Cyril was a bishop in Jerusalem during the persecution of Christians 349 A.D. He was one of the 4th century teachers of the church, who helped ground and train Christians in the truths of God and his Gospel. Cyril is best known for his Catechetical Lectures. The lectures are the transcripts of his “discipleship training class”, you can find them next to the new Beth Moore bible study. It is one of the most systematic presentations of Christian doctrine given during the patristic era. In it his argues that a correct doctrine of God is the antidote to the lethal venom of idolatry. The language is sooooo - “2nd century” but his point is clear, God is ultimate and knowing life in light of God frees us from lesser gods seeking to enslave our minds and hearts. he wrote:
Seeing then that many have gone astray in divers ways from the One God, some having deified the sun, that when the sun sets they may abide in the night season without God; others the moon, to have no God by day; others the other parts of the world; others the arts; others their various kinds of food; others their pleasures; while some, mad after women, have set up on high an image of a naked woman, and called it Aphrodite, and worshipped their own lust in a visible form; and others dazzled by the brightness of gold have deified it and all other kinds of matter;—whereas if one lay as a first foundation in his heart the doctrine of the unity of God, and trust to Him, he roots out at once the whole crop of the evils of idolatry, and of the error of the heretics: lay thou, therefore, this first doctrine of religion as a foundation in thy soul by faith. [1]
End Note
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[1] Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series, vol. 7, trans. Edward H. Gifford (1893; reprint, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996), 20.
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