The Maker Is the Word of God

Who, then, might this Maker be? This is a point most necessary to make plain, so that no one, from ignorance about him, supposes the wrong maker and falls once more into the same old godless error. But I think no one is really in doubt about it. For our argument has proved that the gods of the poets are no gods, has convicted of error those who make gods of creation, and has shown in general that the idolatry of the pagans is godlessness and impiety. If so, then once these are set aside, it strictly follows that the true religion is with us, and that the God we worship and preach is the only true one, who is Lord of creation and Maker of all that exists. Who, then, is this, but the Father of Christ, most holy and above all created existence? Like an excellent pilot, by his own Wisdom and his own Word, our Lord and Savior Christ, he steers and preserves and orders all things, and does as seems best to him. And what is best is what has been done and what we see taking place, since that is what he wills; and a person can hardly refuse to believe this. [a]

If the movement of creation were irrational, and the universe were carried along without a plan, a person might fairly disbelieve what we say. But if it stands firm in reason and wisdom and skill, and is perfectly ordered throughout, it follows that the one who is over it and has ordered it is none other than the Reason, the Word, of God. But by Word I do not mean the word that is involved and inherent in all created things, which some like to call the seed principle. That word has no soul and no power of reason or thought, but works only by an art from outside, according to the skill of whoever applies it. Nor do I mean the kind of word that belongs to rational beings, which is made of syllables and has the air as the vehicle that carries it. I mean the living and powerful Word of the good God, the God of the universe, the very Word who is God. While he is different from the things that are made and from all creation, he is the one Word that belongs to the good Father, and by his own providence he ordered this universe and gives it light.

For being the good Word of the good Father, he produced the order of all things, joining contrary things with one another and bringing them into one harmonious order. He, the Power of God and the Wisdom of God, makes the heaven turn, and has hung the earth and made it fast, though it rests on nothing, by his own nod. Lit by him, the sun gives light to the world, and the moon has her measured times of shining. Because of him the water hangs in the clouds, the rains shower on the earth, and the sea is kept within its bounds, while the earth bears grass and is clothed with all kinds of plants. And if someone, not believing what we say, were to ask whether there is a Word of God at all, such a person would indeed be mad to doubt about the Word of God. Yet proof is possible from what is seen, because all things stand by the Word and Wisdom of God. No created thing would have had a fixed existence if it had not been made by reason, and that Reason the Word of God, as we have said.