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Exhortation to Martyrdom

Origen, tr. O’Meara, 1954

2. Part 2: Warning Against Idolatry and Apostasy

Idolatry

In the same way when God says: Thou shalt not make to thyself idols nor the likeness of any thing,¹ etc., apparently drawing a distinction between Thou shalt not bow before them and Thou shalt not worship them,² He warns a man inclined to idolatry not to practise it. But when a man who is not so inclined, but yet through cowardice, which he calls “accommodation,” pretends to worship idols as the masses do, he does not, it is true, worship idols, but he does bow before them. And I would say that they who abjure Christianity in the courtroom or even before they are brought there, do not worship idols, but they do bow down before them; for they apply to inanimate and unheeding matter the name of the Lord God, namely “God.” In like manner the people that committed fornication with the daughters of Moab³ bowed down before idols, but did not worship them. At least, this is stated clearly: They called them to the sacrifices to their idols, and the people ate of their sacrifices, and they bowed down to their idols and they were initiated to Beelphegor.⁴ Note that it is not said, “they worshipped their idols.” Indeed, it was impossible that after so many signs and prodigies they should have allowed themselves to be persuaded in an instant by the women, with whom they committed fornication, that the idols were gods. It may be also that they bowed down before the calf, of which there is mention made in Exodus,⁵ without worshipping an object that they gazed at when it was in the process of construction.

We must believe then that the present trial is a test and scrutiny of our love for God: For the Lord trieth you, as is written in Deuteronomy, that He may know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul.⁶ But in the trial, follow the Lord your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments (and especially this one: Thou shalt not have strange Gods before me⁷) and hear His voice. And to Him you shall cleave.⁸ He does indeed take you from these regions, but for that He draws you to what the Apostle calls the increase of God⁹ in Him.

Apostasy

If every evil word is an abomination to the Lord thy God,¹⁰ how great an abomination must be the evil word of denial, the evil word of public recognition of another god, and the evil oath taken by the fortune¹¹ of men, a thing that does not endure! When this oath is proposed to us, we should remember Him who said: But I say to you not to swear at all.¹² If he that swears by heaven insults the throne of God; if he that swears by the earth blasphemes in making divine the footstool of God;¹³ if he that swears by Jerusalem sins because it is the city of the great king;¹⁴ and he that swears by his head¹⁵ is blameworthy—then what kind of crime must be the oath taken by the fortune of a man? In such circumstances we should recall the words: Every idle word that you shall speak, you shall render an account for it on the day of judgment.¹⁶ And what word could be more idle than a denial reinforced by an oath?

It is quite likely that the Enemy will want to induce us by every possible trick to bow down to the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven.¹⁷ But we shall reply that the Word of God did not command us to do so. For in no way may we bow down to the creature in the presence of the Creator¹⁸ who sustains all and anticipates their prayer. Not even the sun himself would wish that any friend of God¹⁹ or anyone else, it would seem, should bow down to him. He imitates Him who says, Why callest thou me good? None is good but one, that is God the Father.²⁰ He says, as it were, to him that would bow down to him: “Why do you call me God? There is only one true God: why do you bow down before me? Thou shalt bow down to the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou worship.²¹ I too am created. Why do you wish to bow down to him who himself bows down? I too bow down to God the Father and I worship Him; and obedient to His commands, I am made subject to vanity . . . by reason of Him that made me subject in hope. . . . I shall be delivered from the servitude of corruption, (I who am also clothed in a corruptible body) into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.”²²

We can be prepared to find some prophet even of impiety—and perhaps not just one, but several—who will tell us of a word of the Lord, which the Lord has not at all commanded,²³ or of a word of wisdom,²⁴ which has nothing whatever to do with wisdom. His purpose is to slay us by the word of his mouth. But as for ourselves, when the sinner comes before us, let us say: But I, as a deaf man, heard not, and as a dumb man not opening his mouth. And I became as a man that heareth not.²⁵ It is indeed virtuous to be deaf to impious words, when we despair of correcting them that speak evil.

When men try to seduce us to apostasy, it is useful to reflect upon what God wishes to teach us when He says: I am the Lord thy God, jealous.²⁶ In my view, just as the bridegroom who wishes to make his bride live chastely so as to give herself entirely to him and beware of any relationship whatever with any man other than her husband, pretends, though he be wise, to be jealous—he uses this pretence as a kind of antidote for his bride—so the Lawgiver, especially when He reveals Himself as the first-born of every creature,²⁷ says to His bride, the soul, that He is a jealous God. In this way He keeps His followers from any fornication with demons and pretended gods. And it is as God jealous in this sense that He says of them that have fornicated in any way with strange gods: They have made me jealous of that which was not God; they have angered me with their idols. And I shall make them jealous of that which is not a people; I shall anger them with a foolish people. For a fire is kindled in my wrath; it shall burn even to the lowest hell.²⁸

If it is not in his own interest that the bridegroom, acting wisely and temperately, keeps his bride away from all defilement—at any rate, it will be for her sake. He sees the defilement and abomination that come on her, and employs every means to heal and win her back. He sees in her a being endowed with free will, and addresses himself to her with arguments that may have the effect of turning her from fornication. Does anyone believe that a soul could suffer greater corruption than to call upon a strange god and to refuse to bear witness to Him who is truly the one and only God? In my opinion, just as he who is joined to a harlot is one body,²⁹ so he who bears witness to someone, especially in a time of persecution and trial of faith, unites and joins himself to him to whom he bears witness. And he who denies is by the denial, just as by a sharp sword, separated from him whom he denies. He experiences the separation in being cut off from him whom he has denied.

Know, then, that naturally and necessarily he who bears witness will have witness borne to him, and he that denies will be denied, as it is said: Every one that shall bear witness to me before men, I will also bear witness to him before my Father who is in heaven.³⁰ And He who is the Word itself and Truth itself may well say to him who bore witness to Him and to him who denied Him: “With the same measure that you shall mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.³¹ You, then, who have measured with the measure of bearing witness and have filled up that measure, you will receive of me the measure of my bearing witness to you, pressed down and shaken together and running over, which will be given into your bosom.³² But you who have measured with the measure of denial and have denied me, you likewise will receive, according to the measure of your denial, the measure of my denial of you.”

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