7. You testify that God does the work of judgment during the last days in order to utterly cleanse man and save man, but I have read the words expressed by Almighty God, and some of them are quite severe—they condemn and curse man. Is this not the punishment of man? How can it be called the cleansing and salvation of man?
Relevant Words of God:
In His final work of concluding the age, God’s disposition is one of chastisement and judgment, in which He reveals all that is unrighteous, in order to publicly judge the myriad peoples, and to perfect those who sincerely love Him. Only a disposition such as this can bring the age to an end. The last days have already arrived. All things are sorted according to their kind, and divided into different categories based on their different qualities. This is precisely the time when God reveals people’s outcomes and destinations. If people do not experience chastisement and judgment, then their rebelliousness and unrighteousness cannot be exposed. Only through chastisement and judgment can the outcomes of all things be revealed. People only show their true colors when they are chastised and judged. Evil shall be put with evil, good with good, and all people shall be sorted according to their kind. Through chastisement and judgment, the outcomes of all things will be revealed, so that the evil may be punished and the good rewarded, and the myriad people surrender to the dominion of God. All this work must be achieved through righteous chastisement and judgment. Because people’s corruption has reached its peak and their rebelliousness is exceedingly severe, only God’s righteous disposition, one that is principally compounded of chastisement and judgment and is revealed during the last days, can fully transform people and make them complete, and reveal evil, and all the unrighteous will thus be severely punished. Therefore, a disposition such as this is imbued with the significance of the age. God’s disposition is revealed and disclosed for the sake of the work of each new age. It is not that God reveals His disposition arbitrarily and without significance. Suppose that, in the last days of revealing people’s outcomes, God were still to love people with infinite mercy and lovingkindness, and continue to be loving toward them, not subjecting them to righteous judgment but rather showing them tolerance, patience, and forgiveness, and pardoning them no matter how grave their sins were, without any jot of righteous judgment. When then would all of God’s management ever be brought to a close? When would a disposition such as this be able to lead people into mankind’s appropriate destination? Take, for example, a judge who is always loving toward people, a loving judge with a kindly face and a gentle heart. He loves people no matter what crimes they have committed, and he is loving to and forbearing with people no matter who they are. In that case, when will he ever be able to reach a just verdict? During the last days, only righteous judgment can sort people according to their kind and bring them into a new realm. In this way, the entire age is brought to an end through God’s righteous disposition of judgment and chastisement.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Vision of God’s Work (3)
Though My words are stern, they are all salvation for man, as I am only speaking words and not punishing man’s flesh. These words cause man to live in the light, to know that the light exists, to know that the light is precious, and, even more so, to know how beneficial these words are to him, as well as to know that God is salvation. Though I have uttered many words of chastisement and judgment, nothing has actually come upon you. I have come precisely to do My work and to speak My words, and though My words are stern, they are spoken in judgment of your corruption and your rebelliousness. The purpose of My doing this remains to save man from Satan’s power. The purpose is to use My words to save man; it is not to harm man with My words. My words are stern in order to achieve results in My work. Only through such work can man come to know himself and break away from his rebellious disposition.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. You Should Put Aside the Blessings of Status and Understand God’s Intention to Bring Salvation to Man
By what means is God’s perfection of man accomplished? It is accomplished by means of His righteous disposition. God’s disposition primarily consists of righteousness, wrath, majesty, judgment, and curse, and He perfects man primarily by means of His judgment. Some people do not understand, and ask why it is that God is only able to make man perfect through judgment and curse. They say, “If God were to curse man, wouldn’t man die? If God were to judge man, wouldn’t man be condemned? Then how can he still be made perfect?” Such are the words of people who do not know the work of God. What God curses is the rebelliousness of man, and what He judges are the sins of man. Although He speaks harshly and without sparing man’s feelings at all, and He exposes all that is within man, exposing through some stern words that which is substantive within man, through such judgment, He gives man a profound knowledge of the substance of the flesh, and thus man submits before God. The flesh of man is of sin and of Satan, it is rebellious, and it is the object of God’s chastisement. Thus, in order to allow man to know himself, the words of God’s judgment must befall him and there must be employed every kind of refinement; only then can God’s work be effective.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only by Experiencing Painful Trials Can You Know the Loveliness of God
God uses His judgment to make man perfect, He has loved man, and saved man—but how much is contained within His love? There is judgment, majesty, wrath, and curse. Though God cursed man in the past, He did not completely cast man into the bottomless pit, but used that means to refine man’s faith; He did not put man to death, but acted in order to make man perfect. The substance of the flesh is that which is of Satan—God said it exactly right—but the facts carried out by God are not completed according to His words. He curses you so that you might love Him, and so that you might know the substance of the flesh; He chastises you so that you might be awakened, to allow you to know the deficiencies within you, and to know man’s utter unworthiness. Thus, God’s curses, His judgment, and His majesty and wrath—they are all in order to make man perfect. All that God does today, and the righteous disposition that He reveals through you—it is all in order to make man perfect. Such is the love of God.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only by Experiencing Painful Trials Can You Know the Loveliness of God
Although to man, God’s chastisement and judgment are refinement, merciless exposure, and things carried out for the purpose of punishing them for their sins and punishing their flesh, none of this work is intended to condemn their flesh to destruction. The severe exposure of the word is all for the purpose of leading you onto the right path. You have personally experienced so much of this work and, clearly, it has not led you onto an evil path! It is all in order to make you live out normal humanity, and it is all achievable by your normal humanity. Every step of God’s work is based upon your needs, according to your weaknesses, and according to your actual stature, and no unbearable burden is forced upon you. This is not clear to you today, and you feel as if I am being hard on you, and you always believe that the reason I chastise, judge and reproach you every day is because I hate you. But although what you receive is chastisement and judgment, this is actually love for you, and it is the greatest protection. If you cannot grasp the deeper meaning of this work, it will be impossible for you to continue experiencing. You should gain comfort from this salvation. Do not refuse to come to your senses. Having come this far, the significance of the work of conquest should be clear to you, and you should no longer hold opinions about it one way or another!
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Real Story of the Work of Conquest (4)
Today God judges you, chastises you, and condemns you, but you must know that the point of your condemnation is for you to know yourself. He condemns, curses, judges, and chastises so that you might know yourself, so that your disposition might change, and, moreover, so that you might know your worth, and see that all of God’s actions are righteous and in accordance with His disposition and the requirements of His work, that He works in accordance with His plan for man’s salvation, and that He is the righteous God who loves, saves, judges, and chastises man. If you only know that you are of lowly status, that you are corrupt and rebellious, but do not know that God wishes to reveal His salvation through the judgment and chastisement that He does in you today, then you have no way of experiencing things, much less are you capable of continuing forward. God has not come to strike down or destroy people, but to judge, curse, chastise, and save them. Until His 6,000-year management plan comes to a close—before He reveals the outcome of each category of man—God’s work on earth will be for the sake of salvation; its purpose is purely to make those who love Him complete—thoroughly so—and to bring them to surrender under His dominion. No matter how God saves people, it is all done by making them break away from their old satanic nature; that is, He saves them by having them pursue life. If they do not do so, then they will have no way to accept God’s salvation. Salvation is the work of God Himself, and the pursuit of life is something that man must take on in order to accept salvation. In the eyes of man, salvation is the love of God, and the love of God cannot be chastisement, judgment, and curses; salvation must contain mercy, lovingkindness, and, moreover, words of solace, as well as boundless blessings bestowed by God. People believe that when God saves man, He does so by moving him with His blessings and grace, so that he can give his heart to God. That is to say, His touching man is His saving him. This sort of salvation is done by striking a deal. Only when God grants him a hundredfold will man come to surrender before God’s name and strive to do well for Him and bring Him glory. This is not what God intends for mankind. God has come to work on earth in order to save corrupt mankind; there is no falsehood in this. If there were, He would certainly not have come to do His work in person. In the past, His means of salvation involved showing the utmost mercy and lovingkindness, such that He gave His all to Satan in exchange for the whole of mankind. The present is nothing like the past: The salvation bestowed upon you today occurs at the time of the last days, when each is sorted according to their kind; the means of your salvation is not mercy or lovingkindness, but chastisement and judgment, in order that man may be more thoroughly saved. Thus, all that you receive is chastisement, judgment, and merciless smiting, but know this: In this heartless smiting there is not the slightest punishment. Regardless of how harsh My words might be, what befall you are but a few words that might appear utterly heartless to you, and no matter how angry I might be, what come upon you are still words of reproach, and I do not mean to harm you or put you to death. Is this not all fact? Know that nowadays, whether it be righteous judgment or unfeeling refinement and chastisement, everything is for the sake of salvation. Regardless of whether today each will be sorted according to their kind or whether all sorts of people will be revealed, the purpose of all of God’s words and work is to save those who truly love God. Righteous judgment is brought to purify man, and heartless refinement is done to cleanse him; harsh words or chastening are both done to purify and are for the sake of salvation.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. You Should Put Aside the Blessings of Status and Understand God’s Intention to Bring Salvation to Man
