2285 Distance from God - cause of not recognizing....

April 1, 1942: Book 32

People's spiritual state prevents them from recognizing the truth as such, and it is therefore arduous work to make this truth accessible to them.... It is difficult to preach the gospel to them, that is, to make the divine teaching of love accessible to them, for they will always set the world and its demands against it and consider them more important, and under such circumstances they lack all understanding for spiritual endeavour. The only important thing is regarded as foolishness or imagination, and that alone is proof of how far people are from the eternal deity, how deficient their state of soul is. It is also proof of how alien the word of God is to people. They also only recognize it as the work of men, their faith can almost no longer be called faith, they only repeat words without realizing the meaning of these words. And that is why these words cannot gain life and therefore cannot become effective. If salvation is to be brought to these people, they must first be forced to renounce their faith. They must be given the opportunity to take a stand on doctrines of faith so that they openly express what they reject or what they take offence at. As soon as a person errs, his opinion must be set right, for he can only be convinced by speech and refutation. It is even easier to change an opponent's mind than to present the gospel to a person against his will, because the willingness to listen to it must be absolutely present. However, converting mere worldlings is usually unsuccessful. Every spiritual hint is dismissed unwillingly, and thus worldliness will still reign supreme and only few people strive for the kingdom of God. For people's state of being distant from God makes them incapable of clearly judging what is brought to them. But as soon as they practice love they reduce their distance from God, and now many things are understandable to them which they previously could not grasp. And therefore people must first be taught love, they must be urged to observe this first and most important commandment, and only then will they have understanding for the word of God, for if they live in love God will come close to them in the word, and that is His strength, that the human being's spirit will be enlightened, that he will now mentally penetrate the meaning of the word and he will now affirm the divine teaching of love. He is now rescued from the adversity of his soul, through his activity of love he has reduced his distance from God and thus must also come to realize....

Amen

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