No matter the rest, the pastors and elders are preaching from the Bible.
Aren't they exalting the Lord and testifying to Him by expounding the Bible and its teachings?
We testify to God's work and disposition
and God's substance and loveliness.
Only expounding the Bible this way exalts and testifies to God.
They use man's words in the Bible to replace God's words, to nullify them.
Do they bear witness to God when expounding the Bible thus?
So they're exactly the hypocritical Pharisees,
false shepherds, false workers who deceive, restrict, bind and harm people.
Sister Jiang,
no matter the rest, the pastors and elders are preaching from the Bible.
Aren't they exalting the Lord and testifying to Him
by expounding the Bible and its teachings?
As such, is it honestly wrong for them to keep doing so?
How can you sit there and say that they're only hypocritical Pharisees?
That's right!
The pastors and elders exalt and testify the Lord when they preach.
How can you sit there and say they are hypocritical Pharisees?
We don't understand. You'd better explain it! (Right! Spell it out!)
Sister, just calm down and listen to them. Brother, blessed are the poor in Spirit. Please calm down.
Expounding on the Bible seems correct in men's eyes.
But when they're expounding on the Bible, they're actually only resisting God.
What men would do that? Are they not hypocritical Pharisees?
Aren't they antichrists who are resisting God? (They are. Yes.)
Why do they resist God with their preaching? Why do they condemn Him?
I really wonder why can't some people understand after so much fellowship?
They still think expounding the Bible exalts and testifies God.
The chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees were all scholars,
and were considered to be experts on the Bible,
on the Old Testament in those days,
and were always preaching the Bible to people.
If expounding the Bible is exalting God,
then why is it that when the Lord Jesus came to do work,
they fervently resisted and condemned the Lord,
and in the end colluded with the government leaders to crucify Him?
That's right. Right. True, they did.
The religious leaders know the Bible well and often preach.
If preaching the Bible
is equivalent to exalting God and bearing witness to God,
then why do they resist and condemn instead of seeking and investigating
when Almighty God comes to express the truth and do the work of judgment?
Right.
Where does the problem lie?
Isn't this an important issue for every believer in God to reflect upon?
Besides, if the leaders of the religious world do exalt God
when they're expounding on the Bible,
then in the Age of Grace, when the Lord Jesus came,
why didn't He do His work in the temple?
When Almighty God comes, why does He not work in churches either?
It's because the leaders of the religious world
aren't exalting or testifying to God.
They're all hypocrites, each one. They're self-conceited Pharisees
and antichrists who control the religion to resist God.
How could they allow God to exist on this earth?
Could they permit voices that testify about God in the religious world?
If the incarnate Christ
worked and preached in religion and churches in the last days,
He would've been arrested, handed to the government, and crucified.
If people testified to God in churches,
they will be persecuted and face arrest undoubtedly.
That's the truth of the matter. Why can't people still see that?
It really is like that.
Elder Liu said to call the police if we saw the "Eastern Lightning."
This really was evil.
Given the fact that the Pharisees resisted and condemned God,
we should be clear about
whether exalting the Bible is really bearing witness to God!
Can those who truly exalt and bear witness to God still resist Him?
Can they make an enemy of God? (Right.)
Besides, we should also know this:
The Bible contains more than God's words. It has man's words too.
So exalting the Bible and exalting God aren't the same thing.
Obeying it and obeying the Lord's commandments aren't the same thing.
Religious Pharisees only focus on the preaching of man's words
when they're expounding on the Bible,
of biblical knowledge, of mere theories.
They preach and testify man's words
instead of focusing on the preaching and testifying of God's words,
the truth in the Bible.
How could this be exalting and testifying God?
Isn't this just resisting and betraying God? (It is. Yes. Right.)
And so, that's why all those who think expounding on the Bible is exalting God.
Such people are simply fools.
They don't understand the spirit or see things through.
They're fools who worship, believe, and follow the religious leaders blindly.
Isn't that a fact? (Yes.)
Back then, the Pharisees in Judea
worked to interpret the knowledge and doctrines within the Bible
to practice religious rituals, observe doctrines and keep man's inheritance.
They then discarded God's commandments and put His way aside.
And when the Lord Jesus returned at last,
they fervently resisted and condemned Him and crucified Jesus upon the cross.
Thus they were cursed and punished by God.
Today religious pastors and elders
often expound and testify about the Bible to us.
But they don't focus on testifying and spreading God's word,
nor expounding the Lord Jesus' will, much less His requirements for mankind.
They rarely testify of His divine substance and of His loveliness,
nor guide man to practice and experience the Lord's words,
nor fellowship about how to hold on to the Lord's commandments
and follow His will.
They focus on expounding and exalting man's words in the Bible,
asking us to practice and follow man's words as God's,
obeying them as if they were truth.
And they solve their problems by looking to man's words in the Bible,
rather than looking to the words of God,
essentially rejecting God's words in the Bible, resisting them.
Take how to enter the kingdom of heaven.
But the pastors and elders put aside the Lord Jesus' clear words,
and regard man's words in the Bible as truth,
as the way that one enters the kingdom of heaven,
and preach that one can enter just by suffering for the Lord.
They replace God's word with man's word, thereby rejecting it,
and so lead many people astray.
That's the most evil and vicious way
that the religious pastors and elders resist God.
It is true. Yes, right. Absolutely true. Indeed.
What he said is true.
We need to learn to discern these things.
And they also preach the Bible out of context.
They resist and condemn Almighty God with man's words in the Bible.
They try their best to delude, control, bind,
and bar us from accepting Almighty God's work of the last days,
keeping us tightly bound and under their control.
That was well said. These words are absolutely true.
According to these facts, how can we say that religious pastors and elders
are exalting and bearing witness to God whenever they're preaching?
Aren't they using their expounding of the Bible as an excuse
to resist God by twisting its words out of context? (That's right.)
Right. (It really is like that.)
They've long become obstacles to the true way and returning to God,
stumbling blocks,
and antichrists fully revealed by Almighty God's work of the last days.
Is this honestly not a fact that we can all see clearly yet? (Yes, it's true.)
According to man's notions, expounding the Bible exalts and testifies to God.
From how the religious leaders the Pharisees expounded on things,
we can see this isn't the truth of the matter at all.
What the Pharisees exalt and testify about is the Bible, but it isn't God.
What they preach is primarily man's words in the Bible instead of God's words.
They use man's words in the Bible to replace and resist the words of God.
They resist and judge God
with out-of-context quotes of man's words in the Bible.
Their purpose in expounding isn't to exalt or bear witness to God, (Yes. It's true.)
but to deceive and control people for their own despicable purposes. (Mm.)
Expounding like this just resists God. It's evil. (It's all true.)
So when God comes to do His work, they control people firmly using the Bible,
causing people to believe blindly in the Bible,
setting them upon the path of resisting God. (Right.)
You see,
the religious leaders, the Pharisees' expounding is all about resisting God.
They quote biblical words out of context,
using man's words to resist God to oppose Him,
and to establish their own kingdom.
And so, how should we expound the Bible to really exalt and testify to God?
The Bible is the record of God's work and God's testimony.
So when expounding the Bible, we should follow God's words
and God's truth in it to exalt and testify to Him.
We should spread and testify to His words in the Bible.
It's based on God's requirements and God's words
that we fellowship about God's will and the truth in God's words;
that we testify to God's work and disposition
and God's substance and loveliness,
and lead people in the practice and experience of God's words,
so that they live by them,
and exalt and testify to the Lord Jesus in everything.
Only expounding the Bible this way exalts and testifies to God, (Right.)
which is after God's heart, and is truly serving God.
Right. That's right. I agree. True.
Man's words inside the Bible are there just for reference and assistance.
They can never be equivalent to God's words. (Right.)
But the pastors and elders
only focus on expounding the words of man contained in the Bible.
They take man's words written in the Bible
and treat them as God's words and the truth, (Yes, they do.)
as their rules of personal conduct, as a way to handle problems.
And yet they seldom focus on the words of God.
They use man's words in the Bible to replace God's words, to nullify them.
Do they bear witness to God when expounding the Bible thus?
Aren't they exalting and bearing witness to man?
Mm. They are. He's right. They absolutely are.
Plus, when they're preaching the Bible, they only focus on explaining theology.
They just list the figures' names, places, and historical facts
to flaunt themselves, to show off.
Isn't that how they deceive and control people? (Mm.)
Aren't they making man worship and follow them?
Back then, in the hypocritical Pharisees' time,
they misinterpreted the Bible when preaching
in order to control man, to deceive.
And so, they led the believers to follow man and towards resisting God.
Judaism then became an independent kingdom against God.
Today the religious pastors and elders are playing the same trick
to make people put blind faith in the Bible and worship it,
causing the Bible to take God's position in the hearts of men.
Unknowingly, believers are led to forsake the Lord's words.
Blindly they're against Him.
They've turned the religious world into an independent kingdom against God
as well as a strong bastion against His work.
Expounding the Bible like this, aren't they opposing and blaspheming God?
Yes. (Mm.)
Isn't this the Pharisees the antichrists' scheme
to oppose God and build their independent kingdom?
How can we say that they exalt God and testify to Him?
A crafty way for the Pharisees to resist God
is to willfully misinterpret the Bible
and thereby deceive man and control the believers.
The Bible is God's testimony.
According to man, expounding the Bible testifies to God.
These hypocritical Pharisees, however taking advantage of this notion,
try to exalt and testify the Bible.
They replace God with the Bible.
And they resist Him with the Bible and trick man,
leading them to worship the book in their blindness.
They become traitors to God
who then worship and follow biblical scholars over Him.
They do. Right.
This is the most sinister and cunning scheme
for Satan to oppose God and deceive man,
one that is the most difficult to see through and easily misleads man.
Right, it's hard to distinguish.
Pastors and elders all exalt the Bible like this
and use the Bible to take God's position in our hearts.
This is indeed the craftiest scheme from Satan. It's hard to discern.
This is really hard to discern.
Let's read Almighty God's word.
You see, the religious pastors and elders often expound on the Bible,
but they don't understand the truth and don't know God.
So they're exactly the hypocritical Pharisees,
false shepherds, false workers who deceive, restrict, bind and harm people.
They lead people to deny Christ and condemn Christ
to the extent that people resist and go against God,
and all become Satan's accomplices and puppets.
Isn't this an obvious fact?
It's true. I think that's what really happens. (Agreed.)
Really. I never thought that
preaching the Bible could produce such big differences! (Yeah, that's true.)
Your fellowship makes it so clear.
We should spread the Lord Jesus' word and testify it,
fellowship about the truth,
lead others to practice and enter into the Lord's words,
and exalt the Lord Jesus in all.
This exalts and testifies the Lord. (Mm. Sounds good.)
The pastors and elders just expound man's words in the Bible,
biblical knowledge and theory,
and don't lead people to practice the Lord's words or commandments.
It's not testifying or exalting the Lord! (Right.)
The way that these religious Pharisees are resisting the Lord.
That part is now completely clear.
Thank the Lord. These are indeed the facts.
The pastors and elders don't really spread the Lord's words
when they preach the Bible. (Mm.)
They never teach us how to practice the Lord's words
or follow His will faithfully. (Right.)
And we've never heard of their experiences with His words or their testimony.
Right.
They always expound on and interpret man's words in the Bible such as Paul's,
but seldom the Lord Jesus' words.
They make the Lord's words ring hollow and replace them all with man's.
How could that be exalting the Lord? Isn't that fiercely resisting the Lord?
Yes, that's very true.
They're indeed no different from the hypocritical Pharisees! (That's right.)
That's exactly right.
We've heard the pastors and elders' interpretations for years.
Yet we still don't understand the truth the Lord Jesus expressed, (That's right.)
or how to practice the Lord's words to follow the heavenly Father's will.
Right, that's exactly how they preach the Bible.
Isn't it plain to see that they're acting against God?
It is. Instead of guiding us to know or follow the Lord,
they guide us down the Pharisees' path which opposes God. They're so deceitful!
They really are doing us harm. It's very true! (Yes. It's terrible.)