Jesus warned against false Christs, not sorcerers

Jesus, then, was turning his disciples away, not from heeding sorcerers in general and those who promise to work wonders by any means whatever (for his disciples had no need of that), but from those who proclaim themselves to be the Christ of God and try, by certain illusions, to turn the disciples of Jesus to themselves, when he said in one place: “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ,’ or ‘Here he is,’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and will perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:23–27). And in another place: “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not eat in your name, and drink in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works?’ And I will say to them, ‘Depart from me, for you are workers of unrighteousness’” (Matthew 7:22–23; Luke 13:26–27).

But Celsus, wishing to put the wonders of Jesus on a level with the sorcery found among men, says in these very words: “O light and truth! With his own voice he openly declares, as you yourselves have written, that others also will come to you using similar powers, wicked men and sorcerers; and he names a certain Satan who contrives such things. So not even he denies that these works are nothing divine but are the deeds of wicked men. Yet, constrained by the truth, he has at once exposed what the others do and convicted what he himself does. How then is it not monstrous, from the same works, to consider the one a god and the others sorcerers? For why, on the strength of these works at least, should we think the others wicked any more than this man, when we have him as our witness? He himself, indeed, admitted that these things are the marks not of a divine nature but of certain deceivers and utter scoundrels.”

See, then, whether in these words Celsus is not plainly caught maliciously twisting the argument, since Jesus says one thing about those who will perform “signs and wonders” (Matthew 24:24), and the Jew in Celsus claims another. If Jesus had simply told his disciples to beware of those who promise wonders, without setting out what they would claim to be, Celsus’s suspicion might perhaps have had some ground. But those against whom Jesus wants us to be on guard profess to be “the Christ” (Matthew 24:23), which sorcerers do not do; and he says further that some who live wickedly will do certain mighty works in the name of Jesus and cast demons out of people (Matthew 7:22). Rather, if one may put it this way, sorcery is banished from the matters in this passage, and so is every suspicion raised against them; and what is brought in is the divinity of Christ and the divinity of his disciples. For it is possible that someone who uses his name and, I do not know how, is moved by some power to pretend that he himself is the Christ, may seem to accomplish things like those of Christ; and that others, in the name of Jesus, may seem to accomplish things somewhat like those of his genuine disciples.