The Plague Is Upon Us: How to Obtain God’s Mercy and Protection

Nowadays, disasters around the world are becoming ever more severe. Earthquakes, pandemics, floods, droughts, insect plagues, etc. occur frequently, and especially the COVID-19 virus, which broke out in 2019, has spread all over the globe. People are dying in droves all around the world and many more are in a constant state of panic, sensing that the great disasters are upon us. No one knows how long this pandemic will last or how many lives it will claim. Those who believe in God, however, know in their hearts that all things happen with God’s permission, and that absolutely nothing can happen without it. So what is God’s will in permitting these disasters to come upon us?

**Contents**

Look Back in History and Seek God’s Will

God Hopes That People Can Repent

How to Achieve True Repentance and Gain God’s Protection

Take Heed of God’s Admonitions

**Look Back in History and Seek God’s Will**

It is recorded in the Old Testament that the people of Sodom were evil, promiscuous, and corrupt, and that the city was brimming with bloodlust and slaughter, so much so that the people there even wanted to kill angels. Repentance never even occurred to them, and so God rained fire down upon them from heaven and destroyed them all. Those well-versed in the Bible, however, know that before God brought calamity upon the city, Abraham beseeched God on Sodom’s behalf. Here is an extract of this record from the Bible: “**And Jehovah said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.** … And he said, … Peradventure ten shall be found there. And He said, **I will not destroy it for ten’s sake**” (Genesis 18:26–32). These verses not only reveal God’s righteous disposition, but even more so give us a sense of God’s great mercy and lenience. God would have spared Sodom if just ten righteous people could be found. In spite of how deeply corrupt and wicked people were, God still hoped they would repent. It is a painful fact that not even ten righteous people could be found in such a large city, and so God ultimately had no choice but to destroy it.

The people now living in this world, teeming with temptations, are even worse than the people of Sodom all those years ago. People today have been corrupted by Satan to such an extreme: They adore evil and love unrighteousness; the earth is awash with violence and adultery, and you can see karaoke bars, foot massage parlors, hotels, and dance clubs everywhere along main streets and small alleyways. Such places are filled with evil and promiscuity. Everyone lives to eat, drink, have fun, and indulge in physical pleasures, depraved in the extreme. There is no love between people, but everyone deceives, fights and vies with each other for status, fame and fortune; they cheat and scheme against one another, and even come to blows over money and profit. The whole of mankind lives under Satan’s domain, and no one has any love for positive things, or yearns for the light, or comes forward to accept the grace of God’s salvation. Even believers live in a cycle of sinning and confessing, totally unable to stay true to the Lord’s teachings. They go so far as to follow worldly trends and pursue pleasures of the flesh. Even when they know they are living in sin, they still cannot cast off the bonds of sin—their hearts have strayed too far from God. Didn’t the whole of mankind, corrupted to such an extreme, long ago reach the point where they should have been destroyed?

**God Hopes That People Can Repent**

Disasters are occurring one after another, and God’s will is for us to come before Him to repent. He wishes for everyone to repent and does not want anyone to perish. Two thousand years ago, the Lord Jesus said, “**Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand**” (Matthew 4:17). At this point, some of you may say, “Unbelievers don’t believe in God and cannot possibly repent. After gaining faith in the Lord, however, we often cry bitterly before Him as we pray. We admit our past sins, and we won’t do anything bad again. We can be tolerant and patient with others. We can give to charity and make donations and help others, even we can spend all our time toiling and working for the Lord, and we won’t betray the Lord even if we’re arrested and put in prison. Isn’t this true repentance? If we steadfastly practice in this way, then the Lord will protect us and keep us from being swept away by the disasters.” But is this really the case? The Lord Jesus once said, “**Whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant stays not in the house for ever: but the son stays ever**” (John 8:34–35). After we gain faith in the Lord, we can be humble and patient, we can help others, and we can make sacrifices, expend ourselves, preach the gospel, bear witness to the Lord, and we have some external good behaviors. What we cannot deny, however, is that the corrupt dispositions that lie within us, such as arrogance, deceit, rigidity, evil, and viciousness, have not been cleansed, and we are still capable of sinning all the time. For example, we know very well that the Lord requires us to be honest, but controlled by our deceitful nature, as soon as something infringes upon our own personal interests, we can’t help but tell lies and engage in deceit; controlled by our arrogant, conceited nature, we always make others do what we say no matter what it is, and when they don’t we get angry and lecture them; and when disasters and trials befall, we complain and blame the Lord. These are just a few examples. Our sins are like weeds—they grow right back after being cut down. Even if we cry bitterly every day as we pray and confess our sins, we still do not change. Can this be true repentance? Who could guarantee that God would protect such a person in the midst of the disasters? True repentance is when someone’s satanic corrupt dispositions are entirely cleansed and changed, when they no longer do evil, commit sin, or resist God. It’s when they can truly submit to God and worship God. Only people like this are fit to inherit God’s promises and blessings and enter the kingdom of heaven. Just as it says in the Bible: “**[Y]ou shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45). “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city**” (Revelation 22:14).

**How to Achieve True Repentance and Gain God’s Protection**

How then can we achieve true repentance? The Lord Jesus once said, “**I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come” (John 16:12–13). “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God**” (1 Peter 4:17). “**Sanctify them through Your truth: Your word is truth**” (John 17:17). The Lord prophesied that He would return in the last days, that He would express more and higher truths than in the Age of Grace, and that He would perform a stage of work to judge and cleanse man. This is so that we can be freed from the bonds of sin once and for all and be cleansed and transformed. Because the work the Lord Jesus did in the Age of Grace was the work of redemption, people could have their sins forgiven by believing in Him. People were not cleansed of their sinful nature, however. Only by accepting the Lord’s work of judgment in the last days, having our corrupt dispositions cleansed and changed, and never again doing evil, committing sin, or resisting God, can we be said to have truly repented. Only then will we come under God’s protection and survive the disasters.

The Lord Jesus has already returned. He is the incarnated Almighty God. Almighty God—Christ of the last days—is performing the work of judgment beginning with the house of God on the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption. Almighty God says, “**In the last days, Christ uses a variety of truths to teach man, to expose the essence of man, and to dissect the words and deeds of man. These words comprise various truths…. In undertaking His work of judgment, God does not simply make clear the nature of man with a few words; He exposes, deals with, and prunes over the long term. These methods of exposure, dealing, and pruning cannot be substituted with ordinary words, but with the truth of which man is utterly bereft. Only methods such as these can be called judgment; only through judgment of this kind can man be subdued and thoroughly convinced into submission to God, and moreover gain true knowledge of God. What the work of judgment brings about is man’s understanding of the true face of God and the truth about his own rebelliousness. The work of judgment allows man to gain much understanding of the will of God, of the purpose of God’s work, and of the mysteries that are incomprehensible to him. It also allows man to recognize and know his corrupt substance and the roots of his corruption, as well as to discover the ugliness of man. These effects are all brought about by the work of judgment, for the substance of this work is actually the work of opening up the truth, the way, and the life of God to all those who have faith in Him**” (“Christ Does the Work of Judgment With the Truth” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

In order to save us from the fetters of our satanic dispositions, Almighty God expresses all the truths that can cleanse us and fully save us. He unveils the mysteries of God’s six-thousand-year management work; He reveals the source of the world’s evil, as well as the essence and truth of mankind’s corruption by Satan. By experiencing the judgment of God’s words, we see how deeply corrupted by Satan we are. Arrogance, deceitfulness, rigidity, wickedness, viciousness—nothing we live out has any semblance of humanity, arousing God’s loathing and hatred for us. At the same time, we come to know God’s righteous disposition that tolerates no offense. We recognize that we are always living by our satanic corrupt dispositions, and that if we do not practice the truth, then God will surely detest and reject us. Only then do we prostrate ourselves before God and repent. We hate our sins and wish to live by God’s words. By forsaking our flesh over and over and practicing the truth, our corrupt dispositions are gradually cleansed and changed. We no longer rebel against God or resist Him, and we begin to truly submit to God and revere Him. Only people like this are those who have true repentance and will be protected by God and survive the disasters.

Almighty God appeared and began His work 30 years ago. The gospel work has spread far and wide to every nation on earth, and the millions of words expressed by Almighty God have long been published online. These words have been translated into over 20 languages; they bear witness and are openly available for all mankind. In this most dark and evil age, the truths expressed by Christ of the last days appear like the true light, like lightning, that flashes from the East to the West. They bear witness to all of mankind: God has appeared and the Lord Jesus has returned. He expresses the truth to cleanse and save man, and the only way for man to attain full salvation is to accept Almighty God. However, mankind has been very deeply corrupted by Satan. No one loves the truth. All people want is to covet the pleasures of sin. They are not willing to investigate Almighty God’s work of the last days or accept His judgment and chastisement in the last days. Instead, people have deeply entrenched notions about God’s work, and some even openly resist and condemn God’s work of the last days. Everyone lives in sin without any thought of repentance. So few yearn for the truth or long for the light. The disasters we see today are God’s final reminder, His final warning, to mankind. Even more than that, they are God’s salvation. Only by coming before God to repent can we gain God’s protection from the disasters.

**Take Heed of God’s Admonitions**

Almighty God says, “**All manner of disasters will befall, one after another; all nations and places will experience calamities: Plague, famine, flood, drought, and earthquakes are everywhere. These disasters are not just happening in one or two places, nor will they be over within a day or two; rather, instead they will expand across a greater and greater area, and become more and more severe. During this time, all manner of insect plagues will arise one after another, and the phenomenon of cannibalism will occur everywhere. This is My judgment upon all nations and peoples**” (“Chapter 65” of Utterances of Christ in the Beginning in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “**If mankind wishes to have a good fate, if a country wishes to have a good fate, then man must bow down to God in worship, repent and confess before God, or else the fate and destination of man will be an unavoidable catastrophe” (“God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). “My final work is not only for the sake of punishing man, but also for the sake of arranging the destination of man. Moreover, it is so that all people may acknowledge My deeds and actions. I want each and every person to see that all I have done is right, and that all I have done is an expression of My disposition. It is not man’s doing, much less nature, that brought forth mankind, but I, who nourish every living being in creation. Without My existence, mankind will only perish and suffer the scourge of calamity. No human being will ever again see the beauteous sun and moon, or the verdant world; mankind shall encounter only the frigid night and the inexorable valley of the shadow of death. I am mankind’s only salvation. I am mankind’s only hope and, even more, I am He on whom the existence of all mankind rests. Without Me, mankind will immediately come to a standstill. Without Me, mankind will suffer catastrophe and be trampled underfoot by all manner of ghosts, though no one takes heed of Me. I have done work that can be done by no other, and hope only that man can repay Me with some good deeds**” (“Prepare Sufficient Good Deeds for Your Destination” in The Word Appears in the Flesh).

Disasters are becoming worse and worse all over the world, spreading across larger and larger areas. Those who have been doomed cannot escape, and it feels as though the end of the world will soon be upon us. We all know, however, that God rules our fates and all disasters are in His hands. Only if we come before God to repent and accept His judgment and chastisement in the last days will we have the chance to be protected by God from the disasters and survive. The way the world is going is unfolding before our very eyes. Once God has saved all those He can save, He will use the great disasters to destroy this wicked, unclean world. When that time comes, those who have not come before God will be swept away by the disasters, weeping and gnashing their teeth.

Source From: The Plague Is Upon Us: How to Obtain God’s Mercy and Protection