For, as I said, what has been handed down to them is no earthly discovery. They do not consider a mortal idea worthy of such careful preservation, nor have they been entrusted with the stewardship of human mysteries.
Rather, God himself—the truly almighty, all-creating, and invisible God—established among human beings from heaven the truth and the holy and incomprehensible Word, and firmly fixed him in their hearts. He did not, as someone might suppose, send to human beings some servant, or angel, or ruler, or one of those who administer earthly affairs, or one of those entrusted with the arrangements in heaven. No, he sent the very Craftsman and Creator of the universe, through whom he created the heavens, through whom he enclosed the sea within its proper bounds, whose mysteries all the elements faithfully keep, from whom the sun has received the measures of its daily courses to observe, whom the moon obeys when he commands it to shine at night, whom the stars obey as they follow the course of the moon. Through him all things have been ordered, bounded, and subjected: the heavens and the things in heaven, the earth and the things on earth, the sea and the things in the sea, fire, air, the abyss, the things in the heights, the things in the depths, and the things between. This is the one he sent to them.
Did he send him, as one might imagine of a human ruler, to impose tyranny and inspire fear and terror?
Certainly not. Rather, he sent him in gentleness and meekness. As a king sending a royal son, he sent him; as God, he sent him; as a human being to human beings, he sent him; as Savior, he sent him—persuading, not compelling, for force has no place with God.
He sent him as one calling, not pursuing; he sent him as one loving, not judging.
For he will send him as judge; and who will withstand his coming? …
… thrown to wild beasts so that they might deny the Lord, yet not overcome?
Do you not see that the more of them are punished, the more others multiply?
These do not seem to be human works. These are the power of God; these are signs of his presence.