Deceivers Who Speak the Words of Scripture

Everything that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as Luke wrote, “both did and taught,” he accomplished after he had appeared for our salvation. For he came, as John says, “not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” Among all the rest, we must especially admire this instance of his goodness: he did not keep silent about those who would fight against us, but told us plainly beforehand, so that when those things came to pass we might at once be found with minds made steady by his teaching. For he said, “False prophets and false Christs will arise, and will show great signs and wonders, so that, if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived. Look, I have told you beforehand.” [a]

Many indeed, and beyond human imagining, are the instructions and the gifts of grace he has stored up in us: the pattern of a heavenly way of life, power against demons, adoption as sons, and that exceedingly great and singular grace, the knowledge of the Father and of the Word himself, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. But the human mind is exceedingly prone to evil. Besides, our adversary the devil, envying us the possession of such great blessings, goes about trying to snatch away the seed of the word that is sown within us. That is why the Lord, as if by his prophetic warnings he would seal up his instructions in our hearts as his own special treasure, said, “Take care that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and, ‘The time is drawing near’; and they will deceive many. So do not go after them.”

This is a great gift the Word has given us: that we should not be deceived by appearances, but that, however these things are hidden, we should all the more tell them apart by the grace of the Spirit. The inventor of wickedness, that great spirit of evil, the devil, is utterly hateful. As soon as he shows himself he is rejected by everyone, as a serpent, as a dragon, as a lion looking for someone to seize and devour. So he hides and covers what he really is, and craftily puts on that Name which all people long for, so that, deceiving by a false appearance, he may then fasten in his own chains those he has led astray. Think of someone who wanted to kidnap other people’s children while their parents were away, and who disguised himself to look like the parents, played on the children’s affection, and so carried them far away and destroyed them. In the same way this evil and cunning spirit, the devil, having no confidence in himself, and knowing the love people bear for the truth, puts on the appearance of the truth, and so spreads his own poison among those who follow him.

That is how he deceived Eve: not speaking his own words, but cunningly taking up the words of God and twisting their meaning. That is how he suggested evil to Job’s wife, persuading her to pretend affection for her husband while he taught her to blaspheme God. That is how this crafty spirit mocks people with false displays, deluding each one and drawing him into his own pit of wickedness. When long ago he deceived the first man, Adam, thinking that through him he would have all people subject to him, he exulted with great boldness and said, “My hand has found the riches of the people like a nest; and as one gathers eggs that are left, I have gathered all the earth; and there is no one who will escape me or speak against me.” [d]

But when the Lord came on earth, and the enemy put to the test the plan by which he had become man, he could not deceive the flesh the Lord had taken on. From that time on, the one who had promised himself possession of the whole world is mocked, for the Lord’s sake, even by children: that proud one is mocked like a sparrow. For now the infant puts his hand on the asp’s hole and laughs at the one who deceived Eve; and all who rightly believe in the Lord trample underfoot the one who said, “I will go up above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.” So he suffers and is dishonored. And although he still dares, with shameless confidence, to disguise himself, now, wretched spirit, he is found out all the more by those who bear the sign on their foreheads. More than that, he is rejected by them, humbled, and put to shame. For even if, now that he is a creeping serpent, he transforms himself into an angel of light, his deception will do him no good. We have been taught that “even if an angel from heaven preaches to us any other gospel than the one we have received, he is anathema.”

And again, even if he hides his natural falsehood and pretends to speak the truth with his lips, we are still “not ignorant of his schemes.” We can answer him in the words the Spirit spoke against him: “But to the ungodly God said, ‘Why do you preach my laws?’” and, “Praise is not fitting in the mouth of a sinner.” For even when he speaks the truth, the deceiver does not deserve to be believed. Scripture showed this when it told of his wicked tricks against Eve in Paradise, and the Lord too rebuked him. First, on the mountain, he laid open “the folds of his breastplate” and showed who the crafty spirit was, proving that it was not one of the saints but Satan who was tempting him. For he said, “Get behind me, Satan; for it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” And again, when he put a bridle in the mouths of the demons who cried out after him from the tombs. What they said was true, and they were not lying then when they said, “You are the Son of God,” and, “the Holy One of God.” Yet he did not want the truth to come from an unclean mouth, and especially from such as they were, in case under cover of it they mixed in their own malicious schemes and sowed these too while people slept. So he did not let them say such things, and he would not have us put up with such people either. He has charged us with his own mouth, saying, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves”; and by the mouth of his holy apostles, “Do not believe every spirit.” [i]

That is how our adversary works, and all these inventions of the heresies are of the same kind. Each of them has for the father of its own invention the devil, who changed and became a murderer and a liar from the beginning. But being ashamed to profess his hateful name, the heretics take over the glorious Name of our Savior, “which is above every name,” and dress themselves up in the language of Scripture. They speak the words, but they steal away their true meaning. And so, disguising their false inventions by some trick, they too become the murderers of those they have led astray.

How can Marcion and Mani accept the Gospel while they reject the Law? The New Testament came out of the Old and bears witness to the Old; if they reject the Old, then, how can they accept what comes from it? So Paul was an apostle of the gospel “which God promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures.” And our Lord himself said, “You search the Scriptures, for they are the ones that testify about me.” How then will they confess the Lord unless they first search the Scriptures that are written about him? And the disciples say that they have found him “of whom Moses and the prophets wrote.” And what is the Law to the Sadducees if they do not accept the prophets? For God, who gave the Law, himself promised in the Law that he would raise up prophets as well, so that the same God is Lord both of the Law and of the prophets, and whoever denies the one must of necessity deny the other too. And again, what is the Old Testament to the Jews unless they acknowledge the Lord whose coming was expected according to it? For if they had believed the writings of Moses, they would have believed the words of the Lord; for he said, “He wrote about me.” Further, what are the Scriptures to the man of Samosata, who denies the Word of God and his presence in the flesh, which is signified and declared in both the Old and the New Testament? And what use are the Scriptures to the Arians as well, and why do they bring them forward? These are men who say that the Word of God is a creature, and who, like the pagans, “serve the creature rather than” God “the Creator.” [m]

So each of these heresies, in the particular impiety of its own invention, has nothing in common with the Scriptures. And their champions know this: that the Scriptures are very much, or rather entirely, opposed to the teachings of every one of them. But to deceive the simpler sort (the kind of people of whom it is written in Proverbs, “The simple believes every word”), they pretend, like “their father the devil,” to study and quote the language of Scripture. They do it so that their words may make them seem to believe rightly, and so that they may persuade their wretched followers to believe what is contrary to the Scriptures. Certainly in every one of these heresies the devil has disguised himself in this way, and has suggested to them words full of cunning. The Lord said of them, “False Christs and false prophets will arise, so that they will deceive many.” So the devil has come, speaking through each of them and saying, “I am Christ, and the truth is with me”; and he has made them, one and all, liars like himself. And it is a strange thing: while all the heresies are at odds with one another over the harmful inventions each has framed, they are united only by their common purpose of lying. For they have one and the same father, who has sown in all of them the seeds of falsehood.

That is why the faithful Christian, the true disciple of the gospel, who has grace to discern spiritual things and has built the house of his faith on a rock, stands continually firm and safe from their deceits. But the simple person, as I said before, who is not thoroughly grounded in knowledge, considers only the words that are spoken and does not see their meaning, and he is immediately drawn away by their tricks. So it is good and necessary for us to pray that we may receive the gift of discerning spirits, so that everyone may know, according to John’s command, whom he ought to reject, and whom to receive as friends and as sharing the same faith. One could write at great length about these things, if one wanted to go into the details; for the impiety and perverseness of the heresies would be seen to be many-sided and varied, and the cunning of the deceivers very terrible. But since Holy Scripture is of all things the most sufficient for us, I recommend to those who want to know more about these matters that they read the divine word. I now hasten to set before you what most deserves attention, the matter for whose sake above all I have written these things.

While I was staying in these parts, I heard (and the brothers who told me were true and orthodox) that certain people who profess Arian opinions had met together and drawn up a confession of faith to their own liking. They intend to send you word that you must either sign what pleases them, or rather what the devil has inspired in them, or, if you refuse, suffer banishment. They are already beginning to harass the bishops of these parts, and in doing so they are plainly showing what they are like. Since they draw up this document only in order to inflict banishment or other punishments, what does such conduct prove them to be but enemies of the Christians, and friends of the devil and his angels? All the more so, since they spread abroad whatever they like, contrary to the mind of that gracious prince, our most religious emperor Constantius. [q]

They do this with great cunning, and, as it seems to me, chiefly with two aims in view. First, by getting your signatures, they want to seem to remove the bad reputation that clings to the name of Arius, and to escape notice themselves, as if they did not hold his opinions. Second, by putting out these statements they want to cast a shadow over the Council of Nicaea and the confession of faith that was published there against the Arian heresy. But this proceeding only proves their own malice and false teaching all the more plainly. For if they believed rightly, they would have been content with the confession put out at Nicaea by the whole Ecumenical Council. And if they thought themselves slandered and falsely called Arians, they ought not to have been so eager to make innovations in what was written against Arius, in case what was aimed at him should seem to be aimed at them as well. But that is not the course they take. They fight the battle on their own behalf, exactly as if they were Arius. Notice how completely they disregard the truth, and how everything they say and do is for the sake of the Arian heresy. When they dare to question those sound definitions of the faith, and take it on themselves to produce others contrary to them, what else are they doing but accusing the fathers, and standing up in defense of the very heresy the fathers opposed and protested against? And what they are writing now does not come from any regard for the truth, as I said before. They do it as a mockery and a trick, to deceive people. By sending their letters around they want to win the people’s ears for these notions, and so put off the time when they will be brought to trial; and by hiding their impiety from view, they want room to spread their heresy, which, “like gangrene,” eats its way everywhere.

So they throw everything into confusion and disorder, and yet even so they are not satisfied with their own proceedings. Every year, as if they were drawing up a contract, they meet together and pretend to write about the faith. By this they expose themselves all the more to ridicule and disgrace, because their statements are rejected not by others but by themselves. If they had any confidence in their earlier statements, they would not have wanted to draw up others; nor, leaving those last ones aside, would they now have set down the one in question. And no doubt, true to their habit, they will alter it again after a very short time, as soon as they find a pretext for their usual plotting against certain persons. For whenever they have a design against anyone, that is when they make a great show of writing about the faith. As Pilate washed his hands, so they by writing hope to destroy those who rightly believe in Christ, expecting that by making definitions about the faith they may appear, as I have said again and again, to be free from the charge of false doctrine. [t]

But they will not be able to hide or to escape, for they continually become their own accusers even while they defend themselves. And rightly so, since instead of answering those who bring proofs against them, they only persuade themselves to believe whatever they wish. And when is an acquittal won by the criminal becoming his own judge? That is why they are always writing, and always altering their own earlier statements, and so they show an uncertain faith, or rather a plain unbelief and perverseness. It seems to me this must be the case with them. Having fallen away from the truth, and wanting to overthrow the sound confession of faith that was drawn up at Nicaea, they have, in the language of Scripture, “loved to wander, and have not held back their feet.” And so, like Jerusalem of old, they labor and toil over their changes, writing one thing at one time and another at another, but only to gain time, so that they may go on being enemies of Christ and deceivers of humankind.

Who, then, who has any real regard for the truth, will be willing to put up with these men any longer? Who will not rightly reject what they write? Who will not denounce their audacity? Though they are few in number, they want their decisions to prevail over everything. Wanting supremacy for their own meetings, held in corners and suspicious in their circumstances, they would forcibly cancel the decrees of an uncorrupted, pure, and Ecumenical Council. Men who were promoted by Eusebius and his party for championing this heresy of Antichrist dare to define articles of faith. They ought to be brought to judgment as criminals, yet like Caiaphas they take it on themselves to judge. They compose a Thalia and want it received as a standard of faith, while they have not yet decided for themselves what they believe. [v]

Who does not know that Secundus of Pentapolis, who was deposed several times long ago, was received by them for the sake of the Arian madness? And that George, now of Laodicea, and Leontius the Eunuch, and before him Stephen, and Theodore of Heraclea, were promoted by them? Ursacius and Valens too, who from the first were taught by Arius as young men, had earlier been deposed from the priesthood, and afterward got the title of bishops because of their impiety. So did Acacius, Patrophilus, and Narcissus, who have been foremost in every kind of impiety. These were deposed at the great Synod of Sardica. Eustathius too, now of Sebaste, Demophilus and Germinius, Eudoxius, and Basil, who are supporters of that impiety, were advanced in the same way. As for Cecropius, and the one they called Auxentius, and Epictetus the impostor, there is no need for me to speak of them, since it is plain to everyone how, on what pretexts, and by which of our enemies they were promoted: so that they could bring false charges against the orthodox bishops whom they had in their sights. For although they lived eighty posting stations away and were unknown to the people, they bought themselves the title of bishop on the strength of their impiety.

For the same reason they have now hired one George of Cappadocia, whom they want to force on you. But he deserves no more respect than the rest. There is a report in these parts that he is not even a Christian, but is devoted to the worship of idols; and he has the temper of an executioner. And this man, such as he is described to be, they have taken into their ranks so that they may be able to injure, to plunder, and to kill. In these things he is highly skilled, but he is ignorant of the very first principles of the Christian faith.

Such are these men’s schemes against the truth. But their designs are plain to the whole world, though like eels they try in ten thousand ways to slip from the grasp and escape being found out as enemies of Christ. So I beg you, let no one among you be deceived, no one be led astray by them. Rather, considering that a kind of Jewish impiety is invading the Christian faith, be zealous, all of you, for the Lord. Hold fast, every one of you, the faith we have received from the fathers, which those who assembled at Nicaea recorded in writing, and do not put up with those who try to make innovations in it. However much they write phrases out of Scripture, do not put up with their writings; however much they speak the language of the orthodox, pay no attention to what they say. For they do not speak with an upright mind. They put on such language like sheep’s clothing, while in their hearts they think as Arius does, after the manner of the devil, who is the author of all heresies. For he too made use of the words of Scripture, but was silenced by our Savior. If he had really meant them as he used them, he would not have fallen from heaven. But now, having fallen through his pride, he cunningly disguises his speech, and often maliciously tries to lead people astray by the subtleties and sophistries of the pagans. [aa]

If these statements of theirs had come from the orthodox, from such men as the great confessor Hosius, and Maximinus of Gaul, or his successor; or from such as Philogonius and Eustathius, bishops of the East; or Julius and Liberius of Rome; or Cyriacus of Moesia; or Pistus and Aristaeus of Greece; or Silvester and Protogenes of Dacia; or Leontius and Eupsychius of Cappadocia; or Caecilian of Africa; or Eustorgius of Italy; or Capito of Sicily; or Macarius of Jerusalem; or Alexander of Constantinople; or Paederos of Heraclea; or those great bishops Meletius, Basil, and Longianus, and the rest from Armenia and Pontus; or Lupus and Amphion from Cilicia; or James and the rest from Mesopotamia; or our own blessed Alexander, with others who held the same opinions as these, then there would have been nothing to suspect in their statements. For the character of apostolic men is sincere and incapable of fraud.

But when such words come from those who are hired to champion the cause of heresy, then, since, according to the divine proverb, “The words of the wicked lie in wait,” and “The mouth of the wicked pours out evil things,” and “The counsels of the wicked are deceit,” we ought to watch and be sober, brothers, as the Lord has said. Otherwise some deception may arise from clever speech and cunning, and someone may come and pretend to say, “I preach Christ,” and after a little while be found to be Antichrist. These indeed are Antichrists, whoever come to you in the cause of the Arian madness. For what do you lack, that anyone needs to come to you from outside? What do the churches of Egypt and Libya and Alexandria need so badly, that these men should buy the office of bishop instead of timber and merchandise, and intrude into churches that do not belong to them? Who does not know, who does not plainly see, that they do all this to support their impiety? [ac]

So even if they make themselves mute, or bind on their garments larger borders than the Pharisees did, and pour themselves out in long speeches, and practice the tones of their voice, they ought not to be believed. For it is not the manner of speaking, but the intentions of the heart and a godly way of life, that commend the faithful Christian. So too the Sadducees and Herodians, although they had the law in their mouths, were rebuked by our Savior, who said to them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” And everyone saw the exposure of those who pretended to quote the words of the Law, while in their minds they were heretics and fighters against God. Others, indeed, they deceived by these professions; but when our Lord became man, they could not deceive him. For “the Word became flesh,” the one who “knows the thoughts of men, that they are futile.” So he exposed the carping of the Jews, saying, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came forth from the Father and have come to you.” These men now seem to act in the same way. They disguise their real opinions, and then use the language of Scripture for their writings, which they hold out as bait for the ignorant, to lure them into their own wickedness.

Consider whether this is not so. If they write confessions of faith when there is no reason for doing so, it is a needless and perhaps also a harmful proceeding. When no question has been raised, they give occasion for disputes about words, and unsettle the simple hearts of the brothers, spreading among them notions that have never entered their minds. And if they are trying to write a defense of themselves with regard to the Arian heresy, they ought first to have removed the seeds of the evils that have sprung up, and to have condemned those who produced them, and then, in place of the earlier statements, to set out others that are sound. Or else let them openly defend the opinions of Arius, so that they may show themselves enemies of Christ no longer in secret but openly, and so that everyone may flee from them as from the face of a serpent. [af]

But as it is, they keep those opinions back, and as a pretense write about other matters. It is as if a surgeon, called to attend someone wounded and suffering, came in and said not a word about his wounds, but went on to talk about his healthy limbs. Such a man would be guilty of utter stupidity, saying nothing about the matter he came for, and holding forth on the points where he was not needed. Yet in just the same way these men leave out the matters that concern their heresy, and take it on themselves to write about other subjects. If they had any regard for the faith, or any love for Christ, they ought first to have cleared out of the way the blasphemous expressions spoken against him, and then in their place to speak and write sound words. But this they neither do themselves nor allow those who want to do it, whether from ignorance, or through craft and trickery.

If they do this from ignorance, they must be charged with rashness, because they make positive statements about things they do not know. But if they disguise things knowingly, their condemnation is the greater. They overlook nothing when they look after their own interests, yet in writing about faith in our Lord they make a mockery of it, and will do anything rather than speak the truth. They hold back the very points for which their heresy stands accused, and merely put forward the language of the Scriptures. This is open theft of the truth, and a practice full of every wickedness; and I am sure that you, in your piety, will readily see it to be so from the following illustrations. [ag]

No one accused of adultery defends himself as innocent of theft. Nor would anyone prosecuting a charge of murder let the accused defend themselves by saying, “We have not committed perjury, and we have kept safe the property left with us in trust.” That would be mere child’s play, not a refutation of the charge or a demonstration of the truth. For what does murder have to do with property held in trust, or adultery with theft? The vices are indeed related to one another, since they come from the same heart; but when it comes to refuting a charge, they have no connection with each other. So, as it is written in the book of Joshua the son of Nun, when Achan was charged with theft, he did not excuse himself by pleading his zeal in the wars; he was convicted of the offense and stoned by all the people. And when Saul was charged with negligence and breaking the law, he did his cause no good by pointing to his conduct in other matters. For a defense on one count will not win an acquittal on another. If everything is to be done according to law and justice, a man must defend himself on the points on which he is accused, and must either disprove the past, or else confess it with the promise that he will stop and do so no more. But if he is guilty of the crime and will not confess, but, to hide the truth, speaks of other points instead of the one in question, he shows plainly that he has done wrong, and indeed that he knows he is guilty.

But what need is there of many words, when these people are themselves accusers of the Arian heresy? Since they do not have the courage to speak out, but hide their blasphemous expressions, it is plain that they know this heresy is separate from the truth and foreign to it. But since they themselves hide it and are afraid to speak, I must strip the veil from their impiety and expose the heresy to public view. For I know the statements that Arius and his party made in the past, and how they were cast out of the church and deposed from the clergy. But first I ask pardon for the foul words I am about to bring forward, since I use them not because I think this way, but in order to convict the heretics.