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.
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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
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Phone: (260) 452-2123 Fax: (260) 452-2126
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file: /pub/resources/text/wittenberg/baier: cpt-2-02.txt
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