The Church Fathers, pt (iii). Taken from ‘On The Incarnation’ by Athanasius.
See ‘Athanasius: the most important gospel defence ever’ for the historical background to his argument.
1. Creation and the Fall
Man was created by God in his image:
For God is good—or rather, of all goodness He is Fountainhead, and it is impossible for one who is good to be mean or grudging about anything. Grudging existence to none therefore, He made all things out of nothing through His own Word.
Man was given one place and one rule:
But since the will of man could turn either way, God secured this grace that He had given by making it conditional from the first upon two things—namely, a law and a place. He set them in His own paradise, and laid upon them a single prohibition.
Man through rebellion was corrupted, to return to non-existence:
For the transgression of the commandment was making them turn back again according to their nature; and as they had at the beginning come into being out of non-existence, so were they now on the way to returning, through corruption, to non-existence again.
2. The Divine Dilemma. 3 problems:
(i) Man wasn’t created for corruption and non-existence. But God couldn’t go back on his word of judgement. What was the solution? Not mere repentance. Only the Word of God. Read the rest of this entry »
