Brief description of the life and work of Bertha Dudde

Autor: Klaus Schmedemann

A preliminary remark

Here is the link to Wikipedia with a deflated account of Bertha Dudde's life and work.

Short description of Bertha Dudde's life and work
                                                                                                  on Wikipedia in 2007

Bertha Dudde (* 1 April 1891 in Liegnitz, Silesia; † 18 September 1965 in Leverkusen) has left behind 9,000 chapters of prophecies which, according to her own account, she received she received through her inner voice.

Life

Bertha Dudde grew up with six siblings. siblings, the second eldest daughter of a painter. in poor circumstances. She enjoyed only the the standard elementary school education of the time, and early on she her penchant for tailoring in order to support her to support the family financially. This activity she pursued this activity until her old age, in order to to earn a living for herself.

Her parents belonged to different Christian denominations. of different Christian denominations and raised their raised their children in relative religious freedom. religious freedom. She therefore had little denominational knowledge worth mentioning, for she kept herself from ecclesiastical influence because, according to her own because, by her own admission, she was not able to fully affirm what was taught and practised there. She felt herself herself as a "blank slate" when on 15 June 1937, after intimate prayer, as a "resounding word". as a "resounding word" and wrote it down.

(Information from Bertha Dudde's autobiography, written on 22. November 1953)

Short description of the work

Formal structure, plot scope, onceptuality and linguistic design

The complete work consists of up to 9030 consecutively numbered and dated and dated, each with a different, self-contained different, self-contained contents, which were which can only be combined into thematic foci at a later date. thematic foci. For better manageability of the printed editions the printed editions into individual books books, which correspond to the respective volume of the of the individual manuscript clauses of the original

The world view that emerges from the the totality of the proclamations is clearly Christian in clearly Christian in orientation. The temporal and The temporal and eventual framework of the work as a whole.., clearly exceeds that of the Christian Bible.

Each of the individual books constitutes a a self-contained presentation or instruction on a specific, spiritual fact. The linguistic The linguistic design of the proclamations always allows only one unambiguous terminology. Each assertion assertion is usually immediately followed by a corresponding justification. The individual proclamations are interlinked in their entirety to form an almost contradiction-free and coherent spiritual worldview. worldview.

Basic spiritual Positioning

The work of Bertha Dudde fundamentally supports on the one hand, fundamentally supports the Christian worldview by the biblical context in a much larger context of meaning context and, in his view, gives it an increase in credibility. thereby giving it an increase in credibility, if some traditional interpretations of biblical of biblical statements are revised. Nevertheless, except for the fact that it establishes the redemptive work of Jesus Christ as spiritually indispensable and describes the "following of Christ" as the actual purpose of life on earth, it is obviously free of any obviously free of any formal formally binding regulations for achieving this goal. goal. The primacy of the free decision of the unrestrained will is always emphasised. free decision of the unrestrained will. If this will decides in favour of God, this attains a quality that cannot be distinguished from any decision under any kind of spiritual pressure or coercion. pressure or coercion of any kind.

On the other hand, it takes a clear and unambiguous position against a religion that has ossified into and ritualisation in the teaching and proclamation of some and preaching of some traditional church organisations. church organisation. For its correction and return to its spiritual the spiritual origin, the proclamations offer and their own opinion, which also serve as a basis for the could also serve as a basis for the ecumenism of all Christian Christian communities. They also offer approaches to theological mysteries, such as theodicy theodicy, the Trinity, the incarnation of God, or controversial God, or for controversial issues such as original sin, predestination or free will.

Representation of the expanded spiritual view

Truthful knowledge of the primordial beginning, earth task and future destiny of the human soul is, in the view of the work is a weighty cause for man to voluntarily voluntarily, earnestly and in full trust of his God and God and Creator.

This is where the mediated realisation can first lead, that life as a human being is not the beginning of the existence existence of the human soul, but that it has already existed for periods of time that can only be described with the concept of eternities.

The proclamations tell of the act of creation of all that is in the spiritual kingdom of God, long before the material material creation itself was created. Images God, beings of light of the highest intelligence, primordially created for eternal life in blissful happiness, directed their free will in wrong ways and fell away from God. They followed in their blindness, they followed the one who created them using divine divine inflowing power, the light bearer (Lucifer), the primordial only being who was directly brought forth in all God in all perfection. They fell into the depths and followed the one who first rose up against who first rose up against God, and in some synonymous in some views of religion with the "fallen Angels" of God.

The manifestations now make the statement that every human soul is nothing other than such a once fallen original spirit. They also describe the divine "plan of salvation and redemption" for the reclamation of all once fallen spirits. They describe the material creation as the direct consequence of this apostasy of the beingness once in the spiritual realm and at the same time as a divine means to ultimately regain all this, in that originally free, but God-opposing spirituality was transformed into matter and, by means of initially compulsory, natural law-like service in the form of material in the form of material works of creation, controlled upward development.

The proclamations give knowledge of the nature and extent of the upward of the upward development of the bound spiritual in the material material creation, until it again reaches the degree of maturity that which permits a final embodiment in a material material outer form, in order to be able to test of will in free will in a "trial life" given to it as a "trial life" as a human being in relative freedom, as the "crown of creation", on the success or failure of which his further development depends. or failure of which depends his further development.

They give knowledge of the epochs of redemption, at whose at the end of which a complete "straightening out" of the of the creature is necessary in order to restore the order order, which allows us to make a decision in free will. to make a decision in free will. Thus there is the struggle of the light (truthful, illuminating knowledge of the spiritual knowledge about the spiritual connections) against the darkness (error and obscuration of the knowledge of God of God by His creatures, caused by the God's adversary), until even the last, God-rejecting being has returned to God.

The proclamations now particularly present the greatness of the the greatness of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. largely unknown, outstanding merit is that the power of the the fact that the power of the adversary of God over his former his former followers was broken, for the original offence of the beings against God as the eternal Love itself was committed in the state of fullest knowledge and and would therefore not be excusable by them even in eternity. excusable by them through their own atonement. In addition the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, according to this view a possible strengthening of the will of the being that once was God's adversary, in order to be able to freely to be able to decide freely in an unrestrained will, to which Lord it will now turn.

In the proclamations, limited descriptions of descriptions of otherworldly realms, their meaning, purpose and purpose and usefulness in connection with the further development of the spiritual being, which is no longer spiritual (soul) that is no longer bound to a material form. In addition, the activity of the once non-fallen spiritual fallen spiritual being, whose own whose own beatification it is supposed to be, to be able to participate in the fallen spiritual.

Other themes

Foundations of the New Revelations, The nature of God, The Christ problem, Prophets, God and the Churches, The Church of Christ, Rectification of Heresies and Errors, Examining Spiritual Good, Truth, Sin and Forgiveness, Intercession, Love, Grace, Sensual Love-Marriage-Responsibility, Trinity, Freedom of the Will, Mind-Knowledge-Knowledge, body-soul-spirit, reasoning and thought, faith-unbelief-superstition, admonitions and warnings, Incarnation - Reincarnation, Otherworldly Helpers, Inner Voice, Spiritism Voice, Spiritism, Speaking in Tongues, Possession, Immortality of the soul, Sickness and suffering, Good-evil, Lucifer, Why does God allow it (Theodicy), End-time predictions, The Second Coming of Christ, Word proliferation (list not exhaustive).

Evaluation, criticism and apologetics

The overall work has the potential in its statements, to be highly polarising. The reason for this lies in the the claim to be a revelation of divine origin to the spiritual standards to man in a direct, guiding form. spiritual standards for orientation. This direct form is thus outside the tradition of the other other religious works, which have the human being man integrated in the interaction with his environment relative to his God and Creator. God and Creator.

From the point of view of the humanities, there are currently several treatises on various individual aspects (see (see literature and weblinks), an exhaustive examination and and evaluation of the work in its entirety has yet to be and evaluation of the work in its entirety is still pending.

Criticism and/or apologetics remain within the decision-making authority of each examiner himself:

While proponents of Bertha Dudde's proclamations ascribe an unprecedented unprecedented depth and consider them to be the most as the most valuable new divine revelation, opponents opponents accuse them of being unspecific, of having prophecies of other seers and partly existential contradictions to the existential contradictions with the Bible.

It is possible that the texts of the proclamations can have a strong suggestive effect on readers, which is largely due to the largely due to the linguistic formulation in the "I" form. in which they are predominantly written. are written. This can create a more or less a more or less pronounced impression of a direct, personal divine address, which can influence the reader's inner the reader's inner readiness to give the facts presented a to attribute a higher degree of credibility to the to the facts presented.

This criticism becomes irrelevant when one considers that God speaks in the first person in the Bible. Here are just a few examples:

"God said to Moses: I will be who I will be." (Ex. 3, 14)

"I am the LORD your God." (Exodus 20:20)

"I will go before you and level the mountain land. make level." (Isaiah 45:2)

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God." (Revelation 1:8)

"Verily, verily, I say unto you." (John 6:26)

Bertha Dudde's choice of words is indeed such that a friendly, instructive tone always emerges, that there is always a friendly, instructive tone of voice. tone, which is always consistent but not threatening or condemning, critics nevertheless warn against the indirect indirect impression of being compelled to act which can be expressed in the need to ensure the further dissemination of this work. to ensure the further dissemination of this work.

In her work, Dudde also gives numerous "explanations" on questions of scientific questions, especially those of astronomy. astronomy. However, these often do not stand up to closer scientific examination, for example the gas planet For example, the gas planet Saturn is described as a planet made of of transparent metal, and it is claimed that other stars that other stars cannot exist without our sun. without our sun. In these cases, an understanding is only tolerable if it is assumed that the texts do not only describe directly observable and measurable physical phenomena that can be directly observed and measured, but rather try to describe a level behind them, which justifies and controls these observations that are accessible to us. and controls.

Organisational form

Although a small circle of followers formed around Bertha Dudde during her lifetime circle of followers formed around her during her lifetime, no independent no independent, outwardly discernible movement or outwardly discernible movement or community has emerged, which is not to be expected in the future.

The reason for this can be found in the content of the of the work, all of which refer to formal dogmatics, sacramental acts and liturgical rituals. argumentation that can be interpreted. This results in universality of the spiritual statements, which are thus inter-denominational or cross-denominational, or or denominationally unbound.

As a consequence, followers of the work can be found of the work can be found in all Christian religious communities, as well as among non-denominationally non-denominational people, which makes it difficult to categorise the usual theological categories, because the main emphasis is obviously not on a formally outwardly visible form of manifestation, but but on an inwardly effective, spiritual development.

Literature

Matthias Pöhlmann (ed.), "Ich still have much to say to you..." Messengers of God - Prophets - New Revelators, EZW-Texte 169, Berlin 2003. To be obtained against a donation from the Evangelische Zentralstelle for Worldview Questions (EZW) in Berlin.