Against Celsus 3.14

After this he says: “Their association is the more marvelous, the more it can be shown to rest on no worthwhile foundation. But rebellion is a worthwhile foundation, and the advantage it brings, and fear of those outside; these confirm their faith.” To this we shall say that our association rests on a foundation, or rather not a foundation but divine working, so that its origin is God, who in the prophets taught people to hope for the coming of the Christ, who would save them. For insofar as this is not truly refuted, even if unbelievers think it is, to that extent the teaching is established as God's word, and Jesus is shown to be the Son of God, both before he became man and when he had become man. And I say that even after his becoming man he is always found, by those who have the most sharp-sighted eyes of the soul, most worthy of God and truly come down to us from God, having his origin and what followed it not from human intelligence but from the manifestation of God, who with manifold wisdom and manifold powers established first Judaism and after it Christianity. And the idea that rebellion and the advantage from rebellion are the origin of the teaching that has converted and improved so many people has been refuted.