I Appeal to You
... through Bertha Dudde  - 17.08.1960 

7675   Scrutinising spiritual knowledge ....

Anything you receive in the form of spiritual information needs to be scrutinised by you first, otherwise you won’t know whether you receive truth or error, in which case the spiritual knowledge will be of little use to you. And you can only ever make this test after heartfelt prayer for spiritual enlightenment and by comparing it with the divine Word which is conveyed to you from above. Only when they recognisably correspond to each other can you unhesitatingly accept and dwell on it. But this correspondence must be recognisable, otherwise it is not of divine origin and you may reject it. Anyone who thus turns to God Himself for support by appealing to Him for enlightenment of thinking need not fear being deceived, for his thinking will be guided such that he will notice every contradiction and recognise it as error. But the adversary works with much cunning and trickery and does not shy away from shrouding himself in the garment of an angel in order to delude people, for he is an enemy of truth. He knows that the truth shows a correct image of God and motivates people to love Him. And that is what he aims to prevent and therefore provides a distorted image of God, Who can only be feared but not loved. And the first thing you should watch out for is whether God’s love is clearly recognisable or whether God as a merciless judge merely awakens fear in people. In that case, such teaching can be safely rejected as not coming ‘from God’ ..... Then the adversary’s activity manifests itself so clearly, that it is not difficult to clarify it. God is a God of love and of mercy .... He wants to be recognised as a Father, thus love must also be plainly evident, and he may not be portrayed as an avenging or punishing God. If, however, God’s love is doubtful, then the spiritual information, which portrays God such that love cannot be recognised, should also be doubted. Yet you should not accept any spiritual knowledge without scrutinising it, for God’s adversary exerts his influence wherever he can, and often he especially tries to deceive the bearers of truth, so that they themselves begin to doubt the truth, which is exactly what he intends. He hates the truth because it reveals him and his activity and because the truth invariably leads back to God, which he tries to prevent by using every available means. And it will always be and remain a battle between truth and lie, between light and darkness ..... God’s adversary will always try to influence a person such that it can be difficult for him to differentiate between truth and lie, but a sincere prayer to God for spiritual enlightenment will always protect him from accepting or supporting error. For if the strength from God is desired it will also be effective, it grants the human being a brightly shining light .... for God is love and love does not deny itself .... God Himself protects His living creations from the darkness if they desire to be enlightened ....

Amen