5504 The reason for the spiritual decline.... Addiction to matter....

October 11, 1952: Book 60

An essential cause of people's spiritual decline is the ever-increasing addiction to matter. It is like a disease which has overtaken people, which leads to death, it is like a fetter becoming ever harder which threatens people's lives, for it is not earthly but the spiritual life, the life of the soul, which is in danger. For the excessive desire for matter finds fulfillment, as it is always the human being's will itself which determines the state the soul. Hard matter will one day be its fate, which the human being so eagerly strives for. The human being cannot be made to understand that the desire for matter, for earthly possessions, means a step backwards, for he strives for something he had long since overcome, which meant a hard captivity for his soul, which was felt as bondage and therefore as torment by the soul and every release from it, every progress in the state of compulsion brought relief to the spiritual.

And now the human being strives for that from which his soul has fled because it was a fetter. Everything earthly material serves just the body, yet for the soul only if it is overcome, if it stimulates the human being's love to activity, to giving, of the disposing of one’s belongings out of love for the neighbor. Matter then can also be useful for the life of the soul, but it must always be a detaching from it, not a desire for it by self-interest. As long as earthly goods are desired, the desire for spiritual possessions does not exist or is only present to a very small extent; the soul, however, cannot take along anything earthly into the spiritual kingdom, but certainly spiritual possessions which alone prepare it for a blissful state. If only people would consider that the very next day could end their earthly life and that they would therefore make provisions for their stay in the spiritual kingdom.... if only they would consider that all earthly possessions are worthless to them and that what lives on in the spiritual kingdom passes over in utmost poverty, which the human being on earth is responsible for himself, which he could easily have averted by collecting spiritual treasures on earth.... if he would consider that the earthly life, even if it lasts a long time, is only a moment in time compared to eternity, but that the soul has to suffer from what the human being missed on earth.... Yet he can only be reminded again and again of the idleness of his life, he can only be admonished again and again to think ahead and not to waste all his earthly life's energy on goods which are and remain completely worthless. He is in possession of a free will and intellect and can therefore only be instructed but not be forced to live his life in such a way that the soul will recover and enter the spiritual kingdom vigorously. Therefore, again and again people will be deprived of what they so ardently desire on earth, again and again they will be made aware of the transience of earthly possessions, and blessed are those who realize that their purpose in the earthly life is different from the striving for earthly possessions; blessed are those who reflect and gather spiritual treasures, blessed are those who create and work for the soul's salvation, for they will be rich and blessed in the spiritual kingdom and will now be able to create and work because their wealth is imperishable....

Amen

This proclamation is used in the following themebooks:

Themebook	Title	Download
77	The Ten Commandments	ePub   PDF   Kindle
162	End Time Part 1 And 2	ePub   PDF   Kindle

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