Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1365

1365 Abuse of free will.... apostasy of the spiritual from God....

April 1, 1940: Book 23

People often reject a wise and just creator because the unspeakable suffering on earth does not want them to believe in an author Who is supposed to be love Itself. And they do not think about the extent to which people themselves are the cause of all suffering and hardship. The cause of everything is always to be found in the actual cause, and here too the human being must realize that both the suffering and its effects are the consequences of a completely wrong direction of will. The freedom of will must always be considered first. Without this free will, man would not be what he should be.... a being that can become perfect out of itself in order to one day be able to create and work like God.... He would be a directed being, nothing more like an animal determined by the will of the creator to carry out his activity. It is therefore impossible for the first time for beings to be placed perfectly in the world.... but must first mould themselves into what their destiny is. And therefore free will cannot be taken away from the being. It can only be influenced to act in this or that way. The fact that people now misuse free will in a way that is completely detrimental to them, that they use it to distance themselves further and further from God instead of drawing closer to Him, is decisive for all the side effects of their earthly life. They could very easily make this a bearable, less painful life for themselves if they used their will correctly, for their only task is to bridge the separation from God, to reduce the distance from Him, to come closer to God again, from Whom they distanced themselves when the spirit detached itself from the original spirit. Everything spiritual that emerged from God was of its own free will.... it initially separated itself from God in self-conceit, but should reunite with the creator of all things, with the original spirit, the original power, and this is, since free will must be left to it, not possible other than on the way of suffering.... of the banished state.... for only suffering reduces self-conceit.... suffering is bondage, and recognizing bondage makes one humble. The being cannot reach its perfection in any other way than in deepest humility.... So the being that thought itself powerful and dominant and rebelled against God as the source of all light must be brought down to the deepest humility in order to then be able to cover the path to the heights with ease. And the world is less than ever humble and desirous of God's help.... it is more than ever under the control of the one who brought about the apostasy of all spiritual beings from God, and now all spiritual beings rebel against God to the greatest extent by people consciously denying Him and in heartlessness comply with all demands of the adversary but no longer respect the commandment of love, which in turn has to be fulfilled if the spiritualization of the human being is to take place, which only makes the being into what it is supposed to be according to divine destiny. And thus the will is wrongly guided, and this wrong will is now to be shaped correctly, and this is only possible through suffering, since all other attempts to reshape it have been unsuccessful, but God's love and mercy will not abandon people to their self-chosen fate. For His wisdom truly regocnizes what is beneficial to the soul of man for its perfection....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers