Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/3916

3916 Sleep of death.... rising from the graves on the judgment day....

October 27, 1946: Book 49

The dead only rest according to the body, i.e., the body is relieved of all earthly activity, and the earthly-material fulfils its purpose assigned to it by the creator by still granting residence to innumerable living beings in its process of dissolution until it is completely dissipated again as spiritual substance. The human soul, however, no longer has a share in the body's state of rest; it can indeed dwell in the beyond without activity, yet this state is not a state of rest but a state of impotent awareness of its existence, a state of greatest powerlessness which is agonizing because it is consciously felt by the soul. Therefore, it is not possible to speak of a state of rest for the dead and even less so for souls which have reached a degree of perfection that they can enter spheres of light. For these souls are constantly active and are blissfully happy in their activity. And therefore it is wrong to speak of the sleep of the dead until their awakening on the last day.... A raising of the dead will certainly take place on that day.... the spiritually dead on earth will awaken from their sleep when they recognize God in His greatness and might and when they have to answer to His justice. But this awakening will be dreadful. And so, too, many who rest in the graves, bodily and spiritual, who already dwell in the spheres of the beyond, will be called to account because they prefer the rest of death to life-giving activity.... On the day of judgement those souls will also be sentenced to renewed banishment in matter, so that they can now taste the state of rest which seemed desirable to them and yet from which they were able to escape. For if a soul regresses in the beyond it will strive towards matter itself and its will will be complied with.... thus the raising from the graves on the last day will have to be understood.... The body of flesh has certainly found its rest insofar as it no longer needs to serve the soul, yet its spiritual substances must also continue to fulfil their purpose according to divine destiny. But the souls are to be pitied if they cannot enter the state of life after the death of the body, and the resurrection on the last day to eternal life or to eternal damnation is only to be understood in such a way that the realization will suddenly come to those living on earth, the awakening from deepest spiritual sleep, but to the evil for judgment; For good people who are turned towards God and fulfil God's will know about the state of life after bodily death and do not fear the latter, and they also enter eternal life. But many souls will also have to go the renewed course of development on the new earth through their creations, which have long since departed from this earth, which had time in abundance in the spiritual kingdom to change their will and become active, but which remained in their powerless state and preferred the tranquillity of death and therefore became increasingly more powerless, so that the spiritual itself hardened and is ripe for renewed banishment in earthly creations. These arise from their graves, as it were, for they are again offered a new opportunity to come to the light of day, albeit after an inconceivably long period of time. All that is dead in spirit will awake on the last day, yet not to life, but to judgment.... Blessed are those who do not rest in this sleep of death, blessed are those who are constantly active on earth or in the spiritual kingdom and whose activity does not consist in earthly toil but serves their spiritual development.... blessed are those who live in the spirit, who do not give themselves over to slothful sleep, who do not seek rest, for they will live in bliss and need not fear the day of resurrection....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers