Since the Word Came, the Idols Have Failed

When did people begin to abandon the worship of idols, except since God, the true Word of God, came among men? When did the oracles among the Greeks, and everywhere else, cease and fall empty, except since the Savior showed himself on earth? When did those whom the poets call gods and heroes begin to be shown up as mere mortal men, except since the Lord set up his victory over death, and kept incorruptible the body he had taken, raising it from the dead? When did the deceitfulness and madness of demons fall into contempt, except when the power of God, the Word, the Master of these too, stooping down because of man’s weakness, appeared on earth? When did the art and the schools of magic begin to be trampled down, except when the divine appearing of the Word took place among men? And in a word, when did the wisdom of the Greeks become foolish, except when the true Wisdom of God showed itself on earth? [a]

For in the past the whole world and every place was led astray by the worship of idols, and people thought nothing but the idols were gods. But now, all over the world, people are abandoning the superstition of the idols and taking refuge with Christ; and worshiping him as God, they are coming through him to know that Father too, whom they did not know. And here is a marvelous thing. The objects of worship were many and beyond counting, and each place had its own idol. The one counted a god among them had no power to pass over to the neighboring place and persuade the neighboring peoples to worship him; he was barely served even among his own people. For no one else worshiped his neighbor’s god; on the contrary, each kept to his own idol, thinking it lord of all. Yet Christ alone is worshiped as one and the same among all peoples. What the weakness of the idols could not do, namely persuade even those living close at hand, Christ has done. He has persuaded not only those close at hand but simply the whole world to worship one and the same Lord, and through him God, his Father.