I—an unpardonably wicked arch-criminal!

I had committed monstrous sins before God. I had been resisting Almighty God’s end-time work by every possible means: I condemned and blasphemed God’s flesh, burned up the book of Almighty God’s word, and beat, abused, and insulted the brothers and sisters who preached God’s new work many times. However, Almighty God, who is full of mercy and love, did not put me to death; instead, he stretched out his hand of salvation and gave me an opportunity to be saved. Today, facing the grace of God’s salvation, I shed floods of tears, and I am overwhelmed with sorrow, feeling extremely regretful….

I am Yang Xiaohui, formerly a co-worker of the Praise Church. In 1996, when I was studying in Wen County, my leader told us, “Now the deceitful false christs are very powerful. A cult called ‘Eastern Lightning’ is preaching everywhere that God has returned in the flesh as a female. They deny the Bible and say that God has done a new work and has expressed the new word, which is exactly the opened little scroll. They also say that only the little scroll can sanctify man. The way they preach victimizes people most deeply. Once you listen to their way or read their books, you will be deceived. At some places, the whole church which consists of seventy to eighty believers have been deceived. Moreover, they pay special attention to deceiving leaders. They can receive 500 yuan if they convert one person. If you want to back out after accepting their way, they will cut off your ears, gouge out your eyes, or beat you up with sticks. So, everyone must guard the gate of our churches carefully. Don’t receive anyone who is not arranged by our churches.” At these words, I was so frightened that my hair stood on end. I felt that “Eastern Lightning” was too terrible, but at the same time, I raised resistance in my heart: “What little scroll can sanctify man? If one does not hold on to the Bible, he cannot become holy even if he has eaten the little scroll.” From then on, I developed an irreconcilable hatred for “Eastern Lightning” and began my evil deeds of resisting God.

After I finished my study, I returned home and closed the churches everywhere to outsiders. I demanded that no one who was not arranged by our churches should be received, lest we be deceived by “Eastern Lightning.” We also set up a 24-hour prayer vigil shared by different groups and specially focused on cursing “Eastern Lightning” in prayers, asking God to hinder the work of “Lightning” and to strike down those “evildoers.” But after a period of time, to my great surprise, “Eastern Lightning” not only did not fail under our cursing prayers, but on the contrary, it became more prosperous. By contrast, our churches gradually lost the working of the Holy Spirit. The believers in our churches raised envy and strife and formed cliques among themselves, and they chatted and dozed off in the meetings. The leaders intrigued against one another; some of them started a new denomination, and some simply returned to the boundless world. Seeing such a condition in the churches, I felt bitterly disappointed. Later, I fasted and prayed with several co-workers, asking God to move us so that we could have the unity in our churches and the brothers and sisters could recover their faith. But no matter how we prayed in bitter tears, it was to no avail. Our churches became more and more chaotic and had completely lost the working of the Holy Spirit and lost peace and joy. Once, it rained heavily while the brothers and sisters were going home after finishing a revival meeting, and some were unexpectedly washed away by the flood on their way. That was really perplexing. From then on, the churches became more and more desolate. Less and less people attended meetings, while more and more people accepted Almighty God. Thus, my hatred toward “Eastern Lightning” grew deeper and deeper.

During the Spring Festival in 1998, a relative of mine came to my home. In our chat, we talked about the condition of our churches. Seeing me worried, she advised me, saying, “Don’t worry, nor lose heart. Seek and pray in everything; God will certainly guide you. Everything is in God’s control. If God does not work, man’s efforts will be in vain even if he pursues the hardest.” Seeing that I did not utter a word, she continued, “I hear God has done a new work now and he no longer performs signs and wonders. In the Old Testament Age of the Law, God issued the laws to convict people of their sins. In the New Testament Age of the Grace, Jesus did the redemptive work and asked people to repent and confess their sins so that they could be justified through their faith. ‘The dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them’ as prophesied in Revelation refers to the Age of the Kingdom. It is the work of breaking the seven seals and opening the scroll and is also what the Holy Spirit speaks to the churches. In the end time, God does the work of conquering and perfecting people with the word, that is, the work of removing the root of sin. Now is time to reap the harvest, so God has done the third stage of the work….” The more I listened, the more I felt there was something wrong in it. My intuition told me that this was “Eastern Lightning.” I immediately questioned her: “You have believed in ‘Eastern Lightning,’ haven’t you? That is a deceitful heresy, a cult. I will never believe in it. If you believe in a cult and also want to deceive me, I tell you, it’s no go! You’d better give up your hope for it. Otherwise, get out of my house right now!”

“Don’t condemn it blindly. It won’t be too late to draw a conclusion after you listen!” she said composedly.

“You are simply an addlehead. Where is the three-stage work in the Bible? As long as we believe in Jesus, confess and repent of our sins, we will be saved. When Jesus comes again, he will transform our fleshly bodies into spiritual bodies in the twinkling of an eye. We will be caught up in the air to meet the Lord and will enter into the glory together with the Lord. Is there any need for the third stage of the work? That’s simple nonsense!” I shouted at her angrily.

“Don’t think too supernaturally and wonderfully of it. Can man go to heaven without being truly holy?” she said, sighing heavily.

As she spoke, my leader’s “advice” suddenly occurred to me: “Do not receive anyone of ‘Eastern Lightning,’ nor listen to his way.” At that moment, I did not want to talk more with her. Fearing that she would continue bothering me, I stood up and said, “If you come to preach ‘Lightning,’ go away right now. We are not on the same path now. You believe in your three-stage work, and I still believe in my Lord Jesus.”

“Don’t rush to condemn if you don’t understand. You’d better listen carefully and see whether it is the truth and whether it is God’s work. If you don’t believe after listening, I won’t force you either,” she said more genially, as if she didn’t mind my attitude at all.

“Humph! You still want me to listen?” I shouted at her angrily as if I had eaten gunpowder. “How come you are so brazen-faced? I have said that I don’t believe, and I mean it! I will not be deceived by you, will not go to hell with you, and will even less be fooled by you. Don’t think of receiving money after you preach this deceitful way to me. Stop your dream of making money! At my place, humph! You are not allowed to preach to anyone in my church. If you do, I won’t be so easy on you!” While saying this, I pushed and shoved her out of the door. Then a load was taken off my mind. I thought to myself, “I have to strictly guard the churches in the future lest the brothers and sisters be ‘deceived.’”

After a few days, she came again with her face radiating happiness. And she smiled at me, gentle and kind. As soon as I saw her, I flew into a rage and shouted abuse at her: “How come you devil come again? Is it because your ‘prince of the devils’ is unhappy with you or because you haven’t received money? I tell you seriously, in the future, the Christ whom I believe in will judge the ‘false christ’ whom you believe in, as well as you, this small devil. When it’s time, Jesus will surely cast you down to the deepest hell and throw you into the lake of fire and brimstone where you will have a great ‘enjoyment’! At that time, nothing can be changed even if your eyes are blinded by tears and your innards become broken by regret! That’s just your outcome, for Jesus is righteous. And we will feast our eyes on it in heaven!”

She did not feel offended by my words but said with sadness, “Ay, your today is my yesterday. Because we have all been deeply corrupted by satan, we will all act like this before we understand the fact. Will you please listen to the testimony? You haven’t seen the truth that God has expressed at present. You don’t know the direction of the Holy Spirit’s working, don’t know what God wants to do in the end time, and don’t know what kind of people can enter into the kingdom. If you don’t know these but only wait for going to heaven, you will regret it one day.”