, which seldom happens. I would like to tell everyone who thirsts for God what I actually experienced and saw then.
Without God’s Salvation, I Would Not Be Here Today
Zhang Jin, Beijing
August 16, 2012
Picture of the Church of Almighty God
I am an elder sister with two faulty legs. Even when the weather is nice out, I have some trouble walking, but when the floodwaters were about to swallow me up, God allowed me to miraculously escape danger.
One day, I suddenly heard that my father was expelled from the church. I was totally stunned at the time and couldn’t figure it out. In my heart, my father was the world’s greatest person. Even though he has a bad temper, he took great care of us sisters and never beat or scolded us. Despite our family’s struggles, he would not let us feel indignant no matter how much suffering he would have to endure. After our whole family accepted God’s work, my father was moreover proactive in fulfilling his duty, and often encouraged us to fulfill our own duties properly. Though my father was sometimes a little wild, as soon as there was duty to fulfill, regardless of the wind and rain or the extent of the difficulty, he would find a way to complete it. How could such a good person get expelled? If he cannot receive salvation, then who can? The situation filled my heart with resentment and conflict, because I felt the church did not treat my father fairly. Although I did not say it, I found it difficult to calm my heart and I agonized in torment.
Breaking Through Satan’s Tight Encirclement (Part 1)
Zhao Gang
Picture of the Church of Almighty God
It was bitterly cold this past November in Northeast China, none of the snow that fell to the ground melted away, and many people who walked outside were so cold that they stuffed their hands into their armpits and walked along cautiously, bodies bent over. The other day in the early morning the winds were blowing from the northwest, when I, my brother-in-law and his wife and about a dozen brothers and sisters were sitting in my home on the warm kang (a heatable brick bed). Everyone had a copy of the Bible beside them and in their hands everyone was holding a copy of the book Judgment Begins With the House of God. Two sisters from The Church of Almighty God were fellowshiping on the truth concerning God’s three stages of work. The two sisters were drawing pictures of the three stages of work as they fellowshiped: “God’s work for the salvation of mankind can be divided into three stages, from the Age of Law to the Age of Grace and then to the Age of Kingdom. Each stage of work is newer and more improved and also more profound than the previous stage. The work done in the last days is the final stage of work, in which God expresses words to judge and cleanse man….” We nodded our heads as we listened, and our minds felt especially clear: Who would’ve thought that God’s management plan for the salvation of mankind would have so many mysteries! Besides God Himself, who else could speak of the mysteries of these three stages of God’s work so clearly? This truly is the work of God! We fellowshiped into the evening of the following day, and our whole group expressed a willingness to seek out and look into Almighty God’s work of the last days.
Jin Yinglu was a devout pastor in Korean religious world. He thirsted for the truth and expected the return of the Lord Jesus all along. One day in 2013, he came across the words expressed by Almighty God in Chosun Ilbo, and immediately his heart was deeply touched by those words which are full of authority and power. In order to ascertain whether Almighty God is his long-expected Savior Jesus, he began to seek and investigate the work and word of Almighty God. … As one doubt after another was solved, Jin Yinglu was so excited and fell on his face: Almighty God is the Lord Jesus who has returned in the last days; He has long quietly come among man and done the work of “judgment beginning with the house of God”!
The results of God's work in the last days are achieved through the word, through the word. The word helps man understand mysteries and God's work throughout history. It brings man enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and knowledge of mysteries sealed for centuries. It explains the work of prophets and apostles and the rules when they carried it out. The word makes man know God's disposition, as well as his own rebelliousness and substance. Through these steps of work and all words spoken, man comes to know the work of the Spirit, and know the work of God's incarnate flesh, moreover the entirety of His disposition. Your knowledge of God's 6,000-year work was also attained through the word.