Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/0194

0194 Enforced teachings....

November 22, 1937: Book 5/6

Keep a faithful heart and God will be close to you at all times. And if God places upon you what appears to be unbearable, with His help and mercy you can overcome everything....

And now listen: We will form a circle around you and start with our work, because the Lord has decided to inform you of the dangers of Christianity as it is taught on earth today. If at any time His Word had been understood in a way which intended to force others then this was a big mistake and error of the teachers.... Because the Lord does not want to pull any of His children closer to Him by force but the children shall decide entirely of their own free will whether they accept their Heavenly Father or reject Him. We therefore consider every compulsion which the church or the servants of God want to exercise towards humanity as unwanted by God and not demanded by His teachings. For this reason such a church will collapse as it lacks the basic condition.... complete freedom of will.

Spiritual freedom cannot exist where it is stipulated to do this or that under threat of punishment; furthermore, the purpose could not be served even if the children of earth complied with such enforced stipulations. Therein rests the explanation as to why such churches will decay, although they also intend to lead the people to God. In recognition of the holiest basic condition, to shape the whole of human life by free will, many other stipulations are from the realm of error.... Any constraint is not wanted by God and is therefore only a hindrance for human beings on the way to eternity.... You may indeed teach His Words but you may not combine them with such terms which will place the human child into a position of constraint and which might give him a different image of God's kindness and love. Always make sure that you, the servants of God, pull your sheep with love towards the Father and teach them that they shall strive and ask for God's help, then their way towards the Father will become easier and nothing will frighten them.... while your doctrines place them into a condition of dependency, in which they are indeed at best trying to do their duty while their inner spiritual devotion towards their Heavenly Father's heart is lacking.... Love and longing towards the Father shall come from the heart and should not be enforced under duress.... The human soul will then climb far higher and will progress much faster with the blessing of God, which it will desire of its own volition....

Therefore try, wherever you can, to explain to people that they should not hold on to worldly teachings but to listen to the teachings of God deep within their hearts, which will tell them that they are children of God; and as children of God to increase the longing to return to the Heavenly Father should be the basis of true Christianity.... then the Father will show you the way in love and divine mercy....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna