Item Seven: They Are Wicked, Insidious, and Deceitful (Part One) Section Three

A Dissection of How Antichrists Are Wicked, Insidious, and Deceitful

I. A Dissection of Antichrists’ Hostility and Loathing Toward Positive Things and the Truth

We’ve finished dissecting the sixth manifestation of antichrists, and now we’ll start dissecting the seventh one: How antichrists are wicked, insidious, and deceitful. Some people say, “Seeing as we’re dissecting and exposing antichrists, isn’t it too mild to say they are wicked, insidious, and deceitful? Who doesn’t have a little bit of a wicked or deceitful disposition? Ordinary people all have these corrupt dispositions, so if we expose and dissect antichrists in this way, wouldn’t that mean that everyone is an antichrist?” Do any of you think this? If any of you really think this, then you’re wrong. Is there a difference between the wickedness, insidiousness, and deceitfulness of antichrists and the revelations of these corrupt dispositions in ordinary people? There is most certainly a difference, otherwise we wouldn’t include these dispositions in the manifestations of antichrists. Today, I will primarily fellowship first on this difference, before then moving on to talk about some real examples and specific manifestations of the wicked, insidious, and deceitful dispositions of antichrists. It’s easy to understand the literal meaning of the words “wicked,” “insidious,” and “deceitful.” The difficulty lies in discerning the essential difference between these kinds of manifestations in antichrists and in ordinary people, why we define one kind of person who possesses these corrupt dispositions and essences as an antichrist, and what the difference in essence is between antichrists and ordinary corrupt mankind. Firstly, antichrists are openly antagonistic toward the truth and God; they vie with God for His chosen people, His position, and people’s hearts, and they even do various things around God’s chosen people to win over their hearts, and to mislead and paralyze them. In short, the nature of antichrists’ actions and behavior, whether open or secret, is always antagonistic toward God. Why do I say it is antagonistic toward God? It’s because they know perfectly well that God’s words are the truth and that He is God, yet they still oppose Him and don’t accept the truth no matter how it is fellowshipped on. For instance, some antichrists rope in some people and mislead and control them. They make these people obey them and follow them, and then they fraudulently obtain all kinds of books and materials from the church, and set up their own churches and establish their own kingdoms, so that they can enjoy being followed and worshiped by their followers, after which they start to profit from the church. This kind of behavior is clearly them vying with God for His chosen people—is this not a characteristic of antichrists? Is it unjust to define these people as antichrists based on this obvious characteristic? It isn’t unjust at all—this definition is very accurate! There are also some antichrists who form cliques within the church and dismantle the church. They constantly cultivate their own forces within the church, and exclude those who disagree with them. Then they keep those who listen to and follow them by their sides to form their own forces and make everyone do what they say. Isn’t this them establishing their own kingdoms? Regardless of what work arrangements or requirements the Above has, they refuse to carry them out and instead act in their own way, leading their followers to openly oppose the Above. For instance, God’s house requires that leaders and workers who are not capable of performing real work be promptly replaced. An antichrist, however, will think: “Though some leaders and workers aren’t capable of performing real work, they support and approve of me, and I have been cultivating them. There’s no way that the above is replacing these people, unless they remove me first.” Tell Me, isn’t that church under the control of that antichrist? The work arrangements of God’s house do not get by the antichrist and cannot be carried out. When the work arrangements have been issued for a long time, and every church has reported back on how they have been carried out, for example, who has been reassigned to another duty or replaced due to what circumstances, the antichrist never reports anything back and never reassigns anyone. Some people are always perfunctory in their duties, which seriously impacts the work of the church, but the antichrist doesn’t reassign them. Even when the Above tells the antichrist directly to replace these people, a long time passes without their reply. Isn’t there a problem here? When the Above asks them to implement work arrangements or tries to inquire about something, they reach a dead end with the antichrist. The brothers and sisters in the church know nothing about it, they receive no messages, and they are disconnected from the Above—the church is totally under that one person’s control. What is the nature of an antichrist acting in this way? This is the antichrist taking over a church. Antichrists form cliques in the church, they establish their own kingdoms, they oppose God’s house, and they harm God’s chosen people. People lose the work of the Holy Spirit, they cannot feel God’s presence, there is no peace or joy, they lose faith in God, and they no longer perform their duties energetically. They even become negative and depraved, and their lives stagnate. All of these are results of antichrists misleading and controlling people. Now, in all pastoral areas in mainland China, a number of false leaders and antichrists have been exposed and replaced. Among them, there are some false leaders and false workers who did no real work. They all possessed manifestations of antichrists, and they all had the dispositions of antichrists, yet they didn’t quite reach the level of being antichrists, so they were merely replaced. However, some people were laws unto themselves, they had the final say on everything, they completely violated the work arrangements and acted in their own way, and so they were defined as antichrists and expelled. This way of exposing and handling false leaders and antichrists is wonderful! I feel very happy when I see these report letters, as it shows that some of God’s chosen people have understood a little of the truth after years of listening to sermons. Why do I say they have understood a little of the truth? It’s because after they’ve listened to these sermons, they can link and apply them to some matters they encounter in life. After they finish listening to these truths, they may not really understand them in that moment, but later on they come to have discernment of people and events. They come to have the principles and standards by which they can measure those who are laws unto themselves, those who do not perform real work, those who cannot resolve real problems, those who are perfunctory in their duties and do not bear a burden, and those who have no sense of responsibility. Isn’t this progress? This is progress. It cannot be said that they possess stature, they have merely understood a little of the truth. God’s chosen people have some discernment of false leaders, antichrists, and some of those who don’t perform real work and are incompetent in their work—isn’t this a good thing? This is a good thing; it shows that God’s chosen people understand the truth and have discernment, and that they can stand on the side of God and protect the church’s work—this is something worth celebrating. It is not possible for antichrists to mislead those who understand the truth. They may be able to mislead those who don’t understand the truth and have no discernment for a time, but for how long? I trust that, the more people understand the truth and the more faith they have in God, the shorter time it’ll take for them to reject and cast off the bonds and constraints of antichrists. Therefore, it’s still necessary for us to fellowship on the various detailed manifestations of antichrists, otherwise if people are misled and controlled by antichrists, it will be very difficult for them to attain salvation.

I just explained in simple terms the manifestations of antichrists and the reasons for defining such people as antichrists. So, what is the difference between antichrists’ manifestations of wickedness, insidiousness, and deceitfulness and the corrupt dispositions of ordinary people? Do you have any understanding of this? I’ll tell you a story, and this story is most certainly related to wickedness, insidiousness, and deceitfulness. The Book of Job in the Bible records a conversation between God and Satan. God asks Satan, “From where come you?” (Job 1:7). And how does Satan reply? (“From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it” (Job 1:7).) Up until now, people still don’t understand what Satan meant by this—this is called a disposition. Why don’t people understand what Satan meant? It’s because you still haven’t figured out where exactly Satan comes from. What is the issue with what Satan said? There is a kind of disposition here, and that is a wicked disposition. Let’s finish talking about that line for now and analyze what comes after. Satan comes before God and, after it has replied to His question, God says to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God, and eschews evil?” (Job 1:8). What reaction would a normal person usually have upon hearing that God said this? (They would want to see how Job acted.) People would immediately think, “Job feared God and eschewed evil and he was a perfect man. I really admire him!” Where does this admiration come from? It arises from a kind of longing, love, and yearning for positive things within normal humanity. However, if you don’t love the truth, what will you manifest when you hear these words? (Scorn.) You will scorn these words and ignore them. Some people then think, “Fear God and eschew evil? What is this fear? What does ‘eschew evil’ mean? Where can you find a perfect man these days?” They seem to feel nothing after they hear these words, so do they have hearts that yearn and long for these things? (No.) Do they desire these things? (No.) Do they wish to seek to understand exactly what the details within this are? Do they have this aspiration? No, they don’t; in their hearts, they don’t want to know. There is another type of person who reacts abnormally when they hear God said that Job feared Him and eschewed evil, that he was a perfect man. They say, “Huh? Job feared God and eschewed evil, and he was a perfect man—does such a person exist? Show me how he was perfect—I don’t believe it!” Do people like this, who have such ideas and manifestations, truly believe and acknowledge the words that God spoke? (No.) They don’t truly believe or acknowledge them. First, there is one point that is certain: They don’t acknowledge that what God says is true, trustworthy, and accurate, they don’t regard God’s words as the truth, as the words of the Creator, and as the supreme truth for all mankind. Since they don’t regard God’s words as the truth, how do they regard God? Since they deny God’s words, could they possibly acknowledge that God is God? Certainly not, because they deny God’s words, deny God’s perspective, and deny the sayings of God, the implication of which is that they deny God’s existence and deny that He is the reality of all positive things. This is certain. There is another point: What attitude do people like this have toward the truths that God expresses and toward positive and negative things, and what disposition lies behind their attitude? What is their view on Job? “That’s not possible! Could there still be anyone like that in the world? This is just a historical relic. Someone like that is not supposed to live in this world. Only those who are treacherous and bad, evil, and wicked should live. People like Job should die, not live!” What disposition is this? (Wickedness.) This is the wickedness of Satan. Are there now any people among mankind who have exactly the same wicked disposition as Satan? What kind of people, when they hear that God said, “Job fears God and eschews evil; he is a perfect man” are not convinced, refuse to accept it, feel repulsion and loathing, and even have curses arising in their hearts? Can we say that people who give rise to such things are the ilk of Satan? (Yes.) So, is it going too far to define these people as antichrists? (No.) When God said to Satan clearly and solemnly, “Job fears God and eschews evil; he is a perfect man,” what was Satan’s attitude? It doubted this fact. One aspect of this is that Satan doubted Job was that kind of man and didn’t think it possible. This was because Satan is wicked and believes that all things are wicked; it didn’t believe that there could be someone among mankind who was so wonderful, who could truly be seen as perfect by God—Satan did not believe this fact. Another aspect is that when God discovered such a good man as Job, what did Satan feel in its heart? First, on a most superficial level, it felt jealousy, thinking, “How could there be a perfect man? Haven’t I corrupted all of mankind? People are all the same as me, they have all betrayed You. How could they follow You?” If we translate it into human language, this was its mentality. Satan didn’t believe this was possible, and there are two parts to its not believing this was possible: The first is that Satan wished Job didn’t exist, while the second is Satan thought, “Even if he does exist, I’ll annihilate him.” Wasn’t this the wickedness of Satan? (Yes.) This was the wickedness of Satan. It didn’t want a genuinely good person, someone who feared God and eschewed evil, to come before God, it didn’t want someone like Job to live in the world, it didn’t want someone like this to exist, much less did it want someone like this to arise—this was the wickedness of Satan. What is the source of Satan’s wickedness? Its disposition essence is wicked. Besides, Satan is also hostile toward all positive things. What is included in “all positive things”? It includes people who fear God and eschew evil and are perfect. By being hostile toward Job, wasn’t Satan being hostile toward God? (Yes.) This is how things actually were. While Satan was being hostile toward Job, it was also hating God. It wanted no one to worship God—this would have made it happiest and this was its greatest wish. And then, all these facts turned out to be the complete opposite of what it hoped for, what it wanted to see, and what it longed for. Such a wonderful thing happened right before its eyes, and yet its wickedness, its viciousness, caused it to have another conversation before God, which is the following dialogue between it and God. Does anyone know the original text? (“Does Job fear God for nothing?” (Job 1:9).) Satan didn’t speak directly, there was a trap hidden in its words. It said, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” so that you would think about it. Tell Me, did God know what Satan meant by this? (Yes.) God knew. God knew Satan through and through and could see the matter in absolute clarity. As soon as it said, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” God knew what it would do. When God saw that it wanted to do something, He knew that an opportunity had come, that the time for Him to use Satan to try Job had come. So, which one of them was wise? (God.) Satan didn’t know this and thought, “Didn’t God not allow me to touch Job? I never expected He would consent to it now.” We’ll leave the story here. Everyone basically knows what happened next.

Now let’s dissect Satan’s manifestations and disposition in what it said, as well as exactly what its motivation and intentions were in saying this. Firstly, Satan didn’t believe what God said, that is, it harbored a doubtful attitude toward the content and facts of the words that God had spoken. At the same time as doubting what God said, it wanted to use some method to deny what God said, but it could not deny it directly. Where did Satan’s wickedness lie? It lay in it adopting an even more deceitful method, saying in its heart, “I won’t deny You directly. I’ll get You to permit me to abuse Job, and then make him deny You. This would be the best outcome. Won’t You then have failed?” This was its aim. What disposition did Satan reveal in its dialogue with God and in its thoughts? The disposition was clearly wicked. What is the difference between the wickedness of Satan and the wickedness of ordinary corrupt mankind? What role was Satan playing here? It didn’t go seek out Job directly to make him deny God. If Job had fought back then it would have been put to shame, therefore Satan didn’t act in that way. So, what did Satan do? What exactly was Satan’s motivation and its means and tactics in doing what it did? (To attack by means of another.) You really underestimate Satan; its wickedness cannot be fathomed by human beings. All just and wonderful positive things in the world are not wonderful to Satan—it wants to make all these things wicked and unclean. What is the biggest difference between Satan and corrupt humans? The biggest difference is that it knows perfectly well that God is the truth, that God has wisdom and authority, and that God is the source of all positive things, yet it doesn’t acknowledge these things, and instead it is repulsed by, loathes, hates, and even curses all these things. Corrupted humans, however, are often misled by Satan, and they don’t know what positive things are, or what things are just, and much less what the truth is or what God requires. Although they reveal some corrupt dispositions, these wicked and deceitful corrupt dispositions are revealed while people are foolish, ignorant, numb, blinded and duped, and do not understand the truth, whereas Satan knowingly does wrong. Why do we call it Satan? It’s because it can see all that God does in the spiritual realm and throughout the entire universe and, while witnessing all of this, it still denies that God exists, that God is the truth, and the fact that God holds sovereignty over all mankind. No matter how many people follow God, no matter how great the work God does, how great the authority God wields, or how almighty God is, Satan still denies all this and without shame or honor it paralyzes, blinds, and corrupts mankind, using all kinds of methods to mislead mankind and make mankind follow it. What did I just say were the primary manifestations of Satan’s wickedness? It specializes in running counter to God, it doesn’t acknowledge what God says no matter how right His words are, it doesn’t acknowledge that His words are positive things and the truth, and it turns things on their head. For instance, God made people record the history of His creation of man, and besides the records of the facts of God’s creation of man, there are also traces of evidence that can be found. And what did Satan do? It fabricated “Darwinism” and said that man evolved from apes, it drew a picture which showed that apes gradually evolved from four-legged beings to two-legged people who walk upright, fabricating this heresy and fallacy. As a result, even though some people now deny evolution, many still don’t believe that man came from God. Isn’t this the wickedness of Satan? (Yes.) This is the wickedness of Satan. No matter how great the work it personally witnesses God doing, Satan still antagonizes and opposes God to the very end. Every day God does not destroy Satan or resolve it, it constantly opposes Him. This is where the wickedness of Satan lies, and the root cause of this is that its essence is wicked.

In the conversation between Satan and God in the Book of Job, is there any connection between the manifestations of Satan and the manifestations of antichrists? (Yes.) What connection? Why am I relating this passage? The wickedness, insidiousness, and deceitfulness of antichrists is a topic you often come across, and these things are also actual manifestations you frequently see, so why am I separately listing these manifestations of antichrists as a single item for dissection? We just talked about the wickedness of Satan and how it specifically sets itself against God, so don’t antichrists do this too? (They do.) What are the manifestations of antichrists? After an antichrist has listened to a sermon, they know that the sermon is good and they can understand those words. In addition, they have some caliber, and once they understand those words, they put effort into remembering, and try to memorize by heart the things they like and which accord with their own notions. Then, on this basis, they process and formulate their own sermon, which other people think is very good when they hear it. This isn’t the primary manifestation of an antichrist’s wickedness, however; what is their primary manifestation? People like this can understand the truth, so tell Me, do they have the ability to tell the difference between right and wrong? (Yes.) Yes, they do, they’re not stupid. For example, they often come into contact with brothers and sisters, and they know in their hearts which people pursue the truth and which people don’t. They know in their hearts who can devote themselves and give things up, who can perform their duty loyally, and who can certainly choose to practice the truth and act in accordance with the principles when they encounter ordinary matters. But can they treat such people fairly? (No.) How do they treat people in a way that pertains to the manifestations of antichrists? For instance, someone poses no threat to them, and they think, “You pursue the truth and your caliber is better than mine, but I won’t promote you. Me not promoting you doesn’t mean that I will ignore you. If you fawn on me then I’ll keep you by my side. If you never fawn on me and are always so upright, always doing things in an impartial manner and adhering to principles, then you’ll be able to discern anything bad that I do and see through me, and you’ll fellowship on the truth with me to get me to repent, and that will shame me too much. If you don’t interfere with me, then fine. If you always interfere with me, then I’ll get rid of you!” This is the kind of plan they have, and they calculate like this in their hearts. What disposition is this? They have two dispositions: viciousness and wickedness. This is how they think before they commit such an act and make this person suffer—this is wickedness. They know perfectly well that this person pursues the truth and has a sense of justice, but they don’t promote them, they don’t get close to them, and in their hearts they feel guarded to and repulsed by this person—what disposition is this? This is wickedness. What does this wickedness refer to? It’s not that antichrists don’t understand what positive things are and what negative things are; they know what the right path is, it’s just that they don’t follow it, they don’t practice the truth, they listen to no one, and they choose the path of wickedness. Some women, for example, aren’t willing to be good moral women and live fit and proper lives, but instead must run off to the whorehouse. These days there is no one pimping them out or forcing them, so why run off to the whorehouse? It’s because they’re wicked and were born to be such things. Antichrists are this kind of trash, and we dissect them and define them as antichrists because the wickedness of antichrists can never become the uprightness and goodness of normal people—this is the difference between them and normal people who have corrupt dispositions. Whether they’re pruned, or the church uses administrative decrees to crack down on them, or brothers and sisters rise up to oppose and expose them, nothing can change the original intention and principles by which they act—this can never happen. No one can change them, no one can move their hearts and make them relinquish their views or principles of conduct; you cannot change them—they are antichrists. Did you think that antichrists are so wicked that they don’t know what’s good and what’s bad? They know. When an antichrist reports issues or makes reports on work to the Above, they write such pleasant-sounding words, and when you read these reports you think this person must be of such good caliber. However, when you come to know the real situation on the ground, you discover that they always violate work arrangements in their work, they oppress those who pursue the truth, and they disturb church work—they are an antichrist. Some antichrists have left comments on our church’s website and, when you don’t know their background or origins, you see only how fluently expressed their comments are, with particularly clearly written lines and a good writing style, and you think this person is of good caliber. Only after you learn about them do you come to know that they are an antichrist, that they did a lot of evil and were expelled from the church three years ago. They continually posted messages on the website of God’s house for the Above to take notice, so that they would be promoted and given an opportunity for redress; this is how it is. Tell Me, do antichrists want to be blessed? (Yes.) They really do; they fear death and fear to perish.

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