Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/5556

5556 Spiritual adversity: untruth.... false picture of God....

December 14, 1952: Book 61

You will only be able to control the spiritual adversity if you spread the truth, for the spiritual adversity consists of the fact that humanity walks in error, that it is blind in spirit, that it lacks the right knowledge.... that it lacks the truth. For as soon as they correctly recognize the correlation between the eternal creator and people, as soon as they know the purpose of their earthly life, they will already have a certain degree of love, because then they will already love Me as their father of eternity, Whom they will learn to recognize as supremely perfect, as wise, powerful and supremely good when they are taught the truth about Me. Truth presents Me in such a way that they can love Me, but error gives a distorted image of Me so that people may fear Me but are unable to love Me. For if I am portrayed to them as a God of vengeance, as a God of wrath, as a God Who punishes sinners, then this is a distorted image of My nature, Who is, after all, love Itself. If I wanted to keep people under compulsion by means of commandments I would not be a God of love either, not a father Who wants to let His children work in complete freedom, but I would be a tyrant Who only ever uses His power and strength and behaves differently towards people than a father does towards his children.... For My only commandments are My commandments of love which, however, cannot be fulfilled compulsorily either, because love requires the human being's free will again. I do not plunge people into the abyss but they are in it and I want to pull them up to Me.... not I do condemn people eternally but they keep themselves distant from Me and are therefore in a dreadful state, and I want to redeem them from it by virtue of My love.... But how do people present Me? Also on the part of those who believe to be active for Me and My kingdom? What useless formalities are demanded of people and how insignificant is the most important thing seen.... the life of love, which alone is valued by Me.... The teaching of Christ, the divine teaching of love, which the man Jesus proclaimed on earth, is certainly still preached today, yet they are only words which fall on people's ears, they are words which are no longer spoken vividly enough by the proclaimers because they lack the power of persuasion which alone My spirit can bestow upon them if the proclaimer lives in love himself. But My spirit must first be able to work if My word is to penetrate people's hearts, and where My spirit works there will also be truth. But love has grown cold amongst people and therefore truth can no longer be found, nor is it recognized as such by people when a bearer of truth wants to bring them light. And the path to Me cannot be found, for it does not go via misguided teachings. You first have to learn to recognize Me in My nature in order to learn to love Me, and only the pure truth which originates from Me gives you light.... But then the spiritual adversity will also be remedied for all people who are of good will....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers