Against Heresies: Book V

AND SUCH AN IMPORTANT DISPENSATION HE DID NOT BRING ABOUT USING THE CREATIONS OF OTHERS: but by His own; not through things created out of ignorance and defect, but through those that had their substance from the wisdom and power of His Father. For He was neither unrighteous, to covet what belonged to another, nor needy, unable to give life to His own through His own means, and use His own creation for the salvation of man.

Indeed, the creation could not have sustained Him [on the cross] if He had sent forth what was merely the result of ignorance and defect.

We have repeatedly shown that the incarnate Word of God was hung on a tree, and even the heretics acknowledge that He was crucified. How, then, could the result of ignorance and defect sustain Him who holds the knowledge of all things and is true and perfect? Or how could that creation, hidden from the Father and distant from Him, have sustained His Word? And if this world were made by the angels (it doesn't matter whether we consider their ignorance or awareness of the Supreme God), when the Lord declared, “For I am in the Father, and the Father in Me,” how could this work of the angels have borne being burdened with both the Father and the Son? How could that creation beyond the Pleroma have contained Him who contains the full Pleroma? Since all these things are impossible and lack proof, the preaching of the Church is alone true when it declares that His own creation supported Him, subsisting by the power, skill, and wisdom of God; which is sustained in an invisible manner by the Father, but visibly bore His Word: and this is the true Word.

THE FATHER SUPPORTS BOTH CREATION AND HIS OWN WORD AT THE SAME TIME: and the Word carried by the Father bestows the Spirit upon all, as the Father desires. To some, He gives what is made in the manner of creation, but to others, He gives in the manner of adoption, which is what comes from God, namely generation. Thus, one God the Father is acknowledged, who is above all, through all, and in all. The Father is truly above all and is the Head of Christ; the Word works through all things and is Himself the Head of the Church, while the Spirit dwells in us all. The Spirit is the living water that the Lord gives to those who rightly believe in Him, love Him, and know that “there is one Father, who is above all, through all, and in us all.”

John, the disciple of the Lord, also testifies to these truths in the Gospel, saying: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.” He further speaks of the Word, saying: “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. However, to all who did receive Him, He gave the power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” Moreover, speaking of the Word’s human nature, John said: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us.” He continues, “We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John clearly indicates, for those willing to listen, that there is one God, the Father over all, and one Word of God, who works through all things and made all things according to the Father’s will. This world belongs to Him and was made by Him, not by angels, nor by apostasy, defect, ignorance, or by any power of Prunicus, whom some call “the Mother,” nor by any other creator ignorant of the Father.

THE CREATOR OF THE WORLD IS TRULY THE WORD OF GOD: and this is our Lord, who in the last times became human, existing in this world, and who invisibly contains all created things, and is inherent in the entire creation, since the Word of God governs and arranges everything; and so He came to His own visibly, and became flesh, and was crucified, that He might unite all things in Himself. “And His own peculiar people did not receive Him,” as Moses declared this among the people: “And your life shall be hanging before your eyes, and you will not believe your life.” Those who did not receive Him did not receive life. “But to as many as received Him, He gave the power to become the sons of God.” For He has power from the Father over everything, since He is the Word of God, and truly human, communicating with invisible beings in the way of the intellect, and establishing a law observable to the senses, so that all things should continue each in their own order; and He reigns openly over visible things and those related to humans; and brings in just and worthy judgment upon all; as David, clearly pointing to this, says, “Our God shall openly come, and will not keep silent.” Then he also shows the judgment brought by Him, saying, “A fire shall burn before Him, and a strong tempest shall rage around Him.

He shall call upon the heaven above, and the earth, to judge His people.”