When it comes to the unbelievers, is the principle behind God’s actions that of rewarding the good and punishing the wicked? Do you see that there is a principle to God’s actions? You should be able to see that there is. The unbelievers don’t actually believe in God, they do not obey God’s orchestrations, and they are unaware of God’s sovereignty, much less do they acknowledge God. More seriously, they profane against God, and curse Him, and are hostile toward those who believe in God. Though these people have such an attitude toward God, God’s administration of them still doesn’t deviate from His principles; He administers them in an orderly way in accordance to His principles and His disposition. How does God regard their hostility? As ignorance! And so He has caused these people—the majority of the unbelievers—to have once been reincarnated as animals. So what say you, are the unbelievers in the eyes of God? (Livestock.) In God’s eyes, they are of this type, they are livestock. God administers livestock, and He administers mankind, and He has the same principles for this kind of people. Even in God’s administration of these people and His actions toward them, there can still be seen God’s disposition and the laws for His dominion over all things. And so, do you see God’s sovereignty in the principles by which He administers the unbelievers that I just spoke of? Do you see God’s righteous disposition? (We do.) You see God’s sovereignty, and you see His disposition. Which is to say, no matter which of all things He deals with, God acts according to His own principles and disposition. This is God’s substance. He wouldn’t casually break with the decrees or heavenly edicts that He set because He regards this kind of people as livestock; God acts according to principles, without the slightest disarray, His actions are totally unaffected by any factor, and no matter what He does, it is all in abidance with His own principles. This is decided by the fact that God has the substance of God Himself, which is a unique substance not possessed by any created being. God is conscientious and responsible in His handling of, approach to, management of, administration of, and ruling of every object, person, and living thing among all the things He created, and He has never been careless in this. To those who are good, He is gracious and kind; to those who are wicked, He inflicts remorseless punishment; and for the various living beings, He makes appropriate arrangements in a timely and regular manner according to the different requirements of the world of mankind at different times, such that these various living beings are reincarnated according to the roles they play in an orderly manner, and move between the material world and spiritual world in an orderly way.

—The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique X