Prophecy and free choice

The holy prophetic Spirit taught us these things. Through Moses it says that God spoke in this way to the first-formed human being: “Look, before your face are good and evil; choose the good.”

And again, through Isaiah, another prophet, words were spoken as from God, the Father and Lord of all: “Wash yourselves; become clean. Remove wickedness from your souls. Learn to do good; give judgment for the orphan and uphold the widow. Come, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Even if your sins are like scarlet, I will make them white like wool; and even if they are crimson, I will make them white like snow. If you are willing and listen to me, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you do not listen to me, a sword shall devour you, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.”

The words “a sword shall devour you” do not mean that those who disobey will be killed by swords. Rather, the sword of God is the fire whose food those who choose to do evil become. This is why he says, “A sword shall devour you, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” If he had been speaking of a sword that cuts and immediately puts an end to life, he would not have said, “shall devour.”

So also when Plato said, “The blame belongs to the one who chooses; God is blameless,” he took this from the prophet Moses and said it, for Moses is older than all the Greek writers. And whatever philosophers and poets have said about the immortality of the soul, punishments after death, contemplation of heavenly things, or similar teachings, they took their starting points from the prophets and so were able to understand and explain such things. This is why seeds of truth seem to exist among everyone. But they are shown not to have understood precisely whenever they contradict themselves.

Therefore, when we say that future events were prophesied, we do not say that they happen by the necessity of fate. Rather, God foreknows what every human being is going to do, and it is his settled judgment that each person will receive recompense according to the worth of his actions and will meet from God what those actions deserve. Through the prophetic Spirit he therefore foretells these things, continually bringing the human race to attention and remembrance and showing that he cares for them and exercises providence over them.

Yet through the activity of the evil demons, death was decreed against those who read the books of Hystaspes, the Sibyl, or the prophets, so that by fear the demons might turn people away from reading them and gaining knowledge of what is good, and might keep them enslaved to themselves. But they were not able to accomplish this completely. For we not only read these writings without fear, but, as you see, bring them to you for examination, knowing that what they contain will appear pleasing to everyone. And even if we persuade only a few, we will have gained very much, for like good farmers we will receive our reward from the Master.