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 ed- ited 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.] Chapter Two On original sin. 1. Original sin, even though it is not possible to know it certainly and distinctly by reason from its principles, however it is most clearly indicated in Scripture. 2. Original sin implies partly a privation of original righteousness, and partly an inclination of the whole nature to depravity. 3. Especially on the part of the intellect original sin implies a total privation of spiritual light, thus that original sin neither rightly knows God, nor can it perfectly prescribe by reason how God is worshipped, or is it possible to embrace with a firm assent those things which are divinely revealed; at the same time also, it is an inclination of the intellect moving to casual and false judgments about spiritual matters, on the contrary also in those things which are subject to the light of nature, there is a certain impotence in the recognition of God and the instructing of life. 4. On the part of the will original sin consists in the lack of original holiness or the loving of God by men above all things and those things which follow this lack, which the intellect properly repeats, and likewise properly restrains the appetites, and the will from the opposite is inclined to the fullness of sin. 5. On the part of the sensitive appetite original sin is the privation of submission owed to the higher faculties, and to those things that are contrary in it, which are pleasing to the senses, even though they are forbidden by divine law, it hastens as if by a certain impulse, either an unexpected impulse or by a repudiation of the judgment of reason. 6. Therefore the power of doing of the faculties, or the concentrating on the object, when it is considered precisely and in itself, is not sin, however therefore, what is done unlawfully ["anomos"] in the object, rightly is called sin. 7. The remote efficient cause of original sin is the devil, the nearer efficient cause are the first people, Eve and especially Adam. 8. However the first parents, and especially Adam, are the cause of original sin, by means of his fall. For by this fact they made themselves unworthy, to whom God had given further an influx for the conserving in themselves and the spreading to posterity the necessary original righteousness, rather than worthy, from whom he withdrew that original righteousness by a just judgement, and to such an extent that to their posterity from their parents, by a privation of original righteousness, through the carnal generation of descendants not is it not possible to be born with that righteousness, missing in those first people, but the lack of that righteousness and the inclination of all the facilities to depravity is born to those descendants. 9. And that fall indeed of the first people was completed by an external act of the consuming of the fruit of the forbidden tree against the express command of God, however many internal acts of sin preceded this external act: in the intellect indeed a doubt about the truth of the divine threat, and then a more full incredulity; in the will an improper inclination to a greater likeness with God; in the sensitive appetite an improper motion, tending towards an object pleasing to the senses, even though the object was forbidden. 10. However God, although as a just judge rejecting an influx for conserving and propagating the original righteousness of necessity because of the fall of the first people, is not able to be called the cause of the fall and of original sin. 11. The subject Which of original sin are all humans descending from the first parents through carnal generation, and in this way inheriting original sin from those same first people. 12. The subject by Which of original sin is primarily the spirit with its faculties, the intellect, will, and sensitive appetite; secondarily however and consequently the members of the body also are thus rightly referred to. 13. The effects of original sin are various evils; on the part of the spirit a certain defect of free will in spiritual things and its weakness in natural things, actual sins, many in kinds and numbers, a privation of grace and an opposing anger of God; on the part of the body sicknesses and other hardships and temporal death itself; and then also eternal death and damnation. 14. The affections of original sin are 1. a tenacity or a firm adhering through all life. 2. the natural ability to pass it on from parents to children. 15. It is possible to describe original sin as a lack of original righteousness, passed on through the fall of Adam to all humans through their fleshly generation, intimately corrupting that same human nature and all the faculties of the soul, making it unfit for following spiritual good, but rather making it inclined to evil of all sorts and therefore subjecting it to divine wrath and eternal death, unless the forgiveness of sins intercedes, apprehended on account of the merits of Christ. 16. It happens by original sin, that in some it reigns, it others it does not reign. _________________________________.__________________________________ This text was translated by Rev. Theodore Mayes and is copyrighted material, (c)1996, but is free for non-commercial use or distribu- tion, 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) 452-2123 Fax: (260) 452-2126 _________________________________.__________________________________ file: /pub/resources/text/wittenberg/baier: cpt-2-02.txt .