Bible Reference

“There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and you are tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from there. Then he said, I pray you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house: For I have five brothers; that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” (Luk 16:19-28)

The answer from God’s word:

“Whoever receives blessings in this age will surely suffer in eternity. Whoever suffers in this age will surely receive blessings in eternity. This is my ordination and no one can change it. No one can change my heart.”

from “The Ninety-seventh Piece of Word” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

“How should man know and comprehend God’s righteous disposition? How to know this righteousness? The righteous are blessed by God and the wicked are cursed by God. This is God’s righteousness, right? Is this right? Let me ask you again: If a righteous man is not blessed by God and receives no blessings from God and God does not bless him, while a wicked man has great wealth and many children and everything goes well and smoothly with him, is this God’s righteousness? Yes! How so? There is such a word, God rewards the good and punishes the evil, repaying each according to his doings. This word is right, isn’t it? But now there are such things: A person who worships God is struck down or is cursed by God, or God never blesses him or pays attention to him, ignoring him no matter how he worships God; a wicked man, though God does not bless him nor punish him, has great wealth and many children and everything goes well and smoothly with him. Then some people say, ‘God is not righteous. We worship him, and yet we do not receive blessings from him. The wicked who do not worship him and who resist him, however, are better and higher than us in everything. God is not righteous!’ What do you see from this matter? Just now I gave you two examples. Which one shows that God is righteous? Some say, ‘Both are of God’s righteousness.’ Why say so? There are errors in man’s knowledge about God’s disposition. Man’s knowledge is all based on man’s mental viewpoint, on the viewpoint of bargaining and dealing, or on the viewpoint of good and evil, of right and wrong, or of logic. Knowing God with these viewpoints, you cannot be compatible with God, and you will still resist and complain against God. Suppose there is a beggar who is like a fool and only knows to worship God, but God does not pay attention to him or bless him. You may think: ‘Even if God does not bless him in the coming age, God will surely bless him in eternity, bestowing on him ten thousand times. Then, isn’t God still righteous? That rich man enjoys a hundredfold blessing but will be destroyed in eternity. Isn’t this still God’s righteousness?’ According to man’s notion, the good will be rewarded and the evil will be punished, the evil will surely not be rewarded with good, and those who do no evil should all be rewarded with good and be blessed, because God is righteous. It seems that what man should receive is the portion he deserves and only if he receives the portion he deserves will he say that God is righteous. What if he fails to receive the portion? Should you say that God is not righteous? In knowing God, you should not say God is like this or like that according to human viewpoints on things. There is no truth in human viewpoints on things. You should see what God’s substance is and what his disposition is. You should not judge what substance God has according to the outward appearance of the matters God does or deals with. Men themselves have been corrupted by satan, and they do not know at all what kind of thing they are, what corrupt mankind are before God, and how they should be dealt with. Consider Job. He was a righteous man and God blessed him. This is God’s righteousness. When Job was tried, satan made a wager with Jehovah: Job can worship you. Why? Because you have bestowed on him too much. If you take away all that he has, can he still worship you? Jehovah God said, as long as you do not take his life, you can do whatever to him. Then satan went to Job, and later Job encountered the trial: he was deprived of everything and also lost his children. Is there God’s righteous disposition in Job’s being tried? Yes! Where does it lie? You cannot explain it clearly, can you? Even if you are a righteous man, God has the right to try you and ask you to bear testimony for him. God’s disposition is righteous, and he treats everyone equally. It is not that the righteous are able to withstand trials and there is no need to try them, or that this is a righteous man and he should be protected. It is not so. He has the right to try you. This is the expression of his righteous disposition. In the end, after Job passed through the trial and bore the testimony for Jehovah, Jehovah blessed him more than before, twice as much as and far better than before. And Jehovah appeared to him, speaking to him in the wind. Job seemed to see Jehovah face to face. This was a blessing given to him, wasn’t it? This is God’s righteousness. What if the opposite was the case? Suppose that Job was tried, and Jehovah saw that Job had already borne the testimony for him before satan and put satan to shame, yet he turned away and ignored him, and Job did not receive the blessings later. Is there God’s righteousness in that? Regardless of whether Job received blessings or not after the trial or whether Jehovah appeared to him or not, there is God’s good purpose in it. Appearing to him is God’s righteousness, and not appearing to him is also God’s righteousness. As a created being, what qualification do you have to make demands on God? Man is not qualified to make demands on God. Making demands on God is a most unreasonable thing. God does whatever he should do. He has the right not to do things like this, and has the right to deal with these things himself. His own disposition is righteous. Righteousness is not being just and reasonable, dividing a whole into two equal parts, compensating you for what you have labored on, or paying you for what you have worked on. This is not righteousness. In your mind, righteousness means working coordinately and making distribution according to each one’s work, and getting what one deserves according to his efforts.God’s substance is righteousness. God’s doings are not easy for man to know, but all that God does is righteous. It is only that man does not know it. This is a fact. Consider what Peter said when God delivered him to satan: ‘The things you do man cannot fathom, but there are your good purpose and righteousness in each of them. How can I not utter praises for your wise doings?’ … Everything God does is righteous. Although you cannot discover it, you should not judge at will, saying that God is not righteous when you consider a thing unreasonable or you have notions about it. This is a most unreasonable doing. Just now I gave some opposite examples for you to discern, and you did not dare to say. You see, Peter could not fathom certain things, but he was sure that there was God’s wisdom and God’s good purpose in them.”

from “How to Know God’s Righteous Disposition” in Christ’s Talks with Church Leaders and Workers