Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 283

Chap.

cause

THE FRUIT OF REVELATION

I]

it to

occur onl}^ after the Creation.

latter view,

you make

it

259

If j^ou accept the

and it can only an outward mechanical

intellectualistic,

consist, as the Socinian conceived, of

communication of certain data, commandments, and statutes. Thus, however, true revelation, which is rooted in religion If for this reason you favor the other itself, is destroyed. horn of the dilemma, viz. that Revelation goes back to Creation itself, then the motive for this Revelation cannot be found in man; simply because man was not yet in existence, and For though it be asserted therefore could be no motive. that, as the apostle Peter says, man v/as foreknown in the Divine decree before the creation, and that therefore Revelation could well point to this foreknown man, the argument For in the decree a motive must have exis not valid. isted for the foreknowledge of man himself; and if it be allowed that this motive at least could lie only in God, it follows that Revelation also, even if it found its motive in man, merely tended to make man what he should be for the sake of God, so that in this way also Revelation finds its^ final end in Crod, and 7iot in man. But even this might grant too much. With a little thought one readily sees that Revelation is not merely founded in Creation, but that all creation itself is revelaIf we avoid the Origenistic and pantheistic error that tion. the cosmos is coexistent with God; the pagan representation that God Himself labors under some higher necessity; and the Schleiermachian construction that God and the world were correlate, at least in the idea; and if, consequently, we stand firm in the sublime confession: I believe in God the Father Almiglity, Creator of heaven and earthy'"' the motive for Creation cannot be looked for in anything outside Crod Himself. Not in an eterof God, but only and alone nal law (lex aeterna), a fate Qfxoipa') or necessity (ava'yicrj'), nor in some need of God nature, nor in the creature that was not yet created. He who does not worship God as selfsufficient and sovereign, misconceives and profanes His ^^

m

Being. Creation neither can nor may be conceived as anything but a sovereign act of God, for His own glori-

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