The law of self-determination is of the greatest importance for the being, for it was thereby granted a certain freedom which only makes perfection possible. As long as the being is under the influence of God's adversary, it is completely dependent on him, both in its attitude and in its activity. The attitude will always be directed against God, just as the activity will likewise always contradict the divine will. However, the being could not be called to account despite its attitude directed against God as long as it was forcibly at the mercy of the evil power.... Only freedom of will justifies subsequent responsibility. And so God took away the adversary's power over the being and thus placed it freely in the spiritual world and left it free to decide for or against Him. It should not feel any compulsion from any side, but God wanted that the beingness wanted to return to Him of its own accord and therefore gives it utmost freedom on earth and also knowledge about the meaning and purpose of earthly life, advantage and disadvantage of a wrong attitude. He holds the joys of the beyond before him on the one hand as well as the agonizing state of remorse on the other, and He thereby wants to make the decision easy for the being itself, but this has to be made by the being itself. As soon as God took away the adversary's power over the beings created by his will, He also loosened His power towards these beings.... He placed the beings in a position to be able to decide freely, but the latter remained up to them. And so it is divine will that nothing in the universe should be in the bondage of the spirit.... although the stage of free will in man is directed by God, this nevertheless has nothing to do with his self-determination. The soul, the beingness in the human being, remains completely free and can now decide in favour of the earthly, in favour of matter, which is part of evil, because it harbours the unredeemed spiritual in itself.... or also in favour of the spiritual in itself, which after the free decision enters into union with the light-filled spirit, which was from eternity. All coercion of the soul is ruled out and consequently one can also speak of self-redemption, since precisely this will, the free decision, results in either redemption or being bound. And thus every being has to bear the responsibility for its life in eternity itself, since it can turn to God in complete freedom, to the outcome of its strength, or also to God's adversary, who allowed his God-opposing will to become active during the creation of those beings....

Amen

This proclamation is not used in any themebook.