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Saturday, March 10, 2012

usque ad nauseam - to the point of nausea (Objective Justification)

[2019-07-20: added note in red below]
In Franz Pieper's Christian Dogmatics, there are many Latin phrases since the Latin language was that of the church through the ages.  To help seminary students follow the meaning of these phrases, David P. Scaer published his little booklet A Latin Ecclesiastical Glossary for Francis Pieper's Christian Dogmatics.  This was a very helpful guide to me as I voraciously studied Pieper's volumes.  This guide is not quite so necessary now that Google Translate now offers free translation from Latin which appears to be amazingly good. [2019-07-20: Also Yandex now offers Latin translation]

But as I was again browsing my copy of Scaer's booklet, I ran across the Latin phrase:
usque ad nauseam = to be repetitive as to bring a person to the point of sickness
So how and where did Pieper use this odd phrase?  I had written in the margin this:
page 439 Obj. Just., remind of  Obj. Just.
What was it that Pieper had to repeat "to the point of sickness"?  I had to look this up again... what volume was it?  What subject was Pieper talking about that he had to make me "nauseous"?
In volume II, in the section The Application of Salvation, sub-section The Function of Faith in Justification, Pieper had this to say:
Because men are always forgetting it, we have to repeat usque ad nauseam: full forgiveness of the sins of the world has been obtained through Christ's vicarious satisfaction, is wholly independent of any human quality or any "improvement" in man ("not imputing their trespasses unto them," 2 Cor. 5:19), and is made known unto men by God in the Gospel ("and hath committed unto us the Word of Reconciliation") that men should believe it. The idea that faith in its function as a receptive organ must do more than merely believe the Gospel, that it receives forgiveness because it is a good quality ("ethical act") or produces good qualities, finds favor only with those who deny, or at any rate have forgotten, that Christ has perfectly redeemed the world and that the Gospel is the message of God's grace.
Dear God!  Make me sick with the Word of Thy Gospel!  May the Good News "bore me to death"!  Bring again teachers like Walther and Pieper who are not afraid to keep repeating thy Gospel in it's purity to the point of making me nauseous and bored for Thou knowest that I will always only forget it!  Lord, "help thou mine unbelief"! (Mark 9:24)

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