Tertullian — Against Marcion 16

We are obliged from time to time to recur to certain topics in order to affirm truths which are connected with them. We repeat then here, that as the Lord is by the apostle proclaimed as the awarder of both good and woe, He must be either the Creator, or (as Marcion would be loth to admit) One like the Creator — with whom it is a righteous thing to recompense tribulation to them who afflict us, and to ourselves, who are afflicted, rest, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed as coming from heaven with the angels of His might and in flaming fire. 2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 The heretic , however, has erased the flaming fire , no doubt that he might extinguish all traces herein of our own God. But the folly of the obliteration is clearly seen.

For as the apostle declares that the Lord will come to take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel, who, he says, shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9 — it follows that, as He comes to inflict punishment, He must require the flaming fire. Thus on this consideration too we must, notwithstanding Marcion's opposition, conclude that Christ belongs to a God who kindles the flames (of vengeance), and therefore to the Creator, inasmuch as He takes vengeance on such as know not the Lord, that is, on the heathen . For he has mentioned separately those who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ , 2 Thessalonians 1:8 whether they be sinners among Christians or among Jews .

Now, to inflict punishment on the heathen , who very likely have never heard of the Gospel , is not the function of that God who is naturally unknown, and who is revealed nowhere else than in the Gospel , and therefore cannot be known by all men . The Creator, however, ought to be known even by (the light of) nature, for He may be understood from His works, and may thereby become the object of a more widely spread knowledge . To Him , therefore, does it appertain to punish such as know not God , for none ought to be ignorant of Him. In the (apostle's) phrase, From the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, 2 Thessalonians 1:9 he uses the words of Isaiah who for the express reason makes the self-same Lord arise to shake terribly the earth.

Well, but who is the man of sin , the son of perdition, who must first be revealed before the Lord comes; who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God , or that is worshipped; who is to sit in the temple of God , and boast himself as being God? 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 According indeed to our view, he is Antichrist ; as it is taught us in both the ancient and the new prophecies, and especially by the Apostle John, who says that already many false prophets are gone out into the world, the fore-runners of Antichrist , who deny that Christ has come in the flesh, 1 John 4:1-3 and do not acknowledge Jesus (to be the Christ), meaning in God the Creator. According, however, to Marcion's view, it is really hard to know whether He might not be (after all) the Creator's Christ; because according to him He is not yet come.