Tell Me, which kind of people exhibit the signs and marks of the wickedness of antichrists? (People with gifts.) Who else? (Those who like to show off.) Those who like to show off, that isn’t wicked enough. While they may like to show off, they don’t have the desire to control others, they haven’t gone that far—this is a corrupt disposition. Consider it in detail: Which people show signs and marks that allow you to discover early on from the various behaviors and indications in them that this wretch is an antichrist? (Arrogant people who love status.) Arrogance and a love for status have some relevance, but this doesn’t go far enough. Let Me talk about something and you listen and see if this point is crucial or not. Some people constantly bring up viewpoints that differ from the truth and positive things. From the outside, it may seem like they always want to play to the gallery and stand out from the rest, but this is not necessarily the case. It might be that their viewpoints give rise to such outward behavior. In fact, if they truly hold such viewpoints, there will be a serious problem. For instance, when everyone is fellowshipping together, saying, “We must accept this matter from God. If we don’t understand, we should submit first,” and everyone agrees with this, is this viewpoint correct? (Yes, it is.) Is this principle of practice off course? (No, it isn’t.) Then, what manner of words do people say that shows they have the signs and marks of an antichrist’s wicked disposition? “Submission is one thing, but you have to get a grip on what’s going on, don’t you? Treat everything seriously, right? You can’t submit muddleheadedly; god doesn’t ask for us to submit casually.” Isn’t this a kind of argument? (Yes, it is.) Some people say, “If there’s something we don’t understand, we can wait patiently, seeking fellowship with someone who understands. Right now, none of us understands, and we can’t find anyone who does to fellowship with. So, let’s submit first.” What is the viewpoint of antichrists? “You bunch of weaklings, submitting to everything and listening to god in everything. Listen to me! Why hasn’t anyone mentioned me? Let me present a profound opinion to you!” They want to share their lofty views. They are opposed to people practicing the truth, opposed to them abiding by the truth principles. They always want to sit on their high horse, pick fights, resort to evil tricks, share lofty views, and make people look at them differently. Isn’t this a sign of the wicked disposition of antichrists? Isn’t this their mark? Why is it wrong for everyone to submit? Even if they submit foolishly—is this wrong? Would God condemn it? (No, He wouldn’t.) God wouldn’t condemn it. What right do they have to throw in a wrench and stir things up? When they see people submitting to God, do they feel angry in their hearts? When they witness people submitting to God, in their hearts they feel resentful, dissatisfied that they don’t get any benefits, that people don’t obey them, don’t listen to them, don’t seek their advice, and they become unhappy—they resist in their hearts, thinking, “Who do you submit to? Do you submit to the truth? Submitting to the truth is fine, but we need to study it. So, what is the truth? Do you submit the right way? Shouldn’t you at least understand the ins and outs?” Isn’t this their argument? What are they trying to do? They want to stir things up, to mislead people. Some numb, dull-witted and foolish people, upon hearing this, become misled, while those with discernment refute them, saying, “What are you doing? Are you jealous and envious that I submit to God? You’re unhappy when I submit to God, but pleased when I obey you? Is it only right if everyone obeys you, listens to you, and does whatever you say? Does what you say align with the truth?” Seeing this, they think, “Some people have discernment—I’ll wait for now.” In short, when everyone is practicing in accordance with the truth principles, they can’t wait to jump out. The more everyone obeys God, submits to the arrangements of God’s house, practices in accordance with God’s words, handles matters according to the work arrangements and principles, the more uncomfortable, upset, and uneasy they become. This is a sign of the wicked essence of antichrists. As long as everyone listens to God’s words, practices the truth, and handles matters according to principles, they feel uncomfortable and restless. Isn’t this a problem? (Yes, it is.) If nobody reads God’s words, or if they read them and don’t fellowship about them, if they just listen to the antichrists, then they’re delighted. What issue does this illustrate? They never fellowship about God’s words. As long as everyone is calmly fellowshipping about God’s words, and the antichrists see that nobody pays attention to them, that they don’t listen to them, that they cannot gain their worship, their status is threatened, and they are in danger—that’s when they throw in a wrench to stir things up, proposing a heresy or fallacy to mislead and disturb you, making you unsure whether what you just discussed is right or wrong. Just when everyone has finally understood something through fellowship, they speak a few devilish words to stir the pot. Isn’t this the wicked disposition of antichrists? Which manifestation does this wicked disposition correspond to? (Hostility toward the truth.) Exactly. The more everyone understands the truth, the more upset they feel. Isn’t this hostility toward the truth? Doesn’t this match up? (Yes, it does.) Have you encountered people like this? While everyone is fellowshipping about something, they remain silent for a long time. Finally, when there’s some clarity in the fellowship, they emerge, and after emerging present a challenging question to make things difficult for these people. Their intent is to say, “Let me show you, I’ll let you see what I can do! You fellowship about the truth, you don’t listen to me, you ignore me, you don’t care about me, and you don’t pay attention to me, so I will pose a difficult question for you to fellowship on and get you all mixed up!” Is this not a devil? (Yes, it is.) This is a devil, an authentic antichrist.

Some people, whenever they hear that someone is negative or weak, feel especially happy. Particularly when they see someone disturbing church life, someone doing bad things to throw the church’s work into chaos, or witness someone blindly stirring up trouble—they feel especially delighted, only too eager to set off fireworks and celebrate. What’s the matter with such people? Why are they so joyful at others’ misfortune? Why, at this crucial moment, can’t they stand on God’s side, defending the interests of the house of God? Aren’t such people disbelievers? Aren’t they lackeys of Satan? You all should reflect on whether you exhibit such behaviors and also check if there are people like this around you and see how to discern such individuals, especially when you see evil people doing evil deeds—what is your attitude? Are you just a bystander enjoying the spectacle, or could you also go down this path? Are you such a person? Some people won’t self-reflect in this way. They don’t like seeing the good in people; they prefer it when everyone is worse than them—that’s when they feel joy. For instance, when they see someone who expends themselves for God being pruned, or when someone who genuinely believes in God transgresses, they secretly rejoice and say, “Hmph, your day has also come. You expended yourself for god—how’s that working out for you? You’ve been wronged, haven’t you? You’ve suffered loss, haven’t you? What’s the point of expending yourself? You always speak truthfully, and now you’re being pruned, aren’t you? You deserve it!” Why are they so delighted? Aren’t they finding joy in others’ misfortune? Don’t such people have their hearts in the wrong place? When they see someone causing disturbances in the work of God’s house, they’re happy. When they see the work of God’s house suffering loss, they’re happy. What is it that makes them happy? They think, “Finally, someone who, like me, doesn’t love the truth, has caused a loss to the interests of god’s house, and they feel no self-blame whatsoever.” That’s what makes them happy. Isn’t this wicked? (Yes, it is.) It’s extremely wicked! Are there people like this among you? There are some people who won’t hum a tune most of the time, but as soon as they see someone making a mistake, they suddenly start singing, swaying their bodies, looking extremely pleased, and thinking, “Today, I finally have some good news. I’m so happy, I’ll have a couple extra bowls of rice!” What kind of disposition is this? Wickedness. They won’t shed one tear or feel sad for one second because the interests of God’s house suffered losses. They feel no self-blame, no sorrow or pain. Instead, they feel happy and content because someone’s mistake has led to losses to the interests of God’s house and brought shame to God’s name. Isn’t this wickedness? Isn’t this a sign of possessing the wicked nature of antichrists? This is also a sign.

It is said that some on the gospel teams are eloquent speakers. They have listened to sermons for years and summed up a set of doctrines, they are full of hot air wherever they go, never at a loss for words when they preach, which fully demonstrates their own gifts and eloquence. Some people see such individuals as quite capable and decide to follow them. What do they say in the end? “We listen to that person’s fellowship, so we don’t need to listen to sermons from the above; we don’t need to listen to god’s words either. That person’s fellowship replaces them.” Aren’t these people in danger? (Yes.) These people are in great danger. They love the actions and behaviors of antichrists, as well as their insolence, barbarity, and wickedness. They love what antichrists love and are averse to what antichrists are averse to. They love the knowledge, learning, doctrines, and various theological theories, heresies, and fallacies that antichrists preach. They worship these things. To what extent do they worship them? Even in their dreams at night, they speak these words. Is this serious? When their worship reaches this level, can these people still follow God? Some may say, “That’s wrong. They’re still in the church, they still believe in God.” They haven’t had the opportunity yet. Once they find the person or object they want to worship, they can leave God at any time. Isn’t this a sign of possessing the wicked essence of antichrists? (Yes.) Can you discern such people when you see them? (Yes, we can.) In the past, you might not have known the severe nature of such matters. Now, when you encounter such people again, would you still have questions in your mind about them? Would you ignore them? (No, we wouldn’t.) So, have you gained some discernment regarding such people? (Yes, I have.) These are some of the signs and information they reveal. That is, once these people have an opportunity or status, or someone misleads them, they can betray God anytime, anywhere. Can people see their revelations and their wicked essence? Are there some traces that people can see? (Yes, there are.) There ought to be. If I hadn’t mentioned these, you might think, “Who exhibits these marks? Who reveals these signs? No one, I haven’t seen anyone.” Through My discussion of these signs, haven’t you discovered that such people exist? Some of them are followers, and some are leaders and workers. This is the third sign of possessing the wicked essence of antichrists.

People who possess the wicked essence of antichrists have another distinctive sign, something they all have in common. These people, under the guise of loving the truth and longing for the true way, come to attend sermons, learn various knowledge and content related to the truth, and equip theological theories and knowledge, then using these theories and knowledge to engage in verbal battles with leaders and workers, employing them to condemn certain individuals, to mislead and persuade others, and even to give so-called provision, assistance, and watering to certain people. However, one point makes it clear that they are not lovers of the truth. What is that point? It is that no matter how these people equip themselves and preach, they only talk and say things, merely arming themselves, but they never handle matters according to the truth principles. What does “never” signify? It means that they cannot speak a single truthful word, have never been honest, and never paid the price of letting go of the benefits of status. Regardless of the occasion, as they speak and act they always make maximum effort for the sake of their own fame, gain, and status. Despite how on the outside they appear to pay the price and love the truth, their wicked essence remains unchanged. What is the issue here? In one respect, these people never seek the truth principles in their actions. In another respect, even if they know the truth principles and the path of practice, they do not practice them. This is a sign that they possess the wicked essence of antichrists. No matter whether they have status or not, and whether they do their duty of spreading the gospel or are leaders and workers, what is their characteristic? They can only articulate the right doctrines, but they never do the right things. That is their characteristic. They speak doctrines more clearly than anybody, but they do things worse than anybody—isn’t this wicked? This is the fourth sign of possessing the wicked essence of antichrists. Check it out for yourselves, and assess whether there are many people around you with the wicked essence of antichrists. After I’ve listed these, you may evaluate whether or not there are quite a lot of such people around you. What percentage do they make up? Are there more leaders or ordinary believers? Didn’t some of you previously think that only leaders had the opportunity to become antichrists? (That was how it was previously.) So, has this viewpoint changed now? Antichrists don’t become antichrists because they have status; they were this wretch even when they lacked status. It’s just that, as luck would have it, they end up in a leadership position, and their true features as antichrists are quickly exposed, much like a fungus that, with the right temperature and soil, ferments rapidly, revealing its true face. If there isn’t a suitable environment, it may take a bit longer for their nature essence to be revealed, but this slower revelation does not mean that they lack that nature. With such a nature, people will inevitably act and reveal things, and these revealed behaviors are signs and marks of the wicked essence of antichrists. Once they possess these signs and marks, they can be classified as antichrists.

Tell Me, does practicing the truth and handling matters according to the truth principles require various excuses and justifications? (No, it doesn’t.) As long as a person has a sincere heart, they can put the truth into practice. Do people who don’t practice the truth come up with various excuses? For example, when they do something wrong, go against principles, and someone corrects them, can they listen? They don’t listen. Is the fact that they don’t listen all that there is? How are they wicked? (They find an excuse to persuade you, making you think they are right.) They will find an interpretation that aligns with your notions and imaginings, then they use a set of spiritual theories that you can acknowledge and accept and which align with the truth to convince you, make you go along with them, and make you sincerely believe they are right, all to achieve their goal of misleading and controlling people. Isn’t this wickedness? (Yes.) This is indeed wickedness. Clearly, they have done something wrong, gone against the principles and truth in their actions, and failed to practice the truth, yet they come up with a set of theoretical justifications. This is truly wicked. It’s like a wolf eating a sheep; it was originally in the wolf’s nature to eat sheep, and God created this kind of animal to eat sheep—sheep are its food. But after eating it, the wolf still finds various excuses. Do you have any thoughts about it? You think, “You ate my sheep, and now you want me to think that you ought to have eaten it, that it was reasonable and appropriate for you to eat it, and I should even thank you.” Don’t you feel angry? (Yes, I do.) While you are angry, what thoughts do you have? You think, “This fellow is too wicked! If you want to eat it, go ahead, that’s just what you are; eating my sheep is one thing, but you even come up with a bunch of reasons and excuses, and ask me to feel grateful to you in return. Isn’t this confusing right and wrong?” This is wickedness. When a wolf wants to eat a sheep, what excuses does it find? The wolf says, “Little lamb, today I must eat you because I need to get back at you for insulting me last year.” The lamb, feeling wronged, says, “I wasn’t even born last year.” When the wolf realizes it misspoke and miscounted the lamb’s age, it says, “Well we won’t count that then, but I still have to eat you because last time when I drank water from this river, you muddied the water, so I need to get back at you.” The lamb says, “I’m downstream from the river, and you’re upstream. How could I dirty the water upstream? If you want to eat me, just go ahead and eat me. Don’t look for various excuses.” That’s the nature of the wolf. Isn’t it wickedness? (Yes, it is.) Is the wolf’s wickedness the same as that of the great red dragon? (Yes.) This description best fits the great red dragon. The great red dragon wants to arrest people who believe in God; it wants to charge these people with crimes. So, it first creates certain fronts, it fabricates certain rumors, and then broadcasts them into the world in order to make the whole world rise up and condemn you. It assigns multiple charges to those who believe in God, such as “disturbing public order,” “leaking state secrets,” and “subverting state power.” It also spreads rumors that you’ve committed various criminal offenses and assigns these charges to you. Is it fine if you refuse to admit to them? Is it a matter of whether you admit to them or not? No, it isn’t. Once it is set on arresting you, then just like a wolf set on eating a sheep, it looks for various excuses. The great red dragon creates certain fronts, claiming that we have done something bad when, in fact, it was other people who did it. It shifts the blame and frames the church. Can you argue with it? (No.) Why can’t you argue with it? Can you have a clear argument with it? Do you think that by arguing with it and explaining the situation, it won’t arrest you? You think too well of it. Before you can finish speaking, it will grab you by the hair, slam your head into the wall, and then ask you, “Do you know who I am? I am a devil!” Following that, there will be a severe beating, along with days and nights of alternate interrogation and torture, and then you’ll start to behave. At this point, you’ll realize, “There’s no room for reasoning here; this is a trap!” The great red dragon doesn’t argue with you—do you think it creates those fronts unintentionally, by chance? It has a conspiracy behind it, and it has the next move planned. This is just a prelude to its actions. Some people may still think, “They don’t understand matters related to believing in God; if I explain it to them, everything will be fine.” Can you explain it clearly? It framed you for something you didn’t do—can you still explain things clearly? When it framed you, did it not know that you didn’t do it? Is it ignorant of who did it? It knows very well! So why does it pin the blame on you? You are the one it is capturing. Do you think when it pins the blame on you it doesn’t know you are being treated unjustly? It wants to treat you unjustly and to arrest and persecute you. That is wickedness.

Anyone with the wicked essence of antichrists is averse to and hates the truth in their essence. In their hearts, they do not accept the truth in the slightest and have no intention of practicing it. If you think they lack an understanding of the truth and attempt to fellowship about it with them, what will happen as a result? You’ll hit a wall—you’ve found the wrong person. They are not someone who accepts the truth, and you shouldn’t fellowship with them; instead, you should teach them a lesson and be stern with them, saying, “How long have you been doing your duty? How could you treat your duty as a trifling matter? Is it your own work? Whom are you challenging? You’re not against me; you’re against God and the truth!” Don’t you need to teach them a lesson? Is it useful to fellowship about the truth with them? No, it isn’t. Why isn’t it useful? They are wolves, not lost or stray sheep. Can a wolf practice the truth? No. What is the nature of a wolf? (Wickedness.) The moment it sees a sheep, it starts drooling, its eyes filled with images of delicious food, and the sheep is destined to be its provision. That’s its nature; that’s wickedness. If you tell it, “The sheep are so pitiful and gentle; please don’t eat them. Choose another fierce animal to eat, okay?” Can it understand? It cannot. That’s its nature. Some people don’t practice the truth and find various excuses—that’s their nature. What is this nature? It’s wickedness. Regardless of how base, rebellious, or blatantly against principles their actions are, they still want to save face; even if they go against the truth, they want to do it in a grand, dignified manner. Isn’t this wickedness? Is violating the truth a positive or negative thing? (Negative.) How can something negative be done in a grand, dignified, and honorable way? Isn’t it a bit awkward to try and combine these two aspects? This is wickedness: This is the behavior and manifestation of those who have the wicked essence of antichrists. It might sound contradictory, but that’s just how they operate, that’s their disposition and what they reveal. They harbor a hatred for the truth, never accepting it—these are antichrists, this is the wicked nature essence of antichrists. How many items are there to the wicked essence of antichrists? (Four items.) There are four in total. Aren’t these four signs sufficient for you to discern? Wickedness inherently contains insidious and deceitful elements, and when insidious and deceitful elements reach their extreme, they are categorized as a wicked disposition. Antichrists embody this kind of wicked disposition.

September 3, 2019