1. How Antichrists Treat Being Pruned

Antichrists harbor immense ambitions and desires when it comes to status and reputation, and others find this incredibly sickening and loathsome. This is enough to demonstrate that the nature essence of an antichrist is very unsightly and wicked. So, which specific manifestations illustrate the nature essence of an antichrist? First, let’s think about how antichrists treat being pruned. (They hate it and do not accept it.) In what way do they hate it? Go into detail. (There was an antichrist who did quite a bit of evil, and when the brothers and sisters went to expose some of his manifestations, he didn’t repent at all, he was very intransigent, and didn’t feel the slightest bit of remorse. He even felt that he had been wronged. This is the sort of manifestation I have seen.) This is a classic manifestation of an antichrist. Antichrists’ archetypal attitude toward pruning is to vehemently refuse to accept or admit it. No matter how much evil they do or how much harm they do to the work of God’s house and the life entry of God’s chosen people, they do not feel the slightest remorse or that they owe anything. From this point of view, do the antichrists have humanity? Absolutely not. They cause all sorts of damage to God’s chosen people and bring harm to the work of the church—God’s chosen people can see this as clear as day, and they can see antichrists’ succession of evil deeds. And yet the antichrists do not accept or acknowledge this fact; they stubbornly refuse to admit that they are in error or that they are responsible. Is this not an indication that they are averse to the truth? Such is the extent to which antichrists are averse to the truth. No matter how much wickedness they commit, they stubbornly refuse to admit it, and they remain unyielding to the end. This sufficiently proves that antichrists never take the work of God’s house seriously or accept the truth. They haven’t come to believe in God; they are minions of Satan, come to disturb and disrupt the work of God’s house. In antichrists’ hearts there are only reputation and status. They believe that if they were to acknowledge their error, then they would have to accept responsibility, and then their status and reputation would be severely compromised. As a result, they resist with the attitude of “deny until you die.” No matter how people expose or dissect them, they do their utmost to deny it. Whether their denial is deliberate or not, in short, in one regard these behaviors expose the antichrists’ nature essence of being averse to and hating the truth. In another regard, it shows how much the antichrists treasure their own status, reputation, and interests. What, meanwhile, is their attitude toward the work and interests of the church? It is one of contempt and irresponsibility. They lack all conscience and reason. Doesn’t the antichrists’ shirking of responsibility demonstrate these issues? In one regard, shirking responsibility proves their nature essence of being averse to and hating the truth, while in another regard, it shows their lack of conscience, reason, and humanity. No matter how much the brothers’ and sisters’ life entry is harmed by their disturbance and evildoing, they feel no reproach and could never be upset by this. What sort of creature is this? Even admission to part of their mistake would count as them having a bit of conscience and reason, but the antichrists do not even have that slight amount of humanity. So what would you say they are? The antichrists are devils in essence. No matter how much damage they do to the interests of the house of God, they do not see it. They are not remotely saddened by it in their hearts, nor do they reproach themselves, much less feel indebted. This is absolutely not what should be seen in normal people. They are devils, and devils are devoid of any conscience or reason. No matter how many bad things they do, and no matter how great losses they bring to the church’s work, they vehemently refuse to acknowledge this. They believe that acknowledging it would mean that they had done something wrong. They think, “Could I do something wrong? I’d never do anything wrong! If I’m made to acknowledge my mistake, wouldn’t that be an insult to my character? Though I was involved in that incident, I didn’t cause it to happen, and I wasn’t the main person in charge. Go look for whoever you want, but you shouldn’t come looking for me. In any case, I can’t acknowledge this mistake. I can’t shoulder this responsibility!” They think that they will be condemned, sentenced to death, and sent down to hell and the lake of fire and brimstone if they acknowledge their mistake. Tell Me, can people like this accept the truth? Can one expect their true repentance? Regardless of how others fellowship on the truth, antichrists still resist it, set themselves against it, and defy it in the depths of their hearts. Even after they are dismissed, they still don’t admit to their mistakes, and they do not show any manifestations of repentance at all. When the matter is mentioned 10 years later, they still don’t know themselves, and don’t admit that they made a mistake. When the matter is brought up 20 years later, they still don’t know themselves, and they still try to justify and defend themselves. And more detestable still, when the matter is mentioned 30 years later, they still don’t know themselves, and they still try to argue for and justify themselves, saying: “I didn’t make a mistake, so I can’t admit to one. It wasn’t my responsibility; I shouldn’t shoulder it.” And to everyone’s surprise, 30 years after they were dismissed, these antichrists still harbor an attitude of resistance toward the way that the church handled them. Even after 30 years, they haven’t changed at all. So, how did they spend those 30 years? Could it be that they didn’t read God’s word or reflect on themselves? Could it be that they didn’t pray to or confide in God? Could it be that they didn’t listen to sermons and fellowship? Could it be that they are mindless, and do not possess the thinking of normal humanity? How they spent those 30 years is truly a mystery. Thirty years after the incident took place, they’re still full of resentment, thinking that the brothers and sisters wronged them, that God doesn’t understand them, that God’s house mistreated them, created problems for them, made things difficult for them, and unjustly blamed them. Tell Me, can people like this change? They absolutely cannot change. Their hearts are filled with hostility toward positive things, and resistance and opposition. They believe that, by exposing their evil deeds and pruning them, other people damaged their characters, dishonored their reputation, and caused immense harm to their reputation and status. They will never come before God to pray, seek, and recognize their own mistakes in this matter, and they will never have an attitude of repentance or acknowledgment of their mistakes. Even less will they accept the judgment and chastisement of God’s words. Today, they still harbor disobedience, dissatisfaction, and grievances as they justify themselves to God, and ask God to redress these wrongs, to reveal this matter, and to judge exactly who was right and who was wrong, to the extent that they even doubt and deny God’s righteousness because of this matter, and doubt and deny the fact that God’s house is ruled by the truth and God. This is the ultimate outcome of antichrists being pruned—do they accept the truth? They do not accept the truth at all; they are dead set against accepting it. From this, we can see that the nature essence of an antichrist is averse to and hates the truth.

Since antichrists do not accept being pruned, do they have any knowledge of being pruned? When they fellowship on this aspect of the truth, what do they say? What do they teach others? They say, “Pruning people is one method god uses to perfect them. It enables people to know themselves better. When people are pruned, they should accept it and submit to it unconditionally. Those who do not accept being pruned are people who rebel against god and do not love the truth. If you want to practice the truth, you first must accept being pruned; this is how god perfects people, and every individual must experience this. It can be said that accepting being pruned is one of the best paths of practice for people to understand the truth and thereby achieve self-knowledge and satisfy god. No matter who you are—a leader or an ordinary believer—and regardless of what duty you are performing, you must prepare to be pruned. If you cannot accept being pruned, it proves you are someone without stature, a child. Everyone who can accept being pruned is a mature adult that possesses life and is capable of being perfected.” These big words pound out of the mouths of antichrists like the blows of a hammer, and they sound great! But what are these words? Is a single line they utter the truth? Can you discern this? You often say such things, too, don’t you? (Yes.) Tell Me, what are these words? (Doctrines.) Use a common phrase to summarize and define what doctrines are. (Slogans.) Can you think of any other phrases? (Useless, theoretical words.) Any others? (They’re all rubbish and drivel.) That’s right, this definition gets to the point, and it is true-to-life. This is called everyday language: Doctrines are all drivel. What is implied by the word “drivel”? Empty words. In reality, how do we define it? As words and doctrines. These words that antichrists speak are just words and doctrines. When it comes to the subject of being pruned, they can utter such doctrines frequently, but does that prove that they have a true understanding and comprehension of it? As soon as you hear them speak these words, you know that they do not have any real understanding of being pruned. Their ability to utter such a pile of rubbish shows that they do not pursue the truth. If they were to actually be pruned, there is no way they would accept it. An antichrist’s attitude toward being pruned is one of hostility and resistance; they absolutely do not accept it or submit to it as the truth. For them, doing so would be an insult to their characters and dignity.

Do you have any other examples regarding how antichrists treat being pruned? (Some antichrists, when faced with being pruned, might seem on the surface to be coming to know themselves, but between the lines, there will be sophistry and a quality of trying to mislead people within this. Sometimes if they’ve made a mistake, they’ll say, “God permitted this to happen, everyone should submit to god’s sovereignty.” Sometimes antichrists will even make bogus counter-accusations, saying that, “You mustn’t try to catch out leaders and workers, or have overly high demands of them.” Antichrists say such things in an effort to mislead people and prevent people from discerning them.) This is one manifestation—that is, antichrists twist wrongs into rights, they turn white and black upside down. Terrified that people will see through their problems, antichrists rush to engage in sophistry and use all manner of verbal tricks to mislead people, disturb their minds, and blur their vision, in order to keep them from having any knowledge or discernment of the things they’ve done, and thereby retain their high status and a good reputation in people’s minds. This is the same sort of attitude we spoke of a moment ago, with regard to how antichrists absolutely will not make a turnaround when they are pruned, or when they have made a mistake or taken the wrong path. What are some other examples? (Antichrists bear grudges against anyone who prunes them, and later might even look for opportunities to retaliate and attack them.) Attacking and retaliation is another manifestation. How is this related to antichrists protecting their own status and reputation? Why do they want to attack and retaliate? (Whoever pruned them exposed all of the evil they did and the true facts of the matter; they damaged their status and reputation, and destroyed the image of them that existed in people’s hearts, so they bear a grudge against them.) That’s right, that’s where the relationship lies. They think that the people who pruned them injured their pride, put them in an embarrassing position, ruined their reputation, and severely compromised their status in the minds of others by exposing them in front of so many people. This is the reason for their retaliation. In this matter, their reputation and status were damaged, and in order to vent their resentment and the hatred in their hearts, they look for chances to attack and retaliate against the people who exposed and pruned them. What other manifestations do antichrists display? (Some antichrists are also especially cunning. When someone prunes them, they might not contradict them or make any declarations on the surface, and they actually may seem to come to understand something about themselves, but later on, they will continue to commit the same evil acts as they did before and never truly repent. They use facades like that to mislead people.) This is another manifestation. A certain type of antichrist does exactly that. They think to themselves, “Where there is life there is hope. I will exercise patience for the time being and not let you see through me. If I blatantly contradict you and refuse to accept being pruned, you’ll say I am someone who doesn’t practice or love the truth, and if that got out, it would have an impact on my reputation. If our brothers and sisters found out, they’d most certainly refuse to accept the leadership of someone who has absolutely no love for the truth. I must establish a good image first. When I’m faced with being pruned, and someone is exposing any mistakes or transgressions I have made, I will grin and bear it by pretending to accept it and nod my head in admission, not letting anyone see through me or know what I’m really thinking. Then I can put on a facade, shed some tears, and say some stuff about being indebted to god, and get the matter over with. That way, the brothers and sisters will think I’m someone who accepts the truth, and I can rightfully continue to be a leader—and then my reputation and status will be preserved, right?” Everything they do is a facade. Would you say people like this are easy to see through? (They’re not easy to see through.) It takes a period of observation and interaction with them to see if they protect the interests of God’s house when encountering problems, and whether or not they really practice in accordance with the truth principles. No matter how well or correctly they might speak on the surface, that is only temporary; sooner or later, the way they really think will come to light. Even if God does not reveal them, can antichrists keep such a tight lid on their true thoughts and their nature essence? Can they cover them up for their whole life? That would be impossible; sooner or later, these things will come to light. Therefore, no matter how wicked or cunning antichrists might be, as long as they harbor intentions and motives and go against the truth in their actions, they will eventually be discerned and seen through by people who understand the truth. Antichrists like these are the most cunning of all; on the surface, they seem to accept the truth and positive things, but actually, in the depths of their hearts and in their essence, they do not love the truth, and they are even averse to positive things and the truth. Because they are eloquent, most cannot discern them, and only people who understand the truth are able to discern and see through this sort of person. Are there any other examples? (There was this one antichrist who saw that his co-workers had better caliber than him and were better at doing work than he was. In order to secure his status, he secretly distorted the facts and passed judgments on his co-workers and partners, misleading people, drawing them in, and making them listen to him. This led to mutual distrust among his co-workers. They weren’t working together harmoniously anymore, and no results were achieved in any aspects of the work. When the antichrist’s evil deeds were exposed, he not only refused to accept it, he even gave excuses and tried to shirk responsibility. It was evident that he’d do anything for the sake of his reputation and status; no matter how many brothers and sisters he harmed, and no matter how severely he disturbed and disrupted the work of God’s house, he just didn’t care, let alone feel upset or guilty. He did not have a single shred of humanity or reason.) In short, antichrists have no qualms about sacrificing anyone’s interests to protect their own reputation and status. Even if they have to step on everyone in order to maintain their own status, they won’t hesitate to do this. When it comes to protecting their reputation and status, they do not care whether other people live or die, and the work of God’s house and the interests of the church simply do not even exist in their minds and are not at all within the scope of their consideration. From these actions, we can see that antichrists are not people of God’s house; they are nonbelievers that have wormed their way in. God’s house is not their home, so none of its interests have anything to do with them. They just want to achieve their goal of wielding power and controlling people, and satisfy their personal ambitions and desires in God’s house. Because this is the sort of nature essence antichrists have, they absolutely will not accept being pruned, nor will they accept any aspect of the truth.

From the examples we have just given, you can see that antichrists’ ambition and desire to pursue reputation and status is innate. Antichrists are born that way, with that kind of nature essence. They absolutely do not learn this after they are born, and it is not a consequence of their environment. It’s like how some sick people don’t contract their illnesses after they are born, but inherit them instead. These kinds of illnesses are impossible to cure. Antichrists are born with an ambition to pursue reputation and status, and they are no different to reincarnations of devil kings. Antichrists are averse to and hate the truth, and they do not accept the judgment and chastisement of God at all. So, no matter what kind of pruning they encounter, they won’t accept it. If an ordinary brother or sister prunes them, they will be even less willing to accept it. They believe: “You’re not qualified to prune me, you’re not worthy! How many days have you been a believer for? When I became a believer, you hadn’t even been born yet! When I became a leader, you hadn’t even started believing in god!” That is the attitude they harbor toward brothers and sisters pruning them. They focus on qualifications and seniority, and reject being pruned on these grounds. So, can they accept it when the Above prunes them? Based on their nature essence, they won’t accept that either. Though they may not say anything on the surface, their hearts will definitely resist and refuse it. This is without a doubt. When they are truly faced with the Above’s pruning, the most common manifestation of antichrists is to desperately quibble and argue on their own behalf in order to shirk responsibility, even lying to the Above and hiding things from those below them so that they can get off scot-free. Antichrists often use the approach of lying to the Above and hiding things from those below them to avoid being pruned by the Above. For example, if there are lots of problems in a church, they never report them. If their brothers and sisters want to report those problems, antichrists don’t allow them to, and whoever does meets with their suppression and exclusion. As a result, most people are forced to stay out of it, to leave the problems unresolved, and to act as people pleasers. Antichrists seal off all of the church’s problems, keeping them completely secret, and they do not allow the Above to step in or make inquiries. Antichrists also hold back the work arrangements of the Above as much as they can, and do not pass them down or implement them. If the Above’s work arrangements don’t impact their personal reputation or status at all, they might make a few superficial announcements, and go through the motions, but they certainly won’t actually implement them. If the Above’s work arrangements pose a threat to, or have a certain impact on their reputation and status, then antichrists have to think. They have to consider how to act, who to act upon, and when to act. They must tread a fine line regarding these things, calculating them over and over again in their minds. If some problems appear in the church’s work, antichrists know that they’ll definitely be pruned, or even dismissed when the Above finds out about the issues, so they withhold the problems, and do not report them to the Above. They don’t care at all about what impact or harm those problems will bring upon the work of God’s house if they aren’t resolved; they are indifferent to whatever losses the work of God’s house will suffer. They don’t think about what course of action will benefit the work of God’s house or satisfy God, they only consider their own reputation and status, how the Above will view and treat them, and how to safeguard their reputation and status so that they won’t be affected. This is the way that antichrists view things and think about problems, and it completely represents their disposition. Therefore, antichrists will absolutely not truthfully report the problems that exist within the church, or that arise in their work. No matter what work they do, no matter what difficulties they face, or if they encounter situations that they don’t know how to handle, or where they don’t know what choice to make, while carrying out that work, they’ll cover it up and hide it, afraid that the Above will say that their caliber is too poor, or find about their real situation, or prune them because they did not handle and resolve those difficulties or situations promptly. Antichrists disregard the interests of God’s house and the work of the church in order to avoid being pruned by the Above. They do not hesitate to sacrifice the work and interests of the church to preserve their status and livelihood, and to ensure that the Above has a good impression of them. They don’t care about delaying or impacting the progress of the church’s work, and they care even less about the life entry of God’s chosen people. Regardless of what difficulties the brothers and sisters encounter, or what problems exist in terms of their life entry, antichrists cannot resolve them, and they won’t seek from the Above. They clearly know that withholding problems and leaving them unresolved will delay and impact the progress of the church’s work, and cause losses to the lives of the brothers and sisters, but they ignore these things, and do not care about them. No matter what major problems arise in the church, they never report them, instead they do their utmost to conceal them and seal them off. If the brothers and sisters discover their evil deeds and write letters reporting them, antichrists try even harder to withhold and seal off those letters. What is their goal in withholding and sealing off those letters? It is to keep their status, to protect their reputation and prestige, and to retain everything they possess at that moment. To them, being dismissed, or having the Above evaluate them as unfit for their work, is like losing their lives and being sentenced to death, it’s like reaching the end of the road in their belief in God. So, no matter what, they never seek from the Above. Instead, they think of ways to conceal all of the problems that exist in their work and stop the Above from discovering them. Isn’t this practice of theirs very despicable? They believe that a good leader in the eyes of God and the Above must be someone who never has any problems or difficulties, who can handle all matters well, and is fit for all kinds of work. They think that a good leader never complains about difficulties, or seeks on problems, and that a good leader absolutely must be a perfect, flawless person in the minds of God and the Above, who can get the work done well without the Above having to prune them. Consequently, they vehemently safeguard their status, hoping to make a good impression on the Above, and to make the Above mistakenly believe that they are fit for their work, that they can shoulder their work, and that no big problems will occur, and therefore think that there’s no need to directly inquire about their work or give them guidance, and certainly no need to prune them. Antichrists want to create this kind of image for themselves, to make others mistakenly believe that God believes in them and entrusts everything to them, that He commissions them with important tasks and has great trust in them, to the extent that He’s reluctant to prune them, out of fear that them becoming negative and slacking off would affect the work. Antichrists make the brothers and sisters think that they are popular people in God’s house and the church, and important figures in God’s house. Why do they want to impress this kind of illusion and facade upon the brothers and sisters? It’s so that they can make people esteem and worship them, so that they can enjoy the benefits of status in the church, as well as high status and favorable treatment, to the extent that they may take God’s place. They often say to the brothers and sisters, “God cannot speak to you personally, he cannot come to your level and personally carry out work, and he could not possibly live alongside you, and guide you in all the different things you encounter in your daily lives. So, who will carry out these specific tasks? Won’t it be leaders and workers like us?” While they do their utmost to safeguard their status, they often say things like this and express these kinds of ideas, so that the brothers and sisters completely and undoubtedly believe in and trust them. What is the nature of this practice of theirs? Isn’t it lying to the Above and hiding things from the people below them? (It is.) This is the clever part of their approach. Most people have poor caliber, they do not understand the truth, cannot discern antichrists, and can only be misled and used by antichrists. If antichrists directly tried to mislead people by saying: “The above really has faith in me, they listen to me in all matters,” people might be a little wary and have a bit of discernment of them, but antichrists don’t speak in a direct way like this. They use a certain way of speaking to mislead people, and make them mistakenly believe that the Above must have faith in and trust them in order to have entrusted the work of a leader to them. Dimwits who lack discernment and do not pursue the truth fall for this and follow them. And, when something happens, those dimwits don’t pray to God, or seek the truth in God’s words, instead they come before the antichrists, asking the antichrists to show them the way and choose a path for them. This is the goal that antichrists want to achieve with their actions. If there aren’t a few people who understand the truth in the church that discern and expose the antichrists, most people will blindly believe them, worship and follow them, and live under their control. This is so dangerous! If someone is misled and controlled by an antichrist for three or five years, their life will suffer a great loss. If they are misled and controlled by an antichrist for eight or 10 years, then they will be thoroughly ruined; even if they want to redeem themselves, they won’t have the chance to.