GENESIS 1:26, "And God said, We will make man in our image according
to our likeness, and they shall rule over the fish of the sea," etc.
From the words, "We will make man," the Christian expounders of this
verse infer, that an allusion to a plurality of divine persons is made.
Refutation:—If the verb ????????
Naasseh, we will make, related to a divine plurality, why do we find
immediately afterwards the singular form, "And God created man in His
image?’ or why not, "And they created man?" The same explanation which
we have given in the preceding chapter on the employment of the plural
form, holds also good in regard to the present passage.
To bring to mind the manifold powers of the Almighty employed in the
creation of the noblest of His creatures, the plural is employed by way
of high distinction. We will point out some other passages which
contain the verb in the plural for the sake of emphasis, although they
indicate a strict unity of person. Genesis 11:7, "Go to, let us go down and let us confound their speech," instead of "let me," etc. Job 18:2, "Ye shall understand, and then we will speak" (instead of I will speak).
The words of the Almighty, "We will make man in our image," may have
been addressed to the Angels, for "He maketh known his will to his
servants." (Amos 3:7) Thus we find in Genesis 18:17,
"Should I conceal from Abraham what I am doing?" In the same chapter
occurs a parallel expression to the above-mentioned passage in Genesis
11:7; but there the singular number is used, "I will go down and see."
If a doctrine of plurality of personages were to be enforced by the
grammatical form of words, the very alterations which occur between the
singular and the plural would frustrate such a doctrine, and suggest
doubt and uncertainty instead of confidence and conviction. Our Holy
Scriptures contradict in the most direct terms every opinion which
departs from the belief in an immutable unity, or ascribes corporeity
to him in whose spiritual likeness the soul of man is created with the
object of acknowledging, obeying, and adoring the eternal one God.
It is remarkable, that Christians are desirous to make us believe in
a doctrine of the trinity, which is so totally unauthorized by our Holy
Bible, and even by their own New Testament.
Our Divine Law tells us expressly in Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord."
Ibid. 4:35, "Thou hast been shewn these things, in order to know that the Lord is God, and there is none besides Him."
And again, ibid (verse 39) "Thou shalt
know today and take it to heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven
above, and on the earth beneath, and there is none besides."
Isaiah 43:11, says, "I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no saviour besides me."
Ibid 44:6, "Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer, I am the first and I am the last, and besides me there is no God."
Ibid 45:5, "I am the Lord, and there is none else besides me."
Again (verse 6), "In order that they
shall know, from the rising of the sun [east] unto the west, that there
is no one besides me; I am the Lord, and there is none else."
Ibid 40:18, "And to whom will you liken God, and what likeness have you to compare with him."
Jeremiah 10:6, "There is none like Thee, O lord. Thou art great, and thy name is great in power."
Hosea 13:4, "I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me; and there is no Saviour besides me."
Psalm 86:10, "For thou art great and doing miracles; Thou alone art the Lord."
Nehemiah 9:6, "Thou alone art the Lord, Thou hast made the heavens, the heavens of the heavens, and all their hosts," etc.
1 Chronicles 17:20, "There is none like
unto thee, and there is no God like unto thee, and there is no God
besides thee, according to all we have heard with our ears."
We might adduce numerous other similar corroborative passages, were
it needful. In order to counteract the dangerous effect of the belief
in a good and evil principle (a belief prevailing in Persia, etc.), our
Divine Instructor tells us, "Behold now that I even I am ever the same,
and there is no God with me; I kill and I bring to life; I crush and
heal again." Isaiah 45:7, "He formeth
light and createth darkness, maketh peace and createth evil; I the Lord
am doing all these things." The Deity, who calls into being conditions
and events of totally opposite natures, and who, by mere power of will
brings things into being, or reduces them into annihilation, is,
according to all scriptural testimony, the most absolute Unity, and as
such, without the slightest shade of mysticism. This Unity can alone be
comprehended by our finite understanding. He who alone possesses
absolute power, and is the first cause, is the Creator of Beings who
depend on His will, remain ever, and in every respect, subjected to His
Supreme Mandate, and are liable to change and decay. Hence, also, human
reason subscribes to the doctrine that God is an absolute and a perfect
Unity.
This absolute Unity cannot, under any logical view, be divided into
a Duality or a Trinity. If such division is to be forced upon the faith
of man, reason remonstrates against it; the faculty of thought given to
us by the Almighty protests against a false representation of the
Divine Being, and proves that God has constituted the mind in such a
manner as to worship Him in accordance with His true attributes. From
the moment that a divisibility of essence is attributed to God, we
should be compelled to maintain, with the Polytheists, that He is
deficient of omnipresence, and that He is comparable with created
matter. How can we, then, repudiate such clear testimonies of God’s
unity, as are contained in passages like the following, Isaiah 40:18:
"And unto whom will ye liken God, and what likeness have ye to compare
unto Him?" We cannot even grant that God from His own resolve would
reproduce, and double or treble Himself. Such an assumption could only
spring from the narrowest views of a sophistical or a perverted mind;
but it could not emanate from a faith which commands veneration and
rational obedience.
Even the authors of the New Testament have given opinions which
disprove the untenable position of the Christians who make belief in
the Trinity an indispensable portion of their creed. Matthew 12:32,
says, "And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of Man, it shall
be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it
shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world
to come." The same is repeated in Mark 3:28-29, and Luke 12:10.
These authorities of the Christians have their data here clearly
averred that there is no identity between the true Deity and the
personages subsequently added to the name of the Divine Being. In Mark 13:32,
we have also a proof of the want of identity between the Son and the
Father: "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the
angels which are in heaven, either the Son, but the Father."
Nor do we find throughout the New Testament any evidence to show
that the belief in a Trinity constitutes a part of the code of
Christianity, or that Jesus and God are to be held as One and the same
Being. On the contrary, Jesus himself is made to profess, in Matthew 10:40,
"He that receiveth you receives me, and He that receiveth me receiveth
Him that sent me." Here Jesus puts himself merely as a messenger of
God. Paul in his epistle to the Romans 5:15, also says, "The gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ," etc. Matthew 20:18, again says, "Behold, we go to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be betrayed," etc.; and in verse 28 he states, "Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister," etc.
In the very prayer instituted by Jesus, and denominated after him
"The Lord’s Prayer," his disciples are taught to invoke the Father who
is in Heaven, but are not told to use the combination subsequently made
of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We see clearly that the New Testament
affords not a single evidence to authorize a change from the pure
belief in the Divine Unity to the complex and unintelligible dogma of
that of the Trinity.
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