Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/7422

7422 Just retribution in the beyond....

October 4, 1959: Book 78

You have a certain amount of freedom, you can think and act and speak according to your will, you can live your earthly life as you like.... even if your activity is occasionally prevented, if the implementation of your will is restricted through My will. However, you are nevertheless free beings who can shape their lives as they wish.... in contrast to the beings which are still bound within the works of creation and must live according to My law of eternity, according to My will.... And it is this freedom of will which makes you responsible in earthly life, for it can be inclined towards My will but also be opposed to it, your will can strive towards something that entirely contradicts My eternal order, and therefore you are accountable to Me for your will or action. For this short life on earth is a gift of grace for you humans.... You once expressed your contradictory will and thus your apostasy from Me, so now you are offered the opportunity again to prove your will for Me. You were not permanently condemned because of your apostasy but were given the opportunity to return to Me and to look for unification with Me. And for this you are given earthly life, which you therefore should use to the best of your ability for the very purpose of finally returning to Me. Earthly life is therefore an immeasurably valuable gift of grace which you should not live carelessly without bearing the actual purpose in mind. For one day you will be held to account for it, and your fate in eternity depends on your conduct during your earthly life. One day you will bitterly regret an unused earthly life, since one day the hour will come when you will realise the significance of earthly life and how you utilised it, and this hour can give rise to the bitterest remorse in you. But death does not end the life of the soul, it is just that the soul cannot often speak of a state of 'life'; instead, it finds itself in a state of helplessness and darkness without losing awareness of its existence. And then it will sorely feel its lack of strength and light, it will often be close to despair and yet never die again, so that sooner or later it will have to consider changing its state, and then it will listen to the beings which want to help with this.

Nevertheless, it is extremely difficult to achieve in the beyond what easily could have been achieved during its earthly life.... As on earth it must fulfil the commandments of love.... And it will indeed have the opportunity to do so because much hardship exists in the spiritual kingdom; it will meet souls which are shaped like itself and then it will have to kindle its love for these wretched beings if it wants to improve its own state a little.... But particularly souls like this only ever think of themselves, and therefore its ascent in the kingdom of the beyond is very difficult and questionable, for without love there is no ascent, no improvement and no spiritual progress.... Yet every individual soul can only be considered within the scope of justice; it must travel the same path it should have taken on earth.... the path of love and of suffering.... until it is sufficiently purged that it can receive the rays of light and be affected by their strength. Even in the beyond it cannot be forcibly led to the right path, but it will always have enough opportunities where its will can prove itself, and again it must.... like on earth.... use its will in the right direction. Then it will mature and attain a degree of light which ends its wretched state and subsequently helps it go increasingly more upwards.... towards greater reception of light and more happiness. A soul can also ascend in the beyond but it must always strive for it of its own free will.... it must always, like on earth, practise love and through love finally find Jesus Christ, Who is the first and last goal even in the kingdom of the beyond, for no-one can become blissfully happy without Jesus Christ and His Salvation....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna