Words of Almighty God of the Last Days

The work of a qualified worker can bring people to the right way and grant them greater entry into the truth. His work can bring people before God. In addition, the work he does can vary from individual to individual and is not bound by rules, allowing people liberation and freedom, and the capacity gradually to grow in life and to have a more profound entry into the truth. The work of an unqualified worker falls far short. His work is foolish. He can only bring people into rules, and what he demands of people does not vary from individual to individual; he does not work according to people’s actual needs. In this type of work, there are too many rules and too many doctrines, and it cannot bring people into reality, nor into normal practice of growth in life. It can only enable people to adhere to a few worthless rules. Such guidance can only lead people astray. He leads you to become like him; he can bring you into what he has and is. For followers to discern whether leaders are qualified, the key is to look at the path on which they lead and the results of their work, and to see whether followers receive principles in accordance with the truth, and whether they receive ways of practice suitable for their transformation. You should distinguish between the different work of different types of people; you should not be a foolish follower. This bears on the matter of people’s entry. If you are unable to distinguish which person’s leadership has a path and which does not, you will easily be misled. All of this has a direct bearing on your own life.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. God’s Work and Man’s Work

What is a false leader? Certainly, it is someone who cannot do actual work, someone who does not attend to their duties as a leader. They do not do any real or critical work; they just see to some general affairs and some surface-level tasks, things that have nothing to do with life entry or the truth. No matter how much of this work they do, there is no significance to performing it. That is why such leaders are characterized as false. So how exactly is one to discern a false leader? Let us now begin our dissection. It must first be made clear that the first responsibility of a leader or a worker is to lead others in eating and drinking of God’s words and to fellowship on the truth in such a way that others may understand it and enter into the truth reality. This is the most important criterion by which to check whether a leader is true or false. See whether they can lead others in eating and drinking of God’s words and understanding the truth, and whether they can use the truth to resolve problems. That’s the only criterion by which to check what caliber and ability to comprehend God’s words a leader or a worker has, and whether they can lead God’s chosen people to enter into the truth reality. If a leader or worker is capable of comprehending God’s words purely and understanding the truth, they should resolve the notions and imaginings people have about faith in God according to God’s words, and help people understand the practicality of God’s work. They should also resolve the actual difficulties encountered by God’s chosen people according to His words, especially when it comes to mistaken views they have in their faith or misunderstandings they have about doing a duty. They must also apply God’s words to resolve the problems that manifest when people face different trials and tribulations, and be able to lead God’s chosen people to understand and practice the truth, and enter into the reality of His word. At the same time, they must dissect people’s various corrupt dispositions based on the corrupt states revealed in God’s words, so that God’s chosen people may see which of these apply to them, achieve knowledge of themselves and hate and rebel against Satan, thereby enabling God’s chosen people to stand firm in their testimony, defeat Satan, and give glory to God amid all sorts of trials. This is the work that leaders and workers should do. It is the church’s most basic, critical, and essential work. If the people serving as leaders have the ability to comprehend God’s words and the caliber to understand the truth, they will not only be able to understand God’s words and enter into the reality of them, they will also be able to counsel, guide, and help those whom they lead to an understanding of God’s words and entry into their reality. But the caliber to comprehend God’s words and understand the truth is precisely what false leaders lack. They do not understand God’s words, they do not know the corrupt dispositions that people reveal in different circumstances which are exposed in His words, or which states produce resistance, complaint, and betrayal against God, and so on. False leaders are not able to reflect on themselves or link God’s words to themselves, they only understand a little doctrine and a few regulations from the literal meaning of God’s words. When they fellowship with others, they merely recite some of His words, then explain their literal meaning. And with that, they think they are fellowshipping on the truth and doing actual work. If someone can read and recite God’s words like they do, they’ll think them to be someone who loves and understands the truth. A false leader only understands the literal meaning of God’s words; they fundamentally do not understand the truth of God’s words, and so are unable to talk about their experience and knowledge of them. False leaders do not have the ability to comprehend God’s words; they can only understand the superficial meaning of them, but believe that is comprehending His words and understanding the truth. In daily life they always interpret the literal meaning of God’s words to advise and help others, believing doing so is doing work, and that they are leading people to eat and drink the words of God and enter into their reality. The fact is that although false leaders often fellowship with others in this way about God’s words, they cannot resolve the slightest real problem, and God’s chosen people are left unable to practice or experience His words. No matter how much they attend gatherings or eat and drink the words of God, they still don’t understand the truth, nor have life entry, and none of them are able to talk about their experiences and knowledge. Even if there are evil people and disbelievers causing disturbances in the church, nobody is able to discern them. When a false leader sees a disbeliever or an evil person causing a disturbance, they do not exercise discernment, but extend their love and exhortations to them, asking others to be tolerant and patient toward them, indulging these people as they continue to cause disturbances in the church. This leads to each item of church work being quite fruitless. This is the consequence of a false leader’s failure to do actual work. False leaders cannot use the truth to resolve problems, which suffices to demonstrate that they do not have the truth reality. When they speak, they just spout words and doctrines, and all they tell others to practice are doctrines and regulations. For instance, when someone develops a misunderstanding of God, a false leader will say to them, “God’s words covered all this already: Whatever God does, it’s man’s salvation, it’s love. Look at how clear, how explicit His words are. How can you still misunderstand Him?” This is the sort of instruction false leaders give people. They spout words and doctrines to admonish people, constrain them, and make them adhere to regulations. This is not the least bit effective, and it cannot resolve any problems. False leaders can only speak words and doctrines to guide people, which makes those people think that being able to speak doctrines means that they have entered into the truth realities. Yet when a difficulty befalls them, they don’t know how to practice, they have no path, and all the words and doctrines they understood fall to the wayside. What does this show? It shows that understanding doctrines is not at all useful or valuable. The only thing false leaders understand is doctrine. They cannot fellowship about the truth to resolve problems; there are no principles to their actions, and in their lives they merely follow some regulations that they deem good. Such people do not possess the truth realities. That is why, when false leaders lead people to eat and drink of God’s words, there is no true effect. They are only able to make people understand the literal meaning of God’s words, and can’t help them to gain enlightenment from God’s words or understand what sort of corrupt dispositions they have. False leaders do not understand what people’s states are or what disposition essence people reveal in the face of any given situation, which of God’s words should be used to resolve these erroneous states and corrupt dispositions, what is said about them in God’s words, the requirements and principles of God’s words, or the truths within. False leaders understand nothing of these truth realities. They just advise people by saying, “Eat and drink more of God’s words. There is truth in them. You’ll understand when you’ve read more of His words. If you don’t understand some of them, you should just pray, seek, and ponder on them more.” This is how they counsel people, and they are unable to resolve problems by doing so. No matter who encounters a problem and comes to seek from them, they say the same thing. Afterward, that person still does not know themselves and still does not understand the truth. They won’t be able to resolve their own real problem, or understand how they should practice God’s words, and they will just adhere to the literal meaning of God’s words and to regulations. When it comes to the truth principles of practicing God’s words or which realities they should enter, they still do not understand. This is what comes of the work of false leaders: not a single real result.

—The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (1)

How can one judge if a leader or worker is fulfilling their responsibilities, or if they are a false leader? At the most basic level, one must look at whether they are capable of doing real work, at whether or not they have this caliber. Then, one should look at whether they have the burden to do this work well. Ignore how nice the things they say sound and how much they seem to understand the doctrines, and ignore how talented and gifted they are when they handle external matters—these things are not important. What is crucial is whether they are able to properly carry out the most fundamental items of work of the church, whether they can solve problems using the truth, and whether they can lead people into the truth reality. This is the most fundamental and essential work. If they are incapable of doing these items of real work, then no matter how good their caliber is, how talented they are, or how much they can endure hardship and pay a price, they are still a false leader. Some people say, “Forget that they don’t do any real work now. They have good caliber and they’re capable. Train them for a while and they are bound to be able to do real work. Besides, they haven’t done anything bad. They haven’t done evil and caused disruptions or disturbances—how can you say that they are a false leader?” How can we explain this? It doesn’t matter how talented you are, what level of caliber and education you possess, how many slogans you can shout, or how many words and doctrines are in your grasp; regardless of how busy you are or how exhausted you are in a day, or how far you’ve traveled, how many churches you visit, or how much risk you take and suffering you endure—none of these matter. What matters is whether you are performing your work based on the work arrangements, whether you are accurately implementing those arrangements; whether, during your leadership, you are participating in every specific task you are responsible for, and how many real issues you have actually resolved; how many individuals have come to understand the truth principles because of your leadership and guidance, and how much the church’s work has advanced and developed—what matters is whether or not you have achieved these results. Regardless of the specific work you’re involved in, what matters is whether you are consistently following up on and directing the work rather than acting high and mighty and issuing orders. Besides this, what also matters is whether or not you have life entry while doing your duty, whether you can deal with matters according to principles, whether you possess a testimony of putting the truth into practice, and whether you can handle and resolve the real issues faced by God’s chosen people. These and other similar things are all standards for assessing whether or not a leader or worker has fulfilled their responsibilities.

—The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (9)

All false leaders can preach words and doctrines, they are all pseudo-spiritual, they can’t do any real work, and they don’t understand the truth despite having believed in God for many years—it can be said that they have no spiritual understanding. They think that being a church leader just means preaching some words and doctrines and shouting some slogans, and that they just need to explain God’s words a little, and people will then understand the truth; they don’t know what it means to do work, they don’t know what the responsibilities of leaders and workers are, and they don’t know why God’s house selects someone to be a leader or worker, or what problems leaders and workers are intended to resolve. So, no matter how God’s house fellowships that leaders and workers must follow up on work, inspect work, and oversee work, that they must promptly discover and resolve problems in the work, and so on, they don’t take any of this in and they don’t understand these things. They aren’t able to reach or achieve the requirements God’s house has for leaders and workers, and they can’t understand the technical and professional problems involved in the performance of duties, as well as the issue of principle for selecting supervisors, and so forth, and even if they know about these problems, they still aren’t able to handle them. Therefore, under the leadership of such false leaders, all kinds of problems that arise in the church’s work cannot be resolved. Not just the professional and technical problems God’s chosen people encounter when doing their duties, but also difficulties in the life entry of God’s chosen people, get prolonged and go unresolved, and when some leaders and workers or supervisors of various pieces of work aren’t able to do real work, they aren’t promptly replaced or posted elsewhere, and so on. None of these problems are resolved in a prompt manner, and consequently the efficiency of various items of work in the church continually diminishes, and work effectiveness gets poorer and poorer. In terms of personnel, those who are somewhat gifted and good at speaking become leaders and workers, whereas those who love the truth, who can bury themselves in hard work, and work tirelessly without complaint, don’t get promoted and cultivated, and are treated like service-doers. Various technical personnel who have special skills don’t get put to reasonable use, and some people who do their duty sincerely don’t receive life provision, and so they sink into negativity and weakness. What’s more, no matter how much evil antichrists and evil people do, it’s like false leaders haven’t seen it. If someone exposes an evil person or an antichrist, false leaders will tell them they should treat that person with love and give them a chance to repent. They let evil people and antichrists do evil and cause disturbances in the church, and this leads to delays in these evil people, disbelievers, and antichrists being cleared out and expelled, and they get to continue doing evil in the church and to continue disturbing the church’s work. False leaders are not capable of handling and resolving any of these problems; they are not capable of treating people fairly or of arranging work in a reasonable way, but instead they act recklessly, they only do some useless work, resulting in them making chaos and a mess of the church’s work. No matter how God’s house fellowships on the truth or how it stresses the principles that should be adhered to when carrying out the work of the church—restricting and clearing out different kinds of evildoers and disbelievers who ought to be restricted and cleared out, and promoting and cultivating people with good caliber and comprehension ability, and people who can pursue the truth, who ought to be promoted and cultivated—though these things are fellowshipped countless times, false leaders don’t understand or comprehend them and just continually hold fast to their pseudo-spiritual views and “loving” approaches. False leaders believe that under their earnest guidance, all types of people perform their own roles, in an orderly manner, without chaos, that everyone has quite a lot of faith, is willing to do their duties, is unafraid of going to prison and of facing danger, that everyone has the determination to endure suffering and is unwilling to be a Judas; they believe that having a great atmosphere in the church life means that they’re doing a good job. Regardless of whether evil people are appearing in the church and causing disturbances, or disbelievers are spreading their heresies and fallacies, they don’t consider these things to be problems, and they feel no need to resolve them. When it comes to evil people acting recklessly based on their own whims and disturbing the gospel work, false leaders are even more blind. They say, “I’ve explained the work principles I’m supposed to explain, and I’ve told people what to do again and again. If any more problems come up, those issues have nothing to do with me.” However, they don’t know if the person they’ve entrusted the work to is a right person, and they do not know whether what they said when they were explaining and telling that person what to do accords with the truth principles, or whether it has a basis in God’s words. Whenever false leaders hold a gathering, they speak an endless stream of words and doctrines, and the result of this is that no problem can be resolved, and yet they still believe they’re doing important work, they still feel pleased with themselves and think that they’re amazing. In fact, the words and doctrines they speak only work on those muddled, stupid, and foolish people who are ignorant and of poor caliber. These people become bewildered after they hear these words, believing that what the false leaders said is so right, that nothing they said is wrong. False leaders can only satisfy these confused people and are fundamentally incapable of resolving real problems. Of course, false leaders are even less capable of dealing with problems related to technical skills, professions, and knowledge—they are totally impotent when it comes to these things. Take the text-based work of God’s house, for example. This is the work that causes false leaders the most headaches. They can’t find people with spiritual understanding and good caliber who are suited to doing text-based work, and they regard anyone with glasses and a high level of education as having good caliber and spiritual understanding, and so they arrange for those people to do it, telling them, “You are all talented at doing text-based work. I don’t understand this work, so I’m relying on you. God’s house requires nothing else of you, only that you put your special skills to use, hold nothing back, and contribute everything you’ve learned. You must be grateful and thank God for raising you up.” After the false leaders say a bunch of perfunctory, superficial words, they feel that since the work has been arranged, that’s all they need to do. They don’t know whether the people they’ve arranged to do this work are suitable or not, nor do they know what these people’s shortcomings are in terms of professional knowledge, or how they should make up for them. They don’t know how to view and discern people, they don’t understand professional problems, nor do they understand knowledge related to writing—they are utterly ignorant of these things. They say they don’t understand or comprehend these things, but in their hearts, they think, “Aren’t you just a bit more educated and knowledgeable than I am? Even though I can’t guide you in this work, I’m more spiritual than you are, I’m better at giving sermons than you are, and I understand God’s words better than you do. I’m the one leading you, I’m your superior. I have to manage you, and you have to do what I say.” False leaders regard themselves as very important, yet they can’t come up with any worthwhile suggestions regarding any kind of technical or professional work, and they aren’t able to give any guidance concerning it. If they can arrange personnel well, then that’s the most we can hope for. They can’t do any of the subsequent work, they don’t try to gain professional knowledge, and they don’t follow up on the work. All false leaders are pseudo-spiritual; all they can do is preach some words and doctrines and then they think they understand the truth and constantly show off before God’s chosen people. At every gathering, they will preach for several hours, and then they can’t resolve any problems at all. They are entirely ignorant when it comes to problems related to professional knowledge in people’s duties; they’re clearly amateurs, yet they pretend to be spiritual, wanting to tell the experts what to do—how can they do a good job like this? False leaders not trying to acquire professional knowledge and not being able to do any real work already disgusts people, so them then pretending to be spiritual people and flaunting their spiritual words is so lacking in reason! This is no different from the Pharisees. Where the Pharisees were the most lacking in reason was that God detested them, and yet they were totally unaware of it and still considered themselves to be pretty great and very spiritual. False leaders are this lacking in self-awareness; they clearly can’t do any real work and yet they pretend to be spiritual, they become hypocritical Pharisees. They are exactly those whom God spurns and eliminates.

—The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (8)

One characteristic of false leaders is their inability to thoroughly explain or clarify any issues involving truth principles. If someone seeks from them, they can only tell them some empty words and doctrines. When faced with problems that need resolution, they frequently respond with a statement like, “You are all experts in doing this duty. If you have problems, you should figure them out yourselves. Don’t ask me; I am not an expert, and I don’t understand. Address it on your own.” Some people might retort, “We are asking you because we can’t resolve the problem; we wouldn’t ask you if we could. We don’t understand this problem involving truth principles.” The false leaders reply, “Haven’t I already told you the principles? Do your own duties well, and don’t create disturbances or disruptions. What are you still asking about? Handle it as you see fit! God’s words have already been spoken: Prioritize the interests of God’s house.” Those people are left totally confused, thinking, “This is not a solution to the problem!” This is how false leaders treat work; they merely inspect it, go through the motions, and never address problems. Regardless of the issues people raise, false leaders tell them to seek the truth on their own. They often ask people, “Do you have any problems? How is your life entry? Are you doing your duties in a perfunctory manner?” Those people respond, saying, “Occasionally, I find myself in a perfunctory state, and through prayer, I resolve it and turn myself around, but I still don’t understand the truth principles of doing my duty.” The false leaders say, “Didn’t I fellowship the specific principles with you at the last gathering? I even provided you with several passages of God’s words. Shouldn’t you understand by now?” In fact, they understand all of the doctrine, but they are still unable to resolve their problems. The false leaders continue to spout high-sounding words, “Why can’t you resolve it? You just haven’t read God’s words thoroughly enough. If you pray more and read God’s words more, then all your problems will be resolved. You need to learn to discuss and find a way together, then your problems will eventually be resolved. As for professional issues, don’t ask me; my responsibility is to inspect the work. I’ve completed my task, and the rest involves professional matters, which I don’t understand.” False leaders often use reasons and excuses like “I don’t understand, I never learned it, I am not an expert” to fob people off and dodge questions. They may look quite humble; however, this exposes a serious issue with false leaders—they lack any understanding of problems involving professional knowledge in certain tasks, they feel powerless and appear extremely awkward and embarrassed. What do they do then? They can only gather several passages of God’s words to fellowship with everyone during gatherings, talking about some doctrines to exhort people. Leaders with a bit of kindness might show concern for people and ask them from time to time, “Have you faced any difficulties in your life recently? Do you have enough clothes to wear? Have there been any among you who are misbehaving?” If everyone says that they don’t have those issues, they reply, “Then there’s no problem. Carry on with your work; I have other matters to attend to,” and hastily leave, fearing that someone might bring up questions and ask them to address them, putting them in an embarrassing situation. This is how false leaders work—they can’t resolve any real problems. How can they effectively carry out the work of the church? As a result, the accumulation of unresolved issues eventually hinders the work of the church. This is a prominent characteristic and manifestation of how false leaders work.

—The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (2)

False leaders are basically incapable of doing essential, critical church work. They just handle some simple, general affairs; their work doesn’t play a critical or decisive role in the work of the church as a whole, and it does not produce real results. Their fellowship basically just covers a few trite and commonplace topics, it’s all oft-repeated words and doctrines and it is incredibly hollow, broad, and lacking in detail. Their fellowship only contains stuff that people can understand from reading something in a literal way. These false leaders cannot resolve the real problems God’s chosen people have in their life entry at all, in particular, they are even less capable of resolving people’s notions, imaginings, and revelations of corrupt dispositions. The main thing is that false leaders simply cannot take on the vital work arranged by God’s house, such as gospel work, film production work, or text-based work. In particular, when it comes to work that involves professional knowledge, while false leaders may know quite clearly that they are laymen in these fields, they do not study them, nor do they do research, and less still are they able to give others specific guidance or resolve any problems related to them. And yet they still shamelessly hold gatherings, talking endlessly about empty theories, and speaking words and doctrines. False leaders know very well that they cannot do this kind of work, yet they pretend to be experts, act conceited, and always use grand doctrines to chide others. They are unable to answer anyone’s questions, yet they find pretexts and excuses to chide others, asking why they aren’t learning the profession, why they do not seek the truth, and why they are unable to resolve their own problems. These false leaders, who are laymen in these fields and cannot resolve any problems, still lecture others from up on high. On the surface, they appear very busy to other people, as if they’re able to do a lot of work and are very capable, but in reality, they are nothing. False leaders are clearly unable to do real work, yet they enthusiastically busy themselves, and always say the same platitudes at gatherings, repeating themselves over and over again, without being able to resolve a single real problem. People get very fed up with this, and are unable to derive any edification at all from it. This kind of work is terribly inefficient, and it yields no results. This is how false leaders work, and the work of the church is delayed because of it. Yet false leaders still feel they are doing great work and that they are very capable, when the fact is that they have not done a single aspect of the church’s work well. They don’t know if the leaders and workers who fall under the scope of their responsibility are up to standard, nor do they know if the leaders and supervisors of various teams are able to take on their work, and they neither care nor ask if problems have come up in the brothers and sisters’ performance of their duties. In short, false leaders cannot resolve any problems in their work, yet they remain energetically busy. From the perspective of other people, false leaders are able to undergo hardship, willing to pay a price, and they spend every day rushing about. When it is time to eat, they need to be called to the table, and they go to bed very late. Yet the results of their work just aren’t good. If you weren’t looking carefully, it would appear on the surface that all the items of work were being done, and that everyone was busy performing their duties, but if you were to observe closely and be meticulous, and earnestly inspect the work, the true situation would be revealed. Every item of work that falls within their scope of responsibility is a mess, there’s no structure or order to it at all. There are problems—or even holes—in each item of work. The occurrence of these problems is related to false leaders not understanding the truth principles, and acting based on their notions, imaginings, and enthusiasm. False leaders never fellowship about the truth principles, nor do they ever seek the truth to resolve problems. They clearly lack spiritual understanding and aren’t able to do the work of a leader, and they can only spout words and doctrines and do not understand the truth at all, yet they pretend to know things they don’t and try to pass themselves off as experts. The work they do is just going through the motions. When a problem arises, they blindly apply regulations to it. They just hustle and bustle blindly and without producing any real results. Because these false leaders do not understand the truth principles, and just spout words and doctrines and advise others to abide by regulations, the progress of each item of the church’s work is slowed and no clear results are achieved. The most obvious consequence of a false leader having been at work for some time is that most people are unable to understand the truth, they do not know how to discern whenever anyone reveals corruption or develops notions, and they certainly do not understand the truth principles that should be upheld in doing their duties. Those who perform their duties and those who do not are all sluggish, unrestrained and undisciplined, and in disarray like scattered sand. Most of them may be able to speak a few words and doctrines, but while doing their duties, they only observe regulations; they don’t know how to seek the truth to resolve problems. Since false leaders themselves do not know how to seek the truth to resolve problems, how can they lead others to do so? No matter what befalls other people, false leaders can only exhort them by saying, “We must be considerate of God’s intentions!” “We must be loyal in the performance of our duties!” “When something happens to us, we must know how to pray, and we must seek the truth principles!” False leaders often shout these slogans and doctrines, and it doesn’t yield any results at all. After people hear them, they still do not understand what the truth principles are, and they lack a path of practice. In a surface-level way, people pray when things befall them, and they wish to be loyal in doing their duties—but they all lack understanding of issues like what they should do in order to be loyal, how they should pray in order to understand God’s intentions, and how they should seek when they encounter an issue in order to gain understanding of the truth principles. When people ask false leaders, they say, “When something befalls you, read God’s words more, pray more, and fellowship more on the truth.” People ask them, “What principles does this work touch on?” and they say, “God’s words say nothing about matters of professional work, and I don’t understand that area of the work either. Do your own research if you wish to understand—don’t ask me. I lead you in understanding the truth, not in matters of professional work.” False leaders use these kinds of words to evade questions. And as a result, though most people have a burning passion to do their duties, they do not know how to act based on the truth principles, nor do they know how to adhere to the principles while performing their duties. Looking at the results of each item of work within the scope of false leaders’ responsibility, most people are relying on their knowledge, learning, and gifts to do their work, and they are ignorant when it comes to issues such as what God’s specific requirements are, what the principles of doing a duty are, and how to act in order to achieve the result of bearing witness for God and how to spread the gospel more effectively so that all who long for God’s appearance hear His voice, investigate the true way, and return to God as soon as possible. Why is it that they are ignorant of these things? This is directly related to false leaders’ failure to do real work. The main cause of this is that false leaders themselves do not know what the truth principles are, or what principles people should understand and follow. They act without principles, and they never lead people to search for principles of practice and paths in their duties. When a false leader finds a problem, they cannot resolve it themselves, and they do not fellowship and seek with others, which leads to tasks frequently needing to be redone within each item of work. This is not only a waste of financial and material resources, but also of people’s energy and time. Such consequences are directly related to the very poor caliber and irresponsibility of false leaders. Though it may not be said that false leaders deliberately do evil and cause disturbances, it can be said that they do not seek the truth principles at all in their work, that they always act based on their own will. This is certain. False leaders do not understand the truth principles, nor can they clearly fellowship about them to others; instead, they just give people free rein to do as they please. This inadvertently leads to several of the people who are in charge of some work acting arbitrarily and willfully, acting however they want and doing whatever they like. As a result, not only are there few actual results, but a mess is also made of the church’s work. When a false leader is dismissed, not only do they not reflect on or know themselves, they also engage in sophistry and argue on their own behalf, and they do not accept the truth in the slightest. They do not intend at all to repent, and they may even ask that God’s house give them another chance, saying they can definitely do the work well. Do you believe them? They do not know themselves at all, nor do they accept the truth. Can they change their ways then? They do not have the truth reality, so can they do the work well? Is that possible? They did not do the work well this time—will they be able to do it well if they’re given another chance? That is not possible. It may be said with certainty that false leaders do not have work capability; at times, they may toil a lot and be quite busy, but it is a blind busyness, and it bears no fruit. This suffices to show that false leaders have very poor caliber, that they do not understand the truth at all, and that they cannot do real work. This causes many problems to arise in the work, but they are unable to resolve them by fellowshipping about the truth, and merely use a few empty doctrines to exhort people to abide by regulations, and consequently they make a mess of the work and leave it in shambles. This is the manner in which false leaders work and the consequences it brings about. All leaders and workers should take this as a warning.

—The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (3)

The chief characteristic of the work of false leaders is blathering on about doctrine and parroting slogans. After issuing their orders, they simply wash their hands of the matter. They don’t ask questions about the project’s subsequent development; they do not ask whether any problems, deviations, or difficulties have arisen. They consider their job finished as soon as they assign the work. In fact, as a leader, after completing work arrangements, you must keep track of the work’s progress. Even if you aren’t familiar with that field of work—even if you lack any knowledge of it—you can find a way to do your work. You can find someone who is knowledgeable, who understands the work in question, to check things over and make suggestions. From their suggestions you can identify the appropriate principles, and thus you will be able to keep track of the work. Whether or not you are familiar with or understand the type of work in question, at the very least you must preside over it, follow up on it, and continuously make inquiries and ask questions about its progress. You must maintain a grasp of such matters; this is your responsibility, it is part of your job. Not keeping track of the work, not doing anything more once it has been assigned—washing your hands of it—is the way false leaders do things. Not following up or providing guidance on the work, not inquiring about or resolving issues that arise, and not grasping the progress or efficiency of the work—these are also manifestations of false leaders.

Because false leaders do not learn about the status of the work’s progress, and because they are incapable of promptly identifying—much less solving—problems that arise in it, this often leads to repeated delays. In certain work, because people have no grasp of the principles and there is no one suitable to be responsible for it or preside over it, those carrying out the work are often in a state of negativity, passivity, and waiting, which severely affects the progress of the work. If the leader had fulfilled their responsibilities—if they had presided over the work, pushed it forward, supervised it, and found someone who understands that field to guide the project, then the work would have progressed faster rather than suffering repeated delays. For leaders, then, it is vital to learn about and grasp the actual situation of the work. Of course, it is also very necessary for leaders to learn about and grasp how the work is progressing, as progress relates to the efficiency of the work and the results it’s supposed to achieve. If leaders and workers do not have a grasp on how the church’s work is progressing, and they do not follow up on or supervise things, then the progress of the church’s work is bound to be slow. This is due to the fact that the majority of people doing duties are seriously scummy, do not have a sense of burden, are often negative, passive, and perfunctory. If there is nobody with a sense of burden and work capabilities specifically taking responsibility for the work, learning about the progress of the work in a timely manner, and directing, supervising, disciplining, and pruning personnel who do duties, then naturally, the level of work efficiency is going to be very low and the results of the work are going to be very poor. If leaders and workers can’t even see this clearly, they are foolish and blind. And so, leaders and workers must promptly look into, keep track of, and familiarize themselves with the progress of work, look into what problems people doing duties have that need to be resolved, and understand which problems should be resolved in order to achieve better results. These things are all very crucial, a person acting as a leader must be clear on these things. To do your duty well, you must not be like a false leader, who does some superficial work and then thinks they’ve done their duty well. False leaders are careless and slapdash in their work, they have no sense of responsibility, they don’t solve problems when they arise, and no matter what work they’re doing, they only skim the surface of it. They are perfunctory; they speak high-sounding words, spout doctrines and empty talk, and just go through the motions in their work. In general, this is the way false leaders work. Although, in comparison to antichrists, false leaders do nothing overtly evil and are not deliberately doing evil, when you look at the effectiveness of their work, it is fair to define them as being perfunctory, as not bearing a burden, as being irresponsible or having no loyalty toward their work.

—The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (4)

False leaders never ask about or follow up on the work situations of various team supervisors. They also don’t ask about, follow up on, or have a grasp on the life entry of supervisors of different teams and personnel responsible for various important jobs, as well as their attitudes toward church work and their duties, and toward faith in God, the truth, and God Himself. They don’t know whether these individuals have undergone any transformation or growth, nor do they know about the various issues that may exist in their work; in particular, they do not know about the impact of errors and deviations occurring in various stages of the work on the work of the church and the life entry of God’s chosen people, along with whether these errors and deviations have ever been corrected. They are entirely ignorant about all of these things. If they know nothing about these detailed conditions, they become passive whenever problems arise. However, false leaders don’t bother with these detailed issues at all while doing their job. They believe that after arranging various team supervisors and assigning tasks, their work is done—it counts as having done the job well, and if other problems arise it’s none of their concern. Because false leaders fail to supervise, guide, and follow up on various team supervisors, and they do not fulfill their responsibilities in these areas, a mess is made of the church’s work. This is the leaders and workers being derelict in their duties. God can scrutinize the depths of the human heart; this is an ability that humans lack. Therefore, when working, people need to be more diligent and attentive, regularly going to the work site to follow up on, supervise, and guide the work in order to ensure the normal progress of the church work. Clearly, false leaders are utterly irresponsible in their work, and they never supervise, follow up on, or guide various tasks. As a result, some supervisors do not know how to resolve various issues that arise in the work, and remain in their roles as supervisors despite not being nearly competent enough to do the work. Ultimately, the work is delayed again and again and they make a complete mess of it. This is the consequence of false leaders not asking about, supervising, or following up on the supervisors’ situations, an outcome which is entirely caused by the false leaders’ dereliction of duty. Because false leaders do not inspect, follow up on, or ask about the work, and cannot promptly grasp the situation, they remain oblivious about things like whether supervisors are doing real work, how the work is progressing, and whether it has produced real results. When asked what supervisors are busy with or what specific tasks they are handling, false leaders respond, “I don’t know, but they attend every gathering, and every time I communicate with them about the work, they never mention any issues or difficulties.” False leaders believe that as long as supervisors don’t abandon their work and are always around when they look for them, there’s no problem with them whatsoever. This is how false leaders work. Is this not a manifestation of “falseness”? Is it not a failure to fulfill their responsibilities? This is a serious dereliction of duty!

—The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (3)

Within the scope of the work that false leaders are responsible for, oftentimes there are some people who truly pursue the truth and meet the criteria for promotion and cultivation that get held back. Some of these people spread the gospel, and some are assigned to do hosting duties. The fact is that they all have caliber, and understand some truths, and are worthy of being cultivated as leaders and workers, it’s just that they don’t like to flaunt themselves or be the center of attention. And yet, false leaders don’t take any notice whatsoever of these people. They don’t engage with them or inquire about them, and they never cultivate talented people for God’s house. They only ever focus on ensnaring those who fawn over them, in order to satisfy their own selfish desires. As a result, those people who truly pursue the truth don’t get to be promoted and cultivated, whereas those who like to be the center of attention, who are articulate, who know how to butter people up, and who are fond of fame, gain, and status—they all get promoted, and even those who have been officials, company CEOs, or who have studied corporate management out in society are assigned to important positions. Regardless of whether those people are true believers or not, or whether they are people who pursue the truth or not, in any case, those are the people who get promoted and used within the scope of the work that false leaders are responsible for. Is this using people in accordance with the principles? Isn’t false leaders only promoting such people exactly what the society of nonbelievers is like? During the period that false leaders are working, those who can actually get stuff done when doing their duty, who have a sense of justice, and who love the truth and positive things—they don’t get to be promoted or cultivated, and it’s hard for them to get opportunities to train. Instead, it is those who are articulate, who love to flaunt themselves and who know how to butter people up, as well as those who are fond of fame, gain, and status, who get assigned to the important positions. Those people seem to be fairly smart, but in fact they have no comprehension ability, very bad caliber and poor humanity, they bear no real burden toward their duties, and they are not worthy of being cultivated at all. However, it is they who occupy the positions of leaders and workers in the church. The result is that much of the church’s work isn’t able to launch smoothly in a prompt manner, or makes slow progress, and the work arrangements of God’s house take too long to be implemented. These are the impacts and consequences caused to the church’s work by false leaders using people improperly.

Most false leaders are of poor caliber. Though they seem articulate, they have no capacity at all for comprehending the truth, to such an extent that they do not have spiritual understanding. They are blind of eye and mind, they cannot see through any matter and do not understand the truth at all, which itself is a fatal problem. They have another, more serious problem still, which is that when they have understood and mastered a few words and doctrines and can shout out a few slogans, they think they have the truth reality. So whatever work they do and whomever they choose to put to use, they do not seek the truth principles, and they do not fellowship with others, and less still do they adhere to the work arrangements and the principles of God’s house. They are so confident, they always believe that their ideas are right and do whatever they wish. As a result, when they encounter some difficulty or exceptional circumstance, they are at a loss. Moreover, they often mistakenly believe that, as they’ve been working for many years in God’s house and have sufficient experience serving as a leader there, they know how to get the work of the church to operate and develop. They seem to have understood these things, but really, they absolutely do not know how to do any work. They do the work of the church in whatever way they please, following their own notions and imaginings, their experience and routines, and their regulations. This makes a mess and chaos of the various items of church work, and prevents them from producing any real results. If there are a couple of people in a team who understand the truth and can do a bit of real work, they can maintain normalcy in that team’s work. This, however, has nothing at all to do with their false leader. The reason the work could be done well is that there are a few good people in the team who can do a bit of real work and keep the work on course; it does not mean that their false leader has done real work. No piece of work can be done without there being a few good people like this in charge. False leaders are simply unable to do their job, and they serve no function whatsoever. Why would false leaders make a mess of the church’s work? The first reason is that false leaders do not understand the truth, they cannot fellowship about the truth to resolve problems, and they do not seek how to resolve problems, resulting in problems piling up and bringing the church’s work to a standstill. The second is that false leaders are blind, and they are unable to identify talented individuals. They cannot appoint team supervisors appropriately, which results in some work not having anyone suitable in charge, making it come to a standstill. The third is that false leaders act too much like officials. They do not supervise or guide the work, and where there is a weak link in the work, they do not proactively participate or provide guidance in the specifics of the work. Say, for instance, that in some items of work, several people performing the work are new believers without much of a foundation, they do not understand the truth, are not very familiar with the field of work, and have not quite grasped the principles of the work. A false leader, being blind, cannot see these problems. They believe that it is fine as long as someone is doing the work; it does not matter whether it is done well or badly. They do not know that wherever there is a weak link in the church’s work, they should be following up on it, doing inspections, and providing guidance, that they should personally participate in resolving problems, and support those doing their duties until they understand the truth, can act according to the principles, and enter onto the right track. Only at this point do they not need to worry so much. False leaders do not work in this way. When they see someone is there to do the work, they pay it no more mind. They make no inquiries, no matter how the work is going. Where there is a weak link in the work, or a supervisor who has low caliber, they do not personally provide guidance on the work, and they do not participate in the work themselves. And when a supervisor is able to take on the job, false leaders do even less to check up on things or provide guidance; they just take it easy, and even if someone reports an issue, they do not ask about it—they think there is no need. False leaders do none of these specific tasks. In summary, false leaders are degenerates that do not do a shred of real work. They believe that for any work, so long as someone is in charge and all hands are on deck to take on the work, things are over and done with. They think that all they have to do is hold a gathering every once in a while, and make inquiries if an issue arises. While working in this way, false leaders still believe they are doing a good job and are quite pleased with themselves. They think, “There are no problems with any of the items of work. The personnel are all completely arranged, and the supervisors are in place. I’m so good at this work, so talented!” Is this not shameless? They are so blind of eye and mind that they cannot see any tasks to be done and cannot discover any problems. In some places, the work has ground to a halt, yet there they are, contented, thinking, “The brothers and sisters are all young, they’re all new blood. They tackle their duties like human dynamos; they can definitely do the work well.” In actuality, these young people are novices, with no understanding of any professional skills. They must learn as they go. It is fair to say that they do not know how to do any work yet: Some may understand a little, but they are no experts, and they don’t grasp the principles, and when they have done a task, it requires repeated correction or even frequent redoing. There are also some young people who are untrained and have not experienced being pruned. They are exceedingly scummy and indolent, and greedy for comfort; they do not accept even a bit of the truth, and when they suffer a little, they grumble incessantly. Most of them are perfunctory, comfort-seeking degenerates. With these kinds of young people you absolutely must fellowship often with them on the truth, and even more so must you prune them. These young people must have someone looking after and watching them. There must be a leader or worker there to take personal responsibility for their work and to provide personal supervision and guidance. Only then might their work bear a bit of fruit. If the leader or worker leaves the workplace and does not attend to the work or ask after it, these people will fragment into disarray, and their performance of their duty will bear no fruit at all. Yet false leaders have no insight into this. They see everyone as brothers and sisters, as people who are obedient and submissive, and so they have great confidence in them, and assign them jobs and then pay them no more mind—this is the best evidence of a false leader’s blindness of eye and mind. False leaders do not understand the truth at all, cannot see matters clearly, and are incapable of uncovering any problems, yet think they are doing just fine. What do they spend their days thinking about? They think about how to act like an official and enjoy the benefits of status. False leaders, just like heartless people, do not pay the least consideration to God’s intentions. They do no real work, yet they wait for God’s house to praise and promote them. Truly, they know no shame!

—The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (5)

Can false leaders see through and grasp the principles and standards required in work arrangements? (No.) Why can’t they? They can’t see through to what the principles of this work are, and they can’t carry out checks on it. When special situations arise during the specific implementation of the work, they don’t know how to resolve them. When the brothers and sisters ask them what to do in one of these situations, they get confused: “This isn’t mentioned in the work arrangements, how would I know how to handle it?” If you don’t know, how can you implement this work? You don’t even know but still ask others to implement it—is that realistic? Is that reasonable? When false leaders and false workers implement work arrangements, for one thing, they have no idea about the steps and plans for implementing the work arrangements. For another, when problems are encountered, they can’t conduct checks according to the principles required by the work arrangements. Therefore, when myriad issues of all sorts arise during the implementation of the work arrangements, they are completely unable to resolve them. Because in the early stages false leaders cannot identify or anticipate problems and cannot fellowship in advance, and in the later stages, when problems arise, they cannot resolve them but just emptily preach doctrines and rigidly apply regulations, problems keep recurring and persist, with some work suffering delays in implementation, and other work not being implemented to a sufficient degree. For example, regarding the work arrangement of God’s house for clearing out and expelling people, when false leaders carry out this work, they only clear out the obvious evil people, antichrists, and evil spirits that cause disruptions and disturbances, as well as the disbelievers whom the brothers and sisters all find repulsive and loathsome. However, there are still some who should be cleared out, that is, those hidden, insidious, cunning evil people and antichrists, whom neither the brothers and sisters nor the false leaders can see through. In fact, according to the work arrangements of God’s house, these people have already reached the level of being cleared out. However, because false leaders cannot see through them, they still regard these people as good and even promote, cultivate, and use them for important work, allowing them to hold power and occupy important work positions in the church. Can the work arrangement of God’s house to clear out and expel people be implemented then? Can various problems be thoroughly resolved? Can the work of spreading the gospel proceed normally? Clearly, the work arrangements of God’s house cannot be thoroughly implemented, and so a lot of important work cannot be done well. Because the people used by false leaders have no truth reality whatsoever and can even commit evil deeds, this prevents different kinds of church work from being carried out well. False leaders use these evil people, letting them do important duties and undertake important work, even allowing these evil people to manage offerings. Will this disrupt and disturb the church’s work? Will it cause losses to God’s offerings? (Yes.) This is a very serious consequence. Because false leaders cannot see through these people, are unable to conduct checks on them, and let these evil people take on important jobs, the work gets completely bungled. In doing their duties, these evil people always act perfunctorily, deceive those above and below them, and do no real work; they act with willful recklessness, mislead people, and commit all manner of evil deeds. However, false leaders cannot see through this, and by the time they notice the problems, a great disaster has already occurred. For example, in the Henan pastoral area, some evil people who became leaders used various despicable means to steal God’s offerings; they stole huge amounts, and these amounts have never been recovered. Does this have anything to do with leaders and workers choosing and using the wrong people? (Yes.) According to the work arrangements, if one cannot see through the people selected, they can first be assigned to do some simple work, and their work should be followed up on and observed for a period of time. People who cannot be seen through absolutely must not be assigned any important work, especially if it entails risk. Only after long-term observation and seeing through their essence should decisions be made on how to treat and handle them. False leaders do not work according to the work arrangements and cannot grasp principles; even more so, they cannot see through people and they use the wrong people. This leads to losses in both church work and God’s offerings. This is the calamity brought by false leaders.

—The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (10)

False leaders often feign being spiritual, uttering some specious fallacies to mislead and misguide people. While these fallacies may sound unproblematic on the surface, they have a detrimental influence on people’s life entry, disturbing, misleading, and obstructing people from walking the path of pursuing the truth. Because of these pseudo-spiritual words, some people develop doubts and resistance toward God’s words, they produce notions, and even misunderstandings about God and guardedness against God, and then drift away from Him. This is the impact that the pseudo-spiritual sayings of false leaders have on people. While members of a church are being misled and influenced by a false leader, that church becomes a religion, just like Christianity or Catholicism, in which people merely observe the sayings and teachings of man. They all worship the teachings of Paul, going so far as to use his words in the place of those of the Lord Jesus, rather than following the way of God. As a result, they all become hypocritical Pharisees and antichrists. Thus, they are cursed and condemned by God. Just like Paul, false leaders exalt and testify for themselves, they mislead and disturb people. They lead them astray and into religious rituals, and the way that these people believe in God becomes just the same as religious people, which delays their entry onto the right track in their faith in God. False leaders constantly mislead and disturb people, and those people then produce a host of pseudo-spiritual theories and sayings. These theories, sayings, and practices are diametrically opposed to the truth, and have nothing to do with it whatsoever. Yet while false leaders are misleading and misguiding people, they take these things as positive things, as the truth. They mistakenly believe these things to be the truth, and think that as long as they believe in these things in their hearts and can say them eloquently, and as long as those things are endorsed by everyone, then they have gained the truth. Misguided by these thoughts and views, people are not only unable to understand the truth, but they are also unable to practice or experience God’s words, let alone enter the truth reality. On the contrary, they grow ever further from God’s words and further still from entry into the truth reality. On paper, there is nothing wrong with the words false leaders say and the slogans they shout, they are all correct. Why, then, do they achieve nothing at all? This is because what false leaders understand and comprehend is simply too shallow. It is all the stuff of doctrine, which is irrelevant to the truth reality in God’s words, God’s requirements or His intentions. The fact is that all the doctrines false leaders preach are far short of the truth reality—to be precise, they have nothing to do with the truth nor anything to do with God’s words. So, when false leaders often spout these words and doctrines, what is it connected to? Why are they always unable to enter the truth reality? This is directly connected to the caliber of false leaders. It is absolutely certain that false leaders are of poor caliber and lack the ability to comprehend the truth. No matter how many years they believe in God, they will not understand the truth or have life entry, and it can also be said that no matter how many years they believe in God, it will not be easy for them to enter the truth reality. If a false leader is not dismissed, and is allowed to keep their position, what sort of consequences will ensue? Their leadership will draw ever more people into religious rituals and regulations, into words and doctrines, and into vague notions and imaginings. In contrast to antichrists, false leaders do not lead people to come before them or before Satan, but if they cannot lead God’s chosen people into the truth reality of His words, will God’s chosen people be able to attain His salvation? Will they be able to be perfected by God? Absolutely not. If God’s chosen people cannot enter the truth reality, are they not still living under Satan’s power? Are they not still degenerates being held under Satan’s power? Does this not mean that they will come to ruin in the hands of a false leader? That is why the consequences of the work of false leaders and antichrists are basically the same. Neither can make God’s chosen people understand the truth, enter reality, and achieve salvation. They both harm God’s chosen people and bring them to ruin. The consequences are exactly the same.

—The Word, Vol. 5. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers. The Responsibilities of Leaders and Workers (2)