BWC2d: Image of God; Providence

      This continues from Part BWC2c in a series (Table of Contents in Part BWC1) presenting Walther's edition of Baier's Compendium of Positive Theology. —  From pages 143–180.

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

143: "After the angels, men stand out most prominently in the assembly of creatures… that God created them in His own image."

143: "the other creatures…are indeed called very good, yet not created in the image of God."

145: "For the sense of the words is: 'Let us, who are several (persons), make man in our (one common) image.'" [Doctrine of Trinity taught in Gen. 1:26.]

147-148: "in Genesis 9 homicide … is established as punishable by death … any homicide implies a violation of the divine image, which was in the slain man" [Death penalty established by God.]

150: "This knowledge of Adam was excellent, full, perfect, and so great that no one among men after the Fall can acquire it for himself, either from the book of nature or from the book of Scripture."

153: "This is what the first parents in the state of integrity did not know, that they were naked, nor were they ashamed; that is, they were not in the slightest degree touched by any disordered concupiscence of the sensitive appetite (although the object that could entice was present [their nakedness]). Gen. 2:25"

154: Quenstedt: "The divine image…could be passed on to posterity, but not … for example, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit…inhabitation of the Holy Trinity is supernatural"

157: Luther: "But the things we accomplish in life are not made by the dominion that Adam had, but by industry and art. Just as we see birds and fish being caught by guile and fraud, so beasts are tamed by art."

158: "In the matter of knowledge of natural things, Eve seems to have yielded to Adam. And it is commonly taught elsewhere that Satan preferred to attack Eve as the weaker one."

158: "…but the woman is the image of God inclusively, i.e., not only, but in such a way that she is at the same time the image of someone else, namely, the man"

Providence of God 

161: "When, however, we speak of divine providence, the term refers to things distinct from and created by God, for which God takes care and promotes the welfare."

162 Dannhauer: "For it is plain that neither the world was created by chance and accident without a cause, nor did the admirable sudden harmony and concord of infinite things responding to mutual uses arise by chance from atoms." [Evolution is plainly fiction.] "If mortals were not distinguished from one another by certain features and a diversity of forms, a marvelous confusion would follow in daily life and human society. Indeed, no commerce could take place among them; and this would be the occasion for immense evils and monstrous crimes and the destruction of all, if husbands and wives could not recognize each other, nor friend from foe, nor children their parents, nor could fathers distinguish their daughters from outsiders or from their own wives by any sign." [Thank God that we (almost) all look different!]

165: "The pagan Pliny thinks the divine majesty is defiled if it concerns itself with despised things. But these are foolish thoughts, as the great church father Jerome also entertained."

172: Quenstedt: "Thus, when Eve reached out her hand for the forbidden fruit, God indeed sustained her locomotion, but did not assist the vicious act as such. "

173: God "reminds the sinners themselves of their own frailty, lest they become too self-pleasing and despise others… When 3) He permits the pious to be afflicted by the impious, He exercises the humility and patience of those afflicted, by the example of Job, chapter 1." ["Patience of Job."]

174: Quenstedt: "Praise be to God! that the world cannot run further than God allows; otherwise, there would be no end to its fury and rage against the godly."

176: Heerbrand: "although they [men] are governed by the providence of God, are not forced to do so"

177: "bloody and deceitful men are said to not live out even half their days (Ps. 55:23)"

178: God "shortens the lives of the [pious], … partly so that they may not see the calamities to come and be distressed." [O Lord, how distressing are the calamities of today!]

179: "God in just judgment more swiftly cuts off the lives of the impious, … a fatal disease …or permits them, through their own intemperance or other crimes, to bring on themselves diseases or violent death."

In the next Part BWC2e, Baier focuses on "Eternal Blessedness".