I am Li Wenming, formerly an area co-worker of the Three Grades of Servants Church. In 1991, I was called and returned to the Lord. After that, inspired by the Lord’s love, I pursued very hard. In less than one year, I became a preacher and shepherded some nearby churches, whose believers totaled over two hundred. At that time, my faith and love were especially great, and the Holy Spirit also worked on me when I preached. Whether it was in spring, summer, autumn, or winter, and whether it was windy or rainy, nothing could stop me from going to the churches to support the brothers and sisters. I considered doing so as suffering for the Lord, so I believed that I would surely receive a reward from the Lord and be taken to heaven by the Lord when he came in the future. However, I had never thought that when the Lord really came to “take me,” the ignorant and blind I didn’t know God and shut the door on him. And I even exerted myself to the utmost to resist and condemn the only true almighty God. My actions and deeds brought me lasting remorse and nothing could make up for it.

In 1995, at a co-worker meeting, the servant and the maidservant preached, “Now, there are some people preaching that the Lord has come the second time. They specially look in different sects and denominations for the co-workers and the believers active in pursuing. Don’t get in touch with them. That ‘spirit’ is very powerful. Once you join them, you won’t be able to withdraw. They specially deceive people with the plausible doctrines in the Bible. Our stature is small, so don’t fellowship with them. You go to tell all the host families and the believers: Don’t receive anyone who is not of our denomination, including your parents.” The words of the servant and the maidservant were deeply engraved on my heart. I thought to myself, “Would the servant and the maidservant not know it if God had really come? If they don’t know it, then it must be false.” From then on, I wantonly blasphemed and condemned Almighty God’s new work and closed the churches everywhere to outsiders. I told the brothers and sisters, “‘Eastern Lightning’ is a heresy, a cult. If they come, just drive them out. If they don’t leave, just beat them. This is not committing sins but is guarding the truth. Only the way we believe in is the true way. We can only be saved through the servant and the maidservant.”

In August 1997, the work of Almighty God spread to our area. My second uncle (formerly an area co-worker of the Three Grades of Servants Church) and his wife accepted Almighty God’s new work, and several dozen believers in our church, except for my mother and my younger sister, also followed them and accepted it. Yet I was kept in the dark. In December, my second uncle took a book to my photo studio and showed me one piece of word in it, which said, “The ‘Savior’ Has Already Returned on the ‘White Clouds.’” I took a look at it, and a thought came to mind: “Isn’t it saying that God has come? It must be the book of ‘Eastern Lightning.’” Instantly, my temper flared up, and I shouted to my uncle, “You have accepted a heresy. In the name of the Lord, I warn you, turn back quickly. Otherwise, I’ll break with you once and for all….” After he left, I immediately informed my upper co-worker that my uncle had accepted the heresy. The upper co-worker told me, “Watch closely everything your uncle does.” So, I spied on my uncle’s whereabouts like a plainclothes detective and also asked my mother and younger sister to keep an eye on him.

One day after the Spring Festival, my younger sister hurriedly came to my photo studio and told me, “Our uncle and aunt are having a meeting now.” Hearing that, I felt a surge of fury. I immediately rode to my uncle’s home on the motorcycle. There, I flung the door open and saw two unfamiliar sisters among them (one was over 20 years old and the other over 50). When seeing me, the two sisters stood up and greeted me warmly, yet when I saw them, I became more furious, and my stomach almost burst with anger. I bawled, “What do you want to do? Who asked you to come here? You deceitful thieves, get out of here!” I didn’t allow them to speak at all and drove them away fiercely. Then, I turned toward the brothers and sisters present and shouted to them, “Why did you receive strangers? Did you get permission from the church or from me?” At this time, my uncle and aunt fellowshipped with me again, advising me to make an investigation and saying that others all believed it was the true way. I was even more enraged at that: “Uncle, ah, uncle, aren’t you doing evil? You not only accept it yourself but also want to draw others in. I tell you, don’t set your mind on me again. I’ll make a clear break with you from now on!”

After I came out of my uncle’s house, I immediately went to close the other churches shepherded by my uncle to outsiders. And I informed all the churches in the county: “From now on, no one is allowed to receive any co-workers or believers not brought by me. Especially reject my second uncle. Just drive him out if he comes. Don’t serve him anything to eat or drink. This isn’t committing sins. Be sure not to share in his sins. If in the future I preach a different way from today’s, you should also reject me and not receive me.”

Since then I had regarded my uncle and aunt as enemies and also hated those brothers and sisters who had accepted Almighty God. I hated them for not making a good showing and failing to uphold testimony. However, my uncle and aunt and those brothers and sisters who believed in Almighty God always returned good for evil. They came to my home and preached God’s end-time new work to me with unflagging patience. From December 1997 to June 1998, they came almost every day to preach the gospel to me, yet each time I abused them with malicious words and drove them away. Once, worst of all, I even beat a brother and pushed and shoved him out of the door. I thought to myself, “Why do you do evil deeds? I’ll let you freeze to death, thirst to death, and starve to death!”

Once, my second uncle came to my home again. At the beginning, I didn’t drive him out, but he preached Almighty God to me once again. Then I flew into a rage and drove him away angrily. At that time, it was just lunch time. After my uncle left, my family-sister got somewhat angry. She scolded me, “How could you do that? Can man’s anger fulfill God’s righteousness? No matter what, he is our uncle in the flesh and is our elder. You’ve gone too far in treating him like that. The Lord told us to love each other, even our enemies. Do you have love?” “Elders are no exception; even our parents are no exception. This is a spiritual thing,” I said angrily. Later, I also had a sense of guilt when thinking of my family-sister’s words. However, I felt what I had done was right when I thought of my upper co-worker’s words: “If you are deceived, you’ll have no part or share in the church. We can only see God through the servant because the servant has the direct relationship with God just as Moses did. Disobeying the servant is disobeying God and the servant’s words are equal to God’s words, because the servant is the master of our fleshes.” So, I blamed it on my uncle again, thinking, “No one asked him to accept the heresy.” In the face of my family-sister’s advice, I not only didn’t turn back but went even further. I allowed no one in the churches to get in touch with the believers in Almighty God, and I believed that only by doing so could I guard the flock well and be a good faithful steward for the Lord.

One day in mid-April, I was just about to call the area co-workers together to discuss what course should be taken to stop the preachers of Almighty God’s new work from coming to the churches to snatch the sheep, when my belly hurt unbearably, and no matter how hard I prayed, it was to no avail. So I had to go to the hospital. After an examination, I was found to have acute appendicitis. I prayed hastily, “O Lord! Please heal me. You know I am faithful to you. I still have to go to the church to guard the flock!” But no matter how hard I cried out, I didn’t turn better. In the end, I was obliged to have an operation. Even so, I still didn’t realize that I had been disciplined for resisting Almighty God and that God was trying to stop my evil footsteps by the illness. I stayed in the hospital for nearly a month and continued to resist and condemn Eastern Lightning after I was released. In early June, my incision was torn open while I was working, and the pain was unbearable. So, once again, I was hospitalized.

After being hospitalized twice, I couldn’t remain calm anymore. I felt especially depressed in spirit after losing the Lord’s keeping. I prayed but got no response, so I felt especially distressed. The condition of the churches was getting worse and worse, and most of the co-workers and the preachers in the church were so weak that they couldn’t even pick themselves up. The meeting places which used to have over eighty believers each had only over twenty left. The co-workers used the platform to attack each other, and there was not a bit of love among them. I myself was unable to preach anything except about how to guard against “Eastern Lightning.” Faced with my own plight and the condition of the churches, I had no strength to bluster anymore. I pondered in my heart, “Since I began to resist ‘Eastern Lightning,’ I not only haven’t received God’s keeping because of my faithfulness, but on the contrary, a series of unexpected things happened to me: my wife got ill and was hospitalized, my photo studio was robbed, I was hospitalized twice, and the church was desolate. God is almighty; how could he not defeat satan? Could it be that I have resisted wrongly and that the one my uncle believes in is really the true God? Otherwise, how could they have such great enthusiasm and love? They can pretend for a while, but they can’t pretend all the time! To be frank, their love, their sincerity in treating others, and their living out really arouse my admiration. They never had tempers when coming to preach the gospel to me. No matter what I called them, devils, lunatics, psychopaths, or shameless jerks, they never got angry yet only advised me with good words. So many times they were driven out by me and suffered from hunger or coldness. Some of them even stayed overnight in the haystacks outside because of having no places to go….” Thinking back to the actions and deeds of the believers in Almighty God, I couldn’t help crying out to the Lord, “O Lord, I don’t have any of their faith, their love, or their sincerity. O Lord, if it’s not the true way, who can have such great faith? O Lord, what exactly is all this about? Please guide me.”