What is most predicted within the Scriptures is God’s work of judgment and chastisement in the last days. The Scriptures mention God enacting judgment in at least two hundred places; one can say they all predicted that God will carry out His work of judgment and chastisement in the last days. Hereto using just a small portion of the scriptures is enough to prove that God enacting His work of judgment and chastisement is an inevitable step of His last days work. God’s last days work is to use the method of judgment and chastisement to purify, save and perfect mankind; it is the work of classifying each person according to their own kind through judgment and chastisement to finish the age and finally build the kingdom of Christ–God’s beloved kingdom. This is the crystallization of God’s three-stage work of saving mankind and a glorious symbol of His triumph over Satan. Thus, everywhere in the Scriptures we can see writing of prophecies of God’s judgment work in the last days. If someone reads the Scriptures for many years and from start to finish fails to see God’s work of judgment and chastisement that is necessary in His last days work, then that is someone who does not understand the Scriptures in the slightest; it is certainly not a person who knows the work of God. Below is only a small part of obvious writings from the Scriptures to prove that God’s last days work is the work of judgment and chastisement:
1. “And I will come near to you to judgment…, said the LORD of hosts” (Mal 3:5).
2. “God is a righteous judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day” (Psm 7:11).
3. “And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness” (Psm 9:8).
4. “When I shall receive the congregation I will judge uprightly” (Psm 75:2).
5. “And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people” (Isa 2:4).
6. “So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment to the nations that are round about you, when I shall execute judgments in you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes” (Eze 5:15).
7. “And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (Jhn 16:8).
8. “For he comes to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity” (Psm 98:9).
9. “Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous” (Psm 1:5).
10. “Grudge not one against another, brothers, lest you be condemned: behold, the judge stands before the door” (Jas 5:9).
11. “Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come” (Rev 14:7).
12. “He that rejects me, and receives not my words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (Jhn 12:48).
13. “For he comes, for he comes to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth” (Psm 96:13).
14. “The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder on them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed” (1 Sa 2:10).
15. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Pe 4:17).
The above 15 verses regarding judgment mainly mention that God must judge the world according to righteousness, and that He must carry out judgment in the various countries, and they raise the key point that “God judges the righteous,” “And I will come near to you to judgment,” “the judge stands before the door,” “for the hour of his judgment is come,” “for he comes to judge the earth,” “he comes to judge the earth,” and “judgment must begin at the house of God.” Such dazzling words make us all see clearly that God must inevitably come to earth in the last days and do the work of judgment and chastisement; God’s last days work must also be the work of judgment and chastisement. Since these Scriptures predict and testify that God will personally come to the world of man and do the work of judgment and chastisement, then when God comes, in what exact way will He enact judgment and appear to man? This has become mankind’s most concerning question. From an actual record of the two stages of God’s work in the Scriptures, we can see such a fact as this: Besides the direct voice of God’s Spirit, only when the incarnateLord Jesus came to earth could He speak and work as God in His identity. “God comes to earth”; these words are what God says to corrupt mankind, not what He says to the spiritual world. This is definitely referring to the incarnation of God coming to earth that people are able to see, it is certainly not referring to God’s Spirit that people have no way of seeing. From this it can be seen that if God personally comes to earth to do His work of judgment, then He must be incarnate as Christ, the Son of man; only then can He speak and work with the identity of God. This is certain beyond doubt. “This work, if not done through incarnation, would not achieve the slightest results and would not be able to fully save sinners. If God does not become flesh, He remains the Spirit both invisible and intangible to man. Man is a creature of flesh, and man and God belong to two different worlds and are different in nature. The Spirit of God is incompatible with man of flesh, and no relations can be established between them; moreover, man cannot become a spirit. As such, the Spirit of God must become one of the creatures and do His original work. God can both ascend to the highest place and humble Himself by becoming a man of creation, doing work and living among man, but man cannot ascend to the highest place and become a spirit and much less can he descend to the lowest place. Therefore, God must become flesh to carry out His work. Much as with the first incarnation, only the flesh of God incarnate could redeem man through His crucifixion, whereas it was not possible for the Spirit of God to be crucified as a sin offering for man. God could directly become flesh to serve as a sin offering for man, but man could not directly ascend to heaven to take the sin offering that God had prepared for them. As such, God must journey to and fro between heaven and earth, rather than letting man ascend to heaven to take this salvation, for man had fallen and could not ascend to heaven, much less obtain the sin offering. Therefore, it was necessary for Jesus to come among men and personally do the work that simply could not be accomplished by man. Every time that God became flesh, it was absolutely necessary to do so. If any of the stages could have been carried out directly by the Spirit of God, He would not have endured the indignities of being incarnated” (“The Mystery of the Incarnation (4)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From the Scriptures and God’s words we can see that God must use the way of incarnation to personally come to earth and do the work of judgment; in the following three places the verses clearly confirm: “Because he has appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained” (Act 17:31). “And has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man” (Jhn 5:27). “For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son” (Jhn 5:22). These verses all directly predicted that Christ would personally come to earth as flesh and carry out judgment. Especially all that speaks of the “Son” and the “Son of man”; they are certainly referring to Christ as incarnate. God being incarnated into the Son of man is Christ; this is certain beyond doubt. This makes us see that prophecies in the Scriptures of God becoming flesh and doing His work of judgment and chastisement in the last days are not at all few in number; if only one seeks for them, they can be seen. Moreover, there are some texts that directly predict how God will do the judgment work and what results the judgment work will reach. This further proves that God’s work of judgment and chastisement in the last days is the last work to finish God’s management plan; it is the work of bringing an end to the Age of Darkness and Evil and opening up the Age of the Kingdom of Christ. For example:
1. “And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself” (Psm 50:6).
2. “The LORD is known by the judgment which he executes” (Psm 9:16).
3. “The LORD stands up to plead, and stands to judge the people” (Isa 3:13).
4. “He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people” (Psm 50:4).
5. “He leads counsellors away spoiled, and makes the judges fools” (Job 12: 17).
6. “Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judges those that are high” (Job 21: 22).
7. “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (Jhn 12:31).
8. “That brings the princes to nothing; he makes the judges of the earth as vanity” (Isa 40:23).
9. “And I will execute judgments on Moab; and they shall know that I am the LORD” (Eze 25:11).
10. “Arise, O God, judge the earth: for you shall inherit all nations” (Psm 82:8).
11. “Be wise now therefore, O you kings: be instructed, you judges of the earth” (Psm 2:10).
12. “The earth feared, and was still, When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth” (Psm 76:8-9).
13. “If I whet my glittering sword, and my hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to my enemies, and will reward them that hate me” (Deu 32:41).
14. “Say among the heathen that the LORD reigns: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously” (Psm 96:10).
15. “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished” (2Pe 2:9).
16. “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved to judgment” (2Pe 2:4).
17. “I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work” (Ecc 3:17).
18. “And the man that will do presumptuously, and will not listen to the priest that stands to minister there before the LORD your God, or to the judge, even that man shall die” (Deu 17:12).
19. “Arise, O LORD, in your anger, lift up yourself because of the rage of my enemies: and awake for me to the judgment that you have commanded” (Psm 7:6).
20. “With my soul have I desired you in the night; yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you early: for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isa 26:9).
21. “Now is the end come on you, and I will send my anger on you, and will judge you according to your ways, and will recompense on you all your abominations” (Eze 7:3).
22. “Now will I shortly pour out my fury on you, and accomplish my anger on you: and I will judge you according to your ways, and will recompense you for all your abominations” (Eze 7:8).
23. “A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened” (Dan 7:10).
24. “O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for you shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on earth” (Psm 67:4).
25. “But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries” (Heb 10:27).
26. “But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things” (Rom 2:2).
27. “But I say to you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment” (Mat 12:36).
28. “For we know him that has said, Vengeance belongs to me, I will recompense, said the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people” (Heb 10:30).
29. “And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind” (Jhn 9:39).
Within the above 29 verses from the Scriptures, we can all see clearly the results attained in every aspect through God’s judgment and chastisement enacted upon mankind. Moreover, God’s judgment in the last days is not only directed at one ethnicity or one country, but necessarily expands to all nations, all states, and even the entirety of mankind. Thus God’s judgment in the last days is the work of finishing the old age and opening up a new age. At the same time, people are also able to see that God in His judgment is saving the humble and the devout from temptation, and keeping the unjust within chastisement. God’s judgment allows those people on the ground to learn righteousness, pursue the truth and come to know God’s righteous disposition. It makes people on the ground all go before God and extol and praise Him; all nations cheer and leap, and bow down to Him in worship. This completely reveals the results attained by God expressing His righteous disposition. This further proves that God is not only a merciful and loving God, but more importantly He has wrath and majesty, and also judgment and chastisement; God is most of all a righteous God. In fact, God’s inherent disposition is one that is mainly righteous. Therefore, God coming to earth to enact the work of judgment is the time when God’s righteous disposition is fully revealed. Corrupt mankind are classified according to kind due to the revelation of God’s righteous disposition; all those who can accept and obey God’s judgment and chastisement in the last days will be saved and made perfect, and all those who reject God’s judgment and chastisement will be destroyed for resisting God. This is the result directly attained through God’s judgment and chastisement in the last days. It is God’s righteous judgment and chastisement that purifies mankind, saves mankind, and most of all perfects mankind. The throne of God is thus firmly established on the earth; God’s will is also able to be carried out due to His judgment and chastisement. God coming to earth to enact judgment has completely confirmed that the image of the Son of man is the image of the Lord of judgment in the Book of Revelations. At the same time, it also confirms the prophecy that “the tabernacle of God is with men.” Only when God comes to earth can He save corrupt mankind, and only by God’s judgment and chastisement can this evil age be brought to an end. It is God’s judgment and chastisement that have laid the foundation for the coming of God’s kingdom, and let Christ’s kingdom be realized upon the earth. This is the inevitable result and crystallization of the finishing of God’s management plan to save mankind. In the end, the gathering of all people who are saved make up the kingdom of Christ; this completely fulfills the prophecies of “God coming into His kingdom” and “the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.” Clearly, the 21st century is the century of God coming into His kingdom; it is the century in which the kingdom of Christ will be realized upon the earth. Even more so, it is the century in which God will finish Satan’s fate, and in which God will personally come to earth and take power. The kingdom of a millennium will be realized in the 21st century.
From many prophecies in the Bible we can absolutely see that God’s work of judgment in the last days is vast, mighty, and unstoppable. This even more enables people to see clearly from the Bible that God’s three-stage work of saving mankind is the entirety of God’s management plan to save mankind. Although much of the Bible is only a record of God’s work during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace, the prophecies of the prophets, the Lord Jesus and the Revelation all nevertheless fully revealed long ago God’s work in the last days, that is the full picture of judgment and chastisement in the Age of Kingdom, making people see clearly from the Bible the three-stage work of God’s management plan. During the last days, God uses judgment and chastisement to save mankind, classify them according to kind, and bring an end to this dark age of evil and corruption; this is a clear and undeniable fact. If a person is unable to see from the Bible God’s three-stage work of saving mankind, then he is certainly not a person who understands the Bible, and certainly not a person who knows God’s work. Just as everyone is eagerly looking forward to the coming again of the Lord Jesus, God has already long ago been incarnated and secretly come to mainland China, completely fulfilling God’s words, “But of that day and that hour knows no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father” (Mak 13:32). Almighty God has expressed millions of words one after another; in China He has formally raised the curtain for the judgment before the great white throne in the last days, and judgment has already begun in God’s house. God’s chosen people in China can finally see in God’s judgment and chastisement His appearance. It is God’s words that are testimony to His incarnation, it is the voice of the Holy Spirit that is testimony to God personally coming to earth to do the work of judgment and chastisement. God’s chosen people accept God’s judgment and chastisement, pruning and dealing, and all sorts of trials and refinements, submitting under the authority of God’s words. At the same time they experience the hunting and persecution of the great red dragon and every kind of trial and tribulation, and suffer all kinds of pain and refinements. Now God has finally conquered, saved and made complete a group of people who are of one heart and will with God. Just as Almighty God says in His own voice: “I will not lightly spare men for all that they have done. I will watch over the whole earth, and, appearing in the East of the world with righteousness, majesty, wrath, and chastisement, I will reveal Myself to the myriad hosts of humanity!” (“The Twenty-sixth Utterance”). Clearly, the judgment before the great white throne of God in the last days has already begun, completely fulfilling and achieving all prophecies in the Bible.
from “How to Know God’s Work of Judgment and Chastisement in the Last Days” in Collection of Sermons—Supply for Life