I

Every person constantly makes calculations within their heart,

and they make demands of God which bear their motivations,

their ambitions, and a transactional mentality.

This is to say, in his heart

man is constantly testing God, devising plans about God,

constantly arguing the case for his own individual outcome with God,

and trying to extract a statement from God,

seeing whether or not God can give him what he wants.

At the same time as pursuing God, man does not treat God as God.

Man has always tried to make deals with God,

ceaselessly making demands of Him,

and even pressing Him at every step,

trying to take a mile after being given an inch.

II

At the same time as trying to make deals with God,

man also argues with Him;

when some people face trials or certain situations,

they often become weak, negative and slack in their work,

and they are full of complaints about God.

From the time when man first began to believe in God,

he has considered God to be a cornucopia, a Swiss Army knife,

and he has considered himself to be God’s greatest creditor,

as if trying to get blessings and promises from God

were his inherent right and obligation,

while God’s responsibility were to protect and care for man,

and to provide for him.

Such is the basic understanding of “belief in God”

of all those who believe in God,

and such is their deepest understanding of the concept of belief in God.

III

From man’s nature essence to his subjective pursuit,

there is nothing that relates to the fear of God,

there is nothing that relates to the fear of God.

Man’s aim in believing in God

could not possibly have anything to do with the worship of God.

Man has never considered nor understood

that belief in God requires fearing and worshiping God.

Man’s heart is malicious, harbors treachery and deceit,

does not love fairness and righteousness,

and does not love that which is positive, and it is contemptible and greedy.

Man’s heart could not be more closed to God;

he has not given it to God at all.

God has never seen man’s true heart,

nor has He ever been worshiped by man.

from The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself II