Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XXIX
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter
XXIX.
According to Celsus, then, Apollo wished the
Metapontines to treat Aristeas as a god. But as the Metapontines
considered the evidence in favour of Aristeas being a man—and
probably not a virtuous one—to be stronger than the declaration
of the oracle to the effect that he was a god or worthy of divine
honours, they for that reason would not obey Apollo, and consequently
no one regarded Aristeas as a god. But with respect to Jesus we
would say that, as it was of advantage to the human race to accept him
as the Son of God—God come in a human soul and body—and as
this did not seem to be advantageous to the gluttonous
appetites3521
of the demons which
love bodies, and to those who deem them to be gods on that account, the
demons that are on earth (which are supposed to be gods by those who
are not instructed in the nature of demons), and also their
worshippers, were desirous to prevent the spread of the doctrine of
Jesus; for they saw that the libations and odours in which they
greedily delighted were being swept away by the prevalence of the
instructions of Jesus. But the God who sent Jesus dissipated all
the conspiracies of the demons, and made the Gospel of Jesus to prevail
throughout the whole world for the conversion and reformation of men,
and caused Churches to be everywhere established in opposition to those
of superstitious and licentious and wicked men; for such is the
character of the multitudes who constitute the citizens3522
| 3522 τοιαῦτα γὰρ
τὰ πανταχοῦ
πολιτευόμενα
ἐν ταῖς
ἐκκλησίαις
τῶν πόλεων
πλήθη. | in the assemblies of the various
cities. Whereas the Churches of God which are instructed by
Christ, when carefully contrasted with the assemblies of the districts
in which they are situated, are as beacons3523
| 3523 φωστῆρες.
[Phil. ii. 15. Very noteworthy are the details
of this and the following chapter, and their defiant comparisons.] | in
the world; for who would not admit that even the inferior members of
the Church, and those who in comparison with the better are less
worthy, are nevertheless more excellent than many of those who belong
to the assemblies in the different districts?E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
