#77 The First Apology of Justin - Part 13

By Justin Martyr, from The Ante-Nicene Fathers

Chapter 57 - Demons Cause Persecution

The demons cannot persuade people that there will be no burning for the punishment of the wicked, just as they were unable to keep Christ hidden after He came.

This is all they can do: cause those who live irrationally, who were brought up badly in wicked customs, and who are prejudiced in their own opinions, to kill and hate us. We not only do not hate them, but, as is proven, we pity them and try to lead them to repentance.

We do not fear death, since it is acknowledged we must surely die, and there is nothing new. Everything continues the same in this administration of things. If satiety overtakes those who enjoy even one year of these things, they ought to pay attention to our teachings, so they may live eternally free both from suffering and from want.

But if they believe there is nothing after death and declare that those who die pass into unconsciousness, then they become our benefactors when they free us from sufferings and necessities of this life - yet prove themselves wicked, inhuman, and bigoted. For they kill us not intending to free us but cut us off so that we may be deprived of life and pleasure.

Chapter 58 - Demons Raise Up Heretics

As we said before, the demons put forward Marcion of Pontus, who is even now teaching people to deny that God is the maker of all things in heaven and on earth, and that the Christ predicted by the prophets is His Son. He preaches another god besides the Creator of all, and likewise another son.

Many have believed this man, as if he alone knew the truth, and they laugh at us, though they have no proof of what they say but are carried away irrationally like lambs by a wolf. They become the prey of atheistic doctrines and of demons.

For those who are called demons attempt nothing other than to draw people away from God who made them and from Christ His firstborn. Those who are unable to raise themselves above the earth, the demons have bound and still bind to earthly things and to works of their own hands. But those who devote themselves to contemplating divine things, the demons secretly strike down. If those people do not have a wise, sober mind and a pure, passionless life, the demons drive them into godlessness.