How to Pursue the Truth (6)

The 11 Standards for Evaluating a Person’s Caliber

In the last gathering, we fellowshipped on a major topic concerning the pursuit of the truth, “letting go of the barriers between oneself and God and one’s hostility toward God.” Within this major topic, we spoke about letting go of human notions and imaginings regarding God’s work, involving topics about people’s innate conditions, humanity, and corrupt dispositions, and within these topics, issues related to caliber were mentioned. We fellowshipped a bit about the issues related to caliber last time, resolving a portion of people’s notions. Having heard this, do you have an accurate definition of what caliber is? What exactly is caliber? How should caliber be understood? How can one judge whether a person’s caliber is good, average, or poor? Based on what aspects should it be judged? Have you sought on and contemplated these questions? (I have contemplated them a bit. In the last gathering, God fellowshipped that to evaluate a person’s caliber we have to look at their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things. Previously, I did not have much understanding in this regard and would even confuse strengths with caliber. For example, when I see someone achieve particularly good academic results or be proficient in several languages, I would think this indicates that they have good caliber. Only through listening to God’s fellowship did I gain a clear judgment on what truly good caliber is and what merely constitutes some strengths. If a person outwardly seems quite shrewd but has very low efficiency in doing duty and is always unable to comprehend the truth principles, their caliber is relatively poor.) Evaluating a person’s caliber by their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things—this is a general way of putting it. Beyond looking at their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things, there are specific standards for evaluating a person’s caliber: First, their learning ability. Second, their ability to understand things. Third, their comprehension ability. Fourth, their ability to accept things. Fifth, their cognitive ability. Sixth, their ability to make judgments. Seventh, their ability to identify things. Eighth, their ability to respond to things. Ninth, their decision-making ability, which can also be referred to as their ability to execute. Tenth, their ability to evaluate and appreciate things. Eleventh, their innovative ability. Have you kept them in mind? (Yes.) How many are there in total? (Eleven.) Read them out loud. (One, learning ability. Two, the ability to understand things. Three, comprehension ability. Four, the ability to accept things. Five, cognitive ability. Six, the ability to make judgments. Seven, the ability to identify things. Eight, the ability to respond to things. Nine, decision-making ability. Ten, the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. Eleven, innovative ability.) To judge a person’s caliber, generally speaking, you have to look at these two aspects: their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things. Specifically, to assess their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things, you have to make a comprehensive determination based on these eleven standards. In this way, you will be able to accurately judge what a person’s caliber is truly like. Of course, to assess a person’s caliber, the first step is to look at their overall abilities in various aspects, and then at their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things. If they possess caliber and ability in various aspects, then they will certainly do things with both efficiency and effectiveness. If a person’s efficiency in doing things is high and their effectiveness is good, then when you evaluate their abilities in each area according to the eleven standards, they will certainly also be good. Any one of these eleven abilities, taken individually, cannot fully determine whether a person’s caliber is good or not—it must be judged comprehensively. Of course, among these eleven abilities, which are the most important? The most important are the ability to make judgments, the ability to identify things, the ability to respond to things, and decision-making ability—these involve a person’s ability to act after understanding a certain theory. The remaining abilities pertain to comprehension and learning, which involves the human mind. Next, we will fellowship on these eleven abilities one by one.

1. Learning Ability

The first is learning ability. Learning ability does not refer solely to learning an area of knowledge; it also includes learning a language, a specific technical skill, learning and accepting a new thing, and so on—these all fall within the scope of learning ability. For example, when learning a technical skill, under normal circumstances, a person can basically master it within six months and then engage in it independently. If you also can master it and engage in it independently after six months of learning, this counts as having learning ability. If it takes you twice as long as the average person to learn—if after six months you still haven’t mastered it and need another six months to learn—this indicates poor caliber. That is, regarding learning ability, if you can master the technical skill or knowledge within the normal timeframe, this means your caliber is average or above average. However, if you exceed this timeframe and require twice or even three times as long as others to learn the technical skill or knowledge, then your caliber is poor. If you spend two or three times longer than the average person and you still cannot learn it, and you lack learning ability, what does this say about your caliber? Without learning ability, you do not meet even the general standard for having normal human caliber. You are worse than having poor caliber—you have no caliber at all. What category does having no caliber fall under? Having no caliber means one falls under the category of people who are mentally deficient and idiots, with no learning ability whatsoever. This is what’s involved in learning ability.

2. The Ability to Understand Things

The second is the ability to understand things. The ability to understand things refers to a person’s capacity to figure out the principles and the knack within something they see or often encounter. For example, when learning a professional skill, if you listen to theoretical instruction and observe practical demonstrations, and within a normal timeframe you can work out the knack and the principles involved with this skill, this counts as having good caliber and a certain ability to understand things. If you cannot immediately understand it, and even if someone fellowships with you again, you still cannot understand; and even when they give you repeated hints, you still cannot understand what the knack for doing this thing is and what the principles involved are—then your ability to understand things is poor. Perhaps after some time, you may learn a little by groping along slowly through actual practice, but it is limited to that. If, regardless of how much time you spend—whether three years or five years—what you can understand remains confined to a limited scope and, when doing things, you only adhere to certain regulations and certain rules, without being able to understand the fundamentals involved and apply them to actual practice, this means your ability to understand things is poor; people like this have poor caliber. For example, some people perform church work and, after you fellowship with them about the truth principles, they feel that everything you said is correct and have no doubts about what you fellowshipped. However, they just cannot understand why things must be done this way and are unable to comprehend the principles involved. Especially when faced with various problems or special situations in real life or while doing their duty, they do not know how to apply principles or how to approach and handle the problems they encounter according to the principles. This indicates a lack of ability to understand things. People who lack the ability to understand things do not understand after hearing fellowship about the truth and always make requests like “Can you give another example?” or “Can you explain it in more detail?” Only after you give an example and explain in detail can they understand a little. But if you fellowship something deeper, they once again cannot understand and will ask you to give another example. Why do they repeatedly ask you to give examples? It is for you to explain similar situations in real life through examples, so that they can just remember a certain approach or regulation. Why do they do this? It is because their ability to understand things is very poor—you might also say they have no ability to understand things; they do not know how to apply principles in real life or while doing their duty. No matter how you fellowship with them, no matter how many specific examples you give and how many principles you clearly explain, even addressing the principles for handling special situations, they can listen all day long and still not get it. They feel that what you are saying is just theory and still do not know how to handle the various problems they face in real life. This indicates a lack of ability to understand things. Regardless of how others explain things to them, people who lack the ability to understand things cannot get it—this is having poor caliber. Do people with poor caliber also have poor efficiency and effectiveness in doing things? (Yes.) If a person’s ability to understand things is poor, then their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things will certainly be poor; they will not know which principles are involved when they are faced with something, and they will not know how to apply principles in real life. This indicates poor caliber. There is another type of person who becomes more muddled the more detailed and specific others’ fellowship is, being unable to understand it. For example, when God’s house fellowships about discerning false leaders and antichrists, after listening they say, “Why aren’t I getting this? There’s fellowship on principles, examples being given, and special situations being listed, but it all sounds so jumbled to me. What exactly is being said here? Which kind of people are we meant to be handling? Are we to handle false leaders, or antichrists? Is our church leader an antichrist? That person seems a bit evil—are their manifestations due to a corrupt disposition or to bad humanity? Just which are they, a false leader or an antichrist? I still don’t understand.” They do not even understand what the truth principles you fellowship about are; the more they listen, the more muddled they become. Not only do they fail to connect these truth principles to actual situations, but they also become so muddled that they do not even know what the theme of what you are saying is. Doesn’t this show a lack of ability to understand things? (Yes.) For example, imagine a situation in which everyone has gathered to fellowship on a single theme, with each person contributing their thoughts. You fellowship about your understanding, I express my grasp of it; one person raises a question, another person raises a different question—all centered on this theme. Those without caliber listen to this kind of discussion and cannot wrap their heads around it. In their hearts, they think, “What are you all talking about? Why can’t I understand it?” They become muddled. They cannot make out the underlying logic behind the reasonable questions raised by others or why those questions are being raised—they cannot figure out the reasons behind this; they’re even worse than a bystander. Those with caliber, even just observing from the sidelines, can tell who is correct and who is wrong, the reason why someone asks a certain question, whether the questions are deep or shallow, how the questions are being answered—but those without caliber cannot understand any of this and cannot understand the underlying logic behind it. This shows they don’t have the ability to understand things. When others fellowship about something, they cannot discern after listening. They do not know whether what was said is truthful and objective, nor can they see through to the background and essence of the matter—they are completely at a loss. As for why this theme is being discussed, why the principles involved in this theme need to be repeatedly emphasized, as well as whose questions pertain to these principles and whose do not, they cannot understand or make sense of any of these. As they continue listening, they become drowsy; they start taking themselves to be mere bystanders in this fellowship, and their hearts become clouded. With other people, the more the truth principles are fellowshipped, the clearer and more lucid their minds grow. But for those without caliber, the more they listen, the more muddled they become, and the more clouded their thoughts become. This indicates a lack of ability to understand things. Doesn’t this indicate extremely poor caliber? Such people can also be called people with no caliber. What kind of people are those with no caliber? (Mentally deficient people.) The mentally deficient, idiots, fools—this is the category of people with the poorest caliber. This is the second aspect: the ability to understand things.

3. Comprehension Ability

The third aspect is comprehension ability. Comprehension ability is similar to the ability to understand things but goes a step further. What is the difference between them? Comprehension ability focuses more on how to align the principles of the truth and paths of practice with the various issues in real life and then implement them in real work, after one has understood and mastered these principles and paths. This is where the distinction lies. People with comprehension ability, after understanding the fundamentals and principles of something, have a path of practice in their hearts, and an accurate scope, a direction, and a goal. They know how to apply these fundamentals and principles and also know the principles of practice involved in certain special situations. Suppose that, after hearing fellowship on some truth principles, a person can recognize the essence of some problems and then use the truth to resolve some actual problems in real life. That is, after they hear these principles, they immediately understand how they should have practiced in response to a previous situation, and when situations arise again, they also know how to apply the principles to approach them, and immediately have a path of practice in their hearts; their comprehension of principles and fundamentals acts like a guiding light, quickly enabling them to know how to handle various issues in life or work, and enabling them to have a path, direction, and principles of practice. In that case, such a person has comprehension ability, which, of course, is a manifestation of good caliber. Say that a person, after hearing some fellowship on the truth principles, knows how they should practice and handle those things from their actual lives which are common and universal or which they’ve experienced. However, they do not know how to apply these truth principles to special, complex situations, unexpected situations, or uncommon problems and phenomena they haven’t experienced, and still need to seek and make inquiries to obtain an accurate answer or a specific plan of practice before knowing how to handle and resolve them. Otherwise, even after hearing the truth principles, they still do not know how to handle such matters or problems. This indicates they have average comprehension ability; or, it can also be said that such a person is of average caliber. Some people have worked for ten or twenty years, and with some work experience combined with the clear fellowship of truth principles from God’s house, they know how to handle common situations, and have received confirmation that handling them this way is correct. However, when faced with certain complex, special, uncommon problems which they’ve never experienced in their work, they do not know how to handle them and must obtain a clear answer by making inquiries before they can begin handling them. If the situation changes and becomes more complex than they imagined or than the circumstances they know about, they become confused, not knowing how they should face it, and knowing even less how they should practice and handle it in a way that aligns with the principles. When they don’t know how to practice, whether they act based on their imaginings, their own ambitions and desires, or simply set it aside and ignore it—regardless of how they act—the fact that when faced with such a situation they become confused and do not know how to apply principles to handle it proves that their caliber is very average. If one can handle general situations but does not know how to handle special situations, this indicates average caliber. If encountering some special situations causes them to become so confused that they cannot even handle issues they would normally be able to handle, this indicates poor caliber. A person with poor caliber also has poor comprehension ability. Is there a distinction between someone with poor comprehension ability and someone who has adequate comprehension ability? (Yes.)

Some people, no matter how others fellowship, cannot grasp the principles. They only understand doctrines and regulations, and can shout a few slogans, but they do not know how to do real work and resolve problems. You see, after listening to the fellowship, they speak with great clarity and structure, as if they truly understand. But in actuality, they have not understood what was said at all. When it comes to doing concrete work, they become confused, not knowing where to start. When encountering problems, they do not know how to resolve them. They still cannot do concrete work. In treating and handling various people and matters, they still lack principles. In their hearts, they think, “I understood the truth principles when listening to sermons—why can’t I apply them in real-life environments? Why is it that what I understand and often talk about doesn’t work?” They become perplexed again. People with poor caliber only know how to talk about doctrines and adhere to regulations, but when faced with situations, they cannot see them clearly, the doctrines they can speak are completely useless, they cannot even adhere to the regulations, and they cannot solve any problems. They do not know how to practice when difficulties arise. For example, when someone disrupts and disturbs the church’s work, saying some preposterous things, they cannot discern what the nature of this matter is. They do not know which things count as disruptions and disturbances or what their nature is; even less, then, do they know how the problem should be resolved. Someone asks them, “Don’t you know how to discern evil people? Why do you lack principles when it comes to handling evil people?” They reply, “I understand these doctrines, but I don’t know which problems they’re suitable for resolving or which people they’re suitable for being applied to.” This indicates a lack of comprehension ability, doesn’t it? (Yes.) You see, after hearing the principles, they were able to summarize them point by point according to their literal meaning very well, remembering them quite accurately and even reciting them fluently, not missing a single word. Unfortunately, however, in real life, when it comes to viewing people and things and conducting themselves and acting, they have no path of practice whatsoever, only knowing how to shout slogans, talk about doctrines, and adhere to regulations. Whether in real life or in doing their duty, no matter what they encounter, they do not know how to seek the truth or practice according to principles. This indicates a lack of comprehension ability. People who lack comprehension ability may often read God’s words, but they cannot understand what the truth in God’s words is or what the principles are. Therefore, when something happens, they cannot find the relevant words of God to discern and resolve it and must have others find the relevant words of God for them. What do they always focus on when reading God’s words? They look for whether there are specific examples to explain the matter. If there are no examples, they cannot understand the meaning of God’s words. For example, regarding God’s words that expose the nature essence of people, if no examples are provided, they cannot understand them. They cannot practice discernment by comparing their own states with God’s words. Only if someone fellowships the truth and discerns and dissects them according to their actual states can they understand. Without such fellowship, they cannot understand God’s words. Such people always complain when reading God’s words, saying, “Why aren’t there specific examples? How am I supposed to correlate this with myself? These words are too difficult to understand; no matter how I read them, I can’t match them up with myself!” This shows that they cannot understand God’s words, let alone understand the truth or bring God’s words into real life. What they understand is merely simple doctrines and regulations, but these doctrines and regulations are useless in real life. When things happen, they still have no path of practice. This indicates that they don’t have comprehension ability. Are people without comprehension ability of poor caliber? (Yes.) The people with the poorest caliber are those without any caliber at all; such people cannot make sense of the various principles they hear; they do not know why such-and-such examples are given, why particular things are said, or why people have certain manifestations—they cannot understand such things, these things are beyond them. Even if you give them a few examples, they feel as though you’re just telling stories or jokes, as if they’re children listening to a story, finding it interesting and amusing. If someone asks them whether they understand what they heard, they say they do, and they can even mimic the humor of others’ words or imitate how they upbraided people. If you ask them, “Do you know the relevant principles that people should adhere to?” they reply, “Huh? There are principles? I didn’t catch that.” Do such people have comprehension ability? (No.) They lack comprehension ability and cannot understand God’s words. People who lack comprehension ability eat and drink a few passages or chapters of God’s words every day, in a routine manner and to schedule, and they learn hymns and attend gatherings at scheduled times as well. But once they close their books or turn off their hymn recordings, all they retain from what they ate and drank are a few spiritual phrases and some dead words, such as those phrases people often say—“God is sovereign over everything,” and “Submit to God in all things”; or, “Man’s fate is ordained by God,” and “Just practice loving God.” In actual situations of suffering, they can only utter pseudo-spiritual phrases, such as “I’m suffering because of feelings” or “I’m suffering because of the flesh.” As for any principles related to self-conduct, daily life, work, and various other principles of the truth, they neither know nor understand any of them. These things are absent from their hearts and cannot be accommodated within them. Why can’t these things be accommodated? Because, in terms of their caliber, such people simply cannot understand these truth principles, and these truth principles are beyond them; and so, these things cannot take root in their hearts. What a person possesses internally and what they are able to accept attests to what they can understand and what isn’t beyond them. If a person possesses no caliber at all, lacks comprehension ability, and cannot understand the precise meaning of God’s words, even if they were placed in heaven or the third heaven, could they understand God’s words? Could they put the truth into practice? Could they submit to God? (No.) They would remain exactly what they are. Their caliber would stay the same as it has always been. People with poor caliber can only comprehend a very limited range of things. Those with good caliber can comprehend more, with greater depth and at a higher level. People with average caliber comprehend far less than those with good caliber; that which they can comprehend is confined to an average scope, and it cannot go beyond this scope because their caliber limits them. The worst are those with no caliber at all. Such people, just in terms of their caliber, have no comprehension ability whatsoever. Therefore, their manifestation in real life and in doing their duty is that they understand nothing; whether they have believed in God for ten years, twenty years, or even into old age, the doctrines concerning belief in God and spiritual phrases which they talk about are still the same old things they understood when they first began believing. No matter how many years they believe, they do not make any progress. Why do they not make progress? Because they have no comprehension ability, and no matter how many years they believe in God, the things they can take in are only those dead words. Even after many years of believing, their learning ability, ability to understand things, comprehension ability, and other abilities do not improve. What kind of people are they? They are people with extremely poor caliber. Because their caliber is poor and their various abilities do not improve, even if such people live to be forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years old, their ability to take care of themselves will still be very weak. By observing their survival ability and ability to take care of themselves, you can tell what the caliber of such people is like. This kind of person is mentally deficient, idiotic, and foolish, and their ability to take care of themselves is very poor. Why do I say that their ability to take care of themselves is poor? Because their learning ability, ability to understand things, and comprehension ability are all poor, the experience, common sense, patterns, and knack for doing things which they acquire in life are very limited. Even at sixty or seventy years old, they remain the same. People with good caliber, by the time they are in their thirties, have already developed some knowledge of the various problems they face in life and along their path of life, having gained some understanding, insight, and experience of these things. Through this experience, they know what to do when encountering various problems so that they can live better and protect themselves more effectively. However, for people with poor caliber, because their abilities in all aspects are weak, no matter how old they get, their survival ability remains very poor. How poor is it? It’s so poor that they lack the ability to live independently. Some might say, “Look, they eat heartily, sleep soundly, and are in good physical health—how can You say they lack the ability to live independently?” The survival ability we’re talking about does not refer to whether someone can eat or sleep. If a person doesn’t even know to eat when it’s time to eat, that’s not a normal person but someone who’s mentally disabled—there’s even less need to consider the caliber of such people. The scope of our evaluation of people’s caliber consists primarily of those who outwardly are considered to be normal. It does not include people with physical disabilities, mental disability, mental illness, or those who lack the ability to take care of themselves. We often see some people who cannot even find any patterns, principles, or knack for doing things in managing their food, clothing, housing, and transportation. No matter how old they get, they do not know how to handle these aspects of living in a way that aligns with principles and with humanity. For example, they don’t know which clothes are most suitable for different seasons and simply follow what others do. When it’s cold outside, they wear clothing that is too thin and catch a cold, yet they don’t understand why; or, they fall ill from eating unhygienic food, but don’t know what caused it. They cannot draw any conclusions from these experiences. Aren’t they mentally deficient? Don’t they lack the ability to live independently? (Yes.) No matter how old they are, they don’t know how to live and just muddle through life in confusion. For a normal person, when they have their first child, they may lack experience, but by the time they have a second child, they will have gained some experience in how to care for and feed their child. Some people, however, even after having two or three children, still have no experience. When asked how they take care of their children, they say, “I don’t know, I just muddled through. Anyway, when the children are hungry, I feed them, and once they’re full, that’s it.” Any child placed in their hands would be lucky to survive. With their level of survival ability, not a single child would be left alive under their care. Some people do not understand how to handle the various problems that arise in life or in survival. Such people lack survival ability. For example, when two issues arise at the same time, they become confused and don’t know what to do or which issue to handle first. They become flustered, nervous, and fearful, and complain, saying, “Why did these two issues happen at the same time? What should I do now?” They become so anxious they cannot eat or sleep. They are like this in their thirties, and even in their sixties, their stature remains the same. When situations arise and they can’t find a solution, they start crying. Others say, “Why are you crying? This isn’t a big deal—these are some of the most common issues. You just need to prioritize them and handle them based on importance.” If someone can’t handle these matters, and skips meals and loses sleep over them, or even considers ending their life, aren’t they extremely spineless? They even complain, “Why didn’t this happen to someone else? Why did it happen to me?” It has happened to you, so handle it. If you can’t handle it, ask someone around you who understands. Once you’ve clarified the issue, wouldn’t you then know how to handle it? When nothing is happening, such people are quite good at talking, presenting one set of doctrines after another. But when something happens, they panic, become confused, start sniveling, their minds go blank, and their thoughts get all jumbled—they don’t know what to do. If someone is young, hasn’t gone through much in life and lacks experience, it’s normal for them to get nervous and scared when things happen. However, by the time they’re in their thirties or forties, after having gone through many things in the world and gaining experience, they become relatively mature and seasoned, handling matters with greater steadiness and confidence. Young people who see this feel impressed, and think they can rely on such people. If a person lacks caliber and survival ability, they also lack the ability to take care of themselves. Without adults or experienced people around to assist and oversee things for them, everything they handle turns into a complete mess. Such people have extremely poor caliber. Just how poor is the caliber of some people? Take some housewives, for example, who don’t know how much rice or how many dishes are needed for a meal for a family of several people—some have been cooking for twenty or thirty years and still don’t know how much to prepare for each meal or what the saltiness of dishes should be, and sometimes can’t even accurately grasp whether the food is properly cooked. Their caliber is this poor. Don’t such people lack functioning brains? They have the brains of pigs! Such people lack the ability to live independently. They have no path for doing anything and easily make mistakes. When something happens, if there is no one to oversee things for them, everything they do turns into complete chaos, with everything totally messed up. They are idiotic and mentally deficient. For this kind of person, who has the worst comprehension ability, no matter how much fellowship they hear about the truth principles, they only understand doctrines. In real life, they still do not know how to apply these principles. In other words, the doctrines they understand cannot provide them with any goals, direction, or path in real life. These are the people with the poorest comprehension ability. That concludes our fellowship on comprehension ability, the third ability.

4. The Ability to Accept Things

What is the fourth ability? The ability to accept things. The ability to accept things has some differences from the ability to understand things and from comprehension ability. The ability to accept things involves whether, when new things appear, you can discern whether they are positive or negative, and what benefit or harm they have for your life, work, and survival, as well as how you view them, how you treat them, and how you apply them. If you are of good caliber, then when new things appear, you will be particularly sensitive and particularly perceptive. After quickly receiving information about some new thing, you will be able to identify what benefit or harm it has for people, or what drawbacks it has. If it is beneficial to a certain issue in your real life, you can immediately apply its strengths; if it is harmful, you can also avoid its harm or drawbacks for people. That is, you have a certain degree of acceptance toward new things, and you can quickly see through new things that are negative, harmful to people, and have drawbacks—this is having the ability to accept things. The difference between the ability to accept things, and the ability to understand things and comprehension ability, lies here. The ability to accept things mainly refers to a person’s sensitivity to new things and their ability to discern them. If you discern new things quickly, are able to quickly accept their strengths and benefits and apply them to real life to serve your life or work, and then let go of or eliminate the old things that these new things have replaced, this means you possess the ability to accept things and are a person of good caliber. After this are people of average caliber. Such people are particularly slow in accepting some new things that have already replaced old things, as well as new opinions and new technologies. What does this “slow” refer to? It refers to the fact that only when some new thing has already become widespread, is used very extensively, and the term for it has become very common, can they then accept it. They have no perception of new things and cannot discern whether they are positive things or negative things. Even when positive new things appear, they are resistant to them and disdainful of them in their hearts; they always have their own notions and their own attitudes, and always align themselves with worldly trends, and they are closed off and unaccepting toward new things, rejecting them. Only when some new thing spreads widely, and many people have experienced and realized its advantages, and people have benefited from it, do they begin to accept and apply it. This is having average caliber. Such people’s acceptance of new things is very passive; it is not an active acceptance. This is because, for one thing, they have no sensitivity toward new things; they are numb, backward, and closed off. For another, it’s also because they have certain notions and opinions about new things, carrying an attitude of scorn and disdain toward them. The subjective reason for this is that their caliber is average, and their ability to accept things is average, which makes them very numb; when new things appear before them, they have no awareness, have no feeling, and lack an attitude of actively accepting them. Additionally, they inherently are particularly backward, and particularly numb and dull-witted. These two reasons make them slow to accept new things. It is only when many people are already using some thing, talking about what its advantages are, what its convenience is, what impact it has on people, and what benefits it allows people to gain, and they have seen all this with their own eyes—and also seen the people around them personally experience it to some degree—that they slowly accept it in their hearts and then begin to use it. What kind of caliber does this indicate? Such people’s ability to accept things is average. Possessing an average ability to accept things means that one’s caliber is average. For example, in preaching the gospel or in doing some professional work, some brothers and sisters take the lead in trying out and applying a new method or professional technique. They quickly feel that it’s very good to use this professional technique, as with it, their effectiveness in doing their duty is pretty good and their efficiency is also increased. They then promptly promote this new technique or method, encouraging other brothers and sisters to learn it and apply it. People of good caliber are adept at seeking new techniques and methods in doing their duty. Very quickly, they can clearly perceive and accurately assess a new thing, and seize this opportunity, and can fully accept a new technique or method, and apply it to real-life work. Regarding what the strengths and weaknesses of this new thing are and what results it can achieve, they can continuously make conclusions and then make adjustments. Through a period of exploration, they gradually grasp which aspects of this technical profession or piece of information can be applied in church work and which cannot. Afterward, they progressively improve this new thing in their work according to principles and the requirements of God’s house. The more they improve this new thing, the better it becomes, eventually bearing fruit. This is a manifestation of good caliber. However, some people, in preaching the gospel, still rigidly cling to the original method, preaching either in a one-on-one or two-on-one fashion, or relying on sheer numbers. They are numb and dull-witted, and slow to accept the advanced method. Although they verbally acknowledge that the advanced method sounds pretty good and is feasible, in their hearts, they constantly have misgivings. They are afraid that if they apply this method, it will yield poor results, so they dare not try. Others persuade them, saying, “You don’t need to worry about all that. We’ve already tried it out; practicing that way yields especially good results.” But they still don’t dare to try, and continue holding onto the original method. Only when many people use the new method to preach the gospel, gaining more people each month and increasing efficiency, do they reluctantly decide to give it a shot, but they still only take small steps and do not dare to completely change their plans and strategies. This is being too slow in accepting new things; this is being of average caliber. People of poor caliber have even worse ability to accept things. They cannot clearly perceive a new thing, cannot judge it, and do not know how to treat it. In their hearts, they are resistant, thinking that people who believe in God should not accept new things, and should not accept new information and technologies. You see, they are quite closed off. People from certain denominations to this day do not use electricity, do not watch television, and do not use computers or any other electronic products. When they go out, they do not use modern transportation; they do not even ride bicycles. What do they ride around in? Ox carts and horse-drawn carriages, raising clouds of dust as they move. Some people ask, “Why don’t you ride a bicycle or take a car?” They say, “Those things are man-made. We are afraid God wouldn’t like it if we used them.” This is having poor ability to accept things. People with poor ability to accept things view many things in an incorrect way. They are stuck in their old ways, holding to their own viewpoints, being resistant to all new things. That they are resistant is in itself a problem with their thinking and their minds. What does having such a problem indicate? To put it conservatively, it shows that such people’s caliber is too average. If they consistently cannot accept new things, then their caliber is poor, and they are rigid-minded. They believe that God’s work is unchanging, and that whatever words God has spoken, God will forever only speak those same words, and that whatever work God has done, God will forever only do that same work. As for this humankind and this age, they believe that what they initially saw and experienced will forever remain unchanged and will always be that way. For example, 20 or 30 years ago, people had a certain notion regarding their understanding of clothing. They believed that cotton materials were purely natural and that all kinds of cotton textiles were good; whether it was cotton-padded jackets, T-shirts, or underwear, as long as it was made of cotton, it was better than synthetic fibers. They just firmly held to this belief. However, 20 or 30 years later, the textile industry has developed, and many fabrics similar to cotton have appeared, along with various synthetic fiber garments. There are many textiles that are better than cotton fabrics; they are more breathable, dissipate heat faster, absorb moisture faster, and don’t deform, shrink, or fade no matter how they are washed. Additionally, they are particularly comfortable and lightweight to wear, without causing any harm to the skin. But some people still cannot accept synthetic fibers. They still believe that only cotton textiles are good because cotton is grown in the ground, is created by God, and is natural, while synthetic fibers are man-made. They fail to realize that although cotton has been prepared by God and is the best, the land has been polluted, and the cotton bollworms that infest the cotton have grown stronger with each generation. Ordinary pesticides cannot resolve the problem. Ultimately, the cotton must undergo special disinfection treatments so that wearing it won’t cause itching. If treated well, the cost of the clothing becomes high, necessitating an extremely expensive sales price. If not treated well, then it is not as good as wearing synthetic fiber clothing. You see, the quality of synthetic fiber clothing is especially good nowadays; many professional athletes wear it, and the feedback is all quite positive. But some people, after hearing this, still do not accept it and remain convinced that cotton textiles are better. Aren’t such people ignorant and stubborn? (Yes.) This ignorance and stubbornness is a problem of their humanity. So, how is their caliber? (Their caliber is not good.) When a new thing appears before someone, their attitude in judging whether it is correct or incorrect—to decide whether to accept or reject it—depends on their caliber. If most people think the new thing is correct, and they follow the crowd and passively accept it, then such a person is at best of average caliber. If they cannot discern whether a new thing is correct or incorrect, whether it is beneficial to people, and what its strengths and drawbacks are compared with the old things they firmly believed in before, being unable to discern or distinguish the differences between new and old things—if they cannot judge any of this, then this proves that they have no ability to accept new things; that is, they have no comprehension ability. People like this are of poor caliber. Initially, when something new appears, they lack a certain degree of perceptiveness. When they hear about this thing, they also have no ability to accept it whatsoever. In the end, even if they reluctantly accept the new thing, it is only with the help and persuasion of others, who even have to compare the advantages and strengths of the new thing with old things, allowing these people to see with their own eyes that there are clear differences between the new thing and old things and that the new thing is obviously superior to the old things before they can accept it. However, in their hearts, these people still cannot see clearly what is good about many other new things and still feel that the old things are good and should be held onto. Only in circumstances where they have no choice do they reluctantly and passively accept new things. These people are of poor caliber. A person of average caliber is someone who, with a few pointers, immediately understands, realizing that they were viewing things in a distorted, outdated way. This is having average caliber. A person of poor caliber, on the other hand, requires repeated pointers and prompts, and collective persuasion from everyone—along with some facts and concrete examples showing how this new thing benefits people after its widespread adoption—before they reluctantly accept and use it. However, privately, they still choose the old thing. This is a person of very poor caliber. Having poor caliber means that they consistently fail to recognize the positive effects that the appearance of new things has on people, and cannot find the differences between new and old things, and consistently fail to discover or uncover the advantages and advancements of new things and the drawbacks and backwardness of old things, and also that they always hold on to their old thoughts and views; therefore, their ability to accept things is very poor. People with poor ability to accept things are of poor caliber. People with poor caliber cannot see through to the essence or root of problems, no matter how you explain things to them. That portion of people who have the poorest caliber cannot even be said to have any ability to accept things—when faced with new things, it is not a matter of whether they are subjectively willing to learn and accept them; rather, the issue is that they lack any perception toward them whatsoever. Whether in real life or in doing duty, no matter what new things appear, what things progress, or what things improve, they have no perception and no awareness. Is their ignorance of these things caused by not reading the news or newspapers? No, it is because their caliber simply lacks the ability to accept things. It is as if they have no receptive faculties. Regarding the appearance of any new things, they are numb, dull-witted, and lack perception. Even if they live in a bustling city, it is as if they are living in a remote mountain village. They are completely unaware of any major or minor events occurring in human life. Therefore, within their scope of life, there aren’t any new things that can influence their eating, clothing, housing, and transportation. They are just like animals. The things in their realm of thought are limited to the small range of things within their sphere of life, the things they know from the age when they were learning to view various things in the world. Beyond that, anything from the outside world has no influence on them at all, and they have no interest in it. What kind of people are these? Are they mentally deficient? (Yes.) Of course, the matters we are talking about here are very small, trivial aspects of daily life; we’re not referring to national affairs or major global news. Even the appearance of a very small new thing is something they are unaware of, showing no degree of acceptance at all. This “acceptance” refers to how the appearance of a new thing changes their thoughts and views, brings some improvements to their life—including lifestyle, basic life knowledge, and so on—and leads to some improvement and progress in their ability to handle problems in life. People with no ability to accept things always maintain their routine, original way of living. For example, people in the past often said that tofu stewed with spinach was a good thing, providing both iron and calcium, and someone grew up eating it that way. Later, some people said that food researchers discovered that spinach contains oxalic acid, and eating it with tofu over a long period can easily lead to the formation of stones in the body. After hearing this, this person thinks, “What is oxalic acid? Who has ever seen oxalic acid in spinach? I have eaten it for so many years and nothing happened. I’ll keep eating it!” They don’t accept it. This is someone who has no degree of acceptance toward new things or new viewpoints at all. In contrast, people with the ability to accept things, once they confirm that spinach contains oxalic acid, will think about how to remove the oxalic acid, and through finding out more about it, they discover that blanching the spinach in boiling water removes the oxalic acid. Those with the ability to accept things, upon hearing new information, will discern, through inquiry, the veracity of the information and whether it is beneficial to people, and then they will decide whether to accept or reject it. They will ask questions, learn about the details involved, and then apply this information to real life, avoiding the drawbacks or harm to people caused by the new thing in question. On the other hand, those muddled people who completely lack the ability to accept things, no matter what new information they hear, neither care nor inquire about it but directly reject it, holding only to old, outdated things. This ultimately boils down to the problem of their caliber. When it comes to new things, they do not know how to approach them or what principles they should grasp, nor do they consider what consequences rejecting new things might bring to their life or work. In short, they always harbor a suspicious attitude toward new things and new information, not daring to accept them. Such people are of poor caliber.

People with poor caliber cannot independently resolve problems they encounter in life, no matter how many arise. Such individuals lack independent living ability. Regardless of the matter, whatever way of doing things they inherited from their ancestors at the time is how they continue to do them; they do not change anything and rigidly adhere to it to the end. If you criticize them, saying that it is wrong to do things like that, they won’t listen and will even become extremely obstinate, arguing with you: “This is how it has been passed down from our ancestors. My grandfather’s generation and my parents’ generation all did it this way, and it has been handed down like this!” Are things that are handed down necessarily correct? They don’t consider this question, which proves their poor caliber. If they possessed the caliber of a normal person, they would think about this question. When hearing information about new things, they would exhibit a certain degree of acceptance. If they do not display these manifestations, it means they have no degree of acceptance. Such people lack the ability to live independently. No matter how old they live to be, they always say, “Back in my father’s day, it was like this. In my grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s time, it was like this. So, in my generation, it must still be like this.” These people are clearly fossils. They are like rotten logs of wood—hidebound! They have no ability to accept any new things, which shows they are of very poor caliber. No matter how you explain the advancements of new things, they will not accept them. Such people lack the ability to live independently. On the surface, they may appear to handle their eating, clothing, housing, and transportation on their own, but the ways and methods they use are subpar. They do not adapt their lifestyle to the times or to the growth in the various areas of common sense and knowledge that humankind has acquired. Such people are those with poor caliber. Although they are not starving, not freezing, and have not suffered any major illnesses, judging from their perspective on survival and their lifestyle, such people just live in a muddled way, and they can also be classified as the mentally deficient, idiots, or fools. Some people feel uncomfortable when they are called mentally deficient or idiotic, but even if they feel uncomfortable, it is true. Their caliber really is that poor. I would indeed like to say something that makes you comfortable, but you simply do not possess the caliber for that. You lack ability in every aspect and have no correct, accurate thoughts or views that align with the thinking of normal humanity toward any matter. Isn’t this lacking caliber? It’s already gracious enough not to call you a useless person. This kind of person who has no caliber is just one step away from being mentally disabled. Mentally disabled individuals lack even the ability to take care of themselves, relying entirely on the assistance of others. At mealtime, their parents still have to feed them bite by bite, and they don’t even know whether they themselves are full or not. People with poor caliber are mentally deficient; they are idiots, and just one step away from being mentally disabled. This is how poor their caliber is. Tell Me, aren’t such people pathetic? Aren’t they quite exasperating? People with poor caliber have no learning ability, no ability to understand things, and no comprehension ability; even less so do they possess the ability to accept things—they possess no abilities in any aspect. No matter how you explain things or give examples to them, they still can’t wrap their heads around or understand what was said. Isn’t this mental deficiency? No matter how you explain, they cannot understand. Even if you speak very clearly and explain thoroughly, they still don’t get it, and even find what you say to be very awkward. They lack the thinking of normal humanity and even come up with a set of fallacies to refute you. There’s no way to reason with such people; just give them three words: “You’re beyond reason!” Their caliber is this poor. Can you not feel anxious and exasperated with them? No matter what you say to such people, it’s useless. No matter how you try to enlighten them, they don’t understand. Even for a small matter, it takes all day to enlighten them, and if you speak in a slightly more profound way, they won’t understand; you have to use the shallowest terms and say a lot before they can understand. Even after they understand one matter, when a similar issue arises, they still don’t get it. Isn’t this mental deficiency? However, this kind of mentally deficient person does not think they are foolish. They say, “Don’t assume I’m foolish. If you offer to give me ten yuan or ten US dollars, watch which one I choose—I’ll definitely pick the US dollars because I know they are more valuable.” Others say, “You’re still foolish.” Why do others say that such people are foolish? Because an ordinary person would not use this kind of example to prove they are not foolish, nor would they use such an inferior method to demonstrate it. Precisely because such people have extremely poor caliber, have no standards for evaluating any people, events, or things, and do not know how to evaluate them, they never consider themselves to be foolish. Truly astute people, after striving and struggling consistently among a group of people for three to five years, will realize that in any group, there are those better than themselves, those who surpass them. They always feel their own caliber is not good enough, that their abilities and intelligence are not good enough. They are always able to discover their own deficiencies, recognize where they fall short compared to others, and identify their own problems; they can always see others’ strong points. This kind of person is astute and possesses caliber. Those without caliber, meanwhile, when living among a group of people, always feel that others are inferior to themselves. They see that some people cannot even spell certain words or cannot type, and they disdain them as having poor caliber. They use these insignificant, small things that they themselves can do to affirm that their own caliber is good. There are also people who, seeing others being less particular about their own hygiene or not knowing how to dress well, say they have poor caliber. They themselves are a bit cleaner, can put on a facade of refinement, or have some knowledge and strengths, so they consider their own caliber to be good. Are such people astute or foolish? They are foolish. Notice how astute people speak: “Why did I mess up again? I realize I’m foolish!” Those who often say that they’re foolish and that they have deficiencies are truly astute. Those who never admit to being foolish and always say, “You think I’m foolish? Try asking me for money and see if I give it to you!” are truly foolish. Foolishness, in colloquial terms, is called being “a few cards short of a full deck.” For them to be able to say such foolish things, isn’t that foolishness? Isn’t that being “a few cards short”? (Yes.) When they see someone with some flaws or defects, or who leaves gaps in what they do, they laugh behind their back, saying, “How could they be so foolish?” When they see someone who is full of calculations for taking advantage and cunning schemes, they regard them as astute and as having good caliber. Truly astute people evaluate the quality of a person’s caliber and whether they are astute or foolish based on their various abilities. Foolish people, however, only look at who is calculating, who takes advantage and always avoids losses, and who is adept at serving themselves through trickery, believing that all such people are astute and have good caliber. In actuality, these kinds of people are all foolish. Evaluating the quality of a person’s caliber based on how calculating they are—such people are fools themselves. Just before, we mentioned one of the most foolish manifestations: They say, “If you offer me ten US dollars or ten yuan, watch which one I choose. I certainly wouldn’t choose the renminbi—don’t think I don’t know US dollars are more valuable! If you offer me meat or tofu, watch which one I eat. Do you think I’m foolish enough to eat tofu and not the meat? I know meat tastes better!” Such people are, in fact, fools. If you really don’t want others to see your foolishness, you absolutely should not use such examples. Understand? (Yes.) Do foolish people often make this mistake? (Yes.) They even think, “Look how good I am at giving examples! See how astute I am? Do I look foolish to you? You’re the foolish one!” The most foolish type of person constantly exudes foolishness. This concludes the fellowship on this ability: the ability to accept things.

5. Cognitive Ability

The fifth ability is cognitive ability. What does cognitive ability refer to? Its main emphasis is on a person’s degree of understanding of things themselves. To evaluate a person’s cognitive ability, one must look at their degree of understanding of a thing and the time frame they need to achieve understanding of the thing’s essence. If the time frame they need is very short and their degree of understanding is sufficiently deep, reaching the level of understanding the essence of the thing, they possess cognitive ability. If the time frame a person needs to understand a thing is within normal range, and they can understand the essence of this thing itself, can clearly see the causes and consequences, and the root and essence of the problems within, and then have an understanding of this thing in their heart—and, better still, if they can give a definition and draw a conclusion about this thing—this is called having good caliber. That is, as a normal person who possesses the thinking of normal humanity, regardless of whether you are male or female, whether you have just reached adulthood or have already entered middle or old age, if your understanding of the essence of this thing itself is achieved within the normal time range, then your caliber is considered to be good. If the time frame you need to understand this thing exceeds three or four times that of a normal person—that is, if a person with good caliber needs three days, but you need ten days or even a month—and, by the time you’ve figured out the whole sequence of events of this matter clearly, and the harm and negative consequences caused by this matter have already appeared, only then do you realize the seriousness of this matter and what its root and essence are, then at best your caliber is average. In other words, if this matter has not yet caused serious consequences but some negative consequences have already been continuously emerging, and it is only during this process that you gradually become cognizant of the root and essence of this matter, arriving at a definition and conclusion, then your caliber is considered average. But if only after this matter has resulted in negative or serious consequences do you have a sudden realization and understand what the nature of this matter is, then your caliber is extremely poor. If this matter has already caused negative consequences and you still do not know what the problem with this matter is or what the root of the problem is, and you still cannot draw a conclusion about it, then you have no caliber. Cognitive ability is divided into these four levels. First are people with good caliber. That is, when something has just arisen and requires you to immediately draw a conclusion within a few hours—and this is an urgent situation where, if you do not promptly make a judgment, develop a plan to handle and resolve the matter, or even devise a loss-control plan to stop its further development, there will be negative consequences—if, within this time period, you can become cognizant of the root of this matter, and you can immediately and decisively make an accurate judgment, accurately make a decision and draw a conclusion, and then formulate a reasonable plan for handling it, this means you have good caliber. Suppose, however, that you only feel there is some problem with this matter, but you do not know where the problem lies or what its root is, and within the normal time period for handling this matter, you have no conclusions, verdicts, or plans for handling it. Instead, you merely passively wait and observe its further development, and only through its further development do you try to identify what the essence of this matter actually is and make a judgment that is not very accurate, and following that you continue to wait and observe, and before the matter has fully developed, you may just barely be able to see through to the essence of the problem or just barely come up with a solution, but your handling is still not prompt. If this is the case, then your caliber is very average. If this matter has fully developed and consequences have already appeared, with the essence of the problem having already emerged completely, and only then do you realize that this matter is bad, and see what its underlying root is—or perhaps you cannot even see the root at all but simply passively endure or face the final consequence of this matter—that means your caliber is poor. Another manifestation of people with poor caliber is that if such matters happen again, they still have the same attitude, the same method for handling it, and handle it with the same speed. That is, each time such matters occur, they always handle them in this same way, with this same speed and efficiency. No matter how many things occur, they are not able to discern their essence, nor do they correspondingly change any of their opinions or viewpoints on worldly matters. These are people with poor caliber. Precisely because they are people with poor caliber, they lack the ability to live independently; that is, they have no outlook on survival or on life. This is an indication of having poor caliber. The manifestation of people with no caliber is this: When a matter has already occurred, and consequences may have even appeared, they still don’t know what has happened, as if they are dreaming. This is having no caliber and no cognitive ability. Do you understand? (Yes.) Cognitive ability mainly refers to understanding the essences of various people and events and the roots of their problems; this is what cognitive ability is. It means that when you see the manifestations, revelations, and humanity of a certain type of people, you can know the problems they are facing, what the root of their problems in the environment they live in is, as well as what the essence of the events you are currently observing is and where the root of the problems within them lies. Cognitive ability mainly refers to two aspects: seeing through to the essence of people, events, and things, and seeing through to the root of their problems. What else can you understand about cognitive ability? Does anyone understand it as the ability to understand and learn knowledge? (No.) The cognitive ability we’re talking about primarily involves the ability to view people and events. If the standard by which you view people and events is very low, your understanding is very shallow, or you cannot understand the essence of any people, events, or things, then your cognitive ability is very poor, or even nonexistent. If, regardless of how many obviously incorrect words or wrong viewpoints the people around you express, how many incorrect actions they take, or how much obvious corruption they reveal, you cannot discover the essence of the problem, do not know what type of people they are, whether they are right people, whether they are people who pursue the truth, what their character is like, or what the essence of such people is—if you do not know any of these things—then you have no cognitive ability. When faced with any person or matter, you have no standard for assessment. After the matter has passed, you have no conclusion about the essence of such problems, and even more so you have no understanding of it whatsoever; and, of course, you have no principles for handling such matters or paths of practice for them—this is what it means to have no cognitive ability. Cognitive ability mainly refers to a person’s ability to understand people, events, and things. This concludes our discussion on this ability.

6. The Ability to Make Judgments

The sixth ability is the ability to make judgments. The ability to make judgments is when, upon encountering a matter, you can judge whether it is correct or incorrect, right or wrong, and positive or negative, and then use your judgment to determine the appropriate way to approach and handle it. When a person normally encounters some matter, whether it is something they have seen before or not, experienced before or not, and whether the matter is relatively positive or relatively negative, what kind of attitude should they adopt toward it? Should they reject it or embrace and accept it? If, after you see it clearly, you have your own stance and possess accurate views that align with the truth principles, this proves you have the ability to make judgments. For example, when you hear a person say something, after thinking it over, you can determine what this means, what purpose the speaker wants to achieve, why they speak these words, why they use such wording and tone, and why they have a certain type of look in their eyes when saying it. You can see the underlying intentions, purposes, and motives behind what they say. Regardless of how you handle these underlying intentions and motives afterward, you can perceive some of the underlying problems behind the matter happening on the spot. You know what they want to do, why they want to do it like this, the purpose they want to achieve, the effect they intend their words to have, and the hidden means, schemes, and plots involved. You can see some indications, become aware that the problem here is not an ordinary one, and may even have a sense of alertness in your heart. This proves that you have the ability to make judgments. If you have the ability to make judgments, this means you are a person with good caliber. No matter how pleasant someone’s words sound, how much they align with the truth in terms of doctrine, how upright their attitude appears to others, or how deeply their purpose is hidden, you can still judge the problem through their outward revelations, phenomena, or what they say—this proves that you have good caliber and that you have the ability to make judgments. For example, when encountering some matter, regardless of the extent to which this matter has developed, you can see through to the essence of this matter and the root of the problem by understanding the process of this matter. This is having the ability to make judgments. For instance, in the church, when there are antichrists and evil people disrupting and disturbing, regarding who among these people is the ringleader, who are the followers, who plays the main role in this matter, and who is passive, as well as what kind of influence this matter itself will have on people, and what adverse consequences will arise if this matter develops further, you can, by understanding the basic circumstances of this matter, make a judgment about the whole situation. Even if your judgment at the time has some degree of discrepancy with how the matter eventually turns out, at the very least, you have a viewpoint, an attitude, and accurate principles for handling this matter. This is sufficient to prove that you have the ability to make judgments concerning this matter. That is, you have the ability to judge who the ringleader or instigator of a matter is, or to what extent this matter will develop in the future, and what kind of attitude and principles you should use to approach it and prevent it from leading to adverse consequences. As long as you have the ability to judge, the logic and method of your judgment are correct, and the basis of your judgment is at least in line with humanity, or better yet in line with the truth principles, this proves that you have the ability to make judgments. Even if your judgment has some degree of discrepancy with the matter itself, as long as there is a basis for your judgment, your judgment conforms to the patterns of how the matter itself develops, and aligns with the root and essence of similar or analogous problems—and, furthermore, aligns with the truth principles—it can also be said that you have the ability to make judgments. Having the ability to make judgments proves that you can think about problems. If your judgments align with the root, essence, and all other aspects of the matter itself, then this proves that you are a person with good caliber.

Regardless of what people or matters one encounters, only when one has correct thinking, and only on the premise of judging whether a matter is correct or incorrect, right or wrong, or whether it is positive or negative, can they have a subsequent plan for handling and resolving it. If a person does not know how to think about problems—specifically speaking, if they cannot judge problems—then they also cannot handle problems, that is, they lack the ability to handle problems. Anyone handling problems does so on the premise of judging whether a matter is correct or incorrect; otherwise, their plan for resolving the problem and their path of practice will lack a basis. For example, someone reports to you that in a certain church, the church life is not good; most people are negative and indifferent, unwilling to gather or do their duty. How do you judge such a phenomenon? Is this a real-life problem? (Yes.) Since it is a real-life problem, you need to come up with a specific plan of practice to handle and resolve it. Before resolving the problem, don’t you need to judge what the root and essence of this problem are, and which people are causing it? Don’t you need to judge these? (Yes.) Only through thinking can you have judgment, and only after judgment can you identify the root of the problem, and based on the root and essence of the problem, you can then determine appropriate, suitable methods for handling and plans for resolving the problem. If you learned that the church life in a certain church is not good but do not know the reason why, how would you go about judging where the root of the problem lies? (I would first think that this problem is directly related to the church leader. If the church leader does not have spiritual understanding, has believed in God for years but does not understand the truth, cannot handle any problems they encounter, and does not know how to lead God’s chosen people to eat and drink God’s words or fellowship about the truth, then a church with such a false leader is bound to lack good church life.) This is one judgment. Generally, for simple problems, if one judgment is accurate, it may allow you to grasp the root of the problem. However, some problems are complex, and if the information you understand is not complete, it is possible that your single judgment will not allow you to grasp the root of the problem. So, are there also second and third judgments? (Yes.) After having three judgments, it is possible that one of these is the most accurate. What other judgments can you think of, then? (What I can think of is that the people in this church have generally poor caliber and a poor ability to comprehend the truth, and they do not love the truth. That’s why the results of church life there are poor.) Does this conform to the reality of the situation? This is the second judgment. Are there any other judgments? (I’d also think about whether there are evil people disturbing this church.) This is the third judgment. Which of these three judgments is more in line with the real situation and more realistic, and which one is hollow? (I feel like the second judgment is somewhat hollow. In fact, if the church has a suitable person as a leader responsible for the work, the results of church life would be good. Through eating and drinking God’s words and understanding the truth, the brothers and sisters would surely have the drive to do their duties. I feel that the first and third judgments are more realistic.) The second judgment is hollow doctrine. The first and third judgments align with the real situation and are accurate. For one thing, these two judgments employ logical thinking; for another, they are based on some phenomena that are commonly found in real life. If you can grasp common phenomena, it proves that your thinking is correct and conforms to logic. If you cannot grasp the real situation, and your judgment is disconnected from real life, it proves that your thinking lacks logic and has problems, and that you view problems in an unrealistic, non-objective way. The first and third judgments are objective. One situation may be that the church leader does not know how to do the work. They themselves have no path in life entry, so they have even less of a path when it comes to leading the church and the brothers and sisters. As a result, the church life there does not improve. In fact, most people in the church sincerely believe in God and have drive, but the church life doesn’t really bear any fruit. Every gathering follows the same routine: singing, praying, reading God’s words, and then the leader or deacon shares some superficial understandings or doctrines. Few people there can speak about real experiential understanding. On top of that, the church leader has poor caliber and shallow experience, and they are unable to fellowship the truth to resolve problems. The church life thus seems dull and unenjoyable. There have been multiple gatherings but nobody has gained anything from them, so most people feel that attending such gatherings is less beneficial than reading God’s words at home, and they become unwilling to attend. Some people, after believing in God for one or two years and understanding some truth, want to do duties. However, some church leaders do not know which people are suitable for which duty or what kind of work they are suitable for. They are unable to reasonably arrange people or use people, nor can they use their own experiences to support people and help them fulfill their duties. This can lead to some people becoming negative and unwilling to do their duties. In fact, most people who are willing to do their duty can do their duty well; they just lack support and help. If church leaders and deacons can support and help people according to God’s words, the number of people in the church willing to do their duty will increase, and they will be able to do their duty normally. It is because church leaders and deacons do not know how to do the work that church life yields poor results and some problems remain unresolved for a long time, and after a while, many people become negative and no longer have any drive; this affects God’s chosen people in doing their duty. If the results of church life are poor, this is mainly because church leaders and deacons do not know how to do church work. This is one situation. Another situation is when antichrists and evil people hold power and cause disturbances in the church, and this happens from time to time. When church leaders do not know how to do the work, and there are also antichrists and evil people holding power, constantly forming cliques, establishing independent kingdoms, and tormenting and suppressing others, this leads to some brothers and sisters who sincerely believe in God and are willing to do their duty being suppressed, tormented, and excluded. They want to do their duty but have no opportunity, leaving them negative and weak. These people who sincerely believe in God have no enjoyment when gathering with antichrists and their cohort. Antichrists always want to hold power and establish themselves. When those who sincerely believe in God join gatherings, they want to understand more of the truth and share their experiences, but the antichrists suppress them and do not give them the opportunity. As a result, the church life becomes disordered; people fragment into disarray and gatherings are no longer enjoyable. The little enthusiasm and love people had is lost, and they are no longer willing to do their duty. The poor results of church life may be due to either of these reasons. This is what you can think of and judge. If the conclusion you reach through judgment is related to the real situation, even if it is only partially related or merely identifies a possible problem, this is still a manifestation of having the ability to make judgments. At the very least, the conclusion and opinion you reach through judgment are related to the real situation, and not doctrine, hollow, or something that never exists. This proves that you have the ability to make judgments. If the conclusions you draw about every matter do not align with the normal patterns of how things develop or with how any matter in real life turns out, and are purely imagined, hollow, unrealistic, and untrue, and have no relation to the real situations, then this means you have no ability to make judgments or frequently make errors in judgment. Then what about the second judgment you mentioned earlier, that the poor results of the church life are due to the people in this church having poor caliber and not loving the truth—what kind of judgment is this? (It is an error in judgment.) This is called making an error in judgment. If you cannot fully grasp the situations that frequently occur with such matters—that is, the few most likely situations to occur—and you only come up with one situation through judgment, or you can think of possible situations but also think of impossible situations, what does this prove? It proves that your ability to make judgments is average. A person with average ability to make judgments has some thoughts about a matter but cannot be certain. In such cases, the judgment they make is inaccurate. If a person’s judgments are sometimes correct and sometimes incorrect, and some align with the real situation while others do not, but the inaccurate ones are relatively more frequent, this indicates that their ability to make judgments is poor. Suppose that the conclusions they reach through judgment are entirely hollow, do not conform at all to the patterns of how things develop, and even more so do not align with common or frequently occurring phenomena, being completely unrelated to the facts. Their judgments are nothing but fantasies, they have no connection whatsoever to the patterns of how things develop or to humanity essence itself, and are entirely incompatible with the real-life context and the surrounding environment. That is, suppose that their judgments are disconnected from reality—what they come up with through judgment could never happen in real life, and what they speak of is not at all the essence of the problem. If this is the case, then this person has no ability to make judgments.

To evaluate whether a person has the ability to make judgments, the main thing is to see whether their judgments on various types of people and various types of things are accurate. For example, let’s say you see a person crying and you don’t know why. You can see that he is crying very aggrievedly and very sadly, and he is also praying and reading God’s words from time to time, and he does not respond to anyone who speaks to him. You are asked to judge what is going on with this person, and you say, “He might be homesick. His mother fell ill some time ago, so he wants to go home.” Is this judgment accurate? Some people say, “He might be feeling negative. Most of the time when people cry it’s because their feelings have been hurt. For instance, people cry when they get bullied or duped. When he’s faced with some issue and has been treated unfairly, he always cries, and is unwilling to speak to or interact with others. This is a manifestation of feeling negative.” Some others make this judgment: “He used to often preach the gospel and do his duty outside, but now he has been doing his duty indoors for a long time, and he might not be accustomed to it and feel stifled.” Are there any other possibilities? Some people say, “Maybe he didn’t get to eat meat yesterday, which made him upset and so he’s crying.” Others say, “Yesterday he came to talk to me. I thought he was just passing by, so I glanced at him and didn’t say anything. Could that have made him angry? Could he be crying because of this?” How should this matter be judged in a way that aligns with the actual situation? Is this easy to judge? (I can make some judgments. The few reasons mentioned just now—homesickness, hurt feelings, or a gloomy, stifled mood—these states can all possibly cause a person to cry. However, small things like not getting to eat meat or being ignored when speaking to someone shouldn’t be enough to make a person cry.) What are the reasons that can make a person cry hard? Grievances, sadness, missing someone or something, a sense of indebtedness. So, you should ask him, “Why is it that you’re crying? Are you crying because you’ve been treated unfairly and feel sad, or because you are reflecting on yourself and feel that you owe God so much?” By having a heartfelt conversation like this with him, you will know why he’s crying. In short, it is not possible that he’s crying because he didn’t eat well or couldn’t eat meat, nor is it possible that he’s crying because others ignored him or rolled their eyes at him. Of course, under typical circumstances, suffering a little hardship would not make a person cry, and occasionally being in a not-so-good mood would also not make them cry. The things that can make a person cry are usually just those few aforementioned situations. You can judge the reason why he is crying based on those usual situations, and you can then make a judgment on the basis of his usual, consistent manifestations—such as the fact that he generally does not cry unless he encounters something sad or something that touches a sore spot, that he does not shed tears easily, and that he only cries when speaking of particularly upsetting matters and things that especially touch his soul, or when he has done something wrong or committed a grave mistake and feels that he’s indebted to God—by judging based on this context, you can more or less figure out why he is crying. One situation is that he would cry if a family member became seriously ill or passed away, another is if he himself suffered from a serious illness and felt anguished. Alternatively, he might cry because he did something wrong and thus committed a transgression, and felt that he was indebted to God, wanting to do his utmost to reverse course but still having weaknesses and being unable to overcome them; these complex emotions mixed together would lead to him crying. These judgments are relatively consistent with the actual situation. By judging based on his consistent manifestations and the characteristics of his personality, you can figure out the root cause of why he is crying now. This way, the judgment will be relatively more accurate. By understanding, in one respect, the stature of such people and some of the problems they are currently experiencing, and in another respect, the defects of their humanity itself, as well as some of the corruption and weaknesses they frequently reveal, you can basically narrow down the scope, and judge what the root cause of this person’s problem is within this scope. Making a judgment in this way will be relatively accurate.

We’ve now finished fellowshipping about the manifestations of people with good caliber, average caliber, and poor caliber in terms of their ability to make judgments, haven’t we? (Yes.) There is also the category of people with the worst caliber. No matter what happens or what they see someone do, such people do not know how to make a judgment. Why not? Because their caliber is very poor, they have no ability to make judgments, and they do not know how to judge things. For example, suppose that they hear someone say something negative. When it comes to what the essence and nature of this negative statement are, they do not know what to base their judgment on, they have no clue. This is not knowing how to think about problems and not knowing how to judge things. When they see someone do something, they cannot judge what the nature of this matter is, or what this person’s character is like based on the essence of the matter; they do not know how to judge these things based on their experience conducting themselves, and even less based on God’s words. Therefore, they do not have the ability to make judgments. What is the root cause of not being able to judge things? It is that this type of person does not know how to think about problems, and when it comes to viewing people and things, they do not know which aspect of them to look at, how to view them, or on what basis to view them. And, they do not know what conclusions to draw afterward, how to draw conclusions, or how to approach and handle this type of person or matter once they have reached a conclusion. Their minds are either blank or foggy. This is lacking the ability to make judgments. The main problem of people who lack the ability to make judgments is that they do not understand or get any of the principles, and they even lack experience conducting themselves. Therefore, when they interact with various types of people, they do not know which kinds of people are worth associating with and which kinds are not; they don’t know which people are those who are relatively kind and who also have some strong points that they can learn from to make up for their shortcomings and who can help and benefit them; which kinds of people can be tolerated and gotten along with begrudgingly; and which kinds of people have such incredibly evil humanity that associating with them could easily invite trouble or disputes, and thus should be kept at a distance—they are ignorant about all of this. In short, these people who lack the ability to make judgments know nothing and cannot judge any person or matter. But they also have their own approach, a fixed rule they follow. They say, “No matter who I’m handling things with or speaking to, I just fob them off by joking around. I don’t hold enmity toward anyone. Whether they are a good person or a bad person, whether they genuinely believe in God or don’t believe, whether they love the truth or are averse to it—I get along with them, and I don’t offend anyone. When I see evil people, I avoid them; when I see docile people, I bully them.” This is precisely their devilish logic. They do not know which kinds of people they should associate with, which kinds of people they should keep at a distance, and which kinds of people they should never associate with or have dealings with. They do not apply the slightest discernment and they regard everyone as the same, treating all people uniformly. No matter who it is, as long as they do not have a favorable opinion of that person, they will regard them as an outsider or an enemy. No matter how good a person is, as long as they do not offer them any benefit, that person will be treated by them with guardedness. They do not open their hearts to anyone and they take a guarded approach with everyone. Are such people of good caliber or poor caliber? (Poor caliber.) Since they have poor caliber, how can they still have such thoughts? Such people are just small-minded. What is the difference between people without caliber and those who are mentally disabled? People without caliber are mentally deficient and idiotic. Apart from keeping themselves fed and clothed, maintaining face, and harboring some calculations for taking advantage and not suffering any losses, they have no caliber whatsoever. Mentally disabled people, on the other hand, do not even have any calculations for protecting their own interests or taking advantage—they simply have no thoughts at all. Mentally deficient and idiotic people, apart from having some calculations, possess absolutely no survival ability, no caliber, and no ability to make judgments. Therefore, there are no principles to how they treat any person; they just go by their feelings. As long as they feel that you are not good to them, they will avoid you, feel resistant toward you and hate you in their hearts, and reject you. No matter how much goodwill you have for them or how you help them, as long as they cannot clearly perceive it, they will not feel that you are friendly toward them or that you are not harmful to them at all. They cannot identify whether people, events, and things are correct or incorrect, right or wrong, positive or negative—they cannot judge these things. They only possess some calculations. When they’ve taken advantage, they feel happy; when they have not taken advantage, they feel that they have suffered a loss, been treated unfairly, and been laughed at by others, and they resolve that next time they will not let others take advantage, or allow others to show off or gain the upper hand in front of them—they will not give others any opportunities. Tell Me, does just having these calculations in their minds count as having caliber? It is only slightly better than being mentally disabled, but when it comes to abilities, they have none—they don’t have any of the different abilities for handling various types of affairs. They are simply idiotic and mentally deficient. Such people have no caliber. Do you understand? (Yes.) The only thing those people have that mentally disabled people don’t is these calculations; mentally disabled people do not even have those. When such people hear this, they are not convinced; they say, “You claim I have no ability to make judgments? Put some US dollars and gold together, and see if I can’t recognize them. I can distinguish them! Gold is yellow, and US dollars are paper money! Put platinum and silver together, and see if I can’t make a judgment! Platinum and silver are different shades of white—I can tell that!” Isn’t this foolish? This is quite foolish. They are only able to differentiate between these things, and yet they want to show off about it and prove that they are not foolish. They’ve done so many foolish things, so many things that demonstrate a lack of caliber—why don’t they talk about and try to understand those? It is precisely because they lack caliber, because their caliber is so poor, and they cannot identify or differentiate these things, that they bring up one or two things that mentally disabled people cannot do to prove they are not mentally disabled, to prove they have some wits and caliber. Isn’t this foolish? This further proves their foolishness. Our fellowship on the manifestations of people who have no caliber is also complete now. What is the primary measure of whether someone has the ability to make judgments? It is whether they have the thinking of normal humanity. If you don’t have the thinking of normal humanity, you will not be able to judge anything. If you have the thinking of normal humanity, your judgments may still be off, but at the very least, it shows that you have the ability to make judgments and possess the thinking ability of normal humanity. The judgments you make are not speculation, not assumption, not hypothetical, nor are they inference. Rather, they are the different conclusions and opinions arrived at through considering all aspects of a matter. This is what is called the ability to make judgments.

7. The Ability to Identify Things

Now that we’ve finished discussing the ability to make judgments, let’s next talk about the ability to identify things. What does the ability to identify things refer to? It mainly refers to identifying whether people, events, and things are positive or negative, correct or incorrect, and right or wrong; it refers to characterizing or classifying people, events, and things—categorizing the people, events, and things you face into various categories. The intention and the purpose of identifying are to sort people according to their kind and sort positive and negative things according to their kind. Classifying, of course, does not mean grouping birds into the bird category, animals into the animal category, or plants into the plant category. The ability to identify things does not refer to the ability to identify these but refers to the ability to identify the attributes of various people, events, and things. For example, can you categorize the manifestations, revelations, and essence of various people? Can you define the attributes of the various people, events, and things you encounter? For instance, in identifying disbelievers, can you identify the revelations of disbelievers which allow you to be able to recognize clearly that they are disbelievers? If you know what characteristics and traits disbelievers have, what revelations of humanity they display, what words they say, what actions they take, and what thoughts and viewpoints they possess, then you should be able to identify disbelievers. A person with good caliber, when various people, events, and things appear, can identify whether they are positive things or negative things, positive people or negative people, whether they are just or evil, and whether they are correct or incorrect. They can define the attributes of various people, events, and things and identify whether they align with humanity and with the truth. This is someone with good caliber. Then what about people with average caliber? They can identify the various people, events, and things with obvious attributes. For example, some people say, “How could there be a god? Where is he? Why can’t I confirm he exists?” For words like these that obviously deny God, they have some discernment and can identify that such people are disbelievers and negative characters. They can identify obvious evil, and obviously negative, unjust, wicked things, but for some things which are specious, and which are rarely heard of by anyone and fall into a middle ground or gray area, they cannot differentiate them, nor are they able to treat them differently. They do have the ability to discern evil people who commit obvious misdeeds. They know such a person is evil, and that if an evil person like them became a leader and gained status, he would be an antichrist. But if this person has poor character and yet has not committed evil deeds, they would not be able to identify whether he can be categorized as an evil person and what evil deeds he might commit, nor would they be able to define this person’s attributes. This is having average caliber. Some people’s behavior is quite obvious, such as engaging in licentiousness, worshiping idols, following worldly things, loving to gossip, frequently suppressing and bullying others, or committing murder and arson, and they would say these people are not good people and are people detested by God; they can make this differentiation. But as for some people whose external behavior appears quite good—often giving alms and helping others, showing patience toward people, getting along reasonably well with others—whose humanity appears quite good from the outside, yet whose words and actions most of the time do not accord with the truth, and whose actions often violate the truth principles, they would not be able to discern whether such people are those who pursue the truth, or which category, exactly, they belong to. For those people, events, and things that are obvious and easily labeled, they can discern whether they are correct or incorrect, right or wrong, whether they are just or wicked, and whether they are positive things or negative things. They can differentiate such external matters, but they cannot differentiate when it comes to those people, events, and things that really involve the principles and are related to the truth. They cannot discern which are obviously in accordance with the truth and which violate the truth. This is having average caliber. For example, some people wear clothes made of relatively good fabric, which look elegant and high-quality, and make them resemble those high-level figures or white-collar elites in the world. Seeing this, people with average caliber say, “These clothes are what nonbelievers like. As people who believe in God, we shouldn’t like them; these are not positive things.” Saying this is incorrect. These clothes do not look seductive or alluring, instead they look elegant, dignified, and decent, making the wearer appear noble. But these people regard such pieces of clothing—which make the wearer appear noble and elegant and are also currently fashionable—as negative things and say they are wicked. This is being unable to identify these things, right? (Yes.) So how is such people’s ability to identify things? At most, it is average. This is having average caliber. Such people aren’t even able to differentiate some things that nonbelievers can—nonbelievers with good caliber can discern good and bad humanity, but these people cannot. Despite understanding some doctrines after believing in God, such people cannot differentiate between positive and negative things. They can discern things that are obvious, but they cannot discern things that are not. They are able to discern obviously evil people, obvious incidents of disruptions and disturbances being caused, and obvious incidents of the principles being violated, but when it comes to certain people, events, and things that are relatively special, sinister and bizarre, and hidden in the shadows, they cannot identify them. It is only through others’ fellowship and prompts, or through the people themselves doing something obvious, that they can identify them. Otherwise, they cannot. This indicates that their ability to identify things is average. There are also some people who, no matter what the circumstances, cannot identify any people, events, or things, nor define their attributes. For example, when it comes to evaluating what exactly the attributes of a certain category of people are—whether they are true believers or disbelievers, whether they are people who pursue the truth, or whether they are suitable to be cultivated—they do not know and cannot see these things. Even when such people exhibit many manifestations and have very obvious problems, they still cannot identify these people or define their attributes. This is lacking the ability to identify things. Even if some common and easily discernible people, events, and things emerge, they cannot clearly say whether these people are good people or evil people, or whether these are just or wicked matters. They do not know how to differentiate or categorize them, nor do they know how to classify them. Even after reading God’s words and fellowshipping with others, they still cannot identify them. In the end, they get others to decide for them, saying, “Whatever you characterize them as, that’s what they are. If you characterize them as just, then they are just; if you characterize them as wicked, then they are wicked.” In short, they themselves cannot make definitions or draw conclusions. No matter the situation, whenever it comes to drawing a conclusion, they are at a loss and have nothing to say. Isn’t this lacking the ability to identify things? (Yes.) Even with the simplest external phenomenon, if you ask them to identify what its nature is and what its attributes are, they do not know. However, they do have one trick: They can ramble on, recounting what a person has said and done. But if you ask them, “Is this person actually a true believer or not? Is he someone who has a tremendous aspiration for God?” they respond, “Well, he’s believed in God for more than ten years and he has forsaken his family and career. When his child was three or four years old, he entrusted her to the brothers and sisters and left home to do his duty.” They do have their calculations; they avoid drawing conclusions themselves, instead letting you decide. If you ask them, “Then is this person someone who accepts the truth?” they reply, “Well, ever since he became a church leader, he’s been getting up very early and going to bed very late. As for whether he is someone who accepts the truth, when the brothers and sisters pointed out some of his issues to him once, he cried on the spot, saying he was indebted to God and hadn’t done well.” “And did he repent afterward?” “Well, at that time, his attitude was pretty good.” They like to pile information on you, showing you that there’s something to them, that they know everything and know how to view people, and stopping you from underestimating them. In actuality, they cannot discern people, nor can they draw conclusions. They simply tell you a bunch of phenomena and information, leaving it to you to identify what kind of person this is, and to draw conclusions about this person and define their attributes. You say, “This person can basically be considered someone who accepts the truth. He has drive in his belief in God and he is a true believer. It’s just that, because he has poor caliber and lacks comprehension ability, he is never able to find the principles of practice, and cannot practice the truth, despite the fact that he is willing to accept the truth.” They respond, “He doesn’t seem like someone with comprehension ability to me. Whenever he talks about something unpleasant, he cries—it’s always the same attitude.” See? They themselves have no ability to identify things, yet they are quite good at piggybacking on others’ remarks. Isn’t that troublesome? The most common manifestation of people who lack the ability to identify things is that they like to tell you about a whole bunch of phenomena, information, difficult problems, courses of events, or everything they’ve observed about some situation, then they wait for you to define it, and after you define it, they think your definition is good and can accept it. After accepting it, they still don’t know why you defined it this way. They don’t know the basis or principles behind your conclusion, nor how to treat or handle the type of person in question. They know nothing about any of these things. Even after fellowship and studying, they still don’t understand. This shows that they have no ability to identify things; this is a manifestation of having no caliber. They also frequently make the error of distorting facts and confusing one thing for another. No matter what issue they comment on, they fail to grasp the root or essence of the matter and instead draw conclusions based only on external phenomena. For example, they describe the evildoing of an antichrist as a transgression, believing that as long as the antichrist recognizes it, they can turn themselves around. If they see an honest person telling a lie, they characterize them as a deceitful person. If they see someone being arrogant and self-righteous, they characterize them as an evil person. These are the kinds of errors commonly made by people who lack the ability to identify things. For every person, the ability to identify things is one kind of caliber that they should possess when faced with various people, events, and things in life. The ability to identify things involves not only identifying the essence of various people, events, and things, but also determining their attributes. The more accurately you can determine these attributes, the higher ability to identify things you’re proved to possess. If your determinations are not very accurate and there is a gap between your determinations and the essence and root of the matter, it proves your ability to identify things is average. If you cannot determine the attributes of people, events, and things, nor see through to these attributes, it proves that you have no ability to identify things. For example, let’s say that, when it comes to a person, you can only describe their many manifestations and revelations but cannot see through to their essence. That is, you can only talk about how this person tends to be negative or what strengths they have, you can only speak about many things that have happened to this person, yet you do not know their character, caliber, or attitude toward the truth, you cannot see through to these essential issues, and you have no definition for the people, events, and things that appear or occur around them. Regardless of whether such things are correct or incorrect, just or wicked, positive things or negative things, manifestations of good humanity or evil humanity, you cannot see through to or discern any of these things. No matter how many truths you have heard or how many experiential testimonies you have listened to, you still cannot identify or differentiate various people, events, and things; in your heart, you have no definition for any category of people, events, or things. This is lacking the ability to identify things, and it is also a manifestation of having no caliber.

If people who lack the ability to identify things do not have self-awareness and are also arrogant and self-righteous, what is the mistake that they are most likely to make? It is to seize upon a few manifestations displayed by other people and then arbitrarily label them and define them. For example, they see that some people are a bit willful and then say that they are like evil people, that they are devils—isn’t this a huge mistake? Those people are just a bit willful, and because of family conditions or the environment in which they grew up, they formed some poor life habits or developed some bad habits and flaws. Overall, the character of these people is not kind, but it is not evil either, so they cannot be called evil people. Yet those who lack the ability to identify things seize upon a couple of things that one of these people says or one or two things they do, and then blindly define them, saying, “This person has an odd, unsociable, and willful personality. They are an evil person.” This definition is wrong. Truly evil people will speak pleasant words and cajole people; they have tactics, they will conceal and deceive, and they will toy with people. Some evil people can even give alms, help others, and show patience. Those who lack the ability to identify things will say of a person like this, “This person is so good, they are a true believer,” but in reality, that person is a hypocritical Pharisee. Those who lack the ability to identify things cannot see through to the essence of people—during elections, they even vote for evil people to become leaders. What is this equivalent to? It’s equivalent to aiding and abetting evil. Some evil people do not display their evil in their behavior, and they do not reveal it. Their evil is in their hearts. The things they do are all purposeful, and their intentions all have a covert quality to them. The things they do that you can see do not actually reflect their real intentions. Their true intentions, purposes, and their wickedness are all hidden in their hearts. If a person lacks the ability to identify things and cannot discern such people, they’re likely to regard them as good people, as people who pursue the truth. Some people have straightforward personalities and do not employ any tactics when they associate with others. They speak in a direct manner, and are somewhat irritable in terms of personality and temperament. There actually aren’t major problems with their humanity, it’s just that sometimes their tone of speech is blunt. However, what they reveal is exactly what they think internally—whatever they think internally is what they reveal outwardly. Others often think that these people do not know how to interact with everyone or how to socialize, and they are unaccustomed to the manner of speaking used by these people. Such people speak particularly bluntly and directly, and they are always unintentionally hurting others. Over time, they end up hurting everyone, and people do not harbor good feelings toward them. Some who lack discernment say that a person like this is evil, but in fact, they are not evil. You say that they are evil—then bring out the facts of how they have tormented others: Whom have they tormented or suppressed? Whom have they harmed or deceived? If there truly is a factual basis proving that this person is an evil person—that they do not merely harm others with their words, that there is also evil in the depths of their heart, and that they truly are harmful to others—then they can be characterized as an evil person. If they have no intention of harming others, then they are not an evil person. They simply have a straightforward personality and speak in a blunt manner—this is innate. Speaking bluntly, at most, is a flaw and defect of their humanity. They do not know how to be tactful and to put themselves on equal footing with others when they speak, they do not know how to show tolerance toward other people, to be accommodating and forbearing toward others, to be mindful of others’ feelings. They do not know any of this. There are things missing from their humanity. Yet some people who lack discernment regard such individuals as evil people. In fact, when these individuals do things, they safeguard the interests of God’s house most of the time. Although their tone is a bit blunt when they speak to others, they have not harmed anyone, nor do they have the intention to harm people. It is just that they lack tact in their speech and do not consider the situation when speaking. Because of certain defects and flaws in such individuals’ humanity, many other people mistakenly think that they are evil people, yet cannot produce any evidence of them doing evil. This is a misjudgment, a mischaracterization of such individuals. Truly evil individuals may not outwardly harm others, they may give alms and help others, and their words may show understanding, solicitude, care, and accommodation, and these individuals may even show tolerance and love toward others—their words and actions may seem quite good—but in certain special circumstances or special matters, and in matters that involve their own interests, they can suppress, harm, and secretly scheme against others, and they even will not safeguard the interests of God’s house at all. Even if something does not involve their own interests, even if they would only have to lift a finger, they still won’t safeguard the interests of God’s house. That which such individuals externally live out seems exceptionally good, and from the outside, no flaws or defects can be seen in their humanity, but they truly are out-and-out evil people. Many people fail to discern such individuals and are blinded by their tactics, their philosophies for worldly dealings, and their plots and schemes. If the nature essence of an individual of this sort and the facts of their evildoing are exposed, not only do these people not accept it, but they also consider that individual to be good, to be someone that God’s house should cultivate and give an important role to. They lack discernment of such individuals. Let’s not talk about whether these people can evaluate a person according to God’s word or the truth principles, and just look at their caliber—they regard even these obviously evil individuals as good people, and even when there are facts of these individuals’ evildoing, they still consider them to be good people—this means that they are utterly muddleheaded. People who lack the ability to identify things are not only mentally deficient and idiotic, but also muddleheaded. These evil individuals have suppressed and tormented others, and used various tactics to toy with people, yet these people do not consider this to be evil and cannot see that it is evil. In addition, there is one obvious manifestation of evil people, which is that they never safeguard the interests of God’s house—not even once. Even if they would only have to say a single word or lift a finger, they still will not safeguard them, let alone when it comes to matters involving their personal safety, or their status and reputation—in such cases, they even more so will not safeguard the interests of God’s house. Some people cannot see through these obviously evil individuals. Tell Me, do such people have caliber? Evil people have an evil essence; they will suppress anyone. No matter who it is, as long as a person affects their status or interests, then that person becomes the target of their suppression. Those who lack discernment cannot see through these matters. Aren’t people who lack discernment muddleheaded? (Yes.) They don’t even know whether evil people will suppress them—tell Me, to what extent are such people muddleheaded? Aren’t they utterly muddleheaded? (Yes.) After some evil individuals are dismissed, certain people with absolutely no ability to identify things even come forward to speak up for them, to defend them and to cry out about the injustice they have suffered, just because those evil individuals have believed in God for many years, possess some gifts, are eloquent, have tactics, and outwardly forsake things, expend themselves, and endure hardship. These people do not talk about how much evil these evil individuals have done. Instead, they say, “They have believed in God for many years, followed God with single-minded devotion, and endured much hardship. They even got arrested by the great red dragon and endured torture and served time in prison, and they also helped Brother or Sister So-and-so.” They look only at these things and ignore those individuals’ evil deeds, not mentioning how much evil they have done. Aren’t they so muddleheaded? (Yes.) Those who are utterly muddleheaded are beyond redemption, they are incurable. People who do not possess the ability to identify things are people with no caliber—they have no abilities whatsoever. Such people do not know and cannot identify whether something is correct or incorrect, or whether a person is a positive figure or a negative figure. They cannot see a person’s essence and nature clearly, or sum up that person’s attributes, through their behavior, manifestations, revelations of corruption, and the many facts of their evildoing. As long as that person is still in the church, these people will treat them as a brother or sister, and treat them with love from the heart. They have no discernment of anyone and they cannot treat anyone according to the principles. Such people have no ability to identify things. They do not know and cannot identify whether various matters are just or wicked, whether they have a positive or negative effect on people, and whether they should be regarded as correct and accepted, or regarded as incorrect and discerned, rejected, and resisted. When you give them an example to explain some matter, they know that such matters are not good, that they do not conform to the truth principles, and that they are not applicable in God’s house. But the next time a similar matter arises, they still do not know how to approach it and cannot apply the principles—they only understand if you give them another example. You have to explain matters to them one by one, using the method of teaching a child to learn, for them to understand. This is lacking the ability to identify things. No matter if it is a person or a thing, they do not know whether it is just or wicked, correct or incorrect, a positive thing or a negative thing, whether it conforms to the truth and to the needs of humanity or not, nor how believers in God should view it—they do not know any of this. This is lacking the ability to identify things. Then, what is the basis for evaluating the level of a person’s ability to identify things? It is based on whether your definitions of the attributes of various things are accurate. If your definitions are accurate, then you have the ability to identify things. If the accuracy of your definitions of the attributes of various things is above fifty percent, then your ability to identify things is average or above average. If it does not reach fifty percent, then your ability to identify things is poor. If the accuracy is not even one percent, then you have no ability to identify things and are a person with no caliber. Whether someone has the ability to identify things is discerned in this way. I will not give any more examples about this ability. You can fellowship about it yourselves, I’ll leave this topic to you.

8. The Ability to Respond to Things

Next, we will discuss the eighth ability, the ability to respond to things. The ability to respond to things is how a person addresses a matter—regardless of whether this matter has already occurred, or this matter happens suddenly, or the various factors of this matter have changed, how a person addresses this matter is their ability to respond to things. Then what does the ability to respond to things mainly refer to? It refers to your ability to identify, judge, approach and handle a matter. When you encounter some person, event, or thing, what is its nature? Is it a positive thing or a negative thing? How should this kind of thing be faced and handled? When it suddenly occurs, what lessons should be learned? What are God’s good intentions? If this kind of thing can damage the church’s work, then how should it be handled in a way that conforms to the principles, and remedies the consequences of the damage caused, making it so that it no longer brings harm to the church’s work, as well as stopping the negative effect from continuing to develop? If, when faced with some person, event, or thing, you can—based on the principles of discernment you have grasped and the truth principles you know—accurately judge the essence and root cause of such matters, and the principles and plan for handling them, then you are a person with the ability to respond to things, which also means you are a person with good caliber. For example, when a matter suddenly happens in front of you, how should you face it? First, you should see clearly which direction it might develop in, what consequences it would bring if it continues to develop, where the root cause of it occurring lies, what its essence is—you must be able to discern and clearly see all these things. Characterize the matter through discernment, and then immediately find a plan for handling it. How the matter should be handled, who the ringleader is, who the followers are, who the primary responsible party is, who should bear the primary responsibility, how to handle the responsible parties—you must figure out all these issues. In addition, when handling problems, you must minimize the losses and also rearrange and adjust personnel. Only in this way can errors be promptly corrected, the problems thoroughly resolved, and the situation remedied, enabling things to develop in the correct, beneficial direction. In short, if you can consider all the various factors involved in this matter, and then have a correct way to address it, with correct and accurate principles for handling it, this is called having the ability to respond to things, and that means you are someone with good caliber. Of course, this method for addressing the matter and the principles for handling it might be conclusions and definitions that you arrive at through contact and fellowship with people who know about the situation or through cooperation and discussion with everyone. If you can, by looking into the course of the actual situation and then asking for the suggestions of brothers and sisters who understand this kind of matter, finally come to a definition, draw a conclusion, determine a solution, and properly handle the issue, completing the personnel adjustments, making up for the losses caused by this matter, and then adjusting the church’s work so that it no longer develops in a harmful direction, then this is called having the ability to respond to things. If you can handle matters to this level, you can be considered to have good caliber. Of course, having good caliber does not mean that a person can, when they encounter a matter, immediately see through it, make prompt decisions, and handle it in a comprehensive and appropriate manner—this is not necessarily the case. A process is required for people to handle problems; it is necessary for them to understand the various aspects of the matter in order for them to see through to the essence of things. People are of flesh and blood, they do things within the scope of humanity, and a process is required. This is unlike the Spirit of God working—the Spirit of God scrutinizes all the earth, in an all-encompassing manner; God can always see the essence and root cause of all things and all problems. When people are unable to see through to the hidden things behind matters, they are easily deceived and blinded. Precisely because of this, people need to look into the true state of affairs behind matters in depth. After understanding the actual situations hidden behind a matter, if you can promptly handle the problems, resolve deviations, appropriately adjust those who are directly in charge and the work personnel, and guarantee the normal operation of the work, then this proves that you have the ability to respond to things. Especially when encountering sudden incidents, if you can handle various people, events, and things according to the principles, this proves that you are a person with good caliber. People with an average ability to respond to things, when they encounter regular and common situations, can do some things following procedures, and in a routine manner, but the results they attain are average—they do not reach any breakthroughs or make significant progress. As soon as they encounter special situations or sudden incidents, they are at a loss and unable to handle them. For example, when some people preach the gospel, they can gain a few people every month under normal circumstances. This reflects average caliber, and the results of their gospel preaching are also average, not particularly good. If an incident of antichrists misleading people suddenly arises in the church, these gospel workers become confused and do not know what to do. The gospel work stops, and they do not know whether they should continue preaching or wait for work arrangements. They do not know to seek the principles of the work of preaching the gospel. In the work arrangements of God’s house, it is often said, “The gospel work must not stop at any time or under any circumstances.” Yet, just from encountering an incident of antichrists misleading people, they stop the gospel work. Are they doing their duty with loyalty? They fall short of this. Are they submitting to God’s orchestrations and arrangements? They fall short of this too. When they encounter antichrists or false leaders recklessly committing misdeeds and causing disruptions and disturbances, they become confused. They do not know to ask those who understand the truth how they should handle this matter that they’ve encountered, and even less do they know to look in God’s words for principles of practice and a path of practice. They lack this ability to respond to things. Some church leaders, when they see an antichrist spreading fallacies to mislead people, do not know how to fellowship the truth to refute the fallacies. They do not know what to do but keep praying, “Oh God, please bind Satan, please shut Satan’s mouth, and stop him from spreading fallacies to mislead people. Please save those ignorant and foolish people, and stop them from being misled by the antichrist. Oh God, please bring them back!” Only praying and not seeking the truth—can this solve the problem? If people do not cooperate and do not do their duty, it is useless. There are many things people should do. First, they should look at what kind of background this antichrist has, what characteristics they exhibit, and what they rely on to mislead people; they should also see if there are any people with good caliber who can accept the truth among those who have been misled, and hasten to recover them. This is the work that should be done first. But these church leaders do not know this, and do not know to work in this way. They just become confused, stomping their feet in anxiety. Some useless individuals even cry out of anxiety. What use is crying? Can crying recover those who have been misled? Crying is not doing work, nor does it represent that you bear a burden. It is a manifestation of incompetence. People with caliber, when encountering such matters, first calm down. After praying, seeking, analyzing, and judging, and then fellowshipping, they finally make a decision. People with poor caliber, when they encounter matters, are at a loss: They do not know to pray and seek, nor do they know to find a few people who understand the truth to fellowship with; they just passively wait. This delays matters the most. You have no solution, but perhaps others do—why not find others to seek help from? Smart people, even while waiting, do not forget to fulfill their own duty and responsibility. This fulfilling of duty and responsibility is proactive, not passive. It is not waiting for God to issue commands or for God to personally act to change the situation. Instead, it is making every effort to recover those who can be recovered during the waiting period. As for those who cannot be recovered—such as the muddleheaded fools, those who are possessed by evil spirits, and the disbelievers who believe in God just to go along for the ride and get a meal ticket—they shouldn’t be bothered with. For those who have not been blinded, arrangements must be quickly made for someone to fellowship the truth and talk about discerning the antichrist with them. Isn’t this a plan for handling the situation? This is a response measure. People with poor caliber do not have such response measures; they only know to cry and complain. This is lacking the ability to respond to things. If, in ordinary situations, a person is able to do work normally, but once they encounter special situations, they are dumbfounded and at a loss, then the ability to respond to things of this kind of person is at most average. If someone cannot even handle ordinary situations, this kind of person has no ability to respond to things. For example, if they are sent to a church to organize the election of a church leader, they do not know what kind of person to choose or how to assemble people together and organize the election. They do not even understand the basic procedures for elections. On top of this, there are some people in the church who have severe corrupt dispositions—those who belong to the category of bullies, ruffians, and scoundrels—and these people take the opportunity to disrupt the election. In this kind of situation, those with no ability to respond to things are even more incapable of handling it, they simply get taken captive and surrender. In the end, they can only tell the brothers and sisters, “You choose yourselves. We’ll go with whoever you elect.” What sort of creatures are they? Aren’t they good-for-nothings? This is having no ability to respond to things. People with no ability to respond to things also lack work capability. Whether in normal situations or special situations, when something happens, they collapse and shrink back; when something happens, they are at a loss and start crying. When nothing happens, they can speak a few words and doctrines, but when something happens and they are asked to handle a problem, they cannot do it. For example, when some individuals are perfunctory in doing their duty, those with no ability to respond to things only know to discuss it with them, saying: “Please don’t be perfunctory—please do your duty well!” Can this solve those individuals’ problem? They should fellowship with those individuals about the problem of being perfunctory. If those individuals do not understand the truth and cannot recognize their problem, they should fellowship the truth with them. If those individuals act in this way despite knowing that it is wrong, they should dissect and prune them. If it is due to some other issue, they should fellowship based on that issue. They should determine an appropriate course of action based on the kind of problem that has arisen, and then act accordingly. If you cannot do this, then you lack the ability to respond to things. Do you understand? (Yes.) If, when you encounter any matter, you have no solution, no way to address it, and no principles for handling it, then you lack the ability to respond to things. Don’t such people have the poorest ability to respond to things? (Yes.)

Those with the best ability to respond to things are people who, when they encounter some special matters or sudden situations, can promptly judge and identify them, and then produce relatively appropriate plans for handling them. Those with an average ability to respond to things can handle ordinary, routine matters when they encounter them. They can work following procedures to maintain and manage the situation, or adjust and replace personnel—they are alright at doing this kind of work. But when they encounter sudden situations, they cannot handle them. Even if the principles are told to them, they cannot apply them; even if they are given authority and asked to handle the matter, they are still unable to do so. This is having an average ability to respond to things. Those with a poor ability to respond to things do not handle even routine matters well. They only know how to speak doctrines and stick to regulations, and in the end, the root cause of the problem is not resolved at all. An antichrist causing disturbances and misleading people is enough to make them give up preaching the gospel; a false leader speaking nonsense is also enough to make them stop the gospel work. Are these people who follow God’s will? They fall short of this. Such people’s ability to respond to things is too poor. No matter what situation arises, people with a poor ability to respond to things cannot handle it. For example, if a fire breaks out in a room, they panic and quickly look for a fire extinguisher. After finding the fire extinguisher, they do not know how to use it and have to look for the instructions. As a result, the fire grows larger. This happens because they do not know how to use the fire extinguisher and thus delay things, and it is also due to their lack of ability to respond to things. They are even unable to address such an urgent situation as a fire; this is lacking the ability to respond to things. To give another example, if a child chokes while eating, and they cannot breathe and their eyes roll back into their head, these people panic. They do not know whether or not to take the child to the hospital, and they do not know whether or not to give the child water to drink. They are so anxious that they break into a sweat and go red in the face, but they just do not know what to do. After a while, the child coughs a few times and can finally breathe again. They panicked for such a long time but had no solution to address the problem. Fortunately, the child was lucky; otherwise, that child would have died under their care. People with poor caliber have no abilities at all and cannot do anything well. The few doctrines they understand are nothing more than regulations and slogans. When it comes to both typical situations and special situations, they are uniformly incapable of handling or addressing them. Therefore, in terms of their ability to respond to things, such people even more so are utterly devoid of it—they have none. Whatever situation they encounter, they cannot respond to or handle it—they cannot understand these matters. They think that being able to speak some words and doctrines and shout some slogans is enough, that it means they have capital and are fulfilled in their lives. In actuality, when something happens, the doctrines they know serve no purpose at all. Even so, they fail to realize that this reflects poor caliber—their caliber is so poor, but they are unaware of it themselves. Isn’t this extremely poor caliber? (Yes.) Aren’t such people stupid? (Yes.) Stupid people are a few cards short of a full deck. What does “a few cards short of a full deck” refer to? It means that no matter how many doctrines they understand or how many regulations they can follow, when something happens, none of these regulations or doctrines can resolve the actual problem. Yet they still can’t fathom this, and think, “Why are these doctrines and regulations ineffective?” Even if they rack their brains, it is of no use—no matter how they ponder, they still cannot figure out how to handle or resolve the problem. Some people, when handling antichrist incidents, do not first rescue those misled by the antichrists, nor do they support those who have become negative and unwilling to gather due to the antichrists’ misleading. What do they do first? They hold large gatherings to talk about what manifestations antichrists have, what kinds of people are antichrists, the differences between antichrists and those with the disposition of antichrists, how exactly to discern antichrists, how exactly to discern those with a disposition of antichrists—by the time they finish fellowshipping all this, some of the people misled by the antichrists have long since left the church, and some who are negative and weak no longer attend gatherings. They have missed the best time to rescue these people, truly causing them great harm! In summary, those with poor caliber also have a major defect when it comes to their ability to respond to things—they are utterly devoid of it. Don’t look at how eloquent someone is or how well they can speak words and doctrines and talk about theology under usual circumstances—just see whether they have the ability to handle problems when faced with actual situations; especially when sudden incidents arise, see if they have the ability to make judgments and the ability to identify things, if they have plans to handle and resolve the problems. If they do, it proves that they are someone who has their own opinions and knows how to think about things. But if they lack the ability to identify things and the ability to make judgments, and when something happens, they panic and become anxious, and are only able to speak grand doctrines and shout slogans, then this person cannot resolve problems and is useless. No matter how many difficulties, problems, or flaws someone else has, this person uses the same set of theories to explain and address them, and keeps fellowshipping with them in this way, but is never able to resolve problems—this is completely lacking the ability to respond to things. Lacking the ability to handle problems is precisely an inability to respond to things. Those who have no ability to respond to things are devoid of caliber. In common terms, they are fools, idiots, and mentally deficient. No matter how many doctrines they can speak, it is useless—they simply cannot be put to use. This concludes our fellowship on the eighth ability, the ability to respond to things.

9. Decision-Making Ability

Now let’s look at the ninth ability, decision-making ability. Decision-making ability greatly tests a person’s caliber; the average person does not possess it. People who truly possess the caliber and ability of decision-making are the ones who are at the decision-making level. So, what does decision-making ability mainly refer to? It refers to how, when various people, events, and things arise and most people can’t see through them, some people can discern and handle various kinds of problems and handle various kinds of people, based on God’s words and the truth. This ability to handle problems is called decision-making ability. Those who have this ability to handle things have decision-making ability; those who do not have this ability to handle things do not have decision-making ability. What does decision-making ability involve? It involves people’s comprehension ability, ability to make judgments, ability to identify things, and ability to respond to things. These are collectively called decision-making ability. Those who have decision-making ability can both judge the essence of problems and identify the attributes of problems. Of course, more importantly, they can grasp the principles and direction for handling various problems. Only those who can do these things are people who have decision-making ability. For example, let’s say that everyone is talking one after another about a whole bunch of phenomena, facts, as well as existing factors, circumstances, conditions, and so on. On the basis of the aforementioned various factors and conditions, those who have decision-making ability ultimately decide how exactly to act, what the means and direction of action should be, what the best achievable level is, and what the minimum acceptable level is—they have a baseline. Then, based on the truth principles they understand, they handle the problems. Those who have this ability are people with decision-making ability, and such people are those with the best caliber. Regardless of which kind of professional skill they are faced with, or which kind of problem they are handling, and regardless of whether the problem discovered is single-faceted or multifaceted, simple or complex, they can use the various pieces of information that emerge from all aspects to judge the essence of the problem, then analyze the root cause of the problem, and finally decide how to act based on the problem and the existing conditions. This decision is primarily made based on what can be achieved under the existing conditions, and the path of action they decide on is the best solution. Those who can handle problems in this way are people with decision-making ability. People with this kind of decision-making ability are those with very good caliber. Only such people are suitable to be leaders and suitable to do a duty in a decision-making group. People with poor caliber or average caliber, when faced with any kind of problem, can only confine themselves to the matter itself and say some surface-level words, and they are completely unable to resolve the problem. Even if they consult others and look into the issue, they ultimately still cannot arrive at a definition and do not know how to act. This is lacking decision-making ability. Regardless of how complex the current situation is or how difficult the problem that currently needs to be handled may be and how great obstruction may be encountered in doing so, people with decision-making ability can handle it properly according to principles, and their handling of it is relatively appropriate and reliable. Such people are those who have decision-making ability. When those with average decision-making ability encounter ordinary situations and some common occurrences in the church, they can handle them. But if they encounter certain special people, events, and things, they become confused, not knowing how to face or handle them. After much consideration, they still cannot make a clear judgment or reach a decision. People with decision-making ability know to seek the truth principles targeting the crux of the problem. People without decision-making ability do not know where the crux of the problem lies, how to seek, or what to seek. This is the difference between them. If, through seeking, one comes to know what to do, this indicates they have average caliber. For people with poor caliber, even if they come to understand some truth principles through seeking and feel at the time that they know how to handle the matter, they still cannot do so when it comes time to handle it. They become perplexed: “Why can’t I apply the truth principles that I just understood? What am I missing?” Once again, they feel confused, and in the end, they still cannot resolve the problem. This is lacking decision-making ability; this is having poor caliber. People with the poorest caliber just do whatever you tell them to. If you don’t tell them what to do, they do not know how to act. When people at the decision-making level authorize and commission or instruct them to carry out a task, they will only be able to do it however they have been told to do. However, as for why exactly the task is to be done that way, what results the task is meant to achieve, or what to do and how to handle it if unexpected situations arise that differ from the original scenario, they do not know any of these things, and they have to ask, and wait for others to help solve the issue. This is lacking decision-making ability. Such people are like robots—they can only be manipulated and controlled by others, and they have no autonomy. Decision-making ability is out of the question for this kind of person who has no caliber—they are so far removed from the ability of decision-making, they simply fall short of this ability. Decision-making ability only needs to be divided into three levels: high, medium, and low. High, medium, and low correspond to good, average, and poor. It’s not even worth talking about decision-making ability when it comes to people who have no caliber; no matter what they are doing, they cannot make decisions. For example, they don’t know what exactly is appropriate to wear when fall comes and the weather becomes cool, and what is appropriate to wear when winter comes and the weather turns cold—they don’t even possess this most basic common knowledge, so wouldn’t it be a joke to ask them to make decisions on major matters relating to the church’s work? Decision-making ability is out of the question for people who have no caliber. Decision-making ability mainly applies to those at the level of leaders, workers, and supervisors. There are very few people with high decision-making ability. What else does decision-making ability involve? It involves the consequences of the matter that you made a decision on—whether those consequences will be beneficial to people or have a negative effect, and whether they will have a good effect on people understanding the truth or acting according to principles—you must figure this out. It is not the case that simply being able to make decisions, be decisive, and quickly call the shots is the same as having decision-making ability. It also depends on whether the solution and the goal and direction you decided on are correct. If the results achieved are positive, then you truly have decision-making ability. If the results achieved are negative—leading people astray, causing them great harm, or ruining them—then that is not any kind of decision-making ability. And so, people’s belief that all leading figures and prominent figures have decision-making ability, and that all leading figures possess relatively high caliber and relatively high decision-making ability, is not an accurate viewpoint; it is an entirely wrong opinion. Whether the decisions you make are correct also depends on what the principles, goals, and directions behind them are. If the goals and directions are beneficial to mankind, and if they positively help and benefit people’s self-conduct, practice of the truth, attainment of salvation, dispositional change, and fear of God and shunning of evil, then your decision-making ability is truly high. But if you make blind decisions that end up seriously hurting people, causing them great harm, leading them astray, causing them to drift away from God and lose their direction, then this is harming people and you cannot be said to have decision-making ability. That concludes our discussion on decision-making ability.

10. The Ability to Evaluate and Appreciate Things

The next ability is the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. Do you know what this means? This is an uncommon topic. The ability to evaluate and appreciate things means whether, when approaching some person, event, or thing, you can evaluate and appreciate its strengths, merits, and valuable aspects from the information you can observe and grasp, and then apply these to your own life and to your self-conduct and actions. If you cannot evaluate and appreciate something, you will not be able to tell what its merits and shortcomings are, you will not understand the key to it, and you will not be able to gain any benefit from it. This means you do not have the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. However, if you can evaluate and appreciate things, and learn something useful from certain matters and apply it to your real life, and if what you’ve learned can provide a certain amount of assistance to your human life and to your selecting a life path, then this proves that you have a certain ability to evaluate and appreciate things. The higher your ability in this regard, the more it proves that you have good caliber. Let’s take a simple example: viewing a painting. Even if you have not studied art, if you can observe the composition of a painting and perceive the meaning it contains from the perspective of humanity—and your perspective is furthermore very accurate and related to being human—and you can see some concrete things that relate to being human within it and then apply these things to your own life or work, this manifestation proves that you have the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. The scope of the ability to evaluate and appreciate things refers to some relatively concrete things, not abstract things. Abstract things include colors, works of art, and so on. Because these things do not relate to being human, are not concrete enough, and they are far removed from normal human thinking and certain things present in human life, and not closely related to life, we do not categorize them within the scope of the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. For certain things that are relatively close to life, which contain some hidden meanings or which relate to being human, if you are able to assess, discern, and apply them; if you can see their merits as well as their drawbacks, and you have your own thoughts and viewpoints on them, and you can understand the aspects that are beneficial to people’s humanity; and if you can discern any distorted and inflexible elements that go against the truth when they are present; then this is called having the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. If you cannot assess these things and, when you look at a concrete thing, you can only discern its strengths and drawbacks in terms of doctrine but cannot see exactly which aspects of humanity it relates to in daily life, then your ability to evaluate and appreciate things is average. If you look at a work of art and, after examining it repeatedly, you still do not know what it is trying to express, or why the creator made it this way, and regardless of whether the work of art relates to humanity or not, you cannot see what essential things it contains, and you cannot see the key to it, then this means you lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. Lacking the ability to evaluate and appreciate things means that you have no viewpoints on anything and are easily misled by social trends or certain negative things advocated by people—that is, you may regard something that is inherently negative as if it were positive and accept it. The consequence of this is that you will be poisoned by it, and if this thing remains in you for a long time and becomes deeply rooted in you, it will hinder and interfere with your acceptance of the truth. Let’s provide another example concerning the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. For example, say that the raw footage of a film amounts to three hours, and after editing, the movie’s runtime is two hours and forty minutes. Is this the conventional length for a movie? (No.) What does this indicate? (It indicates that the filmmakers lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things.) What does lacking the ability to evaluate and appreciate things specifically mean for a film? (It means they cannot select the better footage, and cannot make accurate judgments about which footage should be kept and which should be discarded.) They do not know what theme the film aims to convey or which scenes are closely related to the theme. As a result, they cannot decide what to keep and what to discard. That is, they do not know which scenes or plot points are dispensable, and are only tangentially related to the theme and can be removed, and which scenes or plot points are most tied with the theme and need to be retained. Because they lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, during editing they “show mercy,” feeling that this cannot be cut and that cannot be cut. In the end, after considerable effort, they only remove scenes with obvious issues or poorly shot footage. As for content that is not closely related to the theme, they leave it all in. This is lacking the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. They have an unclear understanding of the definition of a film; as for the specific forms and expressive techniques of film and the relationship between each scene, as well as which scenes are truly the scenes of a film, they don’t understand any of this. This is lacking the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. And so, during filming, they are full of confidence; during editing, distress is painted across their faces; and when it comes to review, they are worried to death. After the review, they feel very sure about how to proceed because, through the guidance of the Above, they have learned which scenes to discard, and then boldly cut them. How much do they cut the film down in the end? They cut it down to a runtime of one hour and forty minutes. The cameramen feel quite upset: “Isn’t this a waste of the fruits of our labor? We spent six months arduously shooting so much footage, but you’ve been merciless, having this and that cut—is this even still a movie?” My response is that cutting so much is exactly right—this is what a movie should be like. What you had wasn’t a movie; at best, it was a TV drama. The truth is beyond people with a poor ability to evaluate and appreciate things—fellowshipping the truth with them won’t achieve any results. When it comes to any things or any ideas and viewpoints, they cannot evaluate which align with the needs and standards of normal humanity, which go against normal humanity, which are real and practical, which are hollow and imagined, which accord with God’s requirements, and which go against God’s intentions. When it comes to a film, which scenes play a supporting role to the theme, get straight to the point and directly convey the theme, and are essential to expressing the core of the theme, and which are extraneous or unnecessary—they cannot make these things out, and do not understand any of them. When it comes to editing, they always “show mercy” and are reluctant to cut footage. This is lacking the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. If, after shooting the material, through considering the ideas the film is intended to convey and the direction it’s intended to communicate, you know which scenes should not be included, which scenes lack sufficient impact, and which scenes are backup shots that were never intended for use but were prepared as a backup in case special circumstances arose—if in your heart you have given consideration to these matters, and have plans for handling them and solutions, this is called having the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. If you can’t do any of these things, and the perspectives and methods you use to consider and view problems lack a basis, and you cannot draw a correct conclusion in the end, this means you lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. Of course, most people in the church lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. The ability to evaluate and appreciate things is not only about how much you can see through a piece of creative work, an artistic creation, or something that serves as spiritual sustenance or a philosophical theory about people’s humanity—the key is that you also must have an accurate view on these things. In one respect, your view must align with the facts and with the needs of humanity. In another respect, what you understand or comprehend must align with positive things and the laws of all things; it must not be hollow or distorted, and ultimately, it comes down to conforming to the truth principles. If you not only can see what ideas and viewpoints are being conveyed, if you don’t just get stuck at that level, but can also see whether these ideas and viewpoints are actually correct, whether they actually align with the needs of humanity, whether they are actually pure, and whether they actually conform to the truth—if you can do all these things—then you are someone with a good ability to evaluate and appreciate things. People with a good ability to evaluate and appreciate things are those with good caliber. If you cannot achieve all these things or can only achieve them to an average degree, then your ability to evaluate and appreciate things is merely average. If you fundamentally cannot figure out these matters—for example, if you cannot understand any audio-visual works, literary and artistic works, artwork, and so on, whether they be abstract or concrete, and you find them to be entirely incomprehensible, like a foreign language, and you lack the capacity within your humanity to evaluate and appreciate such things, then you do not have the ability to evaluate and appreciate things; you are a person with no caliber. If, through observing the demeanor or the psychological state and the overall expression of the mental state of a character within a scene with certain colors, certain lighting, and a certain environment, you can tell the impact that this scene will have on a viewer’s mind, then you possess the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. However, people without the ability to evaluate and appreciate things cannot see this. They say, “What does it matter if the lighting is dim or not, or if the colors are beautiful or not? Isn’t the character still the same? How can you tell what their mental state is? Why can’t I see it?” This is lacking the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. No matter how you explain it to them, they may claim they understand, but actually, in their hearts they still don’t get it. This field will always remain foreign to them. People who lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, no matter what kind of work they do or what kind of literary or artistic works they view, are unable to express their own thoughts and viewpoints. Especially for work or creations that require expressing deep meaning, expressing a theme, or providing spiritual guidance, they cannot do it well and cannot be competent for such tasks. If you possess the ability to evaluate and appreciate things and, in addition to that, you also understand the truth, then for the work of God’s house related to film, literature, and art, which involve the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, you can do it well, be competent for it, and fulfill this kind of duty. If you lack the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, then you have poor caliber and cannot be competent for this type of work. Some people say, “I have listened to the truth for so many years and understand the truth principles. Does that mean I can be competent for this type of work?” That still won’t do. Even if you understand some truth, without the ability to evaluate and appreciate things as a complement, you can only perform work such as preaching the gospel or watering the church. However, for work involving the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, you will not be competent for it. Therefore, if some people have been mistakenly chosen for this type of work and now realize that they have no potential in this area and are inherently without the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, they should promptly resign, saying, “I cannot do this work. My humanity does not possess the ability to evaluate and appreciate things.” Of course, whether or not you possess the ability to evaluate and appreciate things, it is one standard for evaluating a person’s caliber. Although it is not a primary standard, for certain special work, the ability to evaluate and appreciate things is also necessary. This concludes our fellowship on the ability to evaluate and appreciate things. There’s one more ability, innovative ability, which we will fellowship on next time.

Does fellowshipping like this make things clearer for you? (Yes.) If I only spoke in general terms, saying, “The caliber of a person is evaluated by their efficiency and effectiveness in doing things,” you would only be able to recite this doctrine, but you would still not be clear on what specific aspects caliber refers to. Later, I thought it would be better to fellowship more specifically; when you gain clarity on this topic, you will be able to accurately evaluate and clearly understand your own caliber. This will help you to know your proper place and not overestimate your abilities. Viewing clearly and understanding your own abilities, determining whether your caliber is good, average, poor, or non-existent, and identifying which group you belong to—finding your proper place like this, enables you to act and conduct yourself in a well-behaved manner. For one thing, it enables you to have an accurate understanding of yourself. For another, in terms of resolving your corrupt dispositions, it also provides a certain amount of assistance for transforming your arrogant disposition. Isn’t that right? (Yes.) Let’s end the fellowship here for today. Goodbye!

November 4, 2023