How should God’s chosen people treat antichrists? They must discern them, expose them, report them, and spurn them. Only then can following God to the very end and entering onto the right track of faith in God be assured. Antichrists are not your leaders, no matter how they misled others into choosing them as leader. Don’t acknowledge them, and don’t accept their leadership—you must discern them and spurn them, because they can’t help you understand the truth, nor can they support you or provide for you. These are the facts. If they cannot lead you into the truth reality, they are not fit to be leaders or workers. If they cannot lead you to understanding the truth and experiencing the work of God, they are those who oppose God, and you should discern them, expose them, and spurn them. Everything they do is in order to mislead you into following them, and to make you join their group to undermine and disturb the work of the church, to rope you into taking the path of antichrists, as they do. They want to drag you to hell! If you cannot tell them for what they are, and believe that since they are your leaders, you should obey them, and make concessions to them, then you are someone who betrays both the truth and God—and such people cannot be saved. If you wish to be saved, not only must you surpass the hurdle of the great red dragon, and not only must you be able to discern the great red dragon, to see through to its hideous countenance and rebel against it utterly—there is also the hurdle of the antichrists for you to surpass. In the church, an antichrist is not only the enemy of God, but also the enemy of God’s chosen people. If you cannot discern an antichrist, you are liable to be misled and won over, walk the path of an antichrist, and be cursed and punished by God. If that happens, your faith in God has completely failed. What must people possess to be granted salvation? First, they must understand many truths, and be able to discern the essence, disposition, and path of an antichrist. This is the only way to ensure not worshiping or following people while believing in God, and the only way to follow God to the very end. Only people who are able to discern an antichrist can truly believe in, follow, and bear witness for God. Some will then say, “What do I do if I don’t currently have the truth for that?” You must equip yourself with the truth with all haste; you must learn to see into people and things. Discerning an antichrist is no simple matter, and requires the ability to clearly see their essence, and see through the plots, tricks, intentions and goals behind everything they do. That way you will not be misled or controlled by them, and you can stand firm, safely and securely pursue the truth, and be steadfast on the path of pursuing the truth and attaining salvation. If you cannot surpass the hurdle of the antichrists, then it can be said that you are in great danger, and you are liable to be misled and captured by an antichrist and come to live under Satan’s influence. It is possible that there are some among you who hinder and trip people who pursue the truth, and they are those people’s enemies. Do you accept this? There are some who do not dare to face this fact, nor do they dare to accept it as fact. But the antichrists’ misleading people really does happen in the churches, and happens often; it is just that people cannot discern it. If you cannot pass this test—the test of antichrists, then you are either misled and controlled by antichrists or made to suffer, tortured, pushed out, suppressed, and abused by them. Ultimately, your measly little life will not withstand for long, and will wither; you will no longer have faith in God, and you will say, “God isn’t even righteous! Where is god? There is no justice or light in this world, and there’s no such thing as god’s salvation of humanity. We might as well pass our days going to work and making money!” You deny God, you stray from God, and no longer believe that He exists; any hope that you will obtain salvation is entirely gone. So, if you want to get to where you can be granted salvation, the first test you must pass is one of being able to perceive and see through Satan, and you must also have the courage to stand up and expose and forsake Satan. Where, then, is Satan? Satan is at your side and all around you; it might even be living inside your heart. If you are living within Satan’s disposition, it can be said that you belong to Satan. You cannot see or touch the Satan and evil spirits of the spiritual realm, but the Satans and living devils that exist in real life are everywhere. Any person who is averse to the truth is evil, and any leader or worker who does not accept the truth is an antichrist or false leader. Are such people not Satans and living devils? These people might be the very ones you worship and look up to; they could be the people who lead you or the people you have long admired, trusted, relied upon, and hoped for in your heart. In fact, however, they are roadblocks standing in your way and hindering you from pursuing the truth and obtaining salvation; they are false leaders and antichrists. They can take control of your life and the path you walk, and they can ruin your chance to be granted salvation. If you fail to discern them and see through them, then at any moment, you could be misled and captured. Thus, you are in great danger. If you cannot extricate yourself from this danger, you are Satan’s sacrificial victim. Anyway, people who are misled and controlled, and become the followers of an antichrist can never, ever attain salvation. Because they do not love or pursue the truth, it is an inevitable result that they are misled and follow an antichrist.

Some people think they are someone who pursues the truth and say they are able to discern antichrists. They are overestimating themselves, are they not? If you encounter an obvious antichrist, one that bears their fangs, has poor humanity and has committed some evil deeds, you are naturally able to recognize them. But if you encounter an antichrist who seems pious, who is very soft-spoken, and seems like a nice person—an antichrist that conforms to people’s notions—are you still bold enough to claim that you can tell them for what they really are? Do you dare to label them as an antichrist? If you are incapable of discerning them, you are bound to admire them and to be well-disposed toward them, in which case their behavior, their opinions and views, their actions—even their comprehension of the truth—will be sure to influence you. To what extent will these things influence you? You will envy the antichrist, imitate them, emulate them, follow them, which will affect your life entry; it will affect your pursuit of the truth and entry into reality, it will affect your attitude toward God, and it will affect whether or not you truly submit to God and follow God to the very end. Ultimately the antichrist will become your idol, they will have a place in your heart, and you won’t be able to escape them. When you have been misled to this extent, you have only a very slender hope of being saved, because your relationship with God has been shattered, you have lost the normal relationship with God, and are on the verge of danger. And is this a disaster or a blessing for you? Of course it is a disaster; it is absolutely not a blessing. Although, in small matters, some antichrists are able to help you, and to be of benefit to you, or else are able to preach words and doctrines to enlighten you, once you have been misled by them, worship them, and follow them, you’re in trouble. You’ll have brought ruin on yourself, and lost your chance at salvation. Some people say, “They are not Satan or an evil person, they seem like someone spiritual, someone who pursues the truth.” Do these words hold true? (No.) Why not? With anyone who genuinely pursues the truth, the influence or benefit of their guidance, help, and provision serves to bring you before God so that you may seek His words and the truth, and you come before God and learn to rely on Him and seek Him, and your relationship with Him grows closer and closer. Conversely, what will come of it if your relationship with an antichrist grows closer and closer, until you’re at their beck and call? You’ll stray off onto the wrong path and bring ruin on yourself. When you have a close relationship with an antichrist, your relationship with God becomes distant. And what is the consequence of this? They will lead you before them, and you will distance yourself from God. If you have an idol in your heart, once you start having notions about the words and work of God, or when God’s words expose your idol, you will immediately rebel against God, and might even oppose and betray God; you will stand on the side of your idol and oppose God. This often happens. When some false leaders and antichrists are replaced or expelled, their accomplices and minions start sticking up for them and complaining; some even become negative and stop believing in God. This is common, is it not? And why is it that they stop believing? They say, “Our leader has been replaced and expelled, so what hope do I, an ordinary believer, have?” Isn’t this nonsense? Their words indicate that they follow the antichrist, that they have been completely misled by the antichrist. And what is the consequence of them being misled? The antichrist has become the idol that they worship; the antichrist has become like their ancestor: How could they not leave, as their ancestor was expelled? They only listen to the antichrist, and they are under the complete control of the antichrist. They think that everything the antichrist says and does is correct, and should be accepted and submitted to as truth, and so they do not tolerate anyone in the house of God exposing and condemning the antichrist. Once the antichrist is expelled by the house of God, those who follow the antichrist take it upon themselves to leave the church; “The tree falls and the monkeys scatter,” as it were. Such things demonstrate that antichrists and their followers are the servants of Satan, who have come to disrupt and disturb God’s work. Once they are uncovered, exposed, and spurned by God’s chosen people, their faith in God comes to an end. Followers of antichrists all have one clearly discernible feature: No one’s words get through to them; they heed only antichrists. And once they are misled by antichrists, they stop listening to the words of God, and they only recognize the antichrist as their lord. In this, have they not been misled, are they not being controlled? Only the followers of antichrists would try to stick up for the antichrists. When the antichrists are exposed and revealed, the people who follow them grow anxious for them, they shed tears for them, they complain on their behalf and try to defend them. At such times they have forgotten God, and no longer pray to God or seek the truth; all they do is defend the antichrists and rack their brains for them; they don’t even recognize God anymore. Do they truly believe in God? Who do they actually believe in? This is already patently clear. No matter what they say or do, antichrists only have one aim: It is to lead people, to be their lord, and they want everyone to slavishly follow and obey them, and to ultimately treat them like God. How is this any different from the path walked by Paul? When the work of Paul reached its finality, he spoke the words in his heart; Paul said that to him to live was christ, and his aim in saying this was to make all who believed in the Lord emulate him, follow him, and treat him like God. This was Paul’s aim in saying these words, was it not? And if the work of the antichrists really reaches the point where people worship and obey them, God will no longer have a place in these people’s hearts; their hearts will already have been taken over by the antichrists. This is the consequence. You say you are not worried about being misled by an antichrist, that you have no fear of following an antichrist, but there is no use in claiming this. This is a muddled remark. This is because if you do not pursue the truth and always worship and follow people, then without realizing it, you will take the path of antichrists. Believing in God for several years but being devoid of experiential testimony, and not only not having gained the truth and life, but having become someone who opposes God: this is the ultimate consequence of following antichrists, and it is one you cannot rid yourself of, it is an unalterable fact. It’s just as when someone touches an electric current: They’re sure to get shocked. Some may say, “I don’t believe that; I’m not afraid”—but is it a matter of whether you believe it or whether you’re afraid? Touch a current, and zap! You’ll get shocked. It won’t help not to believe it. Not to believe it is ignorance; it’s an irresponsible thing to say. Therefore, whether you’re willing to follow an antichrist or not, if you don’t pursue the truth, and your exertions are always aimed at fame, gain, and status, you’ve already set off on the path of antichrists. This consequence will show itself bit by bit, like flotsam rising to the surface. This is inevitable. What the antichrists do is to lead people before them, they make them accept their control and manipulation, rather than accept the orchestrations and arrangements of God, or submit to the sovereignty of God. Antichrists want to win people over, they want to gain them, their aim is to control all of God’s chosen people, to control God’s chosen people in their hands; they are traffickers. And what do antichrists use to achieve their aim of controlling people? They use the spiritual doctrine that people worship, they use specious theories, they take advantage of people’s corrupt mentality of worshiping theory to blather and embellish, to mislead people. In short, everything they say is but words and doctrines, empty theory, things that are specious and in contravention of the truth. If people do not understand the truth, they will surely be misled; at the very least, they will be misled for a time before coming to their senses. When they do come to their senses is when the antichrists are unmasked, at which time they feel the utmost regret. People who follow antichrists have long since lost the work of the Holy Spirit; this is because they worship idols in their hearts, follow people, and they are spurned by God, and He has put them to one side to reveal them. So, it is extremely dangerous to follow antichrists; like antichrists, people who follow antichrists are most detested by God. And what is God’s aim in putting these people to one side? It is to wait for God’s chosen people to come to their senses, to be able to discern and expose the antichrists, and to thoroughly reject these antichrists, at which time the antichrists’ final days will have arrived. Is everything the antichrists do not harmful to people? They do not pursue the truth and try to mislead and control God’s chosen people, they do not let people pursue the truth, they do not submit to the work of God, and try to mislead God’s chosen people into following them—all of which shows that the antichrists do not have a heart that fears and submits to God whatsoever nor any love of the truth. Instead, they think of any way they can to wangle status and power for themselves to oppose God and vie with God for His chosen people, ultimately creating their own kingdom in opposition to God—which all shows that antichrists are the mortal enemies of God become flesh, and the very objects of God’s destruction. Nothing is more dangerous in people’s faith in God than when they are misled and controlled by antichrists. If people have already begun to follow antichrists, if they are already wholly on the side of the antichrists, then they are people who have betrayed God and are in opposition to God, in which case their outcome goes without saying.

That is more or less what there is to fellowship about how antichrists exclude and attack people who pursue the truth. Their purpose and intent in excluding and attacking people who pursue the truth, and the attitude, methods, and techniques with which they treat people who pursue the truth, as well as the courses of action toward antichrists that people who pursue the truth should have—we have fellowshipped a bit on each of these, though not yet exhaustively. Future fellowship may yet touch on the truth in these areas as befits specific circumstances and specific cases. When fellowshipping such specific subject matter, what attitude must hearers of the sermon possess? They must focus, quiet themselves before God, and not become distracted, because every aspect of the truth has specific statements and definitions, and each has specific content and principles of practice. What’s more, we’ll speak from various angles and in various ways on conceptual things that involve the truth within each content area, as well as the truths people should understand and the path they should practice on. All of this needs to be fellowshipped about and mulled over to the point of clarity before it will yield results. We’ll see, through our present detailed fellowship, that the truth principles involved in performing one’s duty aren’t as simple as people think. Understanding the truth presents real difficulty to those without the comprehension ability. Understanding the truth, like attending university, entails some degree of difficulty, but one won’t feel it’s difficult if they have the comprehension ability. So long as one can understand the truth after hearing it, they’ll naturally have a path to practice it on, and the more they train at practicing the truth, the wider their path will be in practicing it, and they’ll have a more precise grasp of the principles. On the other hand, if you do not listen to such detailed fellowship and only understand generalized and conceptual things, you will have your hands tied when it comes to practice. When you seek the truth principles, it will seem every way you turn is wrong, and you will feel unable to grasp them accurately, no matter what you do. But now, with such concrete definitions and specifications, when the scope has been narrowed and the truth made particular, you will be much freer when you begin again to practice the truth, because it is detailed. For instance, say I asked you to buy a notebook. If I only gave you such basic requirements as its size, thickness, and price, it might require some effort for you to grasp these principles and put them into practice. But if I told you things like the notebook’s specific color, size, number of pages, specific formatting, and the paper quality—then, having been told such details, would the principles you grasp not be more concrete? And if I were more specific still, giving you a sheet of paper and asking you to purchase a notebook whose paper is of identical quality, thickness, color, and grid size and quantity, or if I gave specifications on the tolerances for each feature, when you go to purchase it, would the range of choices not shrink? (It would.) Would the relevant principles not become more concrete and grow simpler for you when you practice? Would this help or hinder you when it comes to your practice? (It should be helpful.) It should, in fact, be helpful, because various aspects of the truth have been said more concretely and in greater detail, down to the specifics of how to treat particular matters, specific manifestations, and the specifics of how to practice—all of these have been told comprehensively to you. If you still cannot put it into practice, then you have no ability whatsoever to comprehend the truth.

Whether you now have the ability to comprehend the truth is pivotal to whether you’re able to gain the truth and be made perfect. Now, I have come so far as to divide the truths related to the adequate performance of duty into six types, according to the personnel who perform each duty; each of those types is further divided into specific categories, and within each category are subsections of detailed fellowship. In your instance, does this sort of preaching and the fellowship of such truths lead you to a better understanding of the truth and give you more principles by which to practice, or does it make it harder to find the principles? (We have more principles because of it.) It should lead you to a greater understanding, and that being so, My detailed sermon should be helpful to you. It should give you greater clarity, not greater confusion. It comes down to whether someone is possessed of the ability to comprehend the truth. If someone is truly a person of good caliber who has spiritual understanding, they’ll feel increasingly lucid; if someone’s of poor caliber and lacks spiritual understanding, they’ll be less able to understand it, and they’ll just get more and more confused. Some may say, “I used to feel that I understood a bit, but now, the more I hear, the more confused I get, as if there were nothing inside me anymore. What’s happening with that?” If talk about life entry goes into too much detail, it’s hard for people to understand it if they lack experience and are of poor caliber. The more detailed the talk, the more liable people of poor caliber are to get bogged down. Why are they liable to get bogged down? There are several conditions in this. One is that such people lack spiritual understanding. They don’t understand the truth—that is, they don’t understand what the truth or what a particular state is. They don’t understand these things. This condition is that of lacking the ability to comprehend the truth. With such people, there’s only one, final measure to be taken: telling them specifically what they should do when things befall them, just like programming a robot to execute orders as required. It’s enough just to have them uphold the regulations. This method can produce results in such people; there’s no other way with them. I’m using this final measure now, speaking in the greatest detail, down to the most concrete things—working down to the most concrete things. Some people say they still don’t understand, so I’ll go ahead and tell them specifically how to treat and handle whatever comes their way. I’m having them uphold regulations; this is all I can do, because they don’t have the ability to comprehend the truth. Not everyone’s state is exactly the same, but the differences are slight. If you’d have Me speak specifically and clearly with you about each of them, one by one, I’d be hard-pressed to get to them all, as there are too many of you whose caliber is poor. We’ll need those of you with spiritual understanding and who are able to comprehend the truth to do that part of the work. My work is already quite taken care of. That’s all that can be mustered; I’ve done all I can. All the work done and all the words spoken by God in the flesh are understandable and accessible to an ordinary person. That’s the extent of what can be done with people who have the thinking and reactions of normal humanity. Some ask, “Won’t God perform miracles?” God doesn’t perform miracles; all these things need to be done in a real, practical way. It’s just as with God’s work in three stages: beginning with His promulgation of the laws to mankind to lead them in their lives, then to the crucifixion and doing the work of redemption, and from there to the last days, in which God’s incarnation expresses all the truths that save mankind—each stage is done in a real, practical way, speaking and working, face to face with man. There are no miracles in it. The greatest miracle is that God Himself speaks and works personally, and that whatever methods He employs, He will ultimately make one group of people complete and gain them. This will assuredly be accomplished; it’s just a matter of time. This is the greatest of signs and wonders, and God will make use of no other supernatural method to work the truth into man’s heart. Now that these truths have been fellowshipped in such detail, if you have the comprehension ability and really are someone who pursues the truth, then, if you truly pay heed and put in a bit of effort, it will be impossible for you not to understand the truth or the principles of practice. There are some who say they love the truth, but after hearing sermons for so many years, why do they still not understand it? There are two possibilities. One is that they lack any spiritual understanding at all, and are incapable of comprehending the truth; the other is that they don’t actually love the truth, and have never made an effort in pursuing it. These are two possible reasons. Some other people say they don’t understand the truth because they haven’t believed in God for long, and haven’t heard many sermons, and don’t have much experience. This is yet another reason. However, if you are a person who really loves the truth, then, as the years of your belief in God accrue, the greater your understanding of the truth will grow, and the more you will grow in spiritual stature.

In fellowshipping any aspect of the truth, it takes more than just a few words to lay it out fully, in a way that can resolve problems. To the people of today, generalities are just doctrine, just theory. So, how can I make people understand and make them able, once they have accepted something, to turn it into principles of their practice? I must speak more specifically and in greater detail. No matter if I am telling a story or fellowshipping the truth, or speaking of practice, they must, on the whole, be more detailed and specific. Specific speech is of benefit to you. So, I must always rack My brain to come up with stories and examples for you, so that you will understand a bit more. I reify all these truths in incident after incident, and I combine the truths I fellowship with every incident I relate, so that you have an image in your minds against which to compare yourselves to see whether you have ever acted in such a way, or will act like such a person, or have ever thought in such a way, or have ever been trapped in such a state. As you listen to these truths, I make it so that you continuously have an imagistic sense of them, as if you were immersed in them. This is the reason I tell stories and give examples. There are some who grow impatient as soon as they hear a story begin. “Another story? What am I, a three-year-old?” You may not be few in years, but on the path of believing in God and pursuing the truth, you may even be younger than three—that is the fact of the matter. So, to treat you as not-three-year-old children is not an insult to you, and it is not excessive at all; as I see it, it is overestimating you. Once a three-year-old hears an adult say that scissors are sharp and are not to be touched, they will remember this as a principle. They will not touch them and will not even touch tools or blades that resemble them. They know that all of them are sharp; they know they have to master this principle. Can people, then, find principles in something they have successively experienced several times in their practice? That is, can you understand the intentions behind God’s acts, His requirements of you, and what His required standards are in a matter? Going by a normal person’s intelligence, you should be able to understand these things. Then what are the circumstances in which people do not understand them, no matter what I say? The main reason this happens is, firstly, related to the clamorous environment in which people live, with so many trivial and burdensome things to handle that people are not inclined to carefully pray-read God’s word; they do not direct any effort toward the truth. This is one aspect of the reason; the other side is that people’s thirst for and love of the truth is so slight that, if ten were a perfect score, the present extent of your love of the truth would rate at a three or a five, at most. So, the greater part of the reason that people do not understand the truth and have not gained it in the end is that they have not applied themselves, and also that they do not put their hearts into it, and in their hearts, they do not love the truth that much at all. People’s love of the truth is insufficient in its degree. It’s merely a bit of interest; it doesn’t rise to love. It’s only because people have suffered so many setbacks and afflictions in the world that they couldn’t go on living, and because they have seen God at work saving people and fellowshipping the truth each day, and the abundance of everything He furnishes man with, that they feel it’s God who is good, and become willing to read His words and strive toward the truth. That’s the bit of interest they have. What do people’s hearts spend more of their time on? They’re all entangled in many trifling matters, occupied by all sorts of issues of emotional relations, interpersonal relations, status and vanity, and the trends of society. There are even some people who apply more of their time and energy to their food, clothing, costume, and fleshly enjoyments. They waste the truly precious days on these things, and they glorify it: “I’m expending for God!” Ultimately, at the end, they look back and see that God has said so many words and worked for so long, yet they haven’t gained the truth. This isn’t because God didn’t bestow it on them, but because they didn’t accept the truth with their hearts, or apply themselves to the truth, though they saw God expressing so much of it. That’s what caused them to not gain the truth and life in their many years of belief in God, and to be eliminated in the end.

January 22, 2019