Gospel Testimonies

The Lord Has Appeared in the East

By Qiu Zhen, China

One day, my younger sister called me to say that she was back from the north and that she had something important to tell me. She asked me to come over right away. I had a feeling that something bad might have happened, so I went over to her house straight away. It was only when I'd got to her place and saw her reading a book that my uneasiness left me. My sister saw me come in, jumped up and said cheerfully, "Qiu Zhen! This time in the north I heard some good news: The Lord Jesus has returned!"

After hearing my sister say this, I distractedly thought: "Over the past few years Eastern Lightning has been testifying that the Lord Jesus has returned; could it be that my sister has accepted Eastern Lightning?" Before I could speak, my sister said seriously, "Oh, Qiu Zhen! The Lord has incarnated again and has come to our country, China." I hurriedly said, "Don't believe everything you hear. Can God come to China? In the Bible it says very clearly: 'And His feet shall stand in that day on the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall split in the middle thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south' (Zechariah 14:4). The coming of God will be in Israel. He cannot come to China. You work for the Lord and yet you don't even know this!"

My sister said sincerely, "I used to think the way you do, but through the words of Almighty God and the fellowship of brothers and sisters, I have realized that the Lord really has incarnated in China. The scripture you speak of is a prophecy, but prophecies cannot be interpreted however we want. They are fulfilled and made visible to man through the facts of God's work. When the Lord Jesus came to carry out work, neither Peter nor the Samaritan woman, nor the eunuch of Ethiopia clung to the literal meaning of the prophecies of the Bible, but rather it was the facts of what the Lord Jesus said and the work He carried out that affirmed to them that the Messiah had come as the Lord Jesus. They all followed God's footsteps and received the Lord's salvation. And those Pharisees who clung to the literal meaning of the prophecies of the Bible all treated the Lord Jesus, the Messiah who had already come, as an ordinary person and denied, resisted and condemned the Lord Jesus. In the end they crucified the Lord Jesus, and thus were punished by God. Qiu Zhen, we must handle the Lord's coming carefully and we must have God-fearing hearts. You really mustn't be too quick to judge this matter!"

I glanced at my sister and held the Bible up and said, "Jehovah God promulgated the law in Israel and the Lord Jesus was crucified in Israel too. China is a country ruled by an atheistic party, so would God come to such a country? We have believed in the Lord for so many years, and we absolutely must not believe everything we hear!"

My sister said anxiously, "Qiu Zhen, when the Lord Jesus was performing His work at that time, the Pharisees resisted the Lord and said, 'Search, and look: for out of Galilee rises no prophet' (John 7:52). 'Shall Christ come out of Galilee?' (John 7:41). But in fact, the Lord Jesus grew up in Nazareth in Galilee. The Bible says: 'O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been His counselor?' (Romans 11:33–34). How can we fathom God's wisdom? We cannot analyze God's work with our own minds. We look forward to the coming of the Lord every day. Now that the Lord has really returned, if we hold onto our own notions and do not seek or investigate, we will miss the opportunity to welcome the Lord and we will be full of remorse!"

Seeing my sister look so serious, I thought: "My sister sincerely believes in the Lord and is a thoughtful person who knows her own mind. She is generally careful about what she does, and for such a big deal as the Lord's coming, she is even less likely to just blindly believe what someone else says. She has now accepted Eastern Lightning, so could it be that the Lord has really returned and is performing His work in China?" But then another thought came to me: "How could the Lord perform His work in China? It's too unimaginable!" So I said firmly, "The Bible is like a cake with a thousand layers, and each person's way of interpreting it is different. The Bible prophesies that God will actually descend in Israel in the last days. Moreover, most Chinese people worship Buddha and the national government has always persecuted religious beliefs. God will not come to China to perform His work!"