Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3315

3315 Paying off the debt of sins through children and children's children....

November 2, 1944: Book 43

The consequence of sin is also its punishment. This is to be understood in such a way that every sin has its consequences, which in turn have a corrupting effect on the sinner, which is why we can speak of a just punishment. However, this punishment is not inflicted on the human being by God, but he himself has incurred it because he has given the direct cause for it. However, the consequences of sin can also take a long time, but they inevitably come, only then they do not affect man himself, but his children and children's children, so that they have to bear a punishment that was inflicted generations before. This is an apparent injustice on God's part, but it always concerns souls who need particularly difficult living conditions to mature and who have chosen particularly difficult living conditions for their path in life. They bear, as it were, undeserved suffering and are also in spiritual contact with the souls of those who are to blame for this suffering. Thus they are influenced by those souls to pay off a debt which has followed them into the kingdom of the beyond and which would require an excessive amount of time to pay off in the hereafter. And God accepts atonement from children and children's children.... If the human being can pay off his guilt on earth himself, there are countless ways to do so, i.e. the human being has to deal with the consequences of sin; he will then, in a manner of speaking, have to suffer the same fate he has caused others.... he will have to bear the suffering he has caused others; the effects of sin will always affect him again and he will not be able to defend himself against it. But then he spares his descendants all these sufferings which he himself has caused. But if he enters the kingdom of the beyond with this guilt he will not find peace there until he has again persuaded the people close to him on earth through mental influence to atone for his former sin on earth, which then earns them an earthly fate which clearly reveals the sins of the fathers. Atonement for the sin committed is accepted from children and children's children in order to awaken a sense of responsibility in people, as well as to make them underestimate the magnitude of a guilt.... Sinners suffer immense agony in the beyond if they see people on earth atoning for their guilt, and therefore the guilt is atoned for twice and accordingly paid off more quickly, just as, conversely, a person who knows about his fathers' sins does not bear the punishment so heavily because it seems just to him and his soul thereby reaches maturity more quickly on earth. However, it is extremely easy for a sinner to be released from his guilt if he lays it at His feet in profound faith in Jesus Christ, if he sincerely asks Him for forgiveness after he has sincerely repented of his sins and endeavours to amend them.... Then the consequences of his sins will also be absent, he will not need to fear that his guilt will have to be paid off by his descendants.... He will be freed from his guilt for the sake of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for the sins of mankind....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers