By Changxin, United States

I was born in a Catholic family. Influenced by my family from childhood, I had such a viewpoint that priests represent the Lord, and that believing in priests is believing in the Lord. At that time, priests had a very high status in our hearts. I remembered once an old priest came to my home; all my family knelt down to welcome him, expecting that his blessing would come to my house.

In 1986, my entire family immigrated to America. Since then, rain or shine, I would go to church for Mass every Sunday, and also make the pilgrimage and follow ceremonies devoutly. In 2012, I moved to Chinatown and continued to attend Mass in a Catholic church there. There was a Priest Ruan in the church who talked frequently and eloquently, and the believers all admired him. He often took us to visit sick people, and taught us to learn from other denominations’ strengths. For example, Christians were more active in preaching the gospel than us, and he said it was worthwhile to learn. Moreover, he told the church members to print some leaflets and set up a stall at the church gate to preach gospel, and he himself also led us to spread the gospel from house to house; all of these made me even more assured that my priest was a good servant of the Lord and that it was correct for me to follow him in believing in the Lord. In our church, all believers, old or young, liked associating with him, and I was not an exception. No matter what happened to the priest, I would try my utmost to help him. When he was sick, I would recommend a doctor to him; at New Year or on festival days, I would invite him home to spend holidays with us. In my heart, I treated him as one of the family.

And so, as the years passed and the days went by, I thought my belief in the Lord must be able to satisfy His will, but gradually I found that I couldn’t practice the Lord’s words in my life, that I was one person in the church and another at home, and that my behavior was the same as that of non-believers. What’s more, I didn’t feel the work of the Holy Spirit. Even if I committed sins, there was no discipline; living in this kind of state, I felt empty inside. Our church seemed thriving from the outside, but the fact was that the believers didn’t focus on practicing the Lord’s words, nor did they make any progress in life; they were all weak in faith, whose views of pursuit and life goals were the same as those of non-believers. In addition, our priest always preached the same old platitudes and paid attention to eating, drinking, and enjoyments in life; he even led us to celebrate the Spring Festival, and wore Tang suit and offered sacrifices to his ancestors in the church. Seeing him doing that, I felt it inappropriate: The church is a place for us to worship God; how could he offer sacrifices to his ancestors here? But then I thought: Since the priest is a good servant of the Lord, he shouldn’t be wrong.

In the blink of an eye it was July of 2015. One day, a church member invited me to listen to sermons, saying that there was a Brother Li, a classmate of her cousin’s, preaching pretty well. Then I thought: Since there are good sermons, I should go and listen. At her cousin’s home, Brother Li talked about the present situation of the world combining with many prophecies in the Bible concerning the last days, such as the split of the Mount of Olives and the four blood moons. Besides, he also fellowshiped: “The reason why the temple became a den of thieves in the later stages of the Age of Law was because the Lord Jesus carried out the work in the Age of Grace; nowadays the desolation in the churches is also because the returned Lord Jesus—Almighty God—has started the work of the Age of Kingdom, and He reclaimed all the work of the Spirit throughout the universe and focused it upon a group of people who accepted God’s newest work. …” Hearing Brother Li’s fellowship, I couldn’t agree more, for what he said was in accordance with the Bible and the present situation of the churches. Later through reading the words expressed by Almighty God, I knew more about His work of judgment in the last days, and realized that this stage of God’s work was too important for us, for without God’s work of judgment in the last days, I would live in sin forever and never be cleansed. I had confirmed in my heart that Almighty God is exactly the returned Lord Jesus.

Soon I told my mother the good news of the Lord’s return. Through investigation, she also accepted God’s work of the last days. Later, I was eager to tell the news to my priest, and thought: If he accepts God’s new work, and shares it with the church members, then all of them will follow the footsteps of God’s new work. Thinking of this, I felt very excited and told my thought to the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God; they also approved of it. But a sister warned me: “If we want to preach the gospel to the priest, we must first know if he is a person who seeks and accepts the truth, for God’s words revealed that most leaders in churches come from seminaries and often use biblical knowledge to resist God’s work of the last days; some of them even spread rumors about The Church of Almighty God to block believers from investigating and accepting the work of the returned Lord. These religious leaders look humble outwardly, yet inside they hate the truth. Of course, if your priest is a person who truly believes in God, then God will not abandon him, and He will arrange an appropriate time for him to come before God.” At first, I couldn’t accept these words anyhow, but thought: Although most religious leaders resist God, my priest is definitely not one of them, for he has consecrated his whole life to the Lord and is a good servant; how could he resist God? As I just accepted the Lord’s return and felt that I needed to equip myself with more truths, I put this matter aside.

At the end of 2016, I went back to my original church by chance. To my surprise, after the Mass, the priest started to wantonly attack and convict The Church of Almighty God, and spread many negative words like “There is poison in the books of The Church of Almighty God,” “If we believe in Almighty God, our family will be broken up and decimated,” and so on. Hearing those words he made up, I felt indignant and grieved: I’ve been contacting with The Church of Almighty God for more than one year; there is no poison at all in their books and my family are still living in harmony. Besides, when I have meetings with the brothers and sisters of The Church of Almighty God, we fellowship God’s words and share the testimonies of experiencing God’s work. Though sometimes we reveal corruption, we are able to accept the judgment of Almighty God’s words and pursue the transformation in disposition, and I’ve benefited a lot from these brothers and sisters. How could the priest tell lies blatantly? The Ten Commandments clearly say: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). The priest is one who serves God directly and preaches sermons to supply believers with life; however, facing the Lord’s return, he not only didn’t investigate or seek, but even spread rumors to the believers; isn’t he obstructing believers from entering the kingdom of heaven? The Lord Jesus said: “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for you neither go in yourselves, neither suffer you them that are entering to go in” (Matthew 23:13). The priest spread such rumors to delude the believers; isn’t this doing evil? But then I thought: Perhaps it is because he hasn’t read Almighty God’s words. If he has, he won’t resist God like this, for God’s words are so clear that those who truly believe in God are able to understand. At that moment, I still hoped that I could have the opportunity to preach the gospel to my priest one day, so that he could investigate and seek God’s work in the last days and then lead the believers to accept it.

One day in February of 2017, Sister Wang Dan and I were having a meeting, when suddenly Priest Ruan and Priest Lin came to my home. I immediately welcomed them to the room, thinking to myself: It’s so great; today Sister Wang is here, if she clearly fellowships God’s work in the last days with them, they’ll definitely accept it. Then I introduced Sister Wang to them and asked brightly: “What brings you here?” Priest Ruan said seriously: “You haven’t been to Mass for a period of time, so I come here to see what you’ve been up to.” I smiled and said to him: “Have you visited the website (the website of The Church of Almighty God) I sent to you?” Priest Ruan’s face darkened and he looked at my mother and me, saying: “Yes. I have seen the movies and read the books on it. Aren’t they just some ordinary books and movies? I think you’ve taken a wrong turn.” Hearing his words, my mother said with emotion: “We haven’t taken the wrong path; what we’ve accepted is truly the returned Jesus.” Saying this, she went to the closet, picked up the crucifix, and said with tears in her eyes: “Reading Almighty God’s words, I’m deeply moved inside. The Lord Jesus’ redemptive work was the old work God did during previous ages; today God has done the work of judgment in the last days and tells us the way of escaping sin to receive cleanness; this is the work of judgment beginning at the house of God done by God Himself. Just as we don’t use the calendar of 2016, not because it is wrong, but because the old year has passed. Now is the final age and the Lord is knocking at the door; we should be wise virgins to welcome the His return.” “That’s impossible,” Priest Ruan interrupted my mother, straightening his back, and said, “You’ve already gone astray. We priests all graduated from seminaries and have studied theology for years, so we can’t be wrong. You are not knowledgeable and learned, and will be easily deceived if you’re unable to see through these things. You now don’t confess to priests nor attend Mass, and this is the manifestation of betrayal to the Lord. You’ve believed in the Lord for decades; it’s really a pity that you betray the Lord and believe in another gospel. If you don’t turn back, you won’t be saved by the Lord.”

Just then, Sister Wang patiently communicated with the two priests about the desolate situation of the churches. She said that the main reason why the churches are so desolate is because nowadays iniquity is more and more prevalent in religion; another reason is that the Lord Jesus has returned and done His new work. Unexpectedly, they neither took these words seriously, nor admitted the desolation of the churches; instead, they condemned Sister Wang, saying she was judging people. Later, despite what we said, they didn’t listen to us at all, and even refuted us in a harsh tone. Hearing their distorted words, I was disappointed. I never expected that the priests whom I always looked up to and admired were so arrogant and obstinate that when facing the fact of the Lord’s return, they not only didn’t seek at all but spoke in wild phrases, and even arbitrarily concluded and delineated the work of God. In the past, when I saw the priests gave up their marriage for the sake of following the Lord, devoted their whole life to the Lord, and treated believers with love, I believed that they were the most devout servants of the Lord. But now, the priests in front of me are completely out of character, losing their previous humility and love. As I was thinking, the two priests warned us: “You are straddling two boats now and have a bad influence on other believers. From now on, you are not allowed to go to the church or receive communion. If you give up believing in Almighty God, then you can return to the church, and we’ll pretend these things never happened.” I held back my tears and said firmly: “Now we have kept up with the footsteps of the Lord, and we will never turn back.” Seeing we were so insistent, they had no choice but to leave my home after a while.

After they left, I was so distressed, feeling as if my heart were hollowed out; and I could hardly accept what had just happened. At the time, Sister Wang read a passage of God’s words: “He who gets infuriated when God is mentioned, have they seen God? He who gets angry when God is mentioned, do they know God? … and God has not spoken to him. God has never disturbed him, so why would he be angry? Could we say that this person is evil? (Yes.) Would this be someone with an evil nature?” After hearing God’s words, I had a little discernment about the priests’ outward practices. I recalled that Priest Ruan used to teach us to learn from other denominations’ strengths, but when we testified that God has done a stage of new work, his attitude was completely different from before. Through this matter, I clearly saw his true face—a person who says one thing and then does another. When Sister Wang communicated with him about the problem of the desolation of the church, he, a priest who was very aware of the true fact, not only didn’t admit it but distorted facts and condemned Sister Wang. All of this made me see clearly that he hated the truth and hated God by nature and substance. It seemed that I was really deceived by his outward practices.

Afterward, I read God’s words saying: “Do many people not oppose God and obstruct the work of the Holy Spirit because they do not know the varied and diverse work of God, and, furthermore, because they possess but a smidgeon of knowledge and doctrine with which to measure the work of the Holy Spirit? Though the experiences of such people are superficial, they are arrogant and indulgent in nature, and they regard the work of the Holy Spirit with contempt, ignore the disciplines of the Holy Spirit and, moreover, use their trivial old arguments to confirm the work of the Holy Spirit. They also put on an act, and are wholly convinced of their own learning and erudition, and that they are able to travel across the world. Are such people not those who are despised and rejected by the Holy Spirit, and will they not be eliminated by the new age? Are not those who come before God and openly oppose Him myopic little people, who are merely trying to show how clever they are? … Those who see the work of the Holy Spirit as a game are frivolous! Those who are not cautious when they encounter the new work of the Holy Spirit, who run their mouths off, are quick to judge, who give free rein to their natural instinct to deny the rightness of the Holy Spirit’s work, and also insult and blaspheme it—are such disrespectful people not ignorant of the Holy Spirit’s work? Are they not, furthermore, the ones of arrogance, inherently proud and ungovernable? Even if a day comes when such people accept the new work of the Holy Spirit, still God will not tolerate of them. Not only do they look down upon those who work for God, but also blaspheme against God Himself. Such foolhardy people will not be forgiven, either in this age or the age to come and they shall forever perish in hell! Such disrespectful, indulgent people are pretending to believe in God, and the more they do so, the more likely they are to offend God’s administrative decrees. Do not all those arrogant ones who are innately unbridled, and have never obeyed anyone, all walk upon this path? Do they not oppose God day after day, He who is always new and never old?”

Thank God for His inspiration. Through reading God’s words and recalling the performance of the priests, I realized that what they believe in is biblical knowledge, relying on which they arrogantly refuse God’s salvation in the last days. Even worse, they spread rumors to condemn God’s work, kept the believers under their own control, and didn’t lead the Lord’s sheep to follow His footsteps. Looked at in this way, the priests are actually believing in themselves, not the Lord. They, just like the Pharisees of the past, are those who resist the Lord. In the past, I was so ignorant and thought that as long as we clearly fellowshiped God’s work of the last days with them, they would accept it and bring the believers before God; turns out that I was totally wrong. When God’s new work came upon them, they didn’t have a seeking heart in the slightest. It’s not that God doesn’t save them, but that their substance of resisting God makes it impossible for them to accept God’s work of the last days, and they have already been condemned by God’s words.

After that, I read more of God’s words, which made me clearly discern the substance of the priests’ resistance to God; meanwhile, I appreciated that without the revelation of Almighty God’s words, I would never have discernment about them, for in the Catholic Church, I was inculcated with such thought that the priests represent the Lord, and that following priests is following the Lord. Besides, when I knew that the Lord gave Peter the key of the kingdom of heaven and entrusted him with the heavy responsibility of shepherding the churches, I regarded the priests as modern day Peter who shepherd the churches. Isn’t it the consequence of my lack of truth? Although I’ve believed in the Lord for many years, in reality, I was following the priests, and believing in them. If not for Almighty God’s mercy and salvation, I would absolutely believe their words, and refuse to seek and investigate Almighty God’s work in the last days. If I continued following the priests in believing in the Lord, then in the end, I would be sent to hell without knowing it. It’s true that Almighty God saved me. Every time thinking of this, I am deeply grateful to God inside. Now, I’m willing to experience God’s work under His leadership, pursue the truth and change myself to repay His love. Thank Almighty God! All glory be to Almighty God!