The main goal of the work of conquest is to cleanse humanity so that man can possess the truth, because man understands too little of the truth! To do the work of conquest on such people is of the deepest significance. You have all fallen under the influence of darkness and have been deeply harmed. The goal of this work, then, is to enable you to know human nature and thereby live out the truth. To be perfected is something that all created beings should accept. If the work of this stage involved only perfecting people, then it could be done in Britain, or America, or Israel; it could be done on the people of any nation. But the work of conquest is selective. The first step of the work of conquest is short-term; moreover, it will be used to humiliate Satan and conquer the entire universe. This is the initial work of conquest. One can say that any creature who believes in God can be perfected because to be perfected is something that can be achieved only after long-term change. But to be conquered is different. The specimen and model for conquest must be the one lagging the farthest behind, living in the deepest darkness; they must be the most degraded, the most unwilling to acknowledge God, and the most disobedient to God. This is exactly the kind of person who can testify to being conquered. The main goal of the work of conquest is to defeat Satan, while the main goal of perfecting people is to gain people. It is to enable people to have testimony after being conquered that this work of conquest has been carried out here, on people like you. The aim is to have people bear testimony after being conquered. These conquered people will be used to achieve the goal of humiliating Satan. So, what is the main method of conquest? Chastisement, judgment, casting curses, and revealing—using a righteous disposition to conquer people so that they are utterly convinced because of God’s righteous disposition. To use the reality and the authority of the word to conquer people and convince them fully—this is what it means to be conquered. Those who have been perfected are not just able to achieve obedience after being conquered, but they are also able to have knowledge of the work of judgment, change their disposition, and come to know God. They experience the path of loving God and become filled with the truth. They learn how to experience God’s work, become able to suffer for God and to have their own wills. The perfected are those who have an actual understanding of the truth thanks to having experienced God’s word. The conquered are those who know of the truth but have not accepted the real meaning of the truth. After being conquered, they obey, but their obedience is all the result of the judgment they received. They have absolutely no understanding of the real meaning of many truths. They acknowledge the truth verbally, but they have not entered the truth; they comprehend the truth, but they have not experienced the truth. The work being done on those being perfected includes chastisements and judgments, along with the provision of life. A person who values entering the truth is a person to be perfected. The difference between those to be perfected and those to be conquered lies in whether they enter the truth. The perfected are those who comprehend the truth, have entered the truth, and are living out the truth; people who cannot be perfected are those who do not comprehend the truth and do not enter the truth, that is, those who are not living out the truth. If such people are able to now obey completely, then they are conquered. If the conquered do not seek the truth—if they follow but do not live out the truth, if they catch sight of and hear of the truth but do not value living out the truth—then they cannot be perfected. People who are to be perfected practice the truth according to God’s requirements along the path to perfection. Through this, they satisfy God’s will, and they are perfected. Anyone who follows to the end before the work of conquest concludes is a conquered one, but cannot be said to be a perfected one. “The perfected” refers to those who, after the work of conquest ends, are able to pursue the truth and be gained by God. It refers to those who, after the work of conquest ends, stand firm in tribulation and live out the truth. What distinguishes being conquered from being perfected is differences in the steps of the work and differences in the degree to which people understand and enter into the truth. All those who have not embarked on the path to perfection, meaning those who do not possess the truth, will ultimately still be eliminated. Only those who possess the truth and who live out the truth can be completely gained by God. That is, those who live out Peter’s image are the perfected, while all others are the conquered. The work being done on all those being conquered consists of the laying of curses, chastising, and the showing of wrath, and what comes to them is righteousness and curses. To work on such a person is to reveal without ceremony or politeness—to reveal the corrupt disposition inside them so that they recognize it for themselves and are fully convinced. Once man becomes completely obedient, the work of conquest ends. Even if most people still do not seek to understand the truth, the conquest work will have ended.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only the Perfected Can Live a Meaningful Life