144 OBJECTIONS TO SOME CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES

unreasonable to disbelieve His own statements about Himself, for He who is "the Word of God" cannot lie, since God is Truth (الحقّ Al Haqq), and Christ is Himself spoken of in the Qur'an as "The Speech of the Truth" (قول الحق Qaulu'l Haqq)1.

1 Surah XIX., Maryam, 35. (Rev. W. Goldsack.)
145

CHAPTER V.

OBJECTIONS AGAINST CERTAIN LEADING CHRISTIAN

DOCTRINES (continued).

THE TRINITY1.

130. M. FROM your belief in the Deity of Christ springs the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. This is one of the greatest faults in Christianity. We Muslims are Monotheists, whereas you Christians believe in three Gods. This is contrary to the Qur'an and to Reason2 itself. How can you ask us to abandon Monotheism for such an impious and irrational doctrine?

1 Vide §§ 102, 114, 135. "The Christian doctrine of the Trinity is this: There is but one God; but in this Godhead the Most High God, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, these three, are present in a way which man cannot comprehend. The Word of God became man, was conceived by the power of the Spirit of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and became revealed as Jesus Christ." (Rev. Dr. Rouse in preface to the Bengali edition of Sweet Firstfruits.).
2 A correspondent well says that the very fact that the Doctrine of the Trinity presents difficulties at first, and seems to many at first sight to be illogical, tends rather to prove that it is not the product of human imagination. It is noteworthy too that the doctrine of the Triune nature of the Godhead and the Deity of Jesus Christ originated, historically speaking, in Palestine and among the Jews, who were then as ardent asserters of the Unity of God as Muhammadans now are.