Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/0420

0420 Present and past.... Redemption....

May 16, 1938: Book 9

The past solves itself.... the present is always the ever-determining. Making these words understandable to man, is often met with hard resistance.... and yet this problem is one of the most important laws of creation, according to which the Lord never judges and punishes with eternal damnation whoever once has detached himself from the past sinful life and has now accepted true knowledge in the present. This is all the more difficult to accept because man is responsible for his deeds at all times.... so therefore for all the past.... but in God's wisdom and love it is reserved to every creature to be released from the deserved punishment when his innermost being can still be guided on the right path and be transformed....

Then what he lacked before will never again be repaid, but will lovingly be forgiven him by the Lord and Savior. Therefore the Lord took upon Himself the suffering and sin of mankind; He suffered death on the cross to deliver them from this guilt of sin. Because it would rise into the immeasurable for humans, if they would want to erase all sin debt themselves one day.... Hence the Lord is so unspeakably interested in an inner conversion, because he wants to reduce the unspeakable pain in the hereafter for the children of the earth....

And the struggle for such souls, which walk on earth in darkness of spirit for a long time, is tremendous.... therefore it is necessary to present to them the great mercy of the Lord.... That they are allowed to free themselves from their guilt when a finite recognition of the eternally Divine causes them to purify themselves inwardly.... when they in this knowledge repent of their past life and through this make themselves worthy of all grace that is now offered to them in rich measure. God's goodness and mercy is great; he wipes out all guilt on earth where the heart lovingly turns to the Father - then the love for the Lord has first become alive in man, then his previous life will appear despicable to him, he will remember his previous failed life in deepest repentance, and this repentance and the will to henceforth be devoted to the Lord, cleanses him from all guilt.

So the past will always dissolve into nothing when it is replaced by the present in such a way that this present corresponds to the true purpose and goal for which man was allowed to embody himself on earth. Such transformations of the past life are an inestimable advantage for the earthly man.... the strength and the grace of God is granted to him in such a measure that he can also carry out the complete detachment from the past life with good will.... Only remorse will remain with him, but this will only have a beneficial effect on the inner formation of his being.

Whoever once recognizes his sins and implores the Lord for mercy in his deepest heart, will be received very lovingly by the Savior as a repentant sinner, and in all mildness and goodness the Lord says: "Your sins are forgiven....". He thus erases the debt of the past and takes the repentant child to His Father's heart.... He blesses it a thousand times over, because heaven rejoices more over one sinner who has recognized and found the Lord than over ninety-nine righteous people....

Amen

Translated by Alida Pretorius