John William Baier's _Compendium of Positive Theology_ Edited by C. F. W. Walther Published by: St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1877 [Translator's Preface. These are the major loci or topics of John William Baier's _Compendium of Positive Theology_ as edited by Dr. C. F. W. Walther. These should be seen as the broad outline of Baier-Walther's dogmatics, but please don't assume that this is all. Each locus usually includes copious explanatory notes and citations from patristics and other Lutheran dogmaticians. Part One, Chapter Seven On death or eternal damnation. 1. Damnation is opposed to blessedness partly privately, in so far as it leads to the lack of all good, which is included in the happiness of the blessedness, partly contrarily in so far as it is not said to be a bare absence of blessedness, but it contains positive troubles and tortures and the most sharp sense of the bad. 2. Especially the damned will be without; on the part of the intellect, the beatific vision of God, nor will they be given the light of glory, by being joined with the divine blessedness. 3. And thus it is also easily apparent that the love of God, as clearly the knowledge of the highest good, and the joy resulting from that knowledge, will be absent from the damned. 4. Also the gifts to the bodies of the blessed, through which they are glorified, in this same way, they will be denied to the damned. 5. Among the positive penalties first happens that knowledge of the intellect, through which the damned abstractively are removed from God also from punishment, partly as God is of the highest majesty, but they are removed from him because of a most grievous offense, partly as a just judgement, but this itself is a most bitter punishment of their sins, partly that they know God as a most kind father, though not to themselves but to others who believe and are made blessed. 6. Similarly they themselves thus will be contemplated, as the multitude and gravity of their sins, also of the penalty of those sins, by which they are weakened, in the spirit they will recount the merits, bitterness and duration of those sins. 7. Other humans, who are blessed, they will see, as partners of his happiness, by which they were destined to him, and having no part in the calamities, by which they themselves are pressed. 8. And thus on the part of the will hatred of God arises, certainly hostile and implacable to him; the hatred of him, then, inasmuch as he was the cause to them of their misery; jealousy, resulting from the sight of that alien blessedness; sorrow and sadness and anxiety on account of the vast heap of the present evils and impatience and perpetual despair. 9. However by this same thing the will of the damned, clearly averted from God, will have been bound to evil, that, whatever they do, it displeases God, and by their own thoughts, words and deeds, unceasingly they sin. 10. The bodies of the damned will be tortured by infernal and inextinguishable fire truly and properly speaking. 11. But also it is not improbable that the organs of sense and sense itself will themselves come to torture by a peculiar punishment. And indeed about touch, it is not possible to be doubtful about the present opinion about punishment by fire properly speaking. 12. That there will be grades of infernal punishments is not possible to deny. However, it is not equally easy to define those differences because of the diversity of subjects. 13. The efficient cause of evil things, which the complex of damnation implies, is possible to be drawn neither in one, nor in the same way. For in so far as damnation implies the privation of the beatific vision and the love and joy born from that vision, the efficient cause of that privation properly speaking is not given. However of the positive acts of the intellect and will pertaining to this place the cause is the soul itself forsaken by God. About the evil bodies the cause of punishment is partly infernal fire, partly evil angels. However in so far as damnation is seen through the mode of punishment, it is possible to refer to the triune God and to Christ the God-man as a cause of punishment. 14. The impulsive internal cause of the punishments of the damned on the part of God is the punishing justice of God. 15. The impulsive external cause are the sins of the damned not atoned for, especially intentional sins, and greatest of all final unbelief. 16. The subject Which of damnation are impious humans, finally unbelieving. 17. The subject by Which of damnation is equally the soul and body of those impious humans. 18. To be willing so seek or to define in this life the place of hell is uselessly inquisitive; however that there is a certain place destined for the damned, is not doubtful. 19. That the penalty of all the damned will be eternal, perpetually present, is most certain. 20. The goal of those damned on the part of God the judge is the glory of the avenging justice, truth, and divine power. 21. The state of the damned is able to be described as a complex of many evils, which the triune God by the power of his avenging justice sends to impious humans and to the finally unbelieving, and on the part of soul and body, on account of sins and their unbelief it strikes them into hell, an eternal destroying, to the glory of the divine justice, truth, and power. -------------------------------------------------------------- This text was translated by Rev. Theodore Mayes and is copy- righted material, (c)1996, but is free for non-commercial use or distribution, and especially for use on Project Wittenberg. Please direct any comments or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther Library at Concordia Theological Seminary. E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu Surface Mail: 66000 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA Phone: (260) 452-3149 Fax: (260) 452-2126 --------------------------------------------------------------