Christ Against All Idolatry at Once

And to mention one proof of the Savior’s divinity that is truly astonishing: what mere man or magician or tyrant or king was ever able by himself to take on so many, and to fight the battle against all idolatry, the whole host of demons, all magic and all the wisdom of the Greeks, while they were so strong and still flourishing and imposing on everyone, and to check them all at a single onset, as our Lord did, the true Word of God? Invisibly exposing each person’s error, he by himself is carrying all people away from them all, so that those who used to worship idols now trample on them, those famous for magic burn their books, and the wise prefer the interpretation of the Gospels to all their studies. For those they used to worship, they are abandoning; and the one they used to mock as crucified, they worship as Christ, confessing him to be God. Those called gods among them are routed by the sign of the cross, while the crucified Savior is proclaimed in all the world as God and the Son of God. The gods worshiped among the Greeks are falling into disrepute at their hands as scandalous beings, while those who receive the teaching of Christ live a more chaste life than they do. [a]

If, then, these and similar works are human, let anyone who wishes point out similar works by men of earlier times, and so convince us. But if they prove to be, as they are, not the works of men but of God, why are the unbelievers so impious as not to recognize the Master who did them? Their case is like that of someone who, from the works of creation, failed to know God their Maker. For if they knew his Godhead from his power over the universe, they would have known that the bodily works of Christ are not human either, but are the works of the Savior of all, the Word of God. And if they had known this, as Paul said, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”