Chapter 41. Unbelieving and Disobedient People Are the Devil’s Angels and Sons.
Chapter 41
1. Since the Lord said that there are certain angels who belong to the Devil, for whom the eternal fire had been prepared; and again, since he said in regard to the weeds that the weeds are the wicked sons, it is necessary to the author of this transgression. But it was not the Devil who made them by nature either angels or men. To be sure, we do not recognize that the Devil made anything at all, precisely because he is a creature himself, just like the rest of the angels; for God made all things. David, too, said the same of all these things: For he spoke and they were made; he commanded and they were created.
2. Since, therefore, all things were created by God, and since the Devil is the cause of apostasy for himself and for the rest, rightly does Scripture always style such as continue in the apostasy the sons of the Devil and the angels of the wicked one. For, as someone before us remarked, a son is understood in two ways. The one by nature, because he was born a son; the other is considered a son because he has been made; nevertheless, there is a difference between being born and having been made, inasmuch as the one is born from him, but the other has been made by him, either by virtue of creation or by virtue of teaching a doctrine. Really, one who is taught by someone by word is called the son of the teacher, and he his father. So by nature, that is, by virtue of creation, we are all, so to say, God’s sons, because we have all been made by him. By virtue of obedience and doctrine, we are not all God’s sons, only those are who believe him and do his will. Those who do not believe and do not do his will are sons and angels of the Devil, inasmuch as they do the Devil’s work. That this is so he said in Isaiah, Sons have I reared and brought up; but they have rebelled against me. Again, it says these children are foreigners: foreign children have lied to me; namely, according to nature, inasmuch as they were made by him, they are his children; but according to their deeds they are not his children.
3. For example, among men children who are disobedient to their parents and are disinherited are still their children according to nature but are disinherited by law. They do not become heirs of the natural parents. The same is true with God. Those who do not obey him have been disinherited by him and cease to be his children. And so they cannot receive his inheritance, as David says, The wicked go astray from the womb. Their wrath is like that of the serpent. On that account the Lord called those whom he knew to be the children of men the brood of vipers, because of their likeness to these animals that walk about capriciously and injure others. For he said, Take heed of…the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And of Herod he said, Tell that fox, thus pointing out his wicked cunningness and deceitfulness. For the same reason the Prophets David and Jeremiah said, Man when he is surrounded by pomp becomes like a senseless beast; and, They have become like lusty stallions toward women; each one neighing for his neighbor’s wife. And when Isaiah was preaching in Judea and disputing with Israel, he called them the rulers of Sodom and the people of Gomorrah, pointing out a transgression that is like that of the Sodomites, and that their sins are the same as those of the Sodomites. He called them by the same name because of the similar action. But they were not made such by nature by God; rather, they had the power of acting righteously, Isaiah said when he gave the good advice to them: Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil from your lives before my eyes; cease to do evil; namely, because these received the same reproof as the Sodomites when they transgressed and sinned; but when they had converted and repented and ceased from evil, they could be God’s children, and could obtain the inheritance of imperishability which is bestowed by him.
And so according to this reasoning, he called those who believe the devil and do his works the Devil’s angels and sons, though they had in the beginning all been made by one and the same God. On the other hand, when they believe and are subject to God, persevere and keep his doctrine, they are sons of God. But when they have apostatized and have become transgressors, they are assigned to the Devil, the author [and] the one who became the cause of apostasy first for himself and then for the rest.
4. Now, since the Lord’s words are many but all announce one and the same Father, the Creator of this world, it was necessary that we, too, for the sake of those who are held bound by many errors, refute them by many arguments, so that, having been refuted by many arguments, they could in some way be converted to the Truth and be saved.
It is necessary, after these words of the Lord, to add to this composition in the following Book the doctrine of Paul, and to examine his mind, and to explain the Apostle and to elucidate Paul’s statements that have been given a different interpretation by the heretics who understand nothing at all of Paul; and to make known the insanity of their foolishness; and to show by means of the same Paul, from whom they make difficulties for us, that they are liars, but the Apostle is the preacher of the Truth; one God the Father who spoke to Abraham, who gave the Law, who sent the Prophets, who in the last times sent his Son and bestowed salvation on his creatures, namely, on the substance of the flesh.
In another book, then, we will dispose of the rest of the words of the Lord about the Father, which he taught not by parables but plainly, along with the explanation of the Letters of the Blessed Paul. Thus, God granting, we shall furnish you with the entire work of THE EXPOSÉ AND REFUTATION OF THE FALSELY SO-CALLED KNOWLEDGE. Then we have trained ourselves and you in five books in the refutation of all the heretics.