Chapter Six
Objection based on the saying about the Day of Judgment in the Apocalypse of Peter.1
By way of giving plenty of such sayings, let me quote also what was said in the Apocalypse of Peter. He thus introduces the statement that the heaven will be judged together with the earth. "The earth shall present all men to God in the day of judgment, itself too being about to be judged, together with the heaven which contains it." No one is so uneducated or so stupid as not to know that the things which have to do with earth are subject to disturbance, and are not naturally such as to preserve their order, but are uneven; whereas the things in heaven have an order which remains perpetually alike, and always goes on in the same way, and never suffers alteration, nor indeed will it ever do so. For it stands as God's most exact piece of workmanship. Wherefore it is impossible that the things should be undone which are worthy of a better fate, as being fixed by a divine ordinance which cannot be touched.
And why will heaven be judged? Will it some day be shown to have committed some sin, though it preserves the order which from the beginning was approved by God, and abides in sameness always? Unless indeed some one will address the Creator, slanderously asserting that heaven is deserving of judgment, as having allowed the judge to speak any portents against it which are so wondrous and so great.2
Chapter Seven
Objection based on the similar words in Isaiah about the heaven being rolled up as a scroll (Isa. xxxiv. 4).
And it 3 makes this statement again, which is full of impiety, saying: "And all the might of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heaven shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all the stars shall fall as leaves from a vine, and as leaves fall from a fig tree." And another boast is made in portentous falsehood and monstrous quackery: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away " (Matt. xxiv. 35). For, pray, how could any one say that the words of Jesus would stand, if heaven and earth no longer existed? Moreover, if Christ were to do this and bring heaven down, He would be imitating the most impious of men, even those who destroy their own children. For it is acknowledged by the Son that God is Father of heaven and earth when He says: "Father, Lord of heaven and earth" (Matt. xi. 25). And John the Baptist magnifies heaven and declares that the divine gifts of grace are sent from it, when he says: "A man can do4 nothing, except it be given him from heaven" (John iii. 27). And the prophets5 say that heaven is the holy habitation of God, in the words: "look down from thy holy habitation,6 and bless thy people Israel" (Deut. xxvi. 15).
If heaven, which is so great and of such importance in the witness borne to it, shall pass away, what shall be the seat thereafter of Him who rules over it? And if the element of earth perishes, what shall be the footstool of Him who sits there, for He7 says: "The heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool of my feet." So much for the passing away of heaven and earth.
Chapter Sixteen
Answer to the two objections based on the words of the Apocalypse of Peter and of Isaiah concerning the passing away of heaven and earth.
[It is plain that the passing away of heaven and earth is through no fault of theirs, and equally plain that it must be accepted as a scriptural fact. For even if we pass over the Apocalypse of Peter,8 we are brought to the same thing by the other two passages---by Isaiah xxxiv. 4: "The heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all the stars shall fall, as leaves fall from a vine, and as leaves fall from a fig tree"; and by Matthew xxiv. 35: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."
All the rest of creation was created, not for its own sake, but for man's sake. Man alone was created for his own sake, that he might glorify the wisdom of Him who made him. Not that such glorifying adds to God's glory, any more than for a man to warm himself adds to the warmth of the fire. So man gives God nothing new, but makes himself part of God by his union with the Godhead.9 So the world was like a great house made for man to live in. But soon he failed to be what the Creator made him, and in utter folly fell and was corrupted with regard to divine things. God therefore resolved to send him to another place through death, in order that, after a separation from the flesh which covered him, he might again bring it to incorruptibility. So, when the master was removed from the house, that house was obliged to undergo what had not been intended for it. Just as it is right for the keeper of a vineyard only to let his tent remain until the fruit is plucked, and then he says farewell to his tent, and also to the beauty of the vineyard, so must the beauty of heaven and earth be lost, as soon as the reasoning essence10 of man, which abides in the world as in a tent, departs to its own appointed place, when the fruit of righteousness has everywhere been plucked.11
Thus the world's splendour will be of no more use when man is gone. And yet as man will pass through death into a better and incorruptible state, so will it be with all the world. It will be like a damaged silver vessel, which the artificer melts down, and then makes a new and better one of it. It passes away, but the . "Logos"12 of it remains with the artificer. Just so Christ says His "Logos"13 will remain when heaven and earth have passed away. Therefore all created things will in this way have a second and a better beginning.14
There is a deep meaning in the prophet's words "as leaves fall from a vine or a fig tree." For the fall of the leaves looks like the end of the life of the tree, but it is really the advance to something better. His purpose in choosing out these two particular trees may be either because, owing to careful husbandry, they only cast their leaves once (a type of God's care for His universe), or because, in speaking of the world passing away because of man's sin, it is appropriate to mention the fig, which was the first mark of Adam's fall, in the apron which he made; and the vine, which marked Noah's shame.
There is also a mystic meaning in his words, "The heaven shall be rolled up as a scroll." For the heavenly book of Christ's earthly life was now closed to the disciples, and will only be opened again afresh when man is freed from the decay of this life.
You ask where God's seat will be when His throne and His footstool have passed away. The prophet's words were really meant to make us realise the greatness of One whose relation to the great universe was such. They do not suggest that God will be affected by the change of these things. Indeed, there are many passages in the Psalms (e.g. cii. 25-27) to prove that God's seat is for ever, and certainly He had a habitation before heaven and earth were created. The Psalmist compares them to an old garment rolled up and changed; such indeed is the work of the heavenly fuller.
Yet another allegory underlies the words. Heaven and earth may mean man, in his twofold nature. His soul is the throne of God the Word, and his body, which Christ took, is His footstool. To this mystery the Baptist refers in his words about the latchet of His shoe (Mark i. 7), and the Psalmist when he says, "Fall down before his footstool, for he is holy" (Ps. xcviii. 5). Although the Word said He would dwell in men and walk in them (2 Cor. vi. 16, from Lev. xxvi. 11, 12), yet men have so sinned that they have fallen like stars, and are no longer fit to be His habitation. Accordingly, there must be a new beginning, "a new heaven and a new earth" (Isa. lxv. 17).]
Footnotes:
1Macarius in chapter xvi. combines this question with the next in his answer.
2This is an attempt to translate οὐρανὸν . . . ὡς τὸν κριτὴν ἀνασχόμενον κατ' αὐτοῦ τινα τερατεύεσθαι οὕτω θαυμασρὸν, οὕτω μεγάλα (reading θαυμαστά).
3He seems to think he is again quoting from the Apocalypse of Peter, though the word used is neuter. He gives no hint that he is quoting the Old Testament, but Macarius passes over the reference to an Apocryphal book in the previous question, as of doubtful authority, and proceeds to quote this as from Isaiah.
4This is a misquotation for "receive."
5The quotation is really from the law.
6He strangely omits the very word most needed, i. e. "heaven."
7As he has made no previous reference to Isaiah, it would seem that the words are attributed to God.
8With this cursory mention Macarius passes on from the words of that Apocryphal book, as quoted in the first objection he is answering (chapter vi.), and proceeds to Isaiah's similar words, adduced without acknowledgment in chapter vii. It is evident that he regarded this Apocalypse as quite outside the canon.
9ἑαυτὸν ἀποθεοῖ κοινωνῶν τῆ θεότητι.
10λογικὴ οὐσία.
11This excellent passage well carries on the simile suggested by Isaiah.
12This is in accordance with the Platonic theory of ideas, λόγος is perhaps best rendered "rationale," but the original word must be kept for the sake of the play on the words in this sentence.
13This is a strangely forced interpretation of the passage in Matt. xxiv. 35.
14In this statement he passes in his philosophising from Platonism to Origenism.