God tests us and hides his justice

I state here that God judges sooner than the Last Day. This fact can be taken to infer some mistaken conclusions.

God judges the wicked and rewards the righteous. All of these rewards are delayed because God is patient and because he tests everyone. A huge part of growing up is learning delayed gratification, and living by faith is part of that. If God responded immediately to all provocations, we would never learn to either believe nor be faithful. Both faith and faithfulness require “space” or, more literally, time. God does not stand there when Satan is tempting Adam and Eve. He has withdrawn his presence to evaluate them later. They would be much less likely to disobey if God was standing there behind the serpent. But their obedience wouldn’t indicate much either about their trust in God nor their character and maturity.

And when Jesus does come and judge us, he does so in a way that is not easily understood. There are a thousand variables. Some of these variables may indeed involve what God has reserved for the Final Judgment, the Last Day. But others simply involve factors that are too complicated or numerous for us to track. In some cases, the wicked who should be judged repent in time to delay it or escape it, and in some cases the offspring of the righteous who should flourish lose patience and depart from the Lord (see Ezekiel 18, for example). Plus God tests the endurance of the righteous for a time.

So you can’t condemn anyone who is poor because he is poor and you can’t commend anyone who is rich because he is rich. The evidence for all this is found in the Book of Proverbs which sees no problem assuring people that God rewards on earth but warning them about judging either the poor or the wealthy.

So there is no straight line you can see. But you can’t infer that God is not judging in history. He is. And that is why you can resist constructing a State to establish the “perfect justice” that you think needs establishing. That will not result in judgment. It will be a judgment. Don’t go there. Trust God instead and remain free and wise.

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