Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1408

1408 Premature destruction.... release of the spiritual....

May 3, 1940: Book 23

A boundless confusion of thought allows the evils, which are based on greed and lust for power, to get out of hand. And the commandment of love is completely disregarded. The demon has seized the world, everything is greedy for possessions and does not shy away from cunning and trickery in order to attain them. Man does not pursue honest endeavours.... there is nothing righteous before God, and God can never give His blessing to what the world strives for. For the world only strives for earthly power, prosperity and possessions. And all this is part of evil, and therefore man only uses the means of evil, such as violence, lies, hypocrisy and deceit.... But God's will is to serve one another in love, not to demand or force anything, but to ask and give.... People should live side by side in peace and use their earthly existence to care for their souls. But how can the soul be thought of if man lives only to gain earthly good? He uses all his strength to increase matter, which he is supposed to overcome, and deprives the soul of this strength, which it needs for higher development. The soul's immense hardship is further increased by the unlawful possession of earthly possessions if they are acquired unlawfully. For the spiritual in that matter rebels against the souls which take possession of it unlawfully. For the spiritual senses all injustice and its indignation oppresses the human being's soul, as it were, even if it does not clearly realize this. In addition, immature spiritual substance, which was released during violent destruction that was not willed by God, will join this outraged spiritual substance in matter and thus also burden the soul. Therefore, illegally appropriated goods will never bring blessings to those who disregarded the divine commandment of love and sinned against it out of self-interest and greed. God has given every work of creation its time in order to bring the spiritual within it to maturity. All measures on the part of man, which aim at a violent premature destruction of it for selfish reasons, are to be condemned, because they result in a release of the spiritual in an immature state, which has a damaging effect on man, provided God does not protect his own from the influence of it. This influence will make itself felt after a certain period of time until the immature spiritual substance is banished again in a new external form and this offers it the opportunity to mature again. But the soul of the one who has caused such an interruption through unkindness will one day have to atone for it severely, for its development is inhibited and often even completely called into question. The time on earth is not used by it for higher development but merely to increase the earthly.... to increase that which has held it in thrall through endless times.... The soul does not redeem itself from it, but desires it anew, and this is its spiritual decline....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers