Response: There are people who deny that Almighty God is the return of Jesus and that He is the true God because people who believe in Almighty God still get sick and their homes are not at peace. They believe that by believing in the true God, people should be free from illness and disaster and their homes should be totally peaceful. These are nothing but human notions and imaginations, and they absolutely are not a genuine understanding of God. They are particularly out of line with the facts of God’s work. As everyone knows, Job believed in the true God, and Jehovah was inherently the one and only God, but Job’s family suffered robbery, plundering of all their wealth, and the death of their children. Even Job himself was covered in sores head-to-toe. So if you say that by believing in the true God everything should be peaceful, there should be no sickness and no disasters, then what do you think of what Job experienced? Could it be that we should deny that Jehovah is the true God? Jesus is the true God, but over the course of Peter following Jesus, he underwent countless difficulties and trials, and his illnesses were never-ending. The Apostle Paul also suffered many adversities—he was flogged and stoned many times, and ran into trouble at sea many times. He also became ill. The other disciples and apostles also suffered through many difficulties. If it’s said that by believing in the true God, one should have peace and health, how can we account for these things that came upon devout disciples and apostles who followed Jesus? Could we actually say that Jesus is not the true God? It is clear that human understanding is one-dimensional and biased! The truth is that Jehovah is the true God, and it was not only because He revealed the miracle of leading the Israelites out of their slavery in Egypt or that He was able to bestow blessings upon mankind. What’s more important is that He could issue the law that led mankind’s lives on earth for two thousand years, and the law that He issued allowed man to understand how to worship God and how to have proper human life on earth. Jesus is the true God, and it is not only because He could heal the sick and cast out demons, or that He could bestow peace and material benefits upon people.
It is because He completed the work of being crucified to redeem mankind, and without the redemption of the cross all of mankind would have died under the law. It is because of His salvation of the cross that man’s sins have been forgiven, and that we have survived until now. If we only relied upon revealing miracles to identify God, then isn’t it true that the Pharaoh’s sorcerers were also able to turn a rod into a serpent (See Exodus 7:10-12)? And isn’t it true that Simon, who had long practiced sorcery, was also able to make the people marvel at his miracles and even think that he was God (See Acts 8:9-11)? If we only relied upon healing the sick and casting out demons to identify God, then couldn’t those witch doctors and the prince of the devils also do that for people? But it is only God Himself who can save mankind and lead us in our lives on earth. It is only He who can redeem corrupt mankind from our sins. This is something that Satan or evil spirits cannot achieve. So, when judging whether it is God or not, you cannot rely solely upon miracles, whether or not people’s illnesses are cured or what material benefits are given. It must be based upon whether the work that is done can guide mankind, whether it can save mankind. Displaying miracles, curing the sick, and bestowing material benefits are very easy things to do. They are not enough to determine if this is God. He is the almighty, all-wise God, the God of compassion and mercy, the righteous and holy God, the powerful, authoritative, lofty God, and He is capable of creating mankind, leading our lives on earth, and redeeming Satan-corrupted mankind from sins. Finally, He is also able to completely purify and transform the people who have been redeemed but are still filthy, and bring them into God’s kingdom. These are all things that God has completed, and the work that He will certainly complete. This is the work that cannot be done by Satan or evil spirits, or any man. So, saying that because Almighty God does not perform miracles, heal the sick and cast out demons, and His followers still get sick and sometimes have family problems, this determines that Almighty God is not the true God is nothing but a fallacy. It is a judgment made by ignorant, foolish people who do not know God or His work.
Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus, and He is the one and only true God appearing in the last days. This is an irrefutable fact witnessed by the Holy Spirit. The reason why it is said that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus and that He is the one true God is that Almighty God has brought the way of eternal life to mankind in the last days. Peter once said to the Lord Jesus: “Lord, to whom shall we go? you have the words of eternal life” (Jhn 6:68). It is clear that Peter recognized God because of the truths He expressed from His own mouth. The reason why we say today that Almighty God is the return of the Lord Jesus is also because Almighty God has brought all of the truths that mankind requires. The Lord Jesus prophesied that He would come again in the last days, and said: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth” (Jhn 16:12-13). And in the Book of Revelation, it is repeatedly written: “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches” (See Rev 2-3). Everything said by Almighty God in the last days is the utterances of the Spirit of truth; they are words spoken by the Holy Spirit to the churches. Almighty God has expressed all the truths to purify and save mankind; through His utterances, He has revealed the mysteries God has hidden from mankind for thousands of years and has expressed what God has and is. He has opened up to mankind God’s inherent disposition and His true countenance. Almighty God’s disposition and what He is that is expressed in His work and words is enough to prove that He is Christ of the last days, that He is the one true God! This is because His words could not be uttered by a person, and His work could not be done by any human. Just as God has said: “He is well aware of the essence of man, He can reveal all kinds of practices pertaining to all kinds of people. He is even better at revealing human corrupt disposition and rebellious behavior. He does not live among the worldly people, but He is aware of the nature of the mortals and all the corruptions of the worldly people. This is what He is. Though He does not deal with the world, He knows the rules of dealing with the world, because He fully understands human nature. He knows about the Spirit’s work that man’s eyes cannot see and that man’s ears cannot hear, both of today and of the past. This includes wisdom that is not a life philosophy and wonder that people find hard to fathom. This is what He is, made open to people and also hidden from people. What He expresses is not what an extraordinary person is, but the inherent attributes and being of the Spirit. He does not travel around the world but knows everything of it. He contacts the ‘anthropoids’ who have no knowledge or insight, but He expresses words that are higher than knowledge and above great men. He lives among a group of obtuse and numb people who do not have humanity and who do not understand the human conventions and lives, but He can ask mankind to live out normal humanity, at the same time revealing the base and low humanity of mankind. All of this are what He is, higher than what any flesh-and-blood person is. … The work He does is all to reveal His disposition to man and express His being. Only He can do this work, it is not something that a flesh-and-blood person could achieve” (“God’s Work and Man’s Work” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). This is really the fact of the matter. The work that Almighty God does and the words that He utters are full of authority and power, and they show that He is God incarnate Himself. This is the testimony of the Holy Spirit, and it is an irrefutable fact!
So since Almighty God is God Himself, why doesn’t He perform miracles? The truth is that whether or not God performs miracles in His work, and whether or not He heals the sick and drives demons out is based on what is needed in His work, and it is based on the needs of corrupt humanity. God does not perform any meaningless work. In the Age of Grace, the first time that God became flesh and worked in the world, He revealed some miracles such as restoring sight to the blind, allowing the paralyzed to walk, feeding five thousand people with five loaves and two fish, and so on. However, God did these things in order for people to be able to see His actions, His great power, and from that be able to believe in Him, follow Him, and accept salvation from His crucifixion. The first time God became flesh was completely unprecedented, so if He had not also performed some miracles, bestowed some grace, healed the sick, and cast out demons, people would not have believed that an itinerant, common man of flesh and blood preaching the gospel of the kingdom of heaven was God’s Spirit become flesh, no matter what. They particularly could hardly believe that a very average person who was quietly nailed to the cross was God incarnate Himself. So in order to get people to believe in Him, follow Him, and thus gain His salvation from the cross, God added on some miracles, healing of the sick, casting out of demons, and He bestowed rich blessings upon people. But the work of God incarnate in the last days is the work of words; He uses the words from His mouth to judge and purify humans, who are still filthy even after being redeemed by Him. This is the stage of His work to thoroughly purify, transform, and perfect mankind. If this work were also like the Age of Grace with miracles, healing of the sick, and casting out of demons, it would not result in the conquering, perfection, purification, and transformation of mankind through words. This is why it is necessary to achieve the goal of exposing, conquering, perfecting, and purifying people through practical and normal work. God incarnate speaks in a practical way; He reveals His inherent disposition and what He has and is through His words, while also exposing mankind’s corruption and rebelliousness, judging mankind’s unrighteousness and resistance, as well as pointing the way for people to achieve a change in disposition and be purified. This allows people to achieve knowledge of, obedience to, and love for God through the truths He expresses and His practical and normal work. It also allows people to be purified and perfected through His words. These results are all achieved through His words, not through revealing miracles or bestowing grace and benefits upon mankind. In this stage of work, if God were to both speak in a practical way to perfect people and to display miracles and bestow rich grace upon people, then people would all fall before Him because of His miracles, and they would follow Him because of the grace and the benefits that He bestows. That way people would not be able to understand all of God’s disposition, what He has and is, and all of God’s wisdom in His work. It would not reveal His almightiness and full wisdom. It would not reveal whether people truly believe or not and if they truly fear and obey God, nor would it reveal people’s corruption, rebellion, and the motives and adulteration in their belief in God, which allows people to know themselves and pursue the truth to gain purification and transformation. That would disrupt God’s work of perfecting and purifying mankind through His words. God does not dismantle His own work; He does not disrupt His own work. So while God is perfecting mankind through His words, He does not display miracles. When His work is completed, that is, when this group of His followers have been purified and perfected by His words, then He will display great miracles for mankind to see. This is because at that time God is going to do the work of punishing evil and rewarding good. But during the period of His work of words He absolutely will not perform miracles. If He were to do that, it would immediately throw His practical work into chaos, and it would not bear the fruit of perfecting people through words. That is, in the last days God is saving and perfecting mankind through His words, not stifling people with miracles. He is not utilizing grace or benefits to subdue people. That would not reveal His almightiness, and it would not achieve the goal of conquering, perfecting, and purifying people with words. God not performing miracles is entirely due to the requirements of His work of words, and it is in order to complete the work of having His words bear fruit. Just as Almighty God said: “In the Age of Kingdom, God uses the word to usher in a new age, to change the means of His work, and to do the work for the entire age. This is the principle by which God works in the Age of Word. He became flesh to speak from different perspectives, enabling man to truly see God, who is the Word appearing in the flesh, and His wisdom and wonder. Such work is done to better achieve the goals of conquering man, perfecting man, and eliminating man. This is the true meaning of using the word to work in the Age of Word. Through the word, man comes to know the work of God, the disposition of God, the essence of man, and what man ought to enter into. Through the word, all the work God wishes to do in the Age of Word is accomplished. Through the word, man is revealed, eliminated, and tried. Man has seen the word, heard the word, and become aware of the existence of the word. As a result, man believes in the existence of God; man believes the almightiness and wisdom of God, as well as God’s heart of love for man and His desire to save man. Though the word ‘word’ is simple and ordinary, the word from the mouth of God become flesh shakes the entire universe; His word transforms the heart of man, the notions and the old disposition of man, and the old appearance of the entire world. … Throughout the Age of Kingdom, God uses the word to do His work and achieve the results of His work; He does not work wonders or perform miracles; He merely does His work through the word. Because of the word, man is nourished and supplied; because of the word, man gains knowledge and true experience. Man in the Age of Word has truly received exceptional blessings. Man suffers no pain of the flesh and simply enjoys the bountiful supply of the word of God; they need not seek or journey forth, and at ease they see the appearance of God, hear Him speak personally, receive His supply, and see Him personally do His work. Man in ages past was unable to enjoy such things, and these are blessings that they could never receive” (“The Age of Kingdom Is the Age of Word” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “God of the last days principally uses the word to make man perfect. He does not use signs and wonders to oppress man, or convince man; this cannot make plain the power of God. If God only showed signs and wonders, then it would be impossible to make plain the reality of God, and thus impossible to make man perfect. God does not make man perfect by signs and wonders, but uses the word to water and shepherd man, after which is achieved the complete obedience of man and man’s knowledge of God. This is the aim of the work He does and the words He speaks. … When man is made complete at the time that God concludes the age in the last days, he will be qualified to look upon signs and wonders. … The time that God shows signs and wonders is when God punishes man, and also when the age changes, and, moreover, when the age concludes. When God’s work is being carried out normally, He does not show signs and wonders. Showing signs and wonders is supremely easy, but that is not the principle of God’s work, nor is it the aim of God’s management of man. If man saw signs and wonders, and if the spiritual body of God were to appear to man, would all people not believe in God? … God’s work during the last days is real work. During the age of Jesus, He did not come to make man perfect, but to redeem man, and so He displayed some miracles to make people follow Him. For He principally came to complete the work of crucifixion, and showing signs was not part of the work of His ministry. Such signs and wonders were work that was done in order to make His work effective; they were extra work, and did not represent the work of the entire age. During the Old Testament Age of Law, God also showed some signs and wonders—but the work God does today is real work, and He would definitely not show signs and wonders now. As soon as He showed signs and wonders, His real work would be thrown into disorder, and He would be unable to do any more work. If God said for the word to be used to make man perfect, but also showed signs and wonders, then could whether or not man truly believes in Him be made plain? Thus, God does not do such things” (“All Is Achieved by the Word of God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
Of course, there are other aspects of practical significance in God not displaying miracles, curing the sick, or casting out demons in the last days. Let’s read another couple of passages of Almighty God’s words: “In the conceptions of man, God must always display signs and wonders, must always heal and cast out demons, and must always be just like Jesus, yet this time God is not like that at all. If, during the last days, God still displayed signs and wonders, and still cast out demons and healed—if He did exactly the same as Jesus—then God would be repeating the same work, and the work of Jesus would have no significance or value. … Why is the work of God today different to the work of Jesus? Why does God today not display signs and wonders, not cast out demons, and not heal? If Jesus’ work were the same as the work done during the Age of Law, could He have represented the God of the Age of Grace? Could Jesus have completed the work of crucifixion? If, as in the Age of Law, Jesus had entered into the temple and kept the Sabbath, then He would have been persecuted by none and embraced by all. If that were so, could He have been crucified? Could He have completed the work of redemption? What would be the point if God incarnate of the last days displayed signs and wonders, like Jesus? Only if God does another part of His work during the last days, one that represents part of His management plan, can man gain a deeper knowledge of God, and only then can God’s management plan be completed.” “The words spoken by God incarnate of the last days are according to the substance of man’s nature, according to the behavior of man, and according to that which man should enter into today. His method of speaking[a] is both real and normal: He does not speak of tomorrow, nor does He look back on yesterday; He speaks only of that which should be entered into, put into practice, and understood today. If, during the present day, there is to emerge a person who is able to display signs and wonders, and can cast out demons, and heal, and perform many miracles, and if this person claims that they are Jesus who has come, then this would be the counterfeit of evil spirits, and their imitation of Jesus. … God carries out one stage of work in every age. Once each stage of His work has been completed, it is soon imitated by evil spirits, and after Satan begins to follow on the heels of God, God changes to a different method; once God has completed a stage of His work, it is imitated by evil spirits. You must be clear about these things” (“Knowing God’s Work Today” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). We can see from Almighty God’s words that the reason He doesn’t perform miracles, heal the sick, and cast out demons in the last days is that He is an ever-new God. He never does the same work twice. God’s work is to never repeat what He has accomplished. This is God’s great power, and this is what He is. God already did the work of performing miracles, healing the sick, and casting out demons in the Age of Grace. If He did those things again, that would be doing the same work twice and it would be meaningless. On top of that, people would also define God as a God of miracles, healing the sick, and casting out demons, and their understanding of Him would be one-dimensional and inaccurate. God is the almighty, all-wise God, and no one can fathom His wisdom. How could God possibly allow Himself to be delimited within the bounds of human notions? In this stage of work, God does not perform miracles, but does completely new work. He works through words; He achieves everything through words. This allows people to know God’s righteous and holy disposition and what He has and is as well as His wonderful wisdom through His words, and to know the might and authority of His words. This allows people to gain a true understanding of God and no longer delimit Him. Another aspect of why God doesn’t perform miracles is that people can distinguish between the work of God and the imitations of evil spirits, as well as understand that God’s wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s schemes. Every time God completes a stage of His work, evil spirits imitate it. After Jesus completed His work, there were many evil spirits right at His heels who imitated Jesus in performing miracles, healing the sick, and casting out demons. This caused people to confuse the image of God with the image of Satan, and many people saw anyone who could perform miracles, heal the sick, and cast out demons as God. This is why He no longer does these things in the last days. He just speaks and expresses the truth, expresses God’s disposition and what He has and is, exposes people’s corruption and rebelliousness, and provides people with sustenance for life by means of uttering words. Through this He conquers, perfects, purifies, and transforms people, thus defeating Satan and allowing people to fully cast off the dark influence of Satan, achieve salvation, and be perfected. This kind of work from God is something that cannot be imitated by Satan or evil spirits. Isn’t this a much greater miracle than healing the sick, casting out demons, and displaying extraordinary abilities? Since these words of God can completely rescue mankind, deeply corrupted by Satan, out from under Satan’s influence, who would dare to deny this is a miracle from God? Not only does this work of God allow people to distinguish between what is God’s work and what is the imitation of evil spirits, but it particularly allows people to recognize God’s wisdom and almightiness, and recognize that God’s wisdom is eternally exercised based upon Satan’s schemes. It is evident from this that God’s work of words in the last days—not performing miracles, not healing the sick or casting out demons—is very wise, and very meaningful! On the whole, if someone says: “God should show people great miracles; He must heal the sick and cast out demons, and He must bestow blessings upon people. If He does not show miracles, if He doesn’t bring any benefit for mankind, then He is not the true God. If this Almighty God you believe in is the true God, why do you still get sick? Why aren’t your homes peaceful? As believers in Jesus, those of us who are sick are cured, and those who are not sick have peace at home,” it is clear that these are absurd words, and it shows that people have no understanding of God at all. Could it be that He is not God unless He performs miracles, heals the sick, casts out demons, and brings benefits to people? If God temporarily stopped bringing people grace and benefits or showing people miracles for the sake of purifying and transforming them, could it be that He is not God? If God tries and refines people, and allows illness and adversity to come upon them, could it be that we will just disavow Him? Do you not know that the adversity and trials that came upon Job were much worse than what we face today? But not only did Job not disavow God, he said: “Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah.” Compared to Job, shouldn’t we be ashamed? The truth is that being able to receive Almighty God’s work of judgment and purification through His words and undergo the refinement of illness and adversity is the greatest blessing for those of us in the last days. It is His mercy and His uplifting because this was predetermined by Him ages ago, and it was carefully arranged by God to perfect His people. It was prophesied in the Book of Zechariah 13:8-9: “And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, said Jehovah, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, Jehovah is my God.” And today, just as in the prophecy “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried,” these words are fulfilled in this group of people who follow Almighty God in the last days. When this group of people is made complete, that will be the day that God reveals a great miracle, and great glory. At that time, God will cull out the two thirds of people who resist Him and do not recognize Him. He will bring the one third of people who accept His words and have been purified into the beautiful destination prepared for them so that they may enjoy the eternal blessings and promises given by God. This is a fact that God must complete, and will complete. So do you want to be one of the two thirds, or do you want to be one of the one third? If you want to be purified and perfected by God and be spared, becoming one of God’s people, then you must waste no time in letting go of your own notions and accepting the judgment of Almighty God’s words! Although believing in the Lord Jesus made us accept the benefit that we were cured when sick, and we had peace at home when we weren’t sick, the Age of Grace is long gone, and God stopped that kind of work long ago. We can no longer bury our heads in the sand and deceive ourselves. In fact, what God in the last days gives to mankind is the way of eternal life, and this is much more beneficial than the benefit of the Age of Grace that we were cured when sick, and we had peace at home when we weren’t sick. Are you unwilling to accept the way of the truth, which would prevent you from being culled and allow you to gain eternal life, for nothing more than being cured, and gaining the benefits of the flesh?
Footnotes:
a. The original text reads “It.”
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