Why is it said that religious pastors and elders are all walking the path of the Pharisees? What is their essence?
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The picture of The Church of Almighty God
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“And he began to speak to them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and dig a place for the winefat, and built a tower, and let it out to farmers, and went into a far country. And at the season he sent to the farmers a servant, that he might receive from the farmers of the fruit of the vineyard. And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.
And again he sent to them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some. Having yet therefore one son, his well beloved, he sent him also last to them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those farmers said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be our’s. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the farmers, and will give the vineyard to others” (Mak 12:1-9).“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Mat 7:15).
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! … You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell?” (Mat 23:29, 33).
Relevant Words of God:
Some men have a penchant for drawing attention to themselves. In the presence of his brothers and sisters, he says he is indebted to God, but behind their backs, he does not practice the truth and does entirely otherwise. Is this not as those religious Pharisees? A man who truly loves God and has the truth is one who is loyal to God, but does not outwardly reveal so. He is willing to practice the truth when matters arise and does not speak or act in a manner going against his conscience. He demonstrates wisdom when matters arise and is principled in his deeds, no matter the circumstances. A man such as this is one who truly serves. There are some who often pay lip service to their indebtedness to God. They spend their days with brows locked in worry, put on an affected air, and feign a wretched countenance. How despicable! And if you were to ask him, “In what ways are you indebted to God? Please tell me!” he would be rendered speechless. If you are loyal to God, then speak not of it in public, but use your actual practice to show your love for God, and pray to Him with a true heart. Those who use only words to deal with God are all hypocrites! Some speak of indebtedness to God with each prayer, and begin to weep whenever they pray, even without the moving of the Holy Spirit. Men such as this are possessed by religious rituals and notions; they live by such rituals and notions, always believing that such actions please God, and that superficial godliness or sorrowful tears are that which God favors. What good can come of such absurd ones? In order to demonstrate their humility, some feign graciousness when speaking in the presence of others. Some are deliberately servile in the presence of others, like a lamb without any strength at all. …
Whenever such religious people congregate, they ask, “Sister, how have you been these days?” She replies, “I feel indebted to God and that I am unable to fulfill His heart’s desire.” Another says, “I, too, am indebted to God and unable to satisfy Him.” These few sentences and words alone express the vile things deep within their hearts. Such words are the most loathsome and exceedingly repugnant. The nature of such men opposes God.
from “Believing in God Should Focus on Reality, Not Religious Rituals” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
You serve God with your natural character, and according to your
personal preferences; what’s more, you keep thinking that God loves
whatever you like, and that God hates whatever you do not like, and your
work is guided entirely by your own preferences. Can this be called
serving God? Ultimately your life disposition will not be changed one
iota. In fact, you will become more stubborn because you have been
serving God, and it will make your corrupt disposition deeply ingrained.
Inside yourself, you will develop doctrines of service to God based on
nothing more than your own character, and the experience derived from
your serving according to your own disposition. This is human experience
and lessons. It is man’s philosophy of life. People like this are among
the Pharisees and the religious officials. If they never wake up and
repent, then they will ultimately turn into the false Christs who will
appear in the last days. They will be deceivers. The false Christs and
deceivers that were spoken of shall come from this type of people. If
those who serve God follow their character and act according to their
own will, then they are in constant danger of being cast out. Those who
apply their many years of experience to serving God to ensnare the
hearts of people, lecture and control people, elevate themselves—and who
never repent, never confess, never renounce the benefits of
position—these people will fall down before God. They are people of the
same type as Paul, conceited with and showing off their seniority. God
will not perfect people like this. This kind of service interferes with
the work of God.
from “End Religious Service” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Look at the leaders of every denomination and sect. They are all
arrogant and self-right, and they interpret the Bible out of context and
according to their own imagination. They all rely on gifts and
erudition to do their work. If they were incapable of preaching
anything, would those people follow them? They do, after all, possess
some learning, and can speak a little of doctrine, or know how to win
over others and how to use some artifices, through which they have
brought people before themselves and have deceived them. Nominally,
those people believe in God—but in reality they follow their leaders. If
they encounter those who preach the true way, some of them would say,
“We have to consult him about our belief in God.” See how they require
someone’s consent to believe in God; is that not a problem? What have
those leaders become, then? Have they not become Pharisees, false
shepherds, antichrists, and stumbling blocks to people’s acceptance of
the true way? This kind of people belong to the same kind as Paul. Why
say this? The epistles written by Paul are almost two thousand years old
and they pervaded the entire Age of Grace. People all ate and drank
these words of his and took his words as the norm, such as suffering,
disciplining one’s own body, and the final crown of righteousness.
People believed in God in accordance with his words and his doctrines.
from “Only the Pursuit of the Truth Is the True Belief in God” in Records of Christ’s Talks
Those who only believe in Jesus Christ and do not believe in the
incarnate God of today shall all be convicted, they are all contemporary
Pharisees, because they do not recognize the God of today, they all
resist God. No matter how devoted is their belief in Jesus, it shall all
be in vain; they shall not receive God’s praise. All those who say that
they believe in God, yet have no true knowledge of God in their hearts,
are hypocrites.
from “Mindful of God’s Will and Attain Perfection” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
The objective of God’s appearance free from the constraints of any
form or country is for Him to be able to complete the work of His plan.
For example, when God became flesh in Judea, His aim was to complete the
work of crucifixion to redeem all mankind. Yet the Jews believed that
it was impossible for God to do this, and they thought it impossible
that God could become flesh and assume the form of the Lord Jesus. Their
“impossible” became the basis by which they condemned and opposed God,
and ultimately led to the destruction of Israel. Today, many people have
committed a similar error. They wantonly proclaim the imminent
appearance of God, yet also condemn His appearance; their “impossible”
once more confines the appearance of God within the limits of their
imagination. And so I have seen many people fall about laughing after
coming upon the words of God. Isn’t this laughter no different from the
condemnation and blasphemy of the Jews? You are not devout in facing the
truth, much less do you yearn for the truth. You merely study blindly
and wait nonchalantly. What can you gain from studying and waiting like
this? Can you receive the personal guidance of God?
from “The Appearance of God Has Brought a New Age” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
It is easy for mankind to make the mistake of delineating God; people
are apt to stick to the past, and demarcate God. They clearly do not
know God, and still wantonly delineate the work of God. Their nature is
so arrogant! People always wish to hold on to the old conceptions of the
past, they keep the things of days gone by stored in their hearts, and
use them as their principal, being arrogant and pompous, and thinking
that they understand everything, and having the gall to delineate the
work of God. In this, do they not pass judgment on God? In addition,
people give no consideration to the new work of God, which shows that it
is difficult for them to accept new things, and yet they still blindly
delineate God; people are so conceited that they are devoid of reason,
they listen to no one, and don’t even accept the words of God. Such is
the nature of man: totally arrogant and self-righteous, and without the
slightest obedience. When they condemned Jesus, the Pharisees were like
this: Even if You were right, I still wouldn’t follow You—only Jehovah
is the true God. Today, are there not also people who say: “He’s Christ?
I wouldn’t follow Him even if He were really Christ!” Do people like
this exist? Yes, there are many religious people such as this. This
shows that man’s disposition is too corrupt, that he is beyond
salvation.
from “Do Not Delineate What God Has and Is” in Records of Christ’s Talks
Such a person always retains hostility against the new work of God,
shows no intent to submit, and has never gladly obeyed or humbled
himself. He exalts himself before others and never submits to another.
Before God, he considers himself the most proficient in preaching the
“word” and most skillful in working on others. He never discards the
treasures already in his possession, but treats them as family heirlooms
to be worshiped, to be preached to others, and used to lecture those
fools who adore him. … They think preaching the “word” (doctrine) to be
their highest duty. One year after another and one generation after the
other, they perform their holy and sacred duty. None dare touch them and
none dare openly reproach them. They became “king” in the house of God,
acting tyrannically through the ages. These demons seek to join hands
and together destroy My work; how can I allow these living devils to
exist before Me?
from “The Truly Obedient Shall Surely Be Gained by God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
… many of the religious old guard nail God to the cross alive.…
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 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 myopic little people,
who are merely trying to show how clever they are? With but a meager
knowledge of the Bible, they try to straddle 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, and short-sighted as they are, they try to behold
in one glance 6,000 years of God’s work. Do these people have any reason
to speak of? … 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 natural instinct to deny the rightness of
the Holy Spirit’s work, and also insult and blaspheme it—are such
disrespectful people not ignorant of the Holy Spirit’s work? Are they
not, furthermore, the ones of arrogance, 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 of them. Not only do
they look down upon those who work for God, but also blaspheme against
God Himself. Such foolhardy 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 they do so, the more likely they are to offend God’s
administrative decrees. Do not all those arrogant ones who are innately
unbridled, and have never obeyed anyone, all walk upon this path? Do
they not oppose God day after day, He who is always new and never old?
from “Knowing the Three Stages of God’s Work Is the Path to Knowing God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
After working for some time, the people who God used on earth assumed
God’s position and said, I want to surpass the universe! I want to
stand in the third heaven! We want the reigns of sovereign power! They
would become arrogant after several days of work; they wanted sovereign
power on earth, they wanted to establish another nation, they wanted all
things under their feet and wanted to stand in the third heaven. Do you
not know that you are merely a man used by God? How can you ascend to
the third heaven? … Those religious pastors who heal the sick and cast
out demons, lecture others from the pulpit, give long and pompous
speeches and discuss unrealistic matters, are arrogant to the core! They
are descendants of the archangel!
from “You Should Know How the Whole of Humanity Has Developed to the Present Day” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Those who read the Bible in grand churches recite the Bible every
day, yet not one understands the purpose of God’s work. Not one is able
to know God; moreover, not one is in accord with the heart of God. They
are all worthless, vile men, each standing on high to teach God. Though
they brandish the name of God, they willfully oppose Him. Though they
label themselves believers of God, they are ones who eat the flesh and
drink the blood of man. All such men are devils who devour the soul of
man, demons who purposefully disturb those who try to step onto the
right path, and stumbling blocks that impede the path of those who seek
God. Though they are of “robust flesh,” how are their followers to know
that they are antichrists who lead man in opposition to God? How are
they to know that they are living devils who specially seek souls to
devour?
from “All Who Do Not Know God Are Those Who Oppose God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Do you wish to know the root of why the Pharisees opposed Jesus? Do
you wish to know the substance of the Pharisees? They were full of
fantasies about the Messiah. What’s more, they believed only that the
Messiah would come, yet did not seek the truth of life. And so, even
today they still await the Messiah, for they have no knowledge of the
way of life, and do not know what the way of truth is. How, say you,
could such foolish, stubborn and ignorant people gain God’s blessing?
How could they behold the Messiah? They opposed Jesus because they did
not know the direction of the Holy Spirit’s work, because they did not
know the way of truth spoken by Jesus, and, furthermore, because they
did not understand the Messiah. And since they had never seen the
Messiah, and had never been in the company of the Messiah, they made the
mistake of paying empty tribute to the name of the Messiah while
opposing the substance of the Messiah by any means. These Pharisees in
substance were stubborn, arrogant, and did not obey the truth. The
principle of their belief in God is: No matter how profound Your
preaching, no matter how high Your authority, You are not Christ unless
You are called the Messiah. Are these views not preposterous and
ridiculous? I ask you again: Is it not extremely easy for you to commit
the mistakes of the earliest Pharisees, given that you have not the
slightest understanding of Jesus? Are you able to discern the way of
truth? Can you truly guarantee that you will not oppose Christ? Are you
able to follow the work of the Holy Spirit? If you do not know whether
you will oppose Christ, then I say that you are already living on the
brink of death. Those who did not know the Messiah were all capable of
opposing Jesus, of rejecting Jesus, of slandering Him. People who do not
understand Jesus are all capable of denying Him, and reviling Him.
Moreover, they are capable of seeing the return of Jesus as the deceit
of Satan, and more people shall condemn Jesus returning to flesh. Does
not all of this make you afraid? What you face shall be blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit, the ruination of the words of the Holy Spirit
to the churches, and the spurning of all that is expressed by Jesus.
What can you gain from Jesus if you are so befuddled? How can you
understand the work of Jesus when He returns to flesh on a white cloud,
if you obstinately refuse to realize your errors? I tell you this:
People who do not accept the truth, yet blindly await the arrival of
Jesus upon white clouds, will surely blaspheme against the Holy Spirit,
and they are the race that shall be destroyed. You merely wish for the
grace of Jesus, and merely want to enjoy the blissful realm of heaven,
yet you have never obeyed the words spoken by Jesus, and have never
received the truth expressed by Jesus when He returns to flesh. What
will you hold up in exchange for the fact of Jesus’ return upon a white
cloud? Is it the sincerity in which you repeatedly commit sins, and then
confess them, over and over? What will you offer in sacrifice to Jesus
who returns upon a white cloud? Is it the years of work with which you
exalt yourselves? What will you hold up to make the returned Jesus trust
you? Is it that arrogant nature of yours, which does not obey any
truth?
from “When You Behold the Spiritual Body of
Jesus Will Be When God Has Made Anew Heaven and Earth” in The Word
Appears in the Flesh
How many seek the truth and follow righteousness? They are all beasts
like pigs and dogs, leading a gang of stink flies in a dung heap to wag
their heads and incite disorder.[a]
They believe that their king of hell is the most superior of kings,
without realizing that they are nothing more than flies on rot. Not only
that, they make slanderous remarks against the existence of God by
relying on their pigs and dogs of parents. The minuscule flies think
their parents to be as large as a toothed whale.[b]
Do they not realize that they are diminutive, yet their parents are
unclean pigs and dogs a billion times larger than themselves? Unaware of
their own lowliness, they run amok on the basis of the putrid odor of
those pigs and dogs and have the delusional idea to procreate future
generations. That is absolutely shameless! With green wings upon their
backs (this refers to their claiming to believe in God), they begin to
become conceited and boast everywhere of their own beauty and
attractiveness, secretly casting away their impurities onto man. And
they are even smug, as if a pair of rainbow-colored wings could conceal
their own impurities, and thus they persecute the existence of the true
God (this refers to the inside story of the religious world). Little
does man know that, though the wings of the fly are beautiful and
enchanting, it is after all no more than a minuscule fly that is full of
filth and covered with germs. On the strength of their pigs and dogs of
parents, they run amok across the land (this refers to the religious
officials who persecute God on the basis of strong support from the
country betraying the true God and the truth) with overwhelming
ferocity. It is as if the ghosts of the Jewish Pharisees have returned
along with God to the nation of the great red dragon, back to their old
nest. They have again begun their work of persecution, continuing their
work spanning several thousand years. This group of degenerates is sure
to perish on earth in the end! It appears that, after several millennia,
the unclean spirits have become even more crafty and sly. They
constantly think of ways to secretly undermine the work of God. They are
wily and cunning and wish to replay in their homeland the tragedy of
several thousand years ago. This almost goads God into giving out a loud
cry, and He can hardly keep Himself from returning to the third heaven
to annihilate them.
from “Work and Entry (7)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Footnotes:
a. “Incite disorder” refers to how people who are demonic run riot, obstructing and opposing the work of God.
b. “A toothed whale” is used mockingly.
It is a metaphor for how flies are so small that pigs and dogs appear
as big as whales to them.
from"Witnesses for Christ of the Last Days"
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