72. It is self-evident that the church is at an end when it has no more truths related to faith and no more good actions related to goodwill. False beliefs extinguish true teachings and evil lives consume good actions related to goodwill; where you find false beliefs, there you find evil lives, and where you find evil lives, there you find false beliefs. These points will be taken up individually in chapters of their own [§§74– 76, 77– 81].

Why has the information lain hidden that “the close of the age” means the end of this church? The reason is that where false ideas are being taught and people trust and honor that teaching as correct, it is impossible for them to realize that the church is coming to an end. False ideas are seen as true and true ideas as false. What is false then rejects what is true and blackens it the way ink blackens clear water or soot blackens a clean sheet of paper. This is because the most distinguished scholars of our age proclaim, and people generally believe, that the church is now standing in the crystal clear light of the gospel, when in reality the entire surface of the gospel is covered in thick darkness for them and white spots have covered the pupils of their eyes.

81. Astoundingly, the teaching that faith is the only thing that justifies us occupies every square inch throughout the entire Protestant world; that is, within the clergy it rules as virtually the only theology. This position is what all candidates for the ministry eagerly learn, consume, and absorb in college. Then, as if they were people inspired with heavenly wisdom, they teach that position in their churches and publish it in their books. Through it they pursue and achieve the name, reputation, and glory of having superior erudition. Because of it they are given diplomas, fellowships, and awards. And all this goes on, despite the fact that as a result of that teaching alone the sun today is darkened, the moon is deprived of its light, and the stars of the heavens have fallen, that is, have been destroyed.

I have been given absolute proof that the teaching that faith assigns us justice has so blinded human minds today that they do not want, and are therefore virtually unable, to see any divine truth in the light of the sun or in the light of the moon. They can see it only in the light of a fireplace by night. I can therefore make this assertion: If divine truths about the true partnership between goodwill and faith, about heaven, about the Lord, and about the eternal happiness that comes from him were to be written in silver letters and sent down from heaven, people who believe that we are justified by faith alone would not even consider them worth reading. The complete opposite would happen, though, if a paper asserting that faith alone makes us just were to be sent up from below.

We also read in the Formula of Concord that the article concerning justification by faith alone, or concerning the justice that we acquire through faith, is the most important of all Christian teachings, and that works of the law must be completely excluded from this article (pages 17, 61, 62, 72, 89, 683; appendix, page 164).