Against Celsus 6.11

After this Celsus says: If these (meaning the Christians) introduce this one, and others another, and the common and ready word of all is “Believe, if you wish to be saved, or go away,” what will those do who truly wish to be saved? Will they throw dice and divine where to turn and whom to join? To this too, starting from what is evident, we shall say the following. If there had been several who, like Jesus, were recorded to have come into human life as sons of God, and each of them had drawn some people to himself, so that because of the likeness of their claims it was disputed which one, attested by those who believed in him, was the Son of God, then there would be room for “If these introduce this one, and others another, and the common and ready word of all is ‘Believe, if you wish to be saved, or go away,’” and the rest. But as it is, Jesus has been preached to the whole world as the only Son of God who has come to the human race. For those who, like Celsus, supposed that marvels had been invented, and for that reason wished to invent marvels in the same way, thinking that they too would gain power over men in a similar way, were proved to be nothing: Simon the Samaritan magician, and Dositheus, who came from the same country as he; for the one claimed that he was the power of God that is called great, and the other that he himself was the Son of God. For nowhere in the world are there Simonians; and yet, to win over more followers, Simon removed from his disciples the danger of death, which Christians have been taught to choose, by teaching them that idolatry is a matter of indifference. But the Simonians were never plotted against at all, for the evil demon who plots against the teaching of Jesus knew that none of his own purposes would be undone by the teachings of Simon. And the Dositheans did not flourish even before; now they have died out entirely, so that their whole number is said not to reach thirty. And “Judas the Galilean,” as Luke wrote in the Acts of the Apostles, wished to call himself someone great, and before him “Theudas”; but since their teaching was not from God, they were destroyed, and “all who obeyed” them were at once scattered. We do not, then, throw dice to divine where to turn and whom to join, as though several could draw us away by claiming to have come from God to the human race. But enough of these matters.