C. God’s Warnings for Man
644. 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 despised by God. Christ is man’s gateway to the kingdom during the last days, and there are none who can go around Him. None may be perfected by God except through Christ. You believe in God, and so you must accept His words and obey His way. You cannot only think of gaining blessings while being incapable of receiving the truth and incapable of accepting the provision of life. Christ comes during the last days so that all those who truly believe in Him may be provided with life. His work is for the sake of concluding the old age and entering the new one, and His work is the path that must be taken by all those who would enter the new age. If you are incapable of acknowledging Him, and instead condemn, blaspheme, or even persecute Him, then you are bound to burn for eternity and shall never enter the kingdom of God. For 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 retribution to be had by those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit is self-evident to all. I also tell you that if you resist Christ of the last days, if you spurn Christ of the last days, there will be no one else to bear the consequences on your behalf. Furthermore, from this day onward you will not have another chance to gain the approval of God; even if you try to redeem yourself, you will never again behold the face of God. For what you resist is not a man, what you spurn is not some puny being, but Christ. Do you know what the consequences of this will be? You will not have made a small mistake, but committed a heinous crime. And so I advise everyone not to bare your fangs before the truth, or make careless criticisms, for only the truth can bring you life, and nothing except the truth can allow 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
645. We trust that no country or power can stand in the way of what God wishes to achieve. Those who obstruct God’s work, resist the word of God and disturb and impair the plan of God shall ultimately be punished by God. He who defies the work of God shall be sent to hell; any country that defies the work of God shall be destroyed; any nation that rises up to oppose the work of God shall be wiped from this earth and shall cease to exist. I urge the people of all nations, of all countries, and even of all industries to listen to the voice of God, to behold the work of God and to pay attention to the fate of mankind, to make God the most holy, the most honorable, the highest, and the only object of worship among mankind, and to allow the whole of mankind to live under the blessing of God, just as the descendants of Abraham lived under the promise of Jehovah, and just as Adam and Eve, whom God created first, lived in the Garden of Eden.
The work of God surges onward like a mighty wave. No one can detain Him, and no one can halt His march. Only those who listen carefully to His words, and who seek and thirst for Him, can follow His footsteps and receive His promise. Those who do not shall be subjected to overwhelming disaster and well-deserved punishment.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Appendix 2: God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind
646. God seeks those who long for Him to appear. He seeks those who are able to hear His words, those who have not forgotten His commission and offer up their hearts and bodies to Him. He seeks those who are as obedient as babes before Him and do not resist Him. If you devote yourself to God, unimpeded by any power or force, then God shall look upon you with favor and shall bestow His blessings upon you. If you are of high station, of honorable reputation, possessed of abundant knowledge, the owner of plentiful assets, and supported by many people, yet these things do not prevent you from coming before God to accept His calling and His commission and to do what God asks of you, then all that you do shall be the most meaningful cause on earth and the most righteous undertaking of mankind. If you reject the call of God for the sake of status and your own goals, all that you do shall be cursed and even despised by God. Perhaps you are a president, a scientist, a pastor, or an elder, but no matter how high your office, if you rely on your knowledge and ability in your undertakings, then you shall always be a failure and shall always be bereft of the blessings of God, because God accepts nothing that you do, and He does not grant that your undertaking is a righteous one, or accept that you are working for the benefit of mankind. He will say that everything you do is done to use the knowledge and strength of mankind to divest man of the protection of God and to deny the blessings of God. He will say that you are leading mankind toward darkness, toward death, and toward the start of a limitless existence in which man has lost God and His blessing.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Appendix 2: God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind
647. Do you wish to know the root of why the Pharisees opposed Jesus? Do you wish to know the essence of the Pharisees? They were full of fantasies about the Messiah. What is more, they believed only that the Messiah would come, yet did not seek the life truth. And so, even today they still await the Messiah, for they have no knowledge of the way of life, and do not know what the way of truth is. How, say you, could such foolish, stubborn and ignorant people gain God’s blessing? How could they behold the Messiah? They opposed Jesus because they did not know the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work, because they did not know the way of truth spoken by Jesus, and, furthermore, because they did not understand the Messiah. And since they had never seen the Messiah and had never been in the company of the Messiah, they made the mistake of clinging in vain to the name of the Messiah while opposing the essence of the Messiah by any means possible. These Pharisees in essence were stubborn, arrogant, and did not obey the truth. The principle of their belief in God was: No matter how profound Your preaching, no matter how high Your authority, You are not Christ unless You are called the Messiah. Are these views not preposterous and ridiculous? I will ask you further: Is it not extremely easy for you to commit the mistakes of the earliest Pharisees, given that you have not the slightest understanding of Jesus? Are you able to discern the way of truth? Can you truly guarantee that you will not oppose Christ? Are you able to follow the work of the Holy Spirit? If you do not know whether you will oppose Christ, then I say that you are already living on the brink of death. Those who did not know the Messiah were all capable of opposing Jesus, of rejecting Jesus, of slandering Him. People who do not understand Jesus are all capable of rejecting Him and reviling Him. Moreover, they are capable of seeing the return of Jesus as the deceit of Satan, and more people shall condemn Jesus returned to flesh. Does not all of this make you afraid? What you face shall be blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the ruination of the words of the Holy Spirit to the churches, and the spurning of all that is expressed by Jesus. What can you gain from Jesus if you are so befuddled? How can you understand the work of Jesus when He returns to flesh on a white cloud, if you obstinately refuse to realize your errors? I tell you this: People who do not receive the truth, yet blindly await the arrival of Jesus upon white clouds, will surely blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, and they are the category that shall be destroyed. You merely wish for the grace of Jesus, and merely want to enjoy the blissful realm of heaven, yet you have never obeyed the words spoken by Jesus, and have never received the truth expressed by Jesus when He returns to flesh. What will you hold up in exchange for the fact of Jesus’ return upon a white cloud? Is it the sincerity in which you repeatedly commit sins, and then speak your confession, over and over? What will you offer in sacrifice to Jesus who returns upon a white cloud? Is it the years of work with which you exalt yourselves? What will you hold up to make the returned Jesus trust you? Is it that arrogant nature of yours, which does not obey any truth?
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. By the Time You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus, God Will Have Made Heaven and Earth Anew
648. I tell you, those who believe in God because of the signs are surely the category that shall be destroyed. Those who are incapable of receiving the words of Jesus who has returned to flesh are surely the progeny of hell, the descendants of the archangel, the category that shall be subjected to everlasting destruction. Many people may not care what I say, but I still want to tell every so-called saint who follows Jesus that, when you see Jesus descend from the heaven upon a white cloud with your own eyes, this will be the public appearance of the Sun of righteousness. Perhaps that will be a time of great excitement for you, yet you should know that the time when you witness Jesus descend from the heaven is also the time when you go down to hell to be punished. That will be the time of the end of God’s management plan and it will be when God rewards the good and punishes the wicked. For the judgment of God will have ended before man sees signs, when there is only the expression of truth. Those who accept the truth and do not seek signs, and thus have been purified, shall have returned before the throne of God and entered the Creator’s embrace. Only those who persist in the belief that “The Jesus who does not ride upon a white cloud is a false Christ” shall be subjected to everlasting punishment, for they only believe in the Jesus who exhibits signs, but do not acknowledge the Jesus who proclaims severe judgment and releases the true way of life. And so it can only be that Jesus deals with them when He openly returns upon a white cloud. They are too stubborn, too confident in themselves, too arrogant. How could such degenerates be rewarded by Jesus? The return of Jesus is a great salvation for those who are capable of accepting the truth, but for those who are unable to accept the truth it is a sign of condemnation. You should choose your own path, and should not blaspheme against the Holy Spirit and reject the truth. You should not be an ignorant and arrogant person, but someone who obeys the guidance of the Holy Spirit and longs for and seeks the truth; only in this way will you benefit. I advise you to tread the path of belief in God with care. Do not jump to conclusions; what is more, do not be casual and thoughtless in your belief in God. You should know that, at the very least, those who believe in God should be humble and reverential. Those who have heard the truth and yet turn their nose up at it are foolish and ignorant. Those who have heard the truth and yet carelessly jump to conclusions or condemn it are beset by arrogance. No one who believes in Jesus is qualified to curse or condemn others. You should all be someone with sense and who accepts the truth. Perhaps, having heard the way of truth and having read the word of life, you believe that only one in 10,000 of these words are in line with your convictions and the Bible, and then you should continue to seek in that 10,000th of these words. I still advise you to be humble, to not be over-confident, and to not exalt yourself too highly. With your heart holding such meager reverence for God, you will gain greater light. If you carefully examine and repeatedly contemplate these words, you shall understand whether or not they are the truth, and whether or not they are life. Perhaps, having only read a few sentences, some people will blindly condemn these words, saying, “This is nothing more than some enlightenment of the Holy Spirit,” or, “This is a false Christ come to deceive people.” Those who say such things are blinded by ignorance! You understand too little of the work and wisdom of God, and I advise you to start again from scratch! You must not blindly condemn the words expressed by God because of the appearance of false Christs during the last days, and you must not be someone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit because you fear deception. Would that not be a great pity? If, after much examination, you still believe that these words are not the truth, are not the way, and are not the expression of God, then you shall ultimately be punished, and you shall be without blessings. If you cannot accept such truth spoken so plainly and so clearly, then are you not unfit for God’s salvation? Are you not someone who is not blessed enough to return before the throne of God? Think about it! Do not be rash and impetuous, and do not treat belief in God as a game. Think for the sake of your destination, for the sake of your prospects, for the sake of your life, and do not play yourself. Can you accept these words?
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. By the Time You Behold the Spiritual Body of Jesus, God Will Have Made Heaven and Earth Anew
649. In the last days, Christ shall use the truth to teach people across the world and make all truths known to them. This is God’s work of judgment. Many have a bad feeling about the second incarnation of God, for people find it difficult to believe that God would become flesh to do the work of judgment. Nevertheless, I must tell you that the work of God often goes far beyond the expectations of man, and is difficult for human minds to accept. For people are but maggots upon the earth, while God is the supreme One who fills the universe; the mind of man is like a pit of foul water that breeds only maggots, whereas each stage of the work directed by the thoughts of God is the distillation of God’s wisdom. People are always trying to contend with God, to which I say it is self-evident who will lose out in the end. I exhort you all not to think yourselves more valuable than gold. If others can accept the judgment of God, why can’t you? How much higher do you stand above others? If others can bow their heads before the truth, why can’t you, too? God’s work has an unstoppable momentum. He will not repeat the work of judgment again just because of the “contribution” you have made, and you will be overcome with regret at letting such a good opportunity slip by. If you do not believe My words, then just wait for that great white throne in the sky to pass judgment upon you! You must know that all of the Israelites spurned and denied Jesus, and yet the fact of Jesus’ redemption of mankind still extended throughout the universe and to the ends of the earth. Isn’t this a reality that God made long ago? If you are still waiting for Jesus to take you up to heaven, then I say that you are an obstinate piece of deadwood.[a] Jesus will not acknowledge a false believer such as you, who is disloyal to the truth and seeks only blessings. On the contrary, He will show no mercy in casting you into the lake of fire to burn for tens of thousands of years.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Christ Does the Work of Judgment With the Truth
650. God created this world, He created this mankind and, moreover, He was the architect of ancient Greek culture and human civilization. Only God consoles this mankind, and only God cares for this mankind night and day. Human development and progress are inseparable from the sovereignty of God, and the history and future of mankind are inextricable from the designs of God. If you are a true Christian, then you will surely believe that the rise and fall of any country or nation occurs according to the designs of God. God alone knows the fate of a country or nation, and God alone controls the course of this mankind. If mankind wishes to have a good fate, if a country wishes to have a good fate, then man must bow down to God in worship, repent and confess before God, or else the fate and destination of man will be an unavoidable catastrophe.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Appendix 2: God Presides Over the Fate of All Mankind
651. For the sake of your fate, you should seek the approval of God. This is to say, since you acknowledge that you are a member of the house of God, you ought then to bring peace of mind to God and satisfy Him in all things. You must, in other words, be principled in your actions and conform to the truth in them. If this is beyond you, then you shall be detested and rejected by God and spurned by every man. Once you have fallen into such a predicament, you cannot then be counted among the house of God, which is precisely what it is meant by not being approved of by God.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Three Admonitions
652. My demands may be simple, but what I am telling you is not so simple as one plus one equals two. If all you do is to talk casually about this, or ramble on about empty, high-sounding statements, then your blueprints and your wishes will forever be but a blank page. I will have no sense of pity for those of you who suffer for so many years and work so hard, yet have nothing to show for it. On the contrary, I will treat those who have not met My demands with punishment, not rewards, much less any sympathy. You might imagine that, having been a follower for so many years, you have put in hard work no matter what, and you should be granted a bowl of rice in God’s house just for being a service-doer. I would say that the majority of you think this way, for you have always pursued the principle of how to take advantage of things and not be taken advantage of. Thus, I am telling you now in all seriousness: I do not care how meritorious your hard work is, how impressive your qualifications, how closely you follow Me, how renowned you are, or how much you have improved your attitude; as long as you have not met My demands, you will never be able to win My praise. Write off all those ideas and calculations of yours as soon as possible, and start treating My requirements seriously; otherwise, I will turn everyone to ash in order to bring an end to My work and, at worst turn My years of work and suffering into nothing, for I cannot bring My enemies and those people who reek of evil and have Satan’s appearance into My kingdom or take them into the next age.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Transgressions Will Lead Man to Hell
653. Now is the time when My Spirit performs great work, and the time when I commence My work among the Gentile nations. More than that, it is the time when I classify all created beings, putting each one into their respective category, so that My work may proceed more swiftly and effectively. And so, what I ask of you is still that you offer up your whole being to all My work, and, furthermore, that you clearly discern and make certain of all the work I have done in you, and put all your strength into My work so it can become more effective. This is what you must understand. Desist from fighting amongst yourselves, looking for a way back, or seeking fleshly comforts, which would delay My work, and delay your wonderful future. Far from protecting you, doing so would bring destruction upon you. Wouldn’t this be foolish of you? That which you greedily enjoy today is the very thing that is ruining your future, whereas the pain you suffer today is the very thing that is protecting you. You must be clearly aware of these things, so as to avoid falling prey to temptations from which you will be hard put to extricate yourself, and to evade blundering into the dense fog and being unable to find the sun. When the dense fog clears, you will find yourself amid the judgment of the great day. By that time, My day will be drawing near to mankind. How will you escape My judgment? How will you be able to endure the scorching heat of the sun? When I bestow My abundance on man, he does not cherish it in his bosom, but casts it aside to a place where no one will notice it. When My day descends upon man, he will no longer be able to discover My abundance, or find the bitter words of truth I spoke unto him long ago. He will wail and cry, because he has lost the brightness of the light and fallen into darkness. What you see today is merely the sharp sword of My mouth. You have not seen the rod in My hand or the flame with which I burn man, and that is why you are still haughty and intemperate in My presence. That is why you still fight with Me in My home, disputing with your human tongue that which I have spoken with My mouth. Man does not fear Me, and though he continues to cast himself in enmity to Me even today, he remains without any fear. You have the tongue and the teeth of the unrighteous in your mouths. Your words and deeds are like those of the serpent that enticed Eve to sin. You demand from each other an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and you struggle in My presence to wrest position, fame, and profit for yourselves, yet you do not know that I am secretly watching your words and deeds. Before you even come into My presence, I have sounded the very bottom of your hearts. Man always wishes to escape the grasp of My hand and elude the observation of My eyes, but I have never dodged away from his words or deeds. Instead, I purposefully allow those words and deeds to enter My eyes, that I may chastise man’s unrighteousness and execute judgment on his rebellion. Thus, man’s words and deeds in secret remain always before My judgment seat, and My judgment has never left man, for his rebellion is too much. My work is to burn and purify all the words and deeds of man that were uttered and done in the presence of My Spirit. In this way,[b] when I leave the earth, people will still maintain their loyalty to Me, and will still serve Me as My holy servants do in My work, allowing My work on earth to continue until the day it is complete.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Work of Spreading the Gospel Is Also the Work of Saving Man
654. On earth, all manner of evil spirits are forever on the prowl for a place to rest, and are endlessly searching for human corpses that can be consumed. My people! You must remain within My care and protection. Never be dissolute! Never behave recklessly! You should offer up your loyalty in My house, and only with loyalty can you mount a countercharge against the devil’s trickery. Under no circumstances should you behave as you did in the past, doing one thing in front of Me and another behind My back; if you act this way, then you are already beyond redemption. Have I not uttered more than enough words such as these? It is precisely because humanity’s old nature is incorrigible that I have had to give people repeated reminders. Do not get bored! All that I say is for the sake of ensuring your destiny! A foul and filthy place is precisely what Satan needs; the more hopelessly irredeemable and the more dissolute you are, refusing to submit to restraint, then the more those unclean spirits will avail themselves of any opportunity to infiltrate you. If you have gotten to this point, then your loyalty will be nothing but idle chatter, without any reality to it whatsoever, and the unclean spirits will gulp down your resolution and transform it into disobedience and satanic plots to be used to disrupt My work. From there, you could be smitten by Me at any time. No one understands the gravity of this situation; people all simply turn a deaf ear to what they hear, and are not the least bit cautious. I remember not what was done in the past; are you actually still waiting for Me to be lenient toward you by “forgetting” once more?
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God’s Words to the Entire Universe, Chapter 10
655. Many people would rather be condemned to hell than speak and act honestly. Little wonder that I have other treatment in store for those who are dishonest. Of course, I know full well how difficult it is for you to be honest. Because you are all so clever, so good at measuring people with your own petty yardstick, this makes My work much simpler. And since you each hug your secrets to your bosom, well then, I shall send you, one by one, into disaster to be “schooled” by fire, so that thereafter you may become dead set on your belief in My words. Ultimately, I shall wrest from your mouth the words “God is a faithful God,” whereupon you shall beat upon your breast and lament, “Devious is the heart of man!” What will be your state of mind at this time? I imagine you will not be as triumphant as you are now. And much less will you be as “profound and abstruse” as you are now. In the presence of God, some people are all prim and proper, they take pains to be “well-behaved,” yet they bare their fangs and brandish their claws in the presence of the Spirit. Would you number such people among the ranks of the honest? If you are a hypocrite, someone who is skilled in “interpersonal relations,” then I say that you are definitely someone who tries to trifle with God. If your words are riddled with excuses and valueless justifications, then I say that you are someone who is loath to put the truth into practice. If you have many confidences that you are reluctant to share, if you are highly averse to laying bare your secrets—your difficulties—before others to seek the way of the light, then I say that you are someone who will not attain salvation easily, and who will not easily emerge from the darkness. … How one’s fate will work out in the end hinges upon whether they have an honest and blood-red heart, and whether they have a pure soul. If you are someone who is very dishonest, someone with a heart of malice, someone with an unclean soul, then you are sure to end up in the place where man is punished, as is written in the record of your fate. If you claim to be very honest, and yet never manage to act in accordance with the truth or to speak a word of truth, then are you still waiting for God to reward you? Do you still hope for God to regard you as the apple of His eye? Is such thinking not preposterous? You deceive God in all things; how could the house of God accommodate one such as you, whose hands are unclean?
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Three Admonitions
656. Now, whether or not your pursuit has been effective is measured by what you currently possess. This is what is used to determine your outcome; this is to say, your outcome is revealed in the sacrifices you have made and the things you have done. Your outcome will be made known by your pursuit, your faith, and what you have done. Among all of you, there are many who are already beyond salvation, for today is the day of revealing people’s outcomes, and I will not be muddle-headed in My work; I will not lead those who are entirely beyond salvation into the next age. There will be a time when My work is finished. I shall not work on those stinking, spiritless corpses that cannot be saved at all; now are the last days of man’s salvation, and I will not do useless work. Do not rail against Heaven and earth—the end of the world is coming. It is inevitable. Things have come to this point, and there is nothing you as a human being can do to stop them; you cannot change things as you wish. Yesterday, you did not pay a price to pursue the truth and you were not loyal; today, the time has come, you are beyond salvation; and tomorrow, you will be eliminated, and there will be no leeway for your salvation. Even though My heart is mild and I am doing My utmost to save you, if you do not strive on your own behalf or give any thought for yourself, what does this have to do with Me? Those who think only of their flesh and who enjoy comfort; those who seem to believe but who do not really believe; those who engage in evil medicine and sorcery; those who are promiscuous, tattered and ragged; those who steal sacrifices to Jehovah and His possessions; those who love bribes; those who dream idly of ascending to heaven; those who are arrogant and conceited, who strive only for personal fame and fortune; those who spread impertinent words; those who blaspheme God Himself; those who do nothing but make judgments against and slander God Himself; those who form cliques and seek independence; those who exalt themselves above God; those frivolous young, middle-aged and older men and women who are ensnared in licentiousness; those men and women who enjoy personal fame and fortune and pursue personal status among others; those unrepentant people who are trapped in sin—are they not, all of them, beyond salvation? Licentiousness, sinfulness, evil medicine, sorcery, profanity, and impertinent words all run riot among you; and truth and the words of life are trampled in your midst, and the holy language is defiled among you. You Gentiles, bloated with filth and disobedience! What will your final outcome be? How can those who love the flesh, who commit sorcery of the flesh, and who are ensnared in licentious sin have the audacity to continue living! Do you not know that people such as you are maggots beyond salvation? What entitles you to demand this and that? To date, there has not been the slightest change in those who do not love the truth and only love the flesh—how can such people be saved? Those who do not love the way of life, who do not exalt God and bear testimony to Him, who scheme for the sake of their own status, who extol themselves—are they not still the same, even today? What is the value in saving them? Whether you can be saved does not depend on how great your seniority or how many years you have been working, and much less does it depend on how many credentials you have built up. Rather, it depends on whether your pursuit has borne fruit. You ought to know that those who are saved are the “trees” that bear fruit, not the trees with lush foliage and abundant flowers that yet yield no fruit. Even if you have spent many years wandering the streets, what does that matter? Where is your testimony? Your reverence for God is far less than your love for yourself and your lustful desires—is this kind of person not a degenerate? How could they be a specimen and model for salvation? Your nature is incorrigible, you are too rebellious, you are beyond salvation! Are such people not those that will be eliminated? Is the time when My work is finished not the time of the arrival of your last day? I have done so much work and spoken so many words among you—how much of it has truly entered your ears? How much of it have you ever obeyed? When My work ends, that will be the time when you stop opposing Me, when you stop standing against Me. As I work, you act against Me constantly; you never comply with My words. I do My work, and you do your own “work,” making your own little kingdom. You are nothing but a pack of foxes and dogs, doing everything in opposition to Me! You are constantly trying to bring those who offer you their undivided love into your embrace—where is your reverence? Everything you do is deceitful! You have no obedience or reverence, and everything you do is deceitful and blasphemous! Can such people be saved? Men who are sexually immoral and lascivious always want to draw coquettish harlots to them for their own enjoyment. I absolutely will not save such sexually immoral demons. I hate you filthy demons, and your lasciviousness and coquettishness will plunge you into hell. What have you to say for yourselves? You filthy demons and evil spirits are repulsive! You are disgusting! How could such trash be saved? Can they who are ensnared in sin still be saved? Today, this truth, this way, and this life do not attract you; rather, you are attracted to sinfulness; to money; to standing, fame and gain; to the enjoyments of the flesh; to the handsomeness of men and charms of women. What qualifies you to enter My kingdom? Your image is even greater than God’s, your status even higher than God’s, to say nothing of your prestige among men—you have become an idol that people worship. Have you not become the archangel? When people’s outcomes are revealed, which is also when the work of salvation will draw near its end, many of those among you will be corpses beyond salvation and must be eliminated. During the work of salvation, I am kind and good toward all people. When the work concludes, the outcomes of different types of people will be revealed, and at that time, I shall no longer be kind and good, for people’s outcomes will have been revealed, and each will have been classified according to their kind, and there will be no use in doing any more work of salvation, because the age of salvation will have passed, and, having passed, it will not return.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Practice (7)
657. I have given you many warnings and bestowed upon you many truths intended to conquer you. By now, you all feel significantly more enriched than you did in the past, have come to understand many principles of how a person should be, and you have come to possess so much of the common sense that faithful people should have. All of this is the harvest you have reaped over the course of many years. I do not deny your achievements, but I must also say quite frankly that I also do not deny the numerous disobediences and rebellions you have committed against Me over these many years, for there is not one saint among you. You are, without exception, people who have been corrupted by Satan; you are enemies of Christ. To date, your transgressions and disobediences have been too numerous to count, so it can hardly be considered strange that I am constantly repeating Myself to you. I do not wish to coexist with you in this manner—but for the sake of your futures, for the sake of your destinations, I will, here and now, repeat once more what I have already said. I hope you will indulge Me and, moreover, that you will be able to believe My every utterance and infer the deep implications of My words. Do not doubt what I say, let alone pick up My words as you wish and toss them aside at will; this I find intolerable. Do not judge My words, and still less should you take them lightly or say that I am always tempting you or, worse, that what I have told you is inaccurate. These things I also find intolerable. Because you treat Me and what I say with such suspicion, never taking My words on board and ignoring Me, I tell each of you in all seriousness: Do not link what I say with philosophy; do not link My words with the lies of charlatans. Much less should you respond to My words with contempt. Perhaps no one in the future will be able to tell you what I am telling you, or speak to you so charitably, or, still less, walk you through these points as patiently. You will spend those days to come recalling the good times, or sobbing out loud or groaning in pain, or you will be living through dark nights without the provision of a shred of truth or life, or just waiting hopelessly, or dwelling in such bitter regret that you lose all reason…. Virtually none of you can escape these possibilities. Because none of you occupy a seat from which you truly worship God, but immerse yourselves in the world of licentiousness and evil, mixing into your beliefs, into your spirits, souls, and bodies, so many things that have nothing to do with life and truth and which actually are in opposition to them. What I therefore hope for you is that you can be brought to the path of light. My sole hope is that you can become capable of caring for yourselves, of taking care of yourselves, and that you do not place so much emphasis on your destination while viewing your behavior and transgressions with indifference.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Transgressions Will Lead Man to Hell
658. The more transgressions you commit, the fewer opportunities you will have to obtain a good destination. Conversely, the fewer transgressions you make, the better your chances become of being praised by God. If your transgressions increase to the point that it is impossible for Me to forgive you, then you will have utterly wasted your chances of being forgiven. As such, your destination will not be above, but below. If you do not believe Me, then be bold and do wrong, and see what that gets you. If you are an earnest person who practices the truth, then you surely will have an opportunity to be forgiven for your transgressions, and you will disobey less and less frequently. If you are a person who is unwilling to practice the truth, then your transgressions before God will surely increase in number and you will disobey more and more frequently, until you reach the limit, which will be the time of your total destruction. This will be when your pleasant dream of receiving blessings will be ruined. Do not regard your transgressions as the mere mistakes of an immature or foolish person; do not use the excuse that you did not practice the truth because your poor caliber had made it impossible to do so. Moreover, do not simply regard the transgressions you have committed as the acts of someone who did not know any better. If you are good at forgiving yourself and treating yourself with generosity, then I say you are a coward who will never gain the truth, nor will your transgressions ever cease to haunt you; they will keep you from ever meeting the demands of the truth, and cause you to forever remain a loyal companion of Satan. My advice to you is still this: Do not pay attention only to your destination while failing to notice your hidden transgressions; take transgressions seriously, and do not overlook any of them out of concern for your destination.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Transgressions Will Lead Man to Hell
659. Though God’s essence contains an element of love, and He is merciful toward each and every person, people have overlooked and forgotten the fact that His essence is one of dignity as well. That He has love does not mean that people can offend Him freely, without inciting in Him feelings or a reaction, nor does the fact that He has mercy mean that He has no principles in how He treats people. God is alive; He genuinely exists. He is neither an imagined puppet nor any other object. Given that He does exist, we should carefully listen to the voice of His heart at all times, pay close attention to His attitude, and come to understand His feelings. We should not use human imaginings to define God, nor should we impose human thoughts or wishes on Him, making God treat people in a human manner based on human imaginings. If you do this, then you are angering God, tempting His wrath, and challenging His dignity! Thus, once you have come to understand the severity of this matter, I urge each and every one of you to be cautious and prudent in your actions. Be cautious and prudent in your speech, as well—with regard to how you treat God, the more cautious and prudent you are, the better! When you do not understand what God’s attitude is, refrain from speaking carelessly, do not be careless in your actions, and do not apply labels casually. Even more importantly, do not come to any arbitrary conclusions. Instead, you should wait and seek; these actions, too, are an expression of fearing God and shunning evil. Above all else, if you can achieve this, and above all else, if you possess this attitude, then God will not blame you for your stupidity, ignorance, and lack of understanding of the reasons behind things. Rather, owing to your attitude of fear of offending God, respect for His intentions, and willingness to obey Him, God will remember you, guide and enlighten you, or tolerate your immaturity and ignorance. Conversely, should your attitude toward Him be irreverent—judging Him as you wish or arbitrarily guessing at and defining His ideas—God will condemn you, discipline you, and even punish you; or, He might offer comment on you. Perhaps this comment will involve your outcome. Therefore, I wish to emphasize once more: Each of you should be cautious and prudent about everything that comes from God. Do not speak carelessly, and do not be careless in your actions. Before you say anything, you should stop and think: Would this action of mine anger God? In doing it, am I revering God? Even in simple matters, you should try to figure these questions out, and spend more time considering them. If you can truly practice according to these principles in all aspects, in all things, at all times, and adopt such an attitude especially when you do not understand something, then God will always guide you and provide you with a path to follow. No matter what sort of show people put on, God sees them quite clearly and plainly, and He will offer an accurate and appropriate evaluation of these displays of yours. After you have undergone the final trial, God will take all of your behavior and sum it up completely in order to determine your outcome. This result will convince every single person beyond the shadow of a doubt. What I would like to tell you here is this: Your every deed, your every action, and your every thought decide your fate.
—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. How to Know God’s Disposition and the Results His Work Shall Achieve
660. Concerning how people seek and how people approach God, people’s attitudes are of primary importance. Do not neglect God like He is just a bunch of empty air floating around in the back of your head; always think of the God you believe in as a living God, a real God. He is not sitting around up there in the third heaven with nothing to do. Rather, He is constantly looking into everyone’s heart, observing what you are up to, watching your every little word and every little deed, watching how you behave and seeing what your attitude toward Him is. Whether you are willing to give yourself to God or not, all of your behavior and your innermost thoughts and ideas are laid bare before Him and being looked upon by Him. Due to your behavior, due to your deeds, and due to your attitude toward Him, God’s opinion of you and His attitude toward you are constantly changing. I would like to offer some advice to some people: Do not place yourselves like infants in the hands of God, as if He should dote on you, as if He could never leave you, and as if His attitude toward you were fixed and could never change, and I advise you to quit dreaming! God is righteous in His treatment of each and every person, and He is earnest in His approach to the work of conquering and saving people. This is His management. He treats every single person seriously, and not like a pet to play with. God’s love for humans is not the pampering or spoiling kind, nor are His mercy and tolerance toward humankind indulgent or unmindful. On the contrary, God’s love for humans involves cherishing, pitying, and respecting life; His mercy and tolerance convey His expectations of them, and are what humanity needs to survive. God is alive, and God actually exists; His attitude toward humankind is principled, not at all a pack of dogmatic rules, and it can change. His intentions for humanity are gradually changing and transforming with time, depending on circumstances as they arise, and along with the attitude of each and every person. Therefore, you should know in your heart with absolute clarity that the essence of God is immutable, and that His disposition will issue forth at different times and in different contexts. You might not think that this is a serious matter, and you might use your own personal notions to imagine how God should do things. However, there are times when the polar opposite of your viewpoint is true, and by using your own personal notions to attempt to gauge God, you have already angered Him. This is because God does not operate the way you think He does, nor will He treat this matter like you say He will. Thus, I remind you to be careful and prudent in your approach to everything around you, and learn how to follow the principle of walking in God’s way in all things, which is to fear God and shun evil. You must develop a firm understanding with regard to the matters of God’s will and God’s attitude, you must find enlightened people to communicate these matters to you, and you must seek in earnest. Do not view the God of your belief as a puppet—judging Him at will, arriving at arbitrary conclusions about Him, and not treating Him with the respect He deserves. While God is bringing you salvation and determining your outcome, He may grant you mercy, or tolerance, or judgment and chastisement, but in any case, His attitude toward you is not fixed. It is dependent on your own attitude toward Him, as well as your understanding of Him. Do not allow one passing aspect of your knowledge or understanding of God to define Him in perpetuity. Do not believe in a dead God; believe in the living One.
—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. How to Know God’s Disposition and the Results His Work Shall Achieve
661. You long for God to delight in you, yet you are far from God. What is the matter here? You accept only His words, but not His dealing or His pruning, much less are you able to accept His every arrangement, to have complete faith in Him. What, then, is the matter here? In the final analysis, your faith is an empty eggshell, one that could never produce a chick. For your faith has not brought you the truth or given you the life, but has instead given you an illusory sense of sustenance and hope. It is this sense of sustenance and hope that is your aim in believing in God, not the truth and the life. Thus do I say that the course of your faith in God has been none other than trying to curry the favor of God through servility and shamelessness, and can in no way be deemed true faith. How could a chick be born of faith such as this? In other words, what can faith such as this accomplish? The purpose of your faith in God is to use Him to achieve your own aims. Is this not further a fact of your offense against the disposition of God? You believe in the existence of the God in heaven and deny that of the God on earth, yet I do not recognize your views; I commend only those people who keep their feet on the ground and serve the God on earth, but never those who never acknowledge the Christ who is on earth. No matter how loyal such people are to the God in heaven, in the end they will not escape My hand that punishes the wicked. These people are the wicked; they are the evil ones who oppose God and have never gladly obeyed Christ. Of course, their number includes all those who do not know and, further, do not acknowledge Christ. Do you believe that you can act as you please toward Christ as long as you are loyal to the God in heaven? Wrong! Your ignorance of Christ is ignorance of the God in heaven. No matter how loyal you are to the God in heaven, it is merely empty talk and pretense, for the God on earth is not only instrumental in man receiving the truth and more profound knowledge, but more than that is instrumental in the condemnation of man and afterward in seizing the facts to punish the wicked. Have you understood the beneficial and harmful outcomes here? Have you experienced them? I wish for you one day soon to understand this truth: To know God, you must know not only the God in heaven but, even more importantly, the God on earth. Do not get your priorities confused or allow the secondary to supersede the principal. Only in this way can you truly build a good relationship with God, become closer to God, and bring your heart closer to Him. If you have been of the faith for many years and have long associated with Me, yet remain distant from Me, then I say it must be that you often offend the disposition of God, and your end will be very difficult to reckon. If the many years of association with Me have not only failed to change you into a person possessed of humanity and the truth, but, moreover, have ingrained your evil ways into your nature, and you not only have twice as much arrogance as before, but your misunderstandings of Me have also multiplied, such that you come to regard Me as your little sidekick, then I say that your affliction is no longer skin deep but has penetrated to your very bones. All that remains is for you to wait for your funeral arrangements to be made. You need not beseech Me then to be your God, for you have committed a sin deserving of death, an unforgivable sin. Even if I could have mercy on you, the God in heaven will insist on taking your life, for your offense against the disposition of God is no ordinary problem, but one of a very grave nature. When the time comes, do not blame Me for not telling you beforehand. It all comes back to this: When you associate with Christ—the God on earth—as an ordinary person, that is, when you believe that this God is nothing but a person, it is then that you shall perish. This is My only admonishment to you all.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. How to Know the God on Earth
662. Every person, in the course of living their life of faith in God, has done things that resist and deceive God. Some misdeeds need not be recorded as an offense, but some are unforgivable; for there are many deeds that violate the administrative decrees, which offend the disposition of God. Many who are concerned about their own fates may ask what these deeds are. You should know that you are arrogant and haughty by nature, and unwilling to submit to the facts. For this reason, I shall tell you bit by bit after you have reflected upon yourselves. I exhort you to get a better understanding of the content of the administrative decrees, and to make an effort to know the disposition of God. If not, you will find it difficult to keep your lips sealed, your tongues will wag too freely with high-sounding talk, and you will unwittingly offend the disposition of God and fall into the darkness, losing the presence of the Holy Spirit and the light. Because you are unprincipled in your actions, because you do and say that which you should not, you shall receive a fitting retribution. You should know that though you are unprincipled in word and deed, God is highly principled in both. The reason you receive retribution is because you have offended God, not a person. If, in your life, you commit many offenses against the disposition of God, then you are bound to become a child of hell. To man it may appear that you have only committed a few deeds that are at odds with the truth, and nothing more. Are you aware, however, that in the eyes of God you are already someone for whom there is no more sin offering? Because you have violated the administrative decrees of God more than once and have, moreover, shown no sign of repentance, there is no other recourse but for you to plunge into hell, where God punishes man. A small number of people, while following God, committed some deeds that violated principles, but after being dealt with and given guidance, they gradually discovered their own corruption, thereafter entered on the right track of reality, and they remain well-grounded today. Such people are those who shall remain in the end. Nevertheless, it is the honest that I seek; if you are an honest person and someone who acts according to principle, then you can be a confidant of God. If in your actions you do not offend the disposition of God, and seek the will of God, and have a heart of reverence toward God, then your faith is up to the standard. Whoever does not revere God and does not have a heart that trembles in fear is highly likely to violate the administrative decrees of God. Many serve God on the strength of their passion but have no understanding of the administrative decrees of God, still less any inkling of the implications of His words. And so, with their good intentions, they often wind up doing things that disrupt God’s management. In serious cases, they are thrown out, deprived of any further chance of following Him, and are cast into hell, all association with God’s house at an end. These people work in the house of God on the strength of their ignorant good intentions, and end by angering God’s disposition. People bring their ways of serving officials and lords to the house of God and try to put them into play, vainly thinking that they can be applied with effortless ease here. Never do they imagine that God has not the disposition of a lamb, but that of a lion. Therefore, those associating with God for the first time are unable to communicate with Him, for the heart of God is unlike that of man. Only after you understand many truths can you continuously come to know God. This knowledge is not made up of words and doctrines but can be used as a treasure by means of which you enter into close confidence with God, and as proof that He delights in you. If you lack the reality of knowledge and are not equipped with the truth, then your passionate service can only bring upon you the loathing and abhorrence of God.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Three Admonitions
663. Every sentence I have spoken contains within it the disposition of God. You would do well to ponder My words carefully, and you will surely profit greatly from them. The essence of God is very difficult to grasp, but I trust that you all have at least some idea about the disposition of God. I hope, then, that you will show Me and do more of that which does not offend the disposition of God. Then will I be reassured. For example, keep God in your heart at all times. When you act, do so according to His words. Seek out His intentions in all things, and refrain from doing that which disrespects and dishonors God. Even less should you put God in the back of your mind to fill the future void in your heart. If you do this, you will have offended the disposition of God. Again, supposing you never make blasphemous remarks or complaints against God throughout your life, and again, supposing you are able to discharge properly all that He has entrusted to you and also to submit to all His words throughout your life, then you will have avoided transgressing against the administrative decrees. For example, if you have ever said, “Why do I not think that He is God?” “I think that these words are nothing more than some enlightenment of the Holy Spirit,” “In my opinion, not everything God does is necessarily right,” “The humanity of God is not superior to mine,” “The words of God are simply not believable,” or other such judgmental remarks, then I exhort you to confess and repent your sins more often. Otherwise, you will never have a chance at forgiveness, for you offend not a man, but God Himself. You may believe that you are judging a man, but the Spirit of God does not consider it that way. Your disrespect of His flesh is equal to disrespecting Him. This being so, have you not offended God’s disposition? You must remember that all that is done by the Spirit of God is done in order to safeguard His work in the flesh and in order that this work be done well. If you neglect this, then I say that you are someone who will never be able to succeed in believing in God. For you have provoked the wrath of God, and so He shall use fitting punishment to teach you a lesson.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. It Is Very Important to Understand God’s Disposition
664. After understanding God’s disposition and what He has and is, have you made any conclusions as to how you should treat God? Finally, in response to this question, I would like to give you three pieces of counsel: First, do not test God. No matter how much you understand about God, no matter how much you know about His disposition, absolutely do not test Him. Second, do not contend for status with God. No matter what type of status God gives you or what kind of work He entrusts you with, no matter what kind of duty He raises you up to perform, and no matter how much you have expended yourself and sacrificed for God, absolutely do not compete for status with Him. Third, do not compete with God. No matter whether you understand or if you can submit to what God does with you, what He arranges for you, and the things He brings to you, absolutely do not compete with God. If you can abide by these three pieces of counsel, then you will be quite safe, and you will not be prone to angering God.
—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself III
665. Maybe you have suffered a good deal in your time, but you still understand nothing; you are ignorant of everything about life. Even though you have been chastised and judged, you have not changed at all, and deep within, you have not gained life. When the time comes to test your work, you will experience a trial as fierce as fire and even greater tribulation. This fire will turn your entire being into ashes. As someone who does not possess life, someone without an ounce of pure gold inside, someone still stuck with the old corrupt disposition, and someone who cannot even do a good job at being a foil, how could you not be eliminated? Can a person worth less than a penny, and who does not possess life, be of any use for the work of conquest? When that time comes, your days will be harder than those of Noah and Sodom! Your prayers will do you no good then. How can you come back later and start to repent anew, when the work of salvation has already ended? Once all the work of salvation has been done, there will be no more; what there will be is the start of the work of punishing those who are evil. You resist, you rebel, and you do things that you know are evil. Are you not the target of severe punishment? I am spelling this out for you today. If you choose not to listen, then when disaster befalls you later, will it not be too late if you only then start to feel regret and start to believe? I am giving you a chance to repent today, but you are unwilling to do so. How long do you want to wait? Until the day of chastisement? I do not remember your past transgressions today; I forgive you again and again, turning away from your negative side to look only at your positive side, because all My present words and work are meant to save you and I have no ill intention toward you. Yet you refuse to enter; you cannot tell good from bad and do not know how to appreciate kindness. Do such people not merely await the arrival of punishment and righteous retribution?
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Inside Truth of the Work of Conquest (1)
666. My working amongst you is not at all the same as Jehovah’s working in Israel, and, in particular, it is not the same as the work Jesus did in Judea. It is with great tolerance that I speak and work, and it is with anger as well as judgment that I conquer these degenerates. It is nothing like Jehovah leading His people in Israel. His work in Israel was to bestow food and living water, and He was full of compassion and love for His people while providing for them. Today’s work is done among a cursed nation of people who are not chosen. There is no abundant food, nor is there the thirst-quenching nourishment of living water, and much less is there a supply of ample material goods; there is only a supply of ample judgment, curse, and chastisement. These maggots living in the dung heap are absolutely unworthy of gaining the mountains-full of cattle and sheep, the great wealth, and the most beautiful children in all the land, such as I bestowed upon Israel. Contemporary Israel offers upon the altar the cattle and sheep and gold and silver items with which I nourish its people, surpassing the one-tenth required by Jehovah under the law, and so I have given them even more—more than one hundred times that was to be gained by Israel under the law. That with which I nourish Israel surpasses all that Abraham gained, and all that Isaac gained. I will make the family of Israel fruitful and multiply, and I will make My people of Israel spread throughout the earth. Those I bless and care for are still the chosen people of Israel—that is, the people who dedicate everything to Me and who have gained everything from Me. It is because they keep Me in mind that they sacrifice their newborn calves and lambs on My holy altar and offer up everything they have before Me, even to the point of offering up their newborn first sons in anticipation of My return. And what about you? You arouse My anger, make demands of Me, and steal the sacrifices of those who offer things up to Me, and you do not know that you are offending Me; thus, all you gain is weeping and punishment in darkness. You have provoked My anger many times, and I have rained down My burning fires to the point that quite a few people have met with a tragic end, and happy homes have become desolate tombs. All I have for these maggots is unending anger, and I have no intention of blessing them. It is only for the sake of My work that I have made an exception and uplifted you, and endured great humiliation and worked amongst you. If not for the will of My Father, how could I live in the same house with the maggots rolling around in the dung heap? I feel extreme loathing for all of your actions and words, and anyhow, because I have some “interest” in your filthiness and rebelliousness, this has become a great collection of My words. Otherwise I absolutely would not have remained among you for so long. Therefore, you should know that My attitude toward you is merely one of sympathy and pity; I do not have even a drop of love for you. What I have for you is mere tolerance, because I only do this for the sake of My work. And you have seen My deeds only because I have selected filthiness and rebelliousness as “raw materials”; otherwise, I absolutely would not reveal My deeds to these maggots. I work in you only with reluctance, not at all like the readiness and willingness with which I did My work in Israel. I am bearing My anger while forcing Myself to speak among you. If not for My greater work, how could I tolerate the continued sight of such maggots? If not for the sake of My name, I would long ago have ascended to the highest heights and completely incinerated these maggots along with their dung heap! If not for the sake of My glory, how could I allow these evil demons to openly resist Me with their heads wagging before My eyes? If not to have My work carried out smoothly without the slightest obstruction, how could I allow these maggot-like people to wantonly abuse Me? If one hundred people in a village in Israel rose up to resist Me like this, even if they made sacrifices to Me, I would still obliterate and cast them down into cracks in the ground so as to prevent people in other cities from rebelling ever again. I am an all-consuming fire and I do not tolerate offense. Because humans were all created by Me, whatever I say and do, they must obey, and they may not rebel. People do not have the right to meddle in My work, and much less are they qualified to analyze what is right or wrong in My work and in My words. I am the Lord of creation, and the created beings should achieve everything that I require with a heart of reverence for Me; they should not try to reason with Me, and they especially should not resist. With My authority I govern My people, and all those who are part of My creation should submit to My authority. Though today you are bold and presumptuous before Me, though you disobey the words with which I teach you and know no fear, I only meet your rebelliousness with tolerance; I will not lose My temper and impact My work because tiny, insignificant maggots have stirred up the dirt in the dung heap. I tolerate the ongoing existence of everything that I loathe and all the things that I abhor for the sake of My Father’s will, and I will do so until My utterances are complete, until My very last moment. Do not worry! I cannot sink to the same level as a nameless maggot, and I will not compare My degree of skill with you. I loathe you, but I am able to endure. You disobey Me, but you cannot escape the day when I will chastise you, which was promised to Me by My Father. Can a created maggot compare to the Lord of creation? In autumn, falling leaves return to their roots; you will return to the home of your “father,” and I will return to My Father’s side. I will be accompanied by His tender affection, and you will be followed by the trampling of your father. I will have the glory of My Father, and you will have the shame of yours. I will use the chastisement that I have long held back to accompany you, and you will meet My chastisement with your rancid flesh that has been corrupt for tens of thousands of years. I will have concluded My work of words in you, accompanied with tolerance, and you will begin to fulfill the role of suffering disaster from My words. I will greatly rejoice and work in Israel; you will weep and gnash your teeth, existing and dying in the mud. I will regain My original form and no longer remain in the filth with you, while you will regain your original ugliness and continue to burrow around in the dung heap. When My work and words are done, it will be a day of joy for Me. When your resistance and rebelliousness are done, it will be a day of weeping for you. I will not sympathize with you, and you will never see Me again. I will no longer engage in dialogue with you, and you will never encounter Me again. I will hate your rebelliousness, and you will miss My loveliness. I will strike you, and you will pine for Me. I will gladly depart from you, and you will be aware of your debt to Me. I will never see you again, but you will always hope for Me. I will hate you because you currently resist Me, and you will miss Me because I currently chastise you. I will be unwilling to live alongside you, but you will bitterly yearn for it and weep into eternity, for you will regret all that you have done to Me. You will feel remorse for your rebelliousness and resistance, you will even lay face-down on the ground with regret and fall down before Me and swear to never disobey Me again. In your heart, however, you will only love Me, yet you will never be able to hear My voice. I will make you ashamed of yourself.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. When Falling Leaves Return to Their Roots, You Will Regret All the Evil You Have Done
667. Now I am looking at your indulgent flesh that would wheedle Me, and I only have a small warning for you, though I will not “serve” you with chastisement. You should know what role you play in My work, and then I will be satisfied. In matters beyond this, if you resist Me or spend My money, or eat the sacrifices for Me, Jehovah, or if you maggots bite each other, or if you dog-like creatures have conflicts or violate one another—I am not concerned with any of that. You need only know what sort of things you are, and I will be satisfied. Aside from all of this, if you wish to draw weapons on each other or battle each other with words, that is fine; I have no desire to meddle in such things, and am not the least bit involved in human matters. It is not that I do not care about conflicts between you; it is that I am not one of you, and therefore do not participate in matters that lie between you. I Myself am not a created being and am not of the world, so I loathe the bustling life of people and the messy, improper relationships between them. I particularly loathe the clamorous crowds. However, I have a profound knowledge of the impurities in the hearts of each created being, and before I created you, I already knew of the unrighteousness that existed deep in the human heart, and I knew all the deception and crookedness in the human heart. Therefore, even though there are no traces at all when people do unrighteous things, I still know that the unrighteousness harbored within your hearts surpasses the richness of all things that I created. Every one of you has risen to the pinnacle of the multitudes; you have ascended to be the ancestors of the masses. You are extremely arbitrary, and you run amok among all of the maggots, seeking a place of ease and attempting to devour the maggots that are smaller than you. You are malicious and sinister in your hearts, surpassing even the ghosts that have sunk to the bottom of the sea. You reside in the bottom of the dung, disturbing the maggots from top to bottom until they have no peace, fighting each other for a while and then calming down. You do not know your place, yet still you battle with each other in the dung. What can you gain from such struggle? If you truly had reverence for Me in your hearts, how could you fight with each other behind My back? No matter how high your status, are you not still a stinking little worm in the dung? Will you be able to sprout wings and become a dove in the sky? You stinking little worms steal offerings from the altar of Me, Jehovah; in doing so, can you rescue your ruined, failed reputation and become the chosen people of Israel? You are shameless wretches! Those sacrifices on the altar were offered up to Me by people, as an expression of benevolent feelings from those who revere Me. They are for My control and for My use, so how can you possibly rob Me of the little turtledoves people have given Me? Do you not fear becoming a Judas? Are you not afraid that your land might become a field of blood? You shameless thing! Do you think that the turtledoves offered up by people are to nourish the belly of you maggot? What I have given you is what I am content and willing to give you; what I have not given you is at My disposal. You may not simply steal My offerings. The One who works is Me, Jehovah—the Lord of creation—and people offer sacrifices because of Me. Do you think this is recompense for all the running about you do? You really are shameless! Who do you run about for? Is it not for yourself? Why do you steal My sacrifices? Why do you steal money from My money bag? Are you not the son of Judas Iscariot? The sacrifices to Me, Jehovah, are to be enjoyed by priests. Are you a priest? You dare to smugly eat My sacrifices, and even lay them out on the table; you are worth nothing! You worthless wretch! My fire, the fire of Jehovah, will incinerate you!
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. When Falling Leaves Return to Their Roots, You Will Regret All the Evil You Have Done
668. I have worked and spoken in this way among you, I have expended so much energy and effort, yet when have you ever listened to what I plainly tell you? Where have you bowed down to Me, the Almighty? Why do you treat Me like this? Why does everything you say and do provoke My anger? Why are your hearts so hard? Have I ever struck you down? Why do you do nothing but make Me sorrowful and anxious? Are you waiting for the day of wrath of Me, Jehovah, to come upon you? Are you waiting for Me to send forth the anger provoked by your disobedience? Is everything I do not for you? Yet always have you treated Me, Jehovah, in this way: stealing My sacrifices, taking the offerings of My altar home to the wolf’s lair to feed the cubs and the cubs of the cubs; people fight against each other, facing one another with angry glares and swords and spears, tossing the words of Me, the Almighty, into the latrine to become as filthy as excrement. Where is your integrity? Your humanity has become beastliness! Your hearts have long since turned to stone. Do you not know that the time when My day of wrath arrives will be the time when I judge the evil you commit against Me, the Almighty, today? Do you think that by fooling Me in this way, by casting My words into the mire and not listening to them—do you think that by acting like this behind My back you can escape My wrathful gaze? Do you not know that you were already seen by the eyes of Me, Jehovah, when you stole My sacrifices and coveted My possessions? Do you not know that when you stole My sacrifices, you did so before the altar to which sacrifices are offered? How could you believe yourselves clever enough to deceive Me in this way? How could My wrath depart from your heinous sins? How could My raging fury pass over your evil doings? The evil that you commit today does not open a way out for you, but stores up chastisement for your tomorrow; it provokes the chastisement of Me, the Almighty, toward you. How could your evil doings and evil words escape from My chastisement? How could your prayers reach My ears? How could I open up a way out for your unrighteousness? How could I let go of your evil doings in defying Me? How could I not sever your tongues that are as venomous as the serpent’s? You do not call on Me for the sake of your righteousness, but instead store up My wrath as a result of your unrighteousness. How could I forgive you? In the eyes of Me, the Almighty, your words and actions are filthy. The eyes of Me, the Almighty, see your unrighteousness as unrelenting chastisement. How could My righteous chastisement and judgment depart from you? Because you do this to Me, making Me sorrowful and wrathful, how could I let you escape from My hands and depart from the day that I, Jehovah, chastise and curse you? Do you not know that all your evil words and utterances have already reached My ears? Do you not know that your unrighteousness has already besmirched My holy robe of righteousness? Do you not know that your disobedience has already provoked My vehement anger? Do you not know that you have long since left Me seething, and have long since tried My patience? Do you not know that you have already damaged My flesh, reducing it to rags? I have endured until now, such that I release My anger, tolerant toward you no longer. Do you not know that your evil doings have already reached My eyes, and that My cries have already reached the ears of My Father? How could He allow you to treat Me like this? Is any of the work I do in you not for your sake? Yet who among you has become more loving of the work of Me, Jehovah? Could I be unfaithful to the will of My Father because I am weak, and because of the anguish I have suffered? Do you not understand My heart? I speak to you as Jehovah did; have I not given up so much for you? Even though I am willing to bear all of this suffering for the sake of My Father’s work, how could you be freed from the chastisement that I bring upon you as a result of My suffering? Have you not enjoyed so much of Me? Today, I have been bestowed upon you by My Father; do you not know that you enjoy so much more than My bounteous words? Do you not know that My life was exchanged for your life and the things you enjoy? Do you not know that My Father used My life to do battle with Satan, and that He also bestowed My life upon you, causing you to receive a hundredfold, and allowing you to avoid so many temptations? Do you not know that it is only through My work that you have been exempt from many temptations, and from many fiery chastisements? Do you not know that it is only because of Me that My Father allows you to enjoy until now? How could you remain so hard and unyielding today, such that it is as if callouses have grown upon your hearts? How could the evil that you commit today escape the day of wrath that shall follow My departure from earth? How could I allow those who are so hard and unyielding to escape the anger of Jehovah?
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. No One Who Is of the Flesh Can Escape the Day of Wrath
669. Think back on the past: When has My gaze been angry, and My voice stern, toward you? When have I split hairs with you? When have I reprimanded you unreasonably? When have I reprimanded you to your face? Is it not for the sake of My work that I call on My Father to keep you from every temptation? Why do you treat Me like this? Have I ever used My authority to strike down your flesh? Why do you repay Me thus? After blowing hot and cold toward Me, you are neither hot nor cold, and then you try to wheedle Me and hide things from Me, and your mouths are full of the spit of the unrighteous. Do you think your tongues can cheat My Spirit? Do you think that your tongues can escape My wrath? Do you think your tongues may pass judgment on the deeds of Me, Jehovah, however they wish? Am I the God whom man passes judgment on? Could I allow a little maggot to blaspheme Me thus? How could I place such sons of disobedience among My eternal blessings? Your words and actions have long since exposed and condemned you. When I stretched out the heavens and created all things, I did not allow any creature to participate as they pleased, much less did I allow any thing to disrupt My work and My management however it wished. I tolerated no man or object; how could I spare those who are cruel and inhumane toward Me? How could I forgive those who rebel against My words? How could I spare those who disobey Me? Is the destiny of man not in the hands of Me, the Almighty? How could I consider your unrighteousness and disobedience holy? How could your sins defile My holiness? I am not defiled by the impurity of the unrighteous, nor do I enjoy the offerings of the unrighteous. If you were loyal toward Me, Jehovah, could you take for yourself the sacrifices at My altar? Could you use your venomous tongue to blaspheme My holy name? Could you rebel against My words in this way? Could you treat My glory and holy name as a tool with which to serve Satan, the evil one? My life is provided for the enjoyment of the holy ones. How could I allow you to play with My life however you wish, and use it as a tool for conflict among yourselves? How could you be so heartless, and so lacking in the way of the good, in how you are toward Me? Do you not know I have already written your evil doings in these words of life? How could you escape the day of wrath when I chastise Egypt? How could I allow you to oppose and defy Me in this way, time and time again? I tell you plainly, when the day comes, your chastisement will be more unbearable than that of Egypt! How can you escape My day of wrath? I tell you truly: My endurance was prepared for your evil doings, and exists for your chastisement on that day. Are you not the ones who will suffer wrathful judgment once I have reached the end of My endurance? Are not all things in the hands of Me, the Almighty? How could I allow you to disobey Me thus, beneath the heavens? Your lives will be very hard because you have met the Messiah, of whom it was said that He would come, yet who never came. Are you not His enemies? Jesus has been friends with you, yet you are the enemies of the Messiah. Do you not know that although you are friends with Jesus, your evil doings have filled the vessels of those who are detestable? Though you are very close to Jehovah, do you not know that your evil words have reached Jehovah’s ears and provoked His wrath? How could He be close to you, and how could He not burn those vessels of yours, which are filled with evil doings? How could He not be your enemy?
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. No One Who Is of the Flesh Can Escape the Day of Wrath
670. You all sit in seats of elegance, lecturing those of younger generations who are of your ilk and having them all sit with you. Little do you know that your “descendants” long ago ran out of breath and lost My work. My glory shines from the land of the East to the land of the West, yet when it spreads to the ends of the earth and begins to rise and shine forth, I will take My glory from the East and bring it to the West so that the people of darkness, who have abandoned Me in the East, will be deprived of illumination from then on. When that happens, you will live in the valley of shadow. Even though people these days are a hundred times better than before, they still cannot meet My requirements, and they still are not a testimony to My glory. That you are able to be a hundred times better than before is entirely an outcome of My work; it is the fruit borne of My work on earth. However, I still feel disgusted with your words and deeds, as well as with your character, and I feel incredible resentment toward how you act before Me, for you do not have any understanding of Me. How, then, can you come to live out My glory, and how can you be utterly loyal to My future work? Your faith is very beautiful; you say that you are willing to expend your entire lifetimes on behalf of My work, and that you are willing to sacrifice your lives for it, but your dispositions have not changed much. You just speak arrogantly, despite the fact that your actual behavior is very wretched. It is as though people’s tongues and lips are in heaven but their legs are way down on earth, and as a result, their words and deeds and their reputations are still in tatters and ruins. Your reputations have been destroyed, your manner is depraved, your way of speaking is lowly, and your lives are despicable; even the entirety of your humanity has sunk into base lowliness. You are narrow-minded toward others, and you haggle over every little thing. You quarrel over your own reputations and status, even to the point that you are willing to descend into hell and into the lake of fire. Your current words and deeds are sufficient for Me to determine that you are sinful. Your attitudes toward My work are enough for Me to determine that you are unrighteous ones, and all of your dispositions are sufficient to point out that you are filthy souls that are full of abominations. Your manifestations and what you reveal are adequate to say that you are people who have drunk your fill of the blood of unclean spirits. When entering the kingdom is mentioned, you do not reveal your feelings. Do you believe that the way you are now is sufficient for you to walk through the gate to My kingdom of heaven? Do you believe that you can obtain entry into the holy land of My work and words, without your own words and deeds first being tested by Me? Who can pull the wool over My eyes? How could your despicable, lowly behaviors and conversations escape My sight? Your lives have been determined by Me to be lives of drinking the blood and eating the flesh of those unclean spirits because you imitate them in front of Me every day. Before Me, your behavior has been particularly bad, so how could I not find you disgusting? Your words contain the impurities of unclean spirits: You wheedle, conceal, and flatter just like those who engage in sorcery and like those who are treacherous and drink the blood of the unrighteous. All of man’s expressions are extremely unrighteous, so how can all people be placed in the holy land where the righteous are? Do you think that that despicable behavior of yours can distinguish you as being holy compared to those unrighteous ones? Your serpent-like tongue will eventually ruin this flesh of yours that wreaks destruction and carries out abominations, and those hands of yours that are covered with the blood of unclean spirits will also eventually pull your soul into hell. Why, then, do you not leap at this chance to cleanse your filth-covered hands? And why do you not take advantage of this opportunity to cut out that tongue of yours that speaks unrighteous words? Could it be that you are willing to suffer in the flames of hell for the sake of your hands, tongue, and lips? I keep watch over everyone’s heart with both eyes, because long before I created mankind, I had grasped their hearts within My hands. I had long ago seen through people’s hearts, so how could their thoughts escape My view? How could it not be too late for them to escape being burned by My Spirit?
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. You Are All So Base in Character!
671. I have been among you, associating with you for several springs and falls; I have lived among you for a long time, and have lived with you. How much of your despicable behavior has slipped away right in front of My eyes? Those heartfelt words of yours are constantly echoing in My ears; millions and millions of your aspirations have been laid upon My altar—too many even to be counted. However, as for your dedication and what you expend, you give not even one iota. You do not place even a tiny drop of sincerity upon My altar. Where are the fruits of your belief in Me? You have received endless grace from Me, and you have seen endless mysteries from heaven; I have even shown you the flames of heaven, but I have not had the heart to burn you. Nevertheless, how much have you given Me in return? How much are you willing to give to Me? With the food I have given to you in hand, you turn around and offer it to Me, even going so far as to say that it was something you got in return for the sweat of your own hard work and that you are offering Me all that you own. How can you not know that your “contributions” to Me are all just things that have been stolen from My altar? Moreover, now you are offering them to Me, are you not cheating Me? How can you not know that what I enjoy today are all the offerings upon My altar, and not what you have earned from your hard work and then offered up to Me? You actually dare to cheat Me this way, so how can I pardon you? How can you expect Me to endure this any longer? I have given everything to you. I have opened everything up to you, provided for your needs, and opened your eyes, yet you cheat Me like this, ignoring your consciences. I have selflessly bestowed everything upon you so that even though you suffer, you still have gained from Me everything that I have brought from heaven. In spite of this, you have no dedication at all, and even if you have made a tiny contribution, you try to “settle accounts” with Me afterward. Will your contribution not amount to nothing? What you have given to Me is a mere grain of sand, yet what you have asked of Me is a ton of gold. Are you not simply being unreasonable? I work amongst you. There is absolutely no trace of the ten percent that I should be given, let alone any additional sacrifices. Furthermore, that ten percent contributed by those who are devout is seized by the wicked. Are you not all scattered from Me? Are you not all antagonistic toward Me? Are you not all wrecking My altar? How could such people be seen as treasures in My eyes? Are they not the swine and dogs that I loathe? How could I refer to your evildoing as a treasure? For whom is My work actually done? Could it be that its purpose is just to strike you all down to reveal My authority? Do your lives not all hinge upon a single word from Me? Why is it that I am only using words to instruct you, and have not turned words into facts to strike you down as soon as I could? Is the purpose of My words and work merely to strike down mankind? Am I a God who indiscriminately kills the innocent? Right now, how many of you are coming before Me with your entire being to seek the right path of human life? It is just your bodies that are in front of Me; your hearts are still at large, and are far, far away from Me. Because you do not know what My work actually is, there are a number of you who wish to depart from Me and distance yourselves from Me, hoping instead to live in a paradise where there is no chastisement or judgment. Is this not what people wish for in their hearts? I certainly am not trying to compel you. Whatever path you take is your own choice. Today’s path is one accompanied by judgment and curses, but you should all know that all that I have bestowed upon you—whether it be judgments or chastisements—are the best gifts I can grant you, and they are all things that you urgently need.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. You Are All So Base in Character!
672. All souls corrupted by Satan are held thrall in Satan’s domain. Only those who believe in Christ have been made separate, saved from Satan’s camp, and brought into today’s kingdom. These people no longer live under Satan’s influence. Even so, man’s nature is still rooted in man’s flesh, which is to say that even though your souls have been saved, your nature is still as it was before, and the chance that you will betray Me remains one hundred percent. This is why My work lasts so long, as your nature is intractable. Now, you are all undergoing hardships to the best of your ability as you fulfill your duties, yet each of you is capable of betraying Me and returning to Satan’s domain, to its camp, and going back to your old lives—this is an undeniable fact. At that time, it will not be possible for you to present a shred of humanity or human likeness, as you do now. In serious cases, you will be destroyed and, more than that, doomed eternally, punished severely, never to be reincarnated again. This is the problem laid before you. I am reminding you in this way, firstly, so that My work will not have been in vain, and secondly, so that you may all live in days of light. In truth, whether My work is in vain is not the crucial problem. What is crucial is that you are able to have happy lives and a wonderful future. My work is the work of saving people’s souls. If your soul falls into Satan’s hands, your body will not live in peace. If I am protecting your body, your soul will also surely be under My care. If I really loathe you, your body and soul will fall at once into Satan’s hands. Can you imagine your situation then? If, one day My words are lost on you, then I shall either hand you all over to Satan, which will subject you to excruciating torture until My anger has completely dissipated, or I shall personally punish you irredeemable humans, for your hearts that betray Me will have never changed.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. A Very Serious Problem: Betrayal (2)
673. I only hope that, in the last stage of My work, you will be able to give your most outstanding performance, and that you will devote yourselves wholeheartedly, no longer half-hearted. Of course, I also hope that you can all have a good destination. Nevertheless, I still have My requirement, which is for you to make the best decision in offering up to Me your sole and final devotion. If someone does not have that sole devotion, then he is surely a treasured possession of Satan, and I will no longer keep him to use but send him home to be looked after by his parents. My work is a great help to you; what I hope to get from you is a heart that is honest and that aspires upward, but so far My hands remain empty. Think about it: If one day I am still so aggrieved, beyond the scope of words to tell, what will My attitude toward you be then? Will I be as amiable to you then as I am now? Will My heart be as serene then as it is now? Do you understand the feelings of a person who, having painstakingly tilled the field, has not harvested a single grain? Do you understand how greatly a person’s heart is injured when he has been dealt a great blow? Can you taste the bitterness of a person, once so full of hope, who has had to part on bad terms? Have you seen the wrath issuing forth from a person who has been provoked? Can you know the eagerness for revenge of a person who has been treated with enmity and deceit? If you understand the mentality of these people, then I think it should not be difficult for you to imagine the attitude God will have at the time of His retribution! Finally, I hope you all put in serious effort for the sake of your own destination, though you had better not employ deceitful means in your efforts, or else I will continue to be disappointed with you in My heart. And what does such disappointment lead to? Are you not fooling yourselves? Those who take thought for their destination yet ruin it are the people least able to be saved. Even if he were to become exasperated and enraged, who would take pity on such a person? In sum, I still wish for you to have a destination that is both suitable and good, and, even more, I hope that none of you will fall into disaster.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. On Destination
674. My final work is not only for the sake of punishing man, but also for the sake of arranging the destination of man. Moreover, it is so that all people may acknowledge My deeds and actions. I want each and every person to see that all I have done is right, and that all I have done is an expression of My disposition. It is not man’s doing, much less nature, that brought forth mankind, but I, who nourish every living being in creation. Without My existence, mankind will only perish and suffer the scourge of calamity. No human being will ever again see the beauteous sun and moon, or the verdant world; mankind shall encounter only the frigid night and the inexorable valley of the shadow of death. I am mankind’s only salvation. I am mankind’s only hope and, even more, I am He on whom the existence of all mankind rests. Without Me, mankind will immediately come to a standstill. Without Me, mankind will suffer catastrophe and be trampled underfoot by all manner of ghosts, though no one takes heed of Me. I have done work that can be done by no other, and hope only that man can repay Me with some good deeds. Though but a few have been able to repay Me, I will still conclude My journey in the human world and begin the next step of My unfolding work, because all My rushing to and fro in man’s midst these many years has been fruitful, and I am very pleased. What I care about is not the number of people, but rather their good deeds. In any case, I hope that you prepare a sufficiency of good deeds for your own destination. Then will I be satisfied; otherwise, none of you can escape the disaster that will befall you. The disaster originates with Me and is of course orchestrated by Me. If you cannot appear as good in My eyes, then you will not escape suffering the disaster. In the midst of tribulation, your actions and deeds were not considered entirely appropriate, for your faith and love were hollow, and you only showed yourselves to be either timid or tough. Regarding this, I will only make a judgment of good or bad. My concern continues to be the way in which each of you acts and expresses himself, on the basis of which I shall determine your end. However, I must make this clear: Toward those who showed Me not the slightest loyalty during times of tribulation, I shall be merciful no more, for My mercy only extends so far. I have no liking, furthermore, for anyone who has once betrayed Me, much less do I like to associate with those who sell out the interests of their friends. This is My disposition, regardless of who the person may be. I must tell you this: Anyone who breaks My heart shall not receive clemency from Me a second time, and anyone who has been faithful to Me shall forever remain in My heart.
—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Prepare Sufficient Good Deeds for Your Destination
Footnotes:
a. A piece of deadwood: a Chinese idiom, meaning “beyond help.”
b. The original text does not contain the phrase “In this way.”