Item Twelve: Promptly and Accurately Identify the Various People, Events, and Things That Disrupt and Disturb God’s Work and the Normal Order of the Church; 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 (Part Four)

The Various People, Events, and Things That Disrupt and Disturb Church Life

VIII. Spreading Notions

A. The Manifestations of Spreading Notions

Today we will continue to fellowship about the twelfth responsibility of leaders and workers: “Promptly and accurately identify the various people, events, and things that disrupt and disturb God’s work and the normal order of the church; 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.” As for the various issues of disruptions and disturbances that arise in church life, we listed eleven. Last time we fellowshipped about the seventh issue: engaging in mutual attacks and verbal spats. Today, we will fellowship about the eighth issue: spreading notions. The spreading of notions also happens frequently in church life. Some people, who do not accept the truth at all, believe in God based on their notions and imaginings, and they often spread some notions to disturb church life. The church must restrict this behavior and resolve it through fellowshipping the truth in church life. From a literal perspective, anyone can see that spreading notions is not proper behavior, that it is not a positive thing but a negative thing. Therefore, it should be stopped and restricted in church life. No matter what kind of people spread notions, regardless of their motives, whether they are spreading notions intentionally or unintentionally, as long as they spread notions, it will disrupt and disturb church life, causing detrimental impacts. Therefore, this matter must be restricted one hundred percent. From any perspective, spreading notions cannot possibly play a positive, affirmative role in people’s pursuit of the truth, pursuit of knowing God, or their entering into the truth reality; it can only have the effect of disturbing and damaging these things. So, when someone spreads notions in church life, everyone—church leaders and brothers and sisters alike—should discern this matter and promptly step up to stop and restrict that person, rather than blindly indulge them in spreading notions to mislead and disturb others. Let’s first fellowship about what kind of words constitute spreading notions. With this discernment, people can accurately define what spreading notions is and can also accurately stop and restrict it, instead of ignoring it and treating it with indifference.

1. Spreading Notions About God

Notions which get spread are targeted. First, we need to see who they are aimed at and what notions are being spread. Understanding these will help you know which statements said by people and which viewpoints spread by people constitute notions. Knowing which words are people’s notions and which actions constitute spreading notions will enable people to restrict the spreading of notions more accurately and with greater relevance. First and foremost, the most serious spreading of notions involves people’s ideas and misunderstandings about God. This is a major category. Spreading nonfactual viewpoints and statements about God’s identity, God’s essence, God’s disposition, God’s words, God’s work, and God’s existence all constitutes spreading notions. This is a general statement; specifically, what kind of statements constitute spreading notions? Spreading misunderstandings about God, judgments and condemnations of God, and even blasphemies against God is all spreading notions. Simply put, spreading understandings of God that do not conform to reality and statements and misinterpretations that do not conform to God’s identity and essence all constitutes spreading notions. For example, in church life, some people often talk about God’s identity and God’s essence. They do not have a true understanding of God’s identity and essence. They often doubt and misunderstand God in their hearts, being unable to submit to the living environment and the environment for doing their duties that God arranges for them, among other things. Then they spread their misunderstandings about God and their ideas about not understanding God. In short, these ideas are not about accepting and submitting to God’s sovereignty and arrangements from the perspective of a created human, but are instead filled with personal prejudices, misunderstandings, and even judgments and condemnations. After hearing these, other people develop misunderstandings about God and guardedness against Him, thereby losing their true faith in God, let alone having genuine submission.

Some people think that believing in God should bring peace and joy, and that if they encounter situations, they only need to pray to God and God will lend His ear, grant them grace and blessings, and ensure everything goes peacefully and smoothly for them. Their purpose in believing in God is to seek grace, gain blessings, and enjoy peace and happiness. It is because of these views that they forsake their families or quit their jobs to expend themselves for God and can endure hardship and pay a price. They believe that as long as they forsake things, expend themselves for God, endure hardship, and work diligently, displaying exceptional behavior, they will gain God’s blessings and favor, and that no matter what difficulties they encounter, as long as they pray to God, He will resolve them and open up a path for them in everything. This is the viewpoint held by the majority of people who believe in God. People feel that this viewpoint is legitimate and correct. Many people’s ability to maintain their faith in God for years without giving up their faith is directly related to this viewpoint. They think, “I have expended so much for God, my behavior has been so good, and I haven’t done any evil deeds; God will surely bless me. Because I have suffered a lot and paid a great price for every task, doing everything according to God’s words and requirements without making any mistakes, God should bless me; He should ensure everything goes smoothly for me, and that I often have peace and joy in my heart, and enjoy God’s presence.” Isn’t this a human notion and imagining? From a human perspective, people enjoy God’s grace and receive benefits, so it makes sense to have to suffer a bit for this, and it’s worthwhile to exchange this suffering for God’s blessings. This is a mentality of making deals with God. However, from the perspective of the truth and from God’s perspective, this fundamentally does not conform to the principles of God’s work nor the standards God requires of people. It is entirely wishful thinking, purely a human notion and imagining about believing in God. Whether it involves making deals with or demanding things from God, or contains human notions and imaginings, in any case, none of it aligns with God’s requirements, nor does it meet God’s principles and standards for blessing people. In particular, this transactional thought and viewpoint offends God’s disposition, but people do not realize it. When what God does doesn’t align with people’s notions, they quickly develop complaints and misunderstandings about Him in their hearts. They even feel wronged and then begin to reason with God, and they may even judge and condemn Him. Regardless of what notions and misunderstandings people develop, from God’s perspective, He never acts or treats anyone according to human notions or wishes. God always does what He desires to do, according to His own way and based on His own disposition essence. God has principles in how He treats every person; nothing He does to each person is based on human notions, imaginings, or preferences—this is the aspect of God’s work that is most at odds with human notions. When God arranges an environment for people that completely contradicts their notions and imaginings, they form notions, judgments, and condemnations against God in their hearts, and may even deny Him. Can God then satisfy their needs? Absolutely not. God will never change His way of working and His desires according to human notions. Who is it that needs to change then? It is people. People need to let go of their notions, accept, submit to, and experience the environments arranged by God, and seek the truth to resolve their own notions, instead of measuring what God does against their notions to see if it is correct. When people insist on holding onto their notions, they develop resistance against God—this happens naturally. Where does the root of resistance lie? It lies in the fact that what people usually possess in their hearts are without a doubt their notions and imaginings and not the truth. Therefore, when faced with God’s work not aligning with human notions, people can defy God and make judgments against Him. This proves that people fundamentally lack a heart of submission to God, their corrupt disposition is far from being cleansed, and they essentially live according to their corrupt disposition. They are still incredibly far from attaining salvation.

When people develop notions about God and resistance toward Him in their hearts, those with some conscience will reluctantly accept what God does and try to integrate into the environment God has arranged and accept His sovereignty over people. How many notions people can let go of and to what extent depends partly on their caliber and partly on whether they accept the truth and are people who love the truth. Some people actively face the environments God arranges by reading God’s words, seeking and fellowshipping, and pondering. They gradually gain some understanding of God’s sovereignty over everything and thereby increase their submission and faith. However, some people, regardless of the environment they encounter, do not seek the truth. Instead, they evaluate all the environments God orchestrates based on their notions, imaginings, and whether or not it benefits them. Their considerations always revolve around their own interests; they always care about how great a benefit they can gain, how much their interests can be satisfied in terms of material things, money, and fleshly enjoyment; and they always make decisions and treat everything God arranges based on these factors. And ultimately, after racking their brains, they choose not to submit to the environment arranged by God but to escape and avoid it. Because of their resistance, rejection, and avoidance, they distance themselves from God’s words, miss out on life experience, and suffer losses, bringing pain and torment to their hearts. The more they oppose such environments, the more and greater the suffering they endure. When such a situation arises, the little faith that they have in God is ultimately crushed. At this moment, the notions that dominate their hearts all surge up at once: “I have expended myself for god for so long, yet I didn’t expect god to treat me this way. God is unfair, he doesn’t love people! God said that those who sincerely expend themselves for Him will surely be greatly blessed. I have sincerely expended myself for god, I have forsaken my family and career, endured hardships, and worked hard—why hasn’t god greatly blessed me? Where are god’s blessings? Why can’t I feel or see them? Why does god treat people unfairly? Why doesn’t god stick to his word? People say that god is faithful, but why can’t I feel it? Leaving everything else aside, just in this environment, I haven’t felt that god is faithful at all!” Because people have notions, they are easily duped and misguided by them. Even when God arranges environments for people’s dispositional change and for their life growth, they find it hard to accept and they misunderstand God. They think this is not God’s blessing and that God doesn’t like them. They believe that they have sincerely expended themselves for God, but God has not fulfilled His promises. These people, who do not pursue the truth, are thus so easily revealed through the single trial of some minor environment. When they are revealed, they finally say what they have most desired to say: “God is not righteous. God is not a faithful god. God’s words are rarely fulfilled. God said, ‘God means what He says, what He says shall be done, and what He does shall last forever.’ Where is the fulfillment of these words? Why can’t I see or feel it? Look at So-and-so: Since believing in god, she hasn’t forsaken or expended herself for god as much as I have, nor has she offered as much as I have. But her children got into prestigious universities, her husband got promoted, their business is flourishing, and even their crops yield more than others’. And what have I gained? I will never believe in god again!” These words are the true thoughts of these people, their mottos. They are filled with these notions, filled with these absurd thoughts and viewpoints, and filled with considerations of benefits and transactions. This is how they understand and perceive God’s work and His earnest intentions, this is how they treat these things. Therefore, in the environments God painstakingly arranges again and again, they repeatedly measure and misunderstand God with their notions, and continually fail and stumble. Furthermore, they constantly try to verify that their notions are correct. When they believe these notions are confirmed and are sufficient evidence for them to arbitrarily evaluate, judge, and condemn God, they begin to spread notions, because their hearts are full of notions about God. What is mixed into these notions? It is complaints, dissatisfaction, and grievances. When they are filled with these things, they look for opportunities to vent. They hope to find a crowd who will listen to the “injustices” they encountered; they want to vent these things to these people and recount to them the so-called unfair treatment they “suffered.” This is how the notions spread by these people arise in church life, this is how such notions come about. These people’s hearts are filled with grievances, defiance, and dissatisfaction, as well as misunderstandings and complaints about God, and even judgments and condemnations of God, which ultimately leads to their hearts being filled with blasphemy. They fear they won’t gain blessings and thus are unwilling to leave, so they spread their misunderstandings of God and their dissatisfaction with Him among people, and even more so they spread their judgments and condemnations of God and their blasphemies toward Him. What do they blaspheme? They blaspheme God, saying He is unfair to them and does not give them appropriate and equivalent returns for what they have done. They judge God for not granting them grace and great blessings after their offerings and sacrifices. They have not received from God those fleshly needs—material things, money, and so on—which they hoped to receive, thus filling their hearts with complaints and grievances. Their purpose in spreading notions is, in one regard, to vent and seek revenge, thereby achieving a sense of psychological balance; and, in another, to incite more people to develop misunderstandings and notions about God, thereby causing these people to guard against God just as they do. If more people say, “We will never believe in god again,” they will feel satisfied inside. This is the purpose and underlying reason behind their spreading of notions.

What is the motto of people who spread notions? What is the saying they often repeat? After experiencing certain things and not gaining the benefits they desired, they incessantly say to themselves, “I will never believe in god again.” Even after saying this, they do not feel they have relieved their hatred or achieved their goal. When they attend gatherings, no matter what others fellowship about, they cannot take it in. They have to say this phrase again, repeating it several times, even more than ten times. “I will never believe in god again”—isn’t this phrase replete with meaning? There is a story behind it. What is their “belief”? Did they believe in God before? Was their previous belief genuine faith? Did it include the submission that a created being should have? (No.) Not at all. They are full of notions and imaginings about God. More importantly, they are full of demands and requests from God, without any submission whatsoever. What does their “belief” mean? “I believe that god is the one who is sovereign over heaven and earth and all things. I believe that god can protect me from being bullied by others. I believe that god can let me enjoy fleshly comfort, live a good, prosperous life, and make everything go peacefully and pleasantly for me. I believe that god can let me enter the kingdom of heaven and receive great blessings, gain a hundredfold in this life, and eternal life in the world to come!” Is this belief? There is not a trace of submission in these “beliefs,” and not one of them conforms to God’s requirements for people. These beliefs purely stem from the perspective of personal gain. God expresses the truth and works on people. When has God ever said that He’ll enable people to live a happy life, to live above others, or to be prosperous and successful, with limitless prospects? (Never.) So why do they consider their own “belief” to be so precious? They even say they will never believe in God again. Is their belief worth anything? Does God accept it? They have no trace of the truth reality, no trace of submission to God, only wanting to gain blessings, benefits, and advantages from God, and they call this believing in God. Isn’t this blasphemy against God? People of this kind are filled with notions and occupied by the intent of gaining blessings. They do not experience God’s work at all and do not practice God’s words. The goal and motive of everything they do is entirely for the benefit of their own flesh. They feel good about themselves and consider their so-called faith in God to be especially precious. If their faith in God is so precious and noble, then why, when God arranges some minor environment for them, can they not understand the truth from it or stand firm in their testimony? What is going on here? When God tests their faith, what do they give back to God? Is it possible that the misunderstandings, complaints, and resistance they give back to God are what He wants? Are these in line with the truth? Clearly, they are not. Therefore, the fact that these people can openly spread notions in the church proves one thing: They do not know God and even more so do not believe that God is sovereign over everything—the god they believe in simply does not exist. When these people openly spread notions to mislead and draw more people to join them in defying, condemning, and blaspheming God, they are unconsciously publicly announcing that they are no longer followers of God, no longer believers, and no longer created beings under the Creator’s dominion. The notions they spread are not simple ideas or statements; rather, they spread notions because they’ve built an unbreachable barrier between them and God, because they’ve made up their minds that using human notions and imaginings to treat God, handle their relationship with God, and treat God’s words and God’s work is correct and is the way they should practice. When such people openly spread notions in church life, should they be restricted? Or, in light of their small stature and shallow foundation, should they be given freedom to express their views and enough time and space to repent? What is the appropriate course of action? (Stopping and restricting them is appropriate.) Why is stopping and restricting them appropriate? Some people say, “If you restrict them and don’t let them speak freely, and they stop believing and stop attending gatherings, wouldn’t that be harming them? That would be such a pity! Wouldn’t God rather save all people than have a single person suffer perdition? Even a single lost sheep must be retrieved—after all the effort to retrieve a lost sheep, could He still allow it to be lost again?” Are these words correct? (No.) Why are they not correct? (Because such people do not genuinely believe in God; they only believe in God in the hope of gaining blessings, and their belief is mixed with impurities.) Who doesn’t have some impurities mixed in with their belief in God? Don’t you have some? Is this a valid reason? Consider the statement from such people: “I will never believe in god again.” What kind of words are these? Is there any difference between this and the blasphemy of nonbelievers, devils, and Satan? (No.) What is the implication of this statement? “I no longer have faith in god. In the past, I wholeheartedly believed in and followed god, but god didn’t bless me. Instead, he arranged environments like that to make things difficult for me and cause me to stumble. What god says doesn’t match what he does at all, so I no longer dare to believe in god! I was so foolish before. I forsook, expended myself, and endured so much hardship for god, but saw no protection from god when I was arrested and persecuted by the great red dragon. My family’s business also didn’t do as well as others’, I didn’t make as much money as others, and my parents remained sick. I gained nothing from believing in god for so many years. Didn’t god say he would greatly bless people? What blessings did I receive from god? God’s words haven’t come true at all, so I will never believe in god again!” The statement “I will never believe in god again!” contains so much. It is filled with complaints, dissatisfaction, and misunderstandings toward God. In short, after they endured hardship and expended themselves with a mindset of wishful thinking, God did not grant them blessings according to their demands, nor did God remunerate or reward them according to their notions and imaginings, so they became dissatisfied and filled with resentment toward God, and it was under such circumstances that they said this sentence. This sentence did not come out of nowhere; by the time they said it, they had already displayed many behaviors and manifestations and had been revealed. What is the problem with such people’s relationship with God? What is the biggest issue in their relationship with God? It is that they never regarded themselves as a created being and never regarded God as the Creator to worship in the first place. From the beginning of their belief in God, they treated God as a money tree, a treasure trove; they regarded Him as a Bodhisattva to deliver them from suffering and disaster, and regarded themselves as a follower of this Bodhisattva, this idol. They thought that believing in God was like believing in Buddha, where just by eating vegetarian food, reciting scriptures, and frequently burning incense and kowtowing, they could get what they wanted. Thus, all the stories that developed after they believed in God happened within the realm of their notions and imaginings. They displayed none of the manifestations of a created being accepting the truth from the Creator, nor did they display any of the submission that a created being should have toward the Creator; there was only continuous demanding, continuous calculating, and incessant requesting. This all ultimately led to the breakdown of their relationship with God. This kind of relationship is transactional and can never stand firm; it is only a matter of time before such people are revealed. Even if they participate in church life, don’t spread notions, and occasionally fellowship about how God has led them, how God has blessed them, what they have enjoyed, and so on, most of what they talk about involves the grace, enjoyment, and fleshly benefits they received from God. These discussions are completely unrelated to the truth and to submitting to God, and they totally lack any truth reality. When circumstances are favorable, they display faith in God and love toward Him, and forbearance and patience toward other people, all to achieve one goal: to gain all of God’s blessings. When God takes away the grace, benefits, and material advantages they enjoyed, their notions are revealed. These people, driven by self-interest and prioritizing personal gain, fly into a rage once they do not receive what they desire; they begin to spread notions to vent their dissatisfaction with God, while also trying to draw in more people to sympathize with them and accept their notions about God. Should such people be stopped and restricted? (Yes.) The topics, thoughts, and viewpoints they fellowship do not reflect a pure comprehension of the truth, nor do they help people submit to God and have genuine faith in Him. Instead, they lead people away from God, cause misunderstandings, guardedness, and even rejection of God, and cause those who listen to the notions these people spread to silently warn themselves, “I will never believe in god again,” just like them. This is the disturbance that the notions spread by such people cause to others.

2. Spreading Notions About God’s Words and Work

These people who spread notions use their own notions to measure God’s words, to measure God’s work, and also to measure God’s essence and God’s disposition. They believe in God within their notions, view God within their notions, and observe and scrutinize every word God says, every item of work God does, and every environment God arranges within their notions. When what God does aligns with their notions, they loudly praise God, saying that God is righteous, God is faithful, and God is holy. When what God does does not align with their notions, and their interests suffer severe losses, and they endure great pain, they come out to deny the words that God speaks and the work that He does; they even spread notions to incite more people to misunderstand and guard against God, saying, “Do not believe God’s words so easily, and do not practice God’s words easily either; otherwise, if you’re taken advantage of and suffer losses, no one will take accountability for it,” and so on. For instance, God says, “To those who sincerely expend for Me, I shall surely bless you greatly”—are these words not the truth? These words are one hundred percent the truth. They contain no impetuousness or deception. They are not lies or grand-sounding ideas, much less are they some kind of spiritual theory—they are the truth. What is the essence of these words of truth? It is that you must be sincere when you expend yourself for God. What does “sincere” mean? Willing and without impurities; not motivated by money or fame, and certainly not for your own intentions, desires, and goals. You expend yourself not because you are forced to, or because you are incited, coaxed, or pulled along, but rather, it comes from within you, willingly; it is born out of conscience and reason. This is what it means to be sincere. In terms of the willingness to expend yourself for God, this is what it means to be sincere. Then how does being sincere manifest itself in practical terms when you expend yourself for God? You do not engage in falsehood or cheating, do not resort to trickery to avoid work, and do not do things perfunctorily; you devote all your heart and mind, doing all you can, and so forth—there are too many details to mention here! In short, being sincere incorporates the truth principles. There is a standard and principle behind God’s requirements for man. Some people say, “If I offer my sincerity and all my meager savings in believing in god, will I gain more? If I can gain more, then it’s worth offering everything!” After offering, they see that God hasn’t blessed them and ponder on it, thinking: “Maybe I haven’t offered enough, so I’ll offer more. I’ll go out and preach the gospel.” When they encounter difficulties while preaching the gospel, they pray. Sometimes, when they’re missing meals and not sleeping well, they still continue to pray. They think: “God said that those who sincerely expend themselves for God will surely be greatly blessed. Maybe my sincerity isn’t enough yet, so I’ll pray more.” Through prayer, they gain faith and don’t mind enduring a bit of hardship. They really start to see some results from preaching the gospel and think: “Now I have some sincerity. I’ll hurry home to see if my family’s life has improved, if my child’s illness has gotten better, and if the family business is running smoothly—whether or not there are blessings from god.” Is this expending oneself sincerely for God? (No.) What is this? (A transaction.) This is making a deal with God. They are using their own methods and what they consider “sincerity” to be based on their notions to do what they want, and to obtain what they desire from that. They continually use the “sincerity” they understand to verify these words spoken by God, constantly prying into just what God intends to do, what He has done, and what He hasn’t done, and constantly speculating about whether God will bless them or not, and whether He intends to bless them greatly. They are continually calculating what they have offered and how much they should gain, whether God has given them that and whether God’s words have been fulfilled. They are continually looking for facts with which they can test God’s statement. While expending themselves for God, they always want to verify whether God’s words are true. Their purpose is to see if expending themselves for God can earn them God’s blessings. They are constantly testing God, always wanting to see God’s blessings upon themselves so as to confirm His words. When they find that God’s words are not as easily fulfilled as they imagined, and it is hard to confirm the veracity of God’s words, their notions about God become even more severe. At the same time, they begin to firmly believe that not every word God says is necessarily the truth. With this hidden in their hearts, they start to doubt and question God, often developing notions about Him. From time to time, these people, whose hearts are filled with notions, reveal some of their notions about God while living church life and interacting with the brothers and sisters. They develop notions about God’s words and also use their notions to measure God’s work. When God’s work consistently does not align with their notions and is completely contrary to their expectations, they spread their notions to vent their dissatisfaction with God. For instance, God says that His work is nearing its end, and people should forsake everything to follow God and expend themselves for Him, cooperate with God’s work, and no longer pursue worldly prospects, a harmonious household, and other such things. After God says these words, God continues to do much work. Three, five, seven, or eight years pass, and some people see that God’s work is still steadily proceeding, with no signs that His work is ending or that the great catastrophe is imminent and believers have all taken refuge. Those who use their notions to measure God’s work cannot wait for God’s work to quickly end so that believers can share in the wonderful blessings of God. But God does not act this way; He does not accomplish this matter according to human notions and imaginings. Those who can’t wait become restless and start to have misgivings, saying: “Isn’t god’s work already nearing its end? Isn’t it supposed to end soon? Didn’t god say that great disasters and catastrophes are imminent? Why is god’s house still doing so much work? When exactly will god’s work end? When will it be over?” These people are not the slightest bit interested in the truth or in God’s requirements. They have no interest in practicing the truth, submitting to God, or escaping Satan’s influence to achieve salvation. They are only, and especially, interested in such things as when God’s work will end, whether their outcome will be life or death, when they can enter the kingdom to enjoy blessings, and what the beautiful scenes of the kingdom will be like. These are their greatest concerns. Therefore, after enduring for a period of time and seeing that the heavens and earth remain unchanged, and that the countries of the world continue as normal, they say, “When will these words of god come true? I’ve been waiting for several years—why haven’t they come true yet? Can god’s words really come true? Does god stick to his word or not?” And so these people lose patience, become restless, and start wanting to look for opportunities to return to the world to live their own lives.