05.04.2013 Views

The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

a common participation of names. To Lutherans, the view we reject seems<br />

logically to run out into a denial of the unity of Christ's person, <strong>and</strong> of the<br />

reality of the incarnation.<br />

Four points in the doctrine.<br />

It may tend to give a clearer view of the doctrine to present four<br />

points in it, in the order in which they st<strong>and</strong> in the Formula of Concord.<br />

1. <strong>The</strong> Lutheran Church holds that from a personal union of the<br />

divine <strong>and</strong> human, it follows that there are not two Christs, outwardly<br />

conjoined, one of whom is God, <strong>and</strong> the other a man, but one Christ, who<br />

is both God <strong>and</strong> man in one person.<br />

2. <strong>The</strong>se two natures are not fused into one substance, nor is the one<br />

absorbed by, or transmuted into the other, but each nature retains its<br />

essential properties, neither losing its own, nor receiving those of the other.<br />

3. Dr. Gerhart, in defining the true doctrine as he regards it, says:<br />

"<strong>The</strong> Reformed predicated the essential attributes of divinity of the divine<br />

nature only." So do we. Dr. Gerhart is entirely mistaken in imagining that<br />

the doctrine of our Church is in conflict with this position. In the very<br />

statement of our doctrine over against its opposite, the Formula<br />

Concordiae says: 289 "<strong>The</strong> attributes of the divine nature are, to be<br />

omnipotent, eternal, infinite, <strong>and</strong> of itself, according to the attribute of its<br />

nature <strong>and</strong> of its own natural essence, to be present everywhere, <strong>and</strong> to be<br />

omniscient. All these attributes neither are, nor ever can become, the<br />

attributes of the human nature."<br />

4. Nor is Dr. Gerhart more happy in stating a point of difference<br />

between the doctrine of our Church <strong>and</strong> his own, when he says: "<strong>The</strong><br />

Reformed predicated the essential attributes of humanity of (Christ's)<br />

human nature only." So do we. <strong>The</strong> paragraph of the Formula of Concord<br />

next to the one we have quoted, says: "<strong>The</strong> properties of human nature are:<br />

To be a corporeal creature, to consist of flesh <strong>and</strong> blood, to be finite <strong>and</strong><br />

circumscribed, to suffer, die, ascend, descend, to move from place to place,<br />

to hunger, thirst, grow cold, suffer from heat, <strong>and</strong> such like. <strong>The</strong>se never<br />

are, nor can become the attributes of the divine nature."<br />

289 Page 606.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!