BD.4993
November 2, 1950

SPIRITUAL COERCION

The greatest danger for man is spiritual coercion which prevents the recognition and free decision of his will.

Each man is an individual being that has to perfect itself and, therefore, everyone is responsible for his own way of life on which depends the attainment of a degree of perfection.

Everyone must decide freely and testify to Me of his will. I demand this testimony and am not agreeable to it that one person determines for his fellow-men in what direction they have to think, will or act.

A man's freedom of will must not be violated, but it is, when the aim of a person's will is determined by laws and he is directed either by promises or threats to move only in a particular direction. I will never accept such coercion although I do not openly oppose it so as not to use coercion Myself.

Man is a thinking individual, and I have given him the ability to will and think freely so that in the last stage of his spiritual development on earth he can make his decision, in accordance with which he will then be rewarded in eternity.

If a man makes known to his fellow-men the consequences of using their will in a righteous or wrong way, it is good and in accordance with My will. It is also My will that light is given concerning the relationship that exists and that should exist between man and his creator. However, a good instruction concerning the divine doctrine of love and the importance of practicing unselfish love of one's fellow-man is quite sufficient. And all this must be done without coercion.

Man must be taught, but never forced into accepting a doctrine because he must use his own judgement and impulses in directing his will. I gave man a free will, but you take it away from him, thus using your own will in a wrong way, although you believe that you work for Me and are commissioned by Me.

I have never commissioned My disciples to spread My doctrine by way of religious intolerance because this could never lead to a faith beneficial for the soul in its upward development.

Besides, I demand of mankind only the belief in Me as the Supreme Perfect Being and faith in My omnipotence, wisdom and love as well as the power of love.

If you believe this, you will yourselves experience the power of love and recognise also everything else that is essential, for then My Spirit which teaches truth will work within you.

However, a faith that has been forced upon you will not lead you to perfection. Such a faith will seldom become alive, and I cannot look upon a compulsory faith as the decision of a free will because your will could not become active within you if you only confess a certain creed as a result of your education without having evaluated it as to its worth or otherwise.

What I demand of you to believe is that you can win beatitude only through love, but you have to acquire this belief by yourselves. You may accept the doctrine about it, but have to practice love in order to gain the certainty within yourselves that love is the redeeming power; and only this inner conviction is faith, which is life-giving because it was won through a free will.

Any type of coercion is a sign of imperfection because it violates free-dom, which originally was a property of the spiritual being and which it has to regain if it wants to win beatitude.

How can a coercive measure that deprives a person of spiritual freedom be claimed to be in accordance with My Will, if a person is virtually compelled to believe something which, as far as I am concerned, needs completely free deliberation and acceptance?

I as the supreme lawgiver have given mankind no other commandment than that of love, which comprises also Moses' ten commandments, because that would bear witness against Myself or cause doubts in the free will of man.

However, men presume that they can give laws for which they have no authority, thus they infringe upon man's free will.

Every law is coercion, and every kind of coercion is against My will. If a man has no freedom of thinking, but is forced to believe in some doctrine, his volition-test on earth comes to nothing, for it must be his own decision, not a decision into which he was forced.

Every dogmatic doctrine is coercion, irrespective of whether it is true or not. Every dogma is a violation of the free will, which at the moment of a spiritual decision is unfree because this decision has already been dictated and can only be evaded by committing a sin. I afford everyone the right of a free decision.

I only demand deliberation concerning that which a man is asked to believe. If after deliberation he cannot accept it with full conviction, I do not rate it as a sin. However, he does sin, if he confesses a doctrine with his lips without having asked his heart.

Everyone is responsible only for himself, and it is presumptuous if one person wants to determine the faith of thousands by a precept which must always be considered a dogmatic doctrine.

Whatever violates man's freedom of will, can never have My approval, for not even I Myself demand of people the acceptance of truth if their own will does not desire it.

I do keep teaching them and offering them the pure truth, but everyone is free to accept or reject it.

And this is how you should teach your fellow-men, lovingly, but allowing them spiritual freedom for their decision, for a coerced faith has no merit before Me.

AMEN