BWC2c: Angels

      This continues from Part BWC2b in a series (Table of Contents in Part BWC1) presenting Walther's edition of Baier's Compendium of Positive Theology. — One gains a great respect for the Lutheran theologians and dogmatists of past centuries upon reading Walther's additions. — From pages 100–139.

Notable Quotes: (Italics follow the original. All quotes not from Baier are from Walther's additions.); Angels

Angels: 

104: "Christ Himself is preeminently the angel of the covenant in Malachi 3:1"

104: "Whenever and wherever either the name Jehovah or a divine attribute or work and divine worship is attributed to the angel appearing to the patriarchs…, there it must be understood that it is not some created angel, but the uncreated one.…, foreshadowed His future incarnation." [I.e., Christ Himself. Modernist theologians teach rationalist notions.]

105: Antithesis: Quenstedt: Papists "hold that God never appeared in person in the Old Testament, but always an angel in His stead." [See Thomas Aquinas.]

106: Quenstedt: "the ancient Greek Fathers…all asserted that angels were created before this visible world."

107: "Angels…are by their nature spirits, or spiritual or incorporeal substances, not composed of matter and form."

109: Angels "essence is not infinite, but finite".

110: "For we cannot attribute omniscience to them [angels]"

112: "For God alone claims for Himself an accurate and infallible knowledge of the human heart." [Not Angels. These points dispel fanciful notions about Angels.]

114: "angels cannot create something out of nothing, or raise the dead"

117: "The number of angels is great, but not definable by us. … Dan. 7:10" 

118: "evil angels are described as having an order among themselves, such as that of rulers and parents. For thus in Luke 11:25. Beelzebub is called the prince of the demons, and in Matthew 25:41, mention is made of the devil and his angels."

120: Angels "could not properly be said to merit their beatitude, but could obtain it only through God's grace, that is, His gratuitous and undeserved favor"

120: Angels "retained the freedom to act otherwise and to fail; which is evident from the subsequent fall of some.

121: Evil angels are "so confirmed in evil that they cannot return to goodness, do good, or refrain from sinning."

122: "Christ calls the devil a murderer from the beginning, and the father of lies, John 8:44, the first liar of all, and the cause of the defection of men from God"

125: All angels are "ministering spirits, spirits appointed to public service and performing it. Heb. 1:14".

126: Luther: "God has ordained three hierarchies against the devil, namely, the household, the polity, and the Church."

128: "See 1 Cor. 11:10, where Paul argues for women to observe modesty in their dress in sacred gatherings by appealing to the presence of angels, who love good order and decency."

129: "We read in Daniel 6:22 that an angel sent by God shut the mouths of the lions so that they could not harm Daniel, a chief minister of the kingdom, who was facing danger for the glory of God."

130: "Papists, who establish seven principal angels, to whom the care and governance of the Church and the whole world is assigned"

130: "Finally, it will be a special duty of the angels, which they will perform on the Last Day"

131: "it is not fitting to direct our prayers to the angels. For this is either impious and idolatrous, or at least useless and unwise."

132: "Papists, who generally contend that … prayers can rightly be offered to angels as mediators between God and men, and that they are to be honored with a certain cultus that is somewhere between civil and religious…" [See "Catholic Answers" here. Cp. the above with Catechism of the Catholic Church, p. 267, #1024: “This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity – this commun­ion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed - is called "heaven.”]

134: "For God did not grant angels, as He did men, a time and place for repentance, but utterly denied them the help of grace."

136: "the evil spirit, the one who works effectively in the children of disobedience, in unbelieving men"

138: Quenstedt: "For the state of possession, however, not only the devil's inhabitation but also his torture is required"

139: Quenstedt: "The proper signs of possession are: Knowledge of foreign or exotic languages…of hidden things…Strength greater than human…exact reproduction of the sounds of birds, sheep, oxen, etc.…"

143: "God is not only merciful, but also just, and that His justice, without satisfaction, is a consuming fire that reaches down to the lowest hell". [But man, not the evil angels, has the vicarious satisfaction of the Redeemer of all men.]

      Some may note that today's papist teachers may not necessarily hold to every un-Scriptural doctrine taught by their older teachers, such as on Angels. But they do not deny the Pope's power to make doctrine. — In the next Part BWC2d, the Image of God in Man.