Now that we have finished fellowshipping on the various manifestations of antichrists, today we will fellowship on a new topic—the various manifestations of false leaders. In these years of believing in God, you’ve encountered all kinds of manifestations and practices of false leaders. In the process of God’s house dismissing false leaders at all levels, most people gain more or less some discernment concerning false leaders; that is, most people have a little understanding of some specific manifestations of false leaders. But no matter your comprehension or how much you understand, ultimately it’s not systematic or specific enough. During church elections, many people fail to understand the principles of electing leaders, what sort of person to choose as leader and what sort of person can, as leader, bring brothers and sisters into the reality of God’s words, and is a qualified leader. They are not very aware of or clear about these things. There are even some muddled and undiscerning people who expressly elect false leaders during elections, choosing whoever is like a false leader while being blind to whoever is truly qualified and able to be a leader, with a leader’s caliber and humanity. Those who fundamentally do not have the caliber and humanity to be leaders are elected because of their external enthusiasm or some good behaviors, and because they meet people’s notions of being “good,” while those who actually possess all the qualifications to lead will never be elected. Those who seek the limelight and expend themselves enthusiastically—yet are fundamentally incompetent—will always appear in all sorts of settings, looking particularly active, and most people will think this kind of person is qualified and should be elected. The result is that, after such people are elected, they can’t shoulder any work. They’re even unable to implement the work arrangements of the Above, nor do they know how to. Although they always busy themselves so enthusiastically, after leading for a period of time there is no improvement and little progress in any of the church’s work, and situations often occur whereby the work of the church is in disarray or people are disunited, thanks to the disturbance or usurpation of power by evil people. These are the consequences brought about by the work of false leaders. After a false leader is elected, not only will brothers’ and sisters’ life entry be influenced and suffer, but at the same time various items of church work will be negatively affected, so that the work of disseminating the gospel cannot be conducted smoothly or effectively. This is partly a problem caused by the false leader themselves, but it’s also partly related to those who elect them. If you don’t understand truth principles, have no discernment, and are blind and cannot see through people so that you end up electing a false leader, then you not only harm yourself and others, but the work of the church suffers too. This is the impact and damage caused by false leaders on the life entry of God’s chosen people and the work of the church. Therefore, we must discern and enumerate the various manifestations of false leaders, and on that basis I will enable you to understand which behaviors a qualified leader should exhibit, what work they should do, and what exactly is the scope of their responsibilities. The topic of discerning false leaders is of great importance, as it touches upon the work of the church, the life entry of every one of God’s chosen people, and in particular, how each duty is progressing. Some might say: “I don’t intend to stand for election, nor do I have any ambition or desire to be a leader or a worker. I am self-aware, and it’s enough to be an ordinary believer, so this aspect of the truth principles has nothing to do with me. If I want to listen, I’ll listen to something about my own life entry and salvation. The various manifestations of false leaders and the truths involved therein are not relevant to my own life entry, so I don’t have to listen, or I can listen absent-mindedly or half-heartedly and just stroll through the process without taking it to heart.” Is this a good attitude? (No, it isn’t.) Others say: “I have no ambition, and don’t want to run for leader. Since I was a child, I never intended to be an official or stand out from the others, I just like being a common, ordinary person. I’ve wanted to be a follower from the moment I started believing in God. I like following the orders of others, and I do whatever they ask me to do. How simple it is to be this kind of person! I’m just a simple person who doesn’t want to worry or be burdened, so I have no need of hearing these things, nor do I want to.” Is this view right or not? (It’s not right.) What’s not right about it? (Although they don’t want to be a leader, if they don’t understand this aspect of the truth and cannot discern false leaders then, during elections, they’re very likely to choose a false leader, which will affect the work of the church and the life entry of God’s chosen people.) This is one aspect. Anything else? (The problem of false leaders exists in each of us, and we should check, reflect on, and understand ourselves.) (If we cannot discern false leaders then we won’t even know when we’ve been misled by one, and our own lives will suffer.) (This kind of view is a manifestation of not pursuing the truth. Being a leader in God’s house is not the same as being ambitious and wanting to be an official in the world. Being a leader is to pursue the truth better, to bear a burden for the church’s work, and to be considerate of God’s intentions. This is striving toward the truth.) (As one of God’s chosen people, we have an obligation and responsibility to report false leaders. If we can’t discern false leaders, then we could let one take power and affect the work of the church.) How many aspects is that? (Five aspects.) Each of these five aspects is correct, and quite accurate. Dissecting the essence of this problem based on the view of the type of person I just mentioned, there are basically these five aspects. Regardless of whether or not you want to be a leader, as one of God’s chosen people you should assume a supervisory role toward leaders and workers. God’s house is your house too, and a leader is like a little housekeeper. If they don’t manage things well, you’ll also be affected and implicated, so you have a responsibility and an obligation to supervise all their work.

It’s not difficult to discern false leaders, because this type of person is not uncommon within the church; they have existed ever since church leadership and church work began. Their caliber and comprehension ability, character and chosen path all have many definite manifestations. Before dissecting these definite manifestations, we should first understand what the responsibilities of leaders and workers are, and what specific work is principally included. Only those who are able to do this specific work well are qualified leaders and workers; those who cannot do this work are false leaders. Perhaps most people still don’t have a way to discern false leaders, cannot grasp the basic principles and don’t know which aspects are the most critical to discern. Today, let us first systematically fellowship on what exactly the responsibilities of leaders and workers are, listing them one by one so that everyone knows clearly. After understanding these principles then, when electing leaders and workers again, you’ll have an accurate standard by which to measure how exactly to elect and who exactly is the right person to be elected. So, let us first list the responsibilities of leaders and workers.

The responsibilities of leaders and workers:

1. Lead people to eat and drink of God’s words and understand them, and to enter the reality of God’s words.

2. Be familiar with the states of each sort of person, and resolve the various difficulties relating to life entry they encounter in their real lives.

3. Fellowship the truth principles that should be understood in order to perform each duty properly.

4. Keep abreast of the circumstances of supervisors of different work and personnel responsible for various important jobs, and promptly alter their duties or dismiss them as necessary, so as to prevent or mitigate losses caused by using unsuitable people, and guarantee the efficiency and smooth progress of the work.

5. Maintain an up-to-date grasp and understanding of the status and progress of each item of work, and be able promptly to resolve problems, correct deviations, and remedy oversights in the work so that it will progress smoothly.

6. Promote and cultivate all manner of qualified talent so that all who pursue the truth can have the opportunity to train and enter the truth reality as soon as possible.

7. Allocate and make use of different types of people sensibly, based on their humanity and strengths, such that each is put to their best use.

8. Promptly report and seek how to resolve confusion and difficulties encountered in the work.

9. Accurately communicate, issue, and implement the various work arrangements of the house of God in accordance with its requirements, providing guidance, supervision, and urging, and inspect and follow up on the status of their implementation.

10. Properly store and sensibly distribute the various possessions of the house of God (books, various equipment, foodstuffs, and so on), and carry out regular inspections, maintenance, and repair to minimize damage and waste; also, avert their misappropriation by evil people.

11. Choose dependable people of up-to-standard humanity especially for the task of systematically registering, tallying, and safeguarding offerings; regularly check and verify incomings and outgoings so that cases of profligacy or waste, as well as unreasonable expenditures, can be identified promptly—put a stop to such things and demand reasonable compensation. Additionally, prevent, by any means, offerings falling into the hands of evil people and being misappropriated by them.

12. Promptly and accurately identify the various people, events, and things that disrupt and disturb God’s work and the normal order of the churches. Stop and restrict them, and turn things around. Additionally, fellowship the truth so that God’s chosen people develop discernment through such things and learn from them.

13. Protect God’s chosen people from being disturbed, misled, controlled, and harmed by antichrists, and enable them to discern antichrists and forsake them from their hearts.

14. Promptly discern, clear out, and expel all manner of evil people and antichrists.

15. Protect important work personnel of all sorts, shielding them from the interference of the outside world, and keep them safe to ensure the various important items of work can proceed in an orderly fashion.

The responsibilities of leaders and workers have been summarized in a total of fifteen items, and we’ll fellowship based on these. Let’s first look at each of the tasks in these fifteen items. The first three touch upon the issue of people understanding the truth, and life entry. This is the most basic work that leaders and workers should do, and is one of the major categories. As a leader or a worker, at the most basic you must be able to perform these tasks, possess this kind of caliber, have this kind of burden, and be able to shoulder this responsibility. These are the most basic things you should have. Leaders and workers must be able to fellowship on God’s words, from them find a path of practice, lead people to understand God’s words, and lead people to experience and enter into God’s words in real life and to be able to bring them into real life, using them to solve various problems or difficulties encountered in real life and in the process of doing their duty. If God’s chosen people have problems which need a leader or a worker to solve, but the leader or worker cannot use the truth to solve the problems, then that leader or worker is useless, incapable of doing even the most basic work. This kind of leader or worker is not qualified. The fourth and fifth items relate to the various items of church work and the supervisors of those items of work. If leaders and workers do not oversee supervisors properly, then the work of the church could be disordered or be disturbed by evil people, this would influence the effectiveness and progress of the work, and the work itself might even be paralyzed. Therefore, the fourth and fifth tasks are also those that a qualified leader must do well. The sixth and seventh items touch upon promotion, cultivation, and use of all kinds of people. The principle of using people is to make the best use of everyone, and all kinds of people can perform their duty as long as they have up-to-standard humanity and can meet the required standards of God’s house. That is, allow all kinds of people to be able to perform appropriate duties; there’s no need to try to force a donkey to dance, it’s enough that someone is suitable for a task, can do it well, and is competent. Moreover, some tasks involve technical, professional aspects, and some people may be good at them but haven’t actually done any work in this area, nor do they understand the relevant principles. For these people, if they meet the standard for promotion and cultivation in God’s house, then they should be given a chance and be promoted and cultivated, so they can learn. In this way, various tasks in God’s house can have even more suitable people to undertake them, and there will be no vacancies whenever the church needs people for various tasks. These are issues of the two aspects of promoting and cultivating people, and using people. Let’s look at items eight and nine: These two items touch upon the attitude with which leaders and workers treat work, that is, whether they can fulfill their responsibilities, have loyalty, and have the ability to do a good job in their treatment of God’s requirements and the arrangements of God’s house and while encountering difficulties in work. The tenth and eleventh items touch upon the principles behind the treatment of offerings and all kinds of possessions in God’s house. In one respect, these two items touch upon people’s caliber and work ability, and in another respect they touch upon issues of humanity, whether someone has loyalty, and if they can fulfill their responsibilities. Next let’s look at items twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, regarding some exceptional circumstances that happen in the church—for example, if someone is disrupting and disturbing, and upsetting the normal life of the church. Of course, the most serious is the appearance of antichrists or other kinds of people who should be cleared out or expelled. How to deal with these kinds of people, and under what principles, is also work within the scope of responsibility of leaders and workers. Being able to promptly discover problems, and, when you find that someone is causing disruptions and disturbances, being able to promptly stop, handle, and resolve this, and ensure that church work and church life are not disturbed—these are issues that these three items touch upon. The last item touches upon the issue of personal safety of all sorts of important work personnel, as well as the issue of whether all kinds of important work can be guaranteed. Work can progress when personnel are safe, but if problems or hidden dangers arise in personnel safety then whether or not the work can proceed becomes an issue. Let us look back and see how many major categories there are altogether. The first, second, and third items belong to the first category: human life entry. The fourth and fifth belong to the second: the various items of church work and the supervisors of those items of work. The sixth and seventh belong to the third: the use, cultivation, and promotion of all kinds of people. The eighth and ninth belong to the fourth: the work arrangements of God’s house and difficulties in work. The tenth and eleventh belong to the fifth: offerings and possessions of the house of God. The twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth belong to the sixth: exceptional circumstances that happen in the church. The fifteenth belongs to the seventh: the important church work and the safety of personnel. There are seven categories altogether, involving fifteen items. These seven categories are within the scope of responsibility for leaders and workers, and are part of their job. As a leader or a worker, your job’s most basic tasks are these seven categories, and these seven categories are the scope of requirements of God’s house for a leader or a worker. If we want to measure whether a leader can do a good job, whether they’re competent, whether they possess the caliber to be a leader, and whether they’re a qualified leader, we should use these seven categories. Having understood this, based on these seven major categories, we will fellowship on and dissect the manifestations and specific practices of false leaders one by one, as well as what they’ve done during their time as leader that proves they are false leaders and not qualified ones. When measured according to these seven categories there is conclusive evidence, and this is relatively fair and reasonable. Tell Me, should we fellowship on these seven categories one by one, or the fifteen items? Which way is better? (Fellowship on the fifteen items one by one.) That suits your preferences—the more detailed, the better, right? Next, we’ll formally begin our fellowshipping on the various manifestations of false leaders.

What is a false leader? Certainly, it is someone who cannot do actual work, someone who does not attend to their duties as a leader. They do not do any real or critical work; they just see to some general affairs and some surface-level tasks, things that have nothing to do with life entry or the truth. No matter how much of this work they do, there is no significance to performing it. That is why such leaders are characterized as false. So how exactly is one to discern a false leader? Let us now begin our dissection. It must first be made clear that the first responsibility of a leader or a worker is to lead others in eating and drinking of God’s words and to fellowship on the truth in such a way that others may understand it and enter into the truth reality. This is the most important criterion by which to check whether a leader is true or false. See whether they can lead others in eating and drinking of God’s words and understanding the truth, and whether they can use the truth to resolve problems. That’s the only criterion by which to check what caliber and ability to comprehend God’s words a leader or a worker has, and whether they can lead God’s chosen people to enter into the truth reality. If a leader or worker is capable of comprehending God’s words purely and understanding the truth, they should resolve the notions and imaginings people have about faith in God according to God’s words, and help people understand the practicality of God’s work. They should also resolve the actual difficulties encountered by God’s chosen people according to His words, especially when it comes to mistaken views they have in their faith or misunderstandings they have about doing a duty. They must also apply God’s words to resolve the problems that manifest when people face different trials and tribulations, and be able to lead God’s chosen people to understand and practice the truth, and enter into the reality of His word. At the same time, they must dissect people’s various corrupt dispositions based on the corrupt states revealed in God’s words, so that God’s chosen people may see which of these apply to them, achieve knowledge of themselves and hate and rebel against Satan, thereby enabling God’s chosen people to stand firm in their testimony, defeat Satan, and give glory to God amid all sorts of trials. This is the work that leaders and workers should do. It is the church’s most basic, critical, and essential work. If the people serving as leaders have the ability to comprehend God’s words and the caliber to understand the truth, they will not only be able to understand God’s words and enter into the reality of them, they will also be able to counsel, guide, and help those whom they lead to an understanding of God’s words and entry into their reality. But the caliber to comprehend God’s words and understand the truth is precisely what false leaders lack. They do not understand God’s words, they do not know the corrupt dispositions that people reveal in different circumstances which are exposed in His words, or which states produce resistance, complaint, and betrayal against God, and so on. False leaders are not able to reflect on themselves or link God’s words to themselves, they only understand a little doctrine and a few regulations from the literal meaning of God’s words. When they fellowship with others, they merely recite some of His words, then explain their literal meaning. And with that, they think they are fellowshipping on the truth and doing actual work. If someone can read and recite God’s words like they do, they’ll think them to be someone who loves and understands the truth. A false leader only understands the literal meaning of God’s words; they fundamentally do not understand the truth of God’s words, and so are unable to talk about their experience and knowledge of them. False leaders do not have the ability to comprehend God’s words; they can only understand the superficial meaning of them, but believe that is comprehending His words and understanding the truth. In daily life they always interpret the literal meaning of God’s words to advise and help others, believing doing so is doing work, and that they are leading people to eat and drink the words of God and enter into their reality. The fact is that although false leaders often fellowship with others in this way about God’s words, they cannot resolve the slightest real problem, and God’s chosen people are left unable to practice or experience His words. No matter how much they attend gatherings or eat and drink the words of God, they still don’t understand the truth, nor have life entry, and none of them are able to talk about their experiences and knowledge. Even if there are evil people and disbelievers causing disturbances in the church, nobody is able to discern them. When a false leader sees a disbeliever or an evil person causing a disturbance, they do not exercise discernment, but extend their love and exhortations to them, asking others to be tolerant and patient toward them, indulging these people as they continue to cause disturbances in the church. This leads to each item of church work being quite fruitless. This is the consequence of a false leader’s failure to do actual work. False leaders cannot use the truth to resolve problems, which suffices to demonstrate that they do not have the truth reality. When they speak, they just spout words and doctrines, and all they tell others to practice are doctrines and regulations. For instance, when someone develops a misunderstanding of God, a false leader will say to them, “God’s words covered all this already: Whatever God does, it’s man’s salvation, it’s love. Look at how clear, how explicit His words are. How can you still misunderstand Him?” This is the sort of instruction false leaders give people. They spout words and doctrines to admonish people, constrain them, and make them adhere to regulations. This is not the least bit effective, and it cannot resolve any problems. False leaders can only speak words and doctrines to guide people, which makes those people think that being able to speak doctrines means that they have entered into the truth realities. Yet when a difficulty befalls them, they don’t know how to practice, they have no path, and all the words and doctrines they understood fall to the wayside. What does this show? It shows that understanding doctrines is not at all useful or valuable. The only thing false leaders understand is doctrine. They cannot fellowship about the truth to resolve problems; there are no principles to their actions, and in their lives they merely follow some regulations that they deem good. Such people do not possess the truth realities. That is why, when false leaders lead people to eat and drink of God’s words, there is no true effect. They are only able to make people understand the literal meaning of God’s words, and can’t help them to gain enlightenment from God’s words or understand what sort of corrupt dispositions they have. False leaders do not understand what people’s states are or what disposition essence people reveal in the face of any given situation, which of God’s words should be used to resolve these erroneous states and corrupt dispositions, what is said about them in God’s words, the requirements and principles of God’s words, or the truths within. False leaders understand nothing of these truth realities. They just advise people by saying, “Eat and drink more of God’s words. There is truth in them. You’ll understand when you’ve read more of His words. If you don’t understand some of them, you should just pray, seek, and ponder on them more.” This is how they counsel people, and they are unable to resolve problems by doing so. No matter who encounters a problem and comes to seek from them, they say the same thing. Afterward, that person still does not know themselves and still does not understand the truth. They won’t be able to resolve their own real problem, or understand how they should practice God’s words, and they will just adhere to the literal meaning of God’s words and to regulations. When it comes to the truth principles of practicing God’s words or which realities they should enter, they still do not understand. This is what comes of the work of false leaders: not a single real result.

God requires people to dress modestly and decently, with the decorum of a saint. “Modestly and decently, with the decorum of a saint”—nine words in total, but do you understand what they mean? (We all know that doctrinally, God requires people to dress modestly and decently, with the decorum of a saint, but when dressing ourselves we do not know how to gauge what is modest or decent.) This touches upon the problem of whether or not the truth is understood. If you cannot gauge this, then it proves you don’t understand the words of God. So, what does understanding God’s words mean? It means understanding the criteria for modesty and decency that God talks about or, more specifically, the color and style of clothing. Which colors and styles are modest and decent? Those with the ability to comprehend the truth know what is modest and decent, and what is bizarre. Although some clothes are modest and decent, they have an old-fashioned style. God doesn’t like old-fashioned things, and He isn’t asking people to imitate the styles of the past or to become hypocritical Pharisees. What God means by “modest and decent” is having a normal human likeness, appearing noble, elegant, and possessed of class. God doesn’t ask people to wear bizarre clothes, nor dress in rags like a pauper, but He asks people to dress modestly and decently, with the decorum of a saint. This is the comprehension of normal people. But after hearing this, a false leader got all fired up, saying: “God’s words give us the scope of how to dress. ‘Modestly and decently, with the decorum of a saint’—if we keep these nine words then we glorify God, not shame Him, and will be highly regarded people among the nonbelievers. So, what is modest and decent? It’s that you must speak and act with a human likeness, and must have a saintly decorum. Speaking of saints, in general we refer to ancient saints. If we want to have saintly decorum then we must imitate the style of the ancient saints, but if you walk around wearing ancient clothes then people will think you’re crazy. This isn’t in line with the principle of honoring God, but there should be some evidence of the clothes that saints wore in recent times that we can track down. The social milieu was better several decades ago. People were simpler, and dressed more conservatively and properly. If you dressed according to this standard then you’d be modest and decent, and have the decorum of a saint. This is the path for practice.” Finding out that people in the 1970s and 1980s wore white shirts and blue pants, he told the brothers and sisters, “I’ve seen the light in God’s words. People in the 70s and 80s dressed in outfits that were quite proper and simple. They couldn’t be said to be dignified, but it seems more aligned with the requirements of God’s word, so we’ll dress according to this standard.” The leader took the lead in wearing this, and everyone thought it looked good, pretty decent and simple. The leader said: “God said not to wear bizarre clothes. First of all, the buttons on the shirt must be done up right to the neck, and all the buttons on the cuffs must also be fastened. The wrists must not be exposed, the shirt must be tucked in, and everything must be tightly covered up, with no bare chest or back. See how modest and decent it is! Isn’t this modest and decent, and doesn’t it accord with saintly decorum, as God requires?” The leader particularly took pleasure in the outfit he was wearing right at that moment, and at the same time he required of others, “Your clothes are too modern, too fashionable. They bring shame upon God, and He doesn’t like them. Everyone, hurry up and wear what I’m wearing, be just like me!” People without discernment followed suit, finding and wearing a so-called modest and decent outfit which accorded with saintly decorum, and most people even thought it was good. But some people were disgusted in their hearts by these old-fashioned things, and felt that doing this was inappropriate, and this understanding of God’s words was distorted. These people, despite not being able to clearly say if it was right or wrong to listen to the leader and not daring to draw conclusions, advocated for not blindly following the crowd. They believed that what the leader said was not entirely correct, and they did not follow it. Only those dimwits, those people who lack the ability to comprehend God’s words, didn’t read God’s words themselves, went along with whatever the false leader said, and did whatever they were told to do however they were told to do it. They followed the false leader and emulated him, dressing the same when going out. Whenever they went out among a crowd, they felt quite delighted, thinking “We believe in Almighty God, and there is so much saintly decorum in my outfit. What are you wearing? How gaudy, how modern, how wicked! Look at us, we’re not revealing anything!” They thought they were amazing. The false leader not only failed to realize this is a misinterpretation of God’s words, but actually thought he was practicing God’s words and entering into their reality. This is what false leaders do. For even the simplest and easiest to understand of God’s requirements for people, false leaders cannot truly understand what God’s words refer to, their required standards, or principles. Can they then understand what God says about mankind’s corrupt disposition, or about all kinds of human states? Can they know precisely what the truth is here? Of course not.