Basic HTML Version
195
1. THE PROTESTANT VIEW.
Protestants teach that man was created in a state of relative
perfection, a state of righteousness and holiness. This does not mean that he had already
reached the highest state of excellence of which he was susceptible. It is generally assumed
that he was destined to reach a higher degree of perfection in the way of obedience. He was,
something like a child, perfect in parts, but not yet in degree. His condition was a preliminary
and temporary one, which would either lead on to greater perfection and glory or terminate in
a fall. He was by nature endowed with that original righteousness which is the crowning glory of
the image of God, and consequently lived in a state of positive holiness. The loss of that
righteousness meant the loss of something that belonged to the very nature of man in its ideal
state. Man could lose it and still remain man, but he could not lose it and remain man in the
ideal sense of the word. In other words, its loss would really mean a deterioration and
impairment of human nature. Moreover, man was created immortal. This applies not only to
the soul, but to the whole person of man; and therefore does not merely mean that the soul
was destined to have a continued existence. Neither does it mean that man was raised above
the possibility of becoming a prey to death; this can only be affirmed of the angels and the
saints in heaven. It does mean, however, that man, as he was created by God, did not bear
within him the seeds of death and would not have died necessarily in virtue of the original
constitution of his nature. Though the possibility of his becoming a victim of death was not
excluded, he was not liable to death as long as he did not sin. It should be borne in mind that
man’s original immortality was not something purely negative and physical, but was something
positive and spiritual as well. It meant life in communion with God and the enjoyment of the
favor of the Most High. This is the fundamental conception of life in Scripture, just as death is
primarily separation from God and subjection to His wrath. The loss of this spiritual life would
spell death, and would also result in physical death.[Cf. especially, Kennedy, St. Paul’s
Conceptions of the Last Things, Chap. III.]
2. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC VIEW.
Roman Catholics naturally have a somewhat different view of
the original condition of man. According to them original righteousness did not belong to the
nature of man in its integrity, but was something supernaturally added. In virtue of his creation
man was simply endowed with all the natural powers and faculties of human nature as such,
and by the justitia naturalis these powers were nicely adjusted to each other. He was without
sin and lived in a state of perfect innocency. In the very nature of things, however, there was a
natural tendency of the lower appetites and passions to rebel against the higher powers of
reason and conscience. This tendency, called concupiscence, was not itself sin, but could easily
become the occasion and fuel for sin. (But cf. Rom. 7:8; Col. 3:5; I Thess. 4:5, Auth. Ver.). Man,
then, as he was originally constituted, was by nature without positive holiness, but also without
sin, though burdened with a tendency which might easily result in sin. But now God added to
the natural constitution of man the supernatural gift of original righteousness, by which he was