"[246]
GOD AND CHRIST. God is the Universal Father. It must be forgotten that
he is king; his paternal character alone must be borne in mind. He is a
God of one person, not of three, and the doctrine of the Trinity is
nowhere hinted at in the Bible, but is of Platonic origin. The Christian
Fathers did not contend that it was contained therein. The view of three
persons in one God is "self-contradictory, opposed to all right reason,
positively absurd."[247] Christ is inferior and subordinate to God. He
is God in the same sense as the angels, Moses, Samuel, the Kings and
Judges of Israel. They were gods in one respect,--the word of God was
spoken to them. Christ is the chief one "to whom the word of God
came."[248] In the New Testament, Christ is uniformly kept distinct from
the Father, and the attributes which he possessed, wisdom, knowledge,
and power, were endowments from God.
THE HOLY GHOST. The Holy Ghost is not a person, but is merely sent from
the Father, or proceeds from him. The apparent presence of the Holy
Ghost in Christ's farewell discourse is only a personification resulting
from the peculiar nature of the Greek language, and the necessity of its
syntax.
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