Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 303

Chap.

THE FRUIT OF EEVELATION

I]

ceived the hellish character, of light can penetrate.

And

lie in a

279

darkness which no ray

in that case all contact

with the

light of revelation but leads to sin against the Holy Ghost. All "special " revelation, as it is commonly though not alto-

gether correctly called, postulates commo7i grace^ of

God by which

negatively

He

i.e.

that act

curbs the operations of Satan,

death, and sin, and by which jyositivelg He creates an intermediate state for this cosmos, as well as for our human race, Avhich is and continues to be deeply and radically sinful, but in which sin cannot work out its end (re'Xo?). In the cove-

nant with Noah especially, which embraced the whole earth and all that has life upon it, this "common grace " assumed a more definite form; and human life, as we know it, is not life in paradise, nor life as it would be if sin had been allowed to work out its final effects, but life in which evil truly predominates and works its corruption, but always in such a way tliat what is human as such is not destroyed. The wheel of sin is certainly revolving, but the brakes are on. This is what our churches confessed when they sp)oke of sparks (scintillae) or remnants (rudera) which still remained of the image of God, which did not mean that they have remained of themselves, as though sin would not have extinguished those sparks or destroyed those remnants had it been able to do so but that by " common grace " God has restrained and curbed for a time the destructive power of sin. In virtue of the Noachic covenant this restraint continues to be applied till the Parous ia. Then the brake is taken from the wheel and those sparks also go out into entire darkness. ;

The adapt

so-called "special" revelation,

itself to the sinner, as

therefore, does not

he would have been,

if sin had worked in him its destruction to the end. Such a sinner would have become satanic, and consequently have passed beyond all possibility of salvation. But special revelation

intended for the sinner who stands in common grace. This is not said in order to postulate in the sinner anything positive, that could ever produce regeneration. Even while standing in common grace the sinner is "dead iu trespasses is

and sin," and in regeneration

is

absolutely passive; only

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