First Christian Voices: Practices of the Apostolic Fathers

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First Christian Voices

your rear guard. Then you shall call and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, “Behold, I am with you if you free yourself from hinderances and threatening gestures, as well as words of grumbling, and give your bread cheerfully to the hungry and show compassion to the soul that has been humbled.” ( Isa 58:6–10 ) To this end, therefore, friends, He is longsuffering, foreseeing how the people who He has prepared will genuinely believe in His Beloved. For He revealed all these things to us beforehand that we should not rush forward as rash acceptors of their laws. Knowledge of God the Father T o D iognetus 8: For who among people understood who God was before His coming? Do you accept the empty and silly doctrines of those who are believed to be trustworthy philosophers? Some of them said that fire was God (they call God the thing where they themselves were to go), and others said water and still others said some different elements which were formed by God. But if any one of these theories merit consent, all of the other created things might also be declared to be God. But such declarations are simply the startling and erroneous statements of deceivers. No one has either seen Him, or made Him known. Rather, He has revealed Himself. And He has revealed Himself through faith, which is the only way it is possible to see God. For God, the Lord and Fashioner of all things, who made all things and arranged them in order, proved Himself not only compassionate but also patient. Yes, He was always of such a character and still is and will ever be