Item Thirteen: Protect God’s Chosen People From Being Disturbed, Misled, Controlled, and Grievously Harmed by Antichrists, and Enable Them to Discern Antichrists and Forsake Them From Their Hearts

Several Tasks That Leaders and Workers Must Perform Upon Identifying That Antichrists Are Disturbing the Church

Next, we will fellowship on the main topic. Our fellowship on the twelfth responsibility of leaders and workers is complete. For this fellowship, we’ll be discussing the thirteenth responsibility: “Protect God’s chosen people from being disturbed, misled, controlled, and grievously harmed by antichrists, and enable them to discern antichrists and forsake them from their hearts.” The thirteenth responsibility involves the topic of how leaders and workers should treat antichrists. What work should leaders and workers do when antichrists appear in the church? First, this responsibility states that when solving such problems, leaders and workers need to step forward to protect the brothers and sisters from the disturbance, misleading, control, and grievous harm of antichrists. This is the first task they should do. As for how antichrists disturb, mislead, control, and grievously harm God’s chosen people, a lot has been fellowshipped about this before, so this content will not be the main topic of today’s fellowship. Today, we will focus on what responsibilities leaders and workers must fulfill and what work they must do when facing these behaviors and actions of antichrists to protect God’s chosen people from harm. First, leaders and workers must protect God’s chosen people from the disturbance, misleading, control, and grievous harm of antichrists—this is one of the responsibilities of leaders and workers. What does “one of the responsibilities” mean? It means that among the many tasks leaders and workers undertake, protecting God’s chosen people so that they can lead a normal church life without the disturbance and grievous harm of antichrists is an important task. It is also an inescapable task in which they cannot shirk their responsibility. Leaders and workers should place importance on this and should not neglect it. Maintaining the normal functioning of church life is a very important task and is the foremost task among all church work. This is also a responsibility of leaders and workers. The fundamental work of leaders and workers is to lead God’s chosen people into the truth reality. When Satan and antichrists come to disturb and mislead people, and to vie with God for His chosen people, leaders and workers should stand up to expose the antichrists so that God’s chosen people can discern them, making the antichrists reveal their true forms, and then clear them out of the church. This is to prevent God’s chosen people from being controlled and grievously harmed by antichrists. This is the responsibility that leaders and workers should fulfill when doing church work. So what does it mean to prevent these things? How should they be prevented? The term “prevent” literally means to stop something from happening to the greatest extent possible. What is the key point here? Stopping incidents from occurring achieves prevention. In handling incidents of antichrists, the primary work of leaders and workers is to stop antichrists from disturbing, misleading, controlling, and grievously harming God’s chosen people to the greatest extent possible. They must protect God’s chosen people from the harm of antichrists as much as possible. This is the key work that leaders and workers need to do, and this is what we need to clearly fellowship concerning the thirteenth responsibility. So how can God’s chosen people be protected? By stopping these evil deeds done by antichrists from occurring. There are many ways and methods to stop them, such as exposing, pruning, dissecting, and restricting. What else is there? (Expelling.) That is the last step. When the brothers and sisters still lack discernment and do not know that someone is an antichrist, but leaders and workers have already identified them as such, if they directly expel them, those who lack discernment might develop notions and judgments, and some may stumble. In such cases, what work should leaders and workers do? What did I just mention? (Exposing, pruning, dissecting, and restricting.) Do you have any good methods to stop antichrists from doing evil? Is monitoring them a good method? Does it count as an effective way and method that is in line with principles? (Yes.) What is the appropriate way to treat antichrists? Can judgment, chastisement, trials, and refinement work on antichrists? (No.) Why not? (Antichrists do not accept the truth; they are averse to it.) Antichrists are averse to the truth and do not accept it, so using trials, refinements, judgment, and chastisement to deal with antichrists is not appropriate. Moreover, God does not perform this work on them. This idea is not appropriate, so this method definitely will not work. Just what method is appropriate then? Many people who have suffered greatly from the harm of antichrists hate them deeply and believe that antichrists should be judged, condemned, and publicly laid bare. They think antichrists should be made to admit to their mistakes and confess to their sins openly in the church and be thoroughly shamed. Do you think adopting these methods would be appropriate? (No.) If we consider the essence of antichrists, taking such actions would actually not be excessive—however devils get treated is fine; it can be done as casually as crushing a bug. So the purpose of leaders and workers doing this seems very legitimate and correct, but are there any issues with these methods? Is this work within the scope of the responsibilities of leaders and workers? Is doing things this way in line with principles or not? (It’s not.) Clearly, it’s not in line with principles. Where do principles come from? (From God’s words.) That’s right. Although the targets of such actions are antichrists—devils—the methods should also align with principles and God’s requirements, because in doing this work leaders and workers are fulfilling their responsibilities, not handling family affairs or personal matters.

I. Exposing

Dealing with antichrists and stopping them from doing evil and misleading and harming God’s chosen people is the responsibility of leaders and workers. The purpose is to protect God’s chosen people from harm, not to torment anyone or seize the opportunity to retaliate against anyone, and certainly not to carry out campaigns against anyone. Therefore, what are the tasks that leaders and workers need to undertake to stop antichrists from doing evil to the greatest extent possible? The first is to expose them. What is the purpose of exposing? (To help people develop discernment.) That’s right. It’s to help God’s chosen people discern the essence of antichrists, to make it so that they can internally distance themselves from antichrists and not be misled by them, and so that—when antichrists try to mislead and control them—they are able to actively reject them, rather than allowing the antichrists to manipulate and toy with them. So, is exposing them important? (Yes.) Exposing them is very important, but you must expose them accurately. How should you expose them, then? What should the basis for your exposure be? Is it okay to label them arbitrarily? Is it okay to recklessly condemn them without basis? (No.) So how should you accurately expose them to achieve the goal of protecting God’s chosen people? (For one thing, we must objectively and truthfully expose them based on the fact of their evil deeds. Additionally, we must discern and dissect them according to God’s words.) These two statements are spot on; both aspects are indispensable. For one thing, there must be factual evidence. You must judge and make a determination about their essence based on the erroneous words, actions, and absurd thoughts and viewpoints revealed by the antichrists. The most important thing, however, is to discern and dissect them according to God’s words. Which words of God should you refer to? Which words are the most direct and incisive? (The words that expose antichrists.) That’s right; you must find some words that unmask antichrists to expose them and draw comparisons aptly and impartially, ensuring absolute precision. The brothers and sisters will understand after hearing this; they will immediately have discernment toward the person involved, and guard against them. Having discernment in their hearts, they will feel repelled by this person: “So, they are an antichrist after all! They helped me before and even did me favors. I thought they were a good person. Through this dissection and fellowship, their hypocrisy and their essential antichrist manifestations have been exposed, helping everyone see that this person is dangerous. God’s words have exposed them so accurately! They are not a good person. They say nice things and there seem to be no problems in their actions, but by exposing their essence, it’s now evident they are indeed an antichrist.” Judging from the transformation of people’s thoughts, when leaders and workers are doing the work of exposing antichrists, they are stopping antichrists from misleading and disturbing God’s chosen people to the greatest extent possible. Of course, they are also fulfilling the responsibility of protecting God’s chosen people from the control and grievous harm of antichrists. They are doing one of their tasks in a practical way. Which task is this? Exposing antichrists. The work of exposing antichrists is one of the tasks that leaders and workers must undertake to protect God’s chosen people. As for the various tasks that leaders and workers must do, we won’t order them by their scale or the results they achieve; let’s first fellowship on the work of “exposing.” Exposing the nature essence of antichrists includes exposing the intents, purposes, and consequences of their constant evil deeds that disrupt and disturb the work of the church; exposing how antichrists, while serving as leaders and workers, do not do any real church work at all and disregard the life entry of God’s chosen people; exposing the ugly face of antichrists as being people who do not know themselves whatsoever, never practice the truth, and merely speak words and doctrines to mislead people; and exposing their different sayings and actions in front of people and behind their backs. Thoroughly exposing these aspects shows the true form of antichrists as Satans and devils. This is an important task that leaders and workers must undertake. So, what do leaders and workers need to possess to carry out this task? First of all, they need to have a certain sense of burden, don’t they? (Yes.) When leaders and workers bear this responsibility, they often think, “That person is an antichrist. Some brothers and sisters often go to them with questions, always drawing close to them and having a good relationship with them. Having been misled by this person, many people especially idolize them. What should be done about this?” They come before God to pray and often consciously seek out God’s words that expose antichrists, equipping themselves with the truth in this regard. They then ask God to prepare the right time or they look for a suitable time and opportunity themselves to fellowship with the brothers and sisters about this matter. They treat this as their burden and an important task they need to undertake next. They are constantly preparing, seeking, and praying to God for guidance; they are always in this kind of state of mind and condition. This is what is meant by having a sense of burden. After preparing with such a burden for some time, they must wait until conditions are ripe. At the very least, they must wait until two or three people have real discernment of the antichrist before they can begin to expose them. If they determine that someone seems to be an antichrist based on their feelings alone, but they cannot see through to whether that person actually is an antichrist or not, then they must not act rashly. In short, when carrying out this work, they will certainly have God’s enlightenment and guidance. This is what it means to do real work and fulfill the responsibilities of leaders and workers.

II. Pruning

After the work of exposing antichrists has been carried out, although the brothers and sisters gain some discernment, before the antichrists are completely brought to light, they inevitably do more to mislead and disturb the brothers and sisters, causing more people to idolize, admire, and follow them. This greatly delays God’s chosen people from entering into the right track of believing in God, hindering their life entry and causing significant harm. The second task that leaders and workers must undertake, then, is that when antichrists mislead and disturb the brothers and sisters, or when their words and actions clearly violate the truth principles, leaders and workers must seize the evidence and promptly come forward to prune them, and expose their evil deeds according to God’s words, so that the brothers and sisters can discern and see through to the antichrists’ true face. This is the unshirkable responsibility of protecting God’s chosen people and safeguarding the work of God’s house. Leaders and workers should not sit back and do nothing or turn a blind eye; they should promptly seize opportunities, pinpoint the incidents, and come forward to prune the antichrists, accurately exposing their actions, ambitions, desires, and essence. Of course, it is also necessary to more accurately characterize what kind of person the antichrists are, so that the brothers and sisters can see this clearly, so that the antichrists themselves know it, and so that the antichrists are aware that not everyone is without discernment of them and can be fooled by them—that at least some people can see through their actions and behavior and see through their ulterior ambitions and desires, as well as their essence. The purpose of pruning antichrists is, of course, not merely to expose their essence through words. More importantly, what is it? (For one, it is to help the brothers and sisters develop discernment, and also to restrict the evil deeds of the antichrists.) Correct. It is to restrict them, so that when they do things that mislead and disturb people, they have some scruples and feel some dread; to make them subject to restrictions, have some restraints, and not dare to act recklessly; to let them know that God’s house not only has the truth, with the truth holding power, but also has administrative decrees, and that it is not feasible to act tyrannically and with willful recklessness in God’s house, to damage the interests of God’s house, and to harm God’s chosen people; and to also let them know that they will be held accountable for committing reckless misdeeds that disturb the church’s work and harm the life entry of God’s chosen people. While promptly pruning the antichrists, leaders and workers must also stand up to expose them, helping people develop discernment and see through the ambitions, desires, intentions, and purposes of the antichrists. This is also, of course, to protect God’s chosen people and safeguard the interests of God’s house. These are all considerations leaders and workers must take into account, and it is within the scope of their responsibilities to carry out this work; they cannot neglect it or be careless about it. If leaders and workers discover antichrists in the church, they should always be vigilant about their words and actions and the fallacies they spread behind the scenes, and they must practice pruning and exposing them. This is one of the tasks for leaders and workers to protect God’s chosen people from being disturbed and harmed by antichrists.

III. Dissecting

What is the next task for leaders and workers? To dissect. Dissecting is almost identical to exposing, but there are differences in degree. When it comes to dissecting, it is not simply about exposing a fact, true situation, or background; it involves the issue of characterization, that is, it involves the disposition of antichrists, this essential, root issue. Dissect their attitude toward God, the truth, their duty, and the work of God’s house, as well as the motives, intentions, and purpose behind their spreading of fallacies—the reasons why they do this—and discern just what their essence is through their thoughts, viewpoints, speech, actions, and the dispositions and manifestations they reveal. These should be compared with God’s words and explained so that the brothers and sisters can gain a deeper understanding of the antichrists and clearly see from a practical perspective just why the antichrists before them say and do these things, what God’s perspective on such people is, and how He characterizes them. Of course, leaders and workers should also tell the brothers and sisters to distance themselves from and reject the antichrists, and also to be vigilant against being misled by the antichrists’ actions, behaviors, speech, and viewpoints so as to avoid misunderstanding God, guarding against God, distancing themselves from God, rejecting God, and even inwardly judging and condemning God like the antichrists do. The purpose of dissecting, like other tasks such as exposing and pruning, is to stop the antichrists from misleading, disturbing, and harming God’s chosen people. It is to protect God’s chosen people from being grievously harmed by the antichrists and from deviating from the right track of believing in God. When God’s chosen people clearly see the facts and true situation about how the antichrists disturb the church and clearly see the essence of the antichrists, they will no longer be misled and controlled by them. Even if some muddlers and foolish people still admire and idolize them inside and interact with and draw close to them, the antichrists can no longer cause major issues. They will only do some things to the foolish people, without affecting the life entry of those who sincerely believe in God at all, and thus, they will not be able to disturb and disrupt the work of the church. Reaching this level is what leaders and workers should be able to achieve. That is, they must ensure that those who sincerely believe in God and willingly do their duties and those who love the truth can live a normal church life and fulfill their duties. At the same time, they must also be able to ensure that these people can guard against the antichrists’ misleading and disturbances, and reject the antichrists. This is stopping the evildoing and disturbances of antichrists to the greatest extent, fully achieving the effect of protecting God’s chosen people. Of course, no matter how effectively you do your work and how thoroughly you speak, there will inevitably be some foolish people, people with poor caliber, and muddle-headed people who cannot reject the antichrists and will still admire and look up to them in their hearts. However, most people will have reached the point where they can reject the antichrists. If leaders and workers can achieve this, they will have already protected God’s chosen people to the greatest extent, fully achieving the desired result. As for those dimwits who cannot understand the truth no matter how it is fellowshipped, if they can still labor a little, they should be given some care and help, as well as some more love, patience, and tolerance. This is doing everything one ought to do, and working in this way is principled. Are there many leaders and workers who can meet this standard? (No.) Therefore, the utmost effort must be made; you must protect God’s chosen people tirelessly and to the greatest extent. What does “to the greatest extent” mean? It means to do everything possible to fellowship the truth principles you understand, to present the evidence already obtained—the various manifestations of the evil deeds of the antichrists—correlating them with God’s words that expose antichrists, and to fellowship and dissect them. This is so that the brothers and sisters can see the factual, true situation clearly, discern and see through to the essence of antichrists, and know God’s attitude toward antichrists. This is an important task that leaders and workers must undertake.

IV. Restricting

What is the next task leaders and workers must do? It is to restrict. This work of “restricting” is easy to carry out; it involves adopting some special measures to achieve the result of restriction. For example, antichrists always speak words and doctrines, always exalt themselves, sometimes belittle others, often testify about how much suffering they have endured and what contributions they have made in God’s house during gatherings, and shamelessly testify to themselves, talking about how others admire them, how they are better than others, how they are unique, and so on. Leaders and workers should do their best to restrict the various evil deeds of the antichrists that mislead and control God’s chosen people, instead of continually indulging them. They should restrict their speaking time and the topics they discuss. Additionally, concerning the actions of antichrists both in public and in private, such as using small favors to draw people over to their side, sowing dissension, spreading notions and negative remarks, and so on, leaders and workers should not act like they are deaf or blind. They should promptly grasp the actions of the antichrists; once they discover behaviors that mislead and disturb others, they should promptly expose and dissect these behaviors and impose restrictions on the antichrists, not allowing them to go around misleading people and disturbing the work of the church. Is this one of the important tasks that leaders and workers need to do? (Yes.) Can you restrict the antichrists’ evil deeds just by pruning, exposing, and dissecting them? (No.) You can’t restrict them this way because they are Satans and devils. As long as their hands and feet are not bound, and their mouths not sealed, they will spread fallacies and speak devilish words that disturb people. Leaders and workers must promptly take action to restrict them; especially when they spread fallacies to mislead and disturb people, leaders and workers must interrupt and stop them in a timely manner. They must also enable God’s chosen people to have discernment and see the true face of antichrists clearly. This is the actual work that leaders and workers should do.

V. Monitoring

After restricting antichrists, what comes next is monitoring them. See who the antichrists have misled and what fallacies and devilish words they’ve spread behind the scenes, check if they are siding with the great red dragon and acting in concert with it, whether they have allied with the religious community, whether they are secretly pulling shady maneuvers with members of their gangs, if they might sell out some important information about God’s house, and so on. This is also a responsibility that leaders and workers should fulfill. Before the antichrists’ actions come to light, leaders and workers should not “devote themselves entirely to studying books of sages and pay no attention to outside matters,” but should be as shrewd as serpents. Once leaders and workers discover that someone is an antichrist, if the time has not yet come to clear out or expel that person, they must closely monitor them to prevent them from continuing to do evil, ensuring that their words and actions are monitored by God’s chosen people. Because antichrists love power and making connections with powerful people, leaders and workers should closely watch whom the antichrists are always interacting with behind the scenes and whether they are in contact with religious people. Some antichrists often associate with religious pastors and elders, and some even interact with people from the United Front Work Department. When such incidents occur, leaders and workers should not turn a blind eye to this, but should be vigilant against the antichrists and be on guard. If an antichrist sees that their methods of misleading and drawing people over to their side do not work in God’s house and that their evil deeds have been exposed, and they know that they will not come to a good end, you cannot predict what they might do or to what extent their evil might go. Therefore, once you are certain in your heart that someone is an antichrist, you must closely monitor and watch them without letting up. This is your responsibility. What is the point of doing this? It is to protect God’s chosen people, and to stop, to the greatest extent possible, the antichrists from committing wrongful acts against the church and the brothers and sisters to harm the brothers and sisters. Some antichrists always inquire about the offerings: “Who manages the money of God’s house? Who keeps the accounts? Are the accounts kept accurately? Is it possible that there’s embezzling going on? Where is the church’s money kept? Shouldn’t these things be made public, giving everyone the right to know about them? How many assets does God’s house have? Who has donated the most? Why don’t I know these things?” Their words make it sound like they are concerned about the financial affairs of God’s house, but in fact, they have a different motive. There is not a single antichrist who does not covet money. So what should leaders and workers do in such cases? First, you should properly manage the offerings, entrusting them to reliable people for safekeeping, and you absolutely should not let the antichrists succeed in achieving their aims—you mustn’t be muddled on this point. As soon as this kind of situation arises, you should realize: “Something’s wrong. The antichrist is going to do something. The church’s money is being targeted by them. They might be planning to ally with the great red dragon to hatch plots about and seize the church’s money. We have to move it right away!” For one thing, you cannot let the antichrists know who manages the finances of God’s house. Furthermore, if the people managing the money feel there is a security risk, both the money and the people managing it must be moved quickly. Isn’t this something that the leaders and workers should concern themselves with, and the work they should perform? (Yes.) By contrast, foolish leaders hear the antichrists say these things and yet they think, “This person bears a burden and knows to show concern for the money of God’s house, so let’s give them some responsibility and let them help with the accounting.” In doing this, haven’t they become Judases? (Yes.) Not only have they failed to protect the offerings, but they’ve even sold them out to the antichrists, effectively becoming Judases. What do you think of these leaders and workers? Are they not evil people? Are they not devils? They have not only failed to fulfill their responsibilities, but they’ve also handed over God’s offerings and the brothers and sisters to the antichrists. Therefore, in places where there are antichrists, once leaders and workers discover any clues of this, they must commence an investigation and do some specific work, within which the work of “monitoring” is indispensable.

The monitoring work carried out by leaders and workers is not about conducting espionage or any spy activities; it is simply about fulfilling your responsibility, being more concerned, carefully observing more, and noting what the antichrists are doing and what they intend to do. If you discover any signs of them committing evil and disturbing the church, you must take countermeasures as soon as possible; you absolutely cannot allow them to succeed. This is stopping incidents that disturb the work of the church by antichrists from occurring to the greatest extent. Naturally, this also best safeguards the church’s work and protects God’s chosen people. This is a manifestation of leaders and workers fulfilling their responsibilities. Monitoring does not mean arranging for a few people to act as secret agents, and having them follow, tail, and surveil people like spies, or searching their homes and using severe interrogation methods. God’s house does not engage in such activities. However, you must promptly understand the antichrists’ situation. You can inquire about their recent situation by speaking with their family members or brothers and sisters who can discern them or are familiar with them. Aren’t these all methods and ways for doing this work? If leaders and workers perform the tasks that fall within the scope of their responsibilities and conform to the principles required by God, they are fulfilling their responsibilities. What is the purpose of leaders and workers fulfilling their responsibilities? It is for you to do all you possibly can to stop antichrists from causing disruptions and disturbances to the greatest extent possible, thereby preventing antichrists from harming God’s chosen people and betraying the interests of God’s house. This is the responsibility of leaders and workers. Doesn’t this stop the occurrence of antichrist incidents to the greatest extent? Aren’t leaders and workers who undertake these actions doing all that is humanly possible? (Yes.) Is it difficult to do this? (No.) It is not difficult; this is something that those who understand the truth can achieve. What people can achieve, they should do their utmost to accomplish; the rest is up to God to do, to exercise His sovereignty over and orchestrate, and to guide. This is what we worry about the least. We have God behind us. Not only do we have God in our hearts, but we also have genuine faith. This is not a spiritual support; in fact, God is in the dark, and He is at people’s side, always present with them. Whenever people do anything or do any duty, He is watching; He is there to help you at any time and place, keeping and protecting you. What people should do is to do their utmost to accomplish what they should. As long as you become aware, feel in your heart, see in God’s words, are reminded by people around you, or are given any signal or omen by God that provides you with information—that this is something you should do, that this is God’s commission to you—then you should fulfill your responsibility and not sit by idly or watch from the sidelines. You are not a robot; you have a mind and thoughts. When something happens, you absolutely know what you should do, and you definitely have feelings and awareness. So apply these feelings and awareness to actual situations, transform them into your actions, and this way, you will have fulfilled your responsibility. For the things you can be aware of, you should practice according to the truth principles you understand. This way, you are doing your utmost and making your best effort to do your duty. As a leader or worker, when you make your best effort, that is, when you stop the evil deeds of antichrists from occurring to the greatest extent, God will be satisfied that you can practice in this way. Why will God be satisfied? God will make a determination about such leaders and workers: They are fulfilling their responsibilities and making their best effort to perform the work inherent to their role. Is this God’s approval? (Yes.)