Jesus, Prophet of Islam - The Islamic Bulletin

202 Jesus, Prophet of Islam

Spirit carries out the work of God, therefore he is part of God. If
this was so, then why is the Holy Spirit called the Comforter, who
will come after Jesus, who speaks not of hirnself nor in his own
name, and whose power therefore is acquired? (John 16: 7-14). It
therefore becomes clear that instead of acceptingthe term 'Corn­
forter' in its obvious sense as a Prophet who will come after Jesus,
to caU him Holy Spirit and yet call him God creates a confusion
which cannot be ended. 41
Milton agrees with Arius that Jesus was not etemal. He points
out that it was in God's power to create or not to create Jesus. He
concludes that Jesus was bom 'within the limits of time', He is at a
loss to find anypassageof Scripturewhich wouldsupport the'eter­
nal generation of Jesus'. He asserts that the hypothesis that Jesus,
though personally and numerically another, is yet essentially one
with God is both strange and repugnant to reason. This dogma, he
adds, does violence not only to reason but also to Scriptural evi­
dence. Milton agrees with the 'Israelitish people' that God is the
One and only God. Itis so evident that it requires no explanation ­
that God alone is the self-existing God, and that a being that is not
self-existing cannot be God. He concludes:

Itis wonderful with what futile subtleties or rather with

what juggling artifices certain individuals have endeav­

oured to elude or obscure the plain meaning of the pas­

sages of the Scriptures. 42

Milton felt that he could not express these views openly, for to have
done so would have been to endanger ms own personal safety,
and to expose himself to the same treatment that Biddle and many
others like him had suffered.
ln 1611, for example - that is within Milton's lifetime -two men
called Mr, Legatt and Mr. Wightman were bumt alive with the
king's permission because they believed that there was no Trinity
of persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in the Unity of Godhead;
that Jesus Christ was neither the natural true son of God, nor of the
same substance, eternity and majesty with the Father in respect to
his godhead; and that Jesus Christ was a man only and a mere
creature, and not Gad and man together in one person.
Milton's silence on these matters while he was alive was there­
fore an understandable one.

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