The Three Categories of People Based on Their Origins

The Characteristics of People Reincarnated From Humans

II. Discerning Right From Wrong and Knowing What’s Correct and What’s Incorrect

A. Discerning Right From Wrong

Last time, we fellowshipped on the manifestations and characteristics of people reincarnated from humans—that is, they possess conscience and reason, and they can discern right from wrong and know what’s correct and what’s incorrect. Today, we will continue fellowshipping on the topic from last time. Before that, let Me tell you a story. A couple of years ago, I heard about something that happened. A pretty young woman was doing a screen test, and someone casually remarked, “Your legs are quite thick!” This young woman thought to herself, “You’re saying my legs are thick, aren’t you just saying I’m fat? Will I look good on camera if I’m fat? Won’t that be embarrassing?” So, she began to ponder how she could make her legs less thick, so that she would appear slim and good-looking on camera. To achieve this goal, she applied herself to searching for all kinds of information and tried various methods to lose weight, such as only eating diet foods instead of full meals or only eating fruits and vegetables each day—in short, she ate whatever could help with weight loss. She heard that drinking coffee was a quick and effective way to lose weight, so sometimes she would only drink coffee. Some people said that sleeping less helps you lose weight quickly, so she would only sleep two or three hours a day. After a lot of fussing and trying, she really did see results. She lost weight, her figure became slim, and her legs became thin. She looked pleasing to the eye and presentable, but physically she started having some bad reactions. What bad reactions? She often felt dizzy and heavy-headed, and during the day while doing her duty she was always groggy. She would sway while standing, and felt weak all over while sitting. She couldn’t make it through a day, and felt extreme physical anguish. Are most people curious about this young woman’s current situation, and whether she is still alive and well? Do you want to hear about her experience and thoughts on losing weight? (No.) Living in this world, people don’t know how to live correctly and with regularity, how to treat various people, events, and things that they encounter. When they hear a remark or experience some event, they don’t know which way of treating it is appropriate and can protect them from harm so that they live in a truly correct and dignified way. Not to mention nonbelievers, most believers don’t know these things either. When faced with information and news, as well as various thoughts, viewpoints, heresies, and fallacies, from the outside world, people simply have no ability to discern them and no ability whatsoever to ward them off. Of course, they also have no correct thoughts and viewpoints, let alone a correct way of treating them from a positive perspective. Therefore, people live very pitifully. Take the young woman I just mentioned. Tell Me, is her life tiring? Is it pitiful? (It’s pitiful.) Why is it pitiful? Where did she go wrong in acting this way? Don’t all people pursue being beautiful and living presentably? Is it wrong to want others to find you pleasing and to be praised and appreciated upon meeting them? How do you view this matter? (What she did for outward beauty and to be praised was harming her own body. Because she didn’t follow the laws established by God, it ultimately led to the impairment of all her bodily functions. Her dizziness and heavy-headedness were consequences she brought upon herself. I think this person is muddled.) Is that the case? (Yes.) People are born with their own tiny bit of human intelligence, cleverness, and thoughts. Then they acquire some knowledge, gain some skills, and learn a bit about how to appear like a good person. Are these things enough to deal with the various thoughts, viewpoints, heresies, and fallacies, and the various people, events, and things, that come from the outside world? Can they enable you to correctly face these things? (No.) Absolutely not. This is how pitiful and tragic people are when they do not understand the truth; it ultimately leads to a slew of terrible consequences. They have no discernment toward any of the heresies and fallacies or thoughts and viewpoints from the outside world, nor do they have correct thoughts and viewpoints when it comes to the people, events, and things they encounter. When things happen to them, they become confused and their foolishness shows itself in countless ways. When nothing has happened to them, they seem to understand some doctrines and have some human likeness, but when things do happen to them, it’s a different story—the distorted, ugly, absurd thoughts and viewpoints in their hearts are revealed. When it truly comes to conducting oneself, to survival, or even to a certain thought or viewpoint in life, people are so ignorant and obtuse, and their attitudes and viewpoints are so absurd. So, many people have believed in God for many years, have listened to sermons for many years, and are also doing their duties, and they have never intentionally done anything to cause disruptions or disturbances, nor have they intentionally spoken any words that oppose or blaspheme God—outwardly, no fault can be found with them, but when they’re faced with various erroneous thoughts and viewpoints from the outside world, especially some relatively popular ones, in the depths of their hearts they are not repulsed by them, nor do they resist or reject them, but rather they feel fondness and approval, and as soon as a suitable environment or opportunity arises, they will unconsciously accept these things and apply them to their own lives. Isn’t the young woman mentioned earlier a very obvious example? (Yes.) Is this a way of following evil trends? (Yes.) She didn’t just follow them—she applied them very thoroughly. Doesn’t the world today advocate being sexy, charming, slim, and having a graceful figure? These ideas are popular in every industry, in every group of people, and even among people of faith. There were a few older women who believed in the Lord, and despite being over 60 on average, they were still vying with each other over who looked better. They asked a young girl next to them, “Which of us do you think looks best in this dress?” The girl replied, “All of you girls look beautiful in it!” Even though they were in their sixties, they had to be called “girls”; they were unwilling and not happy to be called “ladies.” Behind their backs, the girl told others, “They’re over sixty; how good can they still look?” But this group of older women were still delighting in it. Did they have any sense of shame? (No.) They believed in the Lord for so many years, yet still focused on those things. Isn’t their humanity abnormal? When people have no conscience and reason, they can do many absurd things, many things that people find contemptible and despicable, and many things that reveal their base character. Why is it that many people have no discernment regarding things in evil trends, and no ability whatsoever to ward them off, and are consequently misled and swept away by them? It is because they do not pursue the truth and do not understand even a sliver of the truth. No matter what happens to them, they cannot see through it, and as soon as they encounter a temptation, they are revealed and become mired in it. Look at what is being taught and what is popular in all strata of society today. A radio reporter interviewed a little boy and asked him, “What’s your favorite children’s song?” The boy scratched his head and said, “‘The Moon Represents My Heart.’” People who heard this didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Why would they not know whether to laugh or cry? Is this a children’s song? (No, it’s a love song.) It’s a love song, but the child mistakenly thought it was a children’s song. From this incident, we can see what is popular in society. This is one of the phenomena of the evil trends in society, and both the elderly and children are deeply harmed by these trends and are deeply mired in them. Among those who follow God, there are surprisingly quite a few who follow these trends, and who also apply the thoughts advocated by these trends to themselves. And what happens in the end? Does it result in good consequences or bad ones? (Bad ones.) It results in bad consequences—this is what comes of following evil trends. People are mired in the sexual desire of their flesh, in fleshly feelings, and in eating, drinking, and merrymaking, living in an indulgent haze. They have no correct thoughts or viewpoints, and no correct attitude toward existence with which to face life. They live in this state without any awareness and are powerless to resist it. In the end, they can only sink deeper and deeper, unable to extricate themselves. And what is the final result? They are completely devoured by Satan, becoming its food.

For everyone living among mankind, if you do not know how to discern what positive things are and what negative things are, then in this chaotic world, this complex human world, it will be very difficult for you to hold fast to the correct thoughts and viewpoints of life, and very difficult to hold fast to the correct path in life that you yearn for; you’ll never know when you will be involuntarily swept away by evil trends from hearing a certain word or encountering a certain event. If people don’t have the ability to discern right from wrong, they cannot even manage their own lives well, let alone the various major issues of right and wrong encountered on the path of survival, which are even more difficult for them to deal with. If people do not understand what positive things are and what negative things are, they will not know how to manage their lives and will not have a correct way of life. If they see various kinds of information about healthy living, they will not know how to discern them or which to accept and which to reject, how to absorb correct, positive statements, or how to reject wrong ones. It can even be said that such people cannot even safeguard their own physical health. Some people go from one extreme to the other, while others constantly live at one extreme. For example, some people hear: “Eating lots of fruit is healthy. It can provide vitamins, and make your skin hydrated and smooth, making you loved by everyone.” So, they believe it and start to eat all the fruit they can find, adopting abnormal eating habits. After a while, they constantly feel unwell, and a check-up at the hospital reveals they have high blood sugar. They’re puzzled: “I usually eat quite healthily, so why is my blood sugar high? Others said eating lots of fruit provides vitamins, so how could I be wrong by following this statement and eating lots of fruit?” The doctor says, “Fruit contains vitamins, but it’s high in sugar. It can’t replace staple foods and can’t be eaten as a full meal. You can eat it in moderation or sparingly. Even if you don’t eat it at all, you won’t lack any nutrients, because grains and vegetables already contain all these nutrients.” The doctor’s statement is appropriate. Doesn’t this indicate that their lifestyle is problematic? (Yes.) This is precisely the kind of mistake that some people make. Do you think it’s one they should make? (No.) Some people say, “I haven’t complained about God, even though my blood sugar is high.” What do you think of this statement? Is it not devoid of reason? Does your blood sugar being high have anything to do with God? Is this not something you bring upon yourself? You eat recklessly and without principles. You think fruit tastes good so you can’t stop eating it, or you find that meat tastes good so you don’t eat any vegetables, showing no restraint at all, and as a result, you develop illnesses. Is this not self-inflicted? Do you think that by not complaining about God, it seems that you’re noble, that you love God, that you’re pure? In fact, some illnesses are self-inflicted and have nothing to do with God, and they are caused by your own foolishness and ignorance. There are also some people who say, “Eggs, meat, and dairy products are nutritious and can supplement your protein intake. Rice and flour have little nutritional value, so one should eat more meat, eggs, and dairy.” Some people, upon hearing this, say, “I happen to love eating meat. Since meat is said to be nutritious, I’ll eat it more. Others eat 4 ounces a day, but I’ll eat half a pound per meal, for at least two meals a day!” They eat without restraint like this, eating more and more, consuming two or three times more food than others daily, with late-night snacks thrown in as well. Over time, their stomach capacity starts to grow, and the larger the stomach capacity, the greater the appetite. What happens in the end? They eat to the point of sickness, they become overweight, and they are always sleepy and feeling groggy. They have no choice but to go to the hospital for a check-up, and the results show they have high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high blood lipids. They ponder, “Isn’t it just that I ate a couple more bites of meat every day? Didn’t they say eating more meat is good for the body and will allow a person to avoid malnutrition? So where did I go wrong? Why is my blood pressure high? This old flesh of mine is so hard to take care of! I can’t even have a couple extra bites of meat!” You eat half a pound of meat per meal—is that really just a couple more bites? And you usually sit a lot and don’t exercise, yet you eat so much. In the end, you develop health problems, and you start to feel discomfort in your heart. They even think, “This is God refining me. It’s nothing, I’ll be fine with time. I won’t complain about God!” What right would you have to complain about God? Is your illness God’s way of refining you, or is it self-inflicted? You get fat and sick from eating meat and think this is God refining you, and that God is testing your faith. Would God refine you this way? (No.) So how was this result caused? (It was caused by human foolishness.) People themselves have no discernment, don’t know how to manage their own lives, do not understand what positive things are and what negative things are, do not know how to correctly treat their physical lives, do not know how to abide by the laws of survival God has established for humans, and do not know how to follow the laws of various innate physical conditions. They always engage in stupid and absurd practices, are always full of notions and imaginings about God, and have no shortage of extravagant desires. What happens in the end? They always take detours, always make mistakes, and constantly misunderstand God. Is this not a very troublesome matter? (It is.)

Living in the flesh and in the material world, people will come into contact with lots of information, lots of thoughts and viewpoints, and also lots of different people, events, and things. If they do not know how to discern whether various people, events, and things are positive or negative, do not know how to choose what to accept and what to reject, do not know to hold fast to positive things and do not know why they’re correct, and do not know to reject negative things—much less are they aware of the negative quality of these things—isn’t living this way very dangerous? (It is.) It’s no exaggeration to say that they’re at risk of losing their lives at any time. People cannot even properly manage their own physical lives and health, such simple matters; they need others to worry about them, they need God to protect and watch over them, or else they’ll keep making mistakes, either veering too far in one direction or too far in the other. Some women, having accepted the ideas of the evil trends of society, rack their brains for ways to make themselves beautiful, without paying any heed to the consequences. Some indiscriminately take traditional Chinese medicine, some indiscriminately take Western medicine, some recklessly take tonics, and some recklessly eat a certain food. As a result, they contract stomach issues, and they spend their days sighing and looking sickly and weak. Not only do they fail to make themselves beautiful, but they even become disgusting to look at. Some people have quite good skin but still aren’t content, and they insist on slathering themselves with all sorts of cosmetics. At some point, they use low-quality cosmetics and end up disfigured, their faces all blotchy and unevenly colored, becoming terrifying to look at. Some people get both beauty treatments and plastic surgery—some of them try to get their nose bridges raised and not only fail to have it raised, but wind up making it deformed instead, and some get chin fillers that go wrong, and they look ridiculous whenever they smile or yawn, making them afraid to ever do either—this is so miserable, it’s such a tiring way to live! Are they not creating trouble for themselves by doing this? Some women, dissatisfied with their height, have their lower legs broken and then re-fused and extended, but the procedure goes wrong, crippling what used to be their perfectly fine legs. Isn’t that tragic? (It is.) All manner of adverse consequences have occurred—such people never turn out well. Any thought or view advocated by evil trends is fallacious and wicked, it truly is extremely harmful. The tasty food and the beauty practices they advocate are not truly good; they’re all wicked, and end up harming and entrapping people. These ignorant women are willing to suffer this harm, and they have no ability to ward off these wicked thoughts and views. They eat whatever they are told to eat and do whatever they are told to do, without discerning things even slightly, just following along blindly. How compliant they are! And what ends up happening? Barely any of them meet with a good outcome. Unless they become aware of their mistake midway and turn back in time to cut their losses, if they continue to follow these evil trends and accept these wicked thoughts and views, they will eventually become increasingly degenerate, increasingly unable to tell good from bad, and increasingly similar to devils in their appearance, devoid of their human likeness. It can be said that ninety-nine percent of people have no discernment toward positive and negative things, and willingly accept evil trends. Look at what women say when they’re shopping for clothes together. Some say, “This doesn’t look good on you; it doesn’t make your face look fair or show off your figure. It won’t turn any heads. I think that one looks sexy and will get heads turning!” Others say, “This one isn’t alluring. You need to tease a bit of skin, you need to be sexy and pleasing to the eye—only that will do. If you’re always so prim and proper, nobody’s going to like you.” Some mothers even insist that their daughters become actresses. The daughter says, “The entertainment industry is such a mess! I don’t want to be an actress.” Her mother then scolds her: “Don’t you have any ambition? With your height, looks, and skin, you have such great natural conditions! If you don’t earn money as an actress, how are we going to put food on the table? So long as you can become famous and earn money, it’s okay to sleep with anyone. Otherwise, you’ll have wasted your good looks! We raised you to this age, and your dad and I have been waiting to bask in your success! If even that much is denied to us, what did we have you for?” Is it right for parents to educate their children this way? (No.) What are the consequences of educating children this way? (The children are harmed.) One day, when such a child comes to understand things, and they’ve gone through so much suffering and pain, they inevitably come to hate and resent their mother, saying, “It’s all your fault! You didn’t guide me on the right path! I said I didn’t want to act, but you insisted. Look at me now—I’m almost forty, I still can’t find a husband, and nobody wants me. Those who pursued me were just playing around and never intended to marry me. Isn’t my whole life ruined?” The children suffer so much, and the parents are the culprits and the root of the problem. They have brought harm upon their children.

If believers in God are just like nonbelievers in their inability to extricate themselves from evil trends, then this indicates a problem. If you have no discernment toward any evil trends, any wicked, negative statements, or any of the various practices people engage in, regardless of what they are, and you even follow them and knowingly try them out for yourself, then in God’s eyes, these are all marks of shame. What will God say? He will say that as a person, you have no ability to distinguish right from wrong, you do not have the reality of accepting positive things, and even more so, you have not engaged in the actions and practices of rejecting negative things. He will say that you are not human, and that you do not meet the basic condition of having a human conscience and reason. He will say that you are not human, and that the kingdom will not accept you. If you are not human, it is impossible for you to accept the truth, because in your heart, what you are subjectively willing to accept is all wicked things from Satan, and your heart completely resists, opposes, and rejects positive things; you have never had an attitude of acceptance toward them. Therefore, God says that you are not human, that you do not have humanity. God does not want people without humanity. Don’t think, “If God doesn’t accept me, then I’ll just suffer a bit more and pay a bit more of a price to move God, and change His attitude toward me.” What God wants is not a certain way of doing things; what God wants is for you to have an attitude of accepting the truth from the depths of your heart, as well as the reality of accepting the truth and evidence of practicing the truth. You must be a person who truly has humanity—this humanity is not something that is feigned. If you truly have some signs of normal humanity, that is, if you have many manifestations of distinguishing right from wrong, if the facts show that you love positive things, and if there are instances of you having accepted positive things and rejected negative things, and it can be seen that you have the manifestation of living out the truth, then God will say that you have humanity and call you a human. If you say, “I also have humanity, I can discern positive and negative things,” but you do not have the manifestation of living out the truth reality, and your words are not supported by evidence, then this is troublesome. Doctrinally you admit that, “What God says and does are all positive things and truths, and what Satan says and does are all wicked, all negative things; all that comes from God are positive things, all that comes from Satan are negative things, and all that comes from people in society are wicked, negative things”—that is, doctrinally you speak correctly, without any problem, and no fault can be found in what you say—but when you are faced with real situations, you never accept positive things, never hold fast to positive things, and do not abide by the rules and laws of positive things. This proves that you are a person who does not discern right from wrong. People themselves are clear in their hearts about whether they have these manifestations or not. When you hear a wicked, negative thought or viewpoint, or hear information about an evil trend, what is your attitude? What are your thoughts and viewpoints? What is your inclination? Do you agree with it or are you repulsed by it? Do you plan to keep it in your heart and employ it when necessary, or do you have an aversion to it and condemn it in your heart, and absolutely refuse to accept it? In your heart, you ought to know what exactly your attitude is. If someone says they don’t know, do they have a heart? Not being clear about even their own attitude—is this a normal person? If you know in your heart that you’re no good, and you know that you’re very interested in various evil trends and wicked statements, and always want to follow them and participate in them, but you only feel compelled to hold yourself back a little because you’re constrained by the various truth principles of God’s house and your own pride due to your belief in God, when in fact, in your heart of hearts, you are repulsed by and reject positive things, then even if you claim that you like positive things and dislike evil trends, that’s going against your true feelings. Here’s an example. Some individuals say, “Eating too much meat is not good, it’s unhealthy. You should eat meat in small portions, and eat more rice, wheat-based foods, and vegetables.” Some people can accept this. They don’t feel that eating less meat is going against their will; it doesn’t make them feel upset or really aggrieved. Instead, they think, “This is the right thing to do. After experiencing it for some time, I feel it’s good for my body. My overall mental state has improved, and I’m physically healthier than before. Eating this way is great!” However, some people’s acceptance goes against their will. They’ve long since made up their minds: “What’s unhealthy about eating lots of meat? Eating more vegetables doesn’t necessarily make you healthier. However you look at it, meat tastes better and is more appetizing! It’s okay to eat some vegetables if there’s no meat—it’s better than starving—but if there’s meat, you should eat lots of it. You’re all fools, you’re all putting on an act. I’m the only one who’s not putting on an act. None of you are as genuine as me. I say what I think. Meat is simply delicious!” At every meal, they eat very few vegetables, but quite a lot of meat. Tell Me, do they accept positive statements in their hearts? (No.) They don’t accept them, nor are they capable of practicing them. They are utterly repulsed by them in their hearts. They say, “How can these statements be positive? How come I don’t feel they’re positive? What’s good about them? What’s wrong with me eating more meat? I haven’t died, and none of you are living any better than me!” They don’t accept the facts and don’t admit that eating too much meat is bad for their health. They can’t even accept correct statements, so how could they accept facts? That would be even less likely to happen. For such people, accepting positive things greatly goes against their will. They feel it is very painful and difficult to do. This shows that there is a problem with their humanity, and that they do not love the truth in their hearts. Some people, when they hear correct words that are positive things, can accept them with ease, saying, “I was just worrying about this and didn’t know how to approach it, I had no path of practice. Fortunately, you shed light on this. As soon as I heard you, I felt that this take on things is correct, the viewpoint is pure, objective, and practical, and it conforms to humanity.” After hearing it, they can immediately put it into practice. Although they may occasionally be self-indulgent and willful, they will quickly return to the right path. They do positive things without needing others to watch them or keep them in check, and they don’t feel that doing so goes against their will, nor does it make them feel distressed. It’s like how sheep like eating grass. If you give sheep meat, they won’t eat it, but if you give them grass, they will eat it with relish, because they are herbivores, and what they need internally is grass. But wolves are different. They specifically look for meat to eat; they don’t eat grass, and they feel that nothing is as appetizing as meat. These are natural revelations of their natures, which no one can change. It’s not something they acquire later, nor is it something that gets taught to them. Sheep are born to eat grass, and wolves are born to eat meat. No one can teach a sheep to become a meat-eating animal or teach a wolf to become a grass-eating animal. This is the manifestation of their essence. What you need and what you love are determined by your humanity. If your humanity does not have a need for positive things, you will not love positive things. If you like negative things, it means your heart needs negative things. This is determined by your nature essence, it does not need to be instilled in you by others. If someone wants to help you turn yourself around and fellowships some truth principles with you, you might be able to temporarily accept it out of concern for face or because you want to avoid embarrassment, and verbally express your agreement, but how you think and practice behind the scenes is entirely determined by your nature. You can’t fake it, and your parents can’t change you either. Whether your humanity has the component of loving positive things and hating negative things is not something anyone can decide; only your own essence decides it. Is this matter clear now? (Yes.) Therefore, whether one can discern right from wrong says a lot about their humanity. If your discernment of right and wrong is a natural revelation, then you were born to be particularly interested in some positive things. You are very willing to listen when someone says something correct, and you would like nothing more than for them to say more, so that you can listen more and gain more, and take fewer detours or even no detours at all. And when you encounter some wicked, negative things, you are repulsed in your heart, and you avoid them and are unwilling to get involved—you don’t even want to hear about them. You yourself don’t know the reasons for this; you just can’t bring yourself to like negative things, but you are very willing to listen when someone says something correct, and even if someone ridicules you, you don’t care—you don’t know where this drive comes from. Some people see this sincere drive of yours and despise and mock you, thinking you are a fool, but you disagree. You think, “As long as what someone says is right, I accept it. What’s so difficult about that?” This is a natural revelation of humanity. Having this natural feeling of loving positive things and being averse to negative things in your humanity is a characteristic and manifestation of normal humanity. Only when you have this feeling and this kind of humanity can you be upright and kind, and can you say what should be said and do what should be done from the correct stance and status. When you possess the aspect of humanity of discerning right from wrong, you possess the basic condition to accept the truth and to accept the various explicit statements from God that involve the truth principles. If you do not possess the aspect of humanity of discerning right from wrong, then the conscience and reason in your humanity are absent, and you do not have the basic condition to accept the truth, to accept God’s words, and to accept all the positive guidance and correct paths from God. You do not even possess the basic condition to accept the truth and to accept positive things, so any mention of you being able to submit is simply absurd, pure fantasy.