Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 2.49

Jesus therefore turns his disciples away not from simply ignoring magicians and those who promise to perform spectacular feats by whatever means (for his disciples had no need of such a warning) but from those who proclaim themselves to be the Christ of God and try, through certain pretenses, to draw Jesus' disciples to themselves. He does this in the passage where he says: "Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ,' or 'There he is,' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So if they say to you, 'Look, he is in the wilderness,' do not go out; 'Look, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man" (Matt 24:24, 24:26-27). And in the passage where he says: "Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not eat in your name and drink in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works?' And then I will declare to them, 'Depart from me, for you are workers of lawlessness'" (Matt 7:22-23).

Celsus, however, wants to assimilate Jesus' mighty works to the magic practiced among men, and he puts it in these very words: "Oh light and truth," he openly confesses with his own voice, just as you also have written, that others will come to you with similar powers, evil men and magicians, and he names a certain Satan who contrives such things; so that he is not himself uncondemned, as if these works were not divine but the deeds of evil men. Yet, compelled by the truth, he has disclosed both the deeds of others and convicted himself. How then is it not wicked to judge the one as God and the others as magicians based on the same works? For why should the others be deemed evil rather than this one, when he uses the very same testimony? These things he himself has acknowledged are not marks of a divine nature but of certain deceivers and thoroughly wicked men.

Look, then, and see whether Celsus is not clearly refuted as one who corrupts the word, attributing one thing to Jesus when he speaks of those who will perform 'signs and wonders,' and another to the Jew in Celsus's narrative. For if Jesus had simply told his disciples to beware of those who promise mighty works without specifying what they claim to be, his suspicion might have had some foothold. But since Jesus warns us to beware of those who promise to be 'the Christ' — which magicians do not do — and also says that some living wickedly in the name of Jesus will perform mighty works and cast out demons, rather, if one must put it this way, magic and every suspicion about them is proclaimed false, and the divinity of Christ and the divinity of his disciples is vindicated. For it is possible that someone, using his name and I know not how energized by some power to pretend that he himself is the Christ, might seem to accomplish things similar to Christ, and that others, in the name of Jesus, might do things resembling those of his genuine disciples.