II. The Interests of Antichrists

D. Their Prospects and Destiny

Last time, we fellowshipped on item four of the interests of antichrists: their prospects and destiny, which is divided into five additional items. First, please review these five items. (1. How antichrists treat the words of God; 2. How antichrists treat their duty; 3. How antichrists treat being pruned; 4. How antichrists regard the title “service-doer”; 5. How antichrists approach their status in the church.) Last time we fellowshipped on the first of these items, “How antichrists treat the words of God.” Firstly, we used the word “study” to expose one of antichrists’ primary attitudes in their treatment of the words of God. “Studying” is a primary and fundamental attitude of people like antichrists in their treatment of the words of God. They do not treat the words of God with an attitude of acceptance or submission at all, and instead they scrutinize them. They absolutely do not accept or regard the words of God as the truth or as the way that people should hold fast to, and they do not treat the words of God with an attitude of seeking the truth or accepting the truth. Instead, their purpose in everything is their own desires and ambitions, their own prospects and destiny, and they look for the destinations and the prospects and destiny that they want in the words of God. One of the primary attitudes in their treatment of the words of God is that they link God’s words with their prospects and destiny in every matter. Judging from their attitude in the treatment of His words, this kind of person’s nature essence is that they do not truly believe, accept, or submit to the words of God, but instead scrutinize and analyze them, looking for blessings and benefits within them to gain a great advantage. Judging from their attitude in how they treat God’s words, how much do they believe in God? Do they have true faith in Him? Judging from their essence, they do not have true faith in God. So why can they still hold the words of God and read them? Judging from their nature essence, intentions, and desires, they do not want to gain the truth and the path to changing their disposition from God’s words, thereby achieving salvation. Instead, they want to seek all the things that they want inside the words of God. What do they seek? They seek mysteries, they seek secrets known only to Heaven, and they seek some lofty doctrines and profound knowledge. Therefore, judging by the attitude of this kind of person in their treatment of God’s words and their nature essence, they are all out-and-out disbelievers. What they want is nothing more than a good destination, good prospects, and a good destiny. They do not accept the words of God with sincerity, but instead try to find various opportunities and avenues inside His words through which to get the things they want, and to satisfy their desires and ambitions for gaining blessings. Therefore, this kind of person will never regard the words of God as the truth or as the way they must abide by. If antichrists treat the words of God with such an attitude, then what is their attitude toward one of the most fundamental requirements of mankind in God’s words—performing their duty as created beings? Today we will fellowship on the second item—how antichrists treat their duty—and expose what manifestations and attitudes antichrists have when doing their duty.

2. How Antichrists Treat Their Duty

Antichrists do not treat the words of God with an attitude of acceptance and submission, so of course they cannot treat the requirement in His words that mankind perform their duty as created beings with an attitude of accepting the truth. Therefore, in one respect they are resistant to the duty entrusted to man by God and do not want to do their duty, and in another respect they are afraid of losing the opportunity to gain blessings. This gives rise to a kind of transaction. What transaction is that? They discover from the words of God that if people do not do their duties, they might be eliminated, that if they do not do their duties as created beings, they will have no opportunity to gain the truth, and that if they do not do their duties as created beings, in the future they might lose their blessings in the kingdom of heaven. What does this signify? This signifies that if somebody does not do their duty, they will inevitably lose their chance at gaining blessings. After antichrists have obtained such information from the words of God and from many fellowships and sermons, a desire and an interest to do their duty as created beings develops deep in their hearts. Does developing such desire and interest show that they can sincerely expend themselves for God and sincerely do their duty? Judging by the nature essence of antichrists, this point is very difficult to reach. So then what causes them to do their duty? There should be an account of this in everybody’s heart, and there should be some specific stories inside this account. So, what does this record in the heart of an antichrist look like? They make very fine, accurate, precise, and diligent calculations, so it is not a muddled account. When they decide to do their duty, they first calculate: “If I am going to do my duty now, I will have to give up the joy of being together with family, and I will have to give up my career and my worldly prospects. If I leave these things to do my duty, what can I gain? The words of god say that, in this final age, those who can meet god, who can perform their duty in god’s house, and who can remain in the end are the ones who can gain great blessings. Seeing as god’s words say so, I suppose god can do it and accomplish it according to these words. Also, god makes a lot of promises to these people who can do their duty and can expend themselves for him!” Through studying the words of God, they construe many promises made by God in the final age to people who do their duty, and this on top of their personal imaginings and all the notions created by their own analysis and scrutiny of these words creates a deep interest in and impulse toward doing their duty. Then they go to pray before God, where they make solemn pledges and oaths, establishing their willingness to forsake and expend everything for God, to dedicate this life to Him and give up all fleshly happiness and prospects. Although they pray in this way and their words all seem correct, what they think deep down is known only to themselves and to God. Their prayers and their resolution seem pure, as if they are only doing this to fulfill God’s commission, to do their duty and satisfy God’s intentions, but deep in their hearts they are calculating how they can obtain blessings and obtain the things that they want through doing their duty, and what they can do to let God see all that they have paid and make Him deeply impressed by what they have paid and what they have done, so that He will commemorate what they have done and ultimately bestow on them the prospects and blessings they want. Before deciding to do their duty, deep in their hearts, antichrists are brimming with expectations toward their prospects, gaining blessings, a good destination, and even a crown, and they have the utmost confidence in attaining these things. They come to the house of God to do their duty with such intentions and aspirations. So, does their performance of duty contain the sincerity, genuine faith and loyalty that God requires? At this point, one cannot yet see their genuine loyalty, faith, or sincerity, because everyone harbors an entirely transactional mindset before they do their duty; everyone makes the decision to do their duty driven by interests, and also based on the precondition of their overflowing ambitions and desires. What is the antichrists’ intention in doing their duty? It’s to make a deal, to make an exchange. It could be said that these are the conditions they set for doing duty: “If I do my duty, then I must obtain blessings and have a good destination. I must obtain all the blessings and benefits that god has said are prepared for humankind. If I can’t obtain them, then I won’t do this duty.” They come to the house of God to do their duty with such intentions, ambitions, and desires. It seems like they do have some sincerity, and of course for those who are new believers and are just starting to do their duty, it can also be called enthusiasm. But there is no genuine faith or loyalty in this; there’s only that degree of enthusiasm. It can’t be called sincerity. Judging from this attitude antichrists have toward doing their duty, it is wholly transactional and filled with their desires for benefits like gaining blessings, entering the kingdom of heaven, obtaining a crown, and receiving rewards. So, it appears from the outside that many antichrists, before being expelled, are doing their duty and have even forsaken more and suffered more than the average person. What they expend and the price they pay are on par with Paul, and they do no less running about than Paul either. This is something everyone can see. In terms of their behavior and their will to suffer and pay the price, they ought not to receive nothing. However, God does not regard a person based on their outward behavior, but based on their essence, their disposition, what they reveal, and the nature and essence of every single thing that they do. When people judge and treat others, they determine who they are based solely on their external behavior, how much they suffer, and what price they pay, and this is a grave mistake.

The antichrists’ attitude in the treatment of their duty has been like this from the beginning. They come to God’s house to do their duty with ambitions, desires, and transactions. This is what they calculate and plan deep in their hearts before doing their duty. What is their plan? What is the core and the focal point of their calculations? They are aiming to gain blessings, to have a good destination, and some people are even aiming to avoid disaster. This is their intention. They scrutinize the words of God over and over, but cannot for the life of them see that God’s words are all truth, that in God’s words lies the path of practice, and that God’s words can allow people to be cleansed, achieve dispositional change, and attain salvation. They cannot see these things however hard they look. No matter how they read the words of God, what they care most about and place the most importance on is nothing other than the blessings and promises God gifts to those who forsake, expend, endure hardship, and pay a price for Him. When they find in God’s words what they believe is the most central and most important content, it is as if they have found a lifeline. They feel that it seems they will gain great blessings, and think that they are the most blessed and fortunate people in this age. Therefore, they rejoice deep in their hearts: “I’ve happened upon a good time in this life; none of those apostles and prophets through the ages have met christ of the last days. Today I am following christ of the last days, so I cannot miss this opportunity to gain great blessings. This is a chance to be rewarded and get a crown! Nonbelievers won’t have this fortune, and no matter how well they enjoy this life or how high a status they have, come the great disasters they will all be destroyed. Therefore, I must give up the fleshly pleasures of the world, because no matter how much I enjoy these things, they are temporary and ephemeral. I shall look to the future and gain greater blessings and rewards, and a bigger crown!” And so, in their hearts they warn themselves: “In doing my duty, no matter how much I suffer or how much I have to run about, no matter if I am imprisoned or tortured, and no matter what difficulties I meet, I must persevere, persevere, and then persevere some more! I cannot be discouraged, I must put up with all humiliation and bear a heavy burden, and persevere until the final moment. I believe that what god said, ‘The one who follows to the end will surely be saved,’ is bound to come true for me.” Are any of the ideas and opinions that they think and believe in their hearts consistent with the truth? (No.) None of them are consistent with the truth, and none of them are in accordance with the words of God or the intentions of God—they are all calculations and plans for their personal prospects and destiny. Deep in their hearts, they have no interest in any requirement for mankind mentioned in the words of God; they pay no heed to them. Deep in their hearts, they are repulsed by and resistant to the exposure of humanity and the requirements of them in the words of God, and even develop notions, so when they see these words they feel resistant to them and feel uncomfortable, and they subsequently pass over them without reading. When it comes to the exhortations, comfort, reminders, mercy and sympathy for humanity in the words of God, they show impatience and are unwilling to accept or listen, believing these words to be phony. In their hearts, they are repulsed by and feel resistant to God’s words of judgment and chastisement and His work of trials among people, and they are unwilling to accept them and they avoid them. Instead, they only take great interest in words about God’s promises or blessings for humanity, and they even read them frequently to satisfy their hearts’ impatient desire to gain blessings, eager to be raptured into the kingdom of heaven right away and be freed from all suffering. When they can no longer persevere in the course of doing their duty, and they develop doubts about whether they can gain blessings, and their “faith” wavers, or when their willpower is not firm and they want to shrink back, they read these words and make them their motivation for doing their duty. They never try to ponder the truth in God’s words in any of their chapters or passages, and they do not want to experience the judgment of the words of God in the slightest, let alone come to know themselves and clearly see the reality of mankind’s profound corruption through those words of God which expose mankind’s corrupt essence. They also turn a deaf ear to God’s intentions, requirements, and exhortations for mankind, paying them no heed and treating them with an attitude of irreverence and indifference. Deep in their hearts, they believe, “What god says and does is just a formality; who can accept it? Who can understand it? Who can truly practice according to the words of god? These words of god are all superfluous. What’s most realistic is for people to exchange their performance of duty for blessings—nothing is more realistic than this.” So, they search in God’s words again and again, and once they have found this path, they regard doing one’s duty as the only path to gaining blessings. These are the intentions, purposes, and innermost calculations of antichrists when doing their duty. So, what manifestations and revelations do they show in the course of doing their duty that allow people to see that the essence of such people is an antichrist essence through and through? It is no accident that antichrists are able to do their duty—they absolutely do their duty with their own intentions and purposes and the desire to gain blessings. Whatever duty they do, their purpose and attitude are of course inseparable from gaining blessings, the good destination and the good prospects and destiny which they think about and are concerned with day and night. They are like businesspeople who don’t talk about anything besides their work. Whatever antichrists do is all linked to fame, gain, and status—it is all linked to gaining blessings and prospects and destiny. Deep down, their hearts are full of such things; this is the nature essence of antichrists. It is precisely because of this kind of nature essence that others are able to clearly see that their ultimate end is to be eliminated.

In God’s words, God has requirements for all kinds of people, and has requirements and clear sayings on all sorts of duties and work. These words are all God’s requirements for mankind, and these requirements are what people should abide by and what they should practice and achieve. What attitude do antichrists have toward the words of God and God’s requirements? Do they adopt an attitude of submission? Do they adopt an attitude of humble acceptance? They certainly do not. Given their disposition, when antichrists come to God’s house to do their duty can they do it well in accordance with God’s requirements and the arrangements of God’s house? (No, they cannot.) They absolutely cannot. When antichrists are doing their duty, their first thought is not to seek the principles that doing their duty entails, and what God requires, or what the rules of God’s house are. Instead, first they inquire about whether they will be blessed or rewarded for doing this duty. If it is not certain that they will be blessed or rewarded, they are unwilling to do this duty; and even if they do, they will be perfunctory. Antichrists reluctantly do their duty in order to obtain blessings. They also inquire whether they will be able to put themselves on display and be looked up to by doing this duty, and whether the Above or God will know if they do this duty. These are all things they consider when they do a duty. The first thing they want to determine is what benefits they can get by doing a duty and whether they can be blessed. This is the most important thing to them. They never think about how to be considerate of God’s intentions and repay God’s love, how to preach the gospel and testify to God so that people gain God’s salvation and obtain happiness, much less do they ever seek to understand the truth, or seek how to resolve their corrupt dispositions and live out a human likeness. They never consider these things. They only think about whether they can be blessed and gain benefits, how to gain a foothold, how to gain status, how to make people look up to them, and how to distinguish themselves and become the best in the church and in the crowd. They are absolutely not willing to be ordinary followers. They always want to be the first in the church, have the final say, become leaders, and make everyone listen to them. Only then can they be satisfied. You can see that antichrists’ hearts are full of these things. Do they genuinely expend for God? Do they genuinely do their duty as created beings? (No.) Then what do they want to do? (To hold power.) That’s right. They say, “As for me, in the secular world I want to outdo everyone else. I have to be the first in any group. I refuse to come in second, and I will never be a sidekick. I want to be a leader and have the final say in any group of people I’m in. If I don’t have the final say, then I will try all the means possible to convince you all, to make you all look up to me, and to make you choose me as the leader. Once I have status, I will have the final say, everyone will have to listen to me. You will have to do things my way, and you will have to be under my control.” No matter what duty the antichrists do, they will try to put themselves in a high position, in a position of primacy. They could never be content with their place as an ordinary follower. And what are they most passionate about? It is standing in front of people giving orders and telling people off, making people do as they say. They never think about how to do their duty properly—much less, while doing their duty, do they seek the truth principles in order to practice the truth and satisfy God. Instead, they rack their brains for ways to distinguish themselves, to make the leaders think highly of them and promote them, so that they themselves can become a leader or worker, and can lead other people. This is what they spend all day thinking about and hoping for. Antichrists are not willing to be led by others, nor are they willing to be an ordinary follower, much less to go quietly about doing their duty without fanfare. Whatever their duty, if they cannot be front and center, if they cannot be above others and lead other people, they find doing their duty boring, and become negative and start slacking. Without the praise or worship of others, it is even less interesting to them, and they have even less desire to do their duty. But if they can be front and center while doing their duty and get to have the final say, they feel fortified, and will suffer any hardship. They always have personal intentions in the performance of their duty, and they always want to distinguish themselves as a means to satisfy their need to beat other people, and satisfy their desires and ambitions. While doing their duty, in addition to being highly competitive—competing, in every regard, to stand out, to be on top, to get above others—they’re also thinking about how to keep their current status, reputation and prestige. If there is anyone who threatens their status or prestige, they stop at nothing, and give no quarter, in bringing them down and getting rid of them. They even use despicable means to suppress those who are able to pursue the truth, who do their duty with loyalty and a sense of responsibility. They are also full of envy and hatred toward brothers and sisters who perform excellently in their duty. They are especially hateful toward those whom the other brothers and sisters endorse and approve of; they believe such people to be a serious threat to what they strive for, to their reputation and status, and in their hearts they swear that “It’s you or me, me or you, there isn’t room for the two of us, and if I do not bring you down and get rid of you, I cannot live with myself!” Toward brothers and sisters who express a different opinion, who expose them, or who threaten their status, they are relentless: They think of anything they can to get something on them in order to pass judgment on them and condemn them, to discredit them and bring them down, and they will not rest until they do. They have only one attitude in their treatment of any person: If that person threatens their status, they will bring them down and get rid of them. All of their sworn followers are people who flatter them, and whatever bad things these people do and however much damage they cause to the work of the church and the interests of God’s house, they will cover up for them and protect them. In the course of doing their duty, antichrists are always managing their own fame, gain, and status, managing their own independent kingdom. The essence of doing their duty is to fight for their independent kingdom and to fight for their own prospects and destiny.

Some antichrists lead a dozen or so people in a small team, and some lead a church of people or even more. No matter how many people they lead, they are already controlling these people when doing their duties, and they wield the power as a king among them. They are not concerned with how God condemns and loathes such matters, and only care about keeping a firm hold on the power in their hands and tightly controlling those people under them that they are able to control. Therefore, judging from the intentions and motivations of antichrists in doing their duties, their essence is vicious and wicked. So based on their behavior when doing their duties, what disposition do they reveal? Their disposition is also a vicious one. How is this vicious disposition characterized? While they may suffer hardship and pay the price when doing their duties, none of the duties that they do are done according to God’s words. In the course of doing their duties, they do not implement work arrangements at all, let alone seek the principles set by God’s house for each task. They only satisfy their personal preferences and their desire for power, and also their personal wish to always be doing something. These are all some conditions for which antichrists believe they can receive a crown. They wishfully think: “If I just do things this way, paying a price, forsaking and expending myself, god is sure to give me a crown and reward me in the end!” They never heed or take seriously the requirements and principles that are emphasized and repeatedly put forward to mankind in God’s words; they only consider them to be a set of sayings. Their mentality is: “Whatever your requirements, I can’t loosen my power or my pursuits, and I can’t let go of my wishes or ambitions. If I don’t have these things, then what drive or motivation do I have to do my duties?” These are some of the manifestations of antichrists when doing their duties. Whatever God’s words say, and whatever required standards and principles the Above has for various tasks, antichrists do not listen and pay no heed. However specific the words of the Above, however stringent the requirements about this aspect of work, they pretend not to hear or not to understand, and they are still acting recklessly and arbitrarily and running amok down below, doing things according to their own intentions. They believe that if they do things according to God’s requirements and according to the methods required by the Above, they will lose their status, and the power they hold will be transferred and dissolved. They believe that doing things according to the truth and according to the requirements in God’s words is an imperceptible attack on and deprivation of their power—it is an assault on their personal reputation. They think: “I’m not that foolish. If I accept your opinions, won’t I appear incompetent and lacking in leadership talent? If I accept your opinions, if I admit that I’m wrong, then will my brothers and sisters still listen to me afterward? Will I still have prestige? If I do things according to the requirements of the above, won’t I lose the chance to show myself off? Will my brothers and sisters still worship me then? Will they still listen to what I say? If none of them listen to what I say, then what’s the point in doing this duty? How can I still do this work? If I don’t have authority in the group and my prestige is reduced, and if they all listen to god’s words and practice according to the truth principles, then won’t my leadership be empty? Won’t I become a puppet? Then what enthusiasm will I have for doing these things? If my leadership is empty and whatever I do is meaningless, then will I still have any future prospects?” What antichrists want is to be placed above all others in any given group, thereby getting a future crown and future rewards in return. They believe that as long as they become an outstanding figure and a leader of others among God’s chosen people, they will be entitled to receive a future crown in return, and to receive great blessings in the future. Therefore, antichrists will not loosen up the power they hold at any time and will not relax their vigilance under any circumstances. They fear that if they let their guard down even a little, the power in their hands will be stripped or weakened. When doing their duties, they do not do them to the best of their abilities in their own position, doing their duties well and bearing witness to God according to the principles of God’s words and to His requirements. Instead, they use such opportunities to firmly grasp onto the crown they believe they are about to receive. Even if some antichrists are able to comply with the requirements of God’s house as a set of regulations, that still cannot show that they are people who accept the truth and submit to the words of God. What is the reason behind this? Some antichrists, in the course of doing their duties, always want to seize power and satisfy their desire for it, and always want to have status and lecture people and order them around from a position of status. But some antichrists are different and have this kind of worry: “The bird that sticks its neck out is the one that gets shot. That means whoever sticks their neck out and makes mistakes will suffer. I won’t be such a fool. No matter how capable I am, I’ll only put in thirty percent, and I’ll save the other seventy for myself to keep as a fallback—I must hold back a bit. Whatever god’s house says or requires of me, on the surface I will agree, and I won’t be someone who disrupts and disturbs. Whoever leads, I will follow, and I’ll approve of whatever they say. I’ll be fine as long as I stick to the regulations given by the above and don’t violate them. As far as devoting my loyalty to god and sincerely expending myself for him, there is no need for this. I will expend a bit of effort in doing my duty, doing just enough is acceptable, and I won’t be a fool. Whatever I do, I need to hold back a little to avoid receiving nothing and ending up having nothing to show for all this.” This kind of antichrist believes that it is foolish of others to take on responsibilities in doing their duties and always stick their neck out to resolve problems, and that they must not be such fools themselves. In their hearts, they know if someone pursues status and manages their own power, they’ll get exposed sooner or later, but to practice the truth they must pay a price, make an effort, offer their sincerity, and be loyal. They would have to suffer a lot of hardship, and they are not willing to do so. They adopt an approach of compromise, neither sticking their neck out nor shrinking back, following the middle path. They believe: “I’ll do whatever I’m asked. I’ll just go through the motions and be done with it, and if I’m asked to do it better, I just won’t do it. To do it better, I’d have to pay a higher price and check more materials—it would be so tiring! If god would give me extra rewards for doing it that way then fair enough, but god’s words don’t seem to say anything about extra rewards. Since this is the case, then I do not need to suffer and tire myself out; it’s better to just take it easy.” Can such a person do their duty well? Can they gain the truth? Can those who do not strive toward the truth but instead are perfunctory or negative and slacking off in their work receive God’s approval? Absolutely not.