Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3252

3252 Acknowledging Jesus Christ.... binding satan....

September 13, 1944: Book 42

The spiritual collapse is inevitable if Christ is no longer acknowledged and people no longer establish the right relationship with God, for then they are helpless and in greatest spiritual hardship because they are heading towards their downfall. Spiritual decline also results in earthly collapse, for everything dissolves as soon as it is deprived of its spiritual foundation. Nothing can exist without God, but where the spiritual is completely pushed into the background God is no longer acknowledged either, and this is the worst thing people can do, that they deny God, for thereby they also accelerate their own downfall, and they weaken or lose their power of realization for the time being, they don't recognize the adversity they are in. They are only concerned about meeting earthly demands and give up everything for the earthly world which could lead them spiritually upwards. And the result is a spiritual and earthly collapse and a terrible end bodily and earthly. Faith in Jesus Christ could prevent this, yet without Him humanity no longer finds the strength to change, and it sinks ever further and thus inevitably draws the end closer, because without God nothing can exist.... (13.9.1944) Satan’s power is overwhelming because people themselves grant him power over themselves, yet only the human being can be victorious over him who, through Jesus Christ, has a strength of will which nothing can resist. But where faith in Jesus Christ has been lost, there God's adversary rages with increased violence. And his weapons are hatred and unkindness, which have a destructive and devastating effect in every way but only ever through the will of man, since God's adversary has no power over the other works of creation. And thus he makes use of the will of the people in bondage to him in order to destroy and annihilate, in order to release the spiritual substances banished by God in creation against God's will. And this spiritual that has become free, standing in a deep degree of development, now also exerts a devastating effect on its surroundings, be it the natural world, plants and animals, or also human beings. An unparalleled chaos arises, a chaos which is not suitable for the spiritual upward development of the human being and also of the still bound spiritual in creation, and this chaos would lead to the final destruction of what is accessible to human will if God Himself does not assert His power and put an end to satan’s activity. From the time when people presume to take action against God Himself, i.e. to declare war on everything divine-spiritual and in particular to eradicate faith in Jesus Christ amongst people, God's activity also becomes evident, the more noticeable the further this battle against God has progressed. For if people are to retain the possibility of higher development, they must also retain the knowledge of God, Who descended to earth in the man Jesus to redeem humanity, otherwise people would be completely defenceless and powerless at the mercy of satan’s rage and inevitably have to perish, spiritually and also earthly. The decision, which is the purpose of earthly life, could no longer be demanded of them, since they would only come to know the one, evil, and the good, divine, would remain hidden from them. But as soon as satan takes action against God Himself, God lets him feel His power.... He wrests from him his own and binds him for a long time.... And this binding happens in such a way that he, together with the people in bondage to him, who were his servants on earth, who carried out in hatred and unkindness what he demanded of them, is banished again into the new creation, into hardest matter, which remains his imprisonment, so that he cannot oppress the good spiritual, for whom the path to ascent is now facilitated for a long time. Spiritual ascent development certainly requires strength and resistance, it requires a decision between good and evil, and therefore good must always be opposed by evil, so that people can decide, so that they can let their free will become active. However, on the new earth people all stand under the sign of the cross, they are followers of Christ from the bottom of their hearts, they are in closest contact with God, they have already made up their minds through the extremely difficult time of battle before, during which they remained faithful to Him, and for the time being they don't need any opposing force against which they are to assert themselves. And as long as they remain in this intimate bond with God, God's adversary is also bound, whose shackles will only be loosened again by the human being's will. For as soon as the connection with God begins to weaken, the human being's senses turn to matter again, which contains the fallen spiritual substance.... and with their desire they loosen its bonds, and thus God's adversary slowly becomes active again through the human being's will.... And the spiritual battle, the battle between light and darkness, begins anew.... And Jesus Christ must always be the centre of attention if the battle against darkness is to end victoriously; for the light on earth and in the beyond is the spiritual being redeemed through Jesus Christ's blood, and only the one who acknowledges Jesus Christ as redeemer of the world and son of God can irrevocably attain the light, otherwise satan’s power is so great over him that he drags him down into darkness to eternal ruin. And the denial of Christ will always lead to earthly and spiritual collapse, because then humanity will make a pact with God's adversary, because it will completely distance itself from God and this will mean the dissolution of every form which will no longer fulfil its purpose, the purpose of the soul's higher development, and which will therefore pass away through God's will, i.e. change itself, so that God will assign it a new purpose again. For God's power will overcome every opposing power, He will bind the adversary when his hour has come....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers