230 Jesus, Prophet ofIslam
Let us now attend to sorne particulars in the history
of the apostles. When Herod had put to death James,
thebrother ofJohn,andimprisonedPeter, we read, (Acts
12: 5), that, 'prayer was made without ceasing of the
church unto God,' not to Christ, 'for him.' When Paul
and Silas were in prison at Philippi, we read, (Aets 16:
25), that they 'sung praises to God,' not to Christ. And
when Paul was warned of what would befall him if he
went to [erusalem, (Acts 21: 14), he said, 'The will of the
Lord be done.' This, it must be supposed, was meant of
God the Father, because Christ hirnself used the same
language in this sense: when praying to the Father, (Luke
22: 42), hesaid,'Notmy will, butThinebe done ... '
It has been shown that there is no such doctrine as
that of the trinity in the scriptures. The doctrine itself,
as has been clearly demonstrated, has proved impossi
ble for reasonable men to accept or even hold in their
minds, as it implies contradictions which render it mean
ingless,
The Athanasian doctrine of the trinity asserts in ef
fect that nothing is wanting in either the Father, the Son,
or the Spirit, to let any one of them truly and properly
be God,each of them being equal in eternity, and all
divine perfections; and yet these three are not three
Gods, but only one God. They are therefore both one
and many in the same respect - in each being perfect
God.
This is certainly as much a contradiction, as to say
that Peter, James, and John, having each of them every
thing that is requisite to constitute a complete man, are
yet all together not three men, but only one man. For
the ideas annexed to the words 'God', or 'man', cannot
make any difference in the nature of the two proposi
tions. After the Council of Nicea, there are instances of
the doctrine of the trinity being explained in this very
manner. The Fathers of that age being particularly in
tent on preserving the full equality of the three persons,
entirely lost sight of their proper unity. Thus no matter
how this doctrine is explained, one of these always has
to be sacrificed to the other. As people are apt to con
fuse themselves with the use of the words 'person' and
'being', these should be defined.http://www.islamicbulletin.com