Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
A demonstration that in the Scriptures no one else is named God, nor styled Lord, except the one true God, the Father of all, and his Word.
Neither the Lord, therefore, nor the Holy Spirit, nor the Apostles would ever have named someone who was not God as 'God' in a definitive and absolute sense, except he were truly God; likewise they would never, in their own words, have styled anyone 'Lord' save him who is Lord of all — God the Father — and his Son, who has received from his Father dominion over all creation, as it is written: 'The Lord declared to my Lord: Take your seat at my right hand, until I place your enemies beneath your feet as a footstool.' This shows the Father speaking to the Son, to whom he gave the inheritance of the nations and subjected to him all his enemies. Since, then, the Father truly is Lord, and the Son truly is Lord, the Holy Spirit rightly marked both of them with the title of Lord. And again, at the overthrow of the people of Sodom, Scripture says: 'And the Lord sent down upon Sodom and Gomorrah a rain of fire and sulfur, from the Lord, out of the sky.' Here it signifies the Son, who also spoke with Abraham, as having received from the Father the power to judge the Sodomites for their iniquity. Likewise it is written: 'Your throne, O God, is forever; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you.' For here the Spirit has marked both with the name of God — him who is anointed, the Son, and him who anoints, that is, the Father. And again: 'God takes his stand in the assembly of the gods; in their midst he renders judgment upon the gods' — meaning here the Father and the Son, and of those who have received adoption, of whom it says, 'these are they.' For this is God's congregation, which God — that is, the Son himself — gathered together through himself. Of this it again says: 'The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken, and has summoned the earth' — who is this God? Concerning whom it says: 'Our God shall come openly, and shall not remain silent' — meaning the Son, who appeared among men in his manifestation, who says: 'I appeared openly to those who did not seek me.' And of what gods does it speak? Of those to whom it says: 'I have said, You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High' — namely, those who have received the grace of adoption, through which we cry, 'Abba, Father.'
No one else, then, as I have already stated, bears the name God or the title Lord, save the one who is Lord and God over all things, the same who spoke thus to Moses: 'I am the one who is. This is what you are to tell the sons of Israel: The One Who Is has sent me to you' — and to bring this people out of bondage; and whose Son is Jesus Christ our Lord, who makes those who believe in his name to be sons of God. For it is he himself who descended and who ascended for the salvation of men. Through the Son, then — dwelling in the Father as the Father dwells in him — 'the One Who Is' was disclosed as God, with the Father testifying concerning the Son while the Son makes known the Father. As Isaiah likewise states: 'I myself, he declares, am the witness, says the Lord God, together with the servant I have chosen, so that you might come to recognize, put your trust in, and grasp that it is I.' But when Scripture names those who are not gods, it does not, as I have said, present them as gods without qualification, but always with some addition or indication by which they are shown not to be gods. As with David: 'The gods of the nations are idols of demons,' and 'You shall not go after strange gods.' For by saying 'gods of the nations' — the nations not knowing the true God, and calling these 'gods' that belong to others — he has already taken away their claim to be gods. And what he says of them in his own voice is this: 'For they are, he says, idols of demons.' And Isaiah: 'Let all be put to shame who worship graven images, who boast in idols that are useless, and I am witness, says the Lord' — he has taken away their claim to be gods, and employs the name merely so that his subject can be identified. This same thing Jeremiah also states: 'Let the gods, he says, that did not fashion sky and ground, vanish away from the ground and from beneath this sky.' For by adding their destruction, he shows that they are not gods. Elijah, moreover, having gathered all Israel to Mount Carmel and wishing to turn them from idolatry, said to them: 'How long will you waver between two opinions? The Lord God is one; come, follow him.' And again, over the burnt offering, he said to the priests of the idols: 'Invoke your own gods by name, and I for my part will invoke my Lord and God; whichever one answers this day shall be acknowledged as God.' For in saying this, the prophet showed that those who were thought by the people to be gods were not gods at all. He turned them, instead, to that God whom he himself believed in and who truly was God, and whom, calling upon, he cried out: 'Lord God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, hear me today, and let all this people understand that you are the God of Israel.'
And I too, therefore, call upon you, O Lord, God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, and of Israel, who are the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; O God, who through the abundance of your mercy have been pleased to let us know you; who made heaven and earth; who rule over all; who alone are the true God, above whom there is no other God: grant, through our Lord Jesus Christ, the governing gift also of the Holy Spirit. Give to everyone who reads this writing to know that you alone are God, and to be strengthened in you, and to turn away from every heretical, godless, and impious opinion.
The Apostle Paul, too, says: 'For you once served those who by nature are not gods; but now, having come to know God, or rather being known by God' — thereby setting apart those who are not gods from him who alone is God. Elsewhere, speaking of the Antichrist, he writes: 'the one who opposes and lifts himself up above every so-called god or object of worship' — meaning here those whom the ignorant style gods, that is, idols. The Father of all bears the name God truly; it is not against him that the Antichrist will lift himself up, but against those falsely styled gods. Paul confirms this elsewhere: 'We are aware that an idol amounts to nothing, and that no God exists but one alone. For granted there be so-called gods, whether up in heaven or down on earth — since indeed many gods and many lords are spoken of — yet for us there exists a single God, the Father, source of all things and goal of our existence; and a single Lord Jesus Christ, agent of all things and means of our existence.' Thus he marked off and distinguished the falsely-named gods from the one Father who is God, source of all things, while most firmly confessing, in that same passage, the one Lord Jesus Christ. And as for the phrase 'whether in heaven or on earth,' he does not mean by this, as some interpret it, that there are makers of the world; rather it is like what was said by Moses: 'You shall not make for yourself any likeness of anything, whatever is in heaven above, or whatever is on the earth beneath, or whatever is in the waters under the earth.' And what things are in heaven he himself explains: 'Take care, he says, that when you lift your eyes skyward and behold the sun, moon, and stars, that whole host of heaven, you not be led astray into worshiping and serving them.' And Moses himself, godly man though he was, was indeed appointed 'a god' in Pharaoh's sight; yet nowhere is he truly called Lord, nor named God, by the prophets, but is called by the Spirit the faithful attendant and servant of God — which indeed he was.