B. Despising God’s Almightiness

How do antichrists view God’s almightiness? It’s fair to say that to an antichrist, the word “almightiness” is a very emotional one, one that can stimulate their ambitions and desires. This is because they’d like very much to be that sort of person. To be almighty, omnipotent and omnipresent, to be capable of anything, to know how to do anything, to be able to do anything—if someone gained this capability, if they had this ability, then everything would be a breeze for them. They wouldn’t have to fear anyone; they’d have the highest authority, the highest status, and they’d be able to reign over others. They’d have absolute power to control and manipulate other people. This is far beyond the reach of an antichrist, and it betrays their ambitions, their desires, and their true colors. Part of this is that the phrase “God’s almightiness” fills them with all sorts of imaginings, curiosity, and notions. Another part is that they’d like to gain insight into God’s almightiness through faith in Him, so that they can broaden their own horizons, grow more insightful, and satisfy their curiosity. Another part still is that they are also striving to be omnipotent, to be worshiped by thousands, with ever more people prostrating to them and keeping a place for them in their hearts. So, do antichrists have genuine knowledge of God’s almightiness? Do they have true faith in it? Again, it’s the same as with God’s righteous disposition—antichrists aren’t just filled with notions, with vague and hollow imaginings that don’t accord with the facts—they also spawn deep doubts about God’s almightiness. They’re dubious; they don’t believe in it: “Almightiness? Where in this world is there anyone who’s almighty? Where is there someone who’s omnipresent and omnipotent? There’s no such person! There are loads of great and famous people in the world, and there are plenty of people with paranormal powers: prophets, for instance, and all sorts of astrologers and interpreters of prophecy, and even they aren’t omnipotent. A question mark still needs to be placed behind ‘god’s almightiness,’ it needs to be thoroughly researched.” So, to an antichrist, God’s essence of almightiness doesn’t exist, because, as they believe, “I can’t imagine or understand how god could be almighty, so this ‘almightiness’ of his doesn’t exist. I don’t acknowledge it. How great are god’s abilities and capabilities, really? No one—past, present, or future—has seen or will see them.” Antichrists are constantly doubting and unsure at heart, so everything that happens in the church and to the brothers and sisters becomes the subject and scope of their research. What are they researching? They’re researching in everything that arises, in everything that happens in a group or to a person, what God has done, how He has worked, whether there are any signs and wonders within it, any fresh and unique occurrences that are beyond what man can conceive of or beyond man’s ability and reach. In addition to that, they’re researching whether any brothers or sisters have spoken of an experience of God doing such work in them as surpasses man’s expectations. An example of this would be a girl coming out of a river snail’s shell, as in the folk tale, and making a feast for them, at the time when they were hungriest. Another would be gold appearing out of nowhere in their house, at a time when they were short on funds, or their pursuers suddenly being struck blind, unable to see anything, at a time when they were being pursued, and an angel coming down and saying to them, “Don’t fear, child—I’m here to help you.” A different example would be, at a time when the brothers and sisters were suffering savage beatings and cruel torture, god’s great light shining down and blinding the eyes of the perpetrators, leaving them rolling on the floor, begging for mercy, never again daring to strike the brothers and sisters, with god having avenged them; or, at a time when they were reading God’s words but couldn’t understand them no matter how hard they tried, and were about to fall asleep, seeing a form in the haze that says to them, “Don’t sleep; waken—here is what my words mean”; or, when something happened and they were about to make a mistake, being alerted by a powerful, internal rebuke and discipline that doing that would be wrong, and that doing this would be right. If any of these things, which ordinary people can’t experience and aren’t capable of, happened in the church, in God’s house, in anyone who follows God, that would suffice to prove that God is almighty. If no such things happen, or if they happen quite infrequently, and even if they do happen, it’s just hearsay anyway, and so their factuality and believability are greatly compromised, then is God’s almightiness a fact, or isn’t it? Does God possess the essence of almightiness, or doesn’t He? In the heart of an antichrist, they put question marks behind these ideas.

Antichrists are forever pursuing these signs, wonders, and paranormal powers while God works, speaks, and saves man. They pursue things that don’t fit with reality or facts. These things they pursue have nothing at all to do with God’s work of saving man, or with the truth, or with a change to man’s disposition. But still, they’re bent on pursuing them. They’re full of curiosity about God’s almightiness. Often, in their prayers, they’ll request of God: “Oh, god, would you reveal your almightiness to me? Oh, god, are you not almighty? If you are, I ask you to settle this matter for me. God, if you are almighty, omnipotent and omnipresent, I beg you to help me, as I’m now faced with challenges. God, if you are almighty, I beg you to take the ailments from my body, to take the circumstances I’m faced with away, to help me avert danger. God, if you are almighty, I beg you, as I do my duty, to make me smart and clever, talented and gifted overnight, so that I can grasp the professional skills without having to study them, become an expert, and be distinguished from others. Oh, god, if you are almighty, I ask you to punish and visit retribution on those who malign and mock my faith in you. Make them blind of eye and deaf, with sores on their heads, and pus coming from the soles of their feet. Let them die like dogs. God, if you are almighty, I beg you, let me see your almightiness.” God has said so many words and done so much work, yet antichrists turn a blind eye to it and brush it aside; they never take God’s words to heart, nor do they take to heart His work and each step of His important work of saving man, or take it seriously. Instead, they’re bent on asking for signs and wonders, for God to perform miracles amid His work, asking that God do special things that will open their eyes and satisfy their curiosity, in order to prove His existence, to prove that He is almighty. What’s more laughable is that antichrists even appeal to God in prayer: “Oh, god, I can’t see you, so my faith is small. I ask you to reveal your real person to me, even if only in a dream—I ask you to reveal your almightiness to me, so that I can have faith in you and assuredly believe in your existence. If you don’t, I’ll always have misgivings in my belief in you.” They can’t see God’s existence or know His essence and disposition amid His work and words, but would have Him do additional things, things that are inconceivable to man, in order to strengthen them and establish their faith. God has said many words and done much work, yet however practical His words are, however edifying the truths He speaks are to people, however urgently they need to understand them, antichrists aren’t interested, and they don’t take them to heart. Indeed, the more God speaks, the more specific work He does, the more repulsed, irritable, and resistant they feel. What’s more, there will even arise in them condemnation of God and blasphemy against Him; they’ll clamor against Him: “Is your almightiness in these words? That’s all you do—express words? If you didn’t speak, would you not be almighty? If you’re almighty, then don’t speak. Don’t use speech or fellowshipping on the truth and provisioning man with the truth to enable us to gain life and achieve dispositional change. If you had us all become angels overnight, your messengers—now, that would be almightiness!” As God speaks His words and does His work, the nature of antichrists is revealed and exposed, bit by bit, without any concealment, and their essence of being averse to and resistant to the truth is laid entirely bare, as well. The disposition and essence of antichrists that despises God’s identity and His essence is also exposed and revealed, bit by bit, with the passage of time and the ceaseless, forward advancement God makes in His work. Antichrists pursue vague things; they pursue the sight of signs and wonders—and governed by this ambition and desire, which doesn’t conform to reality, their nature of being averse to the truth and hating it is brought out into the light. By contrast, those who truly pursue reality and the truth, who believe in and love positive things, see God’s almightiness in the process of His work and words—and what these people can see, what they can gain, and what they can know are exactly what antichrists are forever unable to know and unable to gain. Antichrists believe that if people would gain the life from God, there need to be signs and wonders; they believe that without signs and wonders, gaining the life and the truth from God’s words alone, and thereby achieving dispositional change and attaining salvation, is an impossibility. To an antichrist, that is an eternal impossibility—it doesn’t hold water. That’s why they tirelessly wait and pray, in hope that God will reveal signs and wonders and perform miracles for them—and if He doesn’t, then His almightiness doesn’t exist. The implication behind this is that if God’s almightiness doesn’t exist, then God certainly doesn’t exist. This is the logic of antichrists. They condemn God’s righteousness, and they condemn His almightiness.

While God is saving people, antichrists are entirely uninterested in His words, His various requirements, and His intentions. They resist these things and are averse to them, from the pit of their hearts. What they’re interested in isn’t the reality of all positive things, nor is it the salvation and being made perfect that man can achieve as a result of pursuing the truth and submitting to God’s orchestrations. So, what are they interested in, then? They’re interested in god revealing signs and wonders and performing miracles for them to see, in him enabling them to gain insight by doing so, and enabling them to turn into remarkable people, into superhumans, into people with special powers, into extraordinary people. They wish to rid themselves of designations, identities, and statuses such as ordinary people, common people, and corrupt people through god’s almightiness. So, whatever notions or problems there may be for them amid God’s work, they don’t seek the truth to resolve them. They’re not just unable to understand the truth or achieve dispositional change—no, they’ll also pass judgment on God, and condemn Him, and resist Him, because of all He does that doesn’t accord with their notions. In the eyes of antichrists, all the practical work that God does is what they don’t acknowledge—it’s what’s condemned by them. In the end, it’s these views, and these definitions of God that lead them to utterly deny the existence of God’s essence in their hearts, and more utterly to condemn, besmirch, and blaspheme against the existence of God’s essence. This is because their belief in God is established on the foundation that god is almighty, that god will redress their grievances, that he’ll avenge them, that for them, he’ll defeat all those whom they hate and look down on—that god will satisfy their desires and ambitions. This is the foundation of their belief in God. But having come to the present, these evil people see now that such a god doesn’t exist, and that there’s no possibility that God would do anything for them. From their perspective, this is quite an unfavorable situation for them—it’s terrible. So, once they’ve experienced many things, their misgivings and doubts about God grow stronger and stronger, until they make up their minds to leave God and His house, to pursue the world, to follow evil trends, and to cast themselves into Satan’s embrace. That’s how things wind up for these people. Judging from the attitude that antichrists harbor toward God’s righteous disposition and His almightiness, antichrists are indeed disbelievers. They don’t have the slightest bit of faith in God, nor the slightest bit of submission to or acceptance of what God does. When it comes to positive things and the truth, they’re repulsed by and resistant to them. That’s why, no matter how you look at it, the disbeliever essence of antichrists truly does exist. It’s not something others impose on them, and it’s not making a mountain out of a molehill—this essence of theirs is defined on the basis of all the views and approaches they reveal when things befall them.

Antichrists believe in God for years without being able to see the fact that God is sovereign over man’s fate. They can’t understand that fact. They can’t understand a fact, though it’s laid out in front of their eyes—is that not blindness? God’s righteous disposition and His almightiness are often revealed in the work of the church, in His chosen people, and in all sorts of things that occur. He lets people see these things everywhere—but antichrists, being blind, can’t see them. When antichrists have followed God for many years, they’ll say that famous phrase: “I’ve believed in god for so many years, and what have I gained?” It seems they really haven’t gained anything. God has poured out His life for man, but antichrists have gained nothing. Isn’t that pitiable? It really is! That phrase of antichrists illustrates the problem so well. Everyone who hears God’s words and experiences His work, who accepts His words as their life, would say: “We’ve believed in God for so many years, and we’ve gained so much from Him. Not just grace and blessings, His protection, and His mercy—what’s more important is that from God, we’ve understood and gained so many truths. We live with the likeness of humans, with dignity. We know how to conduct ourselves. We owe God so much. Compared to the price He pays, to what He does for us, our little hardships aren’t even worth mentioning. Man should repay God’s love.” Antichrists, however, are quite the opposite. They say, “God’s been at work these last few years, so how come I haven’t gained anything? You all say you’ve gained this and that, had this or that experience—but will those experiences keep you fed? What do those experiences amount to? Next to blessings, to grace, to seeing signs and wonders, aren’t they entirely unworthy of mention? That’s why I feel that in my many years of belief in god, I haven’t gained anything. Next to the suffering I’ve endured, to what I’ve forsaken and expended for god, the things I’ve gained haven’t been worth it at all! What’s the truth but a few statements and theories? What is it but a few doctrines? I’ve heard these words, these truths, and I don’t feel that some monumental change has been achieved in me! For starters, my mind isn’t that nimble when I think about things. What’s more, I’m getting on in years, and my health isn’t growing better than it was before. My hair’s grey, I’ve got more wrinkles on my face—I’ve even lost a few teeth, and no new ones have grown back. God says those who are saved are like fresh, lively children, and here I am, an old bag of bones, with an old man’s face. I haven’t turned into a child. Going by god’s words, grey-haired old people can turn into raven-haired youths. How come I haven’t changed? God says he’ll completely transform people, but that hasn’t happened to me; I haven’t become a new person. I’m still me, and when things happen to me, I still have to figure out how to handle them on my own. My fleshly difficulties are increasing, too—I’m often weak and negative. And what’s more, my memory’s been bad over the last two years. I read god’s words so much, but he hasn’t strengthened my memory. Can’t god give people bit of a special ability, one that keeps their bodies from aging? I feel the biggest issue right now is people transforming completely; the truth doesn’t seem able to solve that problem. If god would say something that truly could turn someone into a new person, with the appearance of a shining angel, who can become disembodied, who can escape through solid walls, who, when faced with persecution and danger, can utter an incantation and disappear, and be forever beyond grasp—if, by reading god’s words often, people’s hair didn’t go grey, and their faces didn’t wrinkle, and new teeth would grow in to replace those they’d lost—that’d be great! That’s what it is to be completely transformed! If god would do those things, then I’d believe that he’s god, without any reservations. If he carries on speaking and preaching the truth, then my faith will soon wear out; soon, I won’t be able to go on believing, and perhaps I won’t be able to perform my duty anymore. I won’t want to.” In the span of time that an antichrist follows God, this or that demand of Him will often arise in their heart, and all sorts of doubts and exacting demands will often arise within their notions, and in response to their environments and their personal desires, all sorts of strange thoughts will come to them. There’s just one thing, though: They can’t understand the words God speaks, and they can’t see the fact that God works to save man, much less can they understand that all God does is meant to save man, that it’s all meant to enable man to achieve dispositional change. So, as they go on believing, they lose their drive; as they go on believing, feelings of negativity and despondency arise in their hearts, and they have feelings and thoughts of withdrawing, of giving up. As for God’s essence, forget about whether they’ll believe in it, or acknowledge it, or accept it—as they go on believing, they can’t even be bothered to concern themselves with the issue. That’s why, when you say in fellowship that something is God’s righteousness and His almightiness and sovereignty, that people should submit to it and know it, antichrists won’t outwardly make a sound—they won’t express any views at all. Inwardly, however, repulsion will arise in them: They won’t want to listen; they’ll be unwilling to listen; some of them will just stand up and leave. When everyone’s listening to sermons, when others are fellowshipping God’s words, when the brothers and sisters are fellowshipping their experiential testimony with great zeal—what are antichrists doing? Drinking tea, reading magazines, playing with their phones, gossiping idly. And by protesting and resisting with these silent actions, they’re seeking to confirm with their behaviors that all God does is useless: “You’re just trying to rationalize things, fooling yourselves—god and the truth simply don’t exist, and it’s simply impossible for mankind to be saved by god!” In their eyes, all who believe in the truth, submit to God, and believe in the fact that God can save mankind are fools—they’re all brainless, and they’ve all been duped. They believe that a person’s fate is in their own hands, that one can’t let others orchestrate it for them, that people aren’t puppets, but have minds and the ability to think independently about problems—and if someone can’t even take control of their own fate, then they’re trash, an inferior person. So, no matter what, they’re unwilling to hand their fate over to God for Him to control. This is the attitude of antichrists toward all that God does. They remain from beginning to end spectators and disbelievers, who play the part of Satan’s lackeys. They’re freeloaders and troublemakers—they are evildoers who have snuck their way in.