By Liu Na, China

I received a report letter one day in which brothers and sisters claimed that a church leader named Sister Chen Mo was failing to bear a burden in her duty, was unable to resolve people’s issues, didn’t do real work and was a false leader. After reading the letter, I made haste to set up a meeting with the brothers and sisters of that church to get a better understanding of how they assessed Chen Mo. But the reality of the situation didn’t line up with the contents of the letter. The brothers and sisters in that church all said that Chen Mo shouldered responsibilities in doing her duty, actively carried out all the church’s projects, was able to promptly resolve people’s issues and could be said to be doing real work. I thought to myself: “The report letter misrepresented the situation in this church. What’s going on here?”

Later on, when I looked into the issue further, I learned that the report letter had been written by two church members named Zhao Hui and Liu Ying. Their reason for writing the report was that on one occasion they had seen a watering deacon arrive late for watering newcomers, and when they reported this to Chen Mo she hadn’t rebuked the deacon—having learned that he had been late on account of attending to other urgent projects at the time, but was never late again. Zhao and Liu didn’t consider the circumstances and just seized upon the opportunity to judge Chen Mo for not resolving issues, protecting other ranking members and failing to do real work. Moreover, Zhao and Liu wouldn’t let the matter go. They often judged Chen Mo and other deacons during gatherings, saying that they were just protecting each other, that they were not doing real work, and that they were false leaders and workers. This disruption impacted church life and Chen Mo herself sunk into negativity, which further impeded the church’s work. When I heard about Zhao and Liu’s behavior I was reminded of how, when I was a leader in that church a few years earlier, the two of them had teamed up to attack leaders and workers and even called the expulsion of an antichrist “unjust.” The way they were stirring things up was deeply disruptive to church life. Back then, I had just become a leader. It was my first time handling such a situation and I was still relatively new to the faith, so I felt quite constrained and didn’t dare expose them or impose restrictions. The resulting commotion rumbled on for over half a year. It was only when a higher-level leader came and gave fellowship, exposing the nature and consequences of their evil behavior, that they quit stirring up trouble. Because they stopped disrupting church life and claimed that they were ready to repent, they were allowed to stay in the church under supervision. But as it turned out, they were once again causing trouble and disturbances, attacking and judging leaders and workers. Zhao and Liu would often find fault with and condemn leaders and workers, creating chaos within the church and remaining unwilling to repent. Considering their consistent behavior, it was clear that they had the nature essence of evil people. Realizing this, I thought: “This time, I must thoroughly expose and restrict them. I can’t let them keep doing evil and disrupting the church.” But then I also thought: “They like to find fault with leaders, and stir up trouble. What if they catch me saying the wrong thing or making a slipup?” I thought about how, previously, when I was processing an antichrist’s case, the antichrist reported me twice. What would the brothers and sisters think of me if Zhao and Liu reported me and distorted the facts of the situation? Would they suspect that there was something wrong with me or that I was a false leader, given that I had been the subject of repeated reports? What if I were dismissed because of this? The more I thought about it, the more fearful I became, and I couldn’t work up the courage to confront them. I happened to have a lot of other work going on at the time, so I kept putting off the processing of the report letter.

About ten days later, the senior leaders wrote to me asking about my progress with the report letter. When I told them that I still hadn’t fellowshipped with Zhao Hui and Liu Ying, the leaders urged me to handle the matter as quickly as possible. I realized that it would be incredibly irresponsible of me if I didn’t resolve the situation right away, so I decided to write to Zhao and Liu to arrange a time to meet with the two of them and verify their evil behavior. To my surprise, the very next day, I received another letter from them, reporting Chen Mo for failing to do real work and not resolving real issues. Some of the letter’s contents distorted the facts, and some of it needed to be asked about and verified. Seeing how evil they were and how they reported and framed Chen Mo with such an uncompromising attitude, I became a bit fearful and thought: “What will I do if they team up to attack me when I expose them face-to-face? What if they find fault in my work or submit a report letter completely misrepresenting the facts?” The more I thought about it, the more scared I became. Feeling helpless, I prayed to God: “Dear God, faced with evil people disrupting church life, I know I should make a stand and expose them to protect the church’s work, but I feel timid and fearful. Please guide me to practice the truth and not be constrained by these evil people.” I then saw a passage of God’s words that says: “Antichrists have extremely vicious dispositions. If you try to prune them or expose them, they will hate you and sink their teeth into you as if they were venomous snakes. You won’t be able to swing or shake them off no matter how hard you try. When you encounter such antichrists, do you feel afraid? Some people do get scared and say, ‘I don’t dare prune them. They are so fierce, like venomous snakes, and if they wrap their coils around me, I’m finished.’ What kind of people are these? They are too small of stature, they aren’t good for anything, they aren’t Christ’s good soldiers, and they cannot bear witness to God. So, what should you do when you encounter such antichrists? If they threaten you or try to take your life, would you be afraid? … People always fear that antichrists will find leverage to retaliate against them. But aren’t you afraid of offending God and incurring His spurning? If you’re afraid of an antichrist finding leverage to retaliate against you, why not seize the proof of that antichrist’s evil deeds to report and expose them? In doing so, you will earn the approval and support of God’s chosen people, and most importantly, God will remember your good deeds and acts of justice. So, why not do this? God’s chosen people should always bear God’s commission in mind. Cleansing evil people and antichrists away is the most crucial fight in the battle against Satan. If this fight is won, it will become an overcomer’s testimony. Battling against Satans and devils is an experiential testimony that God’s chosen people should have. It’s a truth reality that overcomers must possess. God has bestowed so much truth upon people, has led you for such a long time, and has provided so much for you, for the purpose of you bearing witness and safeguarding the work of the church. It turns out, when evil people and antichrists do evil deeds and disturb the work of the church, you become timid and withdraw, fleeing with your arms over your head—you are a good-for-nothing. You cannot overcome Satans, you have not borne witness, and God detests you. In this critical moment, you must stand up and wage war against Satans, expose the evil deeds of antichrists, condemn and curse them, giving them no place to hide and cleansing them away from the church. Only this can be counted as gaining victory over Satans and ending their fate. You are one of God’s chosen people, a follower of God. You cannot be afraid of challenges; you must act according to the truth principles. This is what it means to be an overcomer. If you are afraid of challenges and make compromises because you fear retaliation from evil people or antichrists, then you are not a follower of God, and you are not one of God’s chosen people. You are a good-for-nothing, inferior even to service-doers” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part Eight)). God’s words cut to the quick—wasn’t I just like the worthless wretches that God spoke of? Given that there were evil people in the church disrupting church life, it was my job as a leader to take a stand in exposing and restricting them, so as to safeguard the work of the church. But at the key moment I became timid and shied away. Knowing that Zhao and Liu often twisted the facts, picked at people’s faults and had attacked me in the past, I feared that if I offended them they’d make trouble again and retaliate against me. So, to protect myself, I put off addressing the issue and allowed them to continue criticizing and attacking leaders and workers and disrupting church life. Where was my testimony? Wasn’t I shielding evil people and harming the church’s interests? God abhors such behavior! Realizing this, I became disgusted with myself and my incredible selfishness. I couldn’t continue being a worthless wretch, shirking my duty and shying away from conflict. I had to take a stand and safeguard the work of the church.

The next day, I called on Zhao and Liu. As soon as they saw me, they started grilling me: “What work are you doing? Are you processing a false leader case? Or did the leaders and workers send you here to fellowship with us?” When I told them I was there to verify the contents of the report letter, they began twisting facts to attack and criticize Chen Mo again, claiming that she often didn’t attend group gatherings, didn’t resolve brothers’ and sisters’ issues and failed to look after newcomers. They were still complaining about how the watering deacon hadn’t been on time for the gathering with newcomers, and said that Chen Mo didn’t do real work. They even slandered her with the accusation that she had condemned and suppressed them when they mentioned some inadequacies of hers. They were being so overbearing that I began to hesitate again: “They are lacking in humanity and are always starting trouble. The leaders and deacons fellowshipped with them about Chen Mo, but they still won’t let it go. If I expose them to their faces now, they might get angry and then who knows what they’ll do.” I felt quite perturbed and even regretted coming to deal with this report letter. I thought to myself: “I can just write a letter to the higher-level leaders to inform them of the situation and let them deal with it. That way I don’t have to confront Zhao and Liu and don’t have to feel all worked up about it.” So, I responded in a perfunctory way to their questions and left in a hurry. Then I wrote a letter to the higher-level leaders about verification of the report letter, and about Zhao and Liu’s behavior. Two days later, the leaders wrote back saying: “You’ve told us about the current issue with Zhao Hui and Liu Ying, but you didn’t mention how you plan to deal with it. You’ve simply foisted the matter onto us. What are your thoughts on the situation?” I felt pretty bad after reading that. I had already established that Zhao and Liu were evil people in essence, given that they continually found fault with, criticized and attacked others, disrupted church life and refused to repent. If they were allowed to remain, the disruption to the work of the church would be even graver. According to principle, they ought to have been promptly cleansed away from the church, but to protect myself I had passed responsibility onto the senior leadership. How truly deceitful of me.

Later on, after reading the following two passages of God’s words, I gained a better understanding of the nature and consequences of my actions. God’s words say: “We often fellowship about and dissect antichrists and evil people, discussing how to discern and recognize them, all for the purpose of fellowshipping clearly about the truth, and of giving people discernment against evil people and antichrists, so that they can expose them. In this way, God’s chosen people will no longer be misled or disturbed by antichrists, and they can break free from Satan’s influence and bondage. However, some people still have philosophies for worldly dealings in their hearts. They don’t try to discern evil people and antichrists; instead, they play the role of people pleasers. They don’t fight against antichrists, don’t set clear boundaries with them, and choose a watered-down, middle-of-the-road approach to safeguard their own interests. They let these devils—these evil people and antichrists—remain in God’s house, inviting peril by nurturing devils. They allow these devils to rampantly disturb the work of the church and the brothers and sisters from doing their duties. What role do such people play? They become a shield for antichrists and accomplices to them. Although you may not do the same things as antichrists or commit the same evil deeds, you have a share in their evil deeds—you are condemned. You tolerate and shelter antichrists, allowing them to wreak havoc around you without taking any action or doing anything. Don’t you have a share in the evil of antichrists? This is why some false leaders and people pleasers become accomplices to antichrists. Anyone who witnesses antichrists disturbing the work of the church but does not expose them or set clear boundaries with them becomes a lackey and accomplice to them. They lack submission and loyalty to God. In the critical moments of battle between God and Satan, they stand on Satan’s side, protecting the antichrists and betraying God. Such people are detestable to God” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part Eight)). “There are some people pleasers in every church. These people pleasers have no discernment about evil people manipulating and sabotaging elections. Even if they do have a little discernment, they ignore it. Their attitude toward any issues that arise in church elections is ‘Let things drift if they do not affect one personally.’ They think that it doesn’t matter who becomes the leader, that it has nothing to do with them. As long as they can happily go about their daily life, they’re fine. What do you think of people like this? Are they people who love the truth? (No.) What kind of people are they? These are people pleasers, and they can also be called disbelievers. These people do not pursue the truth; they only seek to live an easy life, coveting fleshly comfort. They are too selfish and too slick. Are there many such people in society? No matter which political party is in power, no matter who is in office, they are well liked, they can handle their social relations very successfully, and they live comfortably; no matter what political movement arises, they don’t get caught up in it. What kind of people are these? These are the most deceitful, the slickest people, known as ‘slippery eels’ and ‘old snakes.’ They live by Satan’s philosophies, without a shred of principle. Whoever is in power, they cater to them, flatter them, sing their merits. They do nothing but defend their superiors, and never offend them. However much evil their superiors do, they neither oppose nor support it, but keep their thoughts hidden deep inside. They are well liked no matter who is in power. Satan and the devil kings like this sort of person. Why do the devil kings like this sort of person? Because they do not spoil the devil kings’ affairs and do not pose any threat to them. This sort of person is unprincipled and has no baseline for their comportment, and lacks integrity and dignity; they just follow the trends of society and bow down before the devil kings, adapting to their tastes. Are there not also such people in the church? Can such people be overcomers? Are they good soldiers of Christ? Are they witnesses to God? When evil people and antichrists rear their heads and disturb the work of the church, can such people stand up and wage war against them, exposing, discerning, and renouncing them, putting an end to their evil deeds and bearing witness for God? They most certainly cannot. These slippery eels are not those whom God will perfect or those whom He will save. They never bear witness for God or uphold the interests of His house. As God sees them, these people are not those who follow or submit to Him, but those who blindly stir up trouble, members of Satan’s gang—it is they whom He will eliminate when His work is through. God does not treasure such wretches. They have neither the truth nor life; they are beasts and devils; they are unworthy of God’s salvation and of enjoying His love. So, God discards and eliminates such people with ease, and the church should promptly clear them out as disbelievers” (The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (19)). From God’s words, I learned that when antichrists and evil people disrupt church life and the church’s work, God looks to see if people choose to safeguard the church’s interests or their own. If they choose to protect themselves and allow evil people and antichrists to disrupt and disturb the church’s work, then in God’s eyes, they are slippery, deceitful, selfish and despicable. God does not perfect such people and even condemns them and eliminates them. As I pondered over God’s words, I felt deeply troubled. I knew full well that Zhao Hui and Liu Ying continually disrupted church life and attacked and criticized leaders, which led to leaders being unable to do their duties properly and the church’s work being impeded. However, I lived by satanic philosophies like “Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost,” “Sensible people are good at self-protection, seeking only to avoid making mistakes” and “The less trouble, the better,” and as a result I failed to take a stand to expose and restrict them, despite clearly witnessing their misdeeds and disruption. I worried that if I offended them they’d pick at my faults and retaliate by reporting me, so I continually avoided exposing them and shirked my duty, even going so far as to pass my duties onto senior leadership. In this way, I felt I could avoid offending them and protect myself—how selfish and deceitful of me! As a leader, it was incumbent on me to promptly take a stand and expose evil people when there was disruption to church life, so as to protect my brothers and sisters, but I wasn’t fulfilling my responsibility, much less showing my loyalty. Through these realizations, I finally saw that in letting Satan’s poisons dictate the way I lived, I lacked even the slightest semblance of humanity and was completely bereft of reason or conscience. I thought of what the Lord Jesus said: “He that is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathers not with Me scatters abroad” (Matthew 12:30). In the war between God and Satan, those that don’t stand with God are standing with Satan—there is no middle ground. Yet, I tried to get clever in how I dealt with the evil people, opting to pass the job onto senior leadership. I tried to stand in the middle ground, putting self-preservation ahead of matters of principle. Was this not clearly a case of standing with Satan in betrayal of God? I even thought I was being smart by not getting involved in dealing with the evil people, but I had become the victim of my own cleverness. I might not have done evil and disrupted the church like those evil people, but I had failed to promptly deal with them when I clearly saw their evil and disruption. I had indulged their misdeeds and even shielded them. I had played a part in their wrongdoing! Where was my conscience, my humanity? I wasn’t worthy of being called human! Having realized all this, I felt regret for what I had done. I had failed to do my duty and prepare good deeds. To the contrary, I was building up a portfolio of evil deeds and if I carried on in that way, God would spurn me and eliminate me.

Afterward, I reflected on why I was so afraid of evil people and came upon two passages of God’s words that reveal the truth about antichrists: “They think God’s house is the same as society, that whoever is unyielding and overbearing will be able to stand firm, that nobody will dare to touch those who are ruthless, fierce, and evil, and they believe that people who accept being pruned are all incompetent and incapable. They think that nobody will dare to touch people who have some ability, that nobody will dare to expose those people even if they make mistakes, and that they are the ironclad tough guys!” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part Eight)). “God has said: ‘Without God’s permission, it is difficult for Satan to touch even a drop of water or grain of sand upon the land; without God’s permission, Satan is not even free to move the ants about upon the land, let alone mankind, who was created by God.’ To what extent are you able to believe in these words? Fighting against antichrists and evil people reveals the size of your faith. If you have a genuine belief in God, then you have true faith. If you only have a little belief in God, and that belief is vague and hollow, then you don’t have true faith. If you don’t believe that God can be sovereign over all this and that Satan is under God’s dominion, and you still fear antichrists and evil people, can tolerate them committing evil in the church, their disturbing and ruining the work of the church, and can make compromises with Satan or beg for its mercy in order to protect yourself, not daring to stand up and fight them, and you have become a deserter, a people pleaser, and a bystander, then you lack a genuine belief in God. Your belief in God becomes a question mark, which makes your belief terribly pitiful!” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Nine (Part Eight)). After reading God’s words, I realized that God is sovereign over and controls all things. In God’s house, it is Christ and the truth that wield authority. No matter how antichrists and evil people run amok in the church, doing misdeeds and disrupting church life, they are just tools God uses to perfect His chosen people’s ability to discern. After playing their part, they are exposed and eliminated by God, one by one. But I didn’t recognize God’s rule and righteousness and was always afraid of offending the evil people. I believed that the more domineering and forbidding one was, in society at large, the less they would be challenged and the more successful they would be. I thought the same applied in God’s house, and if I were to offend an evil person, there would certainly be negative consequences. The house of God, to me, was like the rest of society in which “It is better for foes to reconcile with each other than to contend” and “It’s better to offend a gentleman than a scoundrel.” Under the influence of these ideas, I didn’t dare to step up and put a stop to the evil people’s disruption of church life, because I was terrified that they’d retaliate, spread rumors about me and report me as a false leader. If this led to dismissal and being unable to do my duty, then I would never have a good destination. I overestimated the power of these evil people and completely denied God’s righteousness and the fact that God reigns over all things. I thought of someone I’d once known named Sister Chen Zhengxin. When she was assigned to deal with an outbreak of disorder in one of the churches, the evil people who were disrupting that church drove her out, attacked her and did not let her attend gatherings. But in the face of those evil people, Zhengxin didn’t show the slightest fear—she relied on God to expose their misdeeds and eventually all of the evil people were expelled from the church. As for Zhengxin, she hadn’t been brought down by the evil people’s attacks and continued to do her duty in the church. Her story gave me a practical sense of how truth rules in God’s house, how He has mastery over all things, and how, when we do just things, God commends, protects and guides us. My experience with this report letter had also shown me how seriously the church takes the task of reviewing and verifying such letters, and how it processes them in a fair and righteous way according to the truth principles. When Zhao Hui and Liu Ying distorted the truth in their report letter, and picked at the faults of Chen Mo, the church didn’t dismiss her on the basis of the letter, but first consulted the assessments of most of the brothers and sisters and got a clear sense of the situations of both the report writers and the person reported. If the report was false, the church would redress the injustice. If it was true, then it would be handled according to principle. In the past, I had been reported on twice by an antichrist, but ensuing investigations found that both reports were false and as a result the church didn’t strip me of my duty. I saw that the church does everything according to the truth principles and wouldn’t casually process someone’s case after hearing only one side of the story. It wouldn’t wrong a good person and wouldn’t let evil people off the hook. Thinking on this, I felt my earlier views were preposterous—the views of disbelievers. At the same time, I realized that this situation was a test to see if I could turn toward justice, fight the forces of evil, and stand firm in my witness for God.

Later on, I recalled a passage of God’s words, which says: “In the church, stand firm in your testimony to Me, uphold the truth; right is right and wrong is wrong. Do not confuse black and white. You shall be at war with Satan and must completely vanquish it so that it never rises again. You must give everything you have to protect My testimony. This shall be the goal of your actions—do not forget this” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Utterances of Christ in the Beginning, Chapter 41). Through God’s words, I learned that God loves those who are honest and have a sense of justice. Such people are capable of practicing the truth, upholding principles and protecting the church’s interests, and they are not afraid of offending people. Only such people are commended by God. Having realized this, I felt a renewed sense of faith and was ready to take a stand to safeguard the interests of the church. I thought of how, in the past, feeling constrained by evil people, I hadn’t dared to expose and restrict them, and that this led to half a year of disarray within the church, severely impacting church life and the life entry of my brothers and sisters. It was a regret I would live with forever. I knew that this time around I had to practice the truth and stop trying to protect myself, like a coward. I had to swiftly cleanse the evil people away from the church and foster discernment among the brothers and sisters, so that they wouldn’t again be misled and disturbed by evil people. After that, I met with Zhao Hui and Liu Ying, and cited their consistent behavior along with God’s words to expose and dissect their evildoing. I felt very peaceful and at ease after doing so. Soon after that, and following a vote by the brothers and sisters, the two evil people were cleared out from the church. This brought an end to a period of disarray in the church, and among brothers and sisters it fostered greater discernment of evil people. I thanked God for His righteousness, with all my heart.

Through this experience, I gained some awareness of my selfish and deceitful nature and witnessed God’s holiness and righteousness. I truly got a sense of how truth and righteousness reign in God’s house, and how no evil influence can gain a footing within. I also realized that only by practicing the truth and safeguarding church interests do we accord with God’s intentions and feel at peace. Thanks be to God!