90. The dragon means adamant supporters of the modern-day view that faith is what justifies us. To make me convinced and certain of this, I was given the opportunity to see thousands and thousands of such people gathered into an assembly. From a distance they looked like a dragon with a long tail, which was covered with spikes like a bramble bush; the spikes symbolize falsities.

On another occasion I saw a dragon that was even larger. With its back lifted up, it reached its tail toward heaven in an effort to drag the stars down. The stars in that world symbolize truths.

28. Now, it might appear as though the two camps have opposite beliefs regarding whether we have free choice or not in our conversion or in the process by which we are made just. In fact, though, the two actually do agree with each other, as we can see if we consider in the right way the statements written in the Council of Trent; see §6 a, b; and compare these with the things written in the Formula of Concord; see §15 m. All the people in the Christian world have been baptized. Christians therefore have free choice, which allows them not only to hear the Word of God but also to agree with it and embrace it with faith. Therefore no one in Christianity is like a log of wood.