IV. Promptly Finding Out About the Whereabouts of Offerings, As Well As the Various Circumstances of Their Custodians

Beyond inspecting the state of the expenditure of offerings and resolving unreasonable expenditures, leaders and workers have another most important task: They’re to promptly find out about the whereabouts of offerings, as well as the various circumstances of their custodians. The aim of this is to keep evil people, people who harbor shady schemes, and people with covetous hearts from exploiting oversights to seize offerings. Some people see that God’s house has so many things, and that some don’t have anyone watching over them or keeping records of them, and so they’re always thinking about when they’ll make those things their own private property, and have them for their own use. There are people like this everywhere. Some people seem outwardly not to take advantage of others and not to have a great desire for material things or money, but that’s because the situation and conditions aren’t right—if offerings really were put into their hands for safeguarding, they may well seize them. Some ask, “But they were such a good person before: They weren’t covetous, and they were of alright character—so why did just putting a few offerings in their hands reveal them?” This comes from you not having spent a lot of time with these people, not having come to a deep understanding of them, not seeing through to their nature essence. If you’d realized early on that this was the sort of person they are, the offerings would have been spared the misfortune of being taken into the possession of evil people. So, in order to prevent offerings from falling into the hands of evil people, leaders and workers have another, more important task: promptly finding out about and keeping abreast of the whereabouts of offerings and the various circumstances of their custodians. Say someone has a few hundred or a few thousand dollars in their possession to manage, if they have a bit of conscience, they won’t embezzle it—but if it were tens or hundreds of thousands, most people couldn’t be relied on, this would be dangerous, and their hearts might then change. How might their hearts change? A few hundred or thousand aren’t liable to sway a person’s heart, but with tens or hundreds of thousands, their heart may easily be swayed. “I couldn’t make this much in several lifetimes, and now it’s in my hands—how much better off I would be if it were mine!” They mull it over: “I don’t feel guilty about these thoughts—so is there actually a God or not? Where is God? Isn’t it the case that no one knows I’m having these thoughts? No one knows, and I don’t feel guilty or bad—does this mean there’s no God? Then if I take this money for myself, will I not face any punishment or retribution? Will there be no consequences?” Is this person’s heart not in the process of changing? Are the offerings in their hands not in danger? (They are.) In addition, some people who manage offerings are quite good, they have a foundation in their belief in God and they are loyal in their actions, and even if you have them safeguard a few tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, they’ll be able to do it well, and they are guaranteed not to embezzle it. But there are a few nonbelievers in their families, and when those people see money, their eyes go red, like when a wolf spies its prey. Forget about tens or hundreds of thousands—they’d stuff a thousand dollars in their pockets, if they saw it. They don’t care whose it is; they believe that it belongs to whoever manages to pocket it, whoever snatches it first. If there are evil wolves like this around a person who is safeguarding offerings, are the offerings not then in danger of being taken possession of anywhere, at any time? Could such a situation happen? (It could.) Isn’t it dangerous if leaders and workers are careless and have no sense of responsibility, and don’t even notice it or go make inquiries about it and look into it when offerings are in such a dangerous situation? Something could go wrong anywhere, at any time. There’s another sort of situation: Some custodians safeguard both money and various items in their homes, and they also host brothers and sisters and leaders and workers there. This may be relatively safe on a temporary basis, but is it appropriate to keep offerings there in the long run? (No.) Even if the person safeguarding them is suitable, the environment and conditions absolutely aren’t. Either the people they’re hosting are to be removed, or the offerings are to be taken away. If leaders and workers neither look into this work nor fulfill their responsibility with regard to it, something may go wrong anywhere, at any time; the offerings may suffer losses and fall into the hands of demons anywhere, at any time. There’s another sort of situation: Some churches are in hostile environments in which people are often arrested, and because of this, it’s very easy for the houses where offerings are safeguarded to be sold out, and to be raided and searched by the great red dragon—the offerings may be plundered by demons at any time. Are such places appropriate for storing offerings? (No.) So, if they’ve already been put there, what’s to be done? Move them right away. Some leaders and workers don’t fulfill their responsibility and don’t do real work. They aren’t able to anticipate or think of these things, they have no awareness of them, and only when something goes wrong and the offerings are snatched away by demons, do they think, “We should have moved them back then,” and just feel a bit of regret like this. But if nothing goes wrong, another ten more years can go by, and they still won’t move the offerings. They can’t see what serious consequences may arise due to this issue, and they are not able to prioritize things based on importance and urgency. Leaders and workers should have a clear understanding of this situation when they encounter it: “One of the places where offerings are being stored isn’t suitable. The environment’s too dangerous, and quite a few brothers and sisters have been arrested, tailed, or put under surveillance in the vicinity. We need to think of a way to get the offerings out of there. Getting them to a relatively safe place would be a better move than leaving them where they are and waiting for them to get snatched.” When a situation has just arisen and they foresee that the offerings are in danger, they should move them promptly, to keep them from being taken possession of and devoured by the great red dragon demon. This is the only way to ensure the safety of the offerings, and to avoid any pitfalls or slip-ups occurring. This is work leaders and workers should do. As soon as there’s the slightest sign of danger, as soon as someone is arrested, as soon as a situation arises, leaders’ and workers’ first thought should be whether the offerings are safe, whether they might fall into the hands of evil people, or be taken into their possession, or be snatched away by demons, and whether the offerings have suffered any losses. They should promptly take measures to protect the offerings. This is the responsibility of leaders and workers. Some leaders and workers may say, “Doing these things requires us to take risks. Can we not do them? Isn’t it the case that people are our first priority, which means that there’s no need to put the offerings first and people should be put first?” What do you think of their question? Do these people have humanity? (No.) Safeguarding offerings well, managing them well, and watching over them well—these are responsibilities that a good steward should fulfill. In more serious terms, even if you have to sacrifice your life, it’s worth it and it’s what you ought to do. It’s your responsibility. People are always shouting, “To die for God is a worthy death.” Are people truly willing to die for God? You’re not being asked now to die for God; you’re just being required to take on a bit of risk to securely safeguard the offerings. Are you willing to do that? You should happily say, “I am!” Why? Because this is God’s commission and requirement of man, it’s your unshirkable responsibility, and you shouldn’t try to get out of it. Given that you claim you’d die for God, why then can’t you pay a bit of a price, and take on a bit of risk to safeguard the offerings? Isn’t it what you ought to do? If you don’t do anything real, but you’re always shouting about dying for God, aren’t these words hollow? Leaders and workers should have a pure understanding of the work of safeguarding offerings, and they should shoulder this responsibility. They shouldn’t evade it or avoid it, and they should not shrink from their responsibility. Since you’re a leader or worker, this work is an onus that’s incumbent upon you. It’s important work—are you willing to do it, even if you’re taking on some risk, even if your life is at stake? Should you do it? (Yes.) You should be willing to do it; you must not disown this responsibility. This is God’s requirement of man and the commission He gives man. God has told you His most minimal requirement and commission—if you’re not even willing to carry it out, then what are you able to do?

Leaders and workers should do the work of safeguarding and spending offerings as meticulously and concretely as possible. They shouldn’t be sloppy with it, much less treat it like someone else’s business and disown the responsibility. Leaders and workers should personally carry out vetting, get involved, and make inquiries concerning these things, and even handle them personally, to keep evil people and people of poor humanity from exploiting oversights and causing destruction. The more meticulously you do this work, the less opportunity evil people and bad people will have to exploit oversights; the more detailed your inquiries and the stricter your management, the fewer instances there will be of unreasonable expenditures, squandering, and waste. Some say, “Is doing this about saving money for God’s house? Is God’s house short on funds? If it is, I’ll offer up some more.” Is that what’s going on? (No.) This is the responsibility of leaders and workers, it’s God’s requirement of man, and it’s a principle that leaders and workers are to abide by in doing this work. As a believer in God, as someone who has taken on the role of a steward in God’s house, your attitude toward offerings should be one of responsibility and of carrying out strict vetting; otherwise, you’re not qualified to do this work. If you were an ordinary believer who lacked a sense of responsibility and didn’t pursue the truth, you wouldn’t be required to do these things. You are a leader or worker; if you don’t have this sense of responsibility, you’re unfit to be one, and even if you do serve as one, you are an irresponsible false leader or false worker, and you will be eliminated, sooner or later. All those who completely lack a sense of responsibility are people who don’t defend the work of God’s house at all—they’re all lacking the least shred of conscience and reason. How could such people possibly do duties? They’re all thoughtless trash—they should leave God’s house at once, and get back to the world where they belong!

If we didn’t fellowship like this on common knowledge about offerings, as well as the truths involved in the safeguarding of offerings and the principles people should practice, wouldn’t you be unclear on these things? (We would.) When people are unclear about the precise principles, can they fulfill some of their responsibility? Have they been fulfilling their responsibility? Haven’t most people been going off the shallowest theory and principle of: “At any rate, I don’t covet God’s offerings, I don’t embezzle or misappropriate them, and I keep a good watch over them and do not let people spend them arbitrarily—that’s enough”? Is this the practice of the truth? Is this fulfilling one’s responsibility? (No.) If most people’s knowledge goes no further than this standard, then this topic really merits fellowship. Through this fellowship, do you now comprehend and understand a bit more about how to safeguard offerings and the attitude and knowledge you should have in safeguarding them? (Yes.) We’ll wrap up our fellowship here on truths that touch on offerings and on principles that relate to how to treat and manage offerings.

The Attitude and Manifestations of False Leaders With Regard to Offerings

I. Treating Offerings as Common Property

Next, we’ll carry out a simple exposure and dissection of false leaders with regard to item eleven of the responsibilities of leaders and workers. We’ll look at what manifestations false leaders have in their attitude toward offerings and in their safeguarding and management of offerings. The first manifestation is that false leaders lack accurate knowledge about offerings. They believe, “Offerings are nominally made to God, but really, they’re made to the church. We don’t know where God is, and He can’t use so much stuff, anyway. These offerings are only being made to God in name; really, they’re being made to the church, and to God’s house, and they’re not explicitly offered to any given person. The church and God’s house are bywords for all their people, and the implication of this is that the offerings are everyone’s, and what’s everyone’s is common property. So, offerings are common property that belongs to all the brothers and sisters.” Is this understanding accurate? It’s quite clearly not. Is there not a problem with the humanity of people who have such an understanding? Aren’t they people who covet offerings? People who have covetous hearts and a desire to seize offerings employ this method and this view when it comes to the offerings. Clearly, they’re eyeing the offerings and would like to appropriate them for their own enjoyment. What sort of creatures are these? Aren’t they of an ilk with Judas? So, this kind of leader or worker takes God’s offerings to be the church’s common property. They harbor this kind of attitude at heart—they don’t earnestly safeguard the offerings, or manage them reasonably and responsibly, instead, they use the offerings at will, brazenly, and in a completely unbridled way, lacking principles. They allow anyone to use them, and whoever’s “official post” is grander, whoever’s status is higher, whoever is prestigious among the brothers and sisters, gets priority of possession and use. It’s the same as in the companies and factories of society, where the company cars and good, high-end things are for the use of managers, factory directors, and chairmen. They believe that this is how it should be with God’s offerings, too, that whoever’s a leader or worker has priority in enjoying the high-end things of God’s house, in enjoying the offerings made to God. So, all those who use being a leader and a worker as a pretext to buy high-end computers and cell phones, as well as all those leaders and workers who take offerings for themselves, believe that offerings are common property, and that the offerings should be used and squandered as they please. When some brothers and sisters offer up gold and silver jewelry, bags, clothes, and shoes, they don’t specify that they’re offering them to God, and so some false leaders believe, “Since they didn’t specify that these items are being offered up to God, they should be for the church’s use. Whatever is given to the church is common property, and leaders and workers should have priority in enjoying common property.” And so, they take these things for themselves as a matter of course. The things left after they’ve picked through them may be used by whoever wants to and taken by whoever wants to—everyone divvies them up. These leaders and workers call this sharing the wealth; in following them, people can eat and drink well, and really enjoy themselves. Everyone’s happy, and they say, “Thanks be to God—would we be able to enjoy these things if we didn’t believe in Him? These are offerings, and we’re not worthy of enjoying them!” They say they’re not worthy, yet they clutch those things and won’t let go. Such leaders and workers don’t just seize offerings and divvy them up, and personally enjoy them without getting anyone’s approval—as they do this, they uniformly pay no mind to the management, expenditure, and use of offerings, nor do they choose suitable people to manage and keep records of them, and less still do they check the accounts, or rigorously review the state of expenditures. False leaders’ indifference to the management of offerings leads to chaos, and some offerings are lost and squandered. What stands out most in the work of false leaders is that everyone acts on their own will. What the supervisor of any team says, goes, and when any team needs to buy something, they may decide to do so themselves, without needing to submit a request for approval. As long as something is needed for the work, they can buy it, without worrying about how much it costs, whether they can make use of it, or whether it’s necessary or not—at any rate, they’re spending offerings, not any person’s money. False leaders don’t supervise this or carry out vetting, much less fellowship about the principles. When something’s been bought, false leaders uniformly pay no mind to whether there’s anyone to safeguard it, whether something may go wrong with it, or whether it’s worth the money spent. Why do they pay these things no mind? It’s because the money isn’t theirs—they think that anyone can spend it, as either way it’s not their money that’s being spent. There’s chaos in every aspect of the management of offerings. How chaotic is it? It’s the same as in the big, state-owned factories of socialist countries, where everyone gets an equal share no matter how much work they do. Everyone takes things home, eats the factory’s food and earns factory money, and embezzles the factory’s things. It’s utter chaos. False leaders make no rules for expenditures in purchasing any devices or equipment. God’s house makes rules, but they don’t rigorously review, check, follow up on, or inspect expenditures. They don’t do any of this work. The work of false leaders is utterly chaotic, there’s no order to anything, and there are flaws everywhere. At every turn, evil people and those whose hearts are in the wrong place are allowed to exploit oversights and take advantage. God’s offerings are squandered and wasted with abandon by those people, and yet they aren’t punished or sanctioned in any way—they’re not even given a warning. What sort of leaders and workers are these? Are they not biting the hand that feeds them? Are they stewards of God’s house? They’re thieving traitors of God’s house!

How should these leaders and workers who don’t take responsibility when it comes to safeguarding offerings be viewed? Aren’t they of low character and devoid of conscience and reason? These false leaders consider the things offered by brothers and sisters to God and the church to be the property of God’s house, and say that they should be managed by the brothers and sisters as a group. And so, when problems have been uncovered, and the Above is holding people accountable, they do their utmost to defend themselves, and do not acknowledge how serious in nature it is that they stole and seized God’s offerings after becoming leaders and gaining status. Are these not people of low character? They’re simply shameless! They don’t know why the brothers and sisters offer up money and items, nor whom they offer them up to. If there were no God, who would offer up things that they like lightly? This is such a simple logic, and yet these so-called “leaders” don’t know or understand it. These false leaders have a pet phrase: “the offerings of God’s house.” Isn’t this expression in need of correction? What should the correct expression be? “Offerings” or “God’s offerings.” If you’re going to add a qualifier, you should add “God”—offerings belong to God alone. If you don’t add a qualifier, it’s simply just “offerings”—people should still know that the owner of offerings is the Creator, God, and not man. Man isn’t worthy of possessing offerings, and even priests can’t say that the offerings are theirs—they may enjoy offerings with God’s permission, but they don’t belong to them. The qualifier for “offerings” will never be any person—it can only be God, and no one else. It’s quite evident, then, that the expression “offerings of God’s house” often spoken by false leaders is erroneous, and should be corrected. There shouldn’t be any such saying as “the offerings of God’s house” or “the offerings of the church.” There are some people who even say “our offerings” and “the offerings of our house of God.” All these expressions are wrong. Offerings are made to God by created mankind, by those who follow God. God alone has the exclusive right to be their owner, user, and enjoyer. Offerings aren’t common property; they don’t belong to man, much less to the church and God’s house, instead, they belong to God. God permits the church and God’s house to use them—this is His commission. Therefore, all such expressions as “the offerings of God’s house,” “the offerings of the church,” and “our offerings” are imprecise, and more than that, they’re the expressions of people with ulterior motives, they’re meant to mislead people and make them numb, and even more so, to misguide people. These people categorize offerings into common property belonging to the church, or to God’s house, or to all the brothers and sisters. All of this is problematic and erroneous and should be corrected. This is a manifestation of one sort of false leader. Such people take offerings to be common property and use them as they please; or, they believe that as leaders, they have the right to allocate these things, and so they allocate them to people they like or to everyone equally. What sort of scenario are they trying to create? One where everyone is equal, where everyone may enjoy God’s grace, where everyone shares. They’d like to buy people’s favor by being generous with the resources of God’s house. Isn’t that disgusting? It’s vile, shameless behavior! How are such people to be characterized? Such false leaders covet offerings, and in order to keep people from supervising, exposing, and discerning them, they allocate the leftover items they don’t use to the brothers and sisters, buying their favor and attaining a scenario where everyone is equal, and enabling everyone to benefit from association with them, so that no one will expose them. If you came across this sort of false leader, who could allow you to derive some benefits and with whom you could enjoy some “common property”—if you had this right and took this kind of advantage, would you be happy with that? Would you be able to refuse it? (We would.) If you’re covetous, don’t have a God-fearing heart, and aren’t afraid of God, you won’t be able to. Anyone with a bit of integrity, a bit of reason, and a bit of a God-fearing heart will reject it, and they’ll also rise up to reproach that leader, to prune them, to stop them, saying: “The first thing you should be doing as a leader is managing the offerings well, not embezzling them, much less deciding without authorization to allocate them to everyone based on your own will. You don’t have that right; that’s not God’s commission of you. Offerings are God’s to use, and there are principles to the church’s usage of them—no one has the final say over them. You may be a leader, but you don’t have that privilege. God didn’t bestow it on you. You don’t have the right to use God’s things—God didn’t commission you with that work. So, hurry up and take off the gold and silver jewelry that the brothers and sisters offered to God, and take off the clothes that they offered to Him. Hurry up and pay compensation for the things you’ve eaten that you shouldn’t have. If you’re still a human and have some shame, do this right away. Furthermore, no matter who you’ve sent these offerings to in order to court their favor, or who you’ve let seize them and enjoy them, retrieve those offerings at once. If you don’t, we’ll notify all the brothers and sisters and handle you as a Judas!” Would you dare do this? (Yes.) Everyone has this responsibility when it comes to offerings, and they should treat them with this conscience and this sort of attitude. Of course, they also have this obligation to supervise how others treat offerings, whether they’re safeguarding them well, and whether they’re managing them according to the principles. Don’t think that this has nothing to do with you, and then not be responsible, saying, “In any case, I’m not a leader or a worker, this isn’t my responsibility. Even if I discover it, I don’t have to bother with it or say something about it—that’s a matter for leaders and workers. Whoever spends money arbitrarily and embezzles offerings, they’re a Judas, and God will punish them when the time comes. Whoever causes a consequence, they’re responsible for it. There’s no need for me to bother with this. What good would me speaking out of turn about it do?” What do you make of this kind of person? (They have no conscience.) If you discover that, in some areas that the leaders and workers don’t look into, there are people squandering and seizing offerings, you should personally give the people involved a warning, and also promptly report it to leaders and workers. You should say, “Our team head and our leader often take offerings for themselves. They also arbitrarily spend offerings, and they don’t engage in discussions with others and just decide by themselves to buy this and that. Most of their expenditures are not in line with the principles. Can God’s house handle this?” It is the responsibility of God’s chosen people to report and inform about the problems they find. Our preceding fellowship has been about the manifestation of one sort of false leader—their attitude toward offerings is to treat them as common property.