ABSTRACT
The necessity of believing 'God in all things'; referring to 'all' that Irenaeus has set out in the preceding sections – is that in all this he has demonstrated that 'in all things God is true'. The rehearsal of all these things is the dispensation of God in preparing humanity for its redemption. Faith does not spring naturally from human ability, for it concerns that which lies beyond the created limitations and proficiencies of the creature. It is a matter of thinking, not out of a centre of the capability of the mind as though standards of analytical ability and final judgment were resident in a supposed autonomy of the mind, but out of a centre in the things which confront the mind that the mind may be informed by their light. Irenaeus works out the relation of this dispensation to the Being of the Triune God. He makes the entrance into this via the pre-existence of the Word.
