6543 Descent into hell....

May 10, 1956: Book 70

On your own you will never succeed in transforming your nature, for you lack the strength to do so. However, there is One who has acquired this strength for you.... The human being Jesus managed to achieve something on your behalf to remedy your state of weakness which was the consequence of your past rebellion against God.... Thus He took the consequences of this guilt of yours upon Himself, He paid for your guilt with His death on the cross and thereby made it possible for you to receive strength again.... He has acquired the strength for you and dispenses it as a gift of grace.... providing you avail yourselves of the blessings, for which your acknowledgement of Jesus Christ as Son of God and Redeemer of the world is a prerequisite, which also includes the acknowledgement of Jesus' divinity. But what previously was impossible, that a person could change himself again into the being of light he had originally been, became possible through Jesus' crucifixion, and so the return to God will with certainty have taken place if only the human being abides by Jesus Christ, if he appeals to Him for help on the path to perfection. The strength he subsequently receives is sufficient to liberate himself from the control of the one who had pulled him into the abyss and mercilessly kept him captive there, because without the help of Jesus Christ the being has no strength of its own to resist. Jesus Christ, therefore, also descended to hell to bring help to those who had already lost their earthly life before the act of Salvation and were still controlled by God's adversary. They did not succeed in liberating themselves during their earthly life, for they were very weak willed and thus succumbed to the former and remained enslaved by him until the Saviour Jesus Christ arrived Whom they were allowed to follow unhindered, because He had also paid the purchase price with His blood for their souls. Yet even these souls' free will had to be observed.... but which was subsequently strengthened if the soul was not entirely hostile....

However, the descent into hell is not being understood properly if only the willing souls are being mentioned.... Jesus, the Crucified, also showed himself in the slough of total depravity, He dared to venture into His adversary's, His fallen brother's, realm.... He stood before Him with His wounds and showed Him what love was able to achieve.... He faced him like a brother, but even this immense sacrifice was unable to soften the latter's heart of stone.... Scornfully the prince of hell turned away and with him a large crowd of most evil spirits.... Love did not find the way to their hearts for their hatred was greater and their will was free. God certainly knew that this would not be successful; nevertheless, the inhabitants of hell were offered the treasure of grace too, for love does not stop, not even for the most abject creature, but it does not compel its surrender.... Yet the act of love by Jesus, the man, could not overcome the hatred and opposition, nevertheless, it was offered to the beings of darkness as well, for Jesus' love applied to all living creations and the descent into hell was a final attempt to persuade God's adversary to turn around, to give him the final opportunity to change and to shorten the time of redemption for the fallen beings.... But even this greatest act of love, which God Himself accomplished in Jesus, the man, did not succeed in changing Lucifer's arrogance and heartlessness, in fact, the latter regarded Jesus' crucifixion as a triumph of his power and strength.... He considered himself the winner who had succeeded in delivering a divine being to his servants.... who certainly recognised in the Being that had descended to hell the One Who had 'died' but not the One Who was 'resurrected'.... Lucifer did not surrender, which the Deity had foreseen from the start.... and thus was able to base on this the work of guiding the fallen beings back which, however, will also return this prodigal son into the Father's house one day when he recognises his weakness, but this will still take eternities until all those having been seduced by him have been completely redeemed....

Amen

This proclamation is used in the following themebook:

Themebook	Title	Download
152	Jesus Christ	ePub   PDF   Kindle

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