(1) So long as they genuinely believe in God, arrogant people who are not evil, despite their arrogant dispositions, should be helped lovingly. They should be made to embark on the right track of believing in God;

(2) Those who are arrogant of disposition but can accept the truth, and who are moreover of good caliber and gifted, should be promoted and cultivated. They absolutely must not be excluded;

(3) Maniacs who number among the antichrists, who are arrogant in the extreme and have not the least bit of sense, and who are vigorous in their ambitions and multifarious in their evildoings, must be expelled;

(4) Erroneous people of arrogance, who are absurd in the extreme, and who insist rigidly on fallacies, oppose the truth, and submit to no one, must be purged or expelled.

Relevant Words of God:

Since mankind was corrupted by Satan, their nature began to change and they gradually lost the sense of reason possessed by normal people. They now no longer act as human beings in the position of man; rather, they wish to surpass the status of man, and they yearn for something higher and greater. And what is this higher something? They wish to surpass God, to surpass the heavens, and to surpass all else. What is at the root of why people have become like this? When all is said and done, man’s nature is overly arrogant. “Arrogant” is a derogative term, and no one wants to have this term pinned to them. In fact, however, everyone is arrogant, and all corrupt humans have this essence. Some people say, “I’m not the least bit arrogant. I’ve never wanted to be the archangel, nor have I ever wanted to surpass God, or to surpass all else. I’ve always been someone who’s especially well-behaved and dutiful.” Not necessarily; these words are incorrect. Once people have grown arrogant in nature and essence, they become capable of doing things that disobey and resist God, things that do not heed His words, things that generate notions about Him, things that rebel against Him, and things that exalt and bear testimony to themselves. You say you are not arrogant, but suppose you were given a number of churches and allowed to lead them; suppose that I did not deal with you, and that no one in God’s family pruned you: After leading them a while, you would bring them to your feet and make them submit before you. And why would you do that? This would be determined by your nature; it would be none other than a natural revelation. You do not need to go out of your way to learn this, nor do you have to specially get others to teach it to you. You do not need to do any of this deliberately; this kind of situation comes about naturally to you: You make people submit before you, worship you, exalt you, testify about you, and listen to you in all things, and you do not allow them to go beyond your jurisdiction. Under your leadership, such situations occur naturally. And how do these situations come about? They are determined by man’s arrogant nature. The manifestation of arrogance is rebellion and resistance against God. When people are arrogant, self-important, and self-righteous, they tend to set up their own independent kingdoms and do things however they want. They also bring others into their own hands and draw them into their embraces. For people to be capable of doing such things, it means the essence of their arrogance has become that of the archangel. When their arrogance and self-importance reach a certain level, then that determines that they are the archangel and will put God aside. If you possess such an arrogant disposition, God will have no place in your heart.

—“An Arrogant Nature Is the Root of Man’s Resistance to God” in Records of Talks of Christ of the Last Days

Arrogance is the root of man’s corrupt disposition. The more arrogant people are, the more liable they are to resist God. How serious is this problem? Not only do people with arrogant dispositions consider everyone else beneath them, but, worst of all, they are even condescending toward God. Even though, externally, some people might appear to believe in God and follow Him, they do not treat Him as God at all. They always feel that they possess the truth and think the world of themselves. This is the essence and root of the arrogant disposition, and it comes from Satan. Therefore, the problem of arrogance must be resolved. Feeling that one is better than others—that is a trivial matter. The critical issue is that one’s arrogant disposition prevents one from submitting to God, His rule, and His arrangements; such a person always feels inclined to compete with God for power over others. This sort of person does not revere God in the slightest, to say nothing of loving God or submitting to Him. People who are arrogant and conceited, especially those who are so arrogant as to have lost their sense, cannot submit to God in their belief in Him, and even exalt and bear testimony for themselves. Such people resist God the most. If people wish to get to where they revere God, then they must first resolve their arrogant dispositions. The more thoroughly you resolve your arrogant disposition, the more reverence you will have for God, and only then can you submit to Him and be able to obtain the truth and know Him.

—God’s Fellowship

Some people say they don’t have a corrupt disposition, that they are not arrogant. What people are these? They are the most arrogant of all. In fact, they’re more arrogant and rebellious than anyone; the more someone says they are not corrupt, the more arrogant and self-righteous they are. Why are others able to know themselves, and take account of their state, yet you aren’t? Are you the exception? Are you a saint? Do you live in a vacuum? You do not acknowledge that humankind has been corrupted by Satan, that people have a corrupt disposition, and so you are the most rebellious and arrogant of all. According to you, there are lots and lots of good people in the world—so why is it full of darkness, full of filth and corruption, full of conflict? Why, in the world of man, does everyone take and steal from each other? Not even believers in God are any different: They are always struggling and fighting with one another. And where does this strife stem from? From arrogance. In sum, it is inseparable from arrogance, which is the essence of man’s corruption; it is the outpouring of the arrogance and rebelliousness of man’s nature. Why is it that people believe in God, yet are incapable of practicing the truth? Why is it that they believe in God, yet cannot be compatible with God? This is also determined by people’s arrogant nature. Humankind is always resisting and rebelling against God, and this is not because of God’s wrongdoing, it is not because God lacks truth, but because man has been too profoundly corrupted by Satan, and is too arrogant, too lacking in sense, does not accept, at all, the truth, and so man can never be compatible with God, and always stands against God, and pushes back against God. What point has the relationship between man and God now reached? Man has become the enemy of God, the antithesis of God. God expresses the truth to expose and save man, but man refuses to accept, and pays no heed. What God asks man to do, man does not do; what is loathsome and hateful to God, on the other hand, man does do. God is the truth, yet He is rejected by man. God judges and chastises the corrupt disposition of man, yet man remains incapable of recognition. Just how arrogant is man? Before, there were those who kept saying they would reign as king. This typifies arrogance, it is the corrupt disposition of man. God became flesh to save man, but in return for receiving God, people demanded living expenses, rewards, benedictions, and they even went about bragging about this, and saying that they were beloved of God, so that others would think highly of them. A small number were clearly aware that the One they received was God, yet demanded money from the churches in return. These arrogant people say that they don’t have a corrupt disposition, and that their belief is superior to anyone else’s, that they’re more devoted to God than anyone else, and act better than anyone else. Do you really act so well? If you are truly good, why are you liable to do arrogant things? And why are you incapable of doing humane things? Why is there nothing human about you? People’s arrogance is to the point that they want everything, but they do not want God, and they will do any sordid and contemptible thing, but they will not worship and obey God.

—“An Arrogant Nature Is the Root of Man’s Resistance to God” in Records of Talks of Christ of the Last Days

Do many people not oppose God and obstruct the work of the Holy Spirit because they do not know the varied and diverse work of God, and, furthermore, because they possess but a smidgeon of knowledge and doctrine with which to measure the work of the Holy Spirit? Though the experiences of such people are superficial, they are arrogant and indulgent in nature and they regard the work of the Holy Spirit with contempt, ignore the disciplines of the Holy Spirit and, moreover, use their trivial old arguments to “confirm” the work of the Holy Spirit. They also put on an act, and are wholly convinced of their own learning and erudition, and convinced that they are able to travel across the world. Are such people not those who are despised and rejected by the Holy Spirit, and will they not be eliminated by the new age? Are not those who come before God and openly oppose Him ignorant and under-informed villains, who are merely trying to show how brilliant they are? With but a meager knowledge of the Bible, they try to run riot in the world’s “academia”; with but a superficial doctrine to teach people, they try to reverse the work of the Holy Spirit and attempt to make it revolve around their own thought process. Short-sighted as they are, they try to behold in one glance 6,000 years of God’s work. These people do not have any sense worth mentioning! In fact, the greater people’s knowledge of God, the slower they are to judge His work. Furthermore, they only talk a little of their knowledge of God’s work today, but they are not rash in their judgments. The less people know of God, the more arrogant and overconfident they are and the more wantonly they proclaim God’s being—yet they only talk of theory, and offer no real evidence. Such people are of no value whatsoever. Those who see the work of the Holy Spirit as a game are frivolous! Those who are not cautious when they encounter the new work of the Holy Spirit, who run their mouths off, are quick to judge, who give free rein to their temperament to deny the rightness of the Holy Spirit’s work, and who also insult and blaspheme it—are such disrespectful people not ignorant of the Holy Spirit’s work? Are they not, furthermore, people of great arrogance, people who are inherently proud and ungovernable? Even if a day comes when such people accept the new work of the Holy Spirit, still God will not tolerate them. Not only do they look down upon those who work for God, but they also blaspheme against God Himself. Such desperate people will not be forgiven, either in this age or the age to come, and they shall forever perish in hell! Such disrespectful, indulgent people are pretending to believe in God, and the more people are like this, the more liable they are to offend God’s administrative decrees. Do not all those arrogant ones who are innately unbridled, and who have never obeyed anyone, all walk upon this path? Do they not oppose God day after day, God who is always new and never old?

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Knowing the Three Stages of God’s Work Is the Path to Knowing God

Know that you oppose God’s work, or use your own notions to measure the work of today, because you do not know the principles of God’s work, and because of your rash treatment of the work of the Holy Spirit. Your opposition to God and obstruction of the work of the Holy Spirit is caused by your notions and inherent arrogance. It is not because God’s work is wrong, but because you are naturally too disobedient. After finding their belief in God, some people cannot even say with certainty where man came from, yet they dare to make public speeches appraising the rights and wrongs of the Holy Spirit’s work. They even lecture the apostles who have the Holy Spirit’s new work, passing comment and speaking out of turn; their humanity is too low, and there is not the slightest sense in them. Will the day not come when such people are rejected by the work of the Holy Spirit, and burned by the fires of hell? They do not know the work of God, but instead criticize His work, and also try to instruct God how to work. How can such unreasonable people know God? Man comes to know God during the process of seeking and experiencing; it is not through criticizing at whim that man comes to know God through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. The more accurate people’s knowledge of God becomes, the less they oppose Him. In contrast, the less people know of God, the more likely they are to oppose Him. Your notions, your old nature, and your humanity, character and moral outlook are the capital with which you resist God, and the more corrupted your morals, odious your qualities, and low your humanity, the more you are the enemy of God. Those who are possessed of strong notions and who have a self-righteous disposition are even more in enmity of God incarnate; such people are the antichrists.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Knowing the Three Stages of God’s Work Is the Path to Knowing God

Since you believe in God, you must put faith in all of the words of God and in all of His work. Which is to say, since you believe in God, you must obey Him. If you are unable to do this, then it does not matter whether you believe in God or not. If you have believed in God for many years, and yet have never obeyed Him, and do not accept the entirety of His words, and instead ask that God submit to you and act according to your notions, then you are the most rebellious of all, you are a nonbeliever. How could such people be able to obey the work and words of God that do not conform to the notions of man? Most rebellious of all are those who intentionally defy and resist God. They are the enemies of God, the antichrists. Theirs is always an attitude of hostility toward the new work of God; they never have the slightest inclination to submit, nor have they ever gladly submitted or humbled themselves. They exalt themselves before others and never submit to anyone. Before God, they consider themselves the best at preaching the word, and the most skillful in working on others. Never do they discard the “treasures” in their possession, but treat them as family heirlooms for worship, for preaching about to others, and they use them to lecture those fools who idolize them. There are indeed a certain number of people like this in the church. It can be said that they are “indomitable heroes,” generation after generation sojourning in the house of God. They take preaching the word (doctrine) to be their highest duty. Year after year, generation after generation, they go about vigorously enforcing their “sacred and inviolable” duty. None dare touch them; not a single person dares openly reproach them. They become “kings” in the house of God, running rampant as they tyrannize others from age to age. This pack of demons seeks to join hands and demolish My work; how can I allow these living devils to exist before My eyes? Even those who are only half obedient cannot carry on until the end, much less these tyrants without the slightest obedience in their hearts! The work of God is not easily gained by man. Even using all the strength they have, people can only gain a mere portion of it, ultimately allowing them to be made perfect. What, then, of the children of the archangel, who seek to destroy the work of God? Do they not have even less hope of being gained by God? My purpose in doing the work of conquest is not solely to conquer for the sake of conquest, but to conquer so as to reveal righteousness and unrighteousness, to obtain proof for the punishment of man, to condemn the wicked, and, furthermore, to conquer for the sake of perfecting those who willingly obey. In the end, all will be separated according to kind, and the ones who are perfected will be the ones whose thoughts and ideas are filled with obedience. This is the work that shall ultimately be accomplished. Those whose every action is rebellious, meanwhile, will be punished and sent to burn in the fires, the objects of eternal curse. When that time comes, those “great and indomitable heroes” of ages past will become the basest and most shunned “weak and impotent cowards.” Only this can illustrate every aspect of God’s righteousness, and His disposition that is unoffendable by man, and only this can appease the hatred in My heart. Do you not agree that this is entirely reasonable?

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Those Who Obey God With a True Heart Shall Surely Be Gained by God

Sermon and Fellowship Excerpts for Reference:

People who pursue the truth are definitely all people who truly believe in God and love the truth. Although corrupt mankind has satanic dispositions that are arrogant, conceited, self-important, self-righteous, and headstrong, as long as people are able to accept and practice the truth, and obey God’s judgment and chastisement, then they are definitely pursuers of the truth. Amongst these people who are pursuing the truth, there are two main types: One type is those who are better in humanity but of poorer caliber and slower to understand the truth. Despite listening and obeying more, they are of poor caliber and are not able to handle important tasks, and they do not always achieve much in their duty. The other type is of better caliber but is more arrogant and self-righteous and generally does not listen to others. If what others say is not completely in accordance with the truth, and what they do is not much better than things done by ordinary people, then they are not convinced. Although this type of person is relatively arrogant and self-righteous, they understand the truth faster, and they perform better at their duty because they are of good caliber. Out of these two types of people, which is more easily perfected? Which can be fit for God’s use after being perfected? Although all those in pursuit of the truth are capable of achieving salvation, because their calibers differ, their value upon being perfected will also differ. God’s chosen people must realize this. In fact, corrupt mankind all possess an arrogant disposition, but there are several different types of arrogance: Some people love and pursue the truth despite being very arrogant and can accept and obey something as long as it is in accordance with the truth. If it does not conform to the truth, they will refuse to listen to it. This type of arrogance is quite reasonable, has a bottom line and is normal arrogance. There is also a type of arrogance that has no reason and no bottom line. Such people are dreadfully, blindly arrogant and listen to no one. No matter how much what other people say accords with the truth, they will not accept or obey it, and may even become firmly resistant. They really hate people who have the truth and hate people treating them in accordance with the truth. This kind of arrogance is the disposition of Satan the devil. Like the great red dragon, this type of person knows that God is the truth but does not listen, and even wants to be on an equal footing with God. All those antichrists are this type of satanic devil, so arrogant as to be beyond all reason. All such devils are beyond saving. There is another kind of arrogance whereby people also listen to no one and are extremely absurd. They are absurd and also headstrong. They obstinately speak their absurd reasoning and oppose the truth. No matter how clearly or lucidly others fellowship on the truth, or how many facts they list, these people still do not listen, but continue to use sophistry and spout their absurd and false reasoning. This kind of arrogant disposition has the nature of evil spirits. This type of person is even more of the ilk of Satan the devil. They are both antichrists and evil spirits, and are the most dangerous enemies. These are the three main types of arrogance and conceitedness. Arrogance that has reason is quite common and normal. All corrupt mankind has an arrogant disposition. This is a fact. Those of really good caliber with some abilities and talent are definitely all extremely arrogant and self-righteous; there is absolutely no one who is not arrogant. However, no matter how arrogant and self-righteous people are, as long as they are kind-hearted, possess conscience and reason, and do not harm or deceive others and are able to accept the truth, then they are good people. No matter how arrogant and self-righteous people are, as long as they are of good caliber and able to pursue the truth, then they are fully able to be saved and perfected. Because the people God perfects must be those who pursue the truth and possess a certain caliber, if one’s caliber is too poor, then they will be unable to understand the truth and will be unable to be perfected. There is certainly no one who possesses good caliber, resolve, and who is without a shred of arrogance or self-righteousness, and if there were, they would just be pretending or putting on a false appearance. It must be known that every member of corrupt mankind has an arrogant and conceited nature, and this is an undeniable fact. People’s arrogance and self-righteousness is easily resolved. When God disciplines someone a few times so that they undergo several failures and falls, and they come to truly understand the truth and know their own nature essence, then their arrogance is naturally resolved. But if people’s intrinsic caliber is too poor or they are extremely absurd, then this is not possible to resolve. So one must differentiate people’s arrogance and deal with it correctly. God’s chosen people must not conclude that someone is not a good person and cannot be saved and perfected because they are extremely arrogant and self-righteous. The conditions for God perfecting people are mainly that one is of good caliber and in pursuit of the truth. If a person’s caliber is too poor and they can never understand the truth, then even if their disposition is extremely meek and not at all arrogant, they are good-for-nothing and not worth perfecting. On this point, one needs to understand God’s intentions.

—Work Arrangements

People of an arrogant disposition also come in different varieties. Some people have not believed in God for long, have not truly experienced God’s work and do not understand the truth, so it is inevitable that they will have notions about God, an arrogant disposition, be self-important and self-righteous, seek to attain status, and like to show off—this is normal. There is no exception to this rule of humanity who has been corrupted by Satan. The difference between false Christs and antichrists on the one hand and those ordinary corrupt people on the other is that their arrogance has made them entirely lose their conscience and reason; theirs is frenzied arrogance and limitless ambition, they submit to no one, they simply cannot restrain themselves, and they can even go to any absurd length to accomplish their goals. For example, they might claim to be God or Christ, or claim to be the man used by the Holy Spirit, and say such preposterous things as only they can express the truth, and save and perfect people, and lead people into the kingdom. They are truly without shame and beyond foolish! Could someone who says such absurd things have any normal human reason? Is this not the utmost degree of arrogance? This is a case of a satanic nature becoming so bloated that it breaks out violently and becomes impossible to contain! So, that which is expressed by those who are false Christs and antichrists is entirely different from the corrupt expressions of ordinary people. To have notions, to be arrogant, and to love status are not terrible things; the key question is whether one pursues the truth and accepts the judgment and chastisement of God’s words and being pruned and dealt with by God’s house. If someone can accept these things, then they absolutely have a chance to be saved by God. Normal expressions of corruption do not disrupt or destroy the work of God’s house, but everything done by false Christs and antichrists is to deceive people and to make them leave the true way. They make people give up reading God’s words and listen to what they say instead and leave Christ and follow them instead. They do not allow people to worship God, but instead make people idolize them. This is trying to disrupt and destroy God’s work. This is Satan’s cunning scheme, an act of Satan. Therefore, all who propagate and spread the fallacies and notions of man, pass judgment on God’s work, and slander the man used by the Holy Spirit and his work, are false Christs and antichrists. They are entirely the lackeys of Satan that come to disturb God’s work, the forces of God’s enemy who run contrary to Christ. That is why those who are false Christs and antichrists must be expelled from the church, and must absolutely not be given any more chances, waiting for them to repent. This is because they have already become the forces of God’s enemy, like the great red dragon, and are entirely God’s enemies; the Holy Spirit long since stopped working in them, and no amount of advice will be of any use for them, and they have already committed so much evil as to be beyond saving. Only when punishment befalls them will these people beg God for forgiveness and cease doing evil, but their satanic nature can never be changed. God’s chosen people must be aware that Satan has no reverence for God, only fear, and that those wicked people who belong to Satan not only have no reverence for God, but they also do not fear God, because punishment has yet to befall them. What the house of God can do now is to expel these people, and in that way resolve their satanic deeds.

—Work Arrangements