Required reading
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Vol 4) (Available from Amazon or free here) - Commence Book IV of Origen against Celsus by reading up to Chapter XLV.
My summary
Today we begin our fourth book from Origen that answers accusations from Celsus against Christianity.
Firstly Origen examines Celsus' charge that it is foolishness to believe God came as a human to make people righteous. Celsus said: 'But that certain Christians and (all) Jews should maintain, the former that there has already descended, the latter that there will descend, upon the earth a certain God, or Son of a God, who will make the inhabitants of the earth righteous, is a most shameless assertion, and one the refutation of which does not need many words.'
Secondly Origen discusses Celsus' ridicule of the Scripture's account of the origin of man.
Most of Origen's answers to these charges involve pointing out Celsus' misunderstandings of the doctrines and the hypocrisy of Celsus when you consider his own pagan beliefs.
What grabbed me
I liked how Origen again and again pointed out the hypocrisy of Celsus: 'The argument which Celsus employs against us and the Jews will be turned against himself thus: My good sir, does the God who is over all things know what takes place among men, or does He not know? Now if you admit the existence of a God and of providence, as your treatise indicates, He must of necessity know. And if He does know, why does He not make (men) better? Is it obligatory, then, on us to defend God's procedure in not making men better, although He knows their state, but not equally binding on you, who do not distinctly show by your treatise that you are an Epicurean, but pretend to recognise a providence, to explain why God, although knowing all that takes place among men, does not make them better, nor by divine power liberate all men from evil? We are not ashamed, however, to say that God is constantly sending (instructors) in order to make men better; for there are to be found amongst men reasons given by God which exhort them to enter on a better life.'
Celsus is not an atheist, but he wants to limit God to doing only what he thinks God can do.
Next week's reading
Conclude Book IV of Origen against Celsus.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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