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| The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven | Where do rumors come from and how are they created? |
Bible Verses for Reference:
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said to the woman, Yes, has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die: For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil (Gen 3:1-5).
Why do you not understand my speech? even because you cannot hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stayed not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it (Jhn 8:43-44).
Relevant Words of God:
All that disobeys God comes from Satan; Satan is the source of all ugliness and wickedness. The reason that man has qualities alike those of Satan is because man has been corrupted and worked on by Satan.
from “The Substance of Christ Is Obedience to the Will of the Heavenly Father” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
When the earth did not yet exist, the archangel was the greatest of heaven’s angels. It had jurisdiction over all the angels in heaven; this was the authority that God granted it. With the exception of God, it was the greatest of heaven’s angels. When God later created humanity, the archangel carried out a greater betrayal toward God upon the earth. I say it betrayed God because it wanted to manage humanity and to surpass God’s authority. It was the archangel that tempted Eve into sin; it did so because it wished to establish its kingdom upon earth and to make humanity betray God and obey it instead. It saw that there were many things that obeyed it; the angels obeyed it, as did the people upon the earth. The birds and beasts, trees, forests, mountains, rivers and all things upon the earth were under the care of man—that is, Adam and Eve—while Adam and Eve obeyed it. The archangel thus desired to surpass God’s authority and to betray God. Later on it led many angels to betray God, which then became various unclean spirits. Has not humanity’s development to this day been caused by the archangel’s corruption? Humanity is only the way it is today because the archangel betrayed God and corrupted humanity.
from “You Should Know How the Whole of Humanity Has Developed to the Present Day” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
First God created Adam and Eve, and He also created a snake. Among all things, the snake was the most poisonous; its body contained venom, and Satan used this venom to utilize it. It was the snake that tempted Eve to sin. Adam sinned after Eve did, and the two of them were then able to distinguish between good and evil.
from “You Should Know How the Whole of Humanity Has Developed to the Present Day” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Because of the existence of Satan and demons, people resist Him and are filled to the brim with rebellious disposition….
from “You Should Know How the Whole of Humanity Has Developed to the Present Day” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
… Man’s corrupt nature entirely originates from Satan and man’s nature has been processed and corrupted by Satan. That is, man survives under the influence of its evil and ugliness. Man does not grow up in a world of truth or a holy environment, and moreover does not live in the light. Therefore, it is not possible for the truth to be innately possessed within each person’s nature, and moreover they cannot be born with a God-fearing, God-obeying essence. On the contrary, they are possessed of a nature that resists God, disobeys God, and has no love for the truth. …
… Mankind’s souls are all within Satan’s grasp. As such, it goes without saying that man’s flesh has also been occupied by Satan. How could flesh such as this and humans such as this not resist God and be innately compatible with Him? The reason Satan was cast down by Me into the air is because it betrayed Me, so how could humans extricate themselves from the repercussions of this? This is the reason that human nature is betrayal.
from “A Very Serious Problem: Betrayal (2)” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
After being corrupted by Satan, man became a beast: His thoughts were filled with evil and filth, without good or holiness. Is this not Satan?
from “The Experiences of Peter: His Knowledge of Chastisement and Judgment” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
Satan corrupts people through the education and influence of the national governments and the famous and great. Their lies and nonsense have become man’s life and nature. “Everyone for himself and the devil take the hindmost” is a well-known satanic saying that has been instilled into everyone and become the human life. There are some other words of life philosophy that are also like this. Satan educates people through each nation’s fine traditional culture and causes humanity to fall into and be engulfed in an expansive abyss of destruction, and in the end people are destroyed by God because they serve Satan and resist God.
from “How to Know Man’s Nature” in Records of Christ’s Talks
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
The Man’s Fellowship:
Now let’s think back to when Satan first corrupted mankind. What did the snake say? What was it that God said in the beginning? He told people: If you eat the fruit from that tree, you will certainly die. And what did Satan say? It said: God didn’t mean that you’ll definitely die from eating the fruit from that tree. See, first it counteracted God’s words, and after doing that it added some other things to confuse people. As a result, people became corrupted by Satan. The way that Satan confused Eve is the same way that Satan and every kind of evil spirit confuse and corrupt mankind. Satan confused Eve by means of the snake, and it spoke through the body of the snake. In fact, the snake was being controlled by the evil spirit of Satan, so it’s not that all of mankind has been corrupted by just that one snake—there have been many evil spirits who have worked through all kinds of people and all kinds of animals, or they have directly spoken from within people. No one knows how many people among mankind have been subject to the direct corruption of evil spirits, and who have directly encountered the words, the voices of the evil spirit of Satan. That’s why we must realize that all of mankind’s corruption has not been carried down from Adam and Eve. It’s more the case that during the thousands of years over the following ages, Satan and all kinds of evil spirits have been working on corrupted mankind. Don’t you see that those who are currently possessed by demons, who are controlled by evil spirits—aren’t those evil spirits always speaking to them? There’s no way to count how many people receive the words of evil spirits! There are just too many who receive the words of evil spirits. It certainly has not been Eve alone. Currently many believers, after being possessed by Satan or evil spirits, are dispatched to the house of God to disrupt His work and confuse His chosen people. We can see that there are a number of people in the church who have the work of evil spirits. What does someone like that say? He says: “I was praying yesterday, and God spoke to me…. I was praying yesterday, and this is how the Spirit enlightened me, this is what He said to me.” He prays whenever he encounters an issue, and as soon as he does so, evil spirits start to work in him, and they speak to him. Isn’t this Satan corrupting people? What’s the difference between this method and Eve being corrupted by Satan? There’s no difference at all. They are entirely the same. Eve was corrupted by Satan just once, and its toxins got inside. She started to deny the words of God and always maintained an attitude of suspicion toward His words. There are many people who have been possessed by demons who have been corrupted by Satan many times. It’s not an issue of whether it’s dozens of times or hundreds of times—it’s that Satan or evil spirits are permanently residing within them, until death! When there are evil spirits residing within a person, he takes in so much of what Satan says, and he’s corrupted by Satan to such an extent, so when he prays, it’s always evil spirits pointing out this or that to him. On the outside, he, when communicating with brothers and sisters, conveys the words of God, but after that he gives his own explanation, his own views and his understanding. Aren’t his views the same strategy as the snake confusing Eve? So when someone who has been possessed by Satan or by demons has fellowship with brothers and sisters, that is the fellowship of Satan counteracting God’s words. It is the fellowship of Satan confusing mankind. Anyone who has frequent contact with someone who has an evil spirit is disrupted by their words. When you hear them speak, you feel unsettled in your heart and you develop doubts toward God’s words, and you lose hold of your correct understanding. That is how evil spirits corrupt people. They don’t just use all sorts of books, education, and theories to poison people, but even more, many evil spirits reside within people and confuse them. They control them in order to confuse people, and they use people to confuse other people. In the last days, Satan’s methods of corrupting mankind are a multitude, and they are all too common. So if you do not have the truth, you will have no way to discern this.
from “How One Should Seek the Truth” in Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life (I)
What exactly is the great red dragon? What is the connection between the great red dragon and Satan? When Satan first corrupted mankind, it did so by means of an ancient serpent to test and speak with mankind. The ancient serpent was an animal, so how could it speak with people? It was Satan, an evil spirit, that attached itself to the serpent’s body so that it could corrupt mankind, and therefore the serpent was just like an incarnation of Satan. What sort of connection do we see between Satan and the ancient serpent from this incident where Satan attached itself to the serpent’s body to corrupt mankind? In the spiritual world, it is called Satan and it is an evil spirit. However, in the human world, Satan attached itself to an animal’s body in order to corrupt mankind, and so it is called the ancient serpent. In the spiritual world, Satan is an evil spirit, but in the human world, Satan attaches itself to a gang of demons, and that is the great red dragon. The great red dragon is the incarnation of Satan; they are one and the same. So when the evil spirit came into the bodies of this gang of demons, it became the great red dragon, but when it leaves their bodies, it becomes Satan again. In the spiritual world, it is Satan, and in the material world and when it is among humanity, it is the great red dragon; this is the connection between Satan and the great red dragon. More precisely, the great red dragon is the incarnation of Satan, this evil spirit, and the great red dragon is the true image of Satan. All that the great red dragon does is to resist and betray God and commit heinous sins; such are the conduct and deeds of Satan. Satan is the chief among numerous evil spirits and all of the evil spirits that follow it constitute Satan’s system. In this sinister system, the great red dragon is the head and it far surpasses evil spirits. It is the chief among countless evils and it is the source of all sins. This evil spirit has travelled to Europe, where it gave rise to the evil theories of the communism that brought disaster to dozens of countries throughout the world, as well as cruelly corrupted mankind over a century. This has resulted in mankind denying, resisting, and betraying God: the very apex of sin. The great red dragon is the primary culprit behind corrupting mankind; it is the main source that gives power to all other evils.
from “How to Know and Distinguish the Nature and Poisons of the Great Red Dragon” in Sermons and Fellowship on Entry Into Life (III)
The great red dragon is the most dangerous evil force in this world today, and it is also the poisonous root of all evil forces. Whichever place the great red dragon is in power, that place is engulfed in war, it is engulfed in class struggle, it is engulfed in killings and persecutions, it is engulfed in lies and deception, and it is engulfed in plagues and all kinds of natural and man-made disasters. Whichever place the black hand of the great red dragon appears, evil forces run amok and all kinds of disaster are right around the corner. The great red dragon is the root of all darkness and evil. The great red dragon is guilty of the most heinous crimes, and all that it has ever said and done is to mislead, deceive, corrupt, ruin, and slaughter people. All that the great red dragon preaches and promotes is all heresies and fallacies, garbage that misleads and corrupts people. … all the negative things engendered by the great red dragon are all tools used by Satan to deceive, corrupt, and bind people. All those things which the great red dragon promotes and advocates and requires people to follow are negative things. The entire corrupt mankind has been deceived and bound by these negative things, to the point that it can no longer distinguish between truths and fallacies, between light and darkness, and is stuck inside evil and unable to extricate itself.
from “Results That Can Be Achieved by a Genuine Understanding of the Truth” in Collection of Sermons—Supply for Life
We can clearly see that it is the Devil Satan corrupting mankind through the heads of demons, the princes of devils. They brutally persecute and swallow up people’s souls, and it is these princes of devils that are gaining power and are on a despotic rampage on the earth. They are using the influence they possess to expropriate people’s freedom, only requiring that people follow and serve them and that they sacrifice themselves for their illusions. They do not allow any pursuit of the truth or pursuit of light in life at all, and they especially do not allow people to believe in, follow, or serve God. This is a patently clear fact. These heads of demons, the princes of devils, are the embodiment of the great red dragon. They are the representatives of the great red dragon.
from The Fellowship From the Above
