Re: The Early Christians: Creed, Confession and Scripture

The sacrifice most pleasing to him is that we try to recognize who 
stretched out and vaulted the heavens and set the earth as the center, 
who gathered the water into seas and separated light from darkness, who 
adorned the ether with stars and made the earth bring forth all manner of 
seed, who called the animals into being and created man. If we follow God 
as the molder who holds all things together and watches over all things 
with that same wisdom and skill with which he governs the universe, and 
if we lift up holy hands to him, what need does he have then of ritual 
sacrifices?

Beautiful indeed is the world, glorious in its magnitude, in the 
arrangement of the stars, both in the zodiac and around the constellation 
of the Great Dipper and in its form as a sphere. Yet the world for these 
reasons does not deserve to be worshipped; rather does its sublime 
artificer...God himself is everything: unapproachable light! Perfect 
beauty! Spirit! Power! Word!

If the world were a well-tuned instrument played in rhythm, I would not 
worship the instrument but him who made it and tuned it, who strikes the 
notes and sings the song that fits the melody. God is the perfect good 
and eternally does only good.

Athenagoras, A Plea Regarding Christians 13, 16.

Greg G. wrote:

> Is it right, I ask, to charge us with atheism, we who clearly
> distinguish God from matter and prove that matter is something quite
> different from God and that there is a tremendous distance between
> them? We show that the divine being is uncreated and eternal, to be
> grasped only by mind and spirit. Matter on the other hand is created
> and corruptible. 
> 
> Athenagoras, A Plea Regarding Christians 4.
> 
> Bruderhof wrote:
> 
>> We think of God the creator of all things as being far above all that
>> is corruptible.     
>> 
>> Justin, First Apology 20.
>> 
> 
> 
> 
>