Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/8475

8475 God wants no compulsion.... The truth sets you free....

April 22, 1963: Book 89

The will towards God is at the same time the will to detach oneself from God's adversary.... But the will towards God will also always mean the will towards truth, for the human being who is completely wrongly taught can only free himself from the adversary when he walks in truth.... The truth alone sets you free.... through the truth the adversary's nature will be revealed as well as his shameful work and activity, furthermore, through the truth the human being will also set himself free from all error, and he will realise that error is intended to keep the human being in bondage of thought and will.... that it chains people to decrees and commandments which, again, only originated from God's adversary and which are therefore intended to keep the human being bound, to make him completely unfree and to prevent him from ever finding the truth.... But the truth sets you free.... for anyone who lives in truth no longer recognizes the adversary as his lord, he has recognized him and detests him, he consciously turns to the One Who is the Eternal Truth.... Thus an ecclesiastical organisation based on error can never permanently bind a person to itself who has found the truth.... And thus as long as the human being is bound to this organisation by commandments or laws it cannot possibly represent the pure truth, because truth does not tolerate coercion and because coercion has only ever been imposed on people by My adversary, since God Himself created every being in fullest freedom of will.... Hence, as long as people are required to perform earthly or spiritual actions or tasks under the threat of punishment, there is obviously coercion, because the human being shall then be burdened with the feeling of having sinned if he does not comply with those requirements.... The human being should have complete spiritual freedom, under no circumstances should he be subjected to spiritual coercion.... He should only ever be taught in love that God's commandments must be fulfilled.... the commandments of love for God and love for one's neighbour.... This alone is the task of those who want to help people to the well-being of their souls, who want to be God's servants and thus have to render this service to Him, to educate people to love.... But love must also be exercised freely, no services may be demanded under compulsion which are devoid of love, which are only done again in order to comply with human requirements but which do not result in the slightest progress for the soul. Now it is a false objection if it is said that humanity needs laws because without them it would go through earthly life completely indifferent and its state would be completely disenchanted.... You humans, who consider such things to be good, only seemingly maintain a certain order which appears externally, yet the souls are raped because they are deprived of all free determination, because people have to act what they should do of their own free will and this is therefore entirely worthless for their maturing. Moreover, they are deprived of their sense of responsibility if they strictly adhere to what they are offered by individuals who feel called to lead the masses.... With only a little thought you must realise that such commandments, which signify a compulsion of will for the human being.... because in the case of non-fulfilment they are called sin.... can only have come from the adversary of God.... For precisely in the stage as a human being on this earth free will alone determines his spiritual progress, and every spiritual coercion is satanic activity.... And if you know all this it will also be easy for you to completely detach yourselves from spiritual knowledge which obviously reveals the work of God's adversary.... For the truth sets you free.... Memorise that you are no longer subject to the adversary's fetters if you live in truth, which only comes forth from God and which you can only receive and understand if you have already intimately united yourselves with your God and Father, so that you have made a free decision of will and the adversary has lost all right to you. Then you will also no longer fear anything that has been threatened to you by those who are still connected to the adversary, otherwise they would also recognize and strive for the pure truth and try to completely detach themselves from error.... Know that God Himself is love and that He will never impose those punishments on a human being which are threatened to you if you do not submit to the teachings and commandments which were given by human beings under the influence of the adversary in order to keep people in bondage.... The truth alone sets you free, and without hesitation you will release yourselves from those fetters if you are in possession of the truth which God gives to everyone who earnestly desires it, and which alone is the light through whose shine the adversary and his activity is unmasked.... And anyone who has the truth is now also a divine creature again, and he truly no longer needs to fear his adversary....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers