The “immanent justice of God” is often mentioned in the Bible, in the Old Testament, but it was defined more clearly in 1678 by literary theorist Thomas Rymer, the essential objective being to show that God’s goodness always triumphs over evil and that it is much wiser to adopt God’s moral code in our lives. It is God’s immanent justice that naturally follows from recent actions or the current course of events; it is the principle of God’s enigmatic justice that is contained in the actions themselves and manifests itself earlier in the natural course and normal, but immediate, development of consequences.
According to God’s immanent justice, God’s virtue is ultimately rewarded naturally, and vice is always punished. It is also called God’s poetic justice. According to the occult principle of immanence, “the whole is found within everything, but also the part within everything”, God’s immanent justice is enigmatically contained within events. It is a necessary and inevitable link between a wrong action and its short-term punishment.
We find in Cicero the idea that God’s natural laws, when not respected, naturally lead to immediate sanctions from God, and that the punishment for the act in question is obviously contained within the act itself: “There is certainly a true law of God, the just reason of God in accordance with the nature of God, immutable and eternal, which thus calls man to duty by its mysterious commandments and thus turns him away from evil by its indirect prohibitions, and whose commandments and prohibitions never remain without prompt effect on the good or without corresponding action on the bad […]. Neither the Senate nor the people can ever remove us from its influence, from its empire; it never needs an interpreter to explain it. […]”
This dimension of God’s justice refers us to the mysterious biblical theme of God’s wrath, which in Scripture refers to God’s immediate reaction to the violation of God’s covenant by the chosen people. This “wrath” of God is an anthropomorphism that expresses rather a punishment from God that is not delayed, but deserved. In this sense, we can say that a great sin arouses wrath because it opposes the plan of the living God, whom man then leads astray.
In addition to the legal aspect of God, as well as the spiritual-moral aspect of God, we can also speak, says St. Basil the Great, of an “immanent justice of God”, which comes quickly from God, in his capacity as a just God and supreme Judge, either to correct us without delay after we have done wrong, or even to reward us for good deeds that please God. The fear of God’s punishment and the desire for reward often guide us very well in life, helping us to walk the right path towards God.
God’s undeserved punishment involves the supernatural punishment of a person, group of people, or nation by God as an undeserved response to certain evil actions. In many cultures, religions, and mythologies, there are numerous accounts of God’s justice intervening in people’s lives.
“God’s infallible law of immanent and implacable justice quickly brings down upon your head the evil you have brought down upon your neighbour’s head. What you have done wrong will be done to you; what you have said wrong will be said to you; what you accuse another of doing wrong will cause you to be accused of doing wrong.” (Father Arsenie Boca, a Romanian priest, theologian, mystic, and artist)
For example, one of God’s well-deserved punishments that is often found in many cultures is the flood that was necessary to destroy humanity. This myth is described in the Epic of Gilgamesh, which originated in Mesopotamia, but it is mentioned both in the Hindu Vedas of South Asia and in Genesis (6:9-8:22).
There are many other examples in Jewish religious literature, such as the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), when God scattered those who had built it.
The destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis, 18:20-21 and 19:23-28, but there are also references in the Qur’an, 7:80-84), as well as the reference to the ten plagues of Egypt during the persecution of the sons of Israel (Exodus, chapters 7-12) by Pharaoh, who nevertheless opposed the liberation of the Jews, during which “the ten terrible plagues, also called the ten punishments of Egypt” fell upon the whole country, are also examples of this nature: the water of the Nile was then turned into blood; frogs invaded the whole country of Egypt; followed by an invasion of mosquitoes and horseflies; then all the livestock died; numerous diseases and terrible boils spread among the Egyptians; a terrifying hailstorm struck the country and the Jews were freed; a terrifying hailstorm followed, killing the livestock and a large part of the people of Egypt; locusts covered the land of Egypt; three days of darkness fell upon all of Egypt; finally, the firstborn of Egypt perished.
The punishment of the Babylonian king Belshazzar
The Book of Daniel (Daniel 5:1-31) recounts the “divine” punishment of King Belshazzar. He first organised a great feast for a thousand of his officials and ordered that the golden cups that had been stolen from the temple in Jerusalem by his father, King Nebuchadnezzar II, be brought in for the guests to use. However, during the banquet, an enigmatic disembodied hand appeared and miraculously wrote a message on the wall announcing his death. Belshazzar then drank from the temple cups, praising idols but not God, and thus God conveyed the message of his death to him. He was then killed that very night by the Persians.
A striking and terrible example during the plague in ancient China
According to historical records, during the plague in the Chinese Ming Dynasty, two cunning and greedy thieves intended to steal valuables from the homes of those who had died of the plague. One of the thieves, after stealing the valuables, threw them from the roof to his accomplice. The moment the thief touched the stolen items, both thieves suddenly died of the plague.
The astonishing case of Saint Nicholas the Fool for Christ of Pskov and Tsar Ivan the Terrible (Russia)
In February 1570, after putting the entire city of Novgorod to the sword, Tsar Ivan the Terrible marched with his army towards the city of Pskov. The chronicles report that he came and “mutilated many innocent people and shed much innocent blood”. All the inhabitants prostrated themselves before him, except for Blessed Nicholas. The Tsar then ordered that he be seized, but he disappeared. Attending prayers in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, the Tsar declared that he wished to receive the blessing of Saint Nicholas the Fool. When he opened the door of the chapel, Saint Nicholas handed him a piece of raw meat, but the Tsar refused to eat it on the pretext that he was fasting. The saint then openly told the Tsar to immediately stop shedding blood and plundering the houses of God, otherwise God’s punishment would immediately fall upon him. But the Tsar did not humble himself and ordered the soldiers to knock down the bells of the Holy Trinity Cathedral and plunder the sacristy. Then the fool for God raised his voice with force: “Do not dare to touch us, stranger, and leave here as quickly as possible, for if you linger a moment longer, the wrath of God will fall upon you, and you will have nothing left to flee with! ” Suddenly, the Tsar’s most majestic horse fell to the ground, dead, as if struck by lightning, so that the saint’s threat was immediately fulfilled. Frightened, Ivan the Terrible hastily mounted another horse and fled the city, renouncing his revenge.
The story of Arsenie Boca’s torturer (Romania)
During the Ceausescu era, a pilgrim went from monastery to monastery with a story he told as atonement, as a confession. To all those who were willing to listen, the man confessed that he was one of the torturers who had tortured Father Arsenie during the investigations. Suddenly, as he was savagely beating the soles of his feet, the priest stood up and said to him, “You will never strike anyone again with that hand!” His hand then lost all its strength and he was unable to raise it against the priest. Thus, that hand remained powerless. The security guard then converted completely to Christianity, shaken by the power of God’s immanent justice. He chose to be a living example himself by humbly recounting this extraordinary experience in monasteries.
A contemporary example of God’s immanent justice intervening against a man who wanted to steal a statue of Saint Michael
On 18 January 2023, a message was posted on Twitter about a 32-year-old man who wanted to steal the statue of the Archangel Michael from a church in Monterrey, Mexico. The man, who was visibly drunk, had jumped over the entrance railing but, having stumbled, the sword of the statue of Saint Michael pierced his neck. However, he managed to reach the front door, covering his wound with one hand. Passers-by saw that he was covered in blood and called for help. The statue was secured in the church, but the man was taken to the emergency room in serious condition.
The case of Romanian presenter Șerban Huidu
For 14 years, presenter Șerban Huidu hosted the programme Cronica Cârcotașilor (Chronicle of the Grumblers), in which he attacked and mocked various people, highlighting their mistakes on television programmes in an extremely caustic, malicious and mocking manner. On his personal website, Huidu stated bluntly that he was “a proud man” with a “big, nasty mouth”. Șerban Huidu also claimed that stupidity was the subject matter of his “Chronicle of the Grumblers”. In 2005, he was hit by a car while riding his motorbike, but escaped with minor injuries. Then, in 2007, his car was hit by an ambulance. This was followed by a skiing accident in the Austrian resort of Innsbruck. In addition, other members of Șerban Huidu’s family also suffered all kinds of accidents and major, very difficult trials during the same period. In the summer of 2010, his brother suffered a ruptured liver and internal bleeding following a motorbike accident. Șerban Huidu’s wife was also involved in a skiing accident in 2008 and fractured her collarbone in the fall. In 2011, Huidu was involved in a serious road accident that claimed the lives of three people. At first glance, he appears to be nothing more than a victim who, inexplicably, has suffered a series of unfortunate events, as if he were being pursued by bad luck or a curse. In reality, this is where God’s immanent justice intervened each time.
The case of Brazil: in Brazil, immanent justice acted spontaneously
Every year, a carnival is held in the city of Rio de Janeiro. In 2023, there was an unusual performance by a samba school in which a giant, flamboyant representation of Satan fought Jesus, attacking him, knocking him down, humiliating him and mocking him. A few days later, when the city suffered severe flooding and landslides in which 65 people lost their lives, Christians naturally attributed this disaster to God’s immanent justice.
There have been numerous cases of poachers being devoured by wild animals
In this true story that took place in Kruger Park in South Africa in 2019, a poacher illegally hunting rhinos in this protected reserve was killed by an elephant and then devoured by lions. BBC News published the story of this poacher in April 2019. In 2010, in the same park, a poacher was first chased by hippos and scared to death before being devoured by lions.
The case of Terrion Pouncy
Terrion Pouncy, 19, was living in Chicago in 2017 when he decided to rob several shops at gunpoint, only to face the spontaneous intervention of God’s immanent justice. He had approached one of the hot dog vendors in town because they usually deal in cash. One of the vendors was holding a bucket of hot grease when Pouncy put the gun to his temple, demanding his mobile phone, wallet and all his money. The hot dog vendor dropped the grease to reach for his wallet. The hot, melted liquid spilled over Pouncy and the dollars fell to the ground. While trying to put his gun back in its holster and bend down to pick up the money, he accidentally shot himself… right in the penis. Pouncy survived but was remanded in custody without bail pending trial on several charges, including armed robbery.
The case of two teenage burglars
In January 2018, two Californian teenagers attempted to rob a 7-Eleven store with a fake gun. Surveillance camera footage showed the teenagers wearing hoodies to conceal their identities. The cashier raised his hands in the air as they threatened him with their weapon and demanded money from the till. A security guard was sitting in a car in the car park, armed with a real gun. Seeing the scene, he entered the shop and shot the teenagers in the arms. They told the security guard that their weapon was fake, to which he replied, “Oh, good! Mine is real!” ” The 16-year-olds did not die. In the video, one of them even asks, “Am I being shot at?”, as if, under the influence of God’s immanent justice, they did not realise the situation. Transported to hospital to have their injuries treated, the teenagers were then remanded in custody without bail for attempted robbery.
The drunk driver
In March 2018, a man was driving while intoxicated in Fairfax, Virginia. The police noticed him, turned on their lights and sounded their sirens to order him to stop and pull over. The driver panicked and tried to flee. Then he slowed down. Instead of stopping, he jumped out of the vehicle while it was still moving. However, in his attempt to escape, he ran in front of his own car and it hit him, throwing him to the ground. He will probably go down in history as the only person to have been run over by his own car. The incident was filmed by a police car’s surveillance camera. The police arrested the drunk man; it was apparently the third time he had been caught drunk driving.
The punishment for the tyre and wheel thief
One night in December 2017, a thief living in Pittsburgh was so hungry and in need of money that he decided to steal the tyres and wheels from a Chevrolet Express van. He lifted the van with cement blocks, taking advantage of the darkness of the car park. Unfortunately for him, the bricks didn’t hold and suddenly slipped under the van, crushing the thief under the vehicle. The next morning, the owner of the van found the thief’s body crushed under the van. However, the thief had neither his driving licence nor any other form of identification on him, so the police were unable to identify him immediately.
The Seattle thieves
In Seattle, Washington, two thieves thought they were very cunning and clever, stealing everything they could carry; they operated by slipping through the back door of the emergency exit. In March 2018, however, a security guard recognised one of the men, whom he had seen before carrying a knife and successfully sneaking through the back door of the premises with stolen goods. He realised that the man had returned to carry out a second burglary and immediately called the police. This time, however, the 30-year-old man was accompanied by his accomplice, a 21-year-old woman, and an 18-year-old man who was driving a car to help them escape. The man and woman were in possession of laptops and vacuum cleaners worth more than $2,000. What they didn’t know, however, was that the police had already arrived and had blocked the back door with their cars. When the couple entered through the emergency exit, the police greeted them with amused smiles. The thieves, surprised to find themselves face to face with the police, dropped the boxes and, completely shocked, did not even try to run away. They were immediately arrested, and the whole incident was filmed by surveillance cameras.
The female suicide bomber
On 31 December 2010, a female suicide bomber was preparing a terrorist attack during the New Year’s celebrations on Moscow’s Red Square, where thousands of people gather every year around the Kremlin to watch a magnificent fireworks display. Accompanied by two accomplices, the woman planned to make her way into a crowded area. Her accomplices would then send her a text message on her mobile phone at midnight, triggering the explosion in the crowd and killing hundreds of people in the immediate vicinity. A few days earlier, the same terrorist group had already killed 35 people at an airport and was attempting to strike again. As the woman was preparing for her attack, the mobile phone operator sent her a “happy birthday” text message a few hours before midnight. The bomb, which had been set off earlier, exploded without causing any casualties. The two accomplices managed to escape the explosion, but the authorities were able to identify them.
The evil restaurant owner
This is the testimony of a person who had just visited his mother in hospital and who, while waiting for test results, sometimes stopped at a restaurant near the hospital. “It happened in 1987. My mother was hospitalised for stomach surgery. She had a tumour and they did a pathological examination first. My brother, my father and I were there to help my mother. We were very worried about the test results. There was a small restaurant in the neighbourhood where hospital visitors used to have breakfast. The restaurant was always crowded and the owner was always there. He wore a large gold chain around his neck and a total of six different gemstone rings on his six fingers. This showed how much money the restaurant was making him. One day, while my brother and I were having tea, I suddenly heard a dog howling. There is a superstition in the Telugu states that if a dog howls, someone will die. Even though I don’t believe in superstitions, that howl gave me an unpleasant feeling. I was already in a state of tension because of our mother’s test results. Hearing that sound made us even sadder. As if that weren’t enough, the restaurant owner said loudly to one of the waiters, “Hey, you see, the dog is howling. A corpse is bound to come out of that hospital very soon!” And he laughed ostentatiously, as if he were making a big joke. I looked at my brother and the other people in the restaurant. Everyone there had someone in hospital. Their faces turned pale. “The owner makes this joke every day, whenever we hear a dog howling,” my brother told me. “But he scares everyone! How come no one tells him off?” “People here are totally dependent on this restaurant; there are no other restaurants in the hospital area. So, they can’t afford to argue with him,” my brother said. But at that moment, to our surprise, a middle-aged man who was sitting at a table in the corner stood up and approached the restaurant owner. “Do you really think this is a joke? Don’t you know that everyone here has a friend or relative in this hospital? Please stop with such jokes,” the man said to him. “If you don’t want to hear this kind of joke, don’t come here. I’m at home here and I do what I want,” replied the owner nonchalantly. “Would you make the same joke if one of your loved ones was in this hospital?” asked the man, who still hadn’t lost his temper. “Don’t waste my time and get out of here,” replied the owner. The next morning, my brother went to get tea from that restaurant and quickly returned, saying it was closed. We were all surprised. The restaurant, except for a few hours at night, was never closed. My brother went to find out what had happened. What we heard shocked us. The restaurant owner had been in a car accident and had been admitted to the same hospital.
A thief punished as he deserved by God’s immanent justice
Petrol prices have skyrocketed worldwide over the past decade, yet most people do not resort to theft. Petrol siphoning is a method of removing fuel from a car’s tank by inserting a plastic tube into the tank and sucking on the other end until the petrol starts to flow. Petrol theft often leaves travellers in the unpleasant situation of being stranded with an empty tank.
The bus thief
In 2016, in Australia, a thief targeted a large tourist bus. He knew that these buses had large fuel tanks and so tried to siphon off the fuel. However, he did not realise that he had accidentally inserted the hose into the toilet tank. So, as he sucked air through the hose, he swallowed a mouthful of human excrement. The police arrested the thief, but the owners of the coach decided they did not want their property back.
Two thieves whose cup of iniquity was full were punished by God’s immanent justice
Late one evening in 2005, a South African man threatened a couple out for a walk with a knife and demanded that they hand over their money. Park rangers caught him in the act and ordered him to stay where he was, but the thief fled, pursued by the rangers. In the darkness, the thief jumped over a fence. Without realising it, he jumped straight into the tiger’s den at Bloemfontein Zoo. The next morning, a zoo visitor noticed something strange at the back of the tiger’s cage. It was the body of a dead man. Curiously, this was not the first time such an incident had occurred at Bloemfontein Zoo. In 1997, another offender had jumped the zoo fence and was caught by a gorilla. He tried to shoot the gorilla, but the gorilla bit him on the buttocks and pinned him against the wall until the police arrived.
When you do evil, you find evil
One of the most despicable characters in French history was Fouquier-Tinville, a provincial magistrate with no particular convictions but full of pride and ambition, who became public prosecutor of the Convention in 1793. This sinister character, the executioner of Robespierre, Saint-Just and Marat, sent thousands of men and women to their deaths in staged trials. When it was his turn to mount the scaffold, he was surprised by what was happening and declared calmly: “But I was only following orders!”. Political life, whatever the era, with more or less hidden or apparent violence, is a dark world, more conducive to dirty tricks than to honesty and sincerity of conviction. To make a career (with rare exceptions), you have to be “someone’s son or daughter” or find a mentor, “a good horse”, and stab them in the back at the right moment. This is rarely compatible with strength of character. It is no coincidence that Montaigne once remarked ironically: “The public good requires betrayal, lying and murder: let us reserve this mission for more obedient and flexible people”. But there is a strange and mysterious historical principle that defies explanation and reason. The scoundrels who enriched themselves at the expense of others, who deliberately sowed misery, who caused suffering through vice, calculation, vanity or ambition, who betrayed the trust placed in them through greed or pride, whistleblowers, dictators and demagogues, very often end up paying in one way or another for their crimes. Whether they are caught in their own time or discovered by posterity, their cynicism and perversity do not usually go unpunished. Everything must be paid for, sooner or later.
Kind words are worth a lot
A woman was in a verbally and emotionally toxic relationship. Her husband always spoke to her very badly. He liked to talk non-stop and no one else was allowed to say a word. He shouted and swore constantly and shamelessly. He was always despicable, and when his wife got cancer, he became even more despicable. He offered her no emotional support, even threatening to divorce her and deny her medical help. He went to the pub every day and came home drunk, talking badly and shouting at the top of his voice non-stop. A few years after his wife’s death, this nasty man fell ill, was hospitalised and put on a ventilator. His vocal cords were damaged and he spent the last six months of his life unable to utter a single word.