Against Marcion

That “the very powers also of heaven have to be shaken,” you may find in Joel: “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth— blood and fire, and pillars of smoke; the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.” In Habakkuk also you have this statement: “With rivers shall the earth be cleaved; the nations shall see you, and be in pangs. You shall disperse the waters with your step; the deep uttered its voice; the height of its fear was raised; the sun and the moon stood still in their course; into light shall your coruscations go; and your shield shall be (like) the glittering of the lightning's flash; in your anger you shall grind the earth, and shall thresh the nations in your wrath.” There is thus an agreement, I apprehend, between the sayings of the Lord and of the prophets touching the shaking of the earth, and the elements, and the nations thereof.

But what does the Lord say afterwards? “And then shall they see the Son of man coming from the heavens with very great power. And when these things shall come to pass, you shall look up, and raise your heads; for your redemption has come near,” that is, at the time of the kingdom, of which the parable itself treats. “So likewise you, when you shall see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is near at hand.” This will be the great day of the Lord, and of the glorious coming of the Son of man from heaven, of which Daniel wrote: “Behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven,” etc.

“And there was given unto Him the kingly power,” which (in the parable) “He went away into a far country to receive for Himself,” leaving money to His servants wherewithal to trade and get increase — even (that universal kingdom of) all nations, which in the Psalm the Father had promised to give to Him: Ask of me, and I will give You the heathen for Your inheritance. “And all that glory shall serve Him; His dominion shall be an everlasting one, which shall not be taken from Him, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed,” because in it “men shall not die, neither shall they marry, but be like the angels.” It is about the same advent of the Son of man and the benefits thereof that we read in Habakkuk: “You went forth for the salvation of Your people, even to save Your anointed ones,” — in other words, those who shall look up and lift their heads, being redeemed in the time of His kingdom.

Since, therefore, these descriptions of the promises, on the one hand, agree together, as do also those of the great catastrophes, on the other— both in the predictions of the prophets and the declarations of the Lord, it will be impossible for you to interpose any distinction between them, as if the catastrophes could be referred to the Creator, as the terrible God, being such as the good god (of Marcion) ought not to permit, much less expect— while the promises should be ascribed to the good god, being such as the Creator, in His ignorance of the said god, could not have predicted.

If, however, He did predict these promises as His own, since they differ in no respect from the promises of Christ, He will be a match in the freeness of His gifts with the good god himself; and evidently no more will have been promised by your Christ than by my Son of man. (If you examine) the whole passage of this Gospel Scripture, from the inquiry of the disciples down to the parable of the fig-tree you will find the sense in its connection suit in every point the Son of man, so that it consistently ascribes to Him both the sorrows and the joys, and the catastrophes and the promises; nor can you separate them from Him in either respect.

For as much, then, as there is but one Son of man whose advent is placed between the two issues of catastrophe and promise, it must needs follow that to that one Son of man belong both the judgments upon the nations, and the prayers of the saints. He who thus comes in midway so as to be common to both issues, will terminate one of them by inflicting judgment on the nations at His coming; and will at the same time commence the other by fulfilling the prayers of His saints: so that if (on the one hand) you grant that the coming of the Son of man is (the advent) of my Christ, then, when you ascribe to Him the infliction of the judgments which precede His appearance, you are compelled also to assign to Him the blessings which issue from the same.

If (on the other hand) you will have it that it is the coming of your Christ, then, when you ascribe to him the blessings which are to be the result of his advent, you are obliged to impute to him likewise the infliction of the evils which precede his appearance. For the evils which precede, and the blessings which immediately follow, the coming of the Son of man, are both alike indissolubly connected with that event. Consider, therefore, which of the two Christs you choose to place in the person of the Son of man, to whom you may refer the execution of the two dispensations.

You make either the Creator a most beneficent God, or else your own god terrible in his nature! Reflect, in short, on the picture presented in the parable: “Behold the fig-tree, and all the trees; when they produce their fruit, men know that summer is at hand. So likewise you, when you see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is very near.” Now, if the fructification of the common trees be an antecedent sign of the approach of summer, so in like manner do the great conflicts of the world indicate the arrival of that kingdom which they precede.

But every sign is His, to whom belong the thing of which it is the sign; and to everything is appointed its sign by Him to whom the thing belongs. If, therefore, these tribulations are the signs of the kingdom, just as the maturity of the trees is of the summer, it follows that the kingdom is the Creator's to whom are ascribed the tribulations which are the signs of the kingdom. Since the beneficent Deity had premised that these things must needs come to pass, although so terrible and dreadful, as they had been predicted by the law and the prophets, therefore He did not destroy the law and the prophets, when He affirmed that what had been foretold therein must be certainly fulfilled.

He further declares, “that heaven and earth shall not pass away till all things be fulfilled.” What things, pray, are these? Are they the things which the Creator made? Then the elements will tractably endure the accomplishment of their Maker's dispensation. If, however, they emanate from your excellent god, I much doubt whether the heaven and earth will peaceably allow the completion of things which their Creator's enemy has determined! If the Creator quietly submits to this, then He is no “jealous God.”

But let heaven and earth pass away, since their Lord has so determined; only let His word remain for evermore! And so Isaiah predicted that it should. Let the disciples also be warned, “lest their hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this world; and so that day come upon them unawares, like a snare” — if indeed they should forget God amidst the abundance and occupation of the world. Like this will be found the admonition of Moses—so that He who delivers from “the snare” of that day is none other than He who so long before addressed to men the same admonition. Some places there were in Jerusalem where to teach; other places outside Jerusalem whither to retire — “in the day-time He was teaching in the temple;” just as He had foretold by Hosea: “In my house did they find me, and there did I speak with them.” “But at night He went out to the Mount of Olives.”

For thus had Zechariah pointed out: “And His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives.” Fit hours for an audience there also were. “Early in the morning” must they resort to Him, who (having said by Isaiah, “The Lord gives me the tongue of the learned”) added, “He has appointed me the morning, and has also given me an ear to hear.” Now if this is to destroy the prophets, what will it be to fulfil them?