Answer: The increase in lawlessness means mostly that those religious leaders, pastors, and elders go against God’s will and go their own way instead. They don’t follow God’s commandments, and they misinterpret the Bible to shackle, control, and deceive people, drowning them in biblical theology, and taking them away from God, turning churches into places of religious ritual, and they treat their responsibilities and duties as access to status and income, which leads to many hypocritical acts that resist God in the church. Many people have revealed themselves to be unbelievers. They pursue worldly pleasures, depart from the way of the Lord, and even pass on God’s words as mere fairy tales. They do not believe at all that the Lord Jesus will come again to speak and do work. Especially those religious leaders without any reverence for God in their hearts, and all kinds of evil men and unbelievers who do not love the truth are exposed. They openly commit evil acts, deny God’s work of the last days, and reject the truth. These religious pastors and elders preach biblical knowledge and theology. They strive to protect their own status, influence, and income, but they refuse to follow the Lord’s way or spread the Lord’s word. They don’t exalt or testify to the Lord at all. Instead they preach things that betray the truth in God’s word, and use fallacies and human traditions to deceive and control people, stubbornly taking the Pharisees’ path of resistance to God. Many religious pastors and elders also pursue worldly pleasures, they seek fashion, lust for money, and struggle for position. They are purely men of the world, purely unbelievers. What’s most infuriating is that these religious leaders, pastors, and elders use their wild condemnation of God’s work in the last days to deceive and control the believers, and they even collude with the CCP regime, standing with Satan against God, striving to create their own kingdoms and re-crucifying God, for which God hates and curses them. These lawless acts are facts apparent to us all. They are nothing less than a betrayal from the religious word. And because of the increase in these lawless acts, the faith and love of many believers has gone cold, and they are negative and weak. Because these religious leaders have chosen their own path, and no longer follow God’s way, the work of the Holy Spirit has been withdrawn, and the religious venues have been abandoned. The Holy Spirit’s work has moved to those who accept Almighty God’s work of the last days. And in these things we see that God’s righteous disposition is intolerant of offense by man.

We just fellowshiped on some of the reasons the religious world is desolate. Now I’d like to add my own perspective and opinion to the root causes of the desolation in the religious world. First let’s read two passages from Almighty God, which will help you better understand the causes of desolation in religion. Almighty God says, “God will accomplish this fact: He will make all people throughout the universe come before Him and worship the God on earth, and His work in other places will cease, and people will be forced to seek the true way. It will be like Joseph: Everyone came to him for food, and bowed down to him, for he had things to eat. In order to avoid famine, people will be forced to seek the true way. The entire religious community will suffer severe famine, and only the God of today is the wellspring of living water, possessed of the ever-flowing wellspring provided for the enjoyment of man, and people will come and depend on Him” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. The Millennial Kingdom Has Arrived). “God has made this group of people the sole focus of His work throughout all the universe. He has sacrificed all His heart’s blood for you; He has reclaimed and given to you all the work of the Spirit throughout the universe. That is why I say you are the fortunate ones” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Is the Work of God As Simple As Man Imagines?). Almighty God has already clarified the cause of famine in the religious world. This allows us to see the omnipotence and wisdom of God. God has not abandoned those who love the truth and thirst for His appearance. God has used the famine’s arrival to compel them to seek the true way, and make them find God’s will and God’s footsteps among the desolation in the churches. He did this to help those in every denomination who love the truth and truly believe in God to come before His throne. So God says “God has made this group of people the sole focus of His work throughout all the universe.” From this we can see that the work of the Holy Spirit has moved to those who accept God’s work in the last days. And this is proof of the fact that God means for all those who come before His throne to become those after God’s heart. These are the people who will be made overcomers by God before the disaster, and so the Lord Jesus’ prophecies of the clever virgins attending the wedding feast with the Lamb will be borne out. The foolish virgins, who no matter how desolate or dark their churches become, remain in them and wait for death, are just like the Israelites who died in the wilderness after being led out of Egypt. The whole religious world has become a place of ruin, primarily because the religious world’s leaders follow the path of the Pharisees, and betray the Lord’s intention. They don’t follow God’s will, don’t obey the Lord’s commandments, and were abandoned by God long ago. Through the truth God incarnate expresses in the last days, their antichrist nature and substance is exposed, and they become those who re-crucify God, and are cursed by God. What is God’s purpose in causing the religious world to face famine? He wants to force people to seek the true way. Only those who long to search for God’s voice, and who accept Almighty God’s work of judgment in the last days will again receive the work of the Holy Spirit, provision of the living water of life which flows from His throne, and finally be saved and allowed to enter into the kingdom of heaven. These are the people who the Lord Jesus prophesied would be caught up into the kingdom of heaven. If we deny the judgment, chastisement, purification, and salvation by Almighty God’s words, we will be eternally abandoned and eliminated. Just as Almighty God says, “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).

—the movie script of From the Throne Flows the Water of Life