Ante Nicene Fathers Vol. 1; Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

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.1046CHAPTER 40ONE AND THE SAME GOD THE FATHER INFLICTSPUNISHMENT ON THE REPROBATE, ANDBESTOWS REWARDS ON THE ELECT1.It is therefore one and the same God the Father who has prepared goodthings with Himself for those who desire His fellowship, and who remainin subjection to Him; and who has the eternal fire for the ringleader of theapostasy, the devil, and those who revolted with him, into which [fire] theLord has declared those men shall be sent who have been set apart bythemselves on His left hand.And this is what has been spoken by theprophet, I am a jealous God, making peace, and creating evil things; thusmaking peace and friendship with those who repent and turn to Him, andbringing [them to] unity, but preparing for the impenitent, those who shunthe light, eternal fire and outer darkness, which are evils indeed to thosepersons who fall into them.2.If, however, it were truly one Father who confers rest, and another Godwho has prepared the fire, their sons would have been equally different[one from the other]; one, indeed, sending [men] into the Father s kingdom,but the other into eternal fire.But inasmuch as one and the same Lord haspointed out that the whole human race shall be divided at the judgment, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats, and that to some Hewill say, Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom which hasbeen prepared for you, but to others, Depart from me, ye cursed, intoeverlasting fire, which My Father has prepared for the devil and hisangels, one and the same Father is manifestly declared [in this passage], making peace and creating evil things, preparing fit things for both; asalso there is one Judge sending both into a fit place, as the Lord sets forthin the parable of the tares and the wheat, where He says, As therefore thetares are gathered together, and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the endof the world.The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall gatherfrom His kingdom everything that offendeth, and those who work iniquity,and shall send them into a furnace of fire: there shall be weeping andgnashing of teeth.Then shall the just shine forth as the sun in the kingdomof their Father. The Father, therefore, who has prepared the kingdom for1047the righteous, into which the Son has received those worthy of it, is Hewho has also prepared the furnace of fire, into which these angelscommissioned by the Son of man shall send those persons who deserve it,according to God s command.3.The Lord, indeed, sowed good seed in His own field; and He says, Thefield is the world. But while men slept, the enemy came, and sowedtares in the midst of the wheat, and went his way. Hence we learn thatthis was the apostate angel and the enemy, because he was envious ofGod s workmanship, and took in hand to render this [workmanship] anenmity with God.For this cause also God has banished from His presencehim who did of his own accord stealthily sow the tares, that is, him whobrought about the transgression; but He took compassion upon man, who,through want of care no doubt, but still wickedly [on the part of another],became involved in disobedience; and He turned the enmity by which [thedevil] had designed to make [man] the enemy of God, against the author ofit, by removing His own anger from man, turning it in another direction,and sending it instead upon the serpent.As also the Scripture tells us thatGod said to the serpent, And I will place enmity between thee and thewoman, and between thy seed and her seed.He shall bruise thy head, andthou shalt bruise his heel. And the Lord summed up in Himself thisenmity, when He was made man from a woman, and trod upon his [theserpent s] head, as I have pointed out in the preceding book.CHAPTER 41THOSE PERSONS WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD, BUT WHOARE DISOBEDIENT, ARE ANGELS AND SONS OF THE DEVIL,NOT INDEED BY NATURE, BUT BY IMITATION.CLOSE OFTHIS BOOK, AND SCOPE OF THE SUCCEEDING ONE1.Inasmuch as the Lord has said that there are certain angels, [viz.those]of the devil, for whom eternal fire is prepared; and as, again, He declareswith regard to the tares, The tares are the children of the wicked one, itmust be affirmed that He has ascribed all who are of the apostasy to himwho is the ringleader of this transgression.But He made neither angels normen so by nature.For we do not find that the devil created anything1048whatsoever, since indeed he is himself a creature of God, like the otherangels.For God made all things, as also David says with regard to allthings of the kind: For He spake the word, and they were made; Hecommanded, and they were created.2.Since, therefore, all things were made by God, and since the devil hasbecome the cause of apostasy to himself and others, justly does theScripture always term those who remain in a state of apostasy sons ofthe devil and angels of the wicked one (maligni).For [the word] son,as one before me has observed, has a twofold meaning: one [is a son] in theorder of nature, because he was born a son; the other, in that he was madeso, is reputed a son, although there be a difference between being born soand being made so.For the first is indeed born from the person referred to;but the second is made so by him, whether as respects his creation or bythe teaching of his doctrine.For when any person has been taught from themouth of another, he is termed the son of him who instructs him, and thelatter [is called] his father.According to nature, then that is, accordingto creation, so to speak we are all sons of God, because we have allbeen created by God.But with respect to obedience and doctrine we arenot all the sons of God: those only are so who believe in Him and do Hiswill.And those who do not believe, and do not obey His will, are sons andangels of the devil, because they do the works of the devil.And that suchis the case He has declared in Isaiah: I have begotten and brought upchildren, but they have rebelled against Me. And again, where He saysthat these children are aliens: Strange children have lied unto Me.According to nature, then, they are [His] children, because they have beenso created; but with regard to their works, they are not His children.3.For as, among men, those sons who disobey their fathers, beingdisinherited, are still their sons in the course of nature, but by law aredisinherited, for they do not become the heirs of their natural parents; so inthe same way is it with God, those who do not obey Him beingdisinherited by Him, have ceased to be His sons.Wherefore they cannotreceive His inheritance: as David says, Sinners are alienated from thewomb; their anger is after the likeness of a serpent [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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