Our God is a consuming fire
Since Celsus mocks us, saying that we claim God comes down like a torturer bearing fire, and so forces us to examine deeper doctrines out of season, we shall say a little, just enough to give our hearers a taste of a defence that overturns Celsus’s mockery of us, and then turn to what follows. The divine word says that our God is “a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29), and that “rivers of fire flow before him” (Daniel 7:10), and also that he himself comes in “like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ herb,” to refine his own people (Malachi 3:2–3).
So when he is said to be “a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24), we ask what it is fitting for God to consume. And we say that God, as fire, consumes wickedness and the deeds that spring from it, which are figuratively called “wood” and “hay” and “straw.” For the wicked man is said to “build” “wood” and “hay” and “straw” upon the rational foundation already laid (1 Corinthians 3:10–12). Now if anyone can show that the writer meant these words otherwise, and can present the wicked man as building “wood” or “hay” or “straw” in a bodily sense, then clearly the fire too will be understood as material and perceptible. But if the works of the wicked man are plainly spoken of figuratively when they are called “wood” or “hay” or “straw,” how is it not obvious at once what kind of fire is meant, by which such “wood” is to be consumed? For he says: “The fire itself will test what sort of work each one has done. If anyone’s work that he has built upon it remains, he will receive a reward; if anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss” (1 Corinthians 3:13–15). And what work burned up could be meant in these words, if not everything done out of wickedness?
Our God, then, is “a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24) in the sense we have given, and so he “comes in like a refiner’s fire” (Malachi 3:2), to refine the rational nature, which is filled with the lead of wickedness and with the other impure materials that have debased the golden nature of the soul, if I may call it so, or its silver nature. So too “rivers of fire” are said to be “before” God (Daniel 7:10), who will utterly do away with the wickedness mixed through the whole soul. But this is enough in reply to the words: “This made them say, in their mistaken opinion, that God will come down like a torturer bearing fire.”
Greek
Ἐπεὶ δὲ χλευάζων ὁ Κέλσος φησὶν ἡμᾶς λέγειν τὸν θεὸν δίκην βασανιστοῦ πῦρ φέροντα καταβαίνειν καὶ ἀναγκάζει ἡμᾶς οὐ κατὰ καιρὸν βαθυτέρους ἐξετάζειν λόγους, ὀλίγα εἰπόντες, ὅσον γεῦσαι τοὺς ἀκροατὰς ἀπολογίας καθαιρούσης τὴν καθ᾿ ἡμῶν τοῦ Κέλσου χλεύην, ἐπὶ τὰ ἑξῆς τραπησόμεθα. φησὶ δὴ ὁ θεῖος λόγος τὸν θεὸν ἡμῶν εἶναι „πῦρ καταναλίσκον,“ καὶ „ποταμοὺς πυρὸς ἕλκειν ἔμπροσθεν αὐτοῦ,“ ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὸν εἰσπορεύεσθαι „ὡς πῦρ χωνευτηρίου καὶ ὡς ποίαν πλυνόντων,“ ἵνα χωνεύσῃ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ λαόν, ἐπὰν οὖν λέγηται „πῦρ“ εἶναι „καταναλίσκον,“ ζητοῦμεν, τίνα πρέπει ὑπὸ θεοῦ καταναλίσκεσθαι, καί φαμεν ὅτι τὴν κακίαν καὶ τὰ ἀπ᾿ αὐτῆς πραττόμενα καὶ τροπικῶς λεγόμενα „ξύλα“ εἶναι καὶ „χόρτον“ καὶ „καλάμην“ καταναλίσκει ὁ θεὸς ὡς πῦρ, „ἐποικοδομεῖν“ γοῦν ὁ φαῦλος λέγεται τῷ προϋποβεβλημένῳ λογικῷ θεμελίῳ „ξύλα“ καὶ „χόρτον“ καὶ „καλάμην,“ εἰ μὲν οὖν ἔχει δεῖξαι ἄλλως νενοῆσθαι ταῦτα τῷ ἀναγράψαντι, καὶ σωματικῶς δύναταί τις παραστῆσαι ἐποικοδομοῦντα τὸν φαῦλον „ξύλα“ ἢ „χόρτον“ ἢ „καλάμην,“ δῆλον ὅτι καὶ τὸ πῦρ ὑλικὸν καὶ αἰσθητὸν νοηθήσεται· εἰ δ᾿ ἄντικρυς τροπολογεῖται τὰ τοῦ φαύλου ἔργα, λεγόμενα εἶναι „ξύλα“ ἢ „χόρτος“ ἢ „καλάμη,“ πῶς οὐκ αὐτόθεν προπίπτει, ποδαπὸν πῦρ παραλαμβάνεται, ἵνα τὰ τοιαῦτα „ξύλα“ ἀναλωθῇ; „ἑκάστου“ γάρ φησι „τὸ ἔργον ὁποῖόν ἐστι, τὸ πῦρ αὐτὸ δοκιμάσει, εἴ τινος τὸ ἔργον μένει, ὅ ἐπῳκοδόμησε, μισθὸν λήψεται· εἴ τινος τὸ ἔργον κατακαήσεται, ζημιωθήσεται,“ ἔργον δὲ κατακαιόμενον ποῖον ἂν ἐν τούτοις λέγοιτο ἢ πᾶν τὸ ἀπὸ κακίας πραττόμενον; οὐκοῦν ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν „πῦρ καταναλίσκον“ ἐστὶν, ὡς ἀποδεδώκαμεν, καὶ οὕτως „εἰσπορεύεται ὡς πῦρ χωνευτηρίου,“ χωνεύσων τὴν λογικὴν φύσιν, πεπληρωμένην τοῦ ἀπὸ τῆς κακίας μολύβδου καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἀκαθάρτων ὑλῶν, τὴν τοῦ χρυσοῦ, ἵν᾿ οὕτως ὀνομάσω, φύσιν τῆς ψυχῆς ἢ τὴν ἀργύρου δολωσάντων, οὕτω δὲ καὶ ποταμοὶ „πυρὸς“ „ἔμπροσθεν“ λέγονται εἶναι τοῦ θεοῦ, τοῦ ἐξαφανιοῦντος τὴν δι᾿ ὅλης τῆς ψυχῆς ἀνακεκραμένην κακίαν, ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἀρκεῖ ταῦτα πρὸς τὸ ταῦτ᾿ αὐτοὺς ἐποίησεν ἐσφαλμένῃ δόξῃ λέγειν ὅτι ὁ θεὸς καταβήσεται δίκην βασανιστοῦ πῦρ φέρων.