#73 | Messiah Defeats the Demons: How the Catholic Faith Destroyed Paganism (St. Athanasius)

Introduction

One of the most surprising and fascinating things I discovered in the writings of the Church Fathers were their frequent references to Christ’s defeat of the demonic powers, and how this defeat had resonated throughout the pagan world, eventually resulting in the conversion of multiple pagan nations, and the Roman Empire itself. In short, the Church Fathers write frequently about how Messiah defeated the demons.

These references were not only theological–explaining how the Incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ had been victorious over Satan and his hordes–but often stories about miraculous and preternatural encounters with demons. The oracles, most famously at places like Delphi in Greece, by which they communicated with pagan leaders: silent. Demonic attacks were warded off by the Eucharist, prayers (including from the saints in heaven), relics, priests, and various sacramentals and holy objects, including the bare sign of the cross. Preternatural deceptions by which demons (and often pagan priests, magicians, and sorcerers) deceived people into following them were severely limited, and brought to an end.

In short, the world underwent a profound and radical change, thanks to the Incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. The demons who for so long had deceived the whole world were exposed, routed, and vanquished. In their place, the nations began to worship the one God of Israel.

Roadmap

With that background in mind, our Roadmap is as follows:

• Our thesis is that St. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation of the Word presents some of the best examples of how Christ defeated the demonic powers, resulting in the collapse of paganism, and ultimately the conversion of the Roman Empire and other pagan nations to the Catholic Faith. We will show this by:
• Providing some brief historical context on St. Athanasius; then
• Offering a brief “prophetic consideration” related to the grand picture of history, the binding and loosing of Satan and his demonic hordes, etc.; then
• Quoting and analyzing the relevant portions of On the Incarnation of the Word (much of which speaks plainly for itself); then
• Summarizing the conclusions we can reach about Messiah’s defeat of the demons.

Historical Context

St. Athanasius (c. 296/98-373) was one of the greatest saints and Church Fathers of the ancient Church, and was especially famous for his defense of Catholic Trinitarian doctrine against the Arian heretics who denied the divinity of Christ. He wrote numerous treatises in defense of the Catholic Faith, and dismantled the Arian heresy by appealing to Scripture, the constant tradition of the Church, and the Church’s authority.

His most famous work is On the Incarnation of the Word, which he wrote around AD 330 while still a deacon of the Church of Alexandria in Egypt. In this work, St. Athanasius describes man’s fall, his redemption by the Messiah through the Incarnation, Messiah’s defeat of the demons, and the subsequent conversion of the nations to the worship of the God of Israel. In short, he points both Jews and pagans to the collapse of paganism as evidence that Jesus Christ really is God in the flesh, who rose again from the dead and reigns from heaven. To the Jews, he points out that in addition to their own priesthood, altar, and Temple being brought to an end, the Messiah they rejected is bringing the greatest number of worshipers to the God of Israel in the history of the world. He is truly defeating the gods of the pagans (the Gentiles), and bringing them to Israel’s God, which, he argues, could not be achieved by a false Messiah. To the pagans, he points to the deserting of their temples, the decline in magic and sorcery (which demons often used to lead souls into idolatry), the silencing of the oracles, the inability of evil spirits to even hear the name of Christ or see the sign of the cross, and many other signs that showed the pagan deities were false gods–mere demons and men–while Jesus Christ is the true God.

In truth, his words speak for themselves, and tell an epochal story that it is long since time we remembered. It is the story of how Messiah defeated the demons, and expanded the borders of His kingdom, the Catholic Church, into every corner of the demon-occupied territories of the ancient world. It is a story of how a world filled with blood-stained altars to demons became filled with Eucharistic altars to Jesus Christ; how the pagan priesthoods of the nations were supplanted by the Catholic priesthood of a Jewish Messiah; how the mouths and activities of demons who had never died were shut and ended by the God-man Whose enemies thought they could kill Him.

A Prophetic Consideration

Before diving into this great work, let us first situate Messiah’s defeat of the demons within a grand historical narrative we believe aligns with the teachings of the Church, Scripture, and the Fathers, among others. That outline comes from Apocalypse 20, which we argue provides the big picture of history from Christ’s first advent to His second advent (i.e. His return). In short, that history consists of four events and/or epochs:

1. The binding of Satan by Christ through His Incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension (verses 1-3);
2. The age of the Church, in which the apostolic thrones of the kingdom (i.e. the Catholic Church) are set up for the Apostles and their successors, the bishops; and those who endure with Christ to the end reign with Him from heaven (verses 4-6);
3. The brief release of Satan near the end times (verse 7) and the final persecution of the Church by Antichrist (verses 8-9); and
4. The return of Christ and the Day of Judgment (verses 10-14).

We mention this outline because we believe St. Athanasius’s description of Christ’s defeat of the demons, and how that tangibly changed the face of the ancient pagan world, were the first two events in action: the binding of Satan by Christ, and the age of the Church. What that means is that when reading St. Athanasius on this topic, we should consider the examples of demonic defeat he provides–which were made possible by the binding of Satan–as a template of events that, by God’s permission, could very well be reversed when the third event takes place, namely the brief release of Satan near the end times.

Let us now proceed to examine what St. Athanasius says about Messiah’s defeat of the demons in On the Incarnation of the Word, which we will consider in the order in which he writes them.

St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word

St. Athanasius opens his masterpiece with a summary of the grand issue at stake, namely, man’s fall from grace into idolatry–the worship of demons and men as gods–and God’s means of saving him by the Cross of His Son (Ch. 1, §§1-2):

§1 | Whereas in what precedes we have drawn out—choosing a few points from among many—a sufficient account of the error of the heathen concerning idols, and of the worship of idols, and how they originally came to be invented; how, namely, out of wickedness men devised for themselves the worshiping of idols: and whereas we have by God’s grace noted somewhat also of the divinity of the Word of the Father, and of His universal Providence and power, and that the Good Father through Him orders all things, and all things are moved by Him, and in Him are quickened: come now, Macarius (worthy of that name), and true lover of Christ, let us follow up the faith of our religion, and set forth also what relates to the Word’s becoming Man, and to His divine Appearing amongst us, which Jews traduce and Greeks laugh to scorn, but we worship; in order that, all the more for the seeming low estate of the Word, your piety toward Him may be increased and multiplied.

§2 | For the more He is mocked among the unbelieving, the more witness does He give of His own Godhead; inasmuch as He not only Himself demonstrates as possible what men mistake, thinking impossible, but what men deride as unseemly, this by His own goodness He clothes with seemliness, and what men, in their conceit of wisdom, laugh at as merely human, He by His own power demonstrates to be divine, subduing the pretensions of idols by His supposed humiliation—by the Cross—and those who mock and disbelieve invisibly winning over to recognize His divinity and power.

St. Athanasius observed that God’s craftsmanship of man had been damaged by the deceit of demons, obviously preeminently Satan himself (Ch. 6, §6):

§6 | Especially it was unseemly to the last degree that God’s handicraft among men should be done away, either because of their own carelessness, or because of the deceitfulness of evil spirits.

The great saint then bewails man’s fall from the blessed life given to him by God into astrology, magic, and demon worship, all despite the fact that God had made Himself known in countless ways, including through creation (Ch. 11, §§4-7):

§4 | But men once more in their perversity having set at nought, in spite of all this, the grace given them, so wholly rejected God, and so darkened their soul, as not merely to forget their idea of God, but also to fashion for themselves one invention after another. For not only did they grave idols for themselves, instead of the truth, and honor things that were not before the living God, “and serve the creature rather than the Creator” (Rom. 1:25), but, worst of all, they transferred the honor of God even to stocks and stones and to every material object and to men, and went even further than this, as we have said in the former treatise.

§5 | So far indeed did their impiety go, that they proceeded to worship devils, and proclaimed them as gods, fulfilling their own lusts. For they performed, as was said above, offerings of brute animals, and sacrifices of men, as was meet for them, binding themselves down all the faster under their maddening inspirations.

§6 | For this reason it was also that magic arts were taught among them, and oracles in diverse places led men astray, and all men ascribed the influences of their birth and existence to the stars and to all the heavenly bodies, having no thought of anything beyond what was visible.

§7 | And, in a word, everything was full of irreligion and lawlessness, and God alone, and His Word, was unknown, albeit He had not hidden Himself out of men’s sight, nor given the knowledge of Himself in one way only; but had, on the contrary, unfolded it to them in many forms and by many ways.

The “oracles” St. Athanasius referred to were particular sites throughout the ancient world in which “the gods” were said to communicate with men. The most famous one was at Delphi in Greece, where a priestess known as the Pythia would deliver messages and prophecies on behalf of the god Apollo, who was of course a demon. As we will see, the Incarnation had its effect on the ancient oracles as well.

St. Athanasius continues to emphasize that men can know God exists, and He is the only one, through reason alone simply by observing His creation, and by the same means know that idolatry and polytheism are false and impious. Despite this, however, men have fallen into “the pleasures of the moment,” he says, and this “by the illusions and deceit sent by demons,” which thereby plunged them even further into irrationality (Ch. 12, §§3-6):

§3 | So it was open to them, by looking into the height of heaven, and perceiving the harmony of creation, to know its Ruler, the Word of the Father, Who, by His own providence over all things makes known the Father to all, and to this end moves all things, that through Him all may know God.

§4 | Or, if this were too much for them, it was possible for them to meet at least the holy men, and through them to learn of God, the Maker of all things, the Father of Christ; and that the worship of idols is godlessness, and full of all impiety.

§5 | Or it was open to them, by knowing the law even, to cease from all lawlessness and live a virtuous life. For neither was the law for the Jews alone, nor were the Prophets sent for them only, but, though sent to the Jews and persecuted by the Jews, they were for all the world a holy school of the knowledge of God and the conduct of the soul.

§6 | God’s goodness then and loving-kindness being so great, men nevertheless, overcome by the pleasures of the moment and by the illusions and deceits sent by demons, did not raise their heads toward the truth, but loaded themselves the more with evils and sins, so as no longer to seem rational, but from their ways to be reckoned void of reason.

St. Athanasius then asks a rhetorical question about what God was left to do (Ch. 13, §1):

§1 | So then, men having thus become brutalized, and demonic deceit thus clouding every place, and hiding the knowledge of the true God, what was God to do? To keep still silence at so great a thing, and suffer men to be led astray by demons and not to know God?

In the next chapter, St. Athanasius then explains why men were not capable of saving themselves. Among the reasons he points out is their inability to withstand the deception of demons (Ch. 14, §§3-4):

§3 | But since wild idolatry and godlessness occupied the world, and the knowledge of God was hid, whose part was it to teach the world concerning the Father? Man’s, might one say? But it was not in man’s power to penetrate everywhere beneath the sun; for neither had they the physical strength to run so far, nor would they be able to claim credence in this matter, nor were they sufficient by themselves to withstand the deceit and impositions of evil spirits.

§4 | For where all were smitten and confused in soul from demonic deceit, and the vanity of idols, how was it possible for them to win over man’s soul and man’s mind—whereas they cannot even see them? Or how can a man convert what he does not see?

In chapter 15, St. Athanasius then presents God’s solution to the fall of man: His redemption by the assumption and healing of human nature by the Incarnation of the Word of God. This, he says, is particularly fitting given that men in their fallen state had been deceived by demons into considering not only the demons themselves, but other men as gods–and yet none of these demons or men (the false gods) had done anything like what the Word Incarnate had done (Ch. 15, §§1-7):

§1 | For as a kind teacher who cares for His disciples, if some of them cannot profit by higher subjects, comes down to their level, and teaches them at any rate by simpler courses, so also did the Word of God. As Paul also says: “For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the word preached to save them that believe” (1 Cor. 1:21).

§2 | For seeing that men, having rejected the contemplation of God, and with their eyes downward, as though sunk in the deep, were seeking about for God in nature and in the world of sense, feigning gods for themselves of mortal men and demons; to this end the loving and general Savior of all, the Word of God, takes to Himself a body, and as Man walks among men and meets the senses of all men half-way, to the end, I say, that they who think that God is corporeal may from what the Lord effects by His body perceive the truth, and through Him recognize the Father.

§3 | So, men as they were, and human in all their thoughts, on whatever objects they fixed their senses, there they saw themselves met half-way, and taught the truth from every side.

§4 | For if they looked with awe upon the Creation, yet they saw how she confessed Christ as Lord; or if their mind was swayed toward men, so as to think them gods, yet from the Savior’s works, supposing they compared them, the Savior alone among men appeared Son of God; for there were no such works done among the rest as have been done by the Word of God.

§5 | Or if they were biased toward evil spirits, even, yet seeing them cast out by the Word, they were to know that He alone, the Word of God, was God, and that the spirits were none.

§6 | Or if their mind had already sunk even to the dead, so as to worship heroes, and the gods spoken of in the poets, yet, seeing the Savior’s resurrection, they were to confess them to be false gods, and that the Lord alone is true, the Word of the Father, that was Lord even of death.

§7 | For this cause He was both born and appeared as Man, and died, and rose again, dulling and casting into the shade the works of all former men by His own, that in whatever direction the bias of men might be, from thence He might recall them, and teach them of His own true Father, as He Himself says: “I came to save and to find that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

In chapter 18, St. Athanasius then proceeds to discourse on the astounding evidence that God had in fact assumed human nature, pointing to Christ’s casting out of demons, His miracles, and His virgin birth (Ch. 18, §§1-6). In chapter 19, he observed the following about Christ’s power over demons (Ch. 19, §2):

§2 | For who that saw His power over evil spirits, or who that saw the evil spirits confess that He was their Lord, will hold his mind any longer in doubt whether this be the Son and Wisdom and Power of God?

Next, in chapter 20, St. Athanasius begins to point to the ending of idolatry, which was nothing less than the end of the predominant form of religion over virtually the entire planet and all nations. None but the Word, he says, could have accomplished this (Ch. 20, §1):

§1 | We have, then, now stated in part, as far as it was possible, and as ourselves had been able to understand, the reason of His bodily appearing; that it was in the power of none other to turn the corruptible to incorruption, except the Savior Himself, that had at the beginning also made all things out of nought and that none other could create anew the likeness of God’s image for men, save the Image of the Father; and that none other could render the mortal immortal, save our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the Very Life; and that none other could teach men of the Father, and destroy the worship of idols, save the Word, that orders all things and is alone the true Only-begotten Son of the Father.

In chapter 25, St. Athanasius teaches that the Devil and his demons had wandered in the “lower atmosphere” since their fall from Heaven, and that by His ascension into Heaven, Christ has cleared the atmosphere of their presence (Ch. 25, §§5-6):

§5 | And once more, if the devil, the enemy of our race, having fallen from heaven, wanders about our lower atmosphere, and there bearing rule over his fellow-spirits, as his peers in disobedience, not only works illusions by their means in them that are deceived, but tries to hinder them that are going up (and about this the Apostle says: “According to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2)); while the Lord came to cast down the devil, and clear the air and prepare the way for us up into heaven, as said the Apostle: “Through the veil, that is to say, His flesh” (Heb. 5:20)—and this must needs be by death—well, by what other kind of death could this have come to pass, than by one which took place in the air, I mean the cross? For only he that is perfected on the cross dies in the air. Whence it was quite fitting that the Lord suffered this death.

§6 | For thus being lifted up He cleared the air of the malignity both of the devil and of demons of all kinds, as He says: “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18); and made a new opening of the way up into heaven as He says once more: “Lift up your gates, O you princes, and be you lift up, you everlasting doors” (Ps. 24:7, LXX). For it was not the Word Himself that needed an opening of the gates, being Lord of all; nor were any of His works closed to their Maker; but we it was that needed it whom He carried up by His own body. For as He offered it to death on behalf of all, so by it He once more made ready the way up into the heavens.

While we will address this topic in much greater detail elsewhere, it is worth nothing here–in connection with our earlier comments about the binding and loosing of Satan in Apocalypse 20–that if St. Athanasius considers the clearing of the “lower atmosphere” of demonic entities an effect of Christ’s Incarnation, it is logical to theorize that once the demonic powers are briefly released prior to His return (Apoc. 20:7), this release may result in the reappearance of preternatural phenomena in the same “lower atmosphere” at the hands of the demonic entities who St. Athanasius claims were previously expelled by Christ. This, I personally believe, is possibly related to the UAP and “alien” phenomenon that has been taking place since the middle of the 20th century (“UAP” stands for “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena,” previously known as “UFOs”). For now, I’m simply laying down this data point as an intellectual bookmark on this topic of the binding and loosing of demonic powers and its relationship with eschatology, thereby situating St. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation of the Word in the much bigger picture of world and prophetic history.

Moving on, St. Athanasius then proceeds to transition to Christ’s defeat of idolatry more generally, about which he observes as follows in chapter 29 (Ch. 29, §5):

§5 | For he that sees the serpent trodden under foot, especially knowing his former fierceness no longer doubts that he is dead and has quite lost his strength, unless he is perverted in mind and has not even his bodily senses sound. For who that sees a lion, either, made sport of by children, fails to see that he is either dead or has lost all his power?

In the next chapter, St. Athanasius points to the astounding change among the nations that has taken place since the Incarnation: men are abandoning their ancestral paganism and laws to follow Christ. The power of the demons has been exposed. Indeed, in many places, they can no longer even appear among men, being driven from their abodes, and unable to stand even hearing His name (Ch. 30, §§5-7):

§5 | Or is it like a dead man to be pricking the consciences of men, so that they deny their hereditary laws and bow before the teaching of Christ? Or how, if he is no longer active (for this is proper to one dead), does he stay from their activity those who are active and alive, so that the adulterer no longer commits adultery, and the murderer murders no more, nor is the inflictor of wrong any longer grasping, and the profane is henceforth religious? Or how, if He be not risen but is dead, does He drive away, and pursue, and cast down those false gods said by the unbelievers to be alive, and the demons they worship?

§6 | For where Christ is named, and His faith, there all idolatry is deposed and all imposture of evil spirits is exposed, and any spirit is unable to endure even the name, nay even on barely hearing it flies and disappears. But this work is not that of one dead, but of one that lives—and especially of God.

§7 | In particular, it would be ridiculous to say that while the spirits cast out by Him and the idols brought to nought are alive, He who chases them away, and by His power prevents their even appearing, yea, and is being confessed by them all to be Son of God, is dead.

In chapter 31, St. Athanasius confutes those who claim Christ did not in fact rise from the dead by the fact of paganism’s fall. If Christ is dead, he argues, then how is it that He is everywhere gaining worshipers, while at the same time the worship of the false gods is disappearing? But there’s more: not only is idolatry itself ending, St. Athanasius observes that the sign of the cross itself has stopped magic and witchcraft, while the morals of the Gentile nations are likewise undergoing a rapid change (Ch. 31, §§1-3):

§1 | But they who disbelieve in the Resurrection afford a strong proof against themselves, if instead of all the spirits and the gods worshiped by them casting out Christ, Who, they say, is dead, Christ on the contrary proves them all to be dead.

§2 | For if it be true that one dead can exert no power, while the Savior does daily so many works, drawing men to religion, persuading to virtue, teaching of immortality, leading on to a desire for heavenly things, revealing the knowledge of the Father, inspiring strength to meet death, showing Himself to each one, and displacing the godlessness of idolatry, and the gods and spirits of the unbelievers can do none of these things, but rather show themselves dead at the presence of Christ, their pomp being reduced to impotence and vanity; whereas by the sign of the Cross all magic is stopped, and all witchcraft brought to nought, and all the idols are being deserted and left, and every unruly pleasure is checked, and every one is looking up from earth to heaven: Whom is one to pronounce dead? Christ, that is doing so many works? But to work is not proper to one dead. Or him that exerts no power at all, but lies as it were without life? Which is essentially proper to the idols and spirits, dead as they are.

§3 | For the Son of God is “living and active” (Heb. 4:12), and works day by day, and brings about the salvation of all. But death is daily proved to have lost all his power, and idols and spirits are proved to be dead rather than Christ, so that henceforth no man can any longer doubt of the Resurrection of His body.

In chapter 32, St. Athanasius continues his argument that Christ is in fact very much alive, a fact that is apparent to all by His defeat of demons everywhere (Ch. 32, §§4-6):

§4 | For it is plain that if Christ be dead, He could not be expelling demons and spoiling idols; for a dead man the spirits would not have obeyed. But if they be manifestly expelled by the naming of His name, it must be evident that He is not dead; especially as spirits, seeing even what is unseen by men, could tell if Christ were dead and refuse Him any obedience at all.

§5 | But as it is, what irreligious men believe not, the spirits see—that He is God—and hence they fly and fall at His feet, saying just what they uttered when He was in the body: “We know Who you are, the Holy One of God” (Luke 4:34; Mark 5:7); and, “Ah, what have we to do with You, Son of God? I pray You, torment me not” (Luke 8:28).

§6 | As then demons confess Him, and His works bear Him witness day by day, it must be evident, and let none brazen it out against the truth, both that the Savior raised His own body, and that He is the true Son of God, being from Him, as from His Father, His own Word, and Wisdom, and Power, Who in ages later took a body for the salvation of all, and taught the world concerning the Father, and brought death to nought, and bestowed incorruption upon all by the promise of the Resurrection, having raised His own body as a first-fruits of this, and having displayed it by the sign of the Cross as a monument of victory over death and its corruption.

In chapter 36, St. Athanasius then points to one particular example: Egypt, the “home base,” as it were, of the most ancient forms of idolatry and magic, but now brought to the worship of the God of Israel, the nation it formerly enslaved. Was this brought about by Abraham or Moses, both of whom sojourned in Egypt? No. It was brought about by Christ (Ch. 36, §4):

§4 | But which of the holy prophets or of the early patriarchs has died on the Cross for the salvation of all? Or who was wounded and destroyed for the healing of all? Or which of the righteous men, or kings, went down to Egypt, so that at his coming the idols of Egypt fell? For Abraham went there, but idolatry prevailed universally all the same. Moses was born there, and the deluded worship of the people was there none the less.

St. Athanasius continues this observations about the change in Egypt’s ancient paganism in the following chapter (Ch. 37, §§5-7):

§5 | Why, He was born in Judea, and men from Persia came to worship Him. He it is that even before His appearing in the body won the victory over His demon adversaries and a triumph over idolatry. All heathen at any rate from every region, abjuring their hereditary tradition and the impiety of idols, are now placing their hope in Christ, and enrolling themselves under Him, the like of which you may see with your own eyes.

§6 | For at no other time has the impiety of the Egyptians ceased, save when the Lord of all, riding as it were upon a cloud, came down there in the body and brought to nought the delusion of idols, and brought over all to Himself, and through Himself to the Father.

§7 | He it is that was crucified before the sun and all creation as witnesses, and before those who put Him to death: and by His death has salvation come to all, and all creation been ransomed. He is the Life of all, and He it is that as a sheep yielded His body to death as a substitute, for the salvation of all, even though the Jews believe it not.

In chapter 40, St. Athanasius turns his attention to the Jews, whose denial of Christ he refutes by the same evidence, pointing out that it is by Christ that the Gentile nations are converting to the worship of the God of Israel, and that this itself proves He is their Messiah. While he addresses the Jews with various arguments–including the destruction of the Temple, the ending of their priesthood, etc.–for now, we will focus specifically on what he says about the Gentiles turning from paganism to the God of Israel (Ch. 40, §§4-6):

§4 | Whence the Savior also Himself cried aloud and said: “The law and the prophets prophesied until John” (Matt. 11:13; Luke 16:16). If then there is now among the Jews king or prophet or vision, they do well to deny the Christ that is come. But if there is neither king nor vision, but from that time forth all prophecy is sealed and the city and temple taken, why are they so irreligious and so perverse as to see what has happened, and yet to deny Christ, Who has brought it all to pass? Or why, when they see even heathens deserting their idols, and placing their hope, through Christ, on the God of Israel, do they deny Christ, Who was born of the root of Jesse after the flesh and henceforth is King? For if the nations were worshiping some other God, and not confessing the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses, then, once more, they would be doing well in alleging that God had not come.

§5 | But if the Gentiles are honoring the same God that gave the law to Moses and made the promise to Abraham, and Whose word the Jews dishonored, why are they ignorant, or rather why do they choose to ignore, that the Lord foretold by the Scriptures has shone forth upon the world, and appeared to it in bodily form, as the Scripture said: “The Lord God has shined upon us” (Ps. 118:27; Num. 6:25); and again: “He sent His Word and healed them” (Ps. 107:20); and again: “Not a messenger, not an angel, but the Lord Himself saved them?” (Isa. 63:9, LXX).

§6 | Their state may be compared to that of one out of his right mind, who sees the earth illumined by the sun, but denies the sun that illumines it. For what more is there for him whom they expect to do, when he is come? To call the heathen? But they are called already. To make prophecy, and king, and vision to cease? This too has already come to pass. To expose the godlessness of idolatry? It is already exposed and condemned. Or to destroy death? He is already destroyed.

In chapter 43, St. Athanasius once more emphasizes man’s fall from the estate gifted to him by God, and in doing so bestowed the honor owed to God on men and demons (Ch. 43, §3):

§3 | Now, nothing in creation had gone astray with regard to their notions of God, save man only. Why, neither sun, nor moon, nor heaven, nor the stars, nor water, nor air had swerved from their order; but knowing their Artificer and Sovereign, the Word, they remain as they were made. But men alone, having rejected what was good, then devised things of nought instead of the truth, and have ascribed the honor due to God, and their knowledge of Him, to demons and men in the shape of stones.

St. Athanasius then proceeds to further examine the fall of paganism, the oracles, magic, and Gentile philosophy in general in greater detail, pointing out that the fall of idolatry heralded a never before witnessed turn of events, namely multiple nations worshiping one God with the same worship, and that this epochal change could only have been wrought by the defeat of the demons by God Himself (Ch. 46, §§1-5):

§1 | When did men begin to desert the worshiping of idols, save since God, the true Word of God, has come among men? Or when have the oracles among the Greeks, and everywhere, ceased and become empty, save when the Savior has manifested Himself upon earth?

§2 | Or when did those who are called gods and heroes in the poets begin to be convicted of being merely mortal men, save since the Lord erected His conquest of death, and preserved incorruptible the body he had taken, raising it from the dead?

§3 | Or when did the deceitfulness and madness of demons fall into contempt, save when the power of God, the Word, the Master of all these as well, condescending because of man’s weakness, appeared on earth? Or when did the art and the schools of magic begin to be trodden down, save when the divine manifestation of the Word took place among men?

§4 | And, in a word, at what time has the wisdom of the Greeks become foolish, save when the true Wisdom of God manifested itself on earth? For formerly the whole world and every place was led astray by the worshiping of idols, and men regarded nothing else but the idols as gods. But now, all the world over, men are deserting the superstition of the idols, and taking refuge with Christ; and, worshiping Him as God, are by His means coming to know that Father also Whom they knew not.

§5 | And, marvelous fact, whereas the objects of worship were various and of vast number, and each place had its own idol, and he who was accounted a god among them had no power to pass over to the neighboring place, so as to persuade those of neighboring peoples to worship him, but was barely served even among his own people; for no one else worshiped his neighbor’s god—on the contrary, each man kept to his own idol, thinking it to be lord of all—Christ alone is worshiped as one and the same among all peoples; and what the weakness of the idols could not do—to persuade, namely, even those dwelling close at hand—this Christ has done, persuading not only those close at hand, but simply the entire world, to worship one and the same Lord, and through Him God, even His Father.

St. Athanasius continues the same line of evidence in chapter 47. In addition to the end of the oracles, the exposure of magic, and other similar phenomena, he also points to the miracles done in the churches, which he ascribes to the power of Christ (Ch. 47, §§1-5):

§1 | And whereas formerly every place was full of the deceit of the oracles, and the oracles at Delphi and Dodona, and in Boeotia and Lycia and Libya and Egypt and those of the Cabiri, and the Pythoness, were held in repute by men’s imagination, now, since Christ has begun to be preached everywhere, their madness also has ceased and there is none among them to divine any more.

§2 | And whereas formerly demons used to deceive men’s fancy, occupying springs or rivers, trees or stones, and thus imposed upon the simple by their juggleries; now, after the divine visitation of the Word, their deception has ceased. For by the Sign of the Cross, though a man but use it, he drives out their deceits.

§3 | And while formerly men held to be gods Zeus and Cronos and Apollo and the heroes mentioned in the poets, and went astray in honoring them; now that the Savior has appeared among men, those others have been exposed as mortal men, and Christ alone has been recognized among men as the true God, the Word of God.

§4 | And what is one to say of the magic esteemed among them? That before the Word sojourned among us this was strong and active among Egyptians, and Chaldees, and Indians, and inspired awe in those who saw it; but that by the presence of the Truth, and the Appearing of the Word, it also has been thoroughly confuted, and brought wholly to nought.

§5 | But as to Gentile wisdom, and the sounding pretensions of the philosophers, I think none can need our argument, since the wonder is before the eyes of all, that while the wise among the Greeks had written so much, and were unable to persuade even a few from their own neighborhood, concerning immortality and a virtuous life, Christ alone, by ordinary language, and by men not clever with the tongue, has throughout all the world persuaded whole churches full of men to despise death, and to mind the things of immortality; to overlook what is temporal and to turn their eyes to what is eternal; to think nothing of earthly glory and to strive only for the heavenly.

This vaunted saint continues a similar line of thought in chapter 48, now pointing to virginity, asceticism, and martyrdom among Christians as a sign that they possess the true religion, and once more pointing out the power of the sign of the cross against demons and magic (Ch. 48, §§1-9):

§1 | Now these arguments of ours do not amount merely to words, but have in actual experience a witness to their truth.

§2 | For let him that will, go up and behold the proof of virtue in the virgins of Christ and in the young men that practice holy chastity, and the assurance of immortality in so great a band of His martyrs.

§3 | And let him come who would test by experience what we have now said, and in the very presence of the deceit of demons and the imposture of oracles and the marvels of magic, let him use the Sign of that Cross which is laughed at among them, and he shall see how by its means demons fly, oracles cease, all magic and witchcraft is brought to nought.

§4 | Who, then, and how great is this Christ, Who by His own Name and Presence casts into the shade and brings to nought all things on every side, and is alone strong against all, and has filled the whole world with His teaching? Let the Greeks tell us, who are pleased to laugh, and blush not.

§5 | For if He is a man, how then has one man exceeded the power of all whom even themselves hold to be gods, and convicted them by His own power of being nothing? But if they call Him a magician, how can it be that by a magician all magic is destroyed, instead of being confirmed? For if He conquered particular magicians, or prevailed over one only, it would be proper for them to hold that He excelled the rest by superior skill.

§6 | But if His Cross has won the victory over absolutely all magic, and over the very name of it, it must be plain that the Savior is not a magician, seeing that even those demons who are invoked by the other magicians fly from Him as their Master.

§7 | Who He is, then, let the Greeks tell us, whose only serious pursuit is jesting. Perhaps they might say that He, too, was a demon, and hence His strength. But say this as they will, they will have the laugh against them, for they can once more be put to shame by our former proofs. For how is it possible that He should be a demon who drives the demons out?

§8 | For if He simply drove out particular demons, it might properly be held that by the chief of demons He prevailed against the lesser, just as the Jews said to Him when they wished to insult Him. But if, by His Name being named, all madness of the demons is uprooted and chased away, it must be evident that here, too, they are wrong, and that our Lord and Savior Christ is not, as they think, some demonic power.

§9 | Then, if the Savior is neither a man simply, nor a magician, nor some demon, but has by His own Godhead brought to nought and cast into the shade both the doctrine found in the poets and the delusion of the demons and the wisdom of the Gentiles, it must be plain and will be owned by all, that this is the true Son of God, even the Word and Wisdom and Power of the Father from the beginning. For this is why His works also are no works of man, but are recognized to be above man, and truly God’s works, both from the facts in themselves, and from comparison with [the rest of] mankind.

In chapter 49, St. Athanasius once more points out that no one has ever had their worship extend to so many nations as Christ, and that if the pagan gods were true gods, they would prevent it (Ch. 49, §§5-6):

§5 | Or, to pass over the deeds done through His body, and mention those after its rising again: what man’s doctrine that ever was has prevailed everywhere, one and the same, from one end of the earth to the other, so that his worship has winged its way through every land?

§6 | Or why, if Christ is, as they say, a man, and not God the Word, is not His worship prevented by the gods they have from passing into the same land where they are? Or why on the contrary does the Word Himself, sojourning here, by His teaching stop their worship and put their deception to shame?

He develops the same line of thought in the following chapter (Ch. 50, §§1-6):

§1 | Many before this Man have been kings and tyrants of the world, many are on record who have been wise men and magicians, among the Chaldeans and Egyptians and Indians; which of these, I say, not after death, but while still alive, was ever able so far to prevail as to fill the whole earth with his teaching and reform so great a multitude from the superstition of idols, as our Savior has brought over from idols to Himself?

§2 | The philosophers of the Greeks have composed many works with plausibility and verbal skill; what result, then, have they exhibited so great as has the Cross of Christ? For the refinements they taught were plausible enough till they died; but even the influence they seemed to have while alive was subject to their mutual rivalries; and they were emulous, and declaimed against one another.

§3 | But the Word of God, most strange fact, teaching in meaner language, has cast into the shade the choice sophists; and while He has, by drawing all to Himself, brought their schools to nought, He has filled His own churches; and the marvelous thing is, that by going down as man to death, He has brought to nought the sounding utterances of the wise concerning idols.

§4 | For whose death ever drove out demons? Or whose death did demons ever fear, as they did that of Christ? For where the Savior’s name is named, there every demon is driven out. Or who has so rid men of the passions of the natural man, that whoremongers are chaste, and murderers no longer hold the sword, and those who were formerly mastered by cowardice play the man?

§5 | And, in short, who persuaded men of barbarous countries and heathen men in diverse places to lay aside their madness, and to mind peace, if it be not the Faith of Christ and the Sign of the Cross? Or who else has given men such assurance of immortality, as has the Cross of Christ, and the Resurrection of His Body?

§6 | For although the Greeks have told all manner of false tales, yet they were not able to feign a Resurrection of their idols—for it never crossed their mind, whether it be at all possible for the body again to exist after death. And here one would most especially accept their testimony, inasmuch as by this opinion they have exposed the weakness of their own idolatry, while leaving the possibility open to Christ, so that hence also He might be made known among all as Son of God.

He continues in the next chapter (Ch. 51, §§2-6):

§2 | What man has ever yet been able to pass so far as to come among Scythians and Ethiopians, or Persians or Armenians or Goths, or those we hear of beyond the ocean or those beyond Hyrcania, or even the Egyptians and Chaldees, men that mind magic and are superstitious beyond nature and savage in their ways, and to preach at all about virtue and self-control, and against the worshiping of idols, as has the Lord of all, the Power of God, our Lord Jesus Christ?

§3 | Who not only preached by means of His own disciples, but also carried persuasion to men’s mind, to lay aside the fierceness of their manners, and no longer to serve their ancestral gods, but to learn to know Him, and through Him to worship the Father.

§4 | For formerly, while in idolatry, Greeks and Barbarians used to war against each other, and were actually cruel to their own kin. For it was impossible for anyone to cross sea or land at all, without arming the hand with swords, because of their implacable fighting among themselves.

§5 | For the whole course of their life was carried on by arms, and the sword with them took the place of a staff, and was their support in every emergency; and still, as I said before, they were serving idols, and offering sacrifices to demons, while for all their idolatrous superstition they could not be reclaimed from this spirit.

§6 | But when they have come over to the school of Christ, then, strangely enough, as men truly pricked in conscience, they have laid aside the savagery of their murders and no longer mind the things of war: but all is at peace with them, and from henceforth what makes for friendship is to their liking.

In chapter 52, St. Athanasius then points out the fall of paganism has brought greater peace, and an unexampled conversion to virtue (Ch. 52, §§1-5):

§1 | Who then is He that has done this, or who is He that has united in peace men that hated one another, save the beloved Son of the Father, the common Savior of all, even Jesus Christ, Who by His own love underwent all things for our salvation? For even from of old it was prophesied of the peace He was to usher in, where the Scripture says: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their pikes into sickles, and nation shall not take the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isa. 2:4).

§2 | And this is at least not incredible, inasmuch as even now those barbarians who have an innate savagery of manners, while they still sacrifice to the idols of their country, are mad against one another, and cannot endure to be a single hour without weapons:

§3 | but when they hear the teaching of Christ, straightway instead of fighting they turn to husbandry, and instead of arming their hands with weapons they raise them in prayer, and in a word, in place of fighting among themselves, henceforth they arm against the devil and against evil spirits, subduing these by self-restraint and virtue of soul.

§4 | Now this is at once a proof of the divinity of the Savior, since what men could not learn among idols they have learned from Him; and no small exposure of the weakness and nothingness of demons and idols. For demons, knowing their own weakness, for this reason formerly set men to make war against one another, lest, if they ceased from mutual strife, they should turn to battle against demons.

§5 | Why, they who become disciples of Christ, instead of warring with each other, stand arrayed against demons by their habits and their virtuous actions: and they rout them, and mock at their captain the devil; so that in youth they are self-restrained, in temptations endure, in labors persevere, when insulted are patient, when robbed make light of it: and, wonderful as it is, they despise even death and become martyrs of Christ.

In the next chapter, St. Athanasius once more ponders the big picture of the end of paganism after the Incarnation of the Word (Ch. 53, §§1-3):

§1 | And to mention one proof of the divinity of the Savior, which is indeed utterly surprising: what mere man or magician or tyrant or king was ever able by himself to engage with so many, and to fight the battle against all idolatry and the whole demonic host and all magic, and all the wisdom of the Greeks, while they were so strong and still flourishing and imposing upon all, and at one onset to check them all, as was our Lord, the true Word of God, Who, invisibly exposing each man’s error, is by Himself bearing off all men from them all, so that while they who were worshiping idols now trample upon them, those in repute for magic burn their books, and the wise prefer to all studies the interpretation of the Gospels?

§2 | For whom they used to worship, them they are deserting, and Whom they used to mock as one crucified, Him they worship as Christ, confessing Him to be God. And they that are called gods among them are routed by the Sign of the Cross, while the Crucified Savior is proclaimed in all the world as God and the Son of God. And the gods worshiped among the Greeks are falling into ill repute at their hands, as scandalous beings; while those who receive the teaching of Christ live a more chaste life than they.

§3 | If, then, these and the like are human works, let him who will point out similar works on the part of men of former time, and so convince us. But if they prove to be, and are, not men’s works, but God’s, why are the unbelievers so irreligious as not to recognize the Master that wrought them?

Finally, in chapter 55, near the conclusion of the work, St. Athanasius offers the following reflections on the defeat of the demons by the Messiah (Ch. 55, §§1-6):

§1 | This, then, after what we have so far said, it is right for you to realize, and to take as the sum of what we have already stated, and to marvel at exceedingly; namely, that since the Savior has come among us, idolatry not only has no longer increased, but what there was is diminishing and gradually coming to an end; and not only does the wisdom of the Greeks no longer advance, but what there is is now fading away; and demons, so far from cheating any more by illusions and prophecies and magic arts, if they so much as dare to make the attempt, are put to shame by the sign of the Cross.

§2 | And to sum the matter up: behold how the Savior’s doctrine is everywhere increasing, while all idolatry and everything opposed to the faith of Christ is daily dwindling, and losing power, and falling. And thus beholding, worship the Savior, “Who is above all” and mighty, even God the Word; and condemn those who are being worsted and done away by Him.

§3 | For as, when the sun is come, darkness no longer prevails, but if any be still left anywhere it is driven away; so, now that the divine Appearing of the Word of God is come, the darkness of the idols prevails no more, and all parts of the world in every direction are illumined by His teaching.

§4 | And as, when a king is reigning in some country without appearing but keeps at home in his own house, often some disorderly persons, abusing his retirement, proclaim themselves; and each of them, by assuming the character, imposes on the simple as king, and so men are led astray by the name, hearing that there is a king, but not seeing him, if for no other reason, because they cannot enter the house; but when the real king comes forth and appears, then the disorderly impostors are exposed by his presence, while men, seeing the real king, desert those who previously led them astray.

§5 | In like manner, the evil spirits formerly used to deceive men, investing themselves with God’s honor; but when the Word of God appeared in a body, and made known to us His own Father, then at length the deceit of the evil spirits is done away and stopped, while men, turning their eyes to the true God, Word of the Father, are deserting the idols, and now coming to know the true God.

§6 | Now this is a proof that Christ is God the Word, and the Power of God. For whereas human things cease, and the Word of Christ abides, it is clear to all eyes that what ceases is temporary, but that He Who abides is God, and the true Son of God, His only-begotten Word.

Conclusion

We thus see an incredible testament from St. Athanasius about how the Incarnation of the Word changed history by defeating the demons who had for so many ages ensnared men in the sins of pagan idolatry, and all that accompanied it. Among the more salient points he makes:

1. The Incarnation of Christ has disarmed demonic powers.
2. The demons who for so long had deceived countless men into the errors of idolatry and polytheism by convincing them to worship either themselves or their fellow men as gods, could no longer withstand even the mention of Christ, the sign of the cross, the power of the sacraments and relics of the saints, and numerous other implements of the Catholic Faith and Church.
3. The demonic oracles that had littered the ancient world and delivered demonic messages and “prophecies” went silent.
4. As a result of the demons’ disarmament, magic and sorcery lost a great deal of its power, as had the abilities of those who used them to concoct preternatural phenomenon (which could appear to be “miracles,” and thus deceive).
5. For the first time in history, countless nations worshiped the same God and offered the same worship, rather than being divided by their contradictory modes of polytheistic religion.
6. Despite the fact that the Jews had rejected Him as Messiah, it was Christ who was bringing the most ancient abodes of demonic paganism (such as Egypt and others) into the Church, and bringing more Gentiles to the God of Israel than ever before.
7. With the defeat of the demons came a revolution in not only religion and philosophy, but morals, particularly a love of virginity, asceticism, and an embracing of martyrdom for the Catholic Faith.

We ought to remember not only divine origins of the Catholic Faith, but the real-world consequences of the revelation of the Incarnate Word in history. Having lived in a world that has been mostly monotheistic since the advent of Christ, it can be difficult for us to imagine a world completely dominated by paganism–though perhaps less difficult in these days in which the apostasy of what was once Christendom seems to be approaching a climax.