Early Church · 180

Against Heresies: Book Four

Irenaeus of Lyon (c. 130-202)

Book 4 of Against Heresies is Irenaeus's sustained proof that one and the same God is the author of both the Old and New Testaments, written around 180 AD against Marcion and the Gnostics who set the Creator against the Father of Christ. Irenaeus shows that the law and the gospel come from the same God, that the patriarchs and prophets knew and longed for Christ, and that the God who judged the wicked of old is the same God who saves in the gospel. The book closes with his great defense of human free will and responsibility, arguing that no one is good or evil by nature, but each by his own choice.

2 hrs total · 42 chapters