Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/6541

6541 The sleep of the soul.... Misguided teaching....

May 6, 1956: Book 70

It is extremely wrong to deem the souls of the departed as being in an eternal sleep until the arrival of Judgment day.... This idea proves total ignorance of the soul's process of development, furthermore, it proves a wrong attitude towards Me or a person could not think so wrongly.... and it proves that there is no belief in the soul's life after death, for an eternal sleep of death, as presumed by people, cannot be described as 'life after death'.

But this misguided thought is also a great disadvantage for the departed souls, because prayers will not be offered for them and thus they will not receive the help which they need so badly. But people who adopted this doctrine and were taught wrongly will not accept being taught otherwise, and yet they hold on to the error as if it was gospel truth. Here, too, My adversary's work is obvious, who particularly wants to stop people from praying for the souls, because such prayer could help to set them free, which he tries to prevent. But even when these misguided teachings are confronted by the truth, people will not take the only path which could provide them with clarification.... They need only ask Me for an explanation, if they do not want to believe those who would like to correct their error.... they need only approach Me Myself. But they won't take this path, and therefore they are beyond help and refuse to let go of their error.

However, these departed souls suffer immense hardship if they are not remembered in prayer. And people on earth cannot receive instructions for the better from the spiritual kingdom either, because they do not believe in a connection between the world of light and people on earth and therefore do not make themselves mentally available to the knowing powers. They are only concerned about their earthly life as human beings until death. Their idea of an 'eternal sleep of the soul' until 'Judgment day' only proves that they lack all knowledge about the spirits' process of redemption, about My fundamental nature, which is love, wisdom and omnipotence, and about Jesus' act of Salvation.... Their knowledge is very limited and does not correspond to the truth in the slightest, and when truth is brought to them they resist it. And yet they try to prove their point of view with the Word of God, with the Scriptures, but it is not their 'awakened spirit' that finds those references, rather, My adversary himself makes use of My Word when he wants to cause confusion.... But he is only successful when a person merely uses his intellect and does not ask Me Myself for enlightenment through the spirit when he asks for an explanation.

The letter kills, only the spirit gives life.... Anyone who does not entrust himself to Me first, so that I can guide his thoughts correctly, will truly be killed by the letter, since My adversary can use the letter too but will interpret its meaning completely differently and thereby make the biggest error seem acceptable to people.... The doctrine about the soul's sleep of death is a truly dubious teaching.... a teaching which also causes great indignation in the needy souls of the beyond, who 'live' and yet are so weak that they would be grateful for every gift of strength a loving prayer could impart on them. People should frequently remember those souls in their prayers, whose family members on earth believe this misguided teaching.... so that they can gather strength, ascend and mentally help them in turn. Although a life of love on earth will soon provide the souls with clear understanding, they first have to let go of erroneous teachings before they can be assigned to a field of activity themselves.... since every activity in the spiritual kingdom consists of spreading the pure truth.

Hence, a soul that lived a life of love on earth is blessed indeed, it will easily detach itself from misguided attitudes and wrong spiritual knowledge. The others, however, will find themselves in utmost adversity, because every misguided teaching has damaging effects on the soul, but especially the teaching about the eternal sleep of death, since it can actually lead to a kind of darkness similar to death, and at the same time reduce the opportunities for help due to the belief that prayers are futile.... However, anyone who sincerely turns to Me Myself will become clearly aware how misguided this teaching is....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna