{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030395.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030395.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030395.htm","text":"Chapter XXI.\u2014The Call of the Gentiles Under the Influence of the Gospel Foretold.\nSo you cannot get out of this notion of yours a basis for your difference between the two Christs, as if the Jewish Christ were ordained by the Creator for the restoration of the people alone 3390 from its dispersion, whilst yours was appointed by the supremely good God for the liberation of the whole human race. Because, after all, the earliest Christians are found on the side of the Creator, not of Marcion, 3391 all nations being called to His kingdom, from the fact that God set up that kingdom from the tree (of the cross), when no Cerdon was yet born, much less a Marcion. However, when you are refuted on the call of the nations, you betake yourself to proselytes. You ask, who among the nations can turn to the Creator, when those whom the prophet names are proselytes of individually different and private condition? 3392 \u201cBehold,\u201d says Isaiah, \u201cthe proselytes shall come unto me through Thee,\u201d showing that they were even proselytes who were to find their way to God through Christ. But nations (Gentiles) also, like ourselves, had likewise their mention (by the prophet) as trusting in Christ. \u201cAnd in His name,\u201d says he, \u201cshall the Gentiles trust.\u201d Besides, the proselytes whom you substitute for the nations in prophecy, are not in the habit of trusting in Christ\u2019s name, but in the dispensation of Moses, from whom comes their instruction. But it was in the last days that the choice 3393 of the nations had its commencement. 3394 In these very words Isaiah says: \u201cAnd it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord,\u201d that is, God\u2019s eminence, \u201cand the house of God,\u201d that is, Christ, the Catholic temple of God, in which God is worshipped, \u201cshall be established upon the mountains,\u201d over all the eminences of virtues and powers; \u201cand all nations shall come unto it; and many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us His way, and we will walk in it: for out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.\u201d 3395 The gospel will be this \u201cway,\u201d of the new law and the new word in Christ, no longer in Moses. \u201cAnd He shall judge among the nations,\u201d even concerning their error. \u201cAnd these shall rebuke a large nation,\u201d that of the Jews themselves and their proselytes. \u201cAnd they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears 3396 into prunp. 340 ing-hooks;\u201d in other words, they shall change into pursuits of moderation and peace the dispositions of injurious minds, and hostile tongues, and all kinds of evil, and blasphemy. \u201cNation shall not lift up sword against nation,\u201d shall not stir up discord. \u201cNeither shall they learn war any more,\u201d 3397 that is, the provocation of hostilities; so that you here learn that Christ is promised not as powerful in war, but pursuing peace. Now you must deny either that these things were predicted, although they are plainly seen, or that they have been accomplished, although you read of them; else, if you cannot deny either one fact or the other, they must have been accomplished in Him of whom they were predicted. For look at the entire course of His call up to the present time from its beginning, how it is addressed to the nations (Gentiles) who are in these last days approaching to God the Creator, and not to proselytes, whose election 3398 was rather an event of the earliest days. Verily the apostles have annulled 3399 that belief of yours.\nOr perhaps, \u201care found to belong to the Creator\u2019s Christ, not to Marcion\u2019s.\u201d\n339:3392\nMarcion denied that there was any prophecy of national or Gentile conversion; it was only the conversion of individual proselytes that he held.\n339:3393 339:3394 339:3395 339:3396\nSibynas, \u03a3\u03b9\u03b2\u03cd\u03bd\u03b7\u00b7 \u1f45\u03c0\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd \u03b4\u03cc\u03c1\u03b1\u03c4\u03b9 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03c0\u03bb\u03ae\u03c3\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd. Hesychius, \u201cSibynam appellant Illyrii telum venabuli simile.\u201d Paulus, ex Festo, p. 336, M\u00fcll. (Oehler.)\n340:3397 340:3398 340:3399\nJunius explains the author\u2019s induxerunt by deleverunt; i.e., \u201cthey annulled your opinion about proselytes being the sole called, by their promulgation of the gospel.\u201d","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part II: The Ca...","type":"page"}