Almighty God says, "Although God’s Wrath Is Hidden and Unknown to Man, It Tolerates No Offense
God’s treatment of the whole of foolish and ignorant humanity is primarily based on mercy and tolerance. His wrath, on the other hand, is concealed in the vast majority of time and of things; it is unknown to man. As a result, it is difficult for man to see God display His wrath, and it is also difficult to understand His wrath. As such, man makes light of God’s wrath.
When man faces God’s final work and step of tolerating and forgiving man—that is, when God’s final instance of mercy and His final warning reach them—if they still use the same methods to oppose God and do not make any effort to repent, mend their ways or accept His mercy, God will no longer bestow His tolerance and patience upon them. To the contrary, it is at this time that God will retract His mercy. Following this, He will only send forth His wrath. He can express His wrath in different ways, just as He can use different methods to punish and destroy people.
God’s use of fire to destroy the city of Sodom is His swiftest method of utterly annihilating a humanity or a thing. Burning the people of Sodom destroyed more than their physical bodies; it destroyed the entirety of their spirits, their souls and their bodies, ensuring that the people inside this city would cease to exist in both the material world and the world invisible to man. This is one way in which God reveals and expresses His wrath. This manner of revelation and expression is one aspect of the substance of God’s wrath, just as it is naturally also a revelation of the substance of God’s righteous disposition. When God sends forth His wrath, He ceases to reveal any mercy or lovingkindness, nor does He display any more of His tolerance or patience; there is no person, thing or reason that can persuade Him to continue to be patient, to give His mercy again, to bestow His tolerance once more. In place of these things, without a moment’s hesitation, God will send forth His wrath and majesty, do what He desires, and He will do these things in a swift and clean manner in accordance to His own wishes. This is the way in which God sends forth His wrath and majesty, which man must not offend, and it is also an expression of one aspect of His righteous disposition. When people witness God showing worry and love toward man, they are unable to detect His wrath, see His majesty or feel His intolerance to offense. These things have always led people to believe that God’s righteous disposition is one solely of mercy, tolerance and love. However, when one sees God destroy a city or detest a humanity, His wrath in the destruction of man and His majesty allow people to glimpse the other side of His righteous disposition. This is God’s intolerance to offense. God’s disposition that tolerates no offense surpasses the imagination of any created being, and among the non-created beings, none is capable of interfering with it or affecting it; even more so, it cannot be impersonated or imitated. Thus, this aspect of God’s disposition is the one that humanity should know the most. Only God Himself has this kind of disposition, and only God Himself is possessed of this kind of disposition. God is possessed of this kind of righteous disposition because He detests wickedness, darkness, rebelliousness and Satan’s evil acts—corrupting and devouring mankind—because He detests all acts of sin in opposition to Him and because of His holy and undefiled substance. It is because of this that He will not suffer any of the created or non-created beings to openly oppose or contest Him. Even an individual that He had once shown mercy to or selected need only provoke His disposition and transgress His principle of patience and tolerance, and He will release and reveal His righteous disposition without the least bit of mercy or hesitation—a disposition that tolerates no offense.
God’s Wrath Is a Safeguard for All Just Forces and All Positive Things
By understanding these examples of God’s speech, thoughts and actions, are you able to understand God’s righteous disposition, a disposition that cannot be offended? In the end, this is an aspect of the disposition unique to God Himself, regardless of how much man can understand. God’s intolerance of offense is His exclusive substance; God’s wrath is His exclusive disposition; God’s majesty is His exclusive substance. The principle behind God’s anger demonstrates the identity and status that only He possesses. One needs not mention that it is also a symbol of the substance of the unique God Himself. God’s disposition is His own inherent substance. It does not change at all with the passage of time, nor does it change whenever the location changes. His inherent disposition is His intrinsic substance. Regardless of whom He carries out His work upon, His substance does not change, and neither does His righteous disposition. When one angers God, that which He sends forth is His inherent disposition; at this time the principle behind His anger does not change, nor do His unique identity and status. He does not grow angry because of a change in His substance or because His disposition has produced different elements, but because man’s opposition against Him offends His disposition. Man’s flagrant provocation of God is a severe challenge to God’s own identity and status. In God’s view, when man challenges Him, man is contesting Him and testing His anger. When man opposes God, when man contests God, when man continuously tests God’s anger—which is also when sin runs rampant—God’s wrath will naturally reveal and present itself. Therefore, God’s expression of His wrath symbolizes that all evil forces will cease to exist; it symbolizes that all hostile forces will be destroyed. This is the uniqueness of God’s righteous disposition, and it is the uniqueness of God’s wrath. When God’s dignity and holiness are challenged, when just forces are obstructed and unseen by man, God will send forth His wrath. Because of God’s substance, all those forces on earth which contest God, oppose Him and contend with Him are evil, corrupt and unjust; they come from and belong to Satan. Because God is just, of the light and flawlessly holy, all things evil, corrupt and belonging to Satan will vanish with the release of God’s wrath.
Although the outpouring of God’s wrath is one aspect of the expression of His righteous disposition, God’s anger is by no means indiscriminate as to its target or without principle. To the contrary, God is not at all quick to anger, nor does He rashly reveal His wrath and His majesty. Additionally, God’s wrath is considerably controlled and measured; it is not at all comparable to how man will flare into a rage or vent his anger. Many conversations between man and God are recorded in the Bible. The words of some of these individuals were shallow, ignorant and infantile, but God did not strike them down, nor did He condemn them. In particular, during Job’s trial, how did Jehovah God treat Job’s three friends and the others after He heard the words that they spoke to Job? Did He condemn them? Did He fly into a rage at them? He did nothing of the sort! Instead He told Job to entreat for them, to pray for them; God, on the other hand, did not take their faults to heart. These instances all represent the primary attitude with which God treats corrupt, ignorant humanity. Therefore, the release of God’s wrath is by no means an expression or venting of His mood. God’s wrath is not a full-blown eruption of rage as man understands it. God does not release His wrath because He is unable to control His own mood or because His anger has reached its boiling point and must be vented. To the contrary, His wrath is a display of His righteous disposition and a genuine expression of His righteous disposition; it is a symbolic revelation of His holy substance. God is wrath, tolerant of no offense—this is not to say that God’s anger does not distinguish among causes or is unprincipled; it is corrupt humanity that has an exclusive patent on unprincipled, random bursts of rage that does not distinguish among causes. Once a man has status, he will often find it difficult to control his mood, and so he will enjoy seizing upon instances to express his dissatisfaction and vent his emotions; he will often flare up into rage for no apparent reason, so as to reveal his ability and let others know that his status and identity are different from those of ordinary people. Of course, corrupt people without any status will also frequently lose control. Their anger is frequently caused by damage to their individual benefits. In order to protect their own status and dignity, corrupt mankind will frequently vent their emotions and reveal their arrogant nature. Man will flare up in anger and vent his emotions in order to defend the existence of sin, and these actions are the ways with which man expresses his dissatisfaction. These actions brim with defilement; they brim with schemes and intrigues; they brim with man’s corruption and evil; more than that, they brim with man’s wild ambitions and desires. When justice contests wickedness, man will not flare up into anger to defend the existence of justice; contrarily, when the forces of justice are threatened, persecuted and attacked, man’s attitude is one of overlooking, evading or flinching. However, when facing the forces of evil, man’s attitude is one of catering, and of bowing and scraping. Therefore, man’s venting is an escape for evil forces, an expression of the rampant and unstoppable evil conduct of the fleshly man. When God sends forth His wrath, however, all evil forces will be stopped; all sins of harming man will be stopped; all hostile forces that obstruct God’s work will be made apparent, separated and cursed; all of Satan’s accomplices who oppose God will be punished, rooted out. In their place, God’s work will proceed free of any obstacles; God’s management plan will continue to develop step by step according to schedule; God’s chosen people will be free of Satan’s disturbance and deceit; those who follow God will enjoy God’s leadership and supply among tranquil and peaceful surroundings. God’s wrath is a safeguard preventing all evil forces from multiplying and running rampant, and it is also a safeguard that protects the existence and spread of all just and positive things and eternally guards them from suppression and subversion.
Can you see the substance of God’s wrath in His destruction of Sodom? Is there anything mingled within His rage? Is God’s rage pure? To use man’s wording, is God’s wrath unadulterated? Is there any ruse behind His wrath? Is there any conspiracy? Are there any unspeakable secrets? I can tell you sternly and solemnly: There is no part of God’s wrath that can lead one to doubt. His anger is pure, unadulterated anger and harbors no other intentions or goals. The reason for His anger is pure, blameless and above criticism. It is a natural revelation and display of His holy substance; it is something that none of the creation possess. This is a part of God’s unique righteous disposition, and it is also a striking difference between the respective substances of the Creator and His creation.
Regardless of whether one becomes angry in the sight of others or behind their backs, everyone has a different intention and purpose. Perhaps they are building up their prestige, or maybe they are defending their own interests, maintaining their image or keeping face. Some exercise restraint in their anger, while others are more rash and flare up with rage whenever they wish without the least bit of restraint. In short, man’s anger derives from his corrupt disposition. No matter what its purpose, it is of the flesh and of nature; it has nothing to do with justice or injustice because nothing in man’s nature and substance corresponds to the truth. Therefore, corrupt humanity’s temper and God’s wrath should not be mentioned in the same breath. Without exception, the behavior of a man corrupted by Satan begins with the desire to safeguard corruption, and it is based on corruption; thus, man’s anger cannot be mentioned in the same breath as God’s wrath, no matter how proper it may seem in theory. When God sends forth His rage, evil forces are checked, evil things are destroyed, while just and positive things enjoy God’s care, protection, and they are allowed to continue. God sends forth His wrath because unjust, negative and evil things obstruct, disturb or destroy the normal activity and development of just and positive things. The goal of God’s anger is not to safeguard His own status and identity, but to safeguard the existence of just, positive, beautiful and good things, to safeguard the laws and order of humanity’s normal survival. This is the root cause of God’s wrath. God’s rage is a very proper, natural and true revelation of His disposition. There are no intentions behind His rage, nor is there deceit or plotting; or even more so, His rage contains none of the desire, craftiness, maliciousness, violence, evil or anything else that all corrupt humanity share. Before God sends forth His rage, He has already perceived the substance of every matter quite clearly and completely, and He has already formulated accurate, clear definitions and conclusions. Thus, God’s objective in every matter He does is crystal-clear, as is His attitude. He is not muddle-headed; He is not blind; He is not impulsive; He is not careless; more so, He is not unprincipled. This is the practical aspect of God’s wrath, and it is because of this practical aspect of God’s wrath that humanity has attained its normal existence. Without God’s wrath, humanity would descend into abnormal living conditions; all things just, beautiful and good would be destroyed and cease to exist. Without God’s wrath, the laws and order governing creation would be broken or even utterly subverted. Since the creation of man, God has continuously used His righteous disposition to safeguard and sustain humanity’s normal existence. Because His righteous disposition contains wrath and majesty, all evil people, things, objects and all things that disturb and damage humanity’s normal existence are punished, controlled and destroyed because of His wrath. Over the past several millennia, God has continuously used His righteous disposition to strike down and destroy all kinds of unclean and evil spirits which oppose God and act as Satan’s accomplices and bailiffs in His work of managing humanity. Thus, God’s work of the salvation of man has always advanced according to His plan. This is to say that because of the existence of God’s wrath, the most righteous cause among men has never been destroyed.
Now that you have an understanding of the substance of God’s wrath, you must certainly have an even better understanding of how to distinguish Satan’s evil!
Although Satan Appears Humane, Just and Virtuous, It Is Cruel and Evil in Substance
Satan wins its fame through deceiving the public. It often establishes itself as a vanguard and role model of righteousness. Under the banner of safeguarding righteousness, it harms man, devours their souls, and uses all sorts of means to benumb, deceive and incite man. Its goal is to make man approve of and follow along with its evil conduct, to make man join it in opposing God’s authority and sovereignty. However, when one grows wise to its schemes, plotting and vile features and does not wish to continue to be trampled upon and fooled by it or to continue slaving away for it, or to be punished and destroyed together with it, Satan changes its previously saintly features and tears off its false mask to reveal its true evil, vicious, ugly and savage face. It would love nothing more than to exterminate all those who refuse to follow it and those who oppose its evil forces. At this point Satan can no longer assume a trustworthy, gentlemanly appearance; instead, its true ugly and devilish features under the sheep’s clothing are revealed. Once Satan’s schemes are brought to light, once its true features are exposed, it will fly into a rage and expose its barbarity; its desire to harm and devour people will only be intensified. This is because it is enraged by man’s awakening; it develops a strong vindictiveness toward man for their aspiration to yearn for freedom and light and to break free of its prison. Its rage is intended to defend its evil, and it is also a true revelation of its savage nature.
In every matter, Satan’s behavior exposes its evil nature. Out of all the evil acts that Satan has carried out upon man—from its early efforts to delude man into following it, to its exploitation of man, in which it drags man into its evil deeds, and Satan’s vindictiveness toward man after its true features have been exposed and man has recognized and forsaken it—not one fails to expose Satan’s evil substance; not one fails to prove the fact that Satan has no relation to positive things; not one fails to prove that Satan is the source of all evil things. Every single one of its actions safeguards its evil, maintains the continuation of its evil acts, goes against just and positive things, ruins the laws and order of humanity’s normal existence. They are hostile to God, and are that which God’s wrath will destroy. Although Satan has its own rage, its rage is a means of venting its evil nature. The reason why Satan is exasperated and furious is thus: Its unspeakable schemes have been exposed; its plots are not easily gotten away with; its wild ambition and desire to replace God and act as God have been struck and blocked; its goal of controlling all of humanity has now come to nothing and can never be achieved. It is God’s repeated summoning of His wrath that has stopped Satan’s plots from coming to fruition and cut short the spread and rampancy of Satan’s evil; therefore, Satan both hates and fears God’s wrath. Each application of God’s wrath not only unmasks Satan’s true vile appearance; it also exposes Satan’s evil desires to the light. At the same time, the reasons for Satan’s rage against humanity are completely exposed. The eruption of Satan’s rage is a true revelation of its evil nature, an exposure of its schemes. Of course, each time Satan is enraged, it heralds the destruction of evil things; it heralds the protection and continuation of positive things, and it heralds the nature of God’s wrath—one that cannot be offended!
One Must Not Rely on Experience and Imagination to Know God’s Righteous Disposition
When you find yourself facing God’s judgment and chastisement, will you say that God’s word is adulterated? Will you say that there is a tale behind God’s rage, and that His rage is adulterated? Will you slander God, saying that His disposition is not necessarily entirely righteous? When dealing with each of God’s acts, you must first be certain that God’s righteous disposition is free of any other elements, that it is holy and flawless; these acts include God’s striking down, punishment and destruction of humanity. Without exception, every one of God’s acts is made in strict accordance with His inherent disposition and His plan—this does not include humanity’s knowledge, tradition and philosophy—and every one of God’s acts is an expression of His disposition and substance, unrelated to anything that belongs to corrupt humanity. In man’s conceptions, only God’s love, mercy and tolerance toward humanity are flawless, unadulterated and holy. However, no one knows that God’s rage and His wrath are likewise unadulterated; furthermore, no one has contemplated questions such as why God tolerates no offense or why His rage is so great. To the contrary, some mistake God’s wrath for corrupt humanity’s temper; they understand God’s anger to be the rage of corrupt humanity; they even mistakenly assume that God’s rage is just like the natural revelation of humanity’s corrupt disposition. They mistakenly believe that the issuing of God’s wrath is just like the anger of corrupt humanity, which arises from displeasure; they even believe that the issuing of God’s wrath is an expression of His mood. After this fellowship, I hope that every one of you present will no longer have any misconceptions, imaginings or suppositions as to God’s righteous disposition, and I hope that after hearing My words you can have a true recognition of the wrath of God’s righteous disposition in your hearts, that you can put aside any previous mistaken understandings of God’s wrath, that you can change your own mistaken beliefs and views of the substance of God’s wrath. Furthermore, I hope that you can have an accurate definition of God’s disposition in your hearts, that you will no longer have any doubts as to God’s righteous disposition, that you will not impose any human reasoning or imagining onto God’s true disposition. God’s righteous disposition is God’s own true substance. It is not something molded or written by man. His righteous disposition is His righteous disposition and has no relations or connections to any of the creation. God Himself is God Himself. He will never become a part of creation, and even if He becomes a member among created beings, His inherent disposition and substance will not change. Therefore, knowing God is not knowing an object; it is not dissecting something, nor is it understanding a person. If you use your concept or method of knowing an object or understanding a person to know God, then you will never be able to attain the knowledge of God. Knowing God is not reliant on experience or imagination, and therefore you must never impose your experience or imagination on God. No matter how rich your experience and imagination may be, they are still limited; what is more, your imagination does not correspond to facts, much less does it correspond to the truth, and it is incompatible with God’s true disposition and substance. You will never succeed if you rely on your imagination to understand God’s substance. The only path is thus: accept all that comes from God, then gradually experience and understand it. There will be a day that God will enlighten you to truly understand and know Him because of your cooperation and because of your hunger and thirst for the truth. And with this, let us conclude this portion of our conversation."
from: "The Way To Know God"
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