Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1148

1148 Obeying the commandments in a state of compulsion....

October 25, 1939: Book 20

Compulsion impairs the value of an action. How often is a person tempted to believe that he has fulfilled his duty if he has carried out an action that corresponds to a prescribed law. This is especially true of those laws that were given to men without authority and whose observance was demanded in order to strengthen earthly power. Nothing is more worthless before God than obeying such commandments in a state of compulsion.... And nothing jeopardizes man's salvation more than the belief that he has fulfilled his duty.... For this belief prevents the conscious striving for perfection.... The human being believes himself to be on a level which he has by no means reached, for he believes that he has fulfilled God's demand and has merely complied with human commandments.... and this is of no benefit for eternity. Every fulfilment of duty is a kind of state of compulsion.... certainly worthy of recognition in earthly life but of no noteworthy success for spiritual life, for God demands that every action is based on free will. Man should do everything without external impetus and feel prompted to act from within.... He should carry out everything he does voluntarily and without constraint and not be induced to act by threats or promises.... Only then will these actions be truly beneficial for his soul. Divine will alone should be completely sufficient to allow the earthly child to act accordingly, however, it is not divine will to want to influence people's behaviour through any kind of coercion or pressure. Only God alone has given commandments, yet people believed that they had to tighten these divine commandments and thus a deplorable state of affairs soon developed which is generally threatening for the earthly children, for more attention is paid to the external fulfilment of the commandments again and this is in itself completely without merit.... It is only a form which one fulfils, but which is worthless before God. Servants of God who are too eager to fulfil the commandments have thus created a deplorable state of affairs that has a terrible effect on the soul. Just consider how strongly the view is held that only church attendance brings people closer to God and how it has therefore been made a duty for humanity.... And how therefore the belief has taken root that only he serves God who fulfils this duty.... how, however, church attendance in compulsion kills any deep feeling for the eternal deity if it is carried out according to the rules at the appointed time and thus becomes a mere habit, which no longer has anything in common with (the word) 'service to God'.... And how at the same time, through the fulfilment of this commandment, man is educated to a sham service to God, since everything he now does is prescribed, i.e. no own will or heart's desire drives him to truly serve God. It is a haphazard exercise of actions that are merely the work of men, or human decrees made under the guise of 'expressions of divine will' in order to force people to join a particular church in order to increase its power. And precisely the opposite is achieved with such coercive actions.... something is mechanically carried out that is supposed to be a deepest, inner desire, and all outward appearances are maintained, while the heart can be empty and dead in the process, and such behaviour remains without value before God, precisely because it has a certain state of compulsion as a prerequisite and therefore cannot be valued as such because it does not correspond to the divine will....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers