4721. 'And Joseph went to his brothers, and found them in Dothan' means that they were steeped in the specific details belonging to false assumptions. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph' as the Lord as regards Divine Truth, dealt with in 4669; from the representation of 'his brothers' as the Church which turns aside from charity to faith, and at length to faith separated from charity, dealt with in 4665, 4671, 4679, 4680, 4690; and from the meaning of 'Dothan' as the specific details belonging to false assumptions' deals with immediately above in 4720. From this it is evident that the words used here mean that he found them steeped in the specific details belonging to false assumptions.
[2] So that anyone can know what 'specific details belonging to false assumptions' is used to mean, let some of the ideas taught by the Church making and acknowledging faith alone as its basic assumption serve to illustrate that phrase. That is to say, the ideas that a person is justified by faith alone; that in this case all sins are wiped away from him; that by faith alone he is saved even in the last hour of his life; that salvation is simply being admitted by grace into heaven; that even young children are saved through faith; that because they do not possess that faith gentiles are not saved; besides many other ideas that are taught. These ideas and others like them are the specific details belonging to the basic assumption made regarding faith alone. But if the Church were to make and acknowledge the life of faith as its basic assumption it would acknowledge charity towards the neighbour and love to the Lord, and consequently the works of charity and love. Then all those specific details that have just been mentioned would fall to the ground. Instead of justification the Church would acknowledge regeneration, of which the Lord speaks in John,
Unless anyone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.
It would also acknowledge that regeneration is effected by means of the life of faith, not by faith separated from charity. It would not acknowledge that all sins are in that case wiped away from a person, but that in the Lord's mercy he is withheld from them and maintained in good and from this in truth; so the Church would acknowledge that all good originates in the Lord and all evil in oneself. Nor would it acknowledge that a person is saved through faith even in the last hour of his life but through his life of faith which awaits his arrival [in heaven]. It would not acknowledge either that salvation is simply being admitted by grace into heaven, for heaven is refused to none by the Lord, but that if his life is not the kind that enables him to exist together with angels he is impelled to flee from it, 4674. Nor would the Church acknowledge that young children are saved through faith, but that in the next life they are taught about the good deeds of charity and about the truths of faith by the Lord and in this way are accepted into heaven, 2289-2308. Nor also would it acknowledge that because they do not possess faith gentiles are not saved, but that the life they have led awaits their arrival in heaven, and that those who have led charitable lives with one another are taught about the good deeds of faith and are equally accepted in heaven. Those who lead a good life also desire the same and believe in it, see 2589-2604. And so on with many other specific ideas.
[3] The Church which makes and acknowledges faith alone as its basic assumption cannot possibly know what charity is, not even what the neighbour is, and so cannot know what heaven is. It will be astonished whenever anyone says that the happiness of the life after death and the joy in heaven consist in the Divine which flows into desiring and doing for others that which is good, and that the happiness resulting from this, and the bliss, surpass one's entire ability to perceive them. It will be astonished to learn that the reception of that influx from the Divine is by no means possible with anyone who has not been leading the life of faith, that is, with whom the good of charity has not been present. That the life of faith is what saves a person is also explicitly taught by the Lord in Matthew 25:31-end. The same teaching is found in many other places, and that too is why the Creed, called the Athanasian, states towards the end of it,
Everyone will give an account of his works: he who has done well will go into eternal life, but he who has done wickedly into eternal fire.
