Another way to refute their godlessness is by contemplating the truth. For if God is bodiless, invisible, and intangible by nature, how do they conceive of God as a body and worship things seen with the eyes and touched with the hand with the honor due to God?
Again, if what is said about God holds true—that He is all-powerful, that nothing has mastery over Him, while He has mastery over and rules all things—how do those who deify creation fail to see that it falls outside such an understanding of God? When the sun goes beneath the earth, the earth’s shadow hides its light from sight; by day, the sun conceals the moon with the brightness of its light. Hail often damages the fruits of the earth, and fire is extinguished if there is a flood of water. Spring pushes winter aside; summer does not allow spring to pass beyond its limits; and summer in turn is prevented by autumn from extending beyond its own season.
If, then, these things were gods, they ought not to be overcome and hidden by one another. Rather, they should always coexist and carry out their activities together. By day and by night alike, the sun, moon, and the whole company of the other stars should have equal light together, shining on everyone so that everything is illuminated by them. Summer, winter, spring, and autumn should all be present together, without change and at the same time. The sea should mingle with the springs and provide people with one common drink. Calm weather and the blowing of the winds should occur at the same time. Fire and water together should provide people with one and the same use. Indeed, no one should suffer any harm from them if, as these people claim, they are gods who do nothing to harm but rather do everything for benefit.
But if these things cannot happen because they oppose one another, how can things that are contrary to and at war with one another, and unable to coexist, still be called gods or worshiped with honors due to God? How could things whose natures are discordant among themselves grant peace to those who pray to them and preside over harmony for them?
Therefore neither the sun nor the moon nor any other part of creation can reasonably be true gods. Much less can the statues made of stone, gold, and other materials, or Zeus, Apollo, and the others told of in the poets’ myths, truly be gods, as our argument has shown. Some of these are parts of creation, some are lifeless, and some were merely mortal human beings. Accordingly, the worship and deification of them introduces not piety but godlessness and every kind of impiety, and exposes how greatly they have strayed from the knowledge of the one and only true God, namely, the Father of Christ.
Since these things have now been refuted in this way, and the idolatry of the Greeks has been shown to be full of every kind of godlessness and to have been introduced into human life not for its benefit but for its destruction, come, then, as our argument promised from the beginning: now that error has been refuted, let us walk the way of truth and contemplate the Leader and Maker of all, the Father’s Word, so that through Him we may understand God, His Father, and the Greeks may learn how far they have cut themselves off from the truth.
Another way to refute their godlessness is by contemplating the truth. For if God is bodiless, invisible, and intangible by nature, how do they conceive of God as a body and worship things seen with the eyes and touched with the hand with the honor due to God?
Again, if what is said about God holds true—that He is all-powerful, that nothing has mastery over Him, while He has mastery over and rules all things—how do those who deify creation fail to see that it falls outside such an understanding of God? When the sun goes beneath the earth, the earth’s shadow hides its light from sight; by day, the sun conceals the moon with the brightness of its light. Hail often damages the fruits of the earth, and fire is extinguished if there is a flood of water. Spring pushes winter aside; summer does not allow spring to pass beyond its limits; and summer in turn is prevented by autumn from extending beyond its own season.
If, then, these things were gods, they ought not to be overcome and hidden by one another. Rather, they should always coexist and carry out their activities together. By day and by night alike, the sun, moon, and the whole company of the other stars should have equal light together, shining on everyone so that everything is illuminated by them. Summer, winter, spring, and autumn should all be present together, without change and at the same time. The sea should mingle with the springs and provide people with one common drink. Calm weather and the blowing of the winds should occur at the same time. Fire and water together should provide people with one and the same use. Indeed, no one should suffer any harm from them if, as these people claim, they are gods who do nothing to harm but rather do everything for benefit.
But if these things cannot happen because they oppose one another, how can things that are contrary to and at war with one another, and unable to coexist, still be called gods or worshiped with honors due to God? How could things whose natures are discordant among themselves grant peace to those who pray to them and preside over harmony for them?
Therefore neither the sun nor the moon nor any other part of creation can reasonably be true gods. Much less can the statues made of stone, gold, and other materials, or Zeus, Apollo, and the others told of in the poets’ myths, truly be gods, as our argument has shown. Some of these are parts of creation, some are lifeless, and some were merely mortal human beings. Accordingly, the worship and deification of them introduces not piety but godlessness and every kind of impiety, and exposes how greatly they have strayed from the knowledge of the one and only true God, namely, the Father of Christ.
Since these things have now been refuted in this way, and the idolatry of the Greeks has been shown to be full of every kind of godlessness and to have been introduced into human life not for its benefit but for its destruction, come, then, as our argument promised from the beginning: now that error has been refuted, let us walk the way of truth and contemplate the Leader and Maker of all, the Father’s Word, so that through Him we may understand God, His Father, and the Greeks may learn how far they have cut themselves off from the truth.