Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/2257

2257 Higher development and failure....

March 12, 1942: Book 31

Everything in the world has its time, i.e. everything visible must undergo its higher development in a certain order, and the duration of this higher development has been determined by God since eternity. However, the beingness in the stage of free will can shorten the time of higher development as soon as it seriously strives for spiritual maturity. Consequently, the duration of development as a human being is completely up to him; he is not forced to live in a way that is conducive to the human being's degree of maturity, but he has to bear the consequences himself, as the time made available to him passes without having contributed to the soul's higher development. The human being cannot prolong this time at will, and since he does not know at all how long God's grace will grant him to mature, he must be all the more eager to achieve the highest possible degree of maturity on earth. The death of the body then ends every opportunity on earth to mature spiritually, and even if the soul is still offered the opportunity to perfect itself in the beyond, it will always remember with self-reproach the time on earth when it failed to strive while it was still in full possession of its strength. God has therefore left the will of man free up to now by also preserving the life of those people who had become apostate to Him. And He will not force them to accept His teaching in the future either, but He has set limits to the time of redemption by limiting this time from eternity.... For He saw the will of man and knew from eternity that the will would not utilize the time of grace of redemption. And thus He takes life from people, which they no longer appreciate and recognize as God's grace, and with life also the distant possibility of spiritual higher development....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers