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his power.' 'And 1 I saw another
angel flying in mid heaven, having an eternal gospel to proclaim unto them that
dwell on the earth, and unto every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and
he saith with a great voice, Fear God, and give him glory; for the hour of his
judgement is come.' 'As 2 the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth
them, even so the Son also quickeneth whom he will. For neither doth the Father
judge any man, but he hath given all judgement unto the Son; that all may honour
the Son, even as they honour the Father.'
From these and many similar passages we learn that the One Almighty God
reveals Himself and effects His mighty works of creation, preservation,
redemption, restoration, judgement and mercy, only in His Eternal Word
(كلمة) the
Son, and through His Holy Spirit. As there is in the one true God only one
nature, so in Him there can be but one will manifesting itself in ever
harmonious working. Thus the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are truly and
indeed One Almighty, All-Just, All-Wise, All-Saving and All-Merciful God, to
whom be honour and glory dominion and praise, now and ever. Amen.
It has been already said that in the Old Testament the teaching given
concerning the Trinity of Hypostases in the divine unity is not so clear
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DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY TRINITY
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as it is in the New Testament, and that in this as in other respects God's
revelation was gradual and progressive, as men were able to bear it. The
Israelites were living among heathens, and during a long time they were
themselves prone to idolatry and polytheism: hence, had the doctrine of the Holy
Trinity been clearly revealed in early times, and before the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ, there would have been very great danger of their misunderstanding
it and worshipping three Gods. Hence God in his wisdom did not reveal this
doctrine clearly in the Old Testament. Yet the books of the Old Testament
contain not a few references to this great truth. Such passages cannot be
explained or understood apart from what the New Testament teaches on this
subject. To a large class of these passages we have already referred in the
first chapter 1 of this Tractate, showing that the Old Testament
bears witness to the Deity of the promised Messiah. Besides these, however,
there are other passages which seem to imply a plurality of Hypostases in the
unity of the divine nature.
Among these may be numbered those verses in which the plural number of a
pronoun or verb is employed with reference to God Most High. For example, in the
Taurat God says: 'Let 2 Us make man in Our image, after
Our likeness': and then in the next verse the singular is used, and it is
written
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