3487. The words which come before these and which were explained in 3353-3356 are a description of the first state of the perversion of the Church - a state when people will cease to know any longer what goodness is and what truth is, and will start to argue with one another about these, with the result that falsities arise. The words in the present section however describe the second state of the perversion of the Church - a state when people will treat goodness and truth with contempt and will also loathe them, so that faith in the Lord will breathe its last, doing so by degrees as charity comes to an end.
