I Appeal to You
... through Bertha Dudde  - 02.11.1950 

4993   Spiritual coercion .... Dogma ....

The greatest danger for a human being is spiritual coercion which prevents the recognition and free decision of his will’s direction. Every person is an individual being that has to perfect itself and, therefore, everyone is responsible for his own way of life on which depends the attainment of the degree of perfection. Hence everyone has to make a free decision and testify to Me of his will. I Am demanding this testimony and do not agree that one person should tell his fellow human beings how they must think, will or act. The freedom of will must not be violated, but it is violated when the objective of a person’s will is determined by law and he is required either by promises or threats to move only in a particular direction .... I will never accept such coercion although I will not openly oppose it so as not to use coercion Myself.

The human being is a thinking individual who received the ability of free will and thought from Me purely for the purpose of making a decision during the last stage of his spiritual development on earth, in accordance with which he will then be rewarded in eternity. It is indeed good and in accordance with My will when a person informs his fellow human beings of the consequences of using their will in a righteous or wrong way. It is also My will when all manner of clarification is given concerning his relationship with his Creator. However, a good instruction concerning the divine doctrine of love and the importance of practicing unselfish love for one’s fellow human being is quite sufficient. But it should all be done without coercion .... The human being should be educated but never forced into accepting a doctrine because he should use his own judgment and inclination in directing his will.

I gave the human being free will but if you take it away from him you will be using your own will wrongly, although you will believe that you work for Me on My behalf. I never gave My disciples the task to spread My teaching by way of religious coercion because an enforced faith would not benefit the soul’s higher development. I only ever require people to believe in Me as a supremely perfect Being, I only ever require their belief in My omnipotence, wisdom and love and its strength .... For if you believe in this you will experience the strength of love yourselves and will automatically recognise everything else you need to believe, because then you will be truthfully taught by My spirit within yourselves. However, enforced faith will not lead you to perfection. Enforced faith will rarely come alive, and I cannot look upon enforced faith as a decision of free will because your will has not yet become active, instead you will have acknowledged a school of thought as the result of your education without having properly evaluated it as to its worth or worthlessness.

I want you to believe that you can only attain beatitude through love .... but you have to acquire this belief yourselves; you can certainly accept the teaching of it but then you will first have to practise love in order to gain the certainty that love is spiritual strength, and only this inner certainty is assured faith which is life-giving because it was voluntarily gained. All coercion is a sign of imperfection because it violates the freedom which originally was the spiritual being’s characteristic and which it has to regain in order to become blessed. How can coercive measures which deprive people of spiritual freedom be considered to be in accordance with My will .... if a person is virtually duty-bound to believe something which, as far as I Am concerned, needs absolutely free deliberation and acceptance?

As supreme Lawgiver I gave people no other commandment than that of love, which also comprises the Ten Commandments of Moses, but which only will be fulfilled if love is voluntarily practised, otherwise it would bear witness against Myself or it would question the human being’s free will. However, people presume that they can establish laws without having the authority to do so. Thus they infringe upon the person’s free will .... Every law is coercion, and every kind of coercion is contrary to My will. As soon as a person no longer has freedom of thought, as soon as he is forced to believe in a doctrine, his earthly test of volition comes to an end, for he has to make his own decision and not an enforced one. And every dogmatic doctrine is coercion, irrespective of whether it is true or not.

Every dogma is a violation of free will .... which will not be free at the time of a spiritual decision, since the decision has already been dictated to him and can only be bypassed by committing a sin. I gave every human being the right of free choice; I merely require that he should seriously consider what he is asked to believe. If, in spite of serious deliberation, he cannot accept it with full conviction, I will not regard it as a sin; however, he will commit a sin if he affirms a doctrine with his lips without having asked his heart. Every person is responsible for himself, and it is presumptuous when one person intends to determine the faith of thousands with an instruction which must always be considered a dogmatic doctrine.

Anything that violates a human being’s freedom of will can never find My approval, since not even I Myself determine people’s acceptance of truth if their own will does not want it. I will certainly continue to teach people and transmit the pure truth to them, but everyone is at liberty to accept or reject it. And thus you should simply teach your fellow human beings with love but allow them spiritual freedom for their decision, because an enforced faith has no merit before Me ....

Amen