224 Jesus, Prophet ofIslam
The apostles to the latest period of their writings,
speak the same language; representing the Father as the
only true God, and Christ as a man, the servant of God,
who raised mm from the dead, and gave mm all the
power of which he is possessed, as a reward of ms obe
dience. (Aets 2: 22): Peter says, 'Ye men of Israel, hear
these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God
among you, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which
God did by mm, eic., whom God has raised up.' Paul
also says, (1 Timothy 2: 5), 'There is One God, and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.'Priestly continues:
Itwill be seen in the course of this history that the corn
mon people, for whose use the books of the New Testa
mentwere written, saw nothing in them of the doctrines
of the pre-existence or divinity of Christ, which many
persons of this day are so confident that they see in them
'" Why was not the doctrine of the trinity taught as ex
plicitly, and in as definite a manner in the New Testa
mentat least, as the doctrine of the Divine Unity is taught
in both the Oldand New Testament, ifit be a truth? And
why is the doctrine of the Unity always delivered in so
unguarded a manner, and without any exception made
in favour of a trinity, to prevent any mistake with re
spect to it, as is always now done in our orthodox cat
echisms, creeds, and discourses on the subject? ... Di
vines are content to build the strange and inexplicable
doctrine of the trinity upon mere inferences from casual
expressions, and cannot pretend to one clear, express,
and unequivocal textual source.
There are many, very many, passages of 5cripture,
which inculcate the doctrine of the Divine Unity in the
clearest and strongest manner. Let one such passage be
produced in favour of the trinity. And why should we
believe things so mysterious without the clearest and
most express evidence?
There is also another consideration which should be
recommended to those who maintain that Christ is eihttp://www.islamicbulletin.com