One God, Old and New Testaments
Tertullian, Against Marcion 27
God judges evil outright by refusing to will it, condemns it by forbidding it — yet He dismisses the charge by refusing to avenge, and acquits by refusing to punish. Oh, God the truth-breaker, the self-imposed limiter of His own sentence! He shrinks from condemning what He condemns. He shrinks from hating what He does not love. He permits the very deed He forbids, preferring to display what He rejects rather than prove His case. The result: a make-believe goodness, a phantom discipline, precepts that expire, offenses left perfectly safe.
Listen, sinners — and you who have not yet become such, so that you may stay that way: a 'better' God has been discovered. He takes no offense, feels no anger, exacts no vengeance. No fire awaits in Gehenna for Him, no gnashing of teeth in outer darkness. He is simply good. He forbids sin, yes — but only on paper. Whether you enlist in His service is entirely up to you, so you can appear to honor God; He does not want your fear. That is why the Marcionites boast they do not fear their God at all.
They say, 'The evil one is feared, the good one is loved' — foolishly denying that the Lord they name is to be feared, when that very title means power, power that demands fear. How can you love unless you fear failing to love? Clearly He is not your Father, in whom both love from piety and fear from power belong together. Nor is He a legitimate Lord, so that you love Him for His humanity and fear Him for His discipline. In the end, favorites are loved but not feared. Only a just and orderly rule commands fear. Even an adulteress can be loved — she wins by seduction, not authority; by flattery, not power. What is more adulterous, finally, than leaving offenses unpunished?
So go ahead — you who do not fear God because He is 'good' — what lust will you not plunge into, the supreme fruit of life, as I know it, for all who do not fear God? What pleasure will you not frequent: the raging circus, the savage arena, the lascivious stage? In persecution, will you not instantly offer incense and buy your life by denying your soul? 'God forbid!' you cry. Then you already fear sin, and by fearing you have proved that the One who forbids sin is to be feared. Unless, of course, you follow the same perversity of your God — the one you do not fear — who forbids what He refuses to avenge.
Even more vainly, when asked what will become of each sinner on that day, they answer: he will be cast away. Cast away how? From sight? Is that not itself a judgment? He is judged worthy of being cast away — and surely by a judgment of condemnation — unless the sinner is cast away for salvation, so that this too might suit the 'best' God. What does 'cast away' mean, if not losing what he was about to gain? If he is not cast away, that is salvation? Then he is cast away to salvation's loss, and such a decree can come only from an angry, offended, avenging judge — that is, a judge.
Latin
Sed iudicat plane malum nolendo et damnat prohibendo, dimittit autem non uindicando et absoluit non puniendo. o deum ueritatis praeuaricatorem, sententiae suae circumscriptorem! timet damnare quod damnat. timet odisse quod non amat, factum sinit quod fieri non sinit, mauult ostendere quid nolit quam probare. hoc erit bonitas imaginaria, disciplina phantasma et ipsa, transfunctoria praecepta, secura delicta. audite, peccatores, quique nondum hoc estis, ut esse possitis:' deus melior inuentus est, qui nec offenditur nec irascitur nec ulciscitur, cui nullus ignis coquitur in gehenna, cui nullus dentium frendor horret in exterioribus tenebris: bonus tantum est. denique prohibet delinquere, sed litteris solis. in uobis est, si uelitis illi obsequium subsignare. ut honorem deo habuisse uideamini; timorem enim non uult atque adeo prae se ferunt Marcionitae, quod deum suum omnino non timeant. 'malus enim', inquiunt, 'timebitur, bonus autem diligetur', stulte, quem dominum appellas negas timendum, cum hoc nomen potestatis sit, etiam timendae? at quomodo diliges, nisi timeas non diligere? plane nec pater tuus est, in quem competat et amor propter pietatem et timor propter potestatem, nec legitimus dominus, ut diligas propter humanitatem et timeas propter disciplinam. sic denique plagiarii diliguntur, non etiam timentur. non enim timebitur nisi iusta et ordinaria dominatio. diligi autem potest etiam adultera; sollicitatione enim con-, stat, non auctoritate, et adulatione. non potestate. quid denique adulantius quam delicta non exequi? age itaque, qui deum non times quasi bonum, quid non in omnem libidinem ebullis, summum, quod sciam, fructum uitae omnibus, qui deum non timent? quid non frequentas tam sollemnes uoluptates circi furentis et caueae saeuientis et scaenae lasciuientis? quid non et in persecutionibus statim oblata acerra animam negatione lucraris? absit, inquis, absit! ergo iam times delictum et timendo probasti illum timeri, qui prohibet delictum. aliud est, si eadem dei tui peruersitate quae non times obseruas, qua et ille quod non uindicat prohibet. — multo adhuc uanius, cum interrogati: quid fiet peccatori cuique die illo? respondent abici illum. qua? si ab oculis, nonne et hoc iudicio agitur? iudicatur enim abiciendus, et utique iudicio damnationis; nisi si in salutem abicitur peccator, ut et hoc deo optimo competat. et quid erit abici, nisi amittere id, quod erat consecuturus. si non abiceretur, id est salutem? ergo salutis in detrimentum abicietur, et hoc decerni non poterit nisi ab irato et offenso et executore delicti, id est iudice.