Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1366

1366 God's programmes.... God's authorisations.... satan's work....

April 1, 1940: Book 23

Man pays too little attention to what happens around him, and he cannot be convinced in any way that everything fits into the divine world order according to a wise plan, that everything must come as it does, even though man's will is often the direct cause. A distinction must be made between God's programmes according to His will and God's permissions of what the will of man himself has caused. It is so difficult to make people understand this that God can never give His consent if man makes dispositions that go against His will. But since He again does not hinder the human being's free will, those measures which are an unmistakable work or influence of evil must now be moulded by God such that they can still result in a certain degree of success for the human being's soul. And this again leads people to the conclusion that it is God's will that works which unmistakably betray the influence of evil plunge whole nations into misery and hardship. If God did not allow such things and thus wanted to mercilessly destroy or render harmless the perpetrators of suffering and misery, then man would be deprived of any possibility of distinguishing between good and evil, for then only the good would have to assert itself, while all evil would immediately be destroyed. Thus God allows the evil power to run riot and only ever protects His own from being at the mercy of this power by averting all harm from them. And therefore, even if the evil forces work without ceasing, this work will always be weakened in its consequences, the human being will always derive a benefit for his soul if he offers the evil forces sufficient resistance and asks for God's help. For if God did not want to oppose it with His love, the adversary's temptations would truly be overwhelming and the human being could very easily succumb in the battle against them. However, every event is permitted by God so that the adversary's activity can be regocnized clearly enough and man can learn to abhor it. But then man should also regocnize his own powerlessness if he believes that he can master everything in life through his own strength. Man needs God's grace, and the more threatening the events approach the earthly child from the outside, the sooner he will be able to ask for grace.... And so even the most difficult event is favourable for the soul in a spiritual sense. Only the person who sees every event as God's providence and finds himself in it devotedly, always desiring divine help when it seems insurmountable to him, and thus remains in closest union with God, will truly master earthly life. Satan's activity will therefore not always be able to express itself as it is intended, but the lord God will also intervene to prevent it and avert or weaken its effects, for if His power did not also extend over such evil forces then everything on earth and in the universe would truly already be destroyed, for the evil one's destructive urge is immense, yet he is powerless in the face of divine will. However, the lord allows him to work to such an extent that it characterizes humanity's complete downfall.... And if a person pays attention to what is happening around him, he will realize how far satan's activity goes. And he will learn to detest it if only a spark of divine spirit slumbers within him. Thus even the most base deed can again cause a person to find God and, recognizing the contemptibility of evil, raise his hands to God in prayer for deliverance from such violence. And God will answer such a prayer, and then it is precisely satan's activity which has brought about the return to God, i.e. an event which was devised by diabolical power against God's will has been permitted in order to allow the human being to find the path to God again....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers