What is in the Bible?

Answer 1

The answer from God's word：

Concerning the Bible (1)：goo.gl/15jrJe

When the Age of Grace arrived, people had already been reading the Bible for generations, though they only had the Old Testament, not the New. People had been reading the Bible for as long as the Old Testament was in existence. After the period of Jehovah's guidance, Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, and so on, recollecting Jehovah's work and committing it to paper. The Bible is a history book, and it also contains the words of the prophets, which, of course, are not history. It has several different parts, and is not just prophecies, records of Jehovah's work, or letters from Paul. You should be familiar with the parts of the Bible. The Old Testament includes Genesis, Exodus … then the books of prophecy, concluding with the Book of Malachi, all of which records the work of the Age of Law under the guidance of Jehovah. From Genesis to the Book of Malachi, the Old Testament is a comprehensive account of Jehovah's work in the Age of Law. The experiences of the people whom Jehovah led are all recorded there. During the Old Testament Age of Law, Jehovah raised up many prophets to speak His prophecies, instructing the people of all the tribes and clans, foretelling the work that He planned to do. These were people upon whom Jehovah bestowed the Spirit of prophecy. They saw visions and heard voices from Him, thereby receiving revelations to write prophecies. Their work was to express the voice of Jehovah, to prophesy on Jehovah's behalf. When Jehovah worked then, He only guided people as the Spirit, and He was not incarnated; people could not see His face at all. And so He raised up these prophets to do His work, allowed them to receive oracles and reveal to all the tribes and clans of Israel. Their job was to utter prophecies, and some of them recorded Jehovah's words for others to read. Jehovah raised them up to foretell the work that He would do or had not yet done, so that the people would see His wondrousness and wisdom. These books of prophecy are quite different from the other books of the Bible; they are words spoken or written by people who received the Spirit of prophecy, those who saw visions or heard voices from Jehovah. All the other books are records of Jehovah's work written after the fact. These books are no substitute for the words of the prophets raised up by Jehovah; for example, Genesis and Exodus cannot compare with the Book of Isaiah or the Book of Daniel. The prophecies are words spoken before the work was done, and the other books are records of Jehovah's work written afterward, an act of which human beings are capable. The prophets, receiving revelation from Jehovah, made some prophecies, said many words, foretelling things about the Age of Grace and the destruction of the world in the last days, that is, prophesying the work that Jehovah planned to do; the other books are all records of Jehovah's work in Israel. So what one reads about in the Bible is mostly the work that Jehovah did in Israel. The Old Testament mostly records how Jehovah guided the Israelites-by means of Moses, He led them out of Egypt free from Pharaoh's bondage, and into the desert, then into the land of Canaan. Then it describes their lives in Canaan, as well as Jehovah's work in various parts of Israel. The Old Testament is a record of Jehovah's work in Israel, where He created Adam and Eve. Beginning with Noah, when Jehovah began formally guiding mankind on earth, the Bible records only the work that He did in Israel. Why is there no record of God's work outside of Israel? Because Israel is the birthplace of mankind; there were no countries outside of Israel then, and Jehovah did no work there. So the Bible records only God's work in Israel. The words of the prophets-Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and so on-foretold other work that would take place on earth, work that Jehovah God would do Himself. They came from God, and they were the work of the Holy Spirit. Except for the books of the prophets, all the other parts of the Bible are records of man's experiences of Jehovah's work.

God created the world before He created mankind, but the Book of Genesis was written by Moses during the Age of Law, after humanity was already in existence. Imagine something happened to you today, and you recorded it afterward so that people in the future could read about it. For future generations, this would just be a record of events that happened in a past era, and could only be read as history. The Old Testament, which describes Jehovah's work in Israel, and the New Testament, which describes Jesus' work in the Age of Grace, are both records of God's work in two different eras. The Old Testament records His work in the Age of Law, and so it is a history book. The New Testament is a product of God's work in the Age of Grace, and when the new work has begun, they become out of date. So the New Testament is also a history book. Of course, the New Testament is not as systematic as the Old and does not record as many things. The Bible contains many things that Jehovah said during the Old Testament, but only some words of Jesus are recorded in the Four Gospels. Naturally, Jesus did much work as well, but it is not recorded in as much detail. The reason that the New Testament records fewer things is that Jesus did less work. The amount of the work that Jesus did during those three and a half years, and the work that His disciples did, is much smaller compared to what Jehovah did. So the New Testament contains fewer books than the Old.

Just what kind of book is the Bible, exactly? The Old Testament concerns God's work in the Age of Law; it documents the work that Jehovah did in that age as well as Jehovah's creation of the world. All of it is an account of Jehovah's work, ending with the Book of Malachi. The two components of God's work recorded in the Old Testament-the creation of the world and the promulgation of the law-were both done by Jehovah. The Age of Law is the work that represents God's name, Jehovah, all of the work that was done primarily in the name of Jehovah. So the Old Testament records Jehovah's work, and the New Testament records the work of Jesus, the work done primarily in Jesus' name. What Jesus' name signifies, and what work He did, are for the most part all recorded in the New Testament. In the days of the Old Testament, Jehovah built the temple and altar in Israel and guided the lives of the Israelites on earth, proving that the Israelites were His chosen people, the first group of people He selected on earth who were after His own heart, the first whom He led personally. In other words, the twelve tribes of Israel were His first chosen people, so Jehovah continued to work on them until the end of His work during the Age of Law. The second stage of God's work-the work of the New Testament Age of Grace-He did in the tribe of Judah, one of the twelve tribes of Israel, thereby narrowing the scope of His work, because Jesus was God incarnate. He worked solely in the land of Judea, and for just three and a half years, which is why the records of the New Testament are so few compared to the Old. Jesus' work in the Age of Grace is mostly recorded in the Four Gospels. The path walked by the people of that age was that of the most superficial transformation of life disposition; this is mostly documented in the epistles. From the epistles one can see how the Holy Spirit worked in those days. (Of course, regardless of whether Paul was chastised or punished, he worked at the Holy Spirit's behest, was used by the Holy Spirit. Peter was used by the Holy Spirit as well, but he did not do as much work as Paul. Through Paul's letters one can learn about how the Holy Spirit worked; the path he led was the right one, the correct one, the path walked by the Holy Spirit.)

To understand God's work in the Age of Law and how the Israelites followed Jehovah's way, you must read the Old Testament. To understand His work in the Age of Grace, you must read the New Testament. How will you understand the work of the last days, then? You have to accept God's guidance and enter into His work today, because this is the new work, which no one could "record" beforehand in the Bible. Today God has been incarnated and elected some chosen people in China. In these people God is performing His work, continuing His work on earth, continuing the work of the Age of Grace. The work of today is a path that no one has ever walked before, a way that no one has ever seen. It is a work that has never been done before; it is God's latest work on earth. So, the work that has not yet been done is not history, as the present is present, and it is not yet past. Few know that God is now undertaking a greater, newer work on earth outside of Israel, exceeding the scope of Israel and the predictions of the prophets. It is a singular new work, untold of in prophecy, a new work taking place outside of Israel, which man cannot fathom and never could have thought of. How could such work be recorded explicitly in the Bible? Who could have recorded every single detail of today's work in advance? Who could have documented this greater, wiser, convention-defying work in that moldy old book? The work of today is not history. Hence, if you want to walk the new path today, you have to come out of the Bible, step beyond the limits of the books of prophecy and history. Only in this way can you follow the new path successfully, enter into the new realm, the new work. You need to understand why you can no longer read the Bible, why there is another work outside the Bible, and why God has begun another, greater work outside the Bible, rather than seeking a newer, more detailed practice within its pages-you must understand all of these things. You need to understand how the old and the new work differ. Though you don't read the Bible, you have to be able to analyze it. Otherwise you will still worship the Bible, and thus you can hardly enter into the new work and achieve change. Now that there is a higher way, why study the obsolete and lower way? Now that there is new word, a new work, why live in the old history record? The new word can supply you; it shows that this is a new work. The old records cannot sate you, cannot satisfy your present desires; it proves that they are history, not today's work. The highest way is the newest work. And when there is a new work, the old way, no matter how high, becomes history to be recalled by men. No matter how valuable it is as a reference, it is still an old way. The old way is history, even if recorded in the "holy book." The new way is reality, even if it is not mentioned on a single page of the "holy book." This way can save you and transform you, for it is the work of the Holy Spirit.

You all need to understand the Bible-it is very necessary that you do so. Today, you don't need to read the Bible any longer, for there is nothing new in it; it's all outdated. The Bible is a history book. If during the Age of Grace you were to eat and drink the Old Testament, practicing the requirements of the Old Testament age, then Jesus would forsake you, condemn you. If you had tried to impose the Old Testament on Jesus' work, you would have been called a Pharisee. And so today, if you eat and drink and practice the Old and New Testaments, then the God of today will condemn you; you cannot keep pace with the work of the Holy Spirit today. If you eat the Old and New Testaments, then you are one outside the stream of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' day, He led the Jews and all those who followed Him according to the work of the Holy Spirit in Him. He did not look to the Bible for evidence, but spoke as His work dictated. He did not concern Himself with what the Bible said, did not lead His followers down a path found in the Bible. From the very beginning, He preached the way of repentance, and the word "repentance" was not mentioned at all in all the prophecies in the Old Testament. Not only did He not follow the Bible, He brought forth a new path and did a new work. He did not make reference to the Bible when He preached, and the miracles He worked-healing the sick, casting out demons-had never been performed by men during the Age of Law. No one in the Age of Law did the work He did, taught those lessons, had that authority. He simply did His new work, though many people condemned Him, even crucified Him, by using the Bible. His work went beyond the Old Testament; if that had not been the case, why would they have nailed Him to the cross? Was it not because His teachings, His power to cure the sick and cast out demons, had never been recorded in the Old Testament? The work of Jesus was to bring forth a new path; He did not deliberately set out to "wage war" against the Bible or abolish the Old Testament, but simply performed His ministry, bringing the new work to those who thirsted for Him and sought Him out. He was not trying to explain the Old Testament or defend its work. Carrying on the Age of Law was not His goal, for He did not care in the least whether His work was grounded in the Bible, but simply did the job that He needed to do. So He did not attempt to explain the Old Testament prophecies, did not base His work on words spoken in the Old Testament Age of Law. He did not concern Himself with what the Old Testament said, whether it accorded with His own work, did not care how other people saw His work or condemned His work. He simply kept on doing the job He needed to do, though many people condemned Him, invoking the words of the Old Testament prophets. In people's eyes His work was not based on a shred of evidence, and in many ways it ran counter to what was recorded in the Bible. Were they not grossly in the wrong? Must God's work obey any rules? Does He need to follow the words of prophets? Which is greater, the Bible or God? Why must God's work be in line with the Bible? Is it really not within His right to stand above the Bible? Can He not depart from it and do other work? Why did Jesus and His disciples not observe the Sabbath? If He was to observe the Sabbath, to practice the commandments of the Old Testament, then why, after His coming, did He not observe the Sabbath, but washed others' feet and covered His head, broke bread and drank wine? Were these commandments mentioned in the Old Testament? If Jesus was to adhere to the Old Testament, why did He break these rules? You must know which came first, God, or the Bible? As He is the Lord of the Sabbath, can't He also be the Lord of the Bible?

Jesus' task in the age of the New Testament was to begin a new work. He did not follow the work of the Old Testament, did not impose the words of Jehovah onto His work. He had His own job to do, a newer work, a work that was above the law. And so He said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." In accordance with the task He needed to accomplish, He broke many rules. He led the disciples through a wheatfield where they plucked and ate ears of grain. He did not observe the Sabbath, and He said, "The Son of man is the Lord of the Sabbath." According to the customs of the Israelites, anyone who did not observe the Sabbath should be stoned to death, but Jesus did not go into the temple or observe the Sabbath. The work that Jesus did, Jehovah did not do in the days of the Old Testament. And so Jesus' work overstepped Old Testament law, surpassed it, did not adhere to it. In the Age of Grace Jesus did not abide by Old Testament law, and broke those rules. Now some people insist on adhering rigidly to the Bible, particularly to Old Testament law; are they not denying Jesus' work? Some say that the Bible is a holy book, which they are obligated to read; and some say that God's work must never be abolished, and since the Old Testament is God's covenant with the Israelites, it cannot be abolished, and the Sabbath must be observed forever. Are not such people grossly ridiculous? Why, then, did Jesus break the Sabbath? Did He sin? Can anyone truly understand this? Human powers of reception are not great enough to know God's work, regardless of how hard one reads the Bible. Not only can he not gain a pure understanding of God, but instead his notions become more and more severe, to the point that he begins to resist God. If God had not been incarnated today, all humanity would be ruined by their own notions, suffer God's punishment, and die.

Concerning the Bible (2)：goo.gl/xVyTjZ

The Bible is also known as the Old and New Testament. Do you know what "testament" means? The Old Testament is called "testament" because of the covenant that Jehovah established with the Israelites when He struck down the Egyptians and liberated the Israelites from Pharaoh of Egypt. Of course, "the lamb's blood" that the Israelites smeared on their lintels was evidence of the covenant, according to which any household marked with the lamb's blood on their doorframes belonged to the Israelites, God's chosen people, whom Jehovah would spare (for He was then about to strike down all the firstborn sons and cattle of Egypt). The meaning of this covenant was twofold. Jehovah would not save any of the Egyptians or their livestock, and smite all of their firstborn sons and cattle. Thus many of the books of prophecy foretold that the Egyptians would be chastised severely, because of Jehovah's covenant. This is the first meaning. By smiting all the firstborn of the Egyptians and of their livestock and sparing all the Israelites, Jehovah showed that He valued all the people of the land of Israel. He spared all of them because He planned to do a long-term work on them, and He established His covenant with them by the lamb's blood. From then on Jehovah promised not to strike down the Israelites, and He said that the Israelites would be His chosen people forever. He would carry out His entire work in the Age of Law among the twelve tribes of Israel, revealing all of His laws to the Israelites and choosing prophets and judges from among them; they would be the core of His work. By His covenant with them, Jehovah would not work among other peoples, unless a new era had begun. Jehovah's covenant would never change, because it was a compact sworn by blood with His chosen people. Moreover, He limited His entire work in that age to a people and place suitable to it. So for all the people, this covenant was extremely important. This is the second meaning of the covenant. Except for Genesis, which describes events that took place[a]before the covenant was established, all the other books in the Old Testament record God's work among the Israelites after He made this covenant with them. Of course, these books occasionally mention things that happened among other peoples, but for the most part the entire Old Testament concerns God's work in Israel. Because of the covenant Jehovah made with the Israelites, all of the books written during the Age of Law are called the Old Testament; it is taken after Jehovah's covenant with the Israelites.

The New Testament takes its name from the blood shed by Jesus on the cross and the covenant thereby established between Him and all His believers. Jesus' covenant was that anyone who believed in Him would be forgiven of their sins by His blood, would thus be saved, reborn through Him, no longer be a sinner. Anyone who believed in Jesus could receive His grace, and after death they would not taste the bitter suffering of hell. All the books of the Age of Grace were written after this covenant was established and describe the work and words involved in the covenant; they concern only the salvation offered by Jesus on the cross and His covenant, and were all recorded by those brothers in Christ who had experience. And so they are named for this covenant, and together are known as the New Testament. The two testaments cover only two ages, the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. They bear no relation to the final age. So for people today, in the last days, they are not particularly useful. In a pinch they can serve as a reference, no more; they have almost no use value. But the religious people treasure them like nothing else. They do not understand the Bible, only try to explain it, know nothing of its origin. The attitude that they take toward the Bible is that it is completely correct, that it is infallible. Then they start to study it, and because they have decided in advance that the Bible is correct and infallible, they become fascinated with it as they pore over its pages. This stage of work of today was not prophesied in the Bible. To do the conquering work in the darkest of places-this was never mentioned because it is completely new. This is the age of a different work, and even Jesus Himself did not know that this stage of work would unfold in the last days. So how could people, who live in the last days, find evidence of it?

People who attempt to explain the Bible do so, for the most part, by means of logical inference. They know nothing of its actual background, but rather use logic to parse it from various angles. For years no one has dared dissect the Bible, no one has dared utter the word "no," because it is a "holy book" and people worship it as if it were God. This situation has persisted down through thousands of years, without God paying it any heed and without anyone finding out the true story of the Bible. We say that adoring the Bible is a form of idolatry; but no devout believer will dare take this view, and he will admonish you, "Brother, don't say that, that's terrible! How could you blaspheme God?" With a stricken expression on his face, he will go on: "Oh, merciful Savior Jesus, I beg You to forgive his sin, for You are the loving Lord of mankind, and we are all sinners. I beg You, take great pity on us, amen…." You see how devout they are; how could they accept the truth? If you say this to them, it will frighten them deeply. No one dares imagine that the Bible is adulterated by human will and notions. No one sees the chink in the armor. Some of the Bible comes from the experiences and knowledge of individuals, some of it from the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, and some of it is mixed with human thoughts. God never intervenes in these things, though there is a limit, which is that they cannot exceed the bounds of normal human thought. If they do, then it disturbs and disrupts God's work and is Satan's doing, because this is not man's place, but rather is the work of Satan, done at Satan's behest, which the Holy Spirit will not suffer you to do. Sometimes a brother or sister will ask Me, "Can I do such and such a thing?" Observing his or her stature, I say, "Yes!" Someone else will say, "If I do such and such a thing, is it a normal state?" And I say, "Yes, very normal!" Then another person will say, "Can I do such and such a thing?" And I say, "No!" He will say, "Why can he do that, and I cannot?" And I say, "Because when you do it, it comes from Satan, and stirs up trouble. Your intentions are rooted in the wrong place." Sometimes the work has not yet reached a certain stage, and the brothers and sisters do not know it. One of them asks Me if he can do such and such a thing, and seeing that it would not interfere with the coming work, I say, "Yes." The Holy Spirit's work gives man a set of parameters; it is not that man must absolutely adhere to the Holy Spirit's original intentions, for man has normal human thoughts and normal human weaknesses, certain needs of the flesh and certain practical problems, and man gets certain ideas that he has no control over. Everything I ask of man has a limit, and some people think I am being ambiguous in saying, "Yes, you can do this, and you can also do that," because they[b] do not understand that My requirements for man are always governed by a set of reasonable parameters. If I were to do as you imagine, asking the same thing of all people, demanding that everyone achieve the same stature, it would not work-that would be asking for the unachievable. Man works by such principle, not God. God's work accords with man's practical circumstances and differs according to each man's actual caliber. This is equally true of spreading the gospel: You must go slowly, letting things take their natural course. Only when the truth becomes evident to a man will he be willing to accept it and lay aside the Bible. If God were not doing this stage of work, who could break with established practice? Who could undertake a new work? Who could find a new way outside of the Bible? People are too mired in traditional notions and feudal ethics; they cannot break free of them, and moreover they do not have the courage to break free. What's more, their minds are held tight in the grip of dead biblical phrases. So how could they possibly give up the Bible? How could they easily accept a way that lies outside of the Bible? That is why it is imperative that you make clear to them the truth about the Bible and the principles of the Holy Spirit's work, causing all of them to be sincerely convinced. For people in religion all exalt the Bible and worship it as if it were God; they are also trying to shackle God with the Bible, and they even will not rest until they have crucified Him again.

Footnotes:

a. The original text omits "which describes events that took place."

b. The original text reads "you."

Concerning the Bible (3)：goo.gl/Mk5pVo

The Bible is not entirely a record of God's own utterance; rather, it is just an account of the first two stages of God's work. Part of it consists of the words of the prophets, and part of it documents the experiences and knowledge of people who were used by God down through the ages. Unavoidably, the writers' own opinions and knowledge are mixed in their experiences. Many books in it are colored by human notions, prejudices, and erroneous understandings, and though naturally most of the words were enlightened and illuminated by the Holy Spirit and represent correct understandings, they cannot be considered entirely accurate expressions of the truth. The writers' opinions on certain subjects merely reflect their own experiential knowledge or the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. The words of the prophets were revealed by God Himself. For example, the prophecies spoken by Isaiah, Daniel, Ezra, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel were revealed directly by the Holy Spirit. They were foretellers, people who were moved by the Spirit of prophecy. They were all prophets of the Old Testament. These people who received oracles from Jehovah made many prophecies in the Age of Law, which were directly revealed by Jehovah. Why did Jehovah do His work through these people? Because the Israelites were God's chosen people; it was inevitable that prophets should work among them, and it was they who were in a position to receive the revelations. The truth is that the prophets themselves did not understand the revelations they received; the Holy Spirit spoke those words through their mouths, so that future generations would understand them and recognize these happenings to be the work of God's Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit, and not the product of the human mind, thereby validating the Holy Spirit's work. During the Age of Grace, Jesus' work superseded all the work of the prophets, and so from then on no one uttered prophecies. So was Jesus a prophet? Yes, of course He was, but He also did the work of an apostle. He made prophecies, and He also traveled from place to place, preaching and teaching, but His work, His identity were not the same as those of the prophets. He came in order to redeem all humanity from sin; He was a prophet and an apostle, but moreover, He was the Christ. The prophets could foretell, but they were not the Christ. Jesus made many prophecies in that stage of work, so He was a prophet, but the fact that He was a prophet does not mean that He was not the Christ. For He performed a stage of work on behalf of God Himself, and His identity was different from that of Isaiah. He came to complete the redemptive work, to supply the life of man, and He was the living embodiment of the Spirit of God. The work He did was not revealed by God's Spirit or directed by Jehovah; rather, the Spirit directly came forth to do it. This is proof enough that Jesus was different from the prophets. His work was to redeem, and to prophesy as well. He was a prophet and an apostle, and even more, the Redeemer. The foretellers could only utter prophecies, but they could not do any other work in place of God's Spirit. Jesus was different from men like Isaiah because He did many works that no man had ever done, and because He redeemed humanity. These things hinder many people from accepting the stream of today. They say, "The Old Testament prophets spoke many words as well, but why were they not God incarnate? The God of today speaks words, so does it prove that He is God incarnate? You don't exalt the Bible or study it. On what basis do you say that He is God incarnate? What evidence do you have to say it is revealed by the Holy Spirit and believe this stage of work is done by God Himself?" To these people, the emphasis you place on the word of God today makes you appear to be denying the Bible, laying the Bible aside; and so they always call you heretics, cultists.

To bear witness to God's work in the last days, you must understand the truth about the Bible, understand its structure and substance. People nowadays hold the belief that the Bible is God, that God is the Bible, and that God has only spoken what is in the Bible, and every word in the Bible is God's own word. Everybody who believes in God even thinks this: Though the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments were written by human beings, they were God-breathed and were a record of the words of the Holy Spirit. This is an erroneous understanding; it does not accord completely with the facts. In truth, with the exception of the books of prophecy, the Old Testament is mostly a historical record. Some of the New Testament epistles derive from human experiences, others from the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit; the letters of Paul, for instance, are from human work, though they were all enlightened by the Holy Spirit. These letters, which Paul sent to the churches, offer words of exhortation and encouragement to the brothers and sisters there; they are not the words of the Holy Spirit. Paul could not speak on behalf of the Holy Spirit. He was not a prophet, and moreover he did not see visions. These letters were written to the churches of that time in Ephesus, Philadelphia, Galatia, and other places. Therefore, Paul's letters in the New Testament to the churches were not the revelation of the Holy Spirit, nor words directly from the Holy Spirit; they were simply Paul's exhortation, consolation, and encouragement to the churches during the time he worked, as well as a record of his many works. He wrote these letters to all the brothers and sisters in the Lord, and thereby exhorted those of the various congregations at that time to heed his counsel and follow all the ways of the Lord Jesus. He did not say that all churches now and forever must eat and drink his words, or that his words came entirely from God. He was simply communicating with his brothers and sisters according to the situation in the churches at the time, exhorting them and buoying their faith. He was simply preaching or giving admonishment and exhortation. He wrote those words according to his burden, offering them as a means of support. He was an apostle of the churches at that time, a worker used by the Lord Jesus, and so he bore a responsibility for the churches and their work and needed to have a grasp of the situation among his brothers and sisters; that is why he wrote letters to all his brothers and sisters in Christ. Everything he said that edified others and had a positive effect was correct, but his words did not represent the words of the Holy Spirit, and did not represent God. To regard man's letters, the record of man's experiences as words spoken by the Holy Spirit to all of the churches, is a grave misunderstanding and the worst kind of blasphemy. This is particularly true of Paul's letters to the churches, for he was addressing their circumstances and situations at that time, counseling his brothers and sisters in Christ so that they might receive favor from the Lord Jesus, trying to encourage them. It was his own personal burden, and the burden given him by the Holy Spirit, for after all he was the apostle charged with the leadership of the churches at that time, and writing letters exhorting the churches was his responsibility. He was not a prophet or a foreteller, just a working apostle, a sent apostle, and so his own work and the life of his brothers and sisters were what mattered most to him. So he could not speak on behalf of the Holy Spirit; his words were not the words of the Holy Spirit, much less the words of God, because he was merely one of God's creations and not God incarnate. His identity was different from that of Jesus, whose words were the Holy Spirit's words, God's words. For Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God; how could Paul be His equal? If people hold the letters or words like Paul's to be the utterance of the Holy Spirit, and worship them as God, it shows that they are too undiscriminating. To put it baldly, are they not purely blasphemers? How can a human being speak on behalf of God? How can people prostrate themselves before the letters and words of a man, holding them to be a "holy book," a "heavenly book"? Do God's words simply fall off of man's lips? How can man speak on God's behalf? Think about it: When Paul wrote letters to the churches, how could they not be colored by his own ideas? And by his own will? Those letters were based on Paul's own personal experiences and the extent of his own life growth. If Paul wrote a letter to the churches of Galatia expressing one view, and Peter wrote a letter to them expressing another view, which one came from the Holy Spirit? It's impossible to say. All we can say is that both Paul and Peter bore a responsibility toward the churches, but their letters reflected their own individual stature as well as their supply and support to the brothers and sisters and their burden toward the churches; they only represented the aspect of man's work, and did not come entirely from the Holy Spirit. If you say that their letters are the word of the Holy Spirit, you are absurd, and it is blasphemous! The Pauline epistles and the other epistles of the New Testament are no different from the writings of spiritual men in modern times, and can be compared to the spiritual writings of men such as Lawrence or Watchman Nee. It was only that these writings were never incorporated into the New Testament. But these people in essence were the same: They were people used by the Holy Spirit for a period of time, and could not directly represent God.

The genealogy of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament begins by saying that Jesus was a descendant of Abraham and David, and the son of Joseph. The Gospel goes on to say that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born to a virgin; in other words, Jesus was not Joseph's son and was not descended from Abraham and David. But the record in the genealogy forcedly relates Jesus to Joseph. It goes on to describe the birth of Jesus, saying that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and that His mother was a virgin, and so He was not Joseph's son. But the genealogy clearly states that Jesus was the son of Joseph. Because it was meant to be Jesus' genealogy, the Gospel lists forty-two generations. When it goes to the generation of Joseph, it hurriedly adds that Joseph was Mary's husband in order to establish Jesus' descent from Abraham. Isn't this a contradiction? The genealogy, with a list of Joseph's ancestors, is clearly Joseph's, but Matthew insists that it is Jesus'; doesn't that therefore deny the fact of Jesus' conception by the Holy Spirit? So, isn't the genealogy written by Matthew from human mind? Even more, it is something ridiculous! From this it is obvious that the book was not at all wholly from the Holy Spirit. Perhaps someone thought that if God walked the earth, then He needed a family tree, and so inserted Jesus into the forty-second generation of Abraham's descendants. What an absurd idea! How could God have a family tree when He came to earth? If He had a family tree, would that not make Him one of His own creations? God is not of the earth, He is the Lord of creation; though He is flesh, He is different from man in essence. How could you put Him into the same category as His creations? Abraham could not represent God; He was an object of Jehovah's work at that time, just a loyal servant approved of by Jehovah, and one of the Israelite people. How, then, could Abraham be an ancestor of Jesus?

Who wrote Jesus' genealogy? Did Jesus Himself write it? Did He personally tell them, "Please write Me a genealogy"? No, Matthew wrote it after Jesus was crucified. At that time, Jesus did much work, but His disciples did not understand, and Jesus did not explain; after He left, the disciples started to work and to preach everywhere, and to write epistles and gospels for the sake of that stage of the work. The Gospels of the New Testament were written twenty to thirty years after Jesus was crucified. Before this, the Israelites read only the Old Testament, which is to say that people in the Age of Grace had only the Old Testament to read. The New Testament did not exist until the Age of Grace; when Jesus was doing His work, there was no New Testament. It was only after His resurrection and ascent to heaven that people began recording His work and the Four Gospels were written, as well as the letters of Paul, the letters of Peter, and the Book of Revelation. Over three hundred years after the Ascension, people collected these writings and assembled them into the New Testament. It was only after Jesus' work was done that the New Testament came into being, not before. God did much work, and the Apostle Paul did much work. Later the letters of Paul and Peter were gathered together into the one book, which concluded with the record of the greatest vision that came to John on the isle of Patmos, because it prophesied the work of the last days. All this was arranged by future generations. This is not so with the "words" of today. They are written in accordance with the steps of the work, bringing humanity into contact with God's personal work and words. There being no need for human intervention, the words directly from the Spirit are laid out in a proper order, different from the order of the writings of men. Their writings are based on their own levels of literacy and their own qualities, and they are a record of human experiences, with each person recording things in a certain way, each person conveying a certain understanding of events, and so each account is different. So, how foolish you are, how utterly ignorant, if you worship the Bible as if it were God! Why do you not seek out God's work today? Only the work of God can save man; the Bible cannot, it has not changed for thousands of years, and if you worship it you will never receive the working of the Holy Spirit. The two stages of God's work done in Israel are both recorded in the Bible, and so when you read the Bible you see only Israelite names, read only about Israelite affairs; even the name "Jesus" is an Israelite name. If you continue to read the Bible now, aren't you following a regulation? The New Testament records things that happened in Judea and was originally written in Hebrew and Greek; the words Jesus said, and the name He was called by, all belong to the realm of human language. When Jesus was on the cross He cried out, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani-isn't that Hebrew? Jesus only spoke Hebrew because He was incarnated in Judea, but that does not mean that God is Jewish. Today, God has been incarnated in China and the words God speaks are unquestionably Chinese, but these words cannot be compared with Chinese translations of the Bible, because they have different origins. One originates in Hebrew words written down by human beings, and the other comes directly from the utterance of the Spirit.

Concerning the Bible (4)：goo.gl/iqpRIY

Many people believe that if they understand the Bible and can interpret it, then they have found the true way. But is it really that simple? No one knows the truth about the Bible. It is merely a historical record of God's work, and a testimony to the first two stages of God's work, and you cannot understand the purpose of God's work from it. Everyone who has read the Bible knows that it is an account of the work God did during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. The Old Testament of the Bible records the history of Israel and shows how Jehovah did His work from the creation of the world to the end of the Age of Law. The New Testament records Jesus' work on earth, which is in the Four Gospels, as well as the work of Paul. Are these not all historical records? Anything that happened in the past is history today, no matter how true, how real; and history cannot address the present. For God does not look back! So if you understand only the Bible but not the work that God plans to do now, if you believe in God but do not seek out the work of the Holy Spirit, then you do not know what it means to seek after God. If you read the Bible in order to research the history of Israel and to learn how God created heaven and earth, then you do not believe in God. But since you believe in God now, since you seek after life, since you seek to know God rather than seek after the lifeless letters and doctrines or seek to know the history, then you must seek God's will in the present day, the direction in which the Holy Spirit's work is moving. If you are an archaeologist, you may read the Bible; but you are not an archaeologist, you are a believer in God, and you would be better off seeking out God's will today. At most, the Bible can teach you a bit about the history of Israel, about the lives of Abraham, David, and Moses and how they revered Jehovah, about how Jehovah burned those who resisted Him and gave instructions to mankind in that era; from the Bible, you can only learn about God's work in the past. The Bible records how in those days the Israelites revered God and lived their lives under the guidance of Jehovah. Because the Israelites were God's chosen people, the Old Testament tells of the Israelite people's loyalty to Jehovah, how all those who submitted to Him were taken care of and blessed by Him. It tells how when God did His work in Israel, He was full of compassion and love, and also possessed of the burning fire, how all the Israelites, from the lowly to the mighty, revered Jehovah, and how the whole nation was thus blessed by God. This is the history of Israel recorded in the Old Testament.

The Bible is a historical record of God's work in Israel, including many of the words of the ancient prophets and some of the words that Jehovah spoke when He performed His work. So everyone sees it as a "holy" book (because God is great and holy). Of course, this arises from man's reverence for Jehovah and his adoration of God. Man calls the Bible a holy book, simply because he, a created being, is filled with reverence and adoration for the Creator, and some even call it a "heavenly book." In truth, the Bible is only a record written by man, was not named by Jehovah Himself or produced under His direction; that is to say, the Bible's author is not "God," but "man." It is called the "Holy" Bible, which is only a respectful title man gives to it. Jesus and Jehovah did not confer with each other and then decide to call it that; the idea came just from man. For it was not written by Jehovah, much less by Jesus, but rather by many prophets of old, apostles, and foretellers, whose writings were assembled by later generations into a book that was ancient and was seen as very holy, and as containing many unfathomable and profound mysteries to be unraveled by generations to come. So people came to further regard the Bible as a "heavenly book," and with the Four Gospels and the Revelation of the New Testament added in, people began to see it, to an even greater degree, as a book different from any other. Thus no one dared dissect this "heavenly book" because it was too "holy."

Why are people able to find proper ways of practice from reading the Bible? Why are they able to learn many things that they did not understand? By dissecting the Bible in this manner today, I am not saying that I despise it, or deny its value as a reference; rather, I am clarifying its origins and its original value so that you do not remain forever in the dark. For people hold so many opinions about the Bible, most of which are incorrect, and reading the Bible in this way not only prevents people from getting the things they need, but more importantly, it impedes the work that I am going to do. It is a massive disruption to My future work, bringing no good, only harm. So all I want is for you to understand the Bible's substance and the true story behind it; I am not forbidding you to read the Bible or asking that you decry it as a worthless book. Rather, I am trying to give you a correct understanding of the Bible, an accurate view. Don't be too one-sided! Although the Bible is a history book written by human beings, it records the principles by which many of the ancient saints and prophets served God, as well as the apostles' experiences of serving Him in more recent times, which are real seeing and knowledge that can serve as a reference for people seeking the true way in the present age. So, one can find many ways of life in the Bible that cannot be found in other books. Because they are all the ways of life given to generations of prophets and apostles through their experience of the Holy Spirit's work, and because much of this language is of great value to people and gives them necessary sustenance, it is a book that everyone is eager to read. And because there are so many secrets hidden in the Bible, people regard it differently than they do any other writing by great spiritual men. By recording the experiences and knowledge of those who served Jehovah and Jesus in the old and new ages, the Bible has given much enlightenment, illumination, and many ways of practice to later generations. The reason that the Bible surpasses the writings of other great spiritual men is that their writings all draw their material from the Bible, and their experiences all stem from the Bible and are directed toward interpreting it. So even though people could draw sustenance from the books of any great spiritual man, they still worship the Bible, for they regard it as ever so lofty and profound. Some books of the Bible, like the letters of Peter and Paul, carry the word of life and can be a source of help and sustenance. But nevertheless they are out of date; they are writings of a past age. No matter how good they are, they are applicable only to one period of time, and will not last forever. For God's work is always moving forward, it is not frozen in time at the age of Paul and Peter, will not remain forever fixed at the Age of Grace in which Jesus was crucified. So, these books are applicable only to the Age of Grace, not to the final Age of Kingdom; they were able to provide sustenance only to believers in the Age of Grace, and cannot do the same for the saints of the Age of Kingdom. No matter how good these books may be, they are obsolete now. It is the same with Jehovah's creation of the world and His work in Israel; no matter how good the work was, there would come a time when it was no longer applicable, when it became a thing of the past. It is also the same with God's work; no matter how good it is, it will eventually come to an end, and cannot remain frozen forever at His creation or His crucifixion. No matter how persuasive His crucifixion was, no matter how effective it was at defeating Satan, work is work, and the times are the times; the work must progress past its foundation, and times must change. For just as surely as the world was created, it will come to an end-this is inevitable. So taken in the context of today, the "word of life" contained in the New Testament, the Four Gospels and the Letters of the Apostles, is just a history book, a stack of yellowed pages. How can a stack of yellowed pages lead mankind into a new era? No matter how able they were to give life, no matter how able they were to bring mankind before the cross, are they not still a thing of the past? Are they not worthless today, then? So I say to you, you must no longer put blind faith in yellowed pages-they are too "old," they cannot lead you into the new work, they will only be an encumbrance to you. Not only will they not bring you into the new work, into the new entering, but they will lead you back into the old religious temple. For you who believe in God, is this not a step backward?

What is recorded in the Bible are the affairs of ancient Israel, the things that the chosen people of Israel did, the things that Jehovah did. And so later the Holy Spirit didn't disapprove of this. Even though some of them were put into the Bible, and some omitted, the Holy Spirit did not commend it, but did not condemn it either. The Bible consists purely of the history of Israel, the history of God's work, and the people, events, and things it describes are for the most part real people, real events, and real things, not foreshadowings of things to come-except the prophecies of Isaiah and Daniel, of course, or the visions of John. The Israelites then were a very cultured and knowledgeable people, with a highly developed ancient civilization, and so what they wrote surpasses the words of people today. It is not astonishing that they were able to write these books, for Jehovah performed much work among them and they saw so much. David witnessed the deeds of Jehovah with his own eyes, experienced them personally and saw many signs and wonders, which is why he wrote so many psalms praising the deeds of Jehovah. They were able to write these books because the conditions were right, not because "men" were so "prodigiously talented." They could praise Jehovah because they had seen Him; if you have never seen Jehovah, if you have no idea of His existence, how can you praise Him? If you have not seen Jehovah, you will not know to praise Him, not know to worship Him, much less be able to write any word in His praise. You cannot invent deeds like Jehovah's even if you try. The reason that you are able to praise God and love Him today is that you have seen Him, you have experienced His work. When you have become a more cultured person, will you not be able to write poetry praising God, just like David did?

You cannot merely understand the Bible and history but not understand what the Holy Spirit is doing today! If you have a stellar grasp of "history" but no understanding of the Holy Spirit's work today, won't you be silly? People ask you, "What is God doing right now? What should you enter now? Where do you stand in your pursuit of life? Do you know God's will?" You have no answer to these questions. "So what do you know, then?" You say, "I know to rebel against the flesh and to know myself." They ask, "What else do you know?" You say, "I know to submit to all of God's plans, and I know a bit about biblical history. Besides that, I know nothing." You've believed in God for years and that's all you've gained? If that's all you know, then there is so much you lack! So in your current stature, you are not at all up to the things I ask of you. Your powers of discernment, and your grasp of the truth, are too weak-in other words, your faith is too shallow. In order to spread the gospel, you must be equipped with more truth, must know more and see more-for this is the thing you ought to achieve. Know

from "The Word Appears in the Flesh"

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