Excursus Two: How Noah and Abraham Obeyed God's Words and Submitted to Him (Part One) Section Three

III. Exposing How the People of Today Treat God’s Words

What was the subject area of the stories I just told? (About attitudes toward God and about how we can obey God’s word and submit to God when things happen.) What was the main thing these two stories taught you? (To obey and submit, and to act according to the requirements of God’s word.) It is important to learn to obey, and to practice obeying God’s words. You say that you are God’s follower, that you are a created being, that you are a human being in God’s eyes. However, in what you live out and manifest, there is no sign of the submission or practice that comes after hearing God’s words. So, should there be question marks following the terms “a created being,” “someone who follows God” and “a human being in the eyes of God” when they are applied to you? And given these question marks, just how great a hope of salvation do you have? This is unknown, the chances are slim, and you yourself dare not say. Previously, I told two classic tales about how to obey God’s words. Anyone who has read the Bible and followed God for many years is already familiar with these two stories. But from reading these stories, no one has gleaned one of the most important truths of all: obeying God’s words. Now that we’ve heard stories of how to obey God’s words, let us turn to stories about people disobeying God’s words. As disobeying God’s words was mentioned, these must be stories about the people of today. Some of what I say may be uncomfortable to hear, and it might hurt your pride and self-esteem, and you will be shown to be lacking in integrity and dignity.

There is a piece of land that I asked some people to plant vegetables on. This was so that people doing their duty could have some organic food, and wouldn’t have to buy inorganic vegetables treated with pesticides. This was a good thing, right? In one respect, everyone lives together, like a big family, and everyone is able to believe in God together, keeping a distance from the trends and strife of society. Creating such an environment allows everyone to settle down to fulfill their duties. That’s from a small-scale perspective. From a larger-scale perspective, planting vegetables to be eaten by those who do their duty, and playing a part in spreading God’s gospel is also suitable. When I say, “Plant some vegetables for people doing their duty nearby to eat,” are these words not quite easy to understand? When I asked a particular person to do this, he understood, and planted some commonly eaten vegetables. I think that something such as planting vegetables is simple. All ordinary people can do it. It’s not as hard as spreading the gospel or the various items of church work. So I didn’t pay too much attention to it. Some time later, I went there and saw that they were all eating the vegetables they had planted themselves, and heard that sometimes there were some left over, which they fed to the chickens. I said, “You planted all those vegetables, and had a good yield. Have you been sending any to the churches? Have people in the other churches gotten to eat the vegetables we planted?” Some people said they didn’t know. Some said people in other places bought their own vegetables, and didn’t eat the ones from here. Everyone said something different. No one cared about this; as long as they themselves had some vegetables to eat, they felt there wasn’t a problem. Isn’t this odious? I subsequently said to the person in charge, “It’s completely reasonable for you to eat what you grow, but other people have to eat, too. Is it right that you planted so much and couldn’t eat it all, while other places still have to buy their vegetables? Did I not tell you that these vegetables aren’t only being planted for you to eat—you have to send them to the other nearby churches as well?” Do you think I should have to keep telling them what to do and making explicit rules when it comes to this small matter? Did I need to make a great fanfare about it, calling everyone together for assembly and holding a sermon? (No.) I don’t think so, either. Is it possible that people could lack this tiny bit of consideration? If they did, they wouldn’t be human. So I told that person again, “Hurry up and send them to the other churches. Go and get it done.” “Okay,” he said, “I’ll see.” This was the attitude he had. Some time later, I went there again, and saw a large expanse of vegetables in the field, of every kind imaginable. I asked the people who had planted them if they had a big harvest. They said there were so many they couldn’t eat them all, and some had gone rotten. I asked again if they had sent any to the nearby churches. They replied that they didn’t know, that they weren’t sure. They said this in a very vague and perfunctory way. It was clear that no one had taken this matter seriously. As long as they had food to eat, they didn’t care about anyone else. Once again, I went looking for the person in charge. I asked him if they had sent out any vegetables. He said they had. I asked how the delivery had gone. He said they’d been delivered. At this point, does it sound to you like there was a problem? The attitude of these people wasn’t right. They didn’t have an attitude of loyalty and responsibility when they did their duty, which is odious—but what was to come was even more odious. Later, I asked the brothers and sisters at the nearby churches if they had received any vegetable deliveries. “They were sent,” they replied, “but they were in a worse state than the vegetables you’d find thrown on the ground of a market. There was nothing but rotten leaves mixed with sand and grit. They were inedible.” How does hearing this make you feel? Is there rage in your heart? Are you furious? (Yes.) And if all of you are furious, do you think I would have been angry? They begrudgingly sent some vegetables, but they did a poor job. And who was the cause of this poor performance? There was an evil person in that place, who stopped them from being sent out. What did he say after I ordered the vegetables to be delivered? “Since you’re telling me to do this, I’ll put together some rotten leaves and vegetables that we don’t want to eat to send to them. That counts as a delivery, doesn’t it?” Upon learning this, I ordered that this demonic piece of trash be thrown out. What kind of place was this, that he would dare to act like a tyrant here? This is the house of God. It is not society, and it is not a free market. If you throw tantrums and act like a tyrant here, then you’re not welcome here, and I can’t bear to have you under My nose, hurry up and get lost! Get as far away from Me as you can, go back to where you came from! Do you think it was right for Me to handle it like this? (Yes.) Why? (This kind of person is too lacking in humanity.) So why have some people who lack humanity not been sent away? Some people have no conscience or reason, and don’t pursue the truth, but they don’t do evil things, disturb church work, influence other people’s performance of duties, or influence church life. This kind of person should be kept on for now to render service, but when they commit evil and cause disruptions and disturbances, then it is not too late to show them the door. So why did I have to throw out this piece of trash? He wanted to act like a tyrant and call the shots in the house of God. He impacted the normal lives of the brothers and sisters, and affected the work of the house of God. Some people said he was too selfish, too lazy, that he did his duty perfunctorily. Was that the case? He wanted to pit himself against all of the brothers and sisters, against all of those who do a duty, and against God. He wanted to take over the house of God. He wanted to call the shots in the house of God. If he wanted to call the shots, then he should have done something good. But he didn’t do anything good. Everything he did harmed the interests of the house of God and hurt God’s chosen people. Could you tolerate someone like this? (No.) And if none of you could, do you think I could? There are people today who are still unhappy about the fact that the evil person was cleared out. They can’t see through him, and still square off against Me in their minds. There are people today who, at the mention of that person, still don’t think I handled this matter appropriately, who think that the house of God is not righteous. What kind of gang is this? Do you know how this person picked the bok choy they had grown? Normally, you pull the whole stalk out to eat, right? Does anyone just tear the leaves off? (No.) Well, this bizarre guy didn’t allow others to pull the whole plant out by the stalk; he told them to just tear the leaves off. This was the first time I’d ever come across such a thing. Why do you think he did this? Why didn’t he allow the others to pull out the whole plant? Because if they pulled out the whole plant, then the field would be empty, and would have to be turned over and planted again. To save the trouble, he asked others to tear off the leaves. When he told people to do this, no one dared oppose him. They were like his slaves—they did everything he said. He called the shots there. So do you think it would have been acceptable to not get rid of him? (No.) Allowing a person like this to stay would be a scourge. When he does occasionally exhibit something good, that is because it doesn’t involve his own interests. Look closely at everything he does: There is not a single thing that does not disturb and damage the interests of others, not one thing that does not harm the interests of the house of God. This person was born a demon, he sets himself against God, and he is an antichrist. Can such a person be permitted to remain in the house of God? Does he deserve to do a duty? (No.) And still some people try to defend someone like this. Just how muddled are they? Is this not odious? Are you trying to show that you have love? If you have love, then you provide for him; if you have love, let him harm you—but don’t let him harm the interests of the house of God! If you have love, then when he’s cleansed away, go with him—what are you doing still hanging around here? Are these people obedient and submissive? (No.) They were born a gang of demons. That person disobeyed everything I said. If I’d said west, he’d head east, and if I’d said east, he’d head west. He insisted on opposing Me in everything. Why was it so hard for him to obey Me a little? Did Me asking him to send vegetables to the other brothers and sisters mean he would be deprived of his share? Was I depriving him of the right to eat these vegetables? (No.) So why didn’t he send them? He didn’t have to carry them himself, it wouldn’t have taken any effort on his part. But not only did he not give others any of the good ones, he gave them the rotten ones. Just how bad must he be to do this? Can he be considered a person? I told him to send vegetables, not garbage. Something so simple, so easy, just a matter of moving his arms, yet he couldn’t even do it. Is this a person? If even something like this is beyond you, how can you claim submission to God? You butt horns, you fight back, and yet still you try to freeload at the house of God. Could that ever happen? Even today, there are those who haven’t forgotten: “You once hurt our feelings. You once kicked several of us out, but we didn’t agree; we wanted them to stay, but you wouldn’t give them a chance. Are you a righteous god?” Do you think demons would ever say God is righteous? (Never.) Their mouths may say that God is righteous, but when God acts, it doesn’t sit well with them; they cannot bring themselves to praise God’s righteousness. These are demons and hypocrites.

What does even such a minor matter as delivering vegetables show? Is it easy for people to submit to God and obey God’s words? (No.) People eat food provided by God, they live in houses provided by God, they use things provided by God, but when God asks them to share their surplus vegetables with others, are they submissive? Can these words come to fruition in them? In people, they can. They can be carried out. But in demons, Satans, and antichrists, they will never come to fruition. That person thought to himself, “If I send out these vegetables, will anyone remember this good deed of mine? If others eat these vegetables and say it is the grace of god, that god asked me to do it, if they all give thanks to god, who will thank me? I am the hero behind the scenes, I was the one who toiled. It was I who planted the vegetables. You should thank me. And if you don’t, if you don’t know it was I who did this, then you’re dreaming if you think you can eat the vegetables I grew!” Was this not what he thought? And is this not evil? It is so evil! How could an evil person possibly practice the truth and obey the words of God? This person was born a devil and Satan. He stands opposed to God, he resists the truth, and he despises the truth. He is incapable of obeying God’s words, so is there any need for him to obey them? No. So how should such a matter be handled? Kick him out, and find someone who can obey to take his place. That’s it, it’s that simple. Is handling things in this way suitable or not? (It is suitable.) I think so too. If he doesn’t go, he’ll cause trouble, and harm everyone else. Some people say, “Is it that You’re dissatisfied because he didn’t obey Your words? All he did was disobey You—was it that serious? You sent him away for something so trivial, but he didn’t actually do anything bad. He just sent out some rotten vegetables, and there were a couple of times when he didn’t send anything and didn’t obey You. It’s just a minor matter, isn’t it?” Is that the case? (No.) So how do you think I view this? He couldn’t even obey when it came to something so minor, yet he tried to obstruct things in an unreasonable way here. This is the house of God, nothing here belonged to him. Every blade of grass, every tree, every hillock, every body of water here—he had no authority to control or call the shots over any of these things. He tried to call the shots, to obstruct things in an unreasonable manner. What was he? Nothing of his would have been taken or used, nor would anything belonging to him have been sent out; all he was asked to do was move his arms and fulfill the responsibilities that he was supposed to, yet he couldn’t even do that. Since he couldn’t do that, I did not acknowledge him as a believer, and he had to get out of the house of God, he had to be cleared out! Was it reasonable for Me to do this? (Yes.) These are the administrative decrees of the house of God. If I were to come upon such an evil person doing evil and not cleanse them away, if I didn’t express any attitude toward them, then how many people do you think would be harmed? Would this not throw the house of God into disarray? And would the administrative decrees of the house of God not become empty words? So what is stipulated by the administrative decrees of the house of God with regard to these disobedient demons and antichrists who cause disturbances, unreasonably obstruct things, and act shamelessly? Clear them out and expel them from the house of God. Cleanse them from the ranks of the brothers and sisters. They don’t count as members of God’s house. What do you think of dealing with them like this? Once these sorts of people have been cleansed away, then all work will proceed smoothly. Devils and Satans seek to exploit even something as minor as eating vegetables. Even with this, they try to call the shots, and do what they want. Everything we’ve talked about is a minor thing, but be that as it may, it touches upon the most elemental of all truths. The most elemental of truths is obeying God’s words. What is the disposition of those who can’t even do that? Do they possess the conscience and reason of normal people? Not at all. These are people who lack humanity.

As well as vegetables, people must also consume meat and eggs in their daily lives. So I told some people to keep a few chickens, and to feed these chickens grain, vegetables and the like. They should be free range. That way, they would lay better eggs than the ones sold in the markets. The chicken meat itself would be organic, too; at the very least it wouldn’t have any hormones in it, and wouldn’t be harmful to people when they ate it. The chickens might not produce a great deal of eggs or meat, but the quality would be guaranteed. Do you understand what I mean by this? (Yes.) Then tell Me, how many pieces of information are contained in what I just said? Firstly, raising chickens this way would give us some organic eggs to eat. Regardless of how many we could eat, at the very least, we wouldn’t have to eat eggs that contained antibiotics. That was what was required of the eggs. Secondly, what was required of the meat was that it didn’t contain hormones, so people wouldn’t have any qualms about eating it. Were either of these much to ask? (No.) The requests I put forward were not only not excessive, but they were also practical, right? (Yes.) Later, the chicks were bought and fed. When they started laying, we ate the eggs; however, there was a faint taste of antibiotics, much like in eggs bought at the supermarket. I gave it some thought: Had they been giving them feed that contained antibiotics? Later, I asked the people who looked after the chickens what feed the chickens had been eating, and they said bone powder. “We don’t need to get these chickens to lay early. Feed them using normal organic, free-range methods. Let them lay eggs normally,” I said. “We’re not keeping them to get lots of eggs, just so that we can eat organic eggs. This is all that’s required.” What did I mean when I said this? I was telling them not to feed the chickens anything that contained antibiotics, hormones, and the like. The chickens were to be given different feed to what chickens ate elsewhere. Elsewhere, chickens are fully grown after just three months, they lay eggs every day, and they are used as egg-laying machines right up until the day they’re slaughtered. Does this produce good eggs? And is the meat tasty? (No.) I asked that the chickens be free range, that they be allowed to forage outside, eating insects and weeds, and then be fed some cereals, grains, and the like. Though this would produce fewer eggs, the quality would be better; it would be good for the chickens and for humans. Was what I asked easy to achieve? (It was.) And was it easy to understand? Was there any difficulty in obeying what I said? (It was easy to understand. This was not difficult.) I didn’t feel there was any difficulty involved. It was easy. I didn’t make any demands about the number of eggs produced, just their quality. People with normal reason and a normal way of thinking would have understood this as soon as they heard it. They would have felt that this was simple, that it was doable, and soon after they would have carried it out. This is called being obedient. So is this what the people raising the chickens did? Were they capable of this? To be able to do this would mean possessing the reason of normal humanity. To not be able to do this would mean there was a problem. Soon after I’d said this, the weather turned cold. Based on the normal laws of nature, this would cause the chickens to stop laying. But there was something very telling: When it became colder, the chickens did not lay fewer eggs, they laid more. There were eggs to eat every day, but the yolks weren’t as yellow as they used to be, and the whites were becoming harder and harder. The eggs were getting less and less tasty. What was going on? I said: “What on earth is going on? It’s already hard enough for these chickens to get through the winter, what are you doing trying to get them to lay eggs for people now? That’s a bit cruel!” When I went and asked later, I discovered the chickens were still being given feed that had been purchased elsewhere—feed which guaranteed they kept laying no matter whether it was spring, summer, autumn, or winter. “Normally chickens don’t lay during this season. We can go without eggs. Just keep looking after them. Come spring they’ll start laying eggs again, and they’ll be good-quality ones,” I said. “Don’t be gluttonous. I didn’t ask you to make them constantly lay eggs, nor that you still provide eggs in winter. Since I didn’t ask this of you, why did you keep giving them that feed you bought? You are forbidden from feeding them that again.” Did I make Myself clear? Firstly, I didn’t demand that there absolutely had to be eggs to eat no matter what the season. Secondly, I told them not to give the chickens that feed, not to speed up the egg-laying process. Was this small request hard to achieve? (No.) But the result was, some time later I ate some eggs our chickens had laid again. I said to Myself: How muddled this lot is, how is it they didn’t obey what I said? The chickens were still laying eggs, so they definitely hadn’t changed the feed—this was what was going on.

What can you discern from what happened with the chicken rearing? (That people do not submit to or obey God’s words.) Some people said, “Obeying god’s words—that means following god’s will. We must obey when it comes to great and lofty matters, those are the ones that concern god’s will, the execution of god’s work, and his major work. Everything you’ve been talking about relates to trivial matters from everyday life, which has nothing to do with following god’s will—so we don’t have to do as you say. What you’re talking about isn’t related to our duty, nor to our submission and obedience to god’s words, so we are justified in opposing you, in choosing whether we obey or not. What’s more, what do you know of normal human life, of family affairs? You don’t understand, so you have no right to speak. Don’t spout nonsense to us—we don’t have to obey you in this.” Isn’t this what they were thinking? And was it right to think thus? (No.) Where was the mistake? (Following God’s will does not differentiate between matters that are large or small. As long as they are God’s words, people should obey, and they should submit and put them into practice.) Some people said, “I obey the words of god that are the truth. I don’t need to obey the ones that aren’t the truth. I only submit to the truth. ‘Following god’s way’ means following, obeying, and submitting to that part of the words from god’s mouth which are the truth. Words that concern people’s lives, and that are unrelated to the truth, can be ignored.” Is such an understanding correct? (No.) So how do you regard the truth, and the words of God? Didn’t they make a distinction between the words of God and the truth? And didn’t this turn the truth into a mere figurehead? Didn’t they regard the truth as being very hollow? God’s creation of all things, the shapes and colors of the leaves on the trees, the shapes and colors of the flowers, the existence and propagation of all things—does all this have anything to do with the truth? Does it have anything to do with man’s salvation? Is the structure of the human body connected to the truth? None of these are connected to the truth, but they all come from God. If none of these concern the truth, can you not admit their correctness? Can you deny their correctness? Can you destroy the laws of God’s creation as you please? (No.) So what should your attitude be? You must abide by its laws. When there are things you don’t understand, it is right to trust in what is spoken from the mouth of God. You need not study them, or try to understand them too deeply—you need only to not contravene their laws. This is what it means to trust and submit. When it comes to the habits, common sense, and rules of daily life, and so on, that God requires in people’s day-to-day lives, which do not touch on man’s salvation, though these might not be at the same level or grade as the truth, they are all positive things. All positive things come from God, so people should accept them—these words are right. In addition, being people, what reason and conscience should be found in them? Number one is they should learn how to obey. To obey whose words? To obey the words of devils and Satan? To obey the words of people? To obey the words of great people, outstanding people? To obey the words of antichrists? None of these. They should obey the words of God. What are the principles and specific practices of obeying God’s words? You need not analyze whether they are right or wrong, and you need not ask why. You need not wait until you understand them before putting them into practice. Instead, you should first listen, implement, execute, and adhere, which should also be your first attitude. Only then will you be a created being, and a fit and proper human being. If even these most elemental standards of comportment are beyond you, and God does not acknowledge that you are human, can you then come before Him? Are you worthy of hearing God’s words? Are you worthy of hearing the truth? Are you worthy of salvation? You are not qualified for any of these things.

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