B. The Characteristics of the Humanity of People Who Often Attack Others

Today, we’ve fellowshipped on several aspects related to the issue of mutual attacks and verbal spats. Have you grasped the nature of the manifestations exhibited by various types of individuals within each of these aspects? Let’s start with those who tend to attack others—do they possess the reason of normal humanity? (No.) How does their lack of reason manifest? What are their attitudes and principles toward people, events, and things? What methods and attitudes do they choose to deal with a variety of people, events, and things? For instance, loving to argue over right and wrong, is this not one of the attitudes they harbor toward people, events, and things? (It is.) Loving to argue over right and wrong means trying to clarify what’s right or wrong in every single matter, not stopping until the matter has been cleared up and it’s understood who was right and who was wrong, and stubbornly fixating on pointless things. Just what is the point of acting like this? Is it ultimately right to argue over right and wrong? (No.) Where is the mistake? Is there any connection between this and practicing the truth? (There is no connection.) Why do you say there is no connection? Arguing over right and wrong is not adhering to the truth principles, it is not discussing or fellowshipping the truth principles; instead, people always talk about who is right and who is wrong, who is correct and who is mistaken, who is in the right and who isn’t, who has a good reason, and who doesn’t, who expresses higher doctrine; this is what they probe into. When God puts people through trials, they always try to reason with God, they always come out with some reason or another. Does God discuss such things with you? Does God ask what the context is? Does God ask about what your reasons and causes are? He does not. God asks whether you have an attitude of submission or resistance when He tries you. God asks whether or not you understand the truth, whether or not you are submissive. This is all God asks, nothing else. God does not ask you what the reason for your lack of submission is, He does not look at whether you have a good reason—He absolutely does not consider such things. God only looks at whether or not you are submissive. Regardless of your living environment and what the context is, God only scrutinizes whether there is submission in your heart, whether you have an attitude of submission. God does not debate right and wrong with you; God does not care what your reasons are. God only cares whether you are truly submissive—this is all that God asks you. Is this not a truth principle? The kind of people who love to argue over right and wrong, who love to engage in verbal spats—are there the truth principles in their hearts? (No.) Why not? Have they ever paid any attention to the truth principles? Have they ever pursued them? Have they ever sought them? They have never paid them any attention, or pursued them or sought them, and they are totally absent from their hearts. As a result, they can only live within human notions, all that is in their hearts is right and wrong, correct and incorrect, pretexts, reasons, sophistry, and arguments, soon after which they attack, judge, and condemn each other. The disposition of people like this is that they like to debate right and wrong and judge and condemn people. People like this have no love or acceptance of the truth, they are liable to try and reason with God, even to pass judgment on God and defy God. Ultimately, they will end up being punished.

Do those who love to argue over right and wrong seek the truth? Do they seek God’s intentions, God’s requirements, or the truth principles that should be practiced in these situations through the people, events, and things that they encounter within them? They do not. When confronted with situations, they tend to study “what that event was like” or “what that person is like.” What is this behavior? Isn’t this what people often refer to as relentlessly fixating on people and things? They argue about people’s justifications and the course of events, they insist on clarifying these things, but they do not mention in which part of the process of these complex situations they sought the truth, understood the truth, or were enlightened. They lack these experiences and methods of practice. They just keep saying: “You were clearly targeting me with that matter, you were insulting me. Do you think I’m so dumb that I can’t tell? Why would you insult me? I haven’t offended you; why would you target me? Since you’re targeting me, I won’t hold back! I’ve been patient with you for a long time, but my patience has its limits. Don’t think I’m easy to push around; I’m not afraid of you!” Clinging to these issues, they incessantly present their justifications, dwelling on the right and wrong and the correct and incorrect of the matter, but their so-called justifications do not align with the truth at all, and not a single word of them conforms to God’s requirements. They dwell on people, events, and things to the extent that others become utterly fed up and no one is willing to listen to them, yet they themselves never tire of speaking about these things, they talk about them wherever they go, as if they were possessed. This is called relentlessly fixating on people and things, and simply refusing to seek the truth. The second characteristic of people who engage in mutual attacks and verbal spats is their particular fondness for relentlessly fixating on people and things. Do those who relentlessly fixate on people and things love the truth? (No.) They do not love the truth, this is obvious. Then, do these individuals understand the truth? Do they know what the truth that God speaks of really is? Judging from their outward behavior of relentlessly fixating on people and things, do they know what the truth really is? It’s clear they do not. What is the idea that they revere? It’s the idea that whoever’s words are the most justified is right, whoever’s actions are aboveboard and can be laid for all to see is in the right, and whoever acts in accordance with morality, ethics, and traditional culture, gaining the approval of the majority, is in the right. In their view, this “right” represents the truth, so they can relentlessly fixate on people and things with great brazenness, and they never stop dwelling on these matters. They believe that being justified equates to possessing the truth—isn’t this very troublesome? Some people say, “I haven’t disrupted or disturbed the work of the church, I don’t take advantage of others, I don’t like to steal from others, and I’m not a bully; I’m not an evil person.” Is the implication here that they are a person who practices the truth, someone who possesses the truth? A large portion of those who relentlessly fixate on people and things believe themselves to be upright people who consequently needn’t worry about rumors, and consider themselves to be upstanding, honorable people who would never flatter others. Therefore, when confronted with situations, they tend to argue and debate, and insist on proving that their justification is correct through these means. They believe that if their justification is solid, and it can be presented openly, and the majority agrees with it, then they are a person who possesses the truth. What is their “truth”? By what standard is it measured? Do you think such people can understand the truth? (No.) Therefore, they always relentlessly fixate on people and things and stubbornly dwell on them. These people do not understand the truth, so they always say, “I haven’t offended you. Why are you always targeting me? It’s wrong of you to target me!” They believe, “If I haven’t offended you, you shouldn’t treat me this way. Since you’re treating me this way, I’m going to get back at you, I’m going to retaliate, and my retaliation is legitimate self-defense, it’s justifiable. This is the truth principle. Therefore, what you’re doing doesn’t align with the truth principles, but what I’m doing does. So I will fixate on this matter, I will always bring up this issue, and always mention you!” They believe that relentlessly fixating on people and things aligns with the truth principles, but isn’t this a huge mistake? It is indeed a huge mistake, and they are misoriented. Relentlessly fixating on people and things is an entirely different matter than practicing the truth. This is the second problem with these people’s humanity—they relentlessly fixate on people and things. What are problems of humanity related to? Aren’t they related to one’s nature? These people have believed in God for many years, but they do not understand the truth, and they think that the terms they know, such as being open and aboveboard, upright and honest, candid and forthcoming, straightforward and upstanding, and so on are the fundamentals of how to be a person, and they consider these things to be the truth principles. This is a profoundly incorrect viewpoint.

People who engage in mutual attacks and who tend to partake in verbal spats have abnormal humanity. The first aspect of this is loving to argue over right and wrong; the second is relentlessly fixating on people and things. What’s the third aspect? Isn’t it their complete refusal to accept the truth? They can’t even accept a single correct statement. They think, “Even if what you say is right, you still need to help me save face, you need to speak tactfully and not hurt me. If your words are cutting and could make me lose face, you must say them to me in private. You mustn’t hurt me in front of a lot of people, giving no consideration to my pride and not giving me a way out of this embarrassing predicament. Moreover, what you say is wrong, so I must retaliate!” In more serious cases, these kinds of people resist: “No matter how correct your words are, I won’t accept them! It’s okay if you talk about anyone else, but targeting me is not okay, even if you are right!” Even when reading God’s words, if they sense that God’s words are targeting or exposing them, they feel averse to those words and are unwilling to listen to them—it’s just that, since they’re only faced with God’s words, they can’t argue with Him. If someone points out their issues or states to them face-to-face, or unintentionally mentions them without meaning to target them, they are capable of retaliating and initiating verbal spats. Doesn’t this mean such individuals utterly refuse to accept the truth? (Yes.) This is their humanity essence—an absolute refusal to accept the truth. Thus, regardless of the content of their verbal spats or where these spats take place, the humanity of such people is clear. They do not understand the truth, and even if they understand what’s being said during sermons, they do not accept the truth; they still engage in mutual attacks and continually partake in verbal spats, or often tend to attack others. Judging by these manifestations of theirs, what kind of people are they? Firstly, are they lovers of the truth? Are they individuals who can practice the truth when they understand it? (No.) When they discover problems, can they seek the truth to resolve them? (No.) When they harbor notions, and prejudices or personal opinions regarding other people, can they take the initiative to put them aside to seek the truth? (No.) They cannot do any of these things. Looking at all these things they are incapable of, it’s evident that all individuals who are prone to attacking others and engaging in verbal spats are no good. Judging from their various manifestations, they do not love the truth and are not willing to seek it. In matters involving the truth, regardless of which biases or erroneous views they develop, they remain self-righteous and do not seek the truth at all, and even when the truth is clearly fellowshipped to them, they refuse to accept it, and much less are they willing to practice it. At the same time, these individuals exhibit an even more detestable manifestation: After gaining an understanding of some words and doctrines, they use these grand doctrines that they understand to arbitrarily attack, judge, and condemn others, and even to constrain and control others. If they don’t manage to subdue other people with their judgments and condemnations, they’ll think of every which way to constrain them with hollow theories. If those people still don’t concede, they’ll resort to even more despicable and terrible methods to attack them, until those people concede to them, become weak and negative, or start to admire them and be manipulated by them—then they’ll feel satisfied. So, based on the behaviors, manifestations, and attitude toward the truth of these individuals, what kind of people are they? They utterly refuse to accept the truth—this is their attitude toward the truth. And what about their humanity? The majority of these individuals are evil people; conservatively speaking, more than 90% of them are. Evil people like to clarify right and wrong in every matter, otherwise, they won’t let it go, and they always have this kind of tendency. Additionally, when faced with situations, evil individuals dwell on people and things, and relentlessly fixate on them, always presenting their own justifications, always trying to get everyone to agree with and support them, and say they are right, and not allowing anyone to say anything bad about them. Moreover, when evil people are faced with situations, they always look for opportunities to cage and control people. What method do they use to control people? They condemn everyone, making every other person believe that they are inadequate, that they have problems and faults, and that they are inferior to these evil people, after which the evil people feel pleased and happy. Once they have beaten everyone else down, leaving only themselves standing, haven’t they brought everyone under their control? The purpose they achieve by controlling people is to condemn and knock everyone down, making everyone believe that they are incapable, become negative and weak, lose faith in God’s words and in the truth, and lose faith in God and not have a path to follow—after this these evil people feel happy and satisfied. Looking at these aspects, isn’t it clear that evil people make up the majority of these kinds of individuals? Look at which types of people always tend to attack others when they are in a group, either face-to-face or behind people’s backs, using various methods to attack others—such people are evil ones. These individuals do not accept the truth at all, nor do they fellowship the truth, and they often take advantage of a situation to brag that they are good people, that whatever they do is justified and well-founded, and that they behave in an upright and above-board manner—they always brag that they are decent and honorable people, and straightforward and righteous individuals. These people never testify to the truth, nor do they testify to God’s words, they just like to relentlessly fixate on people and things, and present their own justifications. Their intent and purpose is to make people believe they are good people, and that they understand everything. Regarding those in the church who often engage in mutual attacks and verbal spats, whether it’s those who initiate the attacks or those who are attacked, if the church life is disrupted and disturbed, then most people should stand up to warn and restrict them. These people shouldn’t be given time to run amok doing bad things, nor should they be allowed to affect others by venting their personal spite and seeking revenge due to their personal grudges and momentary anger. Of course, church leaders should also fulfill their responsibilities in a dutiful manner, effectively restricting these people from disrupting and disturbing the church life, and protecting the majority of people from being disturbed. When people engage in mutual attacks and verbal spats, church leaders should be able to stop and restrict them in a timely manner. If trying to stop and restrict them doesn’t solve the problem, and they continue to attack each other and get into verbal spats, disturbing others, and they continue to damage the church life, then such individuals should be cleared out or expelled. This is the responsibility of the church leaders.

We have fellowshipped quite a bit about the behaviors and manifestations of those who engage in mutual attacks and verbal spats. We also briefly dissected and fellowshipped on their humanity just now, which will enable you to gain more discernment of them, and enable most of you to figure out what’s going on and discern them in a timely manner when they speak and act. The more thoroughly you understand and know the essence of these people, the quicker you can discern them, and consequently you will be less and less disturbed by them. Most of you should be clear about the harm that those who engage in mutual attacks and verbal spats cause to the church life and to God’s chosen people. These kinds of people will definitely not reflect on themselves and stop fighting. If they are not promptly handled and cleared out, they will cause continuous disruptions and disturbances to the church life. Therefore, handling and clearing out such people is a very important item of work for church leaders and it should not be overlooked.

June 5, 2021