Whatever bit of suffering an antichrist experiences or whatever price they pay in the church, they do not feel that it is part of their obligation, that it is the duty a created being should do, but consider it to be their contribution, which God ought to remember. They think that if God remembers their contribution, then He should deliver at once, giving them blessings, promises, and special material favors, and allowing them to gain advantages and obtain certain special benefits. Only then will the antichrist be satisfied. What is an antichrist’s understanding of duty? They do not feel that duty is an obligation that created beings should undertake, nor that it is a responsibility that those who follow God are bound to fulfill. Instead, they feel the performance of duty is a bargaining chip in a transaction with God, something that can be exchanged for His rewards, and a way to satisfy their own ambitions and desires and obtain blessings for their belief in God. They think that having God’s grace and blessing ought to be a precondition for doing their duty and that it gives people true faith in God, that people can only be at ease in doing their duties if God ensures that they are free from future worries. They also think that God should provide every convenience and preferential treatment to those who do their duties, and that people should enjoy all of the benefits provided by the house of God during their performance of duties. These are the things that people should receive. This is how antichrists think in their hearts. These ways of thinking are precisely the antichrists’ perspective and maxim, and they represent their attitude toward duty. No matter how the house of God fellowships regarding the truth about doing one’s duty, the things antichrists harbor in their hearts will never change. They will forever stick to their point of view toward doing their duty. There is a phrase we can use in relation to this manifestation—what is it? It is placing material things above all else; that is, only things they can hold in their hands are real, and making promises is pointless. The essence of the manifestations these people have is materialistic, right? (Right.) Materialism is atheism; they only go by what they can see and touch, only what they can see counts, and they deny the existence of anything they cannot see. It can therefore be determined that an antichrist’s knowledge and understanding of duty is definitely at odds with the truth principles, and that it is entirely the same as the viewpoint of nonbelievers; truly, they are disbelievers. They do not believe in the existence of God, and they do not believe that all the words of God are the truth, the true way. They only believe that fame, gain, and status are real, and that everything they pursue and enjoy can only be obtained through human effort and struggle, and through the price they pay. How is that different from the point of view that says, “People must create happiness with their own two hands”? There is no difference. They do not believe that people ultimately gain the truth and the life by expending themselves and paying the price to do their duties well for God’s sake. They also do not believe that people who act according to God’s requirements and thereby attain the adequate performance of their duties can gain the approval and blessings of the Creator. This shows that they do not believe in God’s promise to humanity or God’s blessings. They do not believe in the fact of God’s sovereignty over all, so they do not possess true faith. They only believe, “I do my duty, so I should enjoy special treatment from the house of god and material blessings. The house of god should provide me with every material privilege and enjoyment. That would be realistic.” That is an antichrist’s mindset and point of view. They don’t believe that God’s promises are faithful, or the fact that by gaining the truth one gains life and is blessed by God. When it comes to doing their duty, they simply don’t seek the truth, they don’t accept the truth, and even less so do they acknowledge this truth: That man is able to perform the duty of a created being is God’s greatest blessing and is something that will be remembered by God, and during this process, man can gain the truth and can ultimately be saved by God—this is the greatest promise God has made to man. If you believe the promises made to you by God and can accept these promises, then you have true faith in God. How do antichrists and disbelievers feel when they hear these words? (They don’t believe what God says and they think it’s a deception.) They think these words God speaks are just Him feeding people illusions in order to get some foolish and simple-minded idiots to render service for God, and then kick them out when their service is over. They think, “Gain the truth? Ha! Who can see what the truth is? Who can touch what god’s promises are? Who has received them? God’s promises are not realistic; only obtaining fame and gain and enjoying the benefits of status are realistic; only striving for fame and gain and enjoying the benefits of status are real. I’ve been hearing about the promises god bestows on man and the truth he provides to man for years, and I haven’t changed at all, I haven’t gained any benefit, much less have these things allowed me to live an exalted life with status. Although some people bear testimony saying that they’ve gained the truth and changed, and have received god’s blessings, they still look so ordinary, they’re all normal people, so how can they gain god’s blessings and enter the kingdom of heaven?” They think that only the things they can grasp and obtain with their hands are most real. Isn’t this the disbelievers’ point of view? It absolutely is. So, once these antichrists get into the church, they regard everything with suspicion, always pondering where they can get some benefit, what opportunity they can use to grab some advantage and get greater practical benefits from their faith in God—they’re often calculating these things in their minds. They have the feeling that only by obtaining fame, gain, and status can they receive every benefit, and so they choose to pursue status and devote themselves solely to striving for these things. They never contemplate the truth or seek God’s will, and they eat and drink God’s words only to comfort their hearts and fill the emptiness, not to pursue the truth. At any time, if you ask an antichrist to let go of their greed and desires, to utterly relinquish their pursuit of fame, gain, and status, and to give up these benefits they want from their faith in God, they won’t be able to do it. Getting them to let go of these things makes them feel like you’re trying to peel off their skin or pull out their tendons; without these things, they feel as though their heart has been taken from them, as though they’ve lost their soul, and without these ambitions and desires they feel there is no hope for their faith in God, and life loses its meaning. In their eyes, those who expend and devote themselves and pay a price only for the sake of their duty, who don’t seek personal benefits, are all idiots. The principle for worldly dealings that antichrists adopt is “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.” They think, “How can people not think about themselves? How can people not strive for their own benefit?” In their hearts, they despise those who give everything up and sincerely expend themselves for God, they despise those who loyally do their duty and who live very frugally and simply in terms of their material lives, and they despise those who are persecuted because they believe in God and perform a duty and consequently cannot return home. They often laugh at these people in their hearts, saying, “You’ve lost your home due to your faith in god. You can’t be with your family and you’re living on a shoestring—you’re so stupid! No matter what a person does, including in their faith in god, they must adopt a principle for worldly dealings: They must absolutely not suffer loss. They must be able to see and touch god’s promises and blessings, and the only appropriate attitude to adopt is one of not releasing the hawk until you’ve seen the hare. You’re so stupid! Look at me. I both believe in god and pursue fame, gain, and status. I enjoy all the good treatment of god’s house and I can gain blessings in the future, too. I don’t need to endure any suffering, and the blessings I receive will be greater than yours. I don’t pay a price like you, giving up your families and jobs and not being able to go back home, without any certainty about whether you’ll be able to receive any blessings in the future.” What things are these people? They don’t pursue the truth, they don’t sincerely do their duty, and yet they despise those who pursue the truth and who give up their families and jobs, endure suffering and pay a price for the sake of doing their duty, accomplishing God’s commission, and following God’s will. Are there many people like this? (Yes.) There are some in every church. Are these people true believers in God? Can they be saved? (No.) They are not true believers in God, much less is it possible for them to be saved.

No matter what issue antichrists encounter or what they do, the first thing they think of is not whether they can gain the truth and attain salvation, but rather they think of all their fleshly benefits. In their hearts, all benefits related to their flesh take the most important place, the highest place, the supreme place. In their hearts, they never consider God’s will, they never consider God’s work, much less do they consider what duty man should perform. No matter how God requires people to perform their duty adequately, no matter how God requires people to be qualified created beings, antichrists are completely indifferent. No matter what methods He adopts or what words He speaks, God can’t move these people, and thereby make them change their agendas and relinquish their greed and desires. These people are in both name and fact materialists and disbelievers among the antichrists. So, can these people be considered the dregs of the antichrists’ ranks? (Yes, because some antichrists can still render some service for the sake of status, whereas these people aren’t even willing to render service.) That’s right. These people want benefits, all they fix their gaze on and think of all day long are benefits, and everything they do revolves around benefits. Some people do hosting duties and when they run out of eggs, rice, or flour, they immediately tell the church to send someone out to buy these things. They don’t buy anything themselves; it’s as though they never ate these things in their house before they began doing hosting duties. Before they began doing this duty, they bought all these things themselves, but as soon as they start with this duty, they come up with excuses, they feel right and self-assured, and they become debt-collectors, the creditors of God’s house, as though God’s house owes them something—people like this are not good.

I’ve stayed in some host homes in mainland China, and some of the brothers and sisters had fantastic humanity. Even if they had only believed for two or three years and didn’t understand much truth, yet they did their hosting duties sincerely. If God’s house tried to give them money, they’d turn it down; they’d give money in return for anything brothers and sisters gave them, and they’d attentively keep anything belonging to God’s house safe; if anything bought by God’s house wasn’t used up, then they would even give its equivalent value in money to God’s house. Some who were better off financially were willing hosts, and they wouldn’t take a single penny given by God’s house. Some people were not well-off, yet even they wouldn’t take any money given by God’s house. No matter what the church or brothers and sisters gave to their house for use in hosting, they wouldn’t embezzle any of it. Was this because they understood the truth? No, it was a matter of character. Moreover, and more importantly, they were true believers, and together with being of good character, they were able to do this, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to. I’ve been to some host homes and the hosts brought out their best quilts and blankets for Me to use, and I said, “These are brand new and unused. Put them back in their packaging, I won’t use them.” They insisted that I use them. Then there have been some host families who have bought all new things for Me to use, and I said, “Don’t buy new things, it’s such a waste of money. I’ll just use what you have here. Don’t spend any money. I don’t suggest that people buy this and that everywhere I go. It’s not necessary to always use new things.” Some people still insisted on spending this money. There were also some host families who made many dishes at mealtimes. Because they didn’t know what I liked to eat, they made a lot of dishes so that I’d have a choice, because if they only made a few dishes, they’d worry that I wouldn’t eat very well. There are many people like this, too. Some host homes, however, are different. When I went there, the hosts randomly got some daily necessities for Me to make do with, the ingredients they used when cooking were only things that brothers and sisters had brought them, and when they needed to go and buy more, they’d hold their hands out to Me for money. Then there are some other host homes in which I left some belongings for safekeeping. When I didn’t go back for a while, they pried open the drawer and some things went missing. They all believe in God and they all do hosting duties, but is the difference between them a substantial one? Some who believe in God are capable of such things—is this something humans do? This is what robbers, bandits, villains, and rogues do. Are true believers capable of doing such things? If a true believer keeps something safe for you, then no matter how long you’re away, even if it’s eight or ten years, they’ll always keep it safe for you; they won’t touch it, look at it, or rifle through it. With some host families, however, if you leave something then they’ll open it and have a look as soon as you’re out the door. What are they rifling through? They’ll rifle through your bag to see if there’s anything valuable in there, such as jewelry, mobile phone, or money—they rifle through all these things. What do some women tend to go rifling through? They want to see if you have any nice clothes. Once they’ve had a rummage, they think, “Oh, these clothes are so nice. I’ll try them on.” Tell Me, don’t these things happen? (Yes.) How do you know? Have you seen this happen? I have solid evidence for saying that these things happen. One year, toward the end of fall, I left some clothes at a host home. One day, I suddenly thought of some of these clothes that I should be wearing and I planned to go get them, so I went to that host home. Guess what happened. When I entered the house, the old host lady was there trying on My woolen coat. It just happened to be a coincidence that I saw it. I said, “What are you doing?” She was taken aback. She never imagined such a coincidence whereby I’d see what she was doing, and she was so embarrassed. People like this, however, are thick-skinned, and she immediately said, “Oh, don’t you think your woolen coat suits me perfectly?” I said, “That’s My coat. I can’t wear it if you’re wearing it.” She said, “Here you go, I don’t want it.” I replied, “What are you trying it on for if you don’t want it? Wasn’t the closet door locked?” She said, “It just so happens that I didn’t have anything to do today so I took it out for a look.” I said, “It’s not yours so you shouldn’t have touched it.” This is an example of something that actually happened. I don’t know what her intent was in doing this. Tell Me, is someone like this a person who believes in God? Should I regard them as a believer in God and a member of God’s family? (No.) They aren’t worthy of being God’s follower, they are one of Satan’s gang, without shame, without conscience or rationality, without any humanity at all—they are a scoundrel. Will God save such people? People like this don’t even have the bare minimum of integrity and dignity or the bare minimum of respect for God—God cannot possibly save them. The truth which God speaks and the life which He provides to man are not provided to such people; these people are not members of God’s family but rather are disbelievers outside of God’s house, and they are of devils. Besides the nature essence of antichrists being one that doesn’t love the truth and is averse to the truth, their character is also incredibly low and despicable, and such people are disgusting, contemptible, and detestable. From the manifestations of these people who embezzle the assets of God’s house which we just talked about, this is sufficient to show that no matter what duty these people do, they never truly expend themselves and they never do it with sincerity. Instead, they come with their own agendas, greed, and desires, they come running for benefits, and not to gain the truth. Therefore, however you look at it, the humanity of such people is inadequate to God. So tell Me, do you consider the humanity of such people to be adequate, and do you consider them to be good people? (No.) You hold such people in contempt as well, right? (Right.) When some people hear that God’s house has bought something, they want their share of it, and when they see brothers and sisters donating clothes, then regardless of whether they deserve to have it or whether they ought to have it, they go try to get it, springing into action more proactively than anyone else; when they hear that God’s house has a job that needs doing or that there are some dirty or tiring jobs that need performing, they immediately hide and you can’t find them anywhere. Such people are cunning and sly, of low character—they are contemptible, detestable, and disgusting!

Using the various manifestations of antichrists in their embezzling the assets of God’s house to dissect their concern for their own benefits in every aspect allows us to see that these people are disbelievers, materialists, people of contemptible, lowly, and inferior character, detestable, and not objects whom God will save. The definition of such people need not be raised to the height of them being averse to the truth; we can already see through them in terms of their humanity and character, so there’s no need to ramp it up to such a high level as being related to the truth. Therefore, whether in God’s house or in any group of people, such people should always be the lowliest and most lacking in character. Of course, if they’re to be measured in God’s house using the truth, then they appear even more contemptible and lowly. Do you have any more examples of this manifestation which antichrists display? (An antichrist was handling the matter of printing books for God’s house, and he embezzled hundreds of thousands of yuan of God’s offerings through false accounting. After he was investigated, it was found that before he’d started doing this duty, his family had had very little money, but after he’d started doing this duty, he’d bought a house and a car, but these things couldn’t be detected from the accounts. His family were all really vicious and so the offerings couldn’t be recovered.) Didn’t leaders and workers bear direct responsibility for this occurrence? (Yes. Later, once more details came to light, it was discovered that the leaders and workers who bore responsibility at that time had never checked the accounts managed by this antichrist. They were derelict in their duty and the situation was caused by them not being responsible. They were definitely directly responsible.) So, should their transgressions be recorded in God’s record book? (Yes.) How were these people handled in the aftermath? (Some were cleared out and expelled, and some are paying back the offerings.) This is an appropriate way to handle them. The leaders and workers neglected their duty and failed to fulfill their supervisory responsibilities in this matter. In particular, they used the wrong person and they didn’t make any effort to keep an eye on or supervise this person, they weren’t able to discover in time the problems with this person they were using, and so severe consequences arose, which caused God’s offerings and the assets of God’s house to suffer significant loss; it was the responsibility of all these people who were directly responsible, and their transgressions should all be recorded. This was the disastrous consequence they brought upon themselves by not using the right person for the job and it caused God’s house to suffer loss, and in the end God’s offerings were the price that was paid. Tell Me, are antichrists always greedy, or do these evil ideas only occur to them when they see something valuable? (They are always greedy.) This is why when you associate and interact with such people, you absolutely can discover their greed and desires. This consequence was brought about by leaders and workers not being responsible, not discerning people, not seeing people clearly, and misusing people, and so the responsibility fell heavily upon them and they deserved to be expelled.

We previously fellowshipped around the major aspects of antichrists’ nature, essence, dispositions, and the path they follow. What we’re fellowshipping on and dissecting today are the manifestations within the domain of antichrists’ humanity, and this is in relation to real life. Although this is a minor aspect, it can still help people to identify certain manifestations of antichrists; these are also certain obvious characteristics, signs, and symbols of antichrists. For example, an antichrist loves status, fame, gain, and influence, and they’re very selfish, contemptible, and vicious, and they don’t love the truth, so what is their humanity and character like? Some say, “Even though some antichrists love reputation and status, yet they have honorable and noble characters, and they possess conscience and reason.” Is this right? (No, it’s not.) Why not? Let’s not talk about what disposition essence antichrists have; first look at their humanity and character. They’re certainly not good people, they aren’t people with dignity, conscience, or noble character, much less are they people who love the truth. Can people with such humanity as this follow the right path? Certainly not, because their character is not possessed of the essence that follows the right path, and so these people can’t possibly love the truth, much less can they accept it. Judging by the intent and attitude with which antichrists do their duty, the character and humanity of antichrists make people reject and feel averse toward them, and even more so they are spurned by God. No matter what duty they do, they always want to embezzle the assets of God’s house, and ask Him for rewards, money, items, and benefits. And what kind of people does God view them as? These people are definitely not good people. So then, in God’s eyes, how exactly does He define such people? What name does He give such people? There is a story recorded in the Bible from the Age of Grace: Judas often stole from the money bag, and in the end he was used by God to render a service, that of selling out the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross, and Judas, who had played the role of selling out his Lord and friends, died from his belly bursting open. Therefore, these people who embezzle the assets of God’s house and steal offerings made to God are all Judases in God’s eyes, the implication being that these people are named Judases by God. Although these antichrists who are now condemned as Judases don’t do things like selling out their Lord and friends like Judas did, their nature essence is the same. What do they have in common? They take advantage of their position and the opportunity for doing their duty to steal and embezzle the assets of God’s house. That’s why these people are named Judases by God, and they are on a par with him who sold out his Lord and friends. That is, these antichrists who embezzle and seize the assets of God’s house are the equivalent of Judas who sold out his Lord and friends, and it doesn’t take much thought to figure out what outcome lies in store for such people.