Against Heresies: Book II
Chapter 9: The Church's Unwavering Belief that God the Father is the Sole Creator of the World
The idea that God is the Creator of the world is accepted even by those who often speak against Him, yet they still acknowledge Him, calling Him the Creator and an angel. This is also supported by all the Scriptures and taught by the Lord, who speaks of this Father in heaven, and no other, as I will demonstrate later in this work. For now, the proof from those with opposing doctrines is sufficient, as all people agree on this truth: the ancients carefully preserved this belief from the first-formed man, praising one God, the Maker of heaven and earth. Others, after them, were reminded of this truth by the prophets of God, and even the heathens learned it from creation itself. Creation reveals the one who formed it, the work suggests the one who made it, and the world shows the one who ordered it. The Universal Church throughout the world has received this tradition from the apostles.
This God, then, being acknowledged, as I have said, and receiving testimony from everyone to the fact of His existence, that Father whom they claim into existence is undoubtedly untenable and has no witnesses to his existence. Simon Magus was the first who said that he himself was God over all and that the world was formed by his angels. Then those who succeeded him, as I have shown in the first book, further corrupted his teaching through their impious and irreligious doctrines against the Creator.
These heretics, being the disciples of those mentioned, render those who assent to them worse than the heathen. For the former serve the creature rather than the Creator and those which are not gods, even though they ascribe the first place in Deity to that God who was the Maker of this universe.
But the latter maintain that He, the Creator of this world, is the result of a defect and describe Him as being of an animal nature and as not knowing that Power which is above Him, while He also exclaims, “I am God, and besides Me there is no other God.” Affirming that He lies, they are liars themselves, attributing all sorts of wickedness to Him; and conceiving of one who is not above this Being as really having an existence, they are thus convicted by their own views of blasphemy against that God who really exists, while they claim into existence a god who has no existence, to their own condemnation.
And thus those who declare themselves "perfect," and as being possessed of the knowledge of all things, are found to be worse than the heathen and to entertain more blasphemous opinions even against their own Creator.