Against Marcion 3.24

“Rather,” you say, “what I hope for from him is something that itself serves as evidence of the difference: the kingdom of God, an eternal and heavenly possession. But your Christ promises the Jews their former state through the restoration of their land, and after life has run its course, refreshment in Abraham's bosom among the dead below.” O most good God, if when appeased he gives back what he had taken away when angry! O your god, who both strikes and heals, creates evils and makes peace! O a god merciful even as far as the underworld! But of Abraham's bosom in its own time. As for the restoration of Judea, which the Jews themselves hope for just as it is described, led on by the names of places and regions, how an allegorical interpretation applies spiritually to Christ and the church, its condition and its fruit, would take long to pursue, and has been set out in another work, which we entitle On the Hope of the Faithful; and at present it is idle for this reason too, that the question is not about an earthly but about a heavenly promise. For we do confess that a kingdom is promised to us on earth, but before heaven, and in another state: namely after the resurrection, for a thousand years, in the city of divine workmanship, Jerusalem, brought down from heaven, which the apostle too designates as “our mother above”; and when he declares that our politeuma, that is, our citizenship, is in heaven, he certainly assigns it to some heavenly city. This city Ezekiel knew, the apostle John saw, and the word of the New Prophecy, which belongs to our faith, bears witness to it, so that it even foretold that an image of the city would be seen as a sign before its manifestation. This was in fact fulfilled very recently during the eastern expedition. For it is established, even by heathen witnesses, that in Judea for forty days a city hung from the sky in the early morning hours, the whole appearance of its walls fading as the day advanced, and at other times, close at hand, there was none. This city, we say, has been provided by God for receiving the saints at their resurrection and refreshing them with an abundance of all goods, spiritual ones of course, in compensation for those which we have either despised or lost in the world; since it is both just and worthy of God that his servants should rejoice there too, where they were also afflicted for his name. This is the plan of the kingdom beneath heaven. After its thousand years, within which period the resurrection of the saints is completed, as they rise sooner or later according to their merits, then, when the destruction of the world and the conflagration of judgment have taken place, we shall be changed in an instant into angelic substance, namely by that putting on of incorruption over us, and be transferred into the heavenly kingdom. This kingdom is now being discussed as though it were not foretold by the Creator, and so proved a Christ of another god, by whom it was first and alone revealed. Learn now, then, both that it was foretold by the Creator and that, even without foretelling, it is to be believed of the Creator. What do you think? When the seed of Abraham, after the first promise in which it is promised to be like the multitude of the sand, is also destined to be like the stars, are these not tokens of both an earthly and a heavenly arrangement? When Isaac, blessing his son Jacob, says, “May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth,” are these not examples of both kinds of bounty? Indeed, the very structure of that blessing must be noted here too. For with Jacob, who is a figure of the later and preferred people, that is, of us, the first promise is of heavenly dew, the second of earthly fatness. For we are first invited to heavenly things when we are torn away from the world, and so are found afterwards to obtain earthly things as well. And your gospel too has: “Seek first the kingdom of God, and these things will be added to you.” But to Esau he puts the earthly blessing first and adds the heavenly, saying, “Your dwelling will be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven.” For the arrangement of the Jews, in Esau, the elder by birth but later in affection of the sons, first steeped in earthly goods through the law, is afterwards led to heavenly things by believing through the gospel. And when Jacob dreams of a ladder fixed on the earth up to heaven, and angels, some ascending and some descending, and the Lord leaning upon it from above, shall we be rash, perhaps, to interpret this ladder as showing the way to heaven, by which some arrive and from which others fall … that the judgment of the Lord is set? And why, when he woke up and was first struck with awe at the place, does he turn to interpreting the dream? For when he had said, “How terrible is this place!” he says, “This is nothing else but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” For he had seen Christ the Lord, who is the temple of God and also the gate through whom heaven is entered. And certainly he would not have named a gate of heaven if heaven is not entered with the Creator. But there is a gate that receives and leads on, and a way already paved by Christ, of whom Amos says, “who builds his ascent into heaven,” certainly not for himself alone, but also for his own, who will be with him. “For you will surround yourself with them,” he says, “like the ornament of a bride.” So the Spirit marvels at those who by that ascent are making for the heavenly kingdoms, saying, “They fly like kites, they fly like clouds, and like young doves to me,” that is, simply, as doves. “For we shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord,” according to the apostle (the Son of Man, namely, coming in the clouds, according to Daniel), “and so we shall always be with the Lord,” both on earth and in heaven, the Lord who, because of those ungrateful for both promises, calls even the elements themselves to witness: “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth.” And for my part, even if Scripture had not so often stretched out to me the hand of heavenly hope, I would have a sufficient prejudgment in favor of this promise too, in that I already hold earthly grace; I would expect something from heaven as well from the God of heaven as of earth. So I would believe that the Christ who promises higher things belongs to him who had promised lower ones; who had made proofs of the greater from the lesser; who had reserved for Christ alone the proclamation of this perhaps unheard-of kingdom, so that earthly glory was announced through his servants, but the heavenly through the Lord himself. But you argue from this too for another Christ, because he announces a new kingdom. First you must bring forward some example of his bounty, so that I may not rightly doubt the trustworthiness of so great a promise, which I hope for (for I have learned it); or rather, before all else, you must prove that he whom you proclaim as promising heavenly things has some heaven. As it is, you invite me to dinner and do not show me the house; you allege a kingdom and do not point out the palace. Does your Christ promise a heavenly kingdom without having a heaven, just as he presented himself as a man without having flesh? O phantom through and through! O great conjuring trick, even of the promise!