The Trinity Refers To Some Christians' Understanding of Their God

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDIhRu0U9INw4-J4BjVmeRGb0jpey8gpaz59cMlDpn_na0rMnAqHbbI3jCEOU-pZPJNhTzF71D6yleZpueQGWxVAHODeg_08tkhLqmqnRz_ouJwU6Y36Vhu5JPabBrqkM_9zfwiQGeYWXF/s1600/trinityPEREDA16704.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 0em;"><img border="0" height="auto" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDIhRu0U9INw4-J4BjVmeRGb0jpey8gpaz59cMlDpn_na0rMnAqHbbI3jCEOU-pZPJNhTzF71D6yleZpueQGWxVAHODeg_08tkhLqmqnRz_ouJwU6Y36Vhu5JPabBrqkM_9zfwiQGeYWXF/s1600/trinityPEREDA16704.jpg" width="740" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: justify;">The Trinity refers to the Christian understanding of GOD as a unity of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All are equally God and so are one, each sharing in the divine attributes of ultimacy, eternity, and changelessness; yet they are distinguishable in their relations to one another and in their roles within creaturely and human life and destiny.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The doctrine of the Trinity is a post-scriptural attempt to bring to coherent expression diverse affirmations about God, all of which seemed necessary to a full statement of Christian experience and belief.</span><br /><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">First</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, from the Hebrew Scriptures and the clear tradition of Jesus' teaching, the church affirmed that not only is God one, but God is also the creative and sovereign Father and thus, by implication, transcendent of finite limits, time, and change--all of which characterize God's creatures.</span><br /><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Second</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, it was affirmed that JESUS CHRIST was more than a great prophet adopted by God; rather, he was "the Son of God," "the Word made flesh," the divine LOGOS itself incarnate in a human.</span><br /><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><br /></b><b style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Third</b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">, the HOLY SPIRIT, from whose presence the community of believers received their faith, their confidence in the truth of that faith, their holiness, and, above all, the efficacy of both baptism and the Eucharist, was necessarily also God--God's presence in their midst. For Christians, then, the one God appeared in what they called a threefold "economy," in, so to speak, three forms or modes.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Difficulties soon emerged in formulating and understanding this threefold "economy." Divergent views led early to numerous Trinitarian controversies such as those over subordinationism (the teaching that the Son is subordinate to the Father and the Holy Spirit to both; see ARIANISM) and modalism (the view that the three modes are transitory; see MONARCHIANISM and SABELLIANISM). The Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) outlined the dogma of the Trinity in express rejection of these teachings.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Nicene, or Niceno-Constantinopolitan, CREED has defined through the ages, for both Catholic (Roman and Orthodox) and Reformation (Lutheran, Reformed, and Anglican) churches, the basic doctrine of the Trinity.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Catholic and Protestant theology has sought in various ways to make the doctrine stated at Nicaea comprehensible. Saint Augustine's lucid analogies of the divine Trinity in our experience of ourselves as memory, understanding, and will, and in our experience of our own existence as characterized by being, truth, and love, have been the point of departure for most subsequent study.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In the religious thought of the Enlightenment (17th and 18th centuries), there was a strong reaction against Trinitarianism as an "orthodox" mystery without basis in either experience or reason--this was the view of UNITARIANISM and DEISM and of much 19th-century liberal theology. The great figures of 20th-century theology--Karl BARTH, Paul TILLICH, and, most recently, Karl RAHNER--despite their diversity of outlook, have again found the Trinity a central, in fact an unavoidable, structure for expressing the Christian understanding of God.</span></div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Langdon Gilkey</b></span></div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bibliography: Bracken, J. A., Society and Spirit (1991); Forte, B., The </span></div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Trinity as History, trans. by P. Rotondi (1991); Fortman, E. J., The</span></div><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Triune God (1972); Lonergan, B. J. F., The Way to Nicaea: The</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dialectical Development of Trinitarian Theology (1976); Richardson, C.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">C., The Doctrine of the Trinity (1958); Stephens, B. M., God's Last Metaphor (1981); Welch, Claude, In This Name (1952).</div></span>

The Trinity Refers To Some Christians' Understanding of Their God

The Trinity refers to the Christian understanding of GOD as a unity of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All are equally God and ...

The Trinity Refers To Some Christians' Understanding of Their God

The Trinity refers to the Christian understanding of GOD as a unity of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All are equally God and ...

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Echad VS Trinity

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Q6hJEhbnNitaTqh-Jour4eHR919ocAmJ-Ap5abxXTH6g66qSoa92rCILKdb2DB469j_H0LpxN3dwJGlAnptjPk68ql0bOZI3ahQsM3Db5GtWxmC-POhnkv8mxYwQeA9pVctsiUIjyco/s1600/echad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="570" height="auto" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Q6hJEhbnNitaTqh-Jour4eHR919ocAmJ-Ap5abxXTH6g66qSoa92rCILKdb2DB469j_H0LpxN3dwJGlAnptjPk68ql0bOZI3ahQsM3Db5GtWxmC-POhnkv8mxYwQeA9pVctsiUIjyco/s640/echad.jpg" width="740" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">God as One vs The Trinity</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Christian Belief</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The foundation of Christian theology includes belief that G-d exists as a Trinity, and that Jesus is the bodily incarnation of G-d and acts as a mediator between G-d and man. Hebrew Christian missionaries claim that this theology is totally compatible with Judaism.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Jewish standpoint</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Judaism maintains that although certain beliefs may be permissible for non-Jews, they are not acceptable for Jews. The Christian theology concerning G-d is one example of a belief that is absolutely forbidden to Jews according to the Hebrew Bible, as the following biblical sources demonstrates:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Hear O Israel, The Lord our G-d, the Lord is One.” (Deuteronomy 6:4)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>G-d’s absolute Oneness</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The commandment to believe in G-d’s absolute Oneness was given specifically to the children of Israel (the Jewish people).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The concept expressed in this verse (Deuteronomy 6:4) not only refutes the plurality of G-ds, but also asserts that G-d is the only true existence.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Biblically</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">G-d is not only infinite, but He transcends time, space and matter. G-d has no beginning and no end, as it states:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I am the first and I am the last and besides Me there is no other.” (Isaiah 44:6)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While Judaism believes that G-d manifests Himself to His creation (humanity) in many ways, (i.e. as a judge or a protector) G-d’s essence itself is indivisible and therefore without any possibility of distinction. Something that transcends both time and space cannot be described as consisting of three different aspects. The moment we attribute any such distinctions to G-d’s essence, we negate His absolute Oneness and unity.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">One vs Unity</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Missionaries incorrectly argue that the use in Deuteronomy 6:4 of the Hebrew word for One (Echad), rather than the word unique (Yachid), teaches that G-d is a “composite unity” instead of an “absolute unity.” They claim that the Trinity is a composite unity, similar to a physical object that includes many different individual aspects, (eg. one pen, composed of ink, plastic and metal). This reasoning is incorrect, since physical objects that exist within the context of time and space cannot be used to describe G-d who transcends these dimensions. Prior to Creation, G-d was alone and concepts of time, space and the plurality of numbers did not exist. The term unique (Yachid), correctly describes G-d’s existence prior to Creation since it indicates the absence of any plurality or of rapport with any created object.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">What does it mean that God is one, when His name is Elohim?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Christian View</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The word “one” used here is “echad.” Christians point to other instances where “echad” is used to denote a compound unity, and as such, they declare that every time “echad” is used, that it denotes a compound unity, and therefore, The Lord must be a compound unity, proving that the Trinity is in the Torah!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Jewish Response </b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The word “echad” in Hebrew actually works in the same way the word “one” does in English. It can mean either a single unity or a compound unity. These Christians are very quick to point to Genesis 1:5, but totally failed to point out verses like these:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">וַיִּשְׁלַ֣ח פַּרְעֹ֔ה וְהִנֵּ֗ה לֹא־מֵ֛ת מִמִּקְנֵ֥ה יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל עַד־<b><span style="color: red;">אֶחָ֑ד</span></b> וַיִּכְבַּד֙ לֵ֣ב פַּרְעֹ֔ה וְלֹ֥א שִׁלַּ֖ח אֶת־הָעָֽם</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.” Exodus 9:7 </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">וַֽיְהִי֙ הֵ֣מָּה בַדֶּ֔רֶךְ וְהַשְּׁמֻעָ֣ה בָ֔אָה אֶל־דָּוִ֖ד לֵאמֹ֑ר הִכָּ֤ה אַבְשָׁלֹום֙ אֶת־כָּל־בְּנֵ֣י הַמֶּ֔לֶךְ וְלֹֽא־נֹותַ֥ר מֵהֶ֖ם <b><span style="color: red;">אֶחָֽד</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> “And it came to pass, while they were in the way, that tidings came to David, saying, Absalom hath slain all the king’s sons, and there is not one of them left.” 2 Samuel 13:30</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">וּבָ֣אנוּ אֵלָ֗יו [בְּאַחַת כ] (בְּאַחַ֤ד ק) הַמְּקֹומֹת֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר נִמְצָ֣א שָׁ֔ם וְנַ֣חְנוּ עָלָ֔יו כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר יִפֹּ֥ל הַטַּ֖ל עַל־הָאֲדָמָ֑ה וְלֹֽא־נֹ֥ותַר בֹּ֛ו וּבְכָל־הָאֲנָשִׁ֥ים אֲשֶׁר־אִתֹּ֖ו גַּם־<b><span style="color: red;">אֶחָֽד</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> “So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dew falleth on the ground: and of him and of all the men that [are] with him there shall not be left so much as one.” 2 Samuel 17:12 </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: large;">יֵ֣שׁ <b><span style="color: red;">אֶחָד֩</span></b> וְאֵ֨ין שֵׁנִ֜י גַּ֣ם בֵּ֧ן וָאָ֣ח אֵֽין־לֹ֗ו וְאֵ֥ין קֵץ֙ לְכָל־עֲמָלֹ֔ו גַּם־ [עֵינָיו כ] (עֵינֹ֖ו ק) לֹא־תִשְׂבַּ֣ע עֹ֑שֶׁר וּלְמִ֣י ׀ אֲנִ֣י עָמֵ֗ל וּמְחַסֵּ֤ר אֶת־נַפְשִׁי֙ מִטֹּובָ֔ה גַּם־זֶ֥ה הֶ֛בֶל וְעִנְיַ֥ן רָ֖ע הֽוּא</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“There is one [alone], and [there is] not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet [is there] no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither [saith he], For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This [is] also vanity, yea, it [is] a sore travail.”  Ecclesiastes 4:8</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The word "echad" (<span style="color: red;">in red</span>)  used in these verses  means "one" as a "single object" that stands alone. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">[Source: <a href="https://jewsforjudaism.org/knowledge/articles/god-as-one-vs-the-trinity/" target="_blank">Jewish for Judaism</a>]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>

Echad VS Trinity

God as One vs The Trinity Christian Belief The foundation of Christian theology includes belief that G-d exists as a Trinity, and that Jesus...

Echad VS Trinity

God as One vs The Trinity Christian Belief The foundation of Christian theology includes belief that G-d exists as a Trinity, and that Jesus...

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Trinity: Mary Worshipped As A God?

<div style="font-family: helvetica, sans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.3em; text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpaGiSEZgfLXSVXSx8b2MWX_tEzRIvIxXr6jf99bWuIVFUlhdDGa3zTHGIDR3bq5zgJFQSpud_lRoQZNbIP2sTO5M2URE_U3DLuhWBxBBF_4wBd3NejPaFSb5ztJp8v1KmPEpfHhyphenhyphenkJbA/s1600/shutterstock_95274544-660x350.jpg" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="660" height="auto" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpaGiSEZgfLXSVXSx8b2MWX_tEzRIvIxXr6jf99bWuIVFUlhdDGa3zTHGIDR3bq5zgJFQSpud_lRoQZNbIP2sTO5M2URE_U3DLuhWBxBBF_4wBd3NejPaFSb5ztJp8v1KmPEpfHhyphenhyphenkJbA/s640/shutterstock_95274544-660x350.jpg" width="740" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;">It is common among Christian missionaries to say, “the Quran got the trinity wrong.” Hence, they assume that the trinity that is mentioned in the Quran speaks of Mary as part of the Christian trinity. What they do not perceive is that nowhere in the Quranic verses they cite, does it indicate Mary of being part of the trinity.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">The aim of this article is to respond to the claims made by missionaries that the Quran got the trinity wrong. Let’s now read the verses they use as proof that the Quran says ‘Mary is part of the Trinity’,</div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“And [beware the Day] when <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Allah will say, “O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah?'”</strong> He will say, “Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself. Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen.” – Quran 5:116</span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">From this passage Christians think it speaks about the Trinity, but they are wrong. If we read the verse from start to end one will not find the word “Trinity” in there. Another passage they use as proof that the Quran got the Trinity wrong is,</div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: Nor say of God aught but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) an apostle of God, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in God and His apostles. Say not “Trinity” : desist: it will be better for you: for God is one God: Glory be to Him: (far exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is God as a Disposer of affairs.” – Quran 4:171</span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Again, the above verse does not say anything about Mary being part of the trinity. If one reads the above verse carefully, it is clear that the passage is mainly speaking of Jesus. The name of Mary is used, because Allah is elucidating, making Christians ponder that Jesus son of Mary was only a messenger of God, and through His (God’s) command, he (Jesus) became a created being that was born in the womb of Mary. Then after that, Allah says, “say not trinity” (or Three). It is quite clear that the verse does not say anything about Mary being part of the Trinity.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">The Quran does speak about the Trinity somewhere else, but says nothing about Mary being part of the Trinity. Here is the verse:</div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“They do blaspheme who say: God is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One God. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them.” – Quran 5:73</span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">As we read the above passage, it does speak about the trinity, but does not mention anything about Mary being part of the trinity.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Another thing critics love citing for chapter 4 verse 171, is use classic commentaries such as Tafsir al-Jalalayn, and Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs, by that they conclude the Quran is a false book and not from God, since they believe the trinity consists of “the Father, Son and Mary.” Nowhere in the verse (Quran 4:71) does it say that the trinity consists of, “the Father, Son and Mary.” Even if we agree with what some of the commentators like Tafsir al-Jalalayn and Tanwîr al-Miqbâs min Tafsîr Ibn ‘Abbâs said, it will not disprove what the Quran already stated. The Scholars made that comment, because they were referring to some Christian sects, who believed that trinity consisted of the “Father, the Son and Mary.” Another thing if you read their exegesis, nowhere will you see them mention that this ‘belief was believed by all Christians.’ There is vast amount of evidence from the Church Fathers that there was certain sect(s) in Arabia that believed the trinity consisted of: “Father, the Son and Virgin Mary.”</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>1. George Sale</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“This notion of the<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> divinity of the virgin Mary was also believed by some at the council of Nice</strong>, <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">who said there two gods besides the Father, viz., Christ and the Virgin Mary</strong>, and were thence named Mariamites. Others imagined her to be exempt from humanity, and deified; which goes but little beyond the Popish superstition in calling her the compliment of the Trinity, as if it were imperfect with her. This foolish imagination is justly condemned in the Koran as idolatrous….” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[1]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>2. Reverend Gilbert Reid D.D.</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">As to Christianity as it was represented in Arabia, it was not a clear untarnished theism, but tritheism. The Heavenly Father, Mary the mother of God and Jesus their son, were WORSHIPPED as three Gods</strong>, and their images appeared in the churches along with the images of other saints. Christianity as taught by Christ had lost its identity in the formalism and errors of the church of Arabia. Still more the truths pro-claimed by God through all the ages had been lost sight amid the vain imaginings of men’s hearts. The only God of, an omnipresent spirit, without form or body. <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The reformation of Mohammed was thus a return to the first and second commandment of the Prophet Moses, which Jesus himself had taught</strong>.” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[2]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;"><b>3. English theologian Theophilus Lindsey</b></span></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“The followers of Christ had been for some ages quarrelling and destroying each other in their heat’s and disputes, not concerning the Supreme Father of all, to whom they paid little attention; but about the nature of Christ. And of the Holy Spirit, and many other objects of worship, which they invented. (t) The notion of the divinity of the Virgin Mary was believed by some even at the council of Nice: who said there were two gods besides the Father, viz. Christ and the Virgin Mary, and were thence names Mariamites. Others imagined her to be exempt from humanity, and deified: which goes but little beyond the Popish superstition, in calling her the complement of the Trinity…” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[3]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>4. William Cook Taylor</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“In Arabia itself some of the worst heresies were propagated: the chief of these were the heresies of the Ebonites, the Nazareans, and the Collydrians, the last of which derived its name from the collyris, or twisted cake offered by them to the <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Virgin Mary, whom they worshipped as a deity. It is known to all readers of ecclesiastical history that a sect called Mariamites exalted the Virgin to a participation in the Godhead, and that writers of the Romish Church have named her the ‘complement of the Trinity</strong>…” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[4]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>5. John Holmes</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“…Jacobites, so called from Jacobus, Bishop of Edessa in Syria, and whose doctrine, directly contrary to that of the Nestorians in one point, denied the double nature of Christ in his state of incarnation: <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mariamites, so called because they worshipped the Virgin Mary, and regarded her as, along with the Father, and the Son one of the persons of the Divine Trinity</strong>” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[5]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>6. John Henry Blunt D.D.</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“In Accordance with which are the statements of certain writers, logically in agreement with the worship they advocate, that St. Mary has been assumed into the Trinity, so as to make it a quaternity, that Mary is the ‘compliment of the Trinity.’” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[6]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>7. Allan Freer</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nestorians, so called from their founder, Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople and whose heresy consisted in a recondite distinction between Jesus the man, and Christ the God-man; Jacobites, so-called from Jacobus, Bishop of Edessa in Syria, and whose doctrine directly contrary to that of the Nestorians in one point, denied the double nature of Christ in his state of incarnation: Mariamites, so-called because they worshipped the virgin Mary, and regarded her as, along with the Father and the Son, One of the persons of the divine Trinity: and collydrians, a sect guilty of similar heresy, and deriving their name from their practice of offering to the virgin Mary a particular kind of cake, called Collyris. <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[7]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>8. John William Draper</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In the east, in consequence of the policy of the court of Constantinople, the Church had been torn in pieces by contentions and schisms. Among a countless host of disputants may be mentioned Arians, Basilidians, Carpocritains, Collydrians, Eutychians, Gnostics, Jacobites, Marcionites, Marionites, Nestorians, Sabellians, Vallentians. Of these the </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">; the Collydrians worshipped the Virgin as a divinity, offering her sacrifices of cakes… <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[8]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">We can see from the academic references quoted that Mary was indeed believed to be part of the trinity by certain Christian sects of Arabia.</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Question: “why does the Quran in chapter 5 verse 116 state Mary is a God?”</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">Well it’s clear that the Quran is in dialectic discussion with the native Arabs of that time, when it was first revealed. The Quran is naturally responding to ideas and teachings of people had at that time. So, the Quran is correcting their error in worshipping Mary and bringing them back to the path of worshipping God as One (Monotheism) and none else besides Him i.e., no worship of Mary or Jesus. The Quran also makes it abundantly clear that Jesus never told people any of this. Allah is asking Jesus on the day of judgement, “did you tell people to worship You and your Mother as Gods?” In the presence of the people, to bring them to judgement. It will be obvious that Jesus won’t accept any responsibility as he is not the one who commanded such a thing. Here are many more academic sources that attest to Mary being worshipped as a God</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>1. Reverend Henry Adelbert Thomson (Cincinnati, Ohio)</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It is plain that the tendency to sail with the popular wind, which existed in church dignitaries of that age as well as in this, easily prevailed on many who held ecclesiastical office, so that they approved or winked at beliefs and practices which more independent clergymen considered erroneous. The people carried the clergy along with them. Even the fearless and powerful Augustine, and with him such strenuous men as John Chrysostom and two Gregories of Nazianzen and Nyssa, were unable to stem the tide in some matters of which were disapproved. The worship of Mary and the Saints met the popular mood and pleased the popular fancy; so the great leaders. Confronted by an enthusiasm they were really powerless to curb, endeavoured to the point out and maintain a distinction between latreia and douleia. But, once having given way, even partially, to the prevailing opinion, these same great men were afterward quoted as conservators and expounders of the tradition which, through them, thus received the more impressive authority….. the pure Christian doctrine had led to veneration of Saints; the adoration of the feminine ideal, together with the peculiar relationship of Mary to Christ, had designated her as “Queen of Saints;”….. the practice of Mariolatry gained a tremendous impulse, along with the Worship of Saints, especially in the post Nicene period….. the Church was still more effectually darkened and its doctrine debased. In such a period those elements of the Faith which almost readily lent themselves to idolatry suffered most in purity and gained most in practice. Saints, relics, images, with Mary, as Queen of Heaven, at their head, almost completely absorbed the worship of the people. <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[9]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>2. Ernst Benz</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The virgin birth entered into creeds of all Christendom and became one of the strongest motifs in the liturgy and worship of the early Church. Veneration of the mother of God took a tremdous leap from the moment Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Empire and the pagan masses began pouring into the Church. For thousands of years the religious mentality of the peoples of the Mediterranean basin and near East had been shaped by the cult of the great Mother Goddess and Divine Virgin. From the ancient popular religions of Babylonian Ishtar to the mystery religions of the late Hellenistic age the great Goddess had been worshipped under a variety of forms. The peoples who had practiced her cult could not easily adjust to the sole dominance of the Father God and to the strictly patriarchal structure of Judaic religiosity, which had been taken over by the early Christians. This ancient tradition sought a new mode of expression within the Christian Church and found it in adoration of the Virginal Mother of God in whom the mysterious union of the divine Logos with human nature had been accomplished…. In Egypt the veneration of Mary began very early. Origen, the Alexandrian father of the Church, employed the term theotokos- God bearer in the third century. The second council of Ephesus gave its sanction to this title. The second council of Constantinople added the epithet ever-lasting Virgin.” The prayers and hymns of the Orthodox Church invoke the name of the Mother of God as often as the names of Christ and the Holy Trinity. A god example of such homage is found in the Eucharistic liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, at the conclusion of the great intercessory prayer: “Truly worthy is it to praise Thee God bearer, eternally blessed and perfectly irreproachable Mother of our God, who art more worthy of honor than the cherubim and incomparably more glorious than the seraphim, who intact, hast borne the Divine Logos-Thee the true Mother of God, we Praise.” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[10]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>3. Professor of the New Testament Beverly Roberts Gaventa</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“Orthodox theologians insist Mary is deserving of this grace, and it is for that reason that she is identified as Panhagia, or All Holy. From birth she is without sin. Her own holiness and her divine maternity warrant the high veneration given to her by the Church. Mary is “the first of all humanity to have attained, through the complete transfiguration of her being, that to which every creature is summoned. She has already transcended the boundary between time and eternity and now finds herself in the Kingdom which the Church awaits with the second coming of Christ.” Because of Mary’s own holiness, she stands in solidarity with the sanctified humanity who constitute with the Church. For those reasons, Orthodox Christian tradition icons and hymns praise Mary at ‘the centre of the Saints as a representation of the worshipping and praying community.’”<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[11]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>4. Professor James R. Adair</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“…the highest veneration was given to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Historically Marian veneration can be connected with the controversies over the use of the term theotokos, rejected by Nestorius but accepted by most Christians of the day. The veneration of Mary was especially popular among the common people and the Monks, particularly in the EAST.” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[12]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>5. Reverend James Gardner</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“Mariolatry, the worship of the Virgin Mary. In the fourth century, in consequence of prevalence of the ascetic spirit, the most extravagant opinions began to be entertained of the merit of virginity, and Mary, the mother of our blessed Lord, was venerated as the ideal of the celibate life. About this time an opinion arose that there were in the temple of Jerusalem virgins consecrated to God, among whom Mary grew up in vows of perpetual Virginity. In the end of the fourth, it became customary to apply to Mary the appellation, “Mother of God.” …the worshippers of Mary prevailed, and in the fifth century images of the Virgin were placed in the Churches holding the infant Jesus in her arms. Once introduced, this species of worship spread rapidly, and Mary became a conspicuous object of veneration in the Churches, both of the East and West. .. towards the close of the tenth century the custom became prevalent among the Latins, of celebrating masses, and abstaining from flesh on Saturdays, in honour of Mary. About the same time the daily office of St. Mary, which the Latins call lesser office, was introduced, and it was afterwards confirmed by Pope Urban II. In the council of Clement. The Rosary also came into use, consisting of fifteen repetitions of the Lord’s prayer, and one hundred salutations of St. Mary; and the Crown of St. Mary, as it was called by the Latins consisted of six or seven repetitions of the Lord’s prayer, and sixty or seventy salutations according to the age ascribed by different authors to the Holy Virgin. Mariolatry now became an established doctrine and practice in the Church of Rome, and down to the present day has continued to occupy a very spicuous place in her ritual; while with equal intensity Mary receives the worship of Oriental Church under the name of Panagia, or All-Holy…” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[13]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>6. German Professor Johann Heinrich Kurtz</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">…the Collydrians- a female sect in Arabia dating from the fourth century- who offered to her bread-cakes (in imitation of the heathen worship of ceres). Epiphanius, who opposed that sect, maintained:…. On the Antidicomarianites, comp. 92. But during the Nestorian controversy Mariolatry became again more general in the Church. In the fifth century, the 25th march was celebrated as the Feast of the Annunciation… <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[14]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;"><b>7. Reverend John Dowling</b></span></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">When we observe, on the one hand, the earnest manner in which these fathers contend for perpetual virginity of Mary, and on the other hand the extravagant honors attached to the virgin state, we need not be surprised that the notion soon became prevalent among some that ‘ the mother of God.’ As she was now frequently denominated, was herself worthy of the honors of divine worship. Accordingly, about this time, we find that a sect sprang up, whose peculiar tenet it was, that the Virgin Mary should be adored in worship, and that religious honors should be paid to her. They were called Collyridians, from collyridae, the cakes which they offered to the virgin… <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[15]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>8. Church of England quarterly review</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The first persons upon record, as offering divine honours to the Virgin Mary, were the Collyridians, who derived their names from the…, or certain cakes, which they offered annually to Saint Mary, in sacrifice upon her festival, when they worshipped her as a goddess. This superstition came from Thrace, and the yet more distant regions of Scythia and Arabia… <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[16]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>9. Professor of the New Testament studies Amy-Jill Levine</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“There are even stronger hints that Mary was venerated as a goddess. By the fourth century, Epiphanius (315-403 CE) was ordering the faithful not to worship Mary but only the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, suggesting that such activity had been transpiring for a while.” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[17]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>10. Professor of religious studies Gail Paterson Corrington</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“It would certainly not have been surprising if the Christian women of Egypt had found another divine mother with whom to identify; the Christian women of Arabia, to Epiphanius’s consternation, did a similar thing in their worship of Mary rather than Jesus… The cakes (kollybas) offered by the Collyridians to Mary in the worship are described in a way similar to the cakes offered Isis as the queen of heaven…” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[18]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>11. Mary Walsh</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“The first council’s decision was approved, and Mary was the theotokos, ‘The Mother of God.’ This date, A.D. 431, marks the time when Mary was in the ascendancy, and her veneration and worship began. …. About the middle of the fourth century, according to Jerome, Augistine, Gregory, Epiphanius, and others, teachings came in regarding Virgins who had taken the vows of sanctity and chastity and who devoted their lives to the service of the temple at Jerusalem. Among these virgins was Mary, who had consecrated her life to God by taking the vow of perpetual virginity. It was declared that her marriage to Joseph was formal, and that she continued a virgin until her death. This was the new teaching, and it caused long debated arguments as to whether Mary was actually was a perpetual virgin. The other phrase of the new teaching was that Mary was the ‘Mother of God’ and was therefore entitled to devotion and honor. These extravagant honors conferred on Mary led to the development of a sect called Collyridian, derived from the word collyridae, the cakes which were offered to the Virgin. This sect regards Mary as worthy of divine worship. Thus the floodgates were opened for the beatification of the Virgin.” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[19]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>12. Thomas Anthony Trollope</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Collyridians, from Greek word signifying a piece of bread or cake in a cylindrical form; a sect of Christians, who arose towards the conclusion of the fourth century, and, together with another sect, called the Antidico-Marianites, filled all Arabia with controversies and disorder. These latter maintained that the Virgin Mary did not preserve immaculate state after the birth of Christ, in jospeh autem mariti sui concubitu adhuc indulgebat. The Collyridians, on contrary, who are said to have chiefly consisted of women, worshipped the Virgin as a goddess, and sought favours by libations, sacrifices, and oblations of cakes. <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[20]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>13. Professor Maxwell E. Johnson</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“Epiphanuis of Salamis (315-403 CE), according to his witness, not only was there in existence an anti-marian group called the Antidicomarianites, who denied Mary’s perpetual virginity, but also an EXTREME pro-marian group, known as the Conllydrians (from cakes), a group compromised mostly of women who worshipped Mary as a goddess, offered her and then consumed small cakes, and had a female priesthood…” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[21]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>14. Protestant theologian and Church historian Phillip Schaff writes,</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“Epiphanius, in his seventy-eighth heresy, combats the advocates of the opposite view in Arabia toward the end of fourth century (367), as heretics under the title of Antidiomarianites, opposer’s of the dignity of Mary i.e., of her perpetual virginity. But, on the other hand, he condemns, in the seventy-ninth heresy, the contemporaneous sect of the Collyridians in Arabia, a set of fanatical women, who, as priestesses rendered divine Worship to Mary…”<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[22]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>15. Reverend George William D. Evans</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The religious worship now paid to the virgin seems clearly deducible from that which was paid to the female deities of old. How reluctantly the converts from heathenism bade adieu to that sex as objects of worship, is evident from heretical opinions held by the sect of the Collydrians- a sect which arose towards the close of the fourth century, and offered up cakes (collyridae) to the Virgin Mary, as a goddess, and the Queen of heaven… <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[23]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>16. Erich Fromm</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“In the Nestorian controversy a decision against Nestorius was reached in 431 that Mary was not only the mother of Christ but also the mother of God, and at the end of the fourth century there arose a cult of Mary, and men addressed prayers to her. About the same time the representation of Mary in the plastic arts also began to play a great and ever-increasing role. The succeeding centuries attached more and more significance to the mother of God, and her worship became more exuberant and more general. Altars were erected to her, and her pictures were shown everywhere.” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[24]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b>17. English historian Edward Gibbon</b></div><blockquote style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); box-sizing: border-box; color: #76767a; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.6px; margin: 18px 20px; overflow: hidden; padding: 6px 20px;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“The Christians of the Seventh century had insensibly relapsed into a semblance of paganism: their public and private vows were addressed to the relics and images that disgraced the temples of the East: the throne of the Almighty was darkened by a cloud of martyrs, and saints, and angels, the objects of popular veneration; and the Collydrian heretics, who flourished in the fruitful soil of Arabia, invested the Virgin Mary with the name and honors of a goddess. The mysteries of the Trinity and incarnation appear to contradict the principle of the Divine unity. In their obvious sense, they introduce three equal deities, and transform the man Jesus into the substance of the Son of God: and orthodox commentary will satisfy only a believing mind: intemperate curiosity and zeal had torn the veil of the sanctuary; and each of the Oriental sects was eager to confess that all, except themselves, deserved the reproach of Idolatry and Polytheism. The Creed of Mahomet is free from suspicion or ambiguity; and the Koran is a glorious testimony to the unity of God. The Prophet of Mecca rejected the worship of idols and men, of stars and planets, on the rational principle that whatever rises must set, that whatever is born must die, that whatever is corruptible must decay and perish.” <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[25]</strong></span></div></blockquote><div style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; text-align: justify;">We can conclude that the Quran nowhere says that “Mary is part of the trinity.” I responded to critics claims on  Scholars (commentators of the Quran), they also never said, “Mary is believed by all Christians to be part of the trinity.” Their views were based on certain sects of Arabia which believed that Mary is part of the trinty. I also referenced two dozen or more academic quotes from Christian experts, that Virgin Mary indeed was worshipped and she was part of the trinity. I believe everything I have presented is in my favour that the Quran is not wrong in responding to the Christians of that time in Arabia that they worshipped Mary as a Goddess.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;"><br /></div>[<a href="https://discover-the-truth.com/category/islam/" target="_blank">Kaleef K. Karim</a> | <a href="https://discover-the-truth.com/2013/08/15/trinity-mary-worshipped-as-a-god/" target="_blank">Discover the truth</a>]</div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">References:</strong></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 21.692px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[1]</span><span style="font-size: inherit;"> The Koran translation and Notes (2007) by George Sale page 27</span></div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">[2] </span><span style="font-size: inherit; text-align: justify;">Gilbert Reid – The Biblical World: Volume 48, Number. 1, page 12</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span><br /><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[3]</span><span style="font-size: inherit;"> An Examination of Mr. Robinson of Cambridge’s Plea for the Divinity of Our Jesus Christ [London: Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72 St. Paul’s Church-Yard] by Theophilus Lindsey  page 124</span></span></div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[4] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">Readings in Biography: A Selection of the Lives of Eminent Men of All Nations [The second Edition. London: John W. Parker, West Strand. (1899)] by William Cooke Taylor page 192</span></span></div><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[5] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">The Eclectic Magazine: Foreign Literature science and Art. [September to December 1850.] By John Holmes Agnew, Walter Hilliard Bidwell, volume 21, page 40</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[6] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology by John Henry Blunt page 441</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[7] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">The North British Review [Febraury 1850 – August 1850] by Allan Freer Volume 13, page 197</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[8] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science [New York: D. Appleton and company 1875] by John William Draper page 78 – 79</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[9]</span><span style="font-size: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">Henry Adelbert Thompson The Catholic Cultus of the Virgin Mary: The American Journal of Theology: Volume 10, No. 3, page 480 – 484</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[10] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">The Eastern Orthodox Church: Its Thought and Life by Ernst Benz page 61 – 62</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[11]</span><span style="font-size: inherit;"> Mary: Glimpses of the Mother of Jesus by Beverly Roberts Gaventa page 15 -16</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[12]</span><span style="font-size: inherit;"> Introducing Christianity by James R. Adair page 207</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[13] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">The faiths of the world : an account of all religions and religious sects, their doctrines, rites, ceremonies, and customs (1858) by Reverend James Gardner,  Volume 6, page 372 – 373</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[14] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">History of the Christian Church to the Reformation by Professor Johann Heinrich Kurtz  page 223</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[15] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">The History of Romanism: from the Earliest Corruptions of Christianity to the present time [sixth edition 1845] by Reverend John Dowling page 82</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[16] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">The Church of England quarterly review, [London: William Edward Painter, 342 strand] – volume 9, page 172</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[17] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">A Feminist Companion to Mariology by Amy-Jill Levine, Maria Mayo Robbins page 173</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[18] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">Gail Paterson Corrington Her Image of Salvation: Female Saviors and Formative Christianity page 96 – 97</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[19] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">Bible Lessons For Catholics [Copyright 2002, Published by TEACH services, INC.] by Mary Walsh page 70 – 71</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[20] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">An encyclopædia ecclesiastica; or, A complete history of the Church by Thomas Anthony Trollope page 403</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[21] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">Praying and believing In early Christianity by Maxwell E. Johnson page 83</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[22] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">History of the Christian Church [Third revision – New York: Charles Scibner’s Sons 1891] by Phillip Schaff Volume 3, page 417</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[23] </span><span style="font-size: inherit;">The classic and connoisseur in Italy and Sicily, with an appendix: (1835) by Reverend George William D. Evans volume 2, page 59</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[24]</span><span style="font-size: inherit;"> The Dogma of Christ: And Other Essays on Religion, Psychology and Culture by Erich Fromm page 62 – 63</span></div></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">[25]</span><span style="font-size: inherit;"> The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, [Philadelphia 1816] by Edward Gibbon – Volume 6, page 249</span></div></span></div>

Trinity: Mary Worshipped As A God?

It is common among Christian missionaries to say, “the Quran got the trinity wrong.” Hence, they assume that the trinity that is mentioned i...

Trinity: Mary Worshipped As A God?

It is common among Christian missionaries to say, “the Quran got the trinity wrong.” Hence, they assume that the trinity that is mentioned i...

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What Does The Hebrew Word "Echad" Mean?

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW92Yv1z7Wp-4zBb1lav49n8B-QpUihXh-4kZ_ofMDZF-TAEvd2845JXty6XcvOUUeCWg_q1cIVmVew-sNzpYbzFphQKvrrNJNVz43185H7U8TPqQYUJX9wzpaAbCLR3IN3_FH8-kmx5g/s1600/torah-authorship.jpg" style="margin-left: 0em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="500" height="auto" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW92Yv1z7Wp-4zBb1lav49n8B-QpUihXh-4kZ_ofMDZF-TAEvd2845JXty6XcvOUUeCWg_q1cIVmVew-sNzpYbzFphQKvrrNJNVz43185H7U8TPqQYUJX9wzpaAbCLR3IN3_FH8-kmx5g/s640/torah-authorship.jpg" width="750" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>INTRODUCTION</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One of the most <b>frequently recited verses</b> in Scripture is Deuteronomy 6:4. In other words, that verse is spoken – out loud from memory – on an extremely frequent basis. For example, observant Orthodox Jews will recite that verse at least twice a day – once in the morning, and once in the evening.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Hebrew in that verse is pronounced as follows:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">Sh’ma Yis’ra’eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here is the translation of that verse, from the ESV:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All of the other common English translations of the Bible have extremely similar renderings of that verse. Deuteronomy 6:4 is sometimes referred to as “the sh’ma” (or “the shema”) – since it is referenced so frequently. Interestingly, Jesus himself also recited the sh’ma. Note the following passage:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">Mark 12:28-30 (ESV):<br />And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, <b>‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one</b>. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At this point, the obvious question is:<b> why is that verse recited so frequently?</b> The general answer to that question is that the sh’ma very succinctly summarizes the difference between the God of the Bible – Yahweh – and the pagan gods of other religions. Basically, that verse explicitly states that there is only <b>ONE</b> Almighty God. This is in stark contrast to the multiple, competing gods, in the pantheons of most other religions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a result, reciting the sh’ma is a very simple, convenient way for a person to re-confirm that he believes in the God of the Bible – rather than believing in multiple, pagan gods.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>THE HEBREW WORD 'ECHAD'</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The very last word in the sh’ma is the Hebrew word <b>echad</b>. That word is rendered as “one” in most English translations of the Bible; some translations use “alone” instead. In either case, the straightforward, common-sense understanding of echad in the sh’ma tells us that only one person is Almighty God – and that one person is our <b>Heavenly Father</b> – Yahweh.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some groups have an alternate belief about echad, though. In essence, those groups assert that echad refers to a “compound unity”. In other words, they believe that echad refers to one group, which contains multiple members. For example, they state that echad means “one” as in “one baseball team”; as opposed to “one” as in “one chair”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, according to <b>that</b> understanding of echad, the sh’ma could be translated this way:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is a <b>compound unity</b>.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course, the reason why this alternate understanding of echad is important is because it allows some groups to “spin” the sh’ma – into an endorsement for the Trinity! In other words, some groups state the following: “The sh’ma tells us that God is one. That is true – but that “one” refers to a compound unity. So, the sh’ma is telling us that there is only <b>one</b> God – but He is comprised of <b>multiple</b> persons.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>HOW IS 'ECHAD' ACTUALLY USED IN SCROPTURE?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The crux of the above argument is that “echad” refers to a “compound unity”. Of course, in order to determine if that argument has any merit, it is necessary to examine how that word is actually used in Scripture.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The word echad (and its feminine version achat) appears 970 times in Scripture. In the vast majority of cases – over 600 times – the word echad explicitly refers to a simple,<b> unitary</b> one. In other words, in almost every case, echad refers to <b>one single item</b> – rather than to one group of items.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This concept is usually expressed in English translations with the word “one”; but the words “single”, “unique” and “first” are used as well, depending on the context. Here are some examples of echad meaning a simple, <b>unitary</b> one:</div><div><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="text-align: justify;">And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into <b>one</b> (echad) place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. (Genesis 1:9, ESV)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took <b>one</b> (achat) of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. (Genesis 2:21, ESV)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We are all sons of <b>one</b> (echad) man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.” (Genesis 42:11, ESV)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have <b>one</b> (echad) shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. (Ezekiel 37:24, ESV)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It [the Passover meal] is to be eaten in a <b>single</b> (echad) house (Exodus 12:46, NASB)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I will remove the iniquity of this land in a <b>single</b> (echad) day (Zechariah 3:9, ESV)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For it will be a <b>unique</b> (echad) day which is known to the Lord (Zechariah 14:7, ESV)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But my dove, my perfect one, is<b> unique </b>(achat) (Song of Solomon 6:9, NASB)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The name of the <b>first</b> (echad) [river] is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. (Genesis 2:11, ESV)</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the <b>first</b> (echad) day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. (Genesis 8:5, ESV)</div></blockquote></div><div><br />Clearly, all of the above examples refer to <b>one single</b> person, place or thing – <b>not</b> to one group of items.<br /><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>WHAT ABOUT THESE CASE?</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As mentioned, in the <b>vast majority </b>of cases, echad refers to one single item. However, in a small minority of cases, echad refers to one group of items. Here are three examples of this:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq">Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become<b> one</b> (echad) flesh. (Genesis 2:24, ESV)<br /><br />God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the <b>first</b> (echad) day. (Genesis 1:5, ESV)<br /><br />And they came to the Valley of Eshcol and cut down from there a branch with a <b>single</b> (echad) cluster of grapes (Numbers 13:23, ESV)</blockquote></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here is a “summary” of the above examples:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Example 1: Echad is used to describe a husband and a wife – together – as one flesh.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Example 2: Echad is used to describe an evening and a morning – together – as the first day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Example 3: Echad is used to describe a single cluster of grapes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some groups point to those <b>specific examples</b>, to try to prove that echad – in the sh’ma – refers to the Trinity. In other words, they assert the following:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">Echad, in the sh’ma, is used to describe the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – together – as one God.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, is the above assertion really true? Do the three examples listed above actually describe the doctrine of the Trinity?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Consider those three examples again. In example 1, Scripture states that a husband and wife – together – <b>become</b> “one flesh”. This means that the husband – by himself – does <b>not fully</b> comprise the one flesh; and that the wife – by herself – also does <b>not fully</b> comprise the one flesh. Instead, the husband and the wife, by themselves, are only parts – or “halves” – of the one flesh.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Similarly, in example 2, Scripture states that an evening and a morning – together– became the “first day”. This means that the evening – by itself – does <b>not fully</b> comprise the first day; and that the morning – by itself – also does <b>not fully</b> comprise the first day. Instead, the evening and the morning – by themselves – are only “<b>subsets</b>” of the first day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The same principle applies to example 3. One single grape – by itself – does not fully comprise the entire cluster; one grape is just a single member – a subset – of a cluster of grapes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The reason why the above items are important is because the doctrine of the Trinity asserts the following:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">The Father is <b>fully</b> God, the Son is <b>fully</b> God, and the Holy Spirit is <b>fully</b> God. However, there are <b>not three Gods</b>, but <b>one God</b>.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course, that doctrine is <b>entirely different</b> than the examples provided above. Consider example 1 again – it states that the husband and the wife – by themselves – are <b>NOT</b> fully the “one flesh”. The Trinity doctrine, though, states that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – by themselves – <b>ARE</b> fully the “one God”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To make the contrast even more clear, consider the following: In order to cause example 2 to agree with the Trinity doctrine, Scripture would have to say something like this:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">The evening <b>fully</b> comprised one <b>entire</b> day, and the morning fully comprised one <b>entire</b> day. However, there <b>were not two</b> <b>days</b>, but <b>one</b> <b>day</b>.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of course, the above assertion is <b>pure nonsense</b>. What Scripture actually states is that the evening was just <b>part</b> of the day, and the morning was just<b> part</b> of the day – and that the two of them, together, comprised one full day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now, consider this: In order to cause the Trinity concept to agree with the examples above, one would have to say something like this:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">The Father is “one third” of God, the Son is “one third” of God, and the Holy Spirit is “one third” of God; and the three of them –<b> together</b> – comprise <b>one God</b>.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, most Trinity proponents strongly <b>disagree</b> with the above statement. This is because they are completely focused on the idea that<b> each</b> “person” of the Trinity is <b>fully</b> God – <b>and</b> that there are not three Gods, but one God. That concept is <b>not expressed</b> by the word echad at all – not in any of the places where it appears in Scripture.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>CONCLUSION</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some mainstream expositors make the following type of blunt assertion, whenever they discuss the sh’ma: <b>Echad means a compound unity</b> – <b>period</b>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">The implication of that assertion, of course, is that echad only means a compound unity. In other words, that assertion implies that in every case where echad is used, it always refers to one <b>group</b> of items – rather than to one single item. However, as mentioned above, in the vast majority of cases, echad actually refers to just one <b>single</b> item.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">So, the implication that echad always refers to a “compound unity” is <b>demonstrably false</b>.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Not only that, but even in the minority of cases where echad does refer to a compound unity, the meaning still does<b> not conform</b> to the doctrine of the Trinity. Basically, in the cases where echad refers to one group of items, it is clear that <b>each</b> member of the group is only a <b>subset</b> of the listed “compound unity”.</li><li style="text-align: justify;">For example, Scripture states that a husband and a wife – together – <b>become</b>“one flesh”. This indicates that the husband and wife are each “subsets” of the one flesh – but that together they comprise a “complete” one flesh. This is the <b>opposite of the Trinity doctrine</b> – which states that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are <b>each fully</b> God – but there is still just one God.</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The final item to note is that many other passages in Scripture state that <b>only</b> our Heavenly Father is Almighty God. That, in turn, tells us that echad – in the sh’ma – refers to just one person: our <b>Heavenly Father</b>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">First of all, note that the phrase “God the Father” does appear in Scripture –<b> in many places</b> – but the phrases “God the Son” and “God the Holy Spirit” <b>do NOT appear anywhere in Scripture</b>. The terms that actually do appear in Scripture are the Son <b>of </b>God and the Spirit <b>of</b> God.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Next, consider the two passages below. In the first, Jesus himself states that our Heavenly Father is the only true God, while Jesus is the one who was <b>sent</b> by God. Similarly, Paul tells us that the Father is <b>our</b> God – while Jesus is <b>our</b> Lord – i.e., our “master”, or “boss”:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;"><b>John 17:1-3 (ESV)</b>:<br />When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.<br /><br /><b>1 Corinthians 8:5-6 (ESV)</b>:<br />For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finally, Jesus explicitly <b>denied</b> that he was Almighty God; and he even stated that our Heavenly Father was <b>his</b> God – just like He is <b>our</b> God. Consider the following passages:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Mark 10:17-18 (ESV)</b>:<br />17 And as he [Jesus] was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.<br /><br /><b>John 20:17 (ESV)</b>:<br />Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The information in this post will hopefully prove useful, if one encounters the argument of “Echad in the sh’ma proves the Trinity”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br />[<a href="https://lhim.org/blog/author/brian-keating/">Brian Keating</a>]<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div></div>

What Does The Hebrew Word "Echad" Mean?

INTRODUCTION One of the most frequently recited verses in Scripture is Deuteronomy 6:4. In other words, that verse is spoken – out loud fro...

What Does The Hebrew Word "Echad" Mean?

INTRODUCTION One of the most frequently recited verses in Scripture is Deuteronomy 6:4. In other words, that verse is spoken – out loud fro...

Read more »