A. Despising God’s Righteousness

Such people as antichrists always treat God’s righteousness and disposition with notions, doubts, and resistance. They think, “It’s just a theory that god is righteous. Is there really such a thing as righteousness in this world? In all the years of my life, I haven’t once found it or seen it. The world is so dark and evil, and evil people and devils are doing quite well, living in contentment. I haven’t seen them get what they deserve. I can’t see where god’s righteousness is in this; I wonder, does god’s righteousness really even exist? Who has seen it? No one has seen it, and no one can attest to it.” This is what they think to themselves. They do not accept all God’s work, all His words, and all His orchestrations on the foundation of belief that He is righteous, but are always doubting and passing judgment, always full of notions, which they never seek the truth to resolve. This is always how antichrists believe in God. Do they have true faith in God? No. Antichrists always maintain an attitude of doubt when it comes to God’s righteousness. Of course, they have their doubts about God’s disposition, His holiness, and what He has and is. They don’t believe in those, but go only by what the eye can see—if they can’t see something with their own eyes, they’ll never believe in it. They’re just like Thomas, always doubting the Lord Jesus, not believing that the Lord Jesus was resurrected from death, not believing in God’s great might. Could such dross as antichrists, who don’t have spiritual understanding or pursue the truth, believe that God’s words are the truth? Could they believe in His almightiness and wisdom? They believe in none of this; at heart, they always have their doubts. Judging from the essence of antichrists, they go by what the eye can see, so they’re materialists. They can’t see God’s almightiness, and they don’t believe that His words are the truth, that they’re facts He has already made happen. Because they don’t have spiritual understanding, and they have no true faith, they have no way to see God’s acts. The fact is that they have an ulterior motive for believing in God. They’re wanton troublemakers—Satan’s servants. Can a person who doesn’t accept the truth or believe in God’s existence, who looks at all things with human eyes, learn of the existence of the truth? Can they learn of the fact of God’s sovereignty over mankind? Certainly not. They look on things with a scrutinizing gaze, a suspicious gaze, and a skeptical attitude, and even resist all that God does, so antichrists are unbelieving about God’s righteous disposition. They have their doubts and don’t accept it. What behaviors of antichrists show others that they don’t accept the truth or acknowledge God’s essence? There are many specific ones. For instance: When a problem arises in the work of the church, no matter the severity of the blame for it nor what its consequences are, an antichrist’s first reaction is to clear themselves and pass the blame elsewhere. In order not to be held responsible, they will even guide gazes off themselves, saying a few correct, nice-sounding things and making a superficial to-do, to cover up the truth of the matter. In ordinary times, people cannot see it, but when something befalls them, an antichrist’s ugliness is exposed. Like a hedgehog, with all its spikes erect, they protect themselves with all their might, wishing not to take on any responsibility. What sort of attitude is this? Is it not one of not believing that God is righteous? They do not believe that God scrutinizes all or that He is righteous; they wish to use their own methods to protect themselves. They believe, “If I don’t protect myself, no one will. God can’t protect me either. They say he’s righteous, but when people get into trouble, does he really treat them fairly? No way—god doesn’t do that.” When faced with trouble or persecution, they feel unaided, and think, “So, where is god? People can’t see him or touch him. No one can help me; no one can extend justice to me and uphold fairness for me.” They think the only way to protect themselves is with their own methods, that otherwise, they would suffer loss, be bullied and persecuted—and that God’s house is no exception to this. An antichrist will already have planned everything for themselves before something has befallen them. In part, what they do is try hard to disguise themselves as such a powerful person that no one would dare bother them, or mess with them, or bully them. The other part is their adherence at every turn to Satan’s philosophies and its laws of existence. What are those, in the main? “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost,” “Let things drift if they do not affect one personally,” “Sensible people are good at self-protection, seeking only to avoid making mistakes,” acting as circumstances permit, being smooth and slick, “I will not attack unless I am attacked,” “Harmony is a treasure; forbearance is brilliance,” “Speak good words in harmony with others’ feelings and reason, as being frank annoys others,” “A wise man submits to circumstances,” and other such satanic philosophies. They don’t love the truth, but accept Satan’s philosophies as if they were positive things, believing that they’ll be able to protect them. They live by these things; they don’t speak the truth to anyone, but invariably say pleasing things, ingratiating, flattering things, offending no one, thinking of ways to showcase themselves so that others will esteem them. They care only about their own pursuit of fame, gain, and status, and do not do anything at all to uphold the work of the church. Whoever does something bad and harms the interests of God’s house, they do not expose or report them, but act as if they had not seen it. Looking at their principles for handling things and their treatment of what happens around them, do they have any knowledge of God’s righteous disposition? Do they have any faith in it? They have none. “None” here does not mean that they have no awareness of it, but that they have doubts about God’s righteous disposition in their heart. They neither accept nor acknowledge that God is righteous. When they see many people testifying that the truth and righteousness reign in God’s house, they resist and pass judgment on it in their heart, saying, “Why is it that the great red dragon has faced no retribution for persecuting god’s chosen people so? The evil people among the nonbelievers bully god’s chosen people, and slander them, and pass judgment on them, and they’ve faced no retribution, either. They are all sitting pretty—why is it believers in god are always the ones getting bullied?” At heart, they don’t believe in God’s righteous disposition. They don’t believe that God treats every person with righteousness, nor do they believe in the ideas that God will give each person their due, in accordance with their acts, and that only those who pursue the truth will be blessed by God and obtain a beautiful destination. Antichrists don’t believe in these things. They say to themselves, “If these are facts, how come I haven’t seen them? You say that those who pursue the truth will be blessed by god. Well, so-and-so in our church pursues the truth, and expends himself for god and does his duty quite loyally. How does that wind up for him? He’s hunted down by the great red dragon such that he can hardly go home; his family’s wrenched apart—he can’t even see his children. Is that god’s righteousness? And there’s so-and-so, who was thrown in prison for believing in god, where he was tortured half to death. Where was god’s righteous disposition then? He stood firm in his testimony; he was no Judas. Why didn’t god bless and protect him? And why did god permit the great red dragon to beat him half to death? There was also a leader in our church who gave up his family and profession for the work of the church. He did his duty for years and went through quite a few hardships, and in the end, he was condemned and cleared out for having done a bit of evil and disturbed the work of the church. Where was god’s righteous disposition? And there are some brothers and sisters doing duties in god’s house at quite a young age, bearing hardships and toiling, yet as soon as they make a mistake and violate the principles, they’re pruned. Some of them cry quite mournfully for fear of being cleared out and eliminated, without anyone there to console them. Why can’t I see god’s righteousness in that? In what way, exactly, does god’s righteous disposition manifest in these things? Why can’t I see it? And there’s my own case, too—I may be a bit perfunctory in doing my duty, and I may sometimes reveal a bit of a corrupt disposition, but still, I’ve got talent. Why won’t god’s house promote me?” With all such matters, antichrists can’t see clearly what’s going on. They see only external phenomena, but can’t see what God’s intentions are behind things. The depths of their hearts are filled with misgivings and doubts, with ideas and notions—and there are a great many knots in their hearts, which they can’t disentangle. Whenever they think of these things, they’re filled with resentment, with condemnation and blasphemy against God’s righteous disposition. Aggrieved, they say to themselves: “If god is righteous, why do guileless people get pruned? If he’s righteous, why doesn’t he excuse people for revealing a bit of corruption? If he’s righteous, why do some people, who have done their duty and suffered so much, get dismissed, for no more than failing to do actual work? If he’s righteous, why would we, who follow him with staunch devotion, be persecuted and tortured, and possibly sent to prison, and in a few cases, even beaten to death?” Antichrists have no clear explanation for any of these phenomena. They don’t know what’s going on with them; they can’t see it clearly. Often, they ask themselves: “Is the god I believe in righteous, or isn’t he? Does the god who is righteous exist or not? Where is he? When we’re faced with difficulties, when we’re persecuted—what is he doing then? Can he save us, or can’t he? If god’s righteous, why doesn’t he destroy Satan? Why doesn’t he destroy the great red dragon? Why doesn’t he punish this wicked mankind? Why doesn’t he extend us justice and uphold fairness for us, who believe in him and have suffered terribly? Why doesn’t he stick up for us? We hate devils and Satan, and we hate evil people—why doesn’t god avenge our grievances?” One “why” after another, coming ceaselessly outward from an antichrist’s heart, like a machine gun, uncontrollable by any means. When they can’t control these things, why don’t they come before God to pray and seek, or read His words and seek out brothers and sisters for fellowship? Won’t they then resolve such problems, one at a time? Is resolving these problems really a difficult thing to do? If you adopt an attitude of submission to God and the truth, one of accepting the truth, these problems are problems no longer—they can all be resolved. Why aren’t antichrists able to do that? Because they don’t accept the truth, or believe that God’s words are the truth, or acknowledge the truth. They can’t submit to all God’s sovereignty and arrangements, much less accept from Him all the things that happen. That’s why antichrists are filled at heart with doubts about God’s righteousness. When they’re faced with tests, the doubts that fill their heart will burst forth, and internally, they’ll question God: “If god’s righteous, why does he let us suffer so much? If god’s righteous, why doesn’t he have mercy on those of us who have endured our fill of misery following christ? If god’s righteous, why doesn’t he protect those of us who expend ourselves for him and do our duties, or protect our families? If god’s righteous, why does he let some people who sincerely believe in him die in prison, at the hands of the great red dragon?” They then begin clamoring against God: “If god is righteous, he shouldn’t let us suffer so much; if god is righteous, he shouldn’t discipline and reveal us without rhyme or reason; if god is righteous, he should be tolerant of all the evil deeds we do, and pardon all our negativity and weakness, and make allowances for all our transgressions. If you can’t even do these things, then you’re not a righteous god!” All these are things antichrists have on their mind. They’re full of notions about God, and they don’t seek the truth at all to resolve them. When the day comes that they’re revealed, those notions are bound to burst forth. Such is the ugly mindset and true face of antichrists.

Antichrists don’t acknowledge or accept the truth, much less acknowledge the fact that God is the Creator, so to them, God’s righteous disposition remains a great, open question. And with the passage of time, and the occurrence of events, and the emergence of various issues, that question mark of theirs grows bigger and bigger—and gradually, it turns into a cross mark. What does that cross mark signify? It means that they deny outright the fact that God is righteous. And when that cross mark has been drawn—when an antichrist denies that God is righteous—all their fantasies and wishes go up in smoke. Think on this: What is the starting point that leads to such a consequence? (Antichrists think that by believing in God, they should be blessed, and receive His protection. So, when God does work that doesn’t accord with their notions and imaginings, they feel that He’s not righteous, and they can’t accept it from Him. Also, they don’t pray to God and seek the truth once their notions about God have arisen, and they can’t resolve them promptly. In that way, their notions accumulate and pile up—that’s what leads to such a consequence, in the end.) You’re talking about surface-level phenomena; you’re not getting to the root. Why do I say so? Because there’s something at the root of antichrists’ ability to behave like this and have such views, of their ability to doubt and deny God. It’s determined by an antichrist’s nature essence, of course. That’s the root—we’ll leave it there. The main root cause, then, is that from the very beginning, antichrists have lacked a love for the truth or acceptance of it. Why don’t they accept the truth? This, too, has its root: They don’t acknowledge that God is the truth, that His words are the truth—and since they don’t acknowledge that, they can’t accept it. Given that they don’t accept the truth, can they regard any problem at all with the gaze of the truth? (No.) They can’t do that—so, what are the consequences? They can’t see through the things that happen to them, whatever they may be—things great and small that happen around them, as well as the words of others. They can’t see through people or events—they can’t see through anything. Some things seem on the outside to be as they say, but that’s not how they are in essence. This has to do with the truth. If you don’t understand the truth or accept it, can you understand the truth involved in these things? You don’t, so all you can do is analyze and study the things with a human gaze, with human knowledge, and with a human brain. What results will such study produce? Will they accord with the truth? Will they accord with God’s requirements and intentions? No, they never will. It’s as with the story of Job, which all who believe in God know. Everyone who acknowledges and accepts the truth and who’s able to believe in God and submit to Him commends and admires Job at heart; they all wish to be a person like Job. They also commend and admire Job’s expressions of praise for God and knowledge of Him amid his trials. People can understand in their hearts that the various tribulations and agonies visited on Job were the work of God. On the whole, Job, as a person, stands as an aspiration for all who pursue the truth. They all want to follow his example and be such a person. So, how is such a positive outcome achieved? What’s its foundation? The heartfelt belief and acknowledgment that this is the truth, that all of this is God’s work—it’s on this foundation that one comes, step by step, to wish to be a person like Job, to wish to become someone who fears God and shuns evil. They believe in all this and acknowledge it at heart, and eventually, they achieve an aspiration toward it, which they go on to pursue in their life. To achieve such a result, what’s most fundamental is that one acknowledges all this and believes in it at heart. So, do antichrists have such an acknowledgment and belief? They do not. How do antichrists view all that Job went through? Do they think there’s significance to all God did? Can they see that all of it was ruled over by Him? They can’t see that, nor that there’s significance to all God did. What do they see in it? Job had great wealth, with sheep and oxen to fill a mountain, and the most beautiful sons and daughters in the land. This, they see. And then, after all his sufferings, God blessed him once again. What do they see in that? They’d say, “The man made a bargain for those blessings—he earned them. It’s only right for god to have bestowed them.” In their overall understanding of the matter, is antichrists’ vantage one from which they’re accepting the truth and submitting to God? (No.) What sort of vantage do they take on it, then? There’s only one vantage from which antichrists view the whole matter, and that’s the vantage of a disbeliever. A disbeliever looks at whether there is profit made, or advantage gained, or losses suffered; how to take advantage, and how not to; what would lead to loss and suffering; and what’s not worth doing, and what is. This is the viewpoint of disbelievers. Disbelievers view, treat, and do everything in this manner, with this sort of essence. This is the attitude of antichrists toward God’s righteous disposition.