Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3329

3329 Personal responsibility.... Dogma....

November 14, 1944: Book 43

Every human being is personally responsible for his soul, and thus he has to justify himself for every bad deed as well as for every omission of a good deed. He can neither blame other people for his guilt nor can he have it compensated by others, but he has to make

Amends himself on earth or in the beyond. And likewise, he alone is able to raise his state of maturity, it cannot be given to him as a gift, but he has to make an effort to live his life in accordance with God’s will. Thus he has to accept the care for his soul’s salvation himself, because no other human being can relieve him of this. Subsequently, he also has to inform himself of God’s will and accept His Word, which reveals the divine will to him. And then he has to let God’s Word take effect on him. He therefore should not blindly believe what people want to present to him but first has to compare it with God’s Word, and only if it completely corresponds to the latter may he submit himself to its influence.

If the human being is responsible for himself he is also responsible for his own mental concepts. Consequently he is duty-bound to scrutinise whatever is offered to him, because this is precisely what he is answerable for. He cannot excuse himself with having been offered errors and thus he became unable to find the truth, but he has to make his own effort to discover the truth, which will also be offered to him if he asks for it. Since God will hold him to account one day He will first give him every opportunity to be able to recognise and live up to what is right. However, when the human being relies on what is given to him by other people he is bypassing all personal responsibility, he tries to unload it on the other person who has educated him. Yet God has given him intellect and the gift of thought, and by using this gift he can chose for himself what is right and wanted by God and act accordingly, consequently he can also be held to account....

Therefore, academically imparted spiritual knowledge, thus including teachings accepted by the person in the form of formal education, cannot suffice to gain complete knowledge of God’s will as long as it does not, by way of his own reflection, awaken and increase a sense of responsibility in the human being.... And on serious reflection the human being will realise which teachings were given by God to people and which teachings have been added to them by people. Thus, in order to be answerable in the future, the human being first has to deal with the received knowledge and in doing so, providing he has a desire for truth, he will also be able to distinguish between truth and error. Whereas a dogmatic teaching will stifle his sense of responsibility in him, indeed it will have to stifle it, because the faith in it or the fulfilment of what is demanded will become a purely mechanical matter and the person no longer feels responsible for what he believes to do conscientiously. Because whatever he does is done by him with a certain amount of obligation since it is demanded of him.... It is not an act of free will, albeit he is also able to refuse or ignore the demand, but the inner urge is missing which should be the reason for every action, for everything demanded by God from people.

The human being should be conscious of the fact that God only values what he does for love, that his thinking and actions should therefore only be governed by love and that every lack of love is a sin against God, Who is love Himself, and that the human being has to be answerable for this. Thus, whatever he is ordered to do, whatever he is duty-bound to do, negates free thought and action. And the human being effectively only gives account to the world, i.e. to those who have imposed a duty on him. For this reason the soul cannot benefit greatly if the human being does not act and think from within. Consequently, since no person can ever assume responsibility for another person’s soul but the human being has to accept this for himself, he is also obliged to scrutinise whether his thoughts and actions coincide with God’s will, and therefore he has to know God’s will, which is imparted to him through His Word. And thus God’s Word has to be the foundation and not human interpretations and additions; and in order to examine this, in order to be accountable one day, a deeply felt relationship with God is necessary, Who will then mentally reveal His will to the person who has the desire for truth....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna