Answer: Studying how Almighty God does His work of judgment in the last days is very important to our ability to obtain salvation by pursuing the truth. Almighty God works in the last days by expressing truths to judge and cleanse people. He does this solely to lift His saints into the kingdom of heaven. However, many believers in the religious community do not understand God’s will. They think the Lord will return and directly raise all of the saints into the heavenly kingdom. They don’t believe He will conduct the work of judgment and chastisement because, well, if He judged and chastised people, wouldn’t He be condemning and punishing them too? Therefore, they refuse to accept God’s work of judgment in the last days; they only wait for the Lord to descend on a cloud and raise them into the heavenly kingdom. In truth, this is a complete misunderstanding of God’s will. The Lord Jesus did His work of redemption to pave the way for the work of judgment in the last days. God’s final objective is to cleanse and save humanity, allowing them to rest in the heavenly kingdom.
However, God’s work of redeeming and saving man is planned; it proceeds in steps. It doesn’t all just happen at once. The Lord Jesus has completed His work of redemption and has promised to come back and receive the saints. However, no one really knows how God takes the saints in the last days. In reality, when God comes to receive His saints in the last days, He brings them to His throne first to judge them, cleanse them and perfect them into overcomers. Isn’t this how saints are raised into the kingdom of heaven? Still, this isn’t something that’s easy for people to understand. Before they can go before God’s throne, they must experience judgment, chastisement and cleansing. That’s why people have formed their own conceptions about God’s work of judgment in the last days. Then tell me, is God’s chastisement and judgment really a blessing? Or is it condemnation and punishment? Many people don’t understand this. Let’s see what Almighty God says about it,
Almighty God says, “What God curses is the disobedience of man, and what He judges are the sins of man. Although He speaks harshly, and without the slightest sensitivity, He reveals all that is within man, and through these stern words He reveals that which is essential within man, yet through such judgment, He gives man a profound knowledge of the essence of the flesh, and thus man submits to obedience before God. The flesh of man is of sin, and of Satan, it is disobedient, and the object of God’s chastisement—and so, to allow man to know himself, the words of God’s judgment must befall him and there must be employed every kind of refinement; only then can God’s work be effective” (“Only by Experiencing Painful Trials Can You Know the Loveliness of God” ).
“Today God judges you, and chastises you, and condemns you, but know that your condemnation is so that you might know yourself. Condemnation, curse, judgment, chastisement—these are all so that you might know yourself, so that your disposition might change, and, moreover, so that you might know your worth, and see that all of God’s actions are righteous, and in accordance with His disposition and the needs of His work, that He works in accordance with His plan for man’s salvation, and that He is the righteous God who loves man, and saves man, and who judges and chastises man. … God has not come to kill, or destroy, but to judge, curse, chastise, and save” (“You Should Put Aside the Blessings of Status and Understand God’s Will for the Salvation of Man” ).
“All of you live in a place of sin and licentiousness; you are all licentious and sinful people. Today you not only can see God, but more importantly, you have received chastisement and judgment, received such deepest salvation, that is, received God’s greatest love. All that He does is true love for you; He has no ill intention. It is because of your sins that He judges you, so that you will examine yourselves and receive this tremendous salvation. All this is done to work man. From beginning to end, God has been doing His utmost to save man, and He is certainly not willing to completely destroy the men He created with His own hands. Now He has come among you to work; isn’t this even more salvation? If He hated you, would He still do work of such magnitude to personally lead you? Why should He suffer so? God does not hate you or have any ill intention toward you. You should know that God’s love is the truest love. It is only because of people’s disobedience that He has to save them through judgment; otherwise, they would not be saved. As you do not know how to lead a life or how to live, and you live in this licentious and sinful place and are licentious and filthy devils, He does not have the heart to let you become even more depraved; neither has He the heart to see you living in the filthy place like this, being trampled by Satan at will, or the heart to let you fall into Hades. He only wants to gain this group of you and thoroughly save you. This is the main purpose of doing the conquering work on you—it is just for salvation” (“The Inside Truth of the Conquering Work (4)” ).
God’s work of judgment in the last days does not seek to condemn people; God does not want to kill people. He wants to make people acknowledge that they’ve been thoroughly corrupted by Satan. He wants them to know their nature and essence: They resist God and betray God. He wants them to know His righteous and holy disposition that cannot be offended. His work seeks to awaken men’s hearts and spirits. He wants to save mankind from their corrupt dispositions so that they can live out the likeness of a real man to be saved. If we do not experience God’s judgment and chastisement, we cannot acknowledge our own satanic natures, nor can we determine the true source of our sinning and resistance to God. What’s more, without His judgment and chastisement, we definitely cannot understand God’s righteous disposition; our corrupt disposition cannot be changed. We would have no way to truly obey and revere God. In that case, how would we be eligible to enter God’s kingdom? As you can see, God judges people because He wants to cleanse them and save them. Experiencing God’s judgment and cleansing is the greatest blessing we can receive. That is God’s great love and salvation for corrupt humanity! Well, how does God perform His work of judgment? Almighty God says many things about this truth. Let’s read some of Almighty God’s words,
“When God becomes flesh this time, His work is to express His disposition, primarily through chastisement and judgment. Using this as the foundation, He brings more truth to man, shows more ways of practice, and so achieves His objective of conquering man and saving man from his corrupt disposition. This is what lies behind the work of God in the Age of Kingdom” (Preface to The Word Appears in the Flesh).
“In the last days, Christ uses a variety of truths to teach man, expose the essence of man, and dissect his words and deeds. These words comprise various truths, such as man’s duty, how man should obey God, how man should be loyal to God, how man ought to live out the normal humanity, as well as the wisdom and the disposition of God, and so on. These words are all directed at the essence of man and his corrupt disposition. In particular, those words that expose how man spurns God are spoken in regard to how man is an embodiment of Satan and an enemy force against God. In undertaking His work of judgment, God does not simply make clear the nature of man with just a few words; He exposes, deals with, and prunes it over the long term. These methods of exposure, dealing, and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words, but with the truth that man does not possess at all. Only methods of this kind are deemed judgment; only through judgment of this kind can man be subdued and thoroughly convinced into submission to God, and moreover gain true knowledge of God. What the work of judgment brings about is man’s understanding of the true face of God and the truth about his own rebelliousness. The work of judgment allows man to gain much understanding of the will of God, of the purpose of God’s work, and of the mysteries that are incomprehensible to him. It also allows man to recognize and know his corrupt substance and the roots of his corruption, as well as to discover the ugliness of man. These effects are all brought about by the work of judgment, for the substance of this work is actually the work of opening up the truth, the way, and the life of God to all those who have faith in Him. This work is the work of judgment done by God” (“Christ Does the Work of Judgment With the Truth” ).
“God has many means of perfecting man. He employs all manner of environments to deal with the corrupt disposition of man, and uses various things to lay man bare; in one regard He deals with man, in another He lays man bare, and in another He reveals man, digging out and revealing the “mysteries” in the depths of man’s heart, and showing man his nature by revealing many of his states. God perfects man through many methods—through revelation, dealing, refinement, and chastisement—so that man may know that God is practical” (“Only Those Who Focus on Practice Can Be Perfected”).
“God does the work of judgment and chastisement so that man may know Him, and for the sake of His testimony. Without His judgment of man’s corrupt disposition, man would not know His righteous disposition that allows no offense, and could not turn his old knowledge of God into a new one. For the sake of His testimony, and for the sake of His management, He makes His entirety public, thus enabling man to achieve the knowledge of God, and change his disposition, and bear resounding testimony to God through God’s public appearance. Change is achieved in the disposition of man through different kinds of God’s work; without such changes in man’s disposition, man would be unable to bear testimony to God, and could not be after God’s heart. Changes in man’s disposition signify that man has freed himself from Satan’s bondage, has freed himself from the influence of darkness, and has truly become a model and specimen of God’s work, has truly become a witness of God and someone who is after God’s heart” (“Only Those Who Know God Can Bear Testimony to God” ).
Almighty God’s words are too practical. God expresses His words and does His work of judgment in the last days in order to save humanity and make them perfect! By reading Almighty God’s words of judgment, we finally understand that in this dark evil world, the entire human race lives under Satan’s domain. Those corrupted by Satan no longer have any trace of humanity. They are arrogant, crooked and crafty, selfish and licentious. They are bored of the truth and revere evil. They will do anything for the sake of their own positions and fame. It’s the same as animals that fight amongst themselves, killing one another. They’ve completely lost their humanity and reason. Even though they believe in God, they truly revere money, fame and status. They follow the worldwide tide of evil, frequently sinning, rebelling and resisting God. Although they sacrifice everything and endure suffering, they only do it to satisfy their own desires to obtain blessings. They do it to get rewards and enter the heavenly kingdom. They do not do it to pursue the truth or know or obey God. Although they believe in God, their hearts are filled with their own conceptions and imaginations about Him. No one really knows God’s disposition and all that He has and is, what types of people God really likes, what types of people He hates, what things people do to resist God, offend His disposition and become cursed by Him, how many of people’s thoughts and conceptions are not in line with the truth, what kinds of reason people should have in the face of God, the realities of truths people should possess, and so on. Corrupt humanity knows nothing about these crucial truths of knowing, obeying and revering God. A human race like this that has been corrupted to its very core, if it does not experience God’s judgment and cleansing, how can it not resist and betray God? During the last days, God becomes flesh and expresses truths to save man according to the needs of corrupt mankind. God’s righteous and majestic disposition which cannot be offended is revealed to humanity. People’s true nature and corruption are clearly revealed, which convinces men. We have experienced God’s judgment and chastisement of His words; we have seen our own arrogance, selfishness and live according to our own satanic philosophies and rules. Everything we do, we do for our own fame and benefit. Even though we do work and preach sermons, we do it for our own reputation and status. We continually exalt ourselves, honor ourselves and make others exalt us. We do not do this to exalt God or bear witness to God at all. When God’s work is not in line with our conceptions, we define and judge God instead. We stand in stiff-necked opposition to God and do not obey God at all. When we do our duty, we can still enjoy the pleasures of the flesh. We continually cheat and trick God; we are not loyal to God at all. In God’s words of judgment and revelation, we can see that we have been deeply corrupted by Satan. We do not have any conscience, reason or human dignity. We are not fit to be called men. We are simply the ilk of Satan, the enemies of God. We feel shameful and unworthy to meet God. We can’t help but kneel before God and curse ourselves, full of regret and self-hatred. When we really get a taste of God’s righteous disposition which cannot be offended, we cannot help but fear God and understand that God has good intentions: to save humanity. God judges and chastises us because God hates our sins and rebellion and He wants to save us from our satanic disposition and obtain us. When we stubbornly stick our necks out in rebellion of and resistance to God, He chastens and disciplines us. When we give our hearts to God, God shows us mercy. He doesn’t punish us for all that we do and are. He enlightens us and leads us and allows us to understand His will. Through God’s chastisement and judgment, we unknowingly gain some true knowledge about God’s disposition. He allows us to learn that His disposition contains His mercy and love. We have seen God’s holiness and greatness. It has created our reverence and love of God. We see our satanic nature more and more clearly and gradually understand some truth. Our ability to differentiate positive and negative things gradually increases. Our viewpoint on things changes and we gradually begin to thirst for the truth. We no longer wish to live by the philosophies and laws of Satan, or unreasonably try to get something from God. Our conscience and reason are restored. We start to seek out and practice the truth in everything we do. We perform the duty as created beings in a down-to-earth manner and obey God’s sovereignty and arrangements. Our life disposition changes more and more; we begin to live out some likeness of a real man. Our ability to change like that is the effect of God’s work of judgment. Today all brothers and sisters who accept Almighty God’s work in the last days now know that we must accept and obey God’s work of judgment in the last days to be saved and made perfect.
from the movie script of Awakening from the dream
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