Are there any conditions antichrists look for to draw people in? Do they draw in those who love the truth and genuinely submit to God? (No.) Those who love the truth and submit to God possess some discernment, they can’t be drawn in, and they won’t follow antichrists. So, who do antichrists draw in? In their hearts, antichrists favor the most those who are good at flattering people with status, who are good at ingratiating themselves and smooth-talking people, and some who have done bad things and fear being expelled and thus do their best to please the antichrists. Antichrists use the condition of protecting them to draw in people and win their hearts, letting them come close. Most of the people antichrists draw in, other than new believers who don’t understand the truth, are people who don’t love the truth. Do all those who don’t love the truth possess conscience and reason? None of them are good, and God doesn’t choose such people. Antichrists draw these people in and lead them like a clown. They even think that they have attained an official position and have status, and are especially satisfied in their hearts. Isn’t this shameless? What other types of people do antichrists draw in? (People with a relatively evil humanity.) Exactly, evil people. How do antichrists treat evil people? They protect them. For example, suppose there is an evil person in the church, and the brothers and sisters all report that this person is particularly bad, causing unrest in the church whenever they are around, disturbing everyone from doing their duty, and disturbing the church’s work. As long as they are brought in to do a duty, then the church’s work will suffer loss. But antichrists see such evil people as useful and draw them to their side to serve them. Antichrists don’t expel evil people; instead, they protect them. Unless certain evil people don’t support an antichrist or can discern them—then they will deal with them. As long as an evil person flatters the antichrist, supports them, and doesn’t oppose them, they draw them in and win them over to strengthen their own force. Now, how do antichrists get along with these people who don’t pursue the truth? Their way of interacting is essentially mutual flattery and smooth talk. Wherever antichrists go, these evil people swarm together with them like flies. They certainly don’t get together to fellowship about the truth, because they are all averse to it, and none of them seek to resolve issues through fellowshipping about the truth. All they say is things nonbelievers say, they are mostly sewing discord with gossip, belittling others and elevating themselves, and consulting over ways to punish people. Furthermore, they study how to guard against God’s house, discuss how to confront the Above, how to know in advance if someone wants to report their issues and how to respond once they know. These are the matters this gang of evil people discusses. When they are together, they never fellowship about things like doing their duties, and never fellowship about the truth to resolve issues. For example, they never discuss legitimate matters like supporting and helping the brothers and sisters who have become negative and weak and haven’t got the energy to do their duties, or finding solutions and paths to improve the effectiveness of certain aspects of church work. They talk about how to trick the Above and how to trick God’s house, ensuring that God’s house doesn’t know the facts about them. Once it is discovered that someone is in contact with the Above or has reported about their situation, they consider it a threat to their position and ruinous to their affairs. They relentlessly investigate who is responsible, searching for suspects, and once they find them, they isolate that person, transfer them elsewhere, and then issue orders prohibiting anyone from reporting their situation to the Above. This ensures that no one dares to report on them. Antichrists gain complete control of the church in this way. The Above has no way of knowing what evil act they commit behind the scenes, until the Above learns of the situation and spots their weak point, then orders an investigation of them and ultimately replaces or expels them. This group of antichrists and evil people can make a mess of the church’s work in only a few months, and can cause the brothers and sisters to suspect each other, undermine each other, expose each other, and attack one another, dividing the church. This is the consequence of antichrists misleading people and taking control of the church. In this way antichrists mislead all those who don’t pursue the truth and even draw in some useful evil people to control the church, solidifying their own position and authority. If evil people listen to them, they protect them. If not, they deal with the evil people first. If evil people follow them and can be enlisted and drawn in, they let them become their henchmen, their arms and eyes for doing bad things, infiltrating the brothers and sisters, finding out who has objections against them, who discerns their actions, which of their bad deeds have been found out, and who always wants to contact the Above to report their issues. Antichrists and evil people specifically investigate these matters, about which they are most concerned. They often discuss countermeasures together, treating those who can discern them or suspect them as enemies. They find excuses to punish one person today and tomorrow they get leverage to punish another; they even use various reasons and excuses to incite God’s chosen people to clear out and expel these individuals. Once antichrists become leaders or workers, they engage in these actions. In just a few months, they can throw the church into chaos, even extinguishing the ardent fervor of a church of new believers like water on a fire. Therefore, antichrists truly are God’s enemies and the enemies of God’s chosen people. This is not an exaggeration at all—it’s incredibly accurate! Where antichrists or evil people hold power, the church takes on a foul atmosphere. There is no church life at all, no normal eating and drinking of God’s word, and no atmosphere of fellowshipping the truth. Instead, it’s filled with intrigue and unbridled misconduct. This is what it means for the devil to have control. Can there be any good result when the devil has control? This can only bring disaster to God’s chosen people—that is certain without a doubt.

Some antichrists, when they come to a church to take on a leadership role, first investigate who in the church has often reported issues to the Above in the past. They want to keep such people away from them, and don’t go and stay at their house even if they can host them. If someone is good at toadying up to people, constantly orbits around the leader, and ingratiates themselves, that person’s house is where they plan to stay. Someone says, “They’re hosting two sisters.” The antichrist replies, “That’s no good, have them move somewhere else.” That person says, “You can’t just move people around as you please; those two sisters are rather suited for that place—moving them might affect the performance of their duties.” They respond, “As a leader, what I say goes, and you must obey me!” They then force the two sisters to move. Why do they insist on staying at this house? It’s because this family is guileless and weak, posing no threat to the antichrist. No matter what misdeeds they commit or how unchecked their behavior becomes behind people’s backs, the family won’t report them. So, they look for this kind of place to stay. After some time, they bring their evil fellows along, and they do their bad deeds there, discussing countermeasures and plotting how to punish this and that person. When an antichrist or evil person appears in the church, they first look for people they like and can take advantage of, expanding and securing their force first of all. They leave those who understand the truth alone for now, so as not to jeopardize their own position. They don’t disrupt the current order just yet. After consolidating their position and finding suitable accomplices, they start discussing countermeasures to punish and deal with those brothers and sisters who pursue the truth. How do they punish and deal with them? First, they draw in those who approve of them, who have no discernment of them, and who they can make use of. If there are people whom they can’t draw in or who discern them, they find an excuse or reason to isolate or clear them out. What kind of disposition is revealed by these antichrists’ behavior? (Viciousness.) Wherever they adopt leadership roles, that place takes on a foul atmosphere. The order of church life is disrupted. If you don’t listen to them, you get suppressed, restricted, or even cleared out or expelled. Some antichrists act like thugs, ruffians, or shrews. Even after believing in God, they still want to gain a position, act high-handedly in God’s house, and control God’s chosen people. In this way, they make a mess of the church. If people lack discernment, they will be misled and controlled by them, ultimately leading to their own demise.

We’ve more or less finished our discussion about how antichrists draw people in. As you’ve been listening to these matters I’ve discussed, do you feel that they are something of a rarity? Are you astonished, thinking, “Could this really happen? That’s impossible, isn’t it? How can people like this exist among believers?” Let Me tell you, it can get even worse than this. Everyone puts on a facade of human likeness when they’re in front of others, but it’s what they’re like behind the scenes that reveals their true face. Their words and actions while in front of others are just a disguise, a false impression. It’s what they say and do behind the scenes that reflects their true self. If someone appears one way in front of people and another way behind the scenes, you should be able to discern which is genuine and which is fake, right? An antichrist may appear very polite in front of people, but if they knew what the antichrist did behind the scenes, they’d find it disgusting. They’d feel that dealing with the antichrist was a disgrace, that they are not a man of integrity, but mean and petty. In that case, can the antichrist get along with normal people? No, they can’t. This isn’t a matter of a normal person having a few bad habits, but a matter of their disposition. As soon as you see their disposition, you realize they aren’t human, but a beast, a devil. Tell Me, what does it feel like when humans interact with animals? It’s like bringing a pig into the house, cleaning it up, putting little clothes on it, and treating it as a pet. The next day, you find that the house has become a pigsty. It eats, drinks, and relieves itself in the house without any regard for cleanliness. That’s when you realize you can’t keep pigs this way—they’re animals! People like antichrists may look on the outside like they have some caliber and upbringing, or they might have once been a prestigious figure in society, earning them some respect. But most of them are just like animals, lacking even conscience and reason. Do they possess normal humanity? (No.) Without normal humanity, can they still be considered human? Can you accept their leadership? What will happen if brothers and sisters fall into the hands of such people? They will be misled and drawn in, and they will definitely suffer. Antichrists are devils, and they have no conscience or reason. On the surface, they appear very loving, understanding, and sympathetic to some people’s difficulties, weaknesses, and emotional needs. In reality, these are people whom they favor and who flatter them. But if these people threaten their status or reputation, even they won’t be treated with kindness, but will be unscrupulously dealt with using even more malicious methods, without a single trace of sympathy or tolerance. The love and tolerance of antichrists is all a facade, and their goal is absolutely not to bring people before God, but to make them worship and follow them. Their purpose of ensnaring people in this way is to secure their own position and gain people’s worship and following. No matter what methods antichrists use to mislead and draw people in, one thing is certain: They will rack their brains and employ any means necessary for the sake of their own power and status. Another certainty is that no matter what they do, they are not doing it to perform their duties, and they certainly aren’t doing it to fulfill their duties well; rather, they do it to achieve their goal of holding power within the church. Furthermore, no matter what they do, they never consider the interests of God’s house, and they certainly don’t consider the interests of God’s chosen people. In the dictionary of antichrists, these two considerations are non-existent; they are inherently devoid of them. Regardless of their level of leadership, they show not the least concern for the interests of God’s house or God’s chosen people. In their thoughts and viewpoints, the work of the church and the interests of God’s house are irrelevant and beneath them. They only think about their own position and their own interests. From this, it can be seen that the nature essence of antichrists, besides being wicked, is particularly selfish and despicable. They only act for the sake of their own fame, gain, and status, without paying the slightest attention to the life and death of others. Anyone who poses a threat to their position is subjected to unscrupulous suppression and exclusion, and punished to the fullest extent. At times, when antichrists are reported for committing too much evil and the Above finds out about them, and they feel like they are about to lose their position, they begin to weep bitter tears. Outwardly, they seem repentant and appear to be turning back to God, but what is the true reason behind their tears? What do they truly regret? They grieve and suffer because they have lost people’s hearts, their own position, and their reputation. This is what is contained within their tears. At the same time, they are already plotting their next steps to consolidate their position, learn from their failures, and make their comeback. Judging from this behavior of antichrists, they never feel remorse or suffer on account of their transgressions and the corrupt dispositions they’ve revealed, and they certainly won’t truly know themselves or repent. They might kneel before God, weeping bitter tears, reflecting on and cursing themselves, but this is a facade meant to mislead people, and some people may even believe it to be genuine. It’s possible that, in that moment, their feelings are genuine. However, it’s necessary to remember that antichrists will never experience genuine remorse. Even if they are one day revealed and eliminated, they will not genuinely feel remorse. They will only acknowledge their own failure, that they botched their performance and exposed all their evil deeds. Why do I say this? Because, based on antichrists’ nature of hating the truth and God, they will never accept the truth. Therefore, the self-knowledge of antichrists is perpetually false. They will only admit that they lost people’s hearts because they failed to grasp opportunities to seize power and consolidate position. Their remorse and suffering are for these reasons. When antichrists are in anguish, they may also shed tears, but why do they weep? What is behind their tears? They weep because their multitude of evil deeds has been exposed and they have lost their position. If they could truly be remorseful and weep because of doing wrong and feeling indebted to God, they would not commit such manifold evil. They lack a guilty conscience and do not admit to their evil deeds—how then can genuine remorse arise? After doing evil, they do not feel remorse; they are full of indifference, only feeling that they have lost face and made a spectacle of themselves. Their mood may dip slightly. Despite outwardly appearing as if nothing were amiss, in reality, deep down they are like a mute person tasting bitter herbs—suffering in silence. They experience a whirlwind of emotions in their hearts and shed bitter tears, yet there is no genuine remorse. This is the true state of affairs. At times, antichrists may say some pleasant-sounding words, like, “It’s because my caliber was poor that I didn’t do the job properly and I committed some acts of disturbance and disruption; I failed to take the lead and am not worthy of leadership. May god discipline and curse me. If you decide not to choose me for leadership in the future, I won’t complain.” Right after this, they burst into tears. Some people, lacking discernment, feel compassion for them and say, “Don’t cry, we’ll choose you again in the future.” Upon hearing this, they immediately stop crying. Now do you see their true colors? When they speak a few fine words, it is to win over people’s hearts, mislead them, and trick them, and some even fall for it. Whenever antichrists shed tears, there is undoubtedly an agenda behind it. When those who worship them begin to question them and their status becomes shaky, they cry. They feel so distraught that they cannot eat or sleep, repeatedly telling their family, “How can I go on if I’m not in a leadership role?” Their family responds, “Didn’t you live just fine before with no status? Why can’t you go on living?” They reply, “If it weren’t for my status, would I have received these benefits? Would we be so well off? Why are you so foolish?” At home, some openly say, “What’s the point of living without status? What’s the meaning of life? There’re only a few people in our family, and at home I can only be in charge of these few. I’m just a head of the household, and my status isn’t elevated. I should hold office in the church; otherwise, my life is wasted. Besides, without this position in the church, could our family have such a good life?” Behind closed doors they speak honestly, and their ambitions are laid bare. Isn’t this a shameless individual? The misleading of antichrists is not an occasional transgression—it isn’t unintentional. If these were occasional and unintentional bad actions, they would not be considered antichrists. Antichrists mislead people intentionally; they are governed by Satan’s nature. This is why they consistently mislead people, purposefully using this method to control them and ultimately gain power. In fact, the purpose of an antichrist in misleading and controlling people is to make them listen to them, follow their lead, and distance themselves from God. The antichrist’s intentions are very clear; they aim to compete with God for people. Their actions are not momentary revelations of corruption, nor are they done impulsively, in spite of themselves, and certainly not obligated by special circumstances. It is entirely due to their wicked nature, their bloated ambitions and desires, their insidious disposition, and their multitude of schemes. Their ability to do these things now is determined by their nature essence: After believing in God, they harbored these intentions and schemes, just waiting to become a leader to start realizing these dreams and achieve their goals. This is the true state of an antichrist’s heart, and it doesn’t deviate in the slightest.

From the content discussed above, you should understand the truth you need to enter. In one respect, you should discern antichrists and evil people who display such behaviors and nature essence. In another, you should also compare yourselves to see if you exhibit these behaviors. Now, if you can find a match between what you say and the speech of antichrists, or if you both exhibit the same behaviors in similar situations, then can you discern the similarities in your revealed disposition or in practice between you and antichrists? Can you grasp the truth fellowshipped about here through some examples I discuss or the details, words, and actions described in those examples, or can you understand people’s corrupt dispositions that are exposed here? Can you listen like this? What perspective are you listening from? If you are completely discerning these dispositions and essences of antichrists and viewing these behaviors and practices from the perspective of an onlooker, can you gain the truth? (No.) Then from what perspective should you listen? (Self-comparison.) Compare yourselves—this is the most basic thing. What else? (Equip oneself with the truth.) Correct, you must understand the truth you need to understand within every example I discuss. Those who don’t have spiritual understanding can only comprehend the facts, while those who have spiritual understanding and possess good caliber, can understand and gain the truth from them. Can you summarize the truths involved in the stories and examples that have been discussed? Fellowshipping about certain stories or examples is meant to help people connect them to reality, to better understand various issues reflected in reality, and to deepen their impression of various manifestations and essences related to this aspect of the truth. In other words, when it comes to this aspect of the truth or nature essence, you will think of a specific example or scenario. That way, when you understand yourself or discern others, you will have a visualized understanding that is easier to comprehend, more practical, and more concrete than just reading theory or text. If it’s just text and you have no experience with it, your understanding of the text might be limited to the words themselves, always constrained by your own limited experiences, and only staying within that range. However, if I add certain examples, put together a few stories, a few tableaus, specific words and actions, and behaviors in My fellowship, it will have an auxiliary effect on your understanding of the truth in this aspect. If this effect is achieved, it means you have understood this aspect of the truth. What degree of understanding must you reach for it to count as understanding? It doesn’t have to be 100%, but your comprehension, definition, concept, and knowledge of this aspect of the truth should at least have been solidified. What does this solidification mean? It means it becomes relatively pure, basically without any human knowledge, notions, imaginings, or speculation mixed in, or fewer of these things mixed in. These are the effects that such examples have. You might know the people or events I mention in some of these examples, or have even been in contact and are quite familiar with such people, or you might have come into contact with such events and even witnessed the whole process of these people doing such things. But what are its benefits toward your understanding and recognition of the truth? It’s possible that you may have lived together with such people, you’ve seen stories like this unfold, and experienced for yourself everything that happened in these stories, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you understand this aspect of the truth. What do I mean by this? Don’t assume that because you know or are acquainted with the person or event I’m talking about, you don’t need to listen to the details or the truth and specific content fellowshipped here. That would be a big mistake. Even if that person is someone you are intimately familiar with, it doesn’t mean you have already understood and grasped the truth here. Why am I reminding you of this? It’s to prevent you from getting hung up on the details. Whenever you see someone do something like this and God raises them as an example, you make fun of them and scorn such people. Is this the right attitude to have toward the truth? (No.) What attitude is this? Isn’t this getting off track? This is a biased comprehension. It is because of these vivid examples, stories, and specific people and events that everyone can truly appreciate what the revelation of people’s corrupt disposition is like, to truly witness what the revelation of people’s corrupt disposition and nature essence is like, what people’s nature essence is, what a corrupt disposition is, what kind of path people with a certain type of corrupt disposition and nature essence take, what they love, what the span of their emotions is like, how they behave and deal with the world and what their outlook on life is, what their principles for dealing with the world are, and what their attitude toward God and the truth may be. It is precisely because of these examples, these specific individuals and concrete events, that people can better combine the truth reality with God’s revelation of human essence, achieving a somewhat clearer and more accurate view of them. So, what is My meaning behind these words? It’s that you shouldn’t underestimate these stories. No matter what kind of story I tell, whose story it is, or what type of person’s story it is, there’s only one goal, and that is to help you understand the truth. If you gain the truth from it, then the desired effect has been achieved. Therefore, these stories might only allow you to understand some superficial truths the first time you hear them, to grasp the surface meaning or literal interpretation. However, as your stature continues to grow, as you age, as you grow in life through various circumstances, your life also gradually matures, and you will have different understandings of the events in these stories and the nature essence, behavior, and manifestation of various individuals reflected here. How do these understandings come about? They come from the truths involved in these stories, not from the stories themselves. If it’s just telling a story, like the story of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” then after you listen to it, that’s it; it has nothing to do with the truth. It just instructs people in how to act: It’s very straightforward and superficial. But when it comes to the truth, the depth of such a story goes beyond the surface meanings that a person can readily understand. It touches upon the corrupt disposition and nature essence of people, involving how to discern people, how to choose one’s path, how to approach the truth, and what people’s attitudes should be in response to God’s requirements. It involves what people should reject and what they should embrace. If you are able to listen in this way, every time you hear sermons you will obtain something, you will gain more light and understand more principles regarding various aspects of the truth, and experience some life entry. As people age, as time passes, as social circumstances change, as trends shift, the truth continues to work within people’s hearts, and they will know how to practice the truth, and how to view people and things based on the truth. This is what it means to gain life—the truth can become a person’s life. Therefore, no matter when a story is being told, don’t just listen once and consider it done. Keep listening, and if you don’t understand, you can fellowship about it. If you find it hard to grasp at your current stage, it might be due to your stature being insufficient. In that case, listen to what you can comprehend and select what suits your current stature. If a story seems clear when you hear it but later appears deep, if it’s beyond your comprehension, or doesn’t line up with your experiences and life circumstances at this stage, then keep it in your heart and let it impress upon you. When you encounter similar situations later on, what you’ve kept in your heart may come to be reflected on the surface. It’s just like the vocabulary and terms you’ve studied or the information your brain has assimilated. Do you think about them every day? Probably not. You don’t typically dwell on them, but when you find yourself in an environment where these terms, vocabulary, or information are relevant, some of them come to mind. People have memories, and they naturally store some things in their minds. These things are sufficient for you to use in daily life and can be somewhat beneficial, but if you deliberately try to use them and rigidly apply regulations, you’re more likely to make mistakes. You should selectively listen based on your own stature and the circumstances you’ve experienced. This way, your progress will be faster. Those who know how to listen will gain more, while those who do not will gain less, or perhaps nothing at all. They might even feel that they don’t want to listen to any of these stories, that none of them involve the truth, and wonder why I don’t talk about the truth instead of engaging in idle chit-chat and gossiping all the time. What kind of people exhibit this behavior? (Those who don’t have spiritual understanding.) People who don’t have spiritual understanding might think this way. They might think that when I give sermons, I only talk about these everyday matters; well, so can they, so when they have nothing else to do they engage in idle chit-chat with others. You may know more gossip than the stories I tell, but do your discussions involve the truth? (No, they don’t.) If they don’t involve the truth, be careful not to talk indiscriminately, or you might end up discussing things unrelated to the truth. I tell stories to help people understand the truth. You shouldn’t blindly imitate Me. You should only focus on seeking the truth, understanding the truth, and striving to handle matters according to principles. Whether in your speech or your actions, prioritize aligning with the truth principles. This way, you’ll gradually enter the truth reality.