Chapter 32. One God Was the Author of Both Covenants.
Chapter 32
1. The Presbyter, a disciple of the Apostle, discoursed along this line, too, showing that both covenants were from one and the same God. To be sure, there is no other God besides the one who made and fashioned us. Neither is there any basis for the thesis of those who assert that this world of ours was made by the angels, or by some other power, or by some other god. Indeed, once a person forsakes the Creator of all things and concedes that this creation of ours was made by someone else or through someone else, he must necessarily fall into multiple inconsistencies and many contradictions for which he can give no defense, neither plausible nor true. That is why those who introduce other doctrines hide from us their notion about God, knowing the unstable and futile nature of their doctrine, and fearing lest they be vanquished and their salvation would be endangered.
On the contrary, if one believes in the one God who also made all things through his Word, as Moses said, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light; and as we read in the Gospel, All things were made through him, and without him was made not anything; and also in the Apostle Paul, One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father, who is above all and through all and in all,—such a one will first of all hold fast the Head, from whom the whole body, being closely joined and knit together through every joint for the functioning in due measure of every single part, makes for the growth of the body, for the building up of itself in love. From then on, every word will be consistent for him, if he also reads the Scriptures carefully, together with the presbyters of the Church, with whom is the apostolic doctrine, as we have demonstrated.
2. In fact, all the apostles taught that there were two covenants in the two peoples, but one and the same God, who planned them both for the benefit of men who were to believe in God—for that the covenants were given. This we demonstrated in the Third Book from the doctrine of the apostles. Likewise, [we demonstrated] that the first Covenant was not given without purpose or meaning or by chance; no, it brought under the service of God those to whom it was given for their own benefit, for God did not need the service of men; but it [the covenant] manifested the type of the heavenly realities, since man could not yet look on the things of God by his own [power of] sight. It also outlined in advance the images of the things in the Church, that our faith might become firm. It contained, finally, a prophecy of future things, that man might learn that God has foreknowledge of all things.