God’s Holiness (III)

The topic we fellowshipped about last time was the holiness of God. Which aspect of God Himself does the holiness of God concern? Does it concern the essence of God? (Yes.) So what is the theme we addressed in our fellowship about God’s essence? Is it the holiness of God? The holiness of God is the unique essence of God. What was the main content of our fellowship last time? (The discernment of Satan’s wickedness. That is, how Satan corrupts mankind. It uses knowledge, science, traditional culture, superstition, and social trends to corrupt man.) This was the main topic that we discussed last time. Satan uses knowledge, science, superstition, traditional culture, and social trends to corrupt man; these are the ways—five of them in total—that Satan corrupts man. Which of these do you think Satan uses most to corrupt man and to corrupt him most deeply? (Traditional culture. This is because Satan’s philosophies, such as the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius, are deeply ingrained in our minds.) So, some brothers and sisters think the answer is “traditional culture.” What about the other brothers and sisters? (Knowledge. Knowledge will never let us worship God. It denies the existence of God, and denies the sovereignty of God. That is to say, Satan tells us to begin studying from a young age, and that only by studying and gaining knowledge will we have a good future and a good fate.) Satan uses knowledge to control your future and fate, and then it leads you along by the nose; this is how you think Satan corrupts man most deeply. So, most of you think it is knowledge that Satan uses to corrupt man most deeply. Does anyone else have a different opinion? What about science or social trends, for example? Would anyone identify these as the answer? (Yes.) Today, I will fellowship again about the five ways in which Satan corrupts man, and once I am finished, I will ask you some more questions, and we will see exactly which of these things Satan uses to corrupt man most deeply.

Five Ways in Which Satan Corrupts Man

a. Satan Uses Knowledge to Corrupt Man, and It Uses Fame and Gain to Control Him

Among the five ways in which Satan corrupts man, the first one we mentioned is knowledge, so let us take knowledge as our first topic for fellowship. Satan uses knowledge as bait—listen closely, it is just a kind of bait—to make people study hard and improve themselves day after day, to make people use knowledge as a weapon to arm themselves, so they can then use knowledge to open the gateway to science; in other words, the more knowledge you gain, the more you will understand. Satan tells people all of this; it also tells people to establish lofty aspirations as they are learning knowledge, instructing them to build up ambitions and aspirations. Unbeknownst to man, Satan feeds man many such messages, causing people to unconsciously feel that these things are correct and beneficial. Unknowingly, people set foot upon this path, unknowingly led onward by their own aspirations and ambitions. Step by step, they unwittingly learn from the knowledge given by Satan the ideas of great or famous people, and also learn about some deeds of people who are considered heroes. What is Satan advocating for man in the deeds of these “heroes”? What does it want to instill in man? That man must be patriotic, have national integrity, and be heroic of spirit. What does man learn from historical stories or biographies of heroic figures? To have a sense of personal loyalty, to be willing to risk life and limb for his buddies and friends. Within this knowledge of Satan, man unknowingly learns many things which are not positive. In the midst of man’s unawareness, seeds prepared by Satan are planted in people’s young hearts. These seeds make them feel that they ought to be great people, ought to be famous, ought to be heroes, to be patriotic, be people who love their families, and be people who will risk life and limb for a friend and have a sense of personal loyalty. Seduced by Satan, they unknowingly embark on the road it has prepared for them. During this period, Satan forces people to accept Satan’s laws of survival. Without realizing it and with no awareness of what is happening, people also develop their own laws of survival—that is, Satan’s laws of survival, which Satan has forcibly instilled in them. Satan makes them, during the learning process, foster their own objectives and determine their own survival goals, laws of survival, and survival direction, all the while instilling in them the things of Satan, using stories, biographies, and all other means possible to entice people, little by little, until they take the bait. In this way, during the course of their learning, some come to prefer literature, some economics, others astronomy or geography. Then there are some who come to like politics, some who like physics, some chemistry, and even others still who prefer theology. These are all part of knowledge. In your hearts, each of you knows what these things are really about; each one of you has had contact with them before. Each of you is capable of talking on and on endlessly about one or another of these branches of knowledge. And so it is clear how deeply this knowledge has entered the minds of people; it is plain to see the position occupied by this knowledge in people’s minds and how deep an effect it has on them. Once someone develops affection for a facet of knowledge, when a person has fallen deeply in love with it, they then unknowingly develop aspirations: Some people want to be writers, some want to be literary authors, some want to make a career out of politics, and some want to engage in economics and become businesspeople. Then there is a portion of people who want to be heroes, to be great or famous. Regardless of what kind of person someone wants to be, their goal is to take this method of learning knowledge and use it for their own ends, to fulfill their own wishes, their own aspirations. No matter how good it sounds—whether they want to achieve their dreams, to not waste their life, or to have a certain career—what, in essence, is the purpose behind people setting up these lofty aspirations and ambitions? Have you ever considered this question before? Why does Satan act in this way? What is Satan’s purpose in instilling these things in man? Your hearts must be clear on this question.

Now let us talk about how Satan uses knowledge to corrupt man. First, we have to have a clear understanding of these things: With knowledge, what does Satan want to give man? What kind of road does it want to lead man down? (The road of resisting God.) Yes, that is certainly it—to resist God. This is the consequence you see after people learn knowledge: They resist God. So what are Satan’s insidious motives? You are not clear about this, are you? During the process of people acquiring knowledge, by employing all manner of methods, whether it be telling stories, simply providing them with some piece of knowledge, or allowing them to satisfy their desires or aspirations, just what road does Satan want to lead people down? People think there is nothing wrong with learning knowledge, that it is perfectly natural and justified. To put it in a way that sounds appealing, to establish lofty aspirations or to have ambitions is to have drive, and this should be the right path in life. If one can realize their own aspirations, or establish a successful career in their lifetime, is that not a more glorious way to live? In this way, one can not only honor one’s ancestors but also have the chance to leave one’s mark for generations to come—is this not a good thing? This is a good thing in the eyes of worldly people, and to them it should be proper and positive. Does Satan, however, with its insidious motives, lead people down such a road and then that’s it? Of course not. In fact, no matter how grand man’s aspirations are, no matter how realistic man’s wishes are or how proper they may be, all that man wants to achieve, all that man pursues, is inextricably linked to two words. These two words are vitally important to every person throughout their life, and they are things Satan intends to instill in man. What are these two words? They are “fame” and “gain.” Satan uses a very mild method, a method that’s very much in line with people’s notions, and that isn’t very aggressive, to cause people to unknowingly accept its means and laws of survival, develop life goals and life directions, and come to possess life aspirations. No matter how high-sounding people’s descriptions of their life aspirations may be, these aspirations always revolve around fame and gain. Everything that any great or famous person—or, in fact, any person—chases throughout their life relates only to these two words: “fame” and “gain.” People think that once they have fame and gain, they have the capital to enjoy high status and great wealth, and to enjoy life. They think that once they have fame and gain, they have the capital to seek pleasure and to engage in wanton enjoyment of the flesh. For the sake of this fame and gain which they desire, people happily and unknowingly hand over their bodies, hearts, and even all that they have, including their prospects and fates, to Satan. They do so without reservation, without even a moment’s doubt, and without ever knowing to reclaim everything that they once had. Can people retain any control over themselves once they have given themselves over to Satan and become loyal to it in this way? Certainly not. They are completely and utterly controlled by Satan. They have completely and utterly sunk into this quagmire, and are unable to free themselves. Once someone is mired in fame and gain, they no longer seek that which is bright, that which is just, or those things that are beautiful and good. This is because the enticement of fame and gain is too great for people, and these are things that people can pursue without end throughout their lives and even for all eternity. Is this not the actual situation? Some people will say that learning knowledge is nothing more than reading books and learning some things that you do not already know so as not to lag behind the times or be left behind by the world. Knowledge is only learned in order to put food on your table, for your own future, or to provide the basic necessities. Is there any person who would endure a decade of hard study just for the basic necessities, just to resolve the issue of food? No, there are none like this. So why does a person suffer these hardships for all these years? It is for fame and gain. It is because fame and gain are waiting for them in the distance, beckoning them, and they believe that only through their own diligence, hardships, and struggles can they step on the road that leads to fame and gain, thereby gaining these things. Such a person must suffer these hardships for their own future path, for their future enjoyment, and to gain a better life. What on earth is this knowledge—can you tell Me? Is it not the laws and philosophy of survival that Satan instills in man, such as “Love the Party, love the country, and love your religion” and “A wise man submits to circumstances”? Is it not life’s “lofty aspirations” instilled into man by Satan, such as the thoughts of great people, the integrity of the famous, the brave spirit of heroic figures, or the chivalry and kindness of the knights and swordsmen in martial arts novels? These ideas and statements influence one generation after another; many people accept these ideas, and they pursue, continually struggle, and are even willing to sacrifice their lives in order to fulfill these “lofty aspirations.” This is the means and method by which Satan uses knowledge to corrupt people. So after Satan leads people onto this path, are they able to submit to and worship God? And are they able to accept God’s words and pursue the truth? Absolutely not—because they have been led astray by Satan. Let’s now consider this: Within the knowledge, ideas, and views instilled in people by Satan, are there the truths of submission to God and worship of God? Are there the truths of fearing God and shunning evil? Are there any of the words of God? Is there anything in them that is of the truth? Not at all—these things are totally absent. Can you be sure that the things instilled in people by Satan contain no truth? Even if you do not dare to say for certain, that is no problem. So long as you recognize that “fame” and “gain” are the two key words that Satan uses to entice people onto the path of wickedness, then that is enough.

Now let’s review: What does Satan use to keep man firmly within its control? (Fame and gain.) Satan uses fame and gain to control people’s thoughts, making them think of nothing but these two things, and getting them to struggle for fame and gain, suffer hardships for fame and gain, endure humiliation and bear heavy burdens for fame and gain, sacrifice everything they have for fame and gain, and make every judgment or decision for the sake of fame and gain. In this way, Satan places invisible shackles upon people, and, with these shackles upon them, they have neither the ability nor the courage to break free. Unknowingly, they bear these shackles as they trudge ahead step by step, with great difficulty. For the sake of this fame and gain, mankind strays from God and betrays Him, and becomes increasingly wicked. In this way, one generation after another is destroyed in the midst of Satan’s fame and gain. Looking now at Satan’s actions, are its insidious motives not utterly hateful? Maybe today you still cannot see through to Satan’s insidious motives because you think that without fame and gain, life would have no meaning, and people would no longer be able to see the way ahead, no longer be able to see their goals, and their futures would become dark, dim and gloomy. But, slowly, you will all one day recognize that fame and gain are massive shackles that Satan places upon man. When that day comes, you will thoroughly resist Satan’s control and thoroughly resist the shackles brought to you by Satan. When you wish to free yourself from all these things that Satan has instilled in you, you will then make a clean break with Satan, and you will truly hate all that Satan has brought to you. Only then will you have a real love and yearning for God.

b. Satan Uses Science to Corrupt Man

We have just talked about how Satan uses knowledge to corrupt man, so next let us fellowship about how Satan uses science to corrupt man. Firstly, Satan uses the name of science to satisfy man’s curiosity, man’s desire to explore science and probe mysteries. In the name of science, Satan satisfies man’s material needs and man’s demand to continually improve his quality of life. Thus, it is with this pretext that Satan uses science to corrupt man. Is it only man’s thinking or man’s mind that Satan corrupts by means of science? Of the people, events, and things in our surroundings that we can see and that we come into contact with, what else of these does Satan corrupt with science? (The natural environment.) Correct. It seems you have been deeply harmed by this, and have a deep first-hand experience of it. Besides using all the various findings and conclusions of science to mislead man, Satan also uses science as a means to carry out wanton destruction and exploitation of the living environment that was given to man by God. It does this under the pretext that if man carries out scientific research, then man’s living environment and quality of life will continually improve, and furthermore that the purpose of scientific development is to cater to people’s daily increasing material needs and their need to continually improve their quality of life. This is the theoretical basis of Satan’s development of science. However, what has science brought to mankind? Has our living environment—and the living environment of all mankind—not been defiled? Has the air that man breathes not been defiled? Has the water that we drink not been defiled? Is the food that we eat still organic and natural? Most grains and vegetables are genetically modified, they have been grown with fertilizer, and some are variants created using science. The vegetables and fruit we eat are no longer natural. Even natural eggs are no longer easy to find, and eggs no longer taste the way they used to, having already been processed by Satan’s so-called science. Looking at the big picture, the entire atmosphere has been destroyed and polluted; mountains, lakes, forests, rivers, oceans, and everything above and below ground have all been wrecked by so-called scientific achievements. In brief, the entire ecological environment and living environment given to mankind by God have been wrecked and ruined by so-called science. Although there are many people who have obtained what they always hoped for in terms of the quality of life they seek, satisfying both their desires and their flesh, the environment man lives in has essentially been destroyed and wrecked by the various “achievements” brought on by science. Now, we no longer have the right to breathe a single breath of clean air. Is this not mankind’s sorrow? Is there any happiness left to speak of for man, when he must live in this kind of space? Man lives in this kind of space, and yet man’s living environment was, in the very beginning, created by God for man. The water people drink, the air people breathe, the various foods people eat, as well as the various plants and living beings, and even the mountains, lakes, and oceans—every part of this living environment was given to man by God; it is natural, operating in accordance with a natural law laid down by God. Without science, people would still follow the methods bestowed upon them by God, they would be able to enjoy all that is pristine and natural, and they would be very happy. Now, however, all of this has been destroyed and wrecked by Satan; man’s fundamental living space is no longer pristine. But no one is able to recognize what caused this or how this came about, and many more people interpret and approach science using the ideas instilled in them by Satan. Is this not utterly detestable and pitiable? With Satan now having corrupted the space in which people exist, as well as their living environment, into this state, and with mankind continuing to develop in this way, is there any need for God to personally destroy the people on earth? If people continue to develop in this way, what direction will they take? (They will be exterminated.) How will they be exterminated? In addition to people’s greedy pursuit of fame and gain, they continually carry out scientific exploration and dive deep into research, and then ceaselessly act in such a way as to satisfy their own material needs and desires; what then are the consequences for man? First of all, the ecological balance is broken, and when this happens, people’s internal organs are tainted and damaged by this unbalanced environment, and various infectious diseases and plagues spread across the world. Is it not true that this is now a situation that man has no control over? Now that you understand this, if mankind does not follow God, but always follows Satan in this way—using knowledge to continually enrich themselves, using science to ceaselessly explore the future of human life, using this kind of method to continue living—can you recognize what mankind’s outcome will be? Mankind will naturally become extinct: Step by step, mankind advances toward destruction, toward their own destruction! Is this not bringing destruction upon themselves? And is it not the consequence of scientific progress? It now seems as though science is a kind of magic potion that Satan has prepared for man, so that when you try to discern things you do so in a foggy haze; no matter how hard you look, you cannot see things clearly, and no matter how hard you try, you cannot figure them out. Satan, however, uses the name of science to whet your appetite and lead you by the nose, one foot in front of the other, toward the abyss and death. And this being the case, people will clearly see that actually, the destruction of man is wrought by the hand of Satan—Satan is the ringleader. Is this not so? (Yes, it is.) This is the second way that Satan corrupts mankind.

c. Satan Uses Traditional Culture to Corrupt Man

Traditional culture is the third way that Satan corrupts man. There are many similarities between traditional culture and superstition, but the difference is that traditional culture has certain stories, allusions, and sources. Satan has fabricated and invented many folk stories or stories that appear in history books, leaving people with deep impressions of traditional cultural or superstitious figures. For example, in China there are the “Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea,” “Journey to the West,” the Jade Emperor, “Nezha Conquering the Dragon King,” and “The Investiture of the Gods.” Have these not become deeply rooted in the minds of man? Even if some of you do not know all the details, you still know the general stories, and this general content sticks in your heart and your mind, so that you cannot forget it. These are various ideas or legends that Satan prepared for man long ago, and which have been disseminated at different times. These things directly harm and erode people’s souls and put people under one spell after another. That is to say that once you have accepted such traditional culture, stories, or superstitious things, once they are established in your mind, and once they are stuck in your heart, then it is like you are spellbound—you become enmeshed and influenced by such culture, such ideas, and such traditional stories. They influence your life, your outlook on life, and your judgment of things. Even more so they influence your pursuit of the true path of life: This is indeed a spell. Try as you might, you cannot shake them off; you chop at them but you cannot cut them off; you beat at them but you cannot beat them away. Furthermore, after people are unknowingly put under this kind of spell, they unknowingly begin to worship Satan, establishing the image of Satan in their hearts. In other words, they treat Satan as their idol, an object for them to adore and look up to, even going so far as to regard it as god. Unknowingly, these things control people’s words and deeds from within their hearts. Moreover, you first regard these stories and legends to be false, but then you unknowingly acknowledge their existence, regarding them as real figures and real, existing objects. In your unawareness, you subconsciously receive these ideas and the existence of these things. You also subconsciously receive devils, Satan, and idols into your own home and into your own heart—this is indeed a spell. Do these words resonate with you? (Yes.) Are there any among you who have burned incense and worshiped Buddha? (Yes.) So what was the purpose of burning incense and worshiping Buddha? (Praying for peace.) Thinking about it now, is it not ridiculous to pray to Satan for peace? Does Satan bring peace? (No.) Weren’t you very ignorant then? That kind of behavior is ridiculous, ignorant, and naive, is it not? Satan only concerns itself with how to corrupt you. Satan cannot possibly give you peace, only a temporary sense of calm. But you still must take a vow, and if you break your promise or the vow that you have made to Satan, then you will see how it torments you. In making you take a vow, it actually wants to control you. When you prayed for peace, did you obtain peace? (No.) You did not obtain peace, but on the contrary your efforts brought misfortune and unending disasters—truly a boundless ocean of bitterness. There is no peace under Satan’s power, and this is the truth. This is the consequence that feudal superstition and traditional culture have brought mankind.

d. Satan Uses Social Trends to Corrupt Man

The last way in which Satan corrupts and controls man is through social trends. Social trends cover many aspects, including areas such as the worship of famous and great figures, as well as film and music idols, celebrity worship, and online games. These are all part of social trends, and there is no need to go into detail here. We will only talk about the ideas that social trends bring about in people, the way they cause people to deal with the world, and the survival goals and outlook on life that they bring about in people. These are very important; they can control and influence people’s thoughts and views. Each and every one of these trends carries with it an evil influence. This evil influence continually debases mankind and causes people to keep losing conscience, humanity, and reason, continually weakens their morals, and increasingly diminishes their integrity, to the extent that we can even say that the majority of people now have no integrity, no humanity, and no conscience, much less any reason. So what are these social trends? They are trends that you cannot see with the naked eye. When a new trend comes along, perhaps only a small number of people are early adopters—they take the lead in doing this kind of thing, accepting this kind of idea, and accepting this kind of view. The majority of people, nonetheless, will be continually infected, attracted, and assimilated by this trend without realizing it, until they all unknowingly and involuntarily accept it and become submerged in it and controlled by it. One after another, such trends cause people, who are not of sound body and mind, who do not know what the truth is, and who cannot differentiate at all between positive and negative things, to happily accept them as well as the outlook on existence and the values that come from Satan. They happily accept what Satan tells them about how to approach life, and the way of survival that Satan “bestows” on them. They have neither the strength nor the ability, much less the awareness, to resist. So how should we understand such trends? I will give a simple example, and you may gradually come to understand. For example, in the past, people doing business cheated neither young nor old, and goods were sold at fixed prices. Is there not a little conscience and humanity expressed here? When people had this kind of business creed, it can be seen that they still had some conscience and some humanity at that time. But with man’s ever-increasing demand for money, people unknowingly came to love money, gain, and pleasure more and more. Do people not attach greater importance to money than they used to? When people view money as very important, they unknowingly begin to attach less importance to their reputation, their renown, their good name, and their integrity, do they not? When you engage in business, you see others getting rich by cheating people, and you see that although the money they earn is ill-gotten, they have more and more money, and their whole family enjoys a good life. At this point, you feel upset inside: “We’re both in business but they got rich. Why can’t I make a lot of money? I can’t take this—I must find a way to make more cash.” After that, all you think about is how to make your fortune. You give up the belief in “cheating neither young nor old, earning money with conscience.” Driven by your own interests, your way of thinking gradually changes, as do the principles behind your actions. When you cheat someone for the first time, you feel the reproach of your conscience, and you say to yourself in your heart, “Once this is done, this is the last time I will cheat someone. Always cheating people will result in retribution!” This is the function of man’s conscience—to make you feel scruples and to reproach you, and so you do it very unnaturally. But after you have successfully deceived someone, you see that you now have more money than you did before, and you think this method can be very beneficial for you. Despite the dull ache in your heart, you still feel like congratulating yourself on your success, and you feel somewhat pleased with yourself. For the first time, you approve of your own behavior, your own deceptive ways. Once man has been contaminated by this cheating, it is the same as someone who gets involved in gambling and then becomes a gambler. In your unawareness, you give approval to your own cheating behavior and accept it. In unawareness, you take cheating to be legitimate commercial behavior and the most useful means for your survival and livelihood; you think that by doing this you can make quick money. In this process, from when people initially cannot accept this kind of behavior and look down on this kind of behavior and practice, to when they personally experiment with it and try it out in their own way, their hearts are gradually changing. What kind of change is this? It is an approval and admission of this trend, of this idea instilled in you by the social trend. Without realizing it, if you do not cheat people when doing business, you feel you are worse off; if you do not cheat people, you feel as though you have lost something. Unknowingly, this cheating becomes your very soul, your backbone, and an indispensable type of behavior within your laws of survival. After you have accepted this behavior and this thinking, has this not brought about a change in your heart? Your heart has changed, so has your integrity changed as well? Has your humanity changed? Has your conscience changed? Your whole being, from your heart to your thoughts, even from inside to outside, has changed, and this is a qualitative change. This change pulls you further and further away from God, and you become more and more compatible with Satan; you become more and more like Satan, with the result that Satan’s corruption makes you a demon.

When looking at these social trends, would you say that they have a big influence on people? Do they deeply ravage people? Very deeply indeed! What aspects of man does Satan corrupt with each of these trends? Satan chiefly corrupts man’s conscience, reason, humanity, morals, and outlook on existence. And do these social trends not gradually degrade man, and make him increasingly corrupt? Satan uses these social trends to lure man step by step into a den of devils, so that man unknowingly reveres money, material desires, evil, and violence amid social trends. Once these things have entered man’s heart, what then does man become? He becomes a devil and a Satan! This is because man’s heart becomes occupied by that which he reveres; when man reveres negative things, he begins to love evil and violence, and he does not like beauty and goodness, much less peace. He becomes unwilling to live a simple life in normal humanity, but instead wishes to enjoy high status and great wealth, to take pleasure in the flesh, sparing no effort to satisfy his own flesh, with no restrictions or bonds—in other words, doing whatever he desires. So when you have gotten caught up in these kinds of trends, can the knowledge that you have learned help you to free yourself? Can the aspects of traditional culture and superstitions that you know help you escape from this predicament? Can the traditional morals and etiquette that you know help you exercise restraint? Take the Analects and the Tao Te Ching, for example. Can they help people pull their feet out of the quagmire of these evil trends? Absolutely not. Thus, man becomes more and more evil, arrogant, haughty in the extreme, selfish, and malicious. There is no longer any affection and loyalty among man, no longer any love between family members, no longer any understanding among relatives and friends; human relationships are full of violence. Each and every person seeks to live among others with violent means and methods, to seize a livelihood for themselves using violence, to win their positions and obtain their profits using violence, and to use violent and wicked ways to do any of the things they want. Isn’t this mankind horrifying? It is, very much so: Not only did they crucify God, but they would also annihilate all who follow Him—because this mankind is too evil. After hearing all these things that I have just talked about, do you not think it terrifying to live in this environment, in this world, and among these kinds of people, within which Satan corrupts mankind? (Yes.) So, have you ever felt yourselves to be pitiful? You must feel it a little bit in this moment, do you not? (I do.) Hearing your tone, it seems as though you are thinking, “Satan uses all kinds of methods to corrupt man. It seizes every opportunity and is everywhere we turn. Can man still be saved?” Can man still be saved? Can man save himself? (No.) Can the Jade Emperor save man? Can Confucius save man? Can the Guanyin Bodhisattva save man? (No.) So who can save man? (God.) Some people, however, will raise in their hearts such questions as: “Satan harms us so wildly, in such a deranged frenzy, that we have no hope to live life, nor any confidence to live life. We all live in the midst of corruption, and every single person resists God anyway, and now our hearts have sunk as low as they can go. So where is God while Satan is corrupting us? What is God doing? Whatever God is doing for us, we never feel it!” Some people inevitably feel dejected and somewhat disheartened. To you, this feeling is very deep because all that I have been saying has allowed people to slowly come to understand these matters, and they feel more and more that they are without hope, and more and more that they have been forsaken by God. But don’t be anxious. Our fellowship topic for today, “the wickedness of Satan,” is not our true theme. To talk about God’s essence of holiness, however, we must first discuss how Satan corrupts man and the wickedness of Satan in order to make it clearer to people what kind of condition man is now in. One aim of talking about this is to allow people to know the wickedness of Satan, while the other is to allow people to understand more deeply what true holiness is.

Have I not talked in more detail about these things we have just discussed compared to last time? Is your understanding now a little deeper? (Yes.) I know that a lot of people now are expecting Me to say what exactly the holiness of God is, but as I talk about the holiness of God I will first talk about the deeds God does. You should all listen attentively. Afterward, I will ask you what exactly the holiness of God is. I will not tell you directly, but instead let you try to figure it out; I will give you space to figure it out. What do you think of this method? (It sounds good.) Then listen carefully as I go on.

Understanding God’s Holiness Through What He Does to Man

Whenever Satan corrupts man or, in a wanton manner, grievously harms man, God does not stand idly by, and neither does He brush aside or turn a blind eye to those He has chosen. God understands with perfect clarity all that Satan does. No matter what Satan does, no matter what trend it causes to arise, God knows all that Satan is trying to do, and God does not give up on those He has chosen. Instead, without attracting any attention—secretly, silently—God does everything that He intends to do. When God begins work on someone, when He has chosen someone, He does not proclaim this to anyone, nor does He proclaim it to Satan, much less make any grand gesture. He just very quietly, very naturally, does what He intends. First, He selects a family for you; your family background, your parents, your ancestors—all this, God decides in advance. Therefore, God does not make these decisions on a whim; rather, He began this work long ago. Once God has chosen a family for you, He then chooses the date on which you will be born. Then, God watches as you are born and come crying into the world. He watches your arrival, watches as you learn to babble, watches as you stumble your way to walking, step by step. Now you can run, jump, talk, and express your feelings…. As people grow up, Satan’s gaze is fixed on every one of them, like a tiger eyeing its prey. But in doing His work, God has never been subject to limitations arising from any person, event, or thing, of space or time; He does what He should and what He intends. In the process of growing up, you may encounter many undesirable things, including illness and bumps in the road. But as you walk this path, your life and your future are under God’s close care. God provides a true guarantee for your whole life, for He is right there beside you, protecting you and looking after you. Before you know it, you grow up. You begin to come into contact with new things and start to get to know this world and this mankind. Everything is fresh and new to you. You like to do the things you enjoy. You live within your own humanity, you live within your own space, and you have not the slightest perception about the existence of God. But God watches you every step of the way as you grow, and He watches you as you make every stride forward. Even when you are learning knowledge or studying science, God has never left your side for a single step. Like other people, in the course of getting to know the world and engaging with it, you have established your own aspirations, you have your own hobbies, your own interests, and you also harbor lofty ambitions. You often ponder your own future, often sketching the outline of how your future should look. But no matter what this process is like, it is all clear and vivid to God. Maybe you yourself have forgotten your own past, but to God, there is no one who can understand you better than He. You live under God’s gaze, growing up, maturing. During this period, there is one most important thing that God does—something no one has ever perceived, something no one knows about, and even more, something God has never told anyone about. So what is this most crucial thing? It can be said that it is the guarantee that God will save a person. This means that if God wants to save this person, He must do this. This thing is vitally important to both man and God. Do you know what it is? It seems like you do not have any feeling about this, or any concept of it, so I will tell you. From the time you were born all the way up to now, God has carried out much work on you, but He does not give you an exhaustive account of everything He has done. God did not allow you to know this, and neither did He tell you. However, for mankind, everything He does is very important. As far as God is concerned, it is something He must do. In His heart there is something of the utmost importance He needs to do that far exceeds any of these things. That is, from the time a person is born up to the present day, God must guarantee their safety. When you hear these words, you may feel somewhat puzzled. You may ask, “Is this safety so important?” Well, what is the literal meaning of “safety”? Maybe you understand it to mean peace or maybe you understand it to mean being free from disasters and calamities, living well, and living a normal life. But in your hearts, you must know that it is not so simple. So what exactly is this thing that I have been talking about, that God has to do? What does safety mean to God? Is it really a guarantee of the normal meaning of “safety”? No. So what is it that God does? This “safety” means that you will not be devoured by Satan. Is this important? Not being devoured by Satan—does this concern your safety or not? Yes, this concerns your personal safety, and there can be nothing more important. Once you have been devoured by Satan, your soul and your flesh no longer belong to God. God will no longer save you. God gives up on such souls and gives up on such people. So I say the most important thing that God has to do is to guarantee this safety of yours, to guarantee that you will not be devoured by Satan. This is very important, is it not? So why can you not answer? It seems like you are unable to feel God’s immense grace!

God does much more besides guaranteeing people’s safety, guaranteeing that they will not be devoured by Satan. That is, when God is going to choose and save someone, He does a great deal of preparatory work. Firstly, God makes meticulous arrangements regarding what kind of personality you will have, what kind of family you will be born into, who your parents will be, how many brothers and sisters you will have, and what the situation, economic status, and conditions of the family you are born into will be. Do you know what kinds of families the majority of God’s chosen people are born into? Among them, are there prominent families? We cannot say for sure that there are no prominent families. There may be some, but they are very few. Are there any families of exceptional wealth, like families of billionaires or multimillionaires? No, there are almost no families of this kind. So what kind of family does God arrange for most of these people? (Ordinary families.) So which families may be considered “ordinary families”? They include working families—that is, ones that depend on wages to survive, can afford the basic necessities, and are not overly well-off; they also include farming families. Farmers depend on planting crops for their food, have grain to eat and clothes to wear, and do not go hungry or freeze. Then there are some families that run small businesses; there are also some where the parents are intellectuals, and this type of family can also be counted as an ordinary family. There are also some parents who are at most office workers or minor government officials, who also cannot be counted as belonging to prominent families. Most are born into ordinary families, and this is all arranged by God. That is to say, first of all, this environment that you live in is not the family of substantial means that people might imagine, and this is a family decided for you by God, and the majority of people live within the limits of this kind of family. So what about social status? The economic conditions of the majority of parents are average and they do not have high social status—for them it is good just to have a job. Do they include governors? Or national presidents? No, right? At most they are people such as small business managers or owners of small businesses. Their social status is middling, and their economic conditions are average. Another factor is the family’s living environment. First of all, there are no parents among these families who would clearly influence their children into walking the path of divination and fortune telling; there are very few who engage in such things. Most parents are quite normal. At the same time that God chooses people, He establishes this kind of environment for them, which is greatly beneficial to His salvation of people. On the surface, it looks like God has done nothing earthshaking for man; He just carries out each deed unobtrusively, inconspicuously, and quietly. But in fact, everything that God does is laying a foundation for your salvation, preparing the road ahead and all the necessary conditions for your salvation. Next, God brings every person back before Him, each at a specified time: It is then that you hear God’s voice; it is then that you come before Him. By the time that this happens, some people have already become parents themselves, while others are still somebody’s child. In other words, some people have gotten married and had children while some are still single, not yet having started their own families. But regardless of how things may be, when God’s gospel and His words reach you, this is something that has long been predestined by God. God has determined an environment and decided on a certain person to preach the gospel to you in a certain context, so that you may hear God’s voice and accept Him in a certain environment. All of this is predestined by God. God has already prepared for you all the necessary conditions. In this way, people unknowingly come to be in God’s presence and return to His house. They also unknowingly follow God into each step of His work, entering into each step of God’s ways of work which He has prepared for them. What ways does God use when He does things for man at this time? First, the bare minimum is the care and protection that man enjoys. Apart from this, God sets up various people, events, and things so that through them man may see His existence and His deeds. For example, there are some people who come to believe in God because someone in their family is sick. When others preach the gospel to them, they start to believe in God—they come to believe in God under these circumstances. So who arranged these circumstances? (God.) There are some families where everybody becomes a believer by means of illness, while there are others where a few people in the family become believers. On the surface, it may seem that someone in your family has an illness, but it is in fact a condition bestowed on you so that you may come before God—this is God’s kindness. For some people, family life is always hard and not peaceful, and by chance someone preaches the gospel to them, and says that they’ll have peace if they believe in the Lord Jesus, and so, without realizing it, they come to believe in God under very natural circumstances. Is this not a type of condition? And is the fact that their family is not at peace a grace granted them by God? There are also some who come to believe in God for other reasons. There are different reasons and different paths for coming to believe in God, but no matter why you start to believe in Him, it is all actually arranged and guided by God. At first, God employs various ways to choose you and to bring you into His family. This is the grace that God bestows on every person.

In God’s current stage of work in the last days, He no longer just bestows grace and blessings on man like He did before, nor does He coax man to move forward. During this stage of work, what has man seen from all the aspects of God’s work that he has experienced? Man has seen God’s love and God’s judgment and chastisement. During this period of time, God also uses the method of providing for, supporting, enlightening, and guiding man to help man gradually come to understand His intentions, to understand the words He speaks and the truth He bestows on man. When man is weak, when he is negative, when he feels he has nowhere to turn, God will use His words to comfort and exhort man, so that man’s small stature can gradually grow strong, and he can become positive and willing to cooperate with God. But when man rebels against God or resists Him, revealing corruption, God will show no mercy in chastening and disciplining man. However, God will show tolerance and patience for man’s foolishness, ignorance, weakness, and immaturity. In this way, through all the work God does for man, man gradually matures, grows up, and comes to understand God’s intentions, comes to understand certain truths, to understand what things are positive and what are negative, to understand what wickedness and darkness are. God does not take a single approach of always chastening and disciplining man, nor one of always showing tolerance and patience to man. Rather He provides for each person in different ways at their different stages and according to their different statures and caliber. He does many things on man and pays a great price for man; man perceives nothing of these things or of the price, but all that God does is carried out on every single person in a practical manner. God’s love is practical. Through the grace of God, man avoids one disaster after another, and due to man’s weakness, God has time and time again shown man tolerance. The judgment and chastisement of God allow people to gradually come to know mankind’s corruption and satanic essence. That which God provides to mankind, and His enlightenment and His guiding of mankind, allow people to understand more and more the essence of truth, and to increasingly understand what people need, what path they should take, what they live for, the value and meaning of their existence, and how to walk the path ahead. All these things that God does are inseparable from His one original purpose. What, then, is this purpose? Why does God use these methods to carry out His work on man? What result does He want to achieve? In other words, what does He want to see in man? What does He want to obtain from man? What God wants to see is that man’s heart can be revived. These methods that He uses to work on man are a continual effort to awaken the heart of man, to awaken man’s spirit, to enable man to understand from where he came, who is guiding, supporting, and providing for him, and who has allowed man to live until the present day; they are a means to enable man to understand who is the Creator, whom he should worship, what kind of path he should walk, and in what way man should come before God; they are a means to gradually revive the heart of man, so that man understands God’s heart, comprehends God’s heart, and grasps the painstaking intention behind His work to save man. When man’s heart is revived, man no longer wants to live within degenerate, corrupt dispositions, but wants instead to pursue the truth in order to satisfy God. When man’s heart has been awakened, man is then able to tear himself fully away from Satan. No longer will he be grievously harmed by Satan, no longer controlled or fooled by it. Instead, man can proactively cooperate with God’s work and His words to satisfy the heart of God, thus attaining fear of God and shunning evil. This is the original purpose of God’s work.

The discussion we just held about the wickedness of Satan makes everyone feel that man lives amid great unhappiness and that the life of man is beset with misfortune. But now when I am talking about the holiness of God and the work that He performs on man, how does that make you feel? (Very happy.) We can see now that everything God does, all that He painstakingly arranges for man, is immaculate. Everything God does is without error, meaning it is faultless, needing no one to correct, advise, or make any changes to it. All that God does for every individual is beyond doubt; He leads everyone by the hand, looks after you with every passing moment, and has never once left your side. As people grow up in this kind of environment and with this kind of background, could we say that people in fact grow up in the palm of God’s hand? (Yes.) So now do you still feel a sense of loss? Does anyone still feel negative? Does anyone feel that God has rejected mankind? (No.) So what exactly has God done then? (He has protected mankind.) The painstaking thought that God puts into everything He does is beyond question. What is more, in carrying out His work, He has always done so unconditionally. He has never required that any one of you know the price that He pays for you so as to make you feel deeply grateful to Him. Has God ever required this of you? (No.) You have all lived for so many years, and almost every one of you has encountered many dangerous situations and faced many temptations in your lifetime. This is because Satan is standing beside you, its eyes constantly fixed on you. Satan delights in seeing you struck by disaster, met with calamity; it would love for nothing to go right for you, for you to become entangled in its web. As for what God is doing, He is protecting you with each passing moment, steering you away from one misfortune after another and from one disaster after another. This is why I say that everything about man—including peace and joy, blessings and personal safety—is in fact all under God’s control; it is God who guides and holds sovereignty over the fate of every individual. But with God, is there any such concept as “God having status,” as people say? Does God declare to you, “I am the greatest of all. It is I that take charge of you. You must beg Me for mercy, and if you do not behave yourself, I will strike you down”? Has God ever threatened mankind in this way? (No.) Has He ever said, “A corrupt mankind may be treated however I wish; treating them casually would be good enough. I do not need to make sound arrangements for them”? Does God think in this way? Has God acted in this way? (No.) On the contrary, God’s treatment of each and every person is very earnest and responsible. He treats you more responsibly even than you treat yourself. Is this not so? God does not speak empty words, He does not assert His status and flaunt His credentials, and He’s not perfunctory with people. Instead He silently does the things He Himself intends to do in a real and practical way. What these things bring to man are blessings, peace, and joy; they allow man now to be peaceful and happy before God’s eyes and in God’s house, and allow man to live before God with normal reason and normal thinking to accept God’s salvation. So has God ever been duplicitous with man in His work? Has He ever made a false display of kindness, using a few pleasantries to deal with man in a perfunctory way, and then turning His back? (No.) Has God ever said one thing and then done another? Has God ever made empty promises and boasted, telling people He can do this for them or help do that for them, but then vanished? (No.) There is no deceit in God, no falsity. God is faithful, and He is true in everything He does. He is the only One that people can count on; He is the God to whom people can entrust their lives and everything they have. Since there is no deceit in God, could we say that God is the most sincere? (Yes.) Of course we can! Though the word “sincere” is too feeble, too human when applied to God, there is no way around it. These are the limits of human language. Though it is somewhat unfitting to call God “sincere,” we will nonetheless use this word for the time being. God is faithful and sincere. So when we talk about these aspects, what are we referring to? Are we referring to the differences between God and man and the differences between God and Satan? Yes, we could say that. This is because man cannot see one trace of Satan’s corrupt dispositions in God. Am I correct in saying this? Can you say amen to this? (Amen!) None of Satan’s wicked disposition is revealed in God. All that God does and reveals is entirely of benefit to man, entirely of help to man, and entirely provision and life. What it brings to man is the way and direction. God is not corrupt and, furthermore, looking now at everything that God does, can we say that God is holy? Since God has none of the corrupt dispositions of mankind, nor anything akin to the satanic essence of corrupt mankind, from this point of view we can totally say that God is holy. God does not reveal any corruption, and at the same time as God works, what God reveals is His own essence. This entirely confirms that God Himself is holy. Do you see this? To know God’s holy essence, let us look at these two aspects for now: Firstly there is no trace of corrupt dispositions in God, and secondly the essence of God’s work on man allows man to see God’s own essence, and this essence is entirely positive. For everything God does on man brings man positive things. First of all, God requires man to be honest—is this not a positive thing? God requires man to have wisdom—is this not positive? God makes man able to discern between good and evil—is this not positive? He allows man to understand the meaning and value of human existence—is this not positive? He allows man to see into the essence of people, events, and things in accordance with the truth—is this not positive? All of these are positive. And the result of all of this is that man is no longer misled by Satan, will no longer continue to be grievously harmed or controlled by Satan. In other words, these things allow people to completely free themselves from the corruption of Satan, and therefore gradually move toward the path of fearing God and shunning evil. How far have you walked on this path now? It is hard to say, is it not? But at the least do you now have an initial understanding of how Satan corrupts man, of which things are wicked and which things are negative? You have at the least now set foot on the right path in life. Is this safe to say? It is, completely.

There is something that must be fellowshipped about the holiness of God. Based on all that you have heard and understood, who among you can say what the holiness of God is? What does the holiness of God of which I speak refer to? Think about it for a second. Is God’s truthfulness part of His holiness? Is God’s faithfulness part of His holiness? Is God’s selflessness part of His holiness? Is His humility part of His holiness? Is His love for man part of His holiness? God freely bestows the truth and the life on man—is this part of His holiness? They are, all of them. All this that God reveals is unique and does not exist within corrupt humanity, and nor can it be seen among corrupt humanity. It cannot be seen during the process of Satan’s corruption of man, it cannot be seen in the corrupt dispositions of Satan, and not the slightest trace of it can be seen in the essence or nature of Satan. All that God has and is, is unique; only God Himself has and is possessed of this kind of essence. At this point in our discussion, have any of you seen among mankind anyone as holy as what I have just described? (No.) Then among the idols, celebrities, and great figures you worship among mankind, is there anyone this holy? (No.) So when we now say that God’s holiness is unique, is this worthy of the name? It is indeed worthy of the name, and there is also a practical side to saying this. Is there any discrepancy between the holiness I am speaking of now and the holiness you previously thought of and imagined? (Yes.) There is a very large discrepancy. What do people mean when they often talk about holiness? (Some outward behaviors.) A behavior, or a description and depiction of something—when people say it is holy, they merely mean that it looks clean, beautiful, and pleasing to the eye; it has no actual content of holiness. This is one aspect, the doctrinal side. Aside from this, what is the practical side of what people believe to be holiness? Is it not mostly still the content of holiness that people imagine or judge it to be? For example, some Buddhists pass away while practicing, departing while they sit there asleep. Some people say they have become holy and flown to heaven. This, too, is a kind of imagination. Then there are others who think that a fairy floating down from heaven is holy. Actually, generally speaking, people’s concept of the word “holy” is just a kind of hollow fantasy and theory, with fundamentally no actual content to it, and further, nothing to do with the essence of holiness. The essence of holiness is true love, but more than this, it is the essence of truth, righteousness and light. The word “holy” is only appropriate when applied to God; nothing in creation is worthy of being called “holy.” Man must understand this. From now on, we will only apply the word “holy” to God. Is this appropriate? (Yes, it is.)

The Tactics That Satan Employs to Corrupt Man

Let us now go back to talk about what tactics Satan employs to corrupt man. We have just talked about the various ways in which God works on man, all of which every one of you can experience for yourselves, so I will not speak in too much detail. But in your hearts, it is perhaps unclear what tactics Satan employs to corrupt man, or at the very least you don’t have a specific understanding of them. Would it be beneficial for Me to speak about this again? Do you want to learn about this? Maybe some of you will ask, “Why talk about Satan again? The moment Satan is mentioned, we become angry, and when we hear this we feel bothered all over.” No matter how uncomfortable it makes you, you must face the facts. These things must be said plainly and made clear, which helps man gain understanding; otherwise man cannot really break away from the influence of Satan.

We have previously discussed the five ways in which Satan corrupts man, which include Satan’s tactics. The ways in which Satan corrupts man are merely the surface layer; the most insidious are the tactics hiding under this surface with which Satan achieves its goals. What are these tactics? Go ahead, summarize them. (It cheats, seduces, and threatens.) The more of these tactics you list, the closer you get. It looks as though you have been deeply harmed by Satan and have strong feelings on the subject. (It also uses sweet talk, conditioning, and forceful occupation.) Forceful occupation—this leaves an especially deep impression. People are afraid of Satan’s forceful occupation. Are there any other tactics? (It uses violence to brutalize people, makes threats and inducements, and it lies.) Lying is one of the things it does. Satan lies so it can cheat you. What is the nature of lying? Is lying not the same as cheating? The goal of telling lies is in fact to cheat you. Are there any other tactics? Tell Me all of Satan’s tactics that you know of. (It lures people, brutalizes them, blinds them, and misleads them.) Most of you feel the same way about this misleading. What else? (It controls man, takes hold of man, terrorizes man, and keeps man from believing in God.) I know the overall meaning of the things that you are telling Me, and this is good. You all know something about this, so let us now make a summary of these tactics.

There Are Six Primary Tactics That Satan Employs to Corrupt Man

The first is control and coercion. That is, Satan will do everything possible to take control of your heart. What does “coercion” mean? It means using threatening and forceful tactics to make you obey it, making you think of the consequences if you do not obey. You are afraid and dare not defy it, so you give in.

The second is cheating and trickery. What does “cheating and trickery” entail? Satan makes up some legends and lies, tricking you into believing them. It never tells you that man was created by God, but neither does it say directly that you were not made by God. It does not mention the word “God” at all, but instead uses something else as a substitute, using this thing to mislead you so that you basically have no idea of the existence of God. Of course, this “trickery” includes many aspects, not just this one.

The third is forceful indoctrination. With what are people forcefully indoctrinated? Does forceful indoctrination happen when people have a choice? Is it done with man’s consent? Definitely not. Even if you do not consent, there is nothing you can do about it. Without you knowing it, Satan indoctrinates you, instilling you with its thinking, its laws of survival, and its essence.

The fourth is threats and inducements. That is, Satan employs various tactics to cause you to accept it, follow it, and work in its service. It will do anything to achieve its goals. It sometimes gives you small favors, all the while luring you into committing sin. If you do not follow it, it will make you suffer and torment you, and use various ways to attack and plot against you.

The fifth is misleading and paralysis. “Misleading and paralysis” is when Satan instills in people some sweet-sounding statements and ideas that align with their notions and seem right but are actually wrong. It seems like it is showing consideration for your flesh, your life, and your future, but actually its goal is to fool you. It then paralyzes you so that you do not know what is right and what is wrong, so that you are unwittingly tricked and come under its control.

The sixth is the ravaging of body and mind. What part of man does Satan ravage? Satan ravages your mind, making you powerless to resist, meaning that, little by little, your heart turns toward Satan in spite of yourself. It instills these things in you every day, and uses these ideas and cultures to influence and condition you every day, breaking down your will little by little, so that you no longer desire to be a good person, so that you no longer wish to stand up for what you call “justice.” Unknowingly, you no longer have the willpower to swim against the current, but instead flow along with it. “Ravaging” means Satan tormenting people so much that they resemble neither human beings nor ghosts. This is when Satan takes the opportunity to devour them.

Each one of these tactics that Satan employs to corrupt man renders man powerless to resist; any one of them can be deadly to man. In other words, anything Satan does and any tactic it employs can cause you to degenerate, can bring you under Satan’s control, and can mire you in a quagmire of sin. Such are the tactics Satan employs to corrupt man.

As for why Satan is said to be wicked, we must also look at what the consequences of Satan’s corruption of man are and which dispositions and essences it brings to man, in order to confirm Satan’s wickedness. You all know something about this, so speak up. What are the consequences of Satan’s corruption of people? Which corrupt dispositions do they express and reveal? (Arrogance and conceit, selfishness and despicableness, crookedness and deceitfulness, insidiousness and maliciousness, and a total lack of humanity.) On the whole, we can say they have no humanity. Now, let other brothers and sisters speak. (Once man has been corrupted by Satan, he is most typically arrogant and self-righteous, self-important and conceited, greedy and selfish. I feel that these are the most serious issues.) (After people have been corrupted by Satan, they stop at nothing to gain material items and wealth. And they even become hostile to God, resist God, rebel against God, and they lose the conscience and reason that man should possess.) What you have said is all basically the same, albeit with some minor differences; some of you have simply included more minor details. To summarize, the things that stand out most about corrupt humanity are arrogance, deceitfulness, maliciousness, and selfishness. However, you have all overlooked one thing. People have no conscience, they have lost their reason and have no humanity—but there is another highly important thing that you have not mentioned, which is “betrayal.” The ultimate consequence of these dispositions that exist in any man once they have been corrupted by Satan is their betrayal of God. No matter what God says to people or what work He does on them, even when they know it is the truth, they ignore it. That is, they no longer acknowledge God and they betray Him; this is the consequence of Satan’s corruption of man. All of man’s corrupt dispositions are shared by mankind. Among the ways that Satan uses to corrupt man—the knowledge people learn, the science they know, the superstitions and traditional cultures they are familiar with, as well as social trends—is there a single thing that can enable man to know what is just and what is unjust? Is there anything that can help man to know what is holy and what is wicked? Are there any standards by which to measure these things? (No.) There are no standards and no basis. Even though people may know the word “holy,” there is no one who actually knows what is holy. So can these things that Satan brings to man help him understand the truth? Can they help man live with more humanity? Can they help man live in such a way that he is able to worship God more? (No.) This is obvious. These things cannot help man worship God or understand the truth, nor can they help man know what holiness and wickedness are. Conversely, man becomes more and more degenerate, straying further and further from God. This is the reason why we say Satan is wicked. Having dissected so much of Satan’s wicked substance, have you seen any element of holiness in Satan, either in its substance or in the essence of Satan that you have come to know? (No.) That much is for certain. So have you seen any aspect of Satan’s essence that shares any similarity with God? (No.) Does any expression of Satan share any similarity with God? (No.) So now I want to ask you: Using your own words, what exactly is the holiness of God? First of all, what are the words “the holiness of God” said in connection with? Are they said in connection with the essence of God? Or are they said in connection with some aspect of His disposition? (They are said in connection with the essence of God.) Let us clarify what the topic we are discussing ultimately comes down to: These words are said in connection with the essence of God. First of all, we have used Satan’s wickedness as a foil to the essence of God, so have you seen any of Satan’s essence in God? What about any of mankind’s essence? (No, we haven’t. In God there is no arrogance, no selfishness, and no betrayal, and from this we see the revelation of God’s holy essence.) Is there anything else to add? (God has no trace of the corrupt dispositions of Satan. What Satan has is entirely negative, while what God has is nothing but positive. We can see that God has always been at our side, watching over us and protecting us, from the time when we were very small until the present day, and especially when we have been confused and downcast. There is no deceit in God, no cheating. He speaks clearly and plainly, and this too is the true essence of God.) Very good! (We can see none of the corrupt dispositions of Satan in God, no duplicity, no boasting, no empty promises, and no deceit. God is the only One that man can believe in. God is faithful and sincere. From the work of God, we can see that God tells people to be honest, requires them to have wisdom, makes them able to tell good from evil and have discernment of various people, events, and things. In this we can see that God is holy.) Have you finished? Are you satisfied with what you have said? How much understanding of God is really in your hearts? And how much do you comprehend the holiness of God? I know that each and every one of you has in your heart, to varying degrees, some perceptual understanding. This is because every individual can feel it when God is working on them and, in varying degrees, they obtain many things from God—be it grace, or blessings, or enlightenment and illumination, or judgment and chastisement—and they do have some simple understanding of the essence of God.

Although the holiness of God that we are discussing today may seem strange to most people, regardless of this, we have now begun this topic, and as you walk the road ahead you will gain a deeper understanding. It requires you to gradually feel and understand during your own experience. For now, your perceptual understanding of God’s essence still requires a long period of time to perceive it firsthand, to confirm it, to feel it, and to experience it, until one day you will know, from the very center of your heart, that “the holiness of God” means that God’s essence is flawless, that God’s love is selfless, all that God bestows upon man is selfless, and you will come to know that God’s holiness is impossible to criticize and irreproachable. These aspects of God’s essence are not words He uses to flaunt His identity, but rather God uses His essence to treat each and every individual in a quiet and sincere manner. In other words, the essence of God is not empty, nor is it a theory or a doctrine, much less is it a kind of knowledge. It is not a kind of education for man; instead it is the true revelation of God’s own actions and the essence of what God has and is as revealed from Him. This essence is something man should know and come to understand, because everything God does and every word He says is of great value and great significance to every single person. When you come to understand the holiness of God, you can then really believe in God; when you come to understand the holiness of God, you can then really appreciate the true meaning of the words “God Himself, the Unique.” You will no longer imagine that there are other paths besides this one that you could choose to walk, and you will no longer be willing to betray everything that God has arranged for you. Because the essence of God is holy, that means that only God can allow you to embark on the right, bright path in life; only God can allow you to understand the meaning of being alive; only God can allow you to live out real humanity and both possess and understand the truth. Only God can allow you to gain life from the truth. Only God Himself can help you shun evil and keep you from the grievous harm and control of Satan. Besides God, no one and nothing can save you from the sea of suffering so that you suffer no longer. This is determined by the essence of God. Only God Himself saves you so selflessly; only God is responsible, right to the very end, for your future, for your destiny, and for your life, and only He arranges all things for you. This is something that no created or non-created being can achieve. Because no created or non-created being possesses an essence like the essence of God, no person or thing has the ability to save you or to lead you. This is the importance of God’s essence to man. Perhaps you feel that these words I have said merely help you a little on a doctrinal level. But if you pursue the truth, if you love the truth, then in your future experience, these words will not only change your destiny, and, even more so, they will lead you onto the right path in life. You understand this, do you not? So do you now have some interest in knowing the essence of God? (Yes.) It is good that you are interested. For today, this is where we will finish our fellowship topic of knowing the holiness of God.

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I would like to talk to you about something that you did at the beginning of our gathering today that surprised Me. Some of you were perhaps nurturing a sense of gratitude, perhaps you were feeling grateful, and you had certain thoughts, which brought about a corresponding action. What you did was not something that needs reproaching; it is neither right nor wrong. But I would like you to understand something. What is it that I want you to understand? First, I would like to ask you about what you did just now. Was it prostrating or kneeling to worship? Can anyone tell Me? (We believe it was prostrating.) You believe it was prostrating, so what then is the meaning of prostration? (Worship.) So then, what is kneeling to worship? I have not fellowshipped about this with you before, but today I feel it is necessary to do so. Do you prostrate at your usual gatherings? (No.) Do you prostrate when you say your prayers? (Yes.) Do you prostrate each time you pray, when the situation allows? (Yes.) That is good. But what I would like you to understand today is that God only accepts the kneeling of two types of people. We do not need to consult the Bible or the deeds of any spiritual figures. Instead, here and now, I will give you a piece of accurate information. Firstly, prostration and kneeling to worship are not the same thing. Why does God accept the kneeling of those who prostrate themselves? It is because God wants to call someone; when this person is called and accepts God’s commission, God will allow them to prostrate themselves before Him. This is the first type of person. As for the second type, God accepts the kneeling to worship of those who fear God and shun evil. There are only these two types of people. So which type do you belong to? Are you able to say? This is the truth of the matter, though it may hurt your feelings a little. There is nothing to say about people kneeling during prayer—this is proper and as it should be, because when people pray it is mostly making supplication to God, opening their hearts to God, and coming face to face with Him. It is communication and exchange, heart to heart with God. But if kneeling is just a formality, then it is not acceptable. I do not mean to reproach you for what you have done today. I just want you to be clear about and understand what this principle is—you know this, do you not? (Yes, we know.) Do not do this again. But do people have any opportunity to prostrate and kneel to worship before the face of God? It is not that there will never be this opportunity. Sooner or later the day will come, but the time is not now. Do you see? Does this make you upset? (No.) That is good. Maybe these words will motivate or inspire you so that you can know in your hearts what the current situation between God and man is and what kind of relationship exists now between God and man. Although we have recently talked and exchanged some more, man’s knowledge of God is still far from sufficient. Man still has a long way to go on this road of seeking to know God. I do not wish for you to do this as a matter of urgency, or to rush to express these kinds of wishes or feelings. What you did today may have been a revelation of your true feelings, or an expression of your true feelings, and I sensed them. So while you were doing it, I just wanted to stand up and greet you, because I wish each of you well. So, in My every word and every action, I do My utmost to help you, to guide you, so that you can have an accurate understanding and an accurate view of all things. You can comprehend this, can you not? (Yes.) That is good. Although people have some understanding of each aspect of God’s dispositions, each aspect of what God has and is, and the work that God does, the majority of this understanding remains at the level of words, of doctrines, and of thoughts. What people lack the most is the real knowledge and insight that comes from actual experience. Even though God uses various methods to awaken people’s hearts, the degree to which people can truly awaken depends on their pursuits—in short, you all still have a long way to go. I do not want to see anyone feeling as though God has left them out in the cold, that God has abandoned them or disdained them. All I want to see is everyone on the path of pursuing the truth and seeking to know God, resolutely marching forward without hesitating or turning back, without any misgivings or burdens. No matter what wrongs you have committed, no matter what wrong turns you have taken or how you have transgressed, do not let these become burdens or excess baggage that you have to carry with you in your pursuit of knowledge of God. Continue marching onward. At all times, God’s intention to save man never changes. This is the most precious aspect of the essence of God. Do you feel a little better now? (Yes.) I hope that you can approach all things and the words that I have spoken correctly. Let us end this fellowship here, then. Goodbye!

January 11, 2014