Bible Verses for Reference:

“For God commanded, saying, Honor your father and mother: and, He that curses father or mother, let him die the death. But you say, Whoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatever you might be profited by me; And honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition. You hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draws near to Me with their mouth, and honors Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:4–9).

“Not every one that said to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that follows the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and in Your name have cast out devils, and in Your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from Me, you that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:21–23).

Relevant Words of God:

The standard by which humans judge other humans is based on their behavior; those whose behavior is good are righteous, while those whose behavior is abominable are evil. The standard by which God judges humans is based on whether their essence submits to Him or not; one who submits to God is a righteous person, while one who does not is an enemy and an evil person, regardless of whether this person’s behavior is good or bad and regardless of whether their speech is correct or incorrect. Some people wish to use good deeds to obtain a good destination in the future, and some people wish to use fine words to procure a good destination. Everyone mistakenly believes that God determines people’s outcomes based on their behavior or their speech; many people therefore wish to take advantage of this to finagle momentary grace for themselves. The people who will survive in the time of rest to come will all have endured the day of suffering and borne witness for God; they will all be people who have fulfilled their duties and who have deliberately submitted to God. Those who merely wish to use the opportunity of rendering service to avoid practicing the truth will not remain. God has appropriate standards for the arrangement of the outcome of every individual; He does not simply make these decisions according to one’s words and conduct, nor does He make them based on how one acts during a single period of time. He will absolutely not be lenient with regard to all of one’s evil deeds due to their past service for Him, nor will He spare one from death because they expended themselves for Him for a while. No one can evade retribution for their evil, and no one can cover up their evil deeds and thereby evade the suffering of perishing. If people can truly fulfill their own duties, it means that they are eternally loyal to God and not seeking rewards, regardless of whether they receive blessings or suffer woe. If people are loyal to God when they see blessings, but lose their loyalty when they cannot see any blessings, and if these people—who once labored for God loyally—are ultimately still unable to bear witness for God or fulfill the duties incumbent upon them, then such people will still be those that perish. In short, evil people cannot survive forever, nor can they enter into rest; only the righteous will be the masters in rest.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God and Man Will Enter Into Rest Together

Of principal importance in following God is that everything should be according to the current words of God: Whether you are pursuing life entry or the satisfaction of God’s intentions, everything should be centered around the current words of God. If what you fellowship and seek to enter are not centered around the current words of God, then you are a person who is outside the words of God, and you absolutely do not have the work of the Holy Spirit. What God wants are people who follow His footsteps. No matter how wonderful and pure what you understood before is, God does not want it, and if you are unable to let go of such things, then they will be a tremendous obstacle to your entry in the future. All those who are able to follow the Holy Spirit’s light of today are blessed. The people of ages and generations past also followed the footsteps of God, yet they could not keep following until today; this is the blessing of the people of the last days. Those who can follow the present work of the Holy Spirit, and who are able to follow the footsteps of God, following God wherever He leads them—these are people who are blessed by God. Those who do not follow the present work of the Holy Spirit have not entered into the work of God’s words, and no matter how much they work, or how great their suffering, or how much they run about, none of it means anything to God, and He will not approve of them. Today, all those who follow the current words of God are in the stream of the Holy Spirit; those who are outside of the current words of God are outside of the stream of the Holy Spirit, and such people are not approved of by God. Service that is outside of the current words of the Holy Spirit is service that is of the flesh, and of notions, and it is impossible for it to be in accordance with God’s intentions. If people live among religious notions, then they are unable to do anything that is in accordance with God’s intentions, and even if they serve God, they serve in the midst of their imaginings and notions, and are totally incapable of serving in accordance with the intentions of God. Those who are unable to follow the work of the Holy Spirit do not understand the intentions of God, and those who do not understand the intentions of God cannot serve God. God wants service that is in accordance with His intentions; He does not want service that is of notions and the flesh. If people are incapable of following the steps of the Holy Spirit’s work, then they live amid notions. The service of such people disrupts and disturbs, and such service runs contrary to God. Thus those who are unable to follow the footsteps of God are incapable of serving God; those who are unable to follow the footsteps of God most certainly oppose God, and are certainly incapable of being compatible with God. “Following the work of the Holy Spirit” means understanding the present intentions of God, and being able to act in accordance with the present requirements of God, to submit to and follow the God of today, and to enter in accordance with the newest words of God. Only this is someone who follows the work of the Holy Spirit and is in the stream of the Holy Spirit. Such people are not only capable of receiving God’s approval and seeing God, but can also know God’s disposition from the newest work of God, and can know man’s notions and rebelliousness, and man’s nature and essence, from His newest work; furthermore, they are able to gradually achieve changes in their disposition during their service. Only people such as this are those who are able to gain God, and who have genuinely found the true way. Those who are eliminated by the work of the Holy Spirit are people who are incapable of following the newest work of God, and who turn against the newest work of God. That such people openly oppose God is because God has done new work, and because the image of God is not the same as that in their notions—as a result of this, they openly oppose God and pass judgment upon God, which results in God spurning them. Possessing the knowledge of the newest work of God is no easy matter, but if people can purposefully submit to the work of God and seek the work of God, then they will have the chance to see God, and will have the chance to gain the newest guidance of the Holy Spirit. Those who intentionally oppose the work of God cannot receive the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit or the guidance of God. Thus, whether or not people can receive the newest work of God depends on the grace of God, as well as on their pursuit and their intentions.

All who are able to submit to the current words of the Holy Spirit are blessed. It does not matter how people used to be, or how the Holy Spirit used to work in them—all those who have gained the newest work of God are the most blessed, and all those who are unable to follow the newest work today will be eliminated.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Know God’s Newest Work and Follow His Footsteps

In each stage of God’s work there are also corresponding requirements of man. All those who are within the stream of the Holy Spirit are possessed of the presence and discipline of the Holy Spirit, and those who are not within the stream of the Holy Spirit are under the rule of Satan, and without any of the work of the Holy Spirit. People who are in the stream of the Holy Spirit are those who accept the new work of God, and they are those who cooperate with the new work of God. If those who are within this stream are incapable of cooperating, and unable to put into practice the truth required by God during this time, then they will be disciplined, and at worst will be forsaken by the Holy Spirit. Since they have accepted the new work of the Holy Spirit, they live within the stream of the Holy Spirit, receiving the care and protection of the Holy Spirit. Those who are willing to put the truth into practice are enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and those who are unwilling to put the truth into practice are disciplined by the Holy Spirit, and may even be punished. Regardless of what kind of person they are, provided that they are within the stream of the Holy Spirit, God will take responsibility for all those who accept His new work for the sake of His name. Those who glorify His name and are willing to put His words into practice will receive His blessings; those who rebel against Him and do not put His words into practice will receive His punishment. People who are in the stream of the Holy Spirit are those who accept the new work, and since they have accepted the new work, they should cooperate with God accordingly, and should not act as rebels who do not perform their duty. This is God’s only requirement of man. Not so for the people who do not accept the new work: They are outside the stream of the Holy Spirit, and the discipline and reproach of the Holy Spirit do not apply to them at all. All day, these people live within the flesh, they live within their minds. All that they do is according to the doctrines produced by their own mental analysis and research; it is not what is required by the Holy Spirit’s new work, much less is it cooperation with God. Those who do not accept the new work of God are bereft of the presence of God, and even more so devoid of the blessings and protection of God. Most of their words and actions hold to the requirements of the Holy Spirit’s past work; they are doctrines, not truths. Such doctrines and regulations are sufficient to prove that the gathering together of these people is nothing but religion; they are not the chosen people, or the objects of God’s work. Their gathering together can only be called a religious hodgepodge; it cannot be called a church. This is an unalterable fact. They do not have the Holy Spirit’s new work; what they do is redolent of religion, what they live out is replete with religion; they do not possess the presence and work of the Holy Spirit, much less are they eligible to receive the discipline or enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. These people are all lifeless corpses, and maggots that are devoid of spirituality. They have no knowledge of man’s rebelliousness and opposition, have no knowledge of all of man’s evildoing, much less do they know all of God’s work and God’s present intentions. They are all ignorant, base people, and they are scum that are unfit to be called believers! Nothing they do has any relevance to the management of God, much less can it impair God’s plans. Their words and actions are extremely disgusting as well as pathetic, and are simply unworthy of mention. Nothing done by those who are not within the stream of the Holy Spirit has anything to do with the new work of the Holy Spirit. Because of this, no matter what they do, they do not have the discipline—much less the enlightenment—of the Holy Spirit. For they are all people who have no love for the truth, and who have been spurned by the Holy Spirit. They are called evildoers because they do as they please, acting on their flesh and waving the banner of God as they do so, and because they are deliberately hostile to God and act counter to Him as He does His work. Man’s failure to cooperate with God is supremely rebellious in itself, so will not those people who deliberately run counter to God particularly receive their just retribution?

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God’s Work and Man’s Practice

Those Jewish Pharisees, chief priests, and scribes of the Age of Law nominally believed in God, but they turned their backs on His way, and even crucified the incarnate God. Could their belief, then, have gained God’s approval? (No.) God had already characterized them as a religious group. As for those who believe in Jesus, God similarly doesn’t acknowledge them as people who believe in and follow Him. They also believe in the God in heaven, in a nebulous God, and they also amount to a religious group; God does not acknowledge them as members of His church. Why would God condemn the religious world so? It’s because all members of religious groups, especially the high-level leaders of various denominations, don’t have God-fearing hearts, aren’t followers of God’s will, and they are all disbelievers. They do not believe in God’s incarnation, much less do they accept the truth. They never seek God’s work in the last days, nor do they investigate or accept the truths God expresses, and they can even directly condemn and blaspheme the work of God’s incarnation in the last days. One can see clearly in this that they may nominally believe in God, but God does not acknowledge them as believers in Him; He says that they are evildoers, that none of what they do has the least relation to His work of salvation, that they are nonbelievers who are outside of His words. If, in your belief in God, you only pursue having good outward behaviors, and you never seek the truth in any matter but instead comply with and listen to people, will the day not come when you, too, fall into being adherents to religion? Belief in God from within religion cannot attain salvation—why is this, exactly? If you cannot see through to this, it shows that you don’t understand the truth or God’s intentions at all. The most tragic thing that can happen to believers in God is their descending into a religious group and being eliminated by God. This is an unimaginable thing to man, and those who do not understand the truth can never see this matter clearly. Tell Me, when a church has gradually turned into a religion in God’s eyes and become a denomination over the many long years since its inception, are the people in it objects for God’s salvation? Are they members of His house? (No.) They are not. What path is it they walk, these people who nominally believe in the true God, yet are thought by Him to be believers in religion? The path they walk is one on which they bear the banner of belief in God yet never follow His way; it is one on which they believe in Him yet never worship Him, and even forsake Him; it is one on which they claim to believe in God yet resist Him. On paper, they believe in the name of God, in the true God, but in reality, they worship Satan and devils, engage in human enterprises, and establish independent, human kingdoms. That is the path they walk. To look at the path they walk in their belief in God, it is apparent that they are a bunch of disbelievers, a gang of antichrists, a group of Satans and devils that specifically resist God and disrupt His work. That is the essence of the religious world. Does a group of such people have anything to do with God’s management plan for the salvation of man? (No.) If believers in God, however many they may be, have their belief characterized by God as that of a religious group, then these people are not the objects of God’s work and salvation. God has already determined this, and these people cannot be saved. Why do I say this? A group without God’s work or guidance that does not submit to Him or worship Him at all may nominally believe in God, but it is the pastors and elders of religion whom they follow and obey, and the pastors and elders of religion are by their essence of Satan and hypocritical. Therefore, what those people follow and obey are Satans and devils. They claim to believe in God, but in fact, they are being manipulated by man, subject to human orchestrations and mastery. So, in essential terms, what they follow and obey is Satan, and devils, and forces of evil which resist God, and the enemies of God. Would God save a gang of people like this? (No.) Why not? Well, are such people capable of repentance? They will not repent. They engage in human operations and human enterprises under the banner of faith in God, running counter to God’s management plan for the salvation of man, and their ultimate outcome will be that they are spurned by God. It is impossible that God would save these people, and they are incapable of repentance; they have been carried off by Satan, and God hands them over to it. Does whether one’s faith in God might meet with His approval depend on its longevity of years? Does it depend on the sort of rituals one observes or the regulations one upholds? Does God look at human practices? Does He look at their numbers? (No.) What does He look at, then? When God has selected a group of people, on what basis does He measure whether they can be saved, whether He will save them? It is based on whether they can accept the truth; it is based on the path they walk. Though God may not have told man as many truths in the Age of Grace as He does now, and though they were not as specific, He was then still able to make man perfect, and there were still people who could be saved. So, if the people of the current age, who have heard so many truths and who understand God’s intentions, cannot follow His way or embark on the path of salvation, what will their outcome be in the end? Their final outcome will be the same as that of believers in Christianity and Judaism—like them, they will not be able to be saved. This is God’s righteous disposition. It does not matter how many sermons you have heard or how many truths you have understood; if you are still capable of being misled by people—following people and Satan—and you are not able to follow God’s way in the end, nor able to fear Him and shun evil, then someone like this is spurned by God. People in religion may be able to preach a great deal of biblical knowledge, and they may understand some spiritual doctrine, but they cannot submit to God’s work, or practice and experience His words, or worship Him truly, nor can they fear Him and shun evil. They are all hypocrites, not people who truly submit to God. In God’s eyes, such people are defined as a religious group, a human clique, and a dwelling place of Satan. Collectively, they are Satan’s gang, the kingdom of antichrists, and God spurns them entirely.

—The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Only With Fear of God Can One Tread Upon the Path of Salvation

Those who wish to gain life without relying on the truth spoken by Christ are the most ridiculous people on earth, and those who do not accept the way of life brought by Christ are lost in fantasy. And so I say that those who do not accept Christ of the last days shall forever be loathed by God. Christ is man’s gateway to the kingdom in the last days, and there are none who can bypass Him. None may be perfected by God except through Christ. You believe in God, and so you must accept His words and submit to His way. Do not only think of gaining blessings while being unable to accept the truth and the provision of life. Christ comes in the last days so that He may provide all those who sincerely believe in Him with life. This work exists for the sake of concluding the old age and entering the new one, and this work is the path that must be taken by all those who would enter the new age. If you do not acknowledge Christ, and moreover condemn, blaspheme, or persecute Him, then you are bound to burn for eternity and shall never enter the kingdom of God. This is because this Christ is Himself the expression of the Holy Spirit, the expression of God, the One whom God has entrusted to do His work on earth, and so I say that if you cannot accept all that is done by Christ of the last days, then you blaspheme the Holy Spirit. The due retribution for those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit is self-evident to all. I also tell you this: If you resist Christ of the last days, if you reject Christ of the last days, then no one else can bear the consequences for this on your behalf. Furthermore, from that point onward you will never have the chance to gain the approval of God; even if you wish to redeem yourself, you won’t be able to behold the face of God again. This is because what you are resisting is not a human being, what you are rejecting is not some insignificant person, but Christ. Do you know what the consequences of this are? You are not making a small mistake, but committing a heinous sin. And so I advise every person to not bare your fangs and brandish your claws or make arbitrary comments before the truth, for only the truth can bring you life, and nothing except the truth can enable you to be reborn and behold the face of God again.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life