Apologetics -- History -- Early church, ca. 30-600; Celsus (Platonic philosopher), active 180; Theology -- History -- Early Church, ca. 30-600
as God and the Lord are one and the same with the Father, listen to the
manner in which John speaks in the Apocalypse: “Thus saith the Lord God,
which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”[68] For
who else was “He which is to come” than Christ? And as no one ought to
be offended, seeing God is the Father, that the Saviour is also God; so
also, since the Father is called omnipotent, no one ought to be offended
that the Son of God is also called omnipotent. For in this way will that
saying be true which He utters to the Father, “All mine are Thine, and
Thine are mine, and I am glorified in them.”[69] Now, if all things
which are the Father’s are also Christ’s, certainly among those things
which exist is the omnipotence of the Father; and doubtless the
only-begotten Son ought to be omnipotent, that the Son also may have all
things which the Father possesses. “And I am glorified in them,” He
declares. For “at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in
heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and every
tongue shall confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the
Father.”[70] Therefore He is the efflux of the glory of God in this
respect, that He is omnipotent—the pure and limpid Wisdom
herself—glorified as the efflux of omnipotence or of glory. And that it
may be more clearly understood what the glory of omnipotence is, we
shall add the following. God the Father is omnipotent, because He has
power over all things, _i.e._ over heaven and earth, sun, moon, and
stars, and all things in them. And He exercises His power over them by
means of His Word, because at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow,
both of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the
earth. And if every knee is bent to Jesus, then, without doubt, it is
Jesus to whom all things are subject, and He it is who exercises power
over all things, and through whom all things are subject to the Father;
for through wisdom, _i.e._ by word and reason, not by force and
necessity, are all things subject. And therefore His glory consists in
this very thing, that He possesses all things, and this is the purest
and most limpid glory of omnipotence, that by reason and wisdom, not by
force and necessity, all things are subject. Now the purest and most
limpid glory of wisdom is a convenient expression to distinguish it from
that glory which cannot be called pure and sincere. But every nature
which is convertible and changeable, although glorified in the works of
righteousness or wisdom, yet by the fact that righteousness or wisdom
are accidental qualities, and because that which is accidental, may also
fall away, its glory cannot be called sincere and pure. But the Wisdom
of God, which is His only-begotten Son, being in all respects incapable
of change or alteration, and every good quality in Him being essential,
and such as cannot be changed and converted, His glory is therefore
declared to be pure and sincere.
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