Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/8296

8296 Does God punish the children for the sins of the fathers?....

October 11, 1962: Book 87

It is My will that you humans should live in truth because erroneous thoughts will obstruct your ascent, and because one misguided thought can result in many wrong thoughts. And hence you shall receive explanations too, providing you want these for the sake of the pure truth:

Although you are asked to believe in My justice, you should nevertheless not get a false impression of Me due to teachings which portray Me as a heartless God Who punishes unfairly.... And this false impression will come about as long as you do not understand the meaning of the words 'I will punish the sins of the fathers up to the fourth generation....' It is not the case that I Am merciless and that children and grandchildren have to do penance for the sins of their fathers.... because every soul is responsible for itself and has to make

Amends for their own guilt while still on earth, as long as it does not accept salvation through Jesus Christ. Nor will children and grandchildren be held responsible for the sins of their fathers.... But it can be a natural consequence of certain sins which affects children and grandchildren.... so that weaknesses and disabilities of a physical and psychological nature occur which are caused by the fathers' sinful life. And this consequence is also visible to other people, hence the weaknesses and disabilities are now regarded as punishments on My part.

As long as the people who have become sinful are still alive, the awareness that they are to blame for their children's misery can be punishment for them too, they can, due to this awareness, now also make

Amends for their sins, i.e. render a just compensation for their guilt, but they can only find forgiveness when they take their guilt to the cross and ask Jesus Christ for forgiveness, for salvation.... But the equally 'punished' children are souls in their own right who have consciously accepted the difficult fate of their earthly life in order to achieve maturity sooner, because they are informed of this beforehand and can also refuse to accept this fate. It is always merely a matter of the souls' maturation. The physical existence as a human being is more or less irrelevant.... a difficult earthly life is far more likely to lead to perfection than a peaceful and enjoyable earthly existence....

You people, however, still being ignorant, regard your lives as human beings too highly.... And you will always accuse Me of injustice when you are hard hit by fate, although it is based on My love for you.... The process of return offers many options but you rarely recognise them as such.... You only ever regard the conditions of adversity as heartlessness and injustice on My part, yet you do not recognise in them the opportunities to achieve complete maturity. Everything you do will be subject to law, naturally as well as spiritually. And thus every transgression will result in consequences which are sometimes obvious but occasionally not apparent, because an offence against My eternal order will always have a negative effect, because My justice alone will provide the human being with opportunities for compensation, so that he can make

Amends for his guilt while still on earth and need not enter the kingdom on the other side excessively burdened.... And even if he passes over unredeemed, if he has not yet found salvation through Jesus Christ, he can still be affected by the fate of those he cared about during his earthly life and feel remorse. And herewith he will have already taken a step forward because, although he will also be helpless in the kingdom on the other side due to his sinfulness, he will nevertheless try to help his loved one.... He has the will to do so and this is credited to him as love, and now he will be equally helped by the spiritual world.... Alternatively however, souls also consciously accept a difficult life in order to help those who facilitate their embodiment on earth and because they often notice the same inclinations and hence feel attached to them.

When they say that the sins of the father will be punished up to the fourth generation, this only means that serious offences against the eternal order result in naturally lawful consequences, which I, however, consent to because they in turn can enable other souls' ascent. It is up to a person's completely free will as to how he conducts himself in earthly life, just as it is the completely free will of the soul which embodies itself again.

When 'punishment' on My part is mentioned it is a misconception in as much that everything is only for the benefit of the soul, whatever is inflicted on it and whatever happens to it in its earthly life.... Because many a soul can only mature by way of suffering because it does not acquire a high degree of love of its own accord.... which subsequently would result in the decrease of suffering and make its fate on earth more endurable. However, as long as you always just want to see injustice on My part in regards to the destiny of long-suffering people you are merely displaying your lack of knowledge of My eternal plan of salvation; furthermore, you are unaware of My greater than great love for you, which only ever wants to save and will never condemn.... Compared to eternity time on earth is only brief, but during this extremely short period of time you humans have the opportunity to gather many treasures for eternity, you can make

Amends for much injustice and enter the kingdom of light, providing you find Jesus Christ and ask Him for forgiveness of your guilt....

Amen

Translated by Heidi Hanna