Systematic Theology (Volume 2 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 2 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
According to the Roman Catholic view, however, since the image of
God in which man was created included only man’s religious
faculty, his sin can rob him only of what became subsequently and
adventitiously his. Fallen man differs from unfallen only as
_spoliatus a nudo_. He loses only a sort of magic spell, which
leaves him still in possession of all his essential powers.
Unpremeditated evil desire, or concupiscence, is not sin; for this
belonged to his nature even before he fell. His sin has therefore
only put him back into the natural state of conflict and
concupiscence, ordered by God in the concreated opposition of
sense and reason. The sole qualification is this, that, having
made an evil decision, his will is weakened. “Man does not need
resurrection from death, but rather a crutch to help his lameness,
a tonic to reinforce his feebleness, a medicine to cure his
sickness.” He is still able to turn to God; and in regeneration
the Holy Spirit simply awakens and strengthens the natural ability
slumbering in the natural man. But even here, man must yield to
the influence of the Holy Spirit; and regeneration is effected by
uniting his power to the divine. In baptism the guilt of original
sin is remitted, and everything called sin is taken away. No
baptized person has any further process of regeneration to
undergo. Man has not only strength to coöperate with God for his
own salvation, but he may even go beyond the demands of the law
and perform works of supererogation. And the whole sacramental
system of the Roman Catholic Church, with its salvation by works,
its purgatorial fires, and its invocation of the saints, connects
itself logically with this erroneous theory of man’s original
state.
See Dorner’s Augustinus, 116; Perrone, Prælectiones Theologicæ,
1:737-748; Winer, Confessions, 79, 80; Dorner, History Protestant
Theology, 38, 39, and Glaubenslehre, 1:51; Van Oosterzee,
Dogmatics, 376; Cunningham, Historical Theology, 1:516-586; Shedd,
Hist. Doctrine, 2:140-149.
II. Incidents of Man’s Original State.
1. Results of man’s possession of the divine image.
(_a_) Reflection of this divine image in man’s physical form.—Even in
man’s body were typified those higher attributes which chiefly constituted
his likeness to God. A gross perversion of this truth, however, is the
view which holds, upon the ground of Gen. 2:7, and 3:8, that the image of
God consists in bodily resemblance to the Creator. In the first of these
passages, it is not the divine image, but the body, that is formed of
dust, and into this body the soul that possesses the divine image is
breathed. The second of these passages is to be interpreted by those other
portions of the Pentateuch in which God is represented as free from all
limitations of matter (Gen. 11:5; 18:15).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account