I was formerly a leader’s assistant in the Justification by Faith Church. I had believed in Jesus for over twenty years and been trained in a theological seminary, so I was very much looked up to by the brothers and sisters in our churches. We were in charge of over thirty churches and had contact with the churches in Beijing, Guangdong, Shandong, Hubei, and other places. The churches had been very prosperous a few years before, but somehow they turned more and more desolate in recent years. The believers became fewer and fewer, and many of them were converted to “Eastern Lightning,” and even some leaders who had believed in God for many years were “deceived.” I had long since heard that those of “Eastern Lightning” were very dangerous and that they did nothing but steal “sheep” from churches. To protect the “sheep,” I racked my brains and took many precautions in our churches, but all in vain. Seeing that the number in our churches decreased, I felt more and more hatred for those who preached “Eastern Lightning.”

One morning in April 2002, I had just got back home from Guangzhou when a sister came to preach Almighty God’s end-time gospel to me. Instantly, I roared at her as if she were my enemy, “Don’t you find a wrong place to preach in? When I began to preach, you were still a baby. How many days have you believed in God that you even try to deceive me? You ambition is too wild. You are really devoid of self-knowledge. Son, drive her away. I have no time to talk nonsense with her.” So, my son pushed and shoved the sister out of my house. Then, I suddenly became alert. “Could the believers in our churches have been deceived by them during the days I was out? …” The more I thought about it, the more I got worried. The next day, I informed all the co-workers to have a meeting, in which I distributed to each of them a booklet called Guard Against the Heresy—Eastern Lightning. And I repeated the blasphemous and slanderous words against “Eastern Lightning” that I had often spread before, and even made up these rumors to frighten them: “Some time ago, a believer in Guangdong Province was deceived by those of ‘Eastern Lightning’ into listening to their message. When he felt it not in accordance with the Bible and tried to leave, they cut off his ear. A believer in Hubei Province was deceived into listening to their message, and his eye was gouged out because he refused to accept it. A believer in Shandong Province was deceived into listening to their message. Because he said no to it, they broke his leg…. From now on, never receive any stranger, let alone go out of our churches to listen to messages. Don’t read any book from ‘Eastern Lightning,’ not even a page of it. Whoever of any church finds any persons preaching ‘Eastern Lightning,’ drive them away. If they don’t leave, call the police to arrest them. We must not be soft on them! …”

One evening in September, while we were having a meeting, Sister Zhou, whom I knew quite well, came with two other sisters to preach God’s end-time gospel to me. At that time I wantonly blasphemed and slandered God’s new work and claimed before everyone, “It’s absolutely impossible for God to be incarnated again. Whoever preaches that God has been incarnated again is a deceiver, who believes in a false way.” With that I told the brothers and sisters to drive them out of our village. Then I thought, “Now I’ll see whether you have the guts to come again.” But unexpectedly, at dawn the next morning when I went to my fields to gather mulberry leaves, I found they three had already been waiting for me there. While they helped me gather mulberry leaves, they fellowshipped about God’s end-time work with me. Although they talked a lot about it, I did not listen to a word. As they perceived that I had shut the door of my heart and turned a deaf ear to their words, they kept coming to me with unflagging patience. In the end, I got so fed up with their “pestering” that I asked them, “What on earth do you do this for?” They said, “Brother, we mean no harm. You know it’s the end time now. God has returned in the flesh and done a new work. We only want to bring the last gospel to you, but we are poor in quality and can’t make it clear. So, we only beg you to go with us and listen to a message. After you listen to it, it’s up to you to decide whether or not you believe in it, and we won’t come to bother you anymore.” In order to get rid of their “pestering,” I hit upon a plan: I’ll go and pretend to listen to it lest they come to bother me again and again.

On the morning of October 18, I went to Xinyi City with Sister Zhou and the other sister. A brother of over thirty welcomed me warmly and then started to fellowship with me. At the beginning, I felt there was nothing wrong in what he fellowshipped about. But when he said God had been incarnated the second time and done a new work, I began to have an aversion to his fellowship. Yet I still pretended to listen very carefully. I nodded at whatever he said, but I had my own plan in my heart: “What if they harm me if I say that I won’t accept it? Now I just listen to him, but I will deny it after I get home.” When it was time for lunch, I tried to find an excuse to leave, but the sister of the host family repeatedly invited me to stay for lunch. For fear of being poisoned, I did not dare to take it. Sister Zhou seemed to have read my mind and said, “Brother, don’t be afraid. Just eat it. There is no poison in this meal. Some people say we put poison in meals; it is purely a rumor they fabricate and a false testimony they give to close the churches to outsiders.” After the meal, we three left that host family. When we got on the bus, I said to the two sisters, “Don’t bother me anymore from now on. I won’t accept the way you preach. How could God be incarnated the second time?” They were dumbfounded, and then asked me, “Didn’t you say just now that you had accepted it?” I replied proudly, “Humph! That was a trick I played on you. You said that you wouldn’t come to bother me again as long as I listened to a message.” At this time, they wept sadly….

At dawn on November 13, I prepared to go to Wangzhuang church to give a sermon. No sooner had I stepped out of the gate than I found the two sisters sitting in front of a stack of wheat straw. When they saw me, they said tearfully, “Brother, it’s really hard to get to see you. We came last night but found you had gone to bed, so we didn’t interrupt you. As we know you will go to the church today, we have been waiting for you here.” I said, “What brings you here again? I won’t accept the way you preach.” Sister Zhou said, “Brother, God wants all men to be saved and none to perish. For the sake of your life, I beg you to go with us and listen to a message again. OK?” Seeing much straw on their clothes and wheat husks in their hair, I knew that they must have been waiting for me here all night. At that moment, I was greatly touched and could not help thinking, “Could what they believe in be heresy? Could they be deceivers? I did not accept their way after listening to their message that day; aren’t I still safe and sound now?” Then, I recalled the scenes of their advising me earnestly and weeping sadly for me and their coming to preach to me time and again, when I felt suddenly enlightened. “During my twenty years of belief in God, I have also preached the gospel, but how come I don’t have such great faith and love as theirs? According to my experiences gained from years of believing in God, I can be sure that no one could have such love, faith, and perseverance if it were not for God’s great power and the working of the Holy Spirit.” So, I promised to make a further investigation.