Let’s continue with a discussion about Paul. What kind of family was Paul born into? He was born into an intellectual family, a learned family. He was born into such a family, and the background of his birth was considered good. He was highly educated. According to current standards, he might have been the kind to study theology or go to university. Then was his knowledge and learning higher than that of most people? (Yes.) Judging from Paul’s knowledge and learning, would it have been easy for him to recognize that the Lord Jesus was Christ? (Yes, it would.) Very easy. But why did he not recognize the Lord Jesus as Christ? (He worshiped knowledge and felt that the Lord Jesus was not as knowledgeable as he was, so he did not recognize Him.) It is too simple to put it this way. If the Lord Jesus was not as knowledgeable as him, he would not be able to recognize Him. If He really had knowledge, he might be able to recognize Him. This is a bit of a semi-deduction. Now, we only say that antichrists worship knowledge; that is, when they listen to people and deal with people and matters, they have a viewpoint that allows others to see that they worship knowledge and learning. For example, if your words are very logical, high-level, clever, unfathomable, and abstract, this is exactly what he likes. Abstract and in line with logic, philosophy, and even with a certain learning—this is exactly what he wants. The Lord Jesus is the incarnation of God, and all of what He speaks is God’s words and truths. So, when people with knowledge and learning look at these words and truths, how do they evaluate them? “The words you speak are too vulgar and superficial. They are all trivial things about believing in god. They are neither profound nor unfathomable. There are no mysteries. Yet you say they are the truth. What is so high about the truth? I can also say these things!” Don’t antichrists believe this? (Yes.) They weigh it out like this, thinking, “Let me see if the things you are talking about are higher or lower than my knowledge after all.” As soon as they hear them, they challenge them, saying, “You sound like a primary school student. I’m a college student, so you’re not as good as me!” Then they find some fault with God’s words, saying, “It seems you don’t understand grammar, and sometimes the words you use while speaking are not proper. You don’t seem like god.” They look at His appearance to see whether or not He is God; they do not listen to the content of His words, they do not listen to whether what is expressed is the truth, or whether the words come from God. Is this not lacking spiritual understanding? (Yes, it is.) Therefore, antichrists also have another characteristic: They lack spiritual understanding. Because they value knowledge and learning, they don’t understand the truth. They will never be able to understand the truth. These people are destined to be the types who lack spiritual understanding. They use their knowledge to weigh every sentence God speaks. Can they understand the truth? Can they know that this is the truth? Can they finally reach a conclusion and say that all these words spoken by God are the truth? Can they recognize this? They can’t recognize this. So, in their eyes how do they view the incarnate God? They think, “No matter how I look at it, he is a human being. No matter how I look at it, I can’t see the quality of god. No matter how I listen, I can’t tell which of his words are in line with the truth and which of them are the truth.” Therefore, deep down in their hearts, they think: “If you have something new and fresh, and I can gain some theory and drum up some capital off of you, then I will follow you for now and see what the result is.” But can they accept the Lord Jesus from deep in their hearts? (No, they can’t.) They will absolutely not accept Him. Why don’t they accept Him? What is the cause of this? It’s that they like knowledge too much. Their liking and the knowledge with which they are equipped and have learned blind their eyes and their mind, preventing them from seeing all that God has done. Even if what God says is obviously the truth, even if the work done by God clearly expresses God’s identity and essence, they cannot see it. Why can’t they see it? Because their knowledge and learning make them full of notions, imaginings, and verdicts about God. In the end, no matter how they listen to sermons or come into contact with God, they cannot understand what God says, let alone accept that what this person has said can change people or that it is the truth, the way, and the life. This is something they can never accept. They can never accept it, which destines them not to be saved, just like Paul. Did Paul confess that the Lord Jesus was Christ? He didn’t admit it even in the end. Some people say: “Didn’t he call out to the Lord when he was struck down on the road to Damascus? He should have confessed. How can it be said that he did not confess?” One fact proves that Paul never acknowledged the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. That is, even after he was struck down, he still pursued trying to be Christ. Is Christ someone whom people can casually become? Christ is God incarnated into a human. He is God and no one can become Him just because they want to. Who doesn’t want to be Christ, but is that something that humans can do? This is not a matter of people wanting to do it. Paul even wanted to be Christ. Judging from Paul’s pursuit, could he recognize that the Lord Jesus is Christ and the Lord? (No, he couldn’t.) Then where did he position the identity and status of the Lord Jesus? As the Son of God. What is the Son of God? It is, “You are not god, you are a son of god, you are smaller than god, you are the same as us; we are the sons of god, and you are also a son of god, but god has given you a different commission and you have done different work. Were god to give me this job, I could do it and bear it up as well.” Doesn’t this mean that Paul did not acknowledge the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is God? (Yes, it does.) He believed that the god of his faith was in heaven, that this Christ was not god, and that god’s identity and status had nothing to do with this Christ. How did his comprehension and attitude toward the Lord Jesus develop? They were inferred from his knowledge and imaginings. How did he infer them? In which sentence did he see them? The Lord Jesus said, “My Father is like this or that,” and “I do this or that by My Father in heaven,” and he heard this and thought, “You also refer to god as god? You also refer to god in heaven as father? In that case, you are a son of god?” Isn’t this an imagining of the human brain? This is a conclusion drawn by knowledgeable people: “If you call the god in heaven father, and we also call him father, then we are brothers. You are the eldest son, we are the second sons, and the god in heaven is our common god. So, you are not god, and we are all on equal footing. Therefore, it is not the lord Jesus christ who ultimately decides who gets rewarded, who is punished, and what their outcome is—it’s not the lord Jesus christ, but god in heaven.” These conclusions and absurd viewpoints of Paul were all obtained by using his mind to judge and analyze after studying theology and knowledge. This was the result.

Paul regarded knowledge as a life-saving straw, as his capital, and more so as the goal of his pursuit. If Paul had not worshiped knowledge, but could let go of the knowledge he had learned before, regard the Lord Jesus as the Lord, as the One that can be followed, the One that can express the truth, and regard the words of the Lord Jesus as the truth to obey and practice—the result would have been different. That Peter could deny the Lord three times was in one respect because he was afraid, and in another, he saw that the Lord Jesus was an ordinary man who was arrested and was suffering. He had weakness in his heart—that was not the fatal flaw. Neither was it a fatal flaw that he could deny Him for a moment. This is not the evidence that can ultimately determine a person’s outcome. What is it that ultimately determines their outcome? It is whether they treat God’s words as God’s words, whether they can accept, obey, and practice God’s words as the truth. Paul and Peter are two completely different examples. Peter was once weak, he once denied the Lord, and once doubted the Lord, but the final result was that Peter was perfected. Paul worked for the Lord and suffered for many years. It stands to reason that he should have been able to receive a crown, but why did he end up getting punished by God? Why were his and Peter’s outcomes different? This depends on a person’s nature essence and the path they pursue. What was the nature essence of Paul? At the very least there is an item of wickedness. He frantically pursued knowledge and status, he pursued rewards and a crown, and he ran around, worked, and paid the price for that crown, without pursuing the truth at all. Moreover, over the course of his work, he never bore witness to the words of the Lord Jesus, nor did he bear witness that the Lord Jesus is Christ, is God, or is God incarnate, that the Lord Jesus represents God, and all the words He speaks are the words spoken by God. Paul couldn’t comprehend these things. So, what was the path Paul took? He stubbornly pursued knowledge and theology, defied the truth, refused to accept the truth, and used his gifts and knowledge to do work to manage, maintain, and stabilize his status. What was his final outcome? Maybe you can’t see from the outside what punishment he received before his death, or whether he had an abnormal manifestation, but his final outcome was different from Peter’s. What did this “difference” depend on? One thing is a person’s nature essence, and the other is the path that they take. Regarding Paul’s attitude and viewpoint toward the Lord Jesus, how was his resistance different from that of normal people? Also, what is the difference between Paul denying and rejecting the Lord, and Peter denying God’s name and failing to acknowledge the Lord three times out of weakness and fear? Paul used knowledge, learning, and his gifts to do his work. He did not practice the truth at all, nor did he follow God’s way. Therefore, could you see his weakness in the period he spent running around and working, or in his letters? You couldn’t, could you? Over and over he taught people what to do and encouraged people to pursue getting rewards, crowns, and a good destination. He had no experience, comprehension, or appreciation for practicing the truth. However, Peter was very low-key in his actions. He did not have those profound theories or letters that were too famous. He possessed some real comprehension and practice of the truth. Although he experienced weakness and corruption in his life, after many trials, the relationship he established with God was the relationship between man and God, which was completely different from Paul. Although Paul worked, nothing he did had anything to do with God. He did not bear testimony about God’s words, His work, His love, or His salvation of mankind, and even less about God’s intentions toward people or His demands. He even often told people that the Lord Jesus was the Son of God, which ultimately led to people viewing God as a Trinity. The term “Trinity” originated from Paul. If there is no such thing as “Father and Son,” can there be a “Trinity”? There cannot. Human imaginings are just too “rich.” If you can’t understand God’s incarnation, don’t pass verdicts blindly or make blind judgments. Just listen to the words of the Lord Jesus and treat Him as God, as God appearing in the flesh and becoming a human being. It’s more objective to treat it this way.

When testimony was first borne to God being incarnated as female in this stage of His work, many people couldn’t accept it and got stuck at this. They felt that “The words that are being spoken are all truths, the work that is being done is that of judgment by words—these things seem like God’s work, and I can admit that this person is God incarnate—it’s just that this gender is not easy to accept.” But because these words are all the truth, they still reluctantly accept Him, and they think in their hearts, “I’ll follow along first and see if He really is God”—many people followed in this way. God’s creation of humanity is in the two genders of male and female, and the incarnation of God is no exception, either it’s male or it’s female. Suddenly one day someone asked Me, “How may it be understood that this time the incarnation is female?” I answered, “Well, how do you view it? God does not act in alignment with people’s notions: If you are sure that this is done by God, then you shouldn’t research what God does, and if you don’t understand it, then you should wait. If you seek and still don’t get results, then just see whether you can submit. If you can submit, then you are rational, but if you get stuck because of this and deny all of what God has done, then you are not rational, you are not a true believer in God. God does ten things that you view as right and in alignment with your notions, but if one thing does not align with your notions, you overturn all ten things—what kind of wretch is this? Isn’t this a devil?” When I fellowshipped like this, they said, “Yes, then I should accept it now.” After I concluded My fellowship, they immediately comprehended and accepted it—isn’t their caliber pretty good? Let’s say it is. They went on to say, “God created man and woman, and the first time god became flesh he was a man, a son of god. This time he became flesh as a woman—wouldn’t that be a daughter of god? Let me know if my way of understanding it is correct. When people have children they wish to have both a son and a daughter—does god also want to have both?” How should I have answered them and explained this matter? Shouldn’t this matter be taken seriously? Doesn’t it need to be corrected? Is there a problem with what they were saying? There is a problem. They said, “God has a son, the lord Jesus, and this time the incarnation is female, so in that case it is his daughter. So, god has a son and a daughter, he has both, so there is no need for the holy spirit. There is the holy father, the holy son, and the holy daughter, this Trinity—how suitable and dignified it is! Without a daughter, it wouldn’t be complete.” How do you feel after listening to that? You don’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Tell Me, is this not a joke? (Yes, it is.) Is there any difference between their understanding of the incarnation and Paul’s? (No.) There is no difference. If people always rely on their cleverness, imaginings, and notions to make inferences and deductions about matters of understanding God, especially approaching matters of God’s identity and essence, and they apply them with certain viewpoints, this will be troublesome, and they will make mistakes and encounter issues. So, what is the most appropriate way to deal with this matter? Some matters are more profound and abstract, they are not easy for people to understand, and it is not easy to see through to the essence and root cause of this problem; if these things do not involve the truth, or do not affect your pursuit of the truth, then what should you do? Let go of them first. What’s the use of researching them? They are not yours to research. All you have to do is focus on life entry and be able to do your duty well. One day you will naturally understand these matters. Some people say they can’t let them go and want to research them, which is troublesome. You must not research them. People must not approach matters involving God’s identity, God’s essence, and God’s status with an attitude of research. If you continue to research, it will cause serious consequences. In serious cases, you will blaspheme God. How should people deal with matters involving God’s identity and essence? Be simple, and even if you are not quite clear about this matter, one thing is certain: He can represent God, He is the appearance of God, what He expresses is the truth, what people should accept is the truth, and it is enough to obtain the truth.

Looking at antichrists’ nature essence, what is it they worship the most? Lofty, empty, abstract so-called theological theories. To them, these theories are extremely valuable. They value and love these things so much, and they think of all sorts of ways to acquire these things, in order to stand out from the crowd. They take note of these things in their hearts and view them as capital, as stepping stones by which to realize their own life goals, not knowing that these things are fundamentally not the truth. But they like to equip themselves with these theological theories, which then become entrenched, and they take them to be the truth. They use this theological knowledge to study God’s words and the truths God expresses. When they see that God’s words and the truths God expresses are not consistent with the theological theories they advocate, they can’t stop themselves from judging and condemning God’s words. They feel no fear in their hearts, believing that they have a biblical basis for doing so. Some of them even condemn God’s words, saying, “God’s words are too tedious. Some of them aren’t logical, some aren’t grammatical, and even some of the vocabulary he uses doesn’t quite work.” They just live inside their heads and thoughts, using the knowledge and scholarship they possess to analyze and study God’s words. Many of them even use their imaginings and judgment to find, in God’s words, how God defines certain people or what destinations He decides for certain people, and then analyze and condemn those things according to what the Bible says, thus beginning to deny God’s words. As they analyze and condemn God’s words, something terrible occurs. Do you know what that is? When people analyze and study God, and when a mindset of condemnation arises in people, the Holy Spirit spurns these people and does not work in them. Is this not a terrible thing? And you know what it portends when the Holy Spirit does not work. When the Holy Spirit does not work, He steers clear of these people, which equates to their being abandoned. In other words, God will not save them. We can analyze the reason. Where do these theological theories they’ve fortified themselves with for half their lives come from? Whom do they represent? They are not clear on this at heart. In actuality, these things are not from God at all, nor are they pure human understanding. They are people’s fallacious interpretations, and as such, one can say they are from Satan and completely represent Satan. What else does this theological knowledge include? Apart from fallacious interpretations of the Bible, it includes people’s logic and reasoning, people’s notions and imaginings, as well as people’s experiences, ethics, morals, and philosophical ideas. When they use these things to assess what God says and assess His work, they are obviously standing on Satan’s side in their treatment of God. Therefore, God hides His face from them, and the Holy Spirit abandons them. Have you ever experienced this? In the past, some people discussed their experiences in this regard, saying, “When I first started believing in God, I was keen to study God; I studied what He says, His word usage, how He treats people, who He is good to, and what kind of person He likes or hates. As a result of all this studying, my heart became dark, I couldn’t feel God in my prayers, the condition of freedom and release in my heart was gone, and I no longer felt peace or joy. It was like there was a stone pressing down on my heart.” Have you ever had such an experience? (Yes.) Those who constantly study God gain no enlightenment or illumination from the Holy Spirit. Even reading God’s words does not bring any light. Antichrists are adept at studying God, but they don’t accept the truth at all. In the church, they don’t have any normal interpersonal relationships, always positioning themselves above others to lecture them. They often boast about their knowledge and look down on ordinary brothers and sisters. If an antichrist interacts with you and finds out that you are not well-educated, they won’t bother with you. Even if you meet the criteria to be a church leader or team leader, they won’t use you. What kind of people do they use? They look for people with social status, power, knowledge, and gifts who can speak eloquently—they fix their eyes on such people, and set out to use them. If it’s up to them to choose people and use people, they only select individuals who are articulate, highly educated, knowledgeable, and have status in society. Even if such people do not pursue the truth or cannot do any work, they still like them. What does this indicate? They belong to the same category as each other. After all, birds of a feather flock together. Some antichrists understand certain words and doctrines and then think of every which way they can to practice preaching sermons. To what extent do they practice? To the extent that they can speak articulately and extensively, taking the stage without using notes and speaking for hours at a time. They think this is doing work, this is their most glorious moment, the time when they can best put themselves on display. They seize on such opportunities and never let them go. However, regarding topics that God often fellowships about, things related to normal humanity, to people’s conscience and reason, and to the things most closely related to humanity in the real lives of normal people—though these may seem like small and insignificant details to people, in reality, they are closely related to entering the truth reality. How do antichrists regard these things? They despise them from the heart, they don’t take these words seriously, and condemn these matters in their hearts, feeling that they are meaningless. No matter how you fellowship about the truth reality, such as being an honest person, a loyal person, or a down-to-earth and dutiful person, no matter how you fellowship about these, their viewpoint remains unchanged. They want to be someone who can speak eloquently, who appears to be overflowing with talent and has special abilities, or even to be someone with supernatural abilities, such as speaking in tongues, being able to read with extraordinary quickness, having a photographic memory, and so on. If they also possessed these abilities, then their hearts would be filled with joy. In the depths of their hearts, they pursue and esteem these things. For instance, I just finish saying something, and after a moment, I forget it. When I ask everyone, no one else remembers either. You see, our memories are all quite similar, aren’t they? (Yes.) But when antichrists see this, they say, “Your memory isn’t good either! Look at that spiritual person so-and-so; they can speed-read and they have a photographic memory. You’re christ—how many lines can you read at a glance?” I say, “I don’t have that supernatural ability. Sometimes I don’t remember a sentence after reading it, and I have to read it again.” They say, “Isn’t god supposed to be almighty?” This is how they start forming notions. Deep in their hearts, how do they view the incarnate God? “The incarnate god is just a thoroughly ordinary and completely normal person. His memory isn’t good, his constitution isn’t that great; he doesn’t seem like god in any respect.” Therefore, when they hear someone preach about loving God, they think, “If that spiritual person so-and-so or that famous person so-and-so were god, then I could accept and love him. But if this current christ is god, I can’t love him because he doesn’t seem like god at all.” In their hearts, to be god, one has to seem like god; he must speak, act, and look like god, so that when people see him, they don’t have any notions at all—this is what they think. Why? They think, “First off, you don’t possess supernatural abilities. Second, you don’t have special talents. Third, you don’t have the gifts of those people in the world who accomplish great things. You are not exceptional in any way, so why should I listen to what you say? Why should I respect you? Why should I submit to you? I can’t submit.” What problem is this? What kind of disposition is this? Even if they don’t understand the truth, they should still have the conscience and reason of a normal person. People have notions, and God doesn’t condemn them for that, but when people harbor notions and then willfully resist and condemn God, that easily offends God’s disposition. That antichrists can freely condemn and resist God is caused by their wicked nature. After acquiring knowledge, they have richer, more extensive, and more comprehensive imaginings about God and His loftiness, essence, authority, and almightiness. Then, they try to match these imaginings up with the God they can see and interact with. Can they match them up? They can never match them up. The more they study God, the more they deny God in their hearts, and can condemn and resist God; this is inevitable.