Would the Lord Return as Male or Female?
At a meeting one day, I spoke out about my confusion, “The Lord Jesus incarnated as a man, so I think the Lord will absolutely return as a man. But you say that the Lord has incarnated as a woman. I cannot entirely accept this. Can you fellowship with me about this?” Brother Lu said, “Brother, you think that since the Lord Jesus incarnated as a man, He will definitely return as a man, but have you ever thought whether or not this view accords with the facts, and whether or not it has a basis in God’s words? Could it be that God can only incarnate as a man? If we don’t seek to understand this issue, it will be very easy for us to delimit and resist God. Let’s first see what the Bible and God’s words say. It is recorded in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1–2: ‘In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.’ The word of Almighty God says, ‘Each stage of work done by God has its own practical significance. Back then, when Jesus came, He was male, but when God comes this time, He is female. From this, you can see that God created both male and female for the sake of His work, and with Him there is no distinction of gender. When His Spirit comes, He can take on any kind of flesh at will and that flesh can represent Him. Whether male or female, it can represent God as long as it is His incarnate flesh. If Jesus had appeared as a female when He came, in other words, if an infant girl, and not a boy, had been conceived by the Holy Spirit, that stage of work would have been completed all the same. If such had been the case, then the present stage of work would have to be completed by a male instead, but the work would be completed all the same. The work done in either stage is equally significant; neither stage of work is repeated nor conflicts with the other’ (‘The Two Incarnations Complete the Significance of the Incarnation’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). ‘The incarnate God is in essence genderless. God made both man and woman, and He does not differentiate between the genders’ (‘The Essence of the Flesh Inhabited by God’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh).”
Brother Lu fellowshiped: “We all know that God is Spirit, invisible and intangible, people can neither see it nor feel it, and there is no distinction of gender. God incarnates as a male or female in accordance with the needs of His work. Regardless of the flesh that God incarnate wears, male or female, as long as it is the incarnate flesh of God’s Spirit, it is God Himself. God’s essence is eternally unchanging. The Lord Jesus incarnated as a male and accomplished the work to redeem mankind. If the Lord Jesus had incarnated as a female, He would still have been able to do the work of redemption. That is to say, no matter if God’s incarnate flesh is a male or female, its essence is God Himself, and it is always done to complete the work of saving mankind. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verses 15–17 say: ‘Take you therefore good heed to yourselves; for you saw no manner of similitude on the day that Jehovah spoke to you in Horeb out of the middle of the fire: Lest you corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female, The likeness of any beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged fowl that flies in the air.’ We can see in these verses of Scripture that when Jehovah spoke to the people on Mount Horeb, they could not see His form, for God would not allow people to delimit Him as one form or another. God’s wisdom is something we human beings can’t fathom. We are merely tiny little creations, so how can we fathom God’s work? If we conclude that God can only incarnate as a male based on our own notions and imaginings, aren’t we opposing and blaspheming God?”
After hearing this, I finally understood: God is inherently a Spirit and there can be no differentiation of gender with God. God can incarnate as a man, and He can also incarnate as a woman—it is all due to the needs of His work. If I conclude that God’s gender is male based on my own notions and imaginings, then that is certainly not in accordance with God’s will! At that moment, my notion that “God’s incarnate flesh must be a male” slowly began to disintegrate, but I still didn’t understand why God would adopt the form of a woman to perform His work.
Then, Brother Lu continued to fellowship: “Whether or not God incarnates as a male or female, it’s all for the sake of man’s salvation, for the sake of His management work, and it has extraordinary significance. In the last days, God has come incarnate to express the truth and to reveal this mystery. Let’s read another passage of Almighty God’s words and then we will understand. God’s words say: ‘If God came into the flesh only as a male, people would define Him as male, as the God of men, and would never believe Him to be the God of women. Men would then hold that God is of the same gender as men, that God is the head of men—but what then of women? This is unfair; is it not preferential treatment? If this were the case, then all those whom God saved would be men like Him, and not one woman would be saved. When God created mankind, He created Adam and He created Eve. He did not only create Adam, but made both male and female in His image. God is not only the God of men—He is also the God of women’ (‘The Vision of God’s Work (3)’ in The Word Appears in the Flesh). From God’s words we can see that the Lord Jesus came to work in the form of a man, and if God returned still in the form of a man, we would forever conclude that God is a male, and think that God is the God of men, not the God of women. God knows our true circumstance as corrupt humanity, so in the last days, God has now come to work in the form of a woman to strongly counter our notions. At the same time, He also changes our erroneous understanding of God, removing our notions that delimit God, and letting us know that God is the God of the entire human race. God not only saves men but also women. In God’s eyes, men and women are equal. God took on a different gender the two times He has incarnated, and by doing this God has accomplished the entirety of His work in the flesh, and He has also demonstrated His almightiness, wisdom, wondrousness, and righteousness. God incarnating as a female in the last days is so very meaningful!”
When I heard the brother’s fellowship, I felt very much in agreement, and I thought: “It turns out that God incarnating as a woman in the last days has profound significance. God incarnating twice does indeed show His wisdom, righteousness, and wondrousness.” The notions instilled in me before by pastors and elders had left a strong impression on me, and so I had clung to those notions and believed that, because the Lord Jesus had been a man, the returned Lord could not possibly be a woman, and I simply didn’t pay attention to investigating God’s work and words in the last days, but instead I delimited God by relying on my notions and imaginings. I really had been so ignorant, and that made me prone to committing the same mistakes of resisting the Lord Jesus as the Pharisees had. God is the Creator and we are but created beings. God has the right to decide what work He wants to do, and the form He chooses to incarnate in. How was I qualified in any way to delimit God’s work? As a created being, I knew then that I should seek, obey, and humbly accept.
I See Through to the Essence of the Pastors and Elders
The brother’s fellowship helped me a lot. I also felt that Almighty God was very likely to be the returned Lord Jesus. But once I thought of how the pastors and preachers had often told us to guard against heresy, I began to have doubts again. I thought to myself, “Why do the pastors and elders all resist and condemn the work of Almighty God? They all know the Bible well and they all work for the Lord, so it’s safer to heed the pastors’ words. If I go astray in my belief, would I not then be betraying the Lord?” But then I thought, “If the Lord really has returned but I don’t accept Him, then I will lose my chance to be raptured up into heaven.” I then prayed to the Lord asking for Him to guide and lead me.
I then went onto YouTube and watched many videos of sermons by famous pastors and I found that everything they preached was either theological theory, which couldn’t at all supply my spiritual needs, or accusations and slanders against Eastern Lightning that had no factual evidence. I felt very disappointed. Then I carefully pondered the words of God which brothers and sisters from The Church of Almighty God had read for me, and I felt that the words of Almighty God contained the truth. I took up Almighty God’s words and began to read, and the more I read, the more I felt that the words had authority, power, and majesty, and were not words that we humans could have spoken. In my heart, I became certain that these words were indeed the utterances of the Holy Spirit. Almighty God’s words uncovered many truths and mysteries in the Bible, such as the mysteries of God’s name, the significance of the incarnation, what kinds of people can enter the heavenly kingdom, the path to the heavenly kingdom, and so on. They dispelled much of my confusion and allowed me to enjoy being supplied and watered by God’s living water of life. My faith in and love for God was restored, and my spirit was filled with enjoyment. I became certain that Almighty God is the returned Lord Jesus—God really has returned in the flesh! Afterward, I watched gospel movies and dance and song videos produced by The Church of Almighty God. They all spread and testify to God’s last days’ work, and more and more true believers in God are hearing God’s voice and are turning back to God one after another. This allowed me to see that anything that comes from God must flourish!
Later, during a meeting with brothers and sisters, we read a passage of the words of God: “Those who read the Bible in grand churches recite the Bible every day, yet not one understands the purpose of God’s work. Not one is able to know God; moreover, not one is in accord with the heart of God. They are all worthless, vile men, each standing on high to teach God. Though they brandish the name of God, they willfully oppose Him. Though they label themselves believers of God, they are ones who eat the flesh and drink the blood of man. All such men are devils who devour the soul of man, demons who purposefully disturb those who try to step onto the right path, and stumbling blocks that impede the path of those who seek God. Though they are of ‘robust flesh,’ how are their followers to know that they are antichrists who lead man in opposition to God? How are they to know that they are living devils who specially seek souls to devour?” (“All Who Do Not Know God Are Those Who Oppose God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).
A sister fellowshiped with me, “Almighty God’s words have revealed the religious leaders’ essence of hatred for the truth. Though they are familiar with the Bible and can work hard for the Lord, they don’t know God or His work. They have no reverence for God whatsoever. They never teach believers to practice or experience the Lord’s words. They even make use of their work and preaching to exalt themselves and show themselves off, to make believers worship and look up to themselves, and to bring people before themselves. They are totally engaged in their own personal enterprise. In the last days, when Almighty God appears and works, believers who truly believe in the Lord and love the truth hear Almighty God’s utterances, and one by one they accept Almighty God’s work of the last days. Seeing so many believers turning to Almighty God, the pastors and elders are afraid of not being able to keep their positions and livelihoods, so they do their utmost to seal the church, spread fallacies and heresies to deceive believers and to stop them from investigating and accepting Almighty God’s work of the last days. They keep believers firmly under their domain, and they even make believers who don’t know the truth go along with them in their resistance to God. The pastors and elders are totally the obstacles and stumbling blocks that obstruct people from entering the heavenly kingdom. They will not stop until they pull people straight down to hell! Let’s think back to the time when the Lord Jesus came to work and preach. He performed many signs and wonders, such as feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish, making the lame walk and the blind see, raising the dead, and so forth. It caused a sensation in the Jewish land and the number of people who followed the Lord Jesus grew and grew. The chief priests, scribes and Pharisees saw that the Lord Jesus’ work and words had authority and power, but to protect their status and livelihoods, they did all they could to condemn, make up rumors about and frame the Lord Jesus, and in the end they even nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross. They offended God’s disposition and they suffered God’s punishment. It can be seen that the pastors and elders today resist and condemn Almighty God for the very same reason the Jewish Pharisees resisted the Lord Jesus. They are all people who are sick of the truth, hate the truth, and resist God. They are all hypocritical Pharisees and antichrists.”
From the sister’s fellowship I understood that, although the pastors and elders are familiar with the Bible and although they often work and preach, they don’t truly yearn for the Lord’s appearance. Conversely, they harbor an incredible hatred for the truth. In order to protect their positions and livelihoods, though they know perfectly well that Almighty God’s words are the truth, they don’t lead us to seek and investigate them. They even put about notions and fallacies to confuse us, to make us delimit and resist God along with them, and to refuse to investigate the true way. They are so insidious and malicious! They are the stumbling rocks that obstruct us from welcoming the Lord, the modern-day Pharisees, and the antichrists who devour our souls!
After investigating and seeking for some time, I understood from Almighty God’s words the significance of God incarnating as a woman in the last days, and also saw through to the pastors’ and elders’ God-resisting and antichrist essence. From my experience, I truly felt that if we don’t seek the truth in our belief in God, and instead become arrogant, treating God’s work based on our notions and imaginings, or we have no place for God in our hearts, blindly idolizing the pastors and elders and listening to their teachings, then it is very easy for us to make the mistake of resisting God, and thus we lose His salvation. Thanks be to God that I have had the opportunity to hear what the Holy Spirit says to the churches and to welcome the appearance of the Lord—this is all a special blessing from God and I thank God for saving me!
From Eastern Lightning
0 Comments