50. Goodwill cannot be united to the faith of the modern-day church; there is no marriage there that could give birth to a good work. This is because the assigning of Christ’s merit is thought to do everything for us. It is thought to forgive our crimes, to make us just, to regenerate us, to sanctify us, and to give us salvation and the life of heaven — and all for free with no effort on our part. If this is true, though, what is goodwill and what is its supposed marriage with faith? It is pointless and meaningless. What is goodwill but an accessory or an adjunct to the assigning of Christ’s merit and to the process whereby we are made just? Goodwill is good for nothing.

Furthermore, a faith based on the idea that there are three gods is wrong, as I have shown above (see §§39, 40). How can true goodwill have a relationship with a wrongheaded faith?

There are two reasons people give for believing that the modern-day faith has no bond with goodwill. One is that they describe this faith as spiritual in nature, but they see goodwill as merely earthly and moral in nature; and in their opinion no relationship is possible between what is spiritual and what is earthly. The second reason they give is to keep anything that comes from ourselves, and therefore any desire for reward, from becoming mixed up with our faith, since faith is the only thing that saves us.

It is in fact true that there is no bond between goodwill and that faith; but there is a bond between goodwill and the new faith, as described in §§116, 117.

88. Brief Analysis

Seven chapters in the Book of Revelation concern the corrupt state of the Protestant churches, and two chapters concern the corrupt state of the Roman Catholic churches. This and the now condemned condition of these churches has been shown in the explanation of the Book of Revelation titled Revelation Unveiled — and shown not with idle guesswork but with overwhelming evidence.

The dragon in Revelation 12 means Protestants who split God into three and the Lord into two and who separate goodwill from faith by saying that their faith is something spiritual and effective for our salvation but goodwill is not. See Revelation Unveiled 532– 565 and the memorable occurrence immediately following in §566.

The same people are also described as the two beasts, one of which rises up out of the sea and the other out of the land in Revelation 13. See Revelation Unveiled 567– 610 and the memorable occurrence immediately following in §611.

The same people are also described as the locusts that come out of the pit of the abyss in Revelation 9. See Revelation Unveiled 419– 442.

This belief (when adamantly clung to) is depicted in Revelation 11 as the great city that is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where the two faithful witnesses were killed. See Revelation Unveiled 485– 530, especially §§500– 503, and the memorable occurrence in §531.

This belief is also depicted, in Revelation 9, as the pit of the abyss, from which smoke came out like the smoke of a great furnace, darkening the sun and the air, and from which locusts then came forth. See Revelation Unveiled 421– 424.