25. Brief Analysis

The books, sermons, and other sayings of the leaders of the Protestant Reformation make it clear that although those leaders separated faith and goodwill, nevertheless they did say that goodwill was an appendage to faith and eventually even an integral part of it. Nevertheless they tried to avoid bringing the two together and giving them a shared or concurrent power to save. After those leaders have stated that faith and goodwill are separate, they go on to unite them, and in fact express that union in clear and unambiguous wording. For example, they say that after we go through the process of being made just, our faith is never alone — our faith brings with it goodwill or good works, and if it does not, it is dead rather than living; see §13 n, o, p, q, v, y. In fact, they state that good works necessarily follow faith; see §13 u, v, w; and that the reborn use their new powers and gifts to cooperate with the Holy Spirit; see §13 x.

From the statements gathered above from the Council of Trent in §§4, 5, 6, 7, 8, it is clear that Roman Catholics present exactly the same teachings.

63. How did it come about that theologians attributed merely human qualities to God? The underlying cause is that all spiritual perception and enlightenment come from the Lord alone. The Lord is the Word, or divine truth. He is the true light that enlightens everyone (John 1:1, 9). He says, “I have come into the world as a light so that anyone who believes in me will not remain in darkness” (John 12:46). This light and the awareness that is gained from it flow only into people who acknowledge the Lord as the God of heaven and earth and who turn to him alone. This light and awareness do not flow into people who think in terms of three gods, as has been happening since the early establishment of the Christian church. Because the idea of three gods is an earthly notion, the only light it receives is earthly. It is incapable of opening up to receive any inflow of spiritual light. This is why the only qualities people have seen in God have been earthly in nature.

For another thing, if theologians had realized the vast incongruity between their ideas and the true divine essence, and had removed these ideas from the teachings on justification, this would obviously have amounted to a complete abandonment of a Christianity that had always been centered on the worship of three gods. [No alternative was available] before the predetermined time for the new church, when fullness and restoration would come.