I Appeal to You
... through Bertha Dudde  - 28.01.1949 

4551   Question ‘Why’ (Anthroposophist Cologne) .... Fall of the angels .... Sin ....

It remains perpetually unfathomable for human beings what moves God to rule and work as He does, because human intellect cannot comprehend what motives form the basis for God’s expression of strength; neither can it comprehend the interactions because it can only see and feel the result of what primordially had happened in the spiritual realm, in a world, of which all visible creations are mere weak reflections that cannot even comparatively be referred to and which were only created as a result of what had taken place a long time ago in the realm of God’s created spirits. These were the purest expression of His strength, consequently they too were powerful and strong, they were of the highest perfection. God’s creative will had transferred itself to His created beings too, with the result that all His thoughts urged to express themselves in them as well and therefore a creative will of unimaginable extent inspired these beings which now became active without restriction. In other words, new creations were produced which surpassed themselves; however, these new creations were always inspired beings and of greatest perfection too, therefore also cognitive and in possession of free will.

The first entity which came forth out of God outshone everything with its light and strength because it had developed from God Himself and found its bliss in the constant use of its unlimited strength. Its creations increased and its bliss grew immeasurably, God had imposed on it no limitations. However, He put it to the test because He wanted the entity to become aware of itself as the carrier of God’s outgoing strength .... This test required that the entity .... Lucifer .... should depict God to his creations as their origin, in order that he too would continue to always consciously accept the strength, which enabled him to be creatively active, from God. Thus he was meant to acknowledge God as his Creator and source of strength and his bliss would be unlimited for all eternity. He was not put to the test merely for the sake of this acknowledgment but he was expected to make a decision of his own free will that was intended to elevate him from the perfectly created being to a perfect being of his own volition, so that he too could use his power and strength as a truly divine being within the will of God ....

And he failed .... He did not want to be the recipient but the source of strength himself, and the amount of strength at his disposal seemed proof enough to him .... Therefore he volitionally separated himself from God, although a separation from Him was not possible since he couldn’t exist without God. And since his will, with the use of God’s strength, had created innumerable beings, he considered himself as their creator and of enormous strength and power; consequently he volitionally separated from God in arrogance and lust for power, thereby becoming sinful and pulling all of his creations into sin too. Although they themselves were still innocent they were completely under the influence of him who had given them life.

And these were now given the right of self-determination by God, they were permitted to see the light and in their perfection also recognised their origin, they could therefore also stay with God and participate in His glory. However, only few followed Him, that is, only few chose to stay with God of their own free will and, as His angels, were constantly with Him and worked for Him in the spiritual realm. The greater part, however, fell .... they followed their creator, freely chose to accept his will as their own and by doing so fell into a state of spiritual darkness .... His awareness was taken from him because the effect of the strength reduces as soon as the entity distances itself from God ....

But everything was and is strength out of God which eternally cannot be lost and therefore must return to Him in a way that God’s wisdom has judged to be effective. And this way is the progression through the earthly physical creation, which God had brought into being for the purpose of leading the fallen spirit back to Him. The spirit moves through this creation with a bound will, that is, in a state of compulsion on the slow path of upward development until it reaches the stage when its free will is returned to it and it is once again confronted with the decision to choose the power it wants to adhere to.

The being is burdened with the sin of its past opposition to God but can release itself by using God’s strength which it once had rejected; however, it has to acquire this through works of love and by consciously requesting it from God in prayer. It has to use its free will during its earthly life in the right manner .... it has to turn towards God again and acknowledge Him as eternal Father and Creator .... Then it returns once more to the state of light, it becomes a recipient of strength and can work again in accordance to its will which now is also God’s will .... and it shall be able to create and shape for its own happiness and thus be eternally blessed ....

Amen