79. As predicted, there is such great darkness in the Christian denominations of today that during the day there is no light from the sun, and during the night there is no light from the moon or the stars. The one and only cause of this is the teaching that we are justified by our faith alone. This teaching presents faith as the sole means of being saved, although it also asserts that no one has ever seen a sign that this faith is flowing in, progressing, making a home, working, or achieving any results in us. We are told that this faith has nothing to do with our obeying the law of the Ten Commandments, or our goodwill, good works, repentance, or efforts to live a new life — these actions have no impact whatever on our faith; instead these actions arise spontaneously, but are completely useless for preserving our faith or gaining us salvation.

This teaching holds that faith of this kind grants the reborn, or those who have received their badge of freedom, exemption from being subject to the law. In addition, Christ covers up their sins before God the Father. God the Father then forgives those sins (since he has not seen them) and bestows upon these people renewal, sanctity, and eternal life. These thoughts and many others like them lie at the core of this teaching.

Its outward features remain outside this core; they are the activities of goodwill, good works, acts of repentance, and the following of the law, which are actually extremely valuable. Christian authorities present them, however, as lowly, humble servants; faith is the lady of the house. As servants, they are allowed to follow along behind her, but not to have any contact with her. Nevertheless, because these preachers and teachers are aware that lay people are counting on these activities as well as their faith to save them, they take great care to ensure that these topics are included in their sermons and conversations. They even pretend to combine these activities with, and find a place for them in, the process of justification. They do so, however, only to please the ears of the crowd and to keep their own oracular pronouncements from sounding too much like riddles or sorcery.

106. Brief Analysis

When the leaders and priests of the Roman church are ordained into the ministry, they swear to uphold the decrees of the Council of Trent. This is clear from the papal bull issued by the Roman pope Pius IV, on November 13, 1564, which presents the formula to be followed when declaring a sworn profession of faith:

I with a firm faith believe and profess all and every one of the things contained in that creed which the holy Roman Church makes use of. I likewise undoubtingly receive all other things delivered and declared by the sacred Canons and ecumenical Councils, and particularly by the holy Council of Trent — so help me God.

In that same oath they constrain themselves to believe and profess the specific teachings sanctioned by the Council of Trent regarding the assigning of Christ’s merit to us and our justification by faith in that, as is clear from the following words in that same papal bull:

I embrace and receive all and every one of the things which have been defined and declared in the holy Council of Trent concerning original sin and justification.

The contents of those teachings can be reviewed in the material collected from the Council of Trent in §§3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 above.

These principles established in the Council of Trent lead to the following conclusions.

Roman Catholics before the Reformation had exactly the same teachings as Protestants did after it regarding the assigning of Christ’s merit to us and our being justified by faith in that; the only difference was that Catholics united this faith to goodwill or good works (see §§19, 20 above).

The leading reformers — Luther, Melanchthon, and Calvin — retained the Roman Catholic dogmas regarding the assigning of Christ’s merit to us and our being justified by faith. They kept those views as they had been, and still were at the time, among Roman Catholics. The reformers separated goodwill or good works from that faith, however, and declared that faith alone saves, for the purpose of clearly differentiating themselves from Roman Catholics with regard to the essentials of the church, which are faith and goodwill (see §§21, 22, 23 above).

The leaders of the Protestant Reformation do indeed describe good works as an appendage to faith and even an integral part of faith, but they say we are passive in the doing of them, whereas Roman Catholics say we are active in the doing of them. There is actually strong agreement between Protestants and Catholics on the subjects of faith, works, and our rewards (see §§24– 29 above). Clearly, then, these beliefs used to be as important to Roman Catholics as they are now to Protestants.