Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Conclusion. Doctrine of Scripture on the subject of Part I.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
§45. Conclusion. Doctrine of Scripture on the subject
of Part I.
For just as by looking up to the heaven and
seeing its order and the light of the stars, it is possible to infer
the Word Who ordered these things, so by beholding the Word of God, one
needs must behold also God His Father, proceeding from Whom He is
rightly called His Father’s Interpreter and Messenger. 2. And
this one may see from our own experience; for if when a word proceeds
from men173
| 173 Cf.
de Sent. Dionys. 23. | we infer that the mind is its source,
and, by thinking about the word, see with our reason the mind which it
reveals, by far greater evidence and incomparably more, seeing the
power of the Word, we receive a knowledge also of His good Father, as
the Saviour Himself says, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father174
.” But this all inspired Scripture also
teaches more plainly and with more authority, so that we in our turn
write boldly to you as we do, and you, if you refer to them, will be
able to verify what we say. 3. For an argument when confirmed by higher
authority is irresistibly proved. From the first then the divine Word
firmly taught the Jewish people about the abolition of idols when it
said175
: “Thou shalt not make to thyself a
graven image, nor the likeness of anything that is in the heaven above
or in the earth beneath.” But the cause of their abolition
another writer declares176
, saying: “The
idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the works of men’s
hands: a mouth have they and will not speak, eyes have they and will
not see, ears have they and will not hear, noses have they and will not
smell, hands have they and will not handle, feet have they and will not
walk.” Nor has it passed over in silence the doctrine of
creation; but, knowing well its beauty, lest any attending solely to
this beauty should worship things as if they were gods, instead of
God’s works, it teaches men firmly beforehand when it says177
: “And do not when thou lookest up with
thine eyes and seest the sun and moon and all the host of heaven, go
astray and worship them, which the Lord thy God hath given to all
nations under heaven.” But He gave them, not to be their gods,
but that by their agency the Gentiles should know, as we have said, God
the Maker of them all. 4. For the people of the Jews of old had
abundant teaching, in that they had the knowledge of God not only from
the works of Creation, but also from the divine Scriptures. And in
general to draw men away from the error and irrational imagination of
idols, He saith178
: “Thou shalt
have none other gods but Me.” Not as if there were other gods
does He forbid them to have them, but lest any, turning from the true
God, should begin to make himself gods of what were not, such as those
who in the poets and writers are called gods, though they are none. And
the language itself shews that they are no Gods, when it says,
“Thou shalt have none other gods,” which refers only to the
future. But what is referred to the future does not exist at the time
of speaking.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
