How then can these things be gods when they need help from others? How is it proper to ask anything from them when they themselves require from one another what they need? If it is understood of God that He is in need of nothing, but is self-sufficient and complete in Himself, that all things subsist in Him, and that He gives to all rather than receiving from them, how can it be right to proclaim as gods the sun, moon, and other parts of creation, which are nothing of the kind but instead lack what they need from one another?
Perhaps they themselves will admit that, when divided and considered separately, these things are dependent, since the proof is before their eyes. But they will join them all together and make them one great body, then say that the whole is God. Once the whole has been constituted, they will say, it will no longer need anything from outside; the whole will be sufficient for itself and self-sufficient in every respect. So say those who imagine themselves wise—only to be refuted by this as well.
But this argument will show, no less than those before it, their impiety together with great ignorance. For if the individual parts, when joined, complete the whole, and the whole is constituted from the individual parts, then the whole consists of parts, and each individual thing is a part of the whole. This is very far from what we understand about God. God is whole and not made up of parts. He does not consist of different things; rather, He Himself is the Maker who brings all things into their ordered existence.
See how great an impiety against the Divine they express when they say this. For if He consists of parts, He will certainly appear unlike Himself and will have His completeness from things unlike one another. If He is the sun, He is not the moon; if He is the moon, He is not the earth; if He is the earth, He cannot be the sea. And so, by taking each part in turn, anyone can discover the absurdity of their argument.
One may also condemn their view by considering our own human body. The eye is not hearing, hearing is not a hand, the belly is not the chest, and the neck is not a foot. Each has its own function, and from these different parts one body is constituted. Its parts are joined together according to their need, yet in the course of time they are separated when the nature that brought them together divides them, as God who ordered this wills.
So too—and may the One who is above all pardon the comparison—if they join the parts of creation into one body and proclaim it God, it necessarily follows that He is unlike Himself, as has been shown, and that He will again be divided according to the nature of the parts, which were made to be divisible.
How then can these things be gods when they need help from others? How is it proper to ask anything from them when they themselves require from one another what they need? If it is understood of God that He is in need of nothing, but is self-sufficient and complete in Himself, that all things subsist in Him, and that He gives to all rather than receiving from them, how can it be right to proclaim as gods the sun, moon, and other parts of creation, which are nothing of the kind but instead lack what they need from one another?
Perhaps they themselves will admit that, when divided and considered separately, these things are dependent, since the proof is before their eyes. But they will join them all together and make them one great body, then say that the whole is God. Once the whole has been constituted, they will say, it will no longer need anything from outside; the whole will be sufficient for itself and self-sufficient in every respect. So say those who imagine themselves wise—only to be refuted by this as well.
But this argument will show, no less than those before it, their impiety together with great ignorance. For if the individual parts, when joined, complete the whole, and the whole is constituted from the individual parts, then the whole consists of parts, and each individual thing is a part of the whole. This is very far from what we understand about God. God is whole and not made up of parts. He does not consist of different things; rather, He Himself is the Maker who brings all things into their ordered existence.
See how great an impiety against the Divine they express when they say this. For if He consists of parts, He will certainly appear unlike Himself and will have His completeness from things unlike one another. If He is the sun, He is not the moon; if He is the moon, He is not the earth; if He is the earth, He cannot be the sea. And so, by taking each part in turn, anyone can discover the absurdity of their argument.
One may also condemn their view by considering our own human body. The eye is not hearing, hearing is not a hand, the belly is not the chest, and the neck is not a foot. Each has its own function, and from these different parts one body is constituted. Its parts are joined together according to their need, yet in the course of time they are separated when the nature that brought them together divides them, as God who ordered this wills.
So too—and may the One who is above all pardon the comparison—if they join the parts of creation into one body and proclaim it God, it necessarily follows that He is unlike Himself, as has been shown, and that He will again be divided according to the nature of the parts, which were made to be divisible.