The Absolute Being, then, is necessarily a Spirit. He is also necessarily Alone. He is the One and only God... Polytheism is its negation, its denial. If there are more gods than one, it is clear that none of them can be perfect, or they would not all exist; none of them is all-sufficient for the task of making and ruling the universe. It demands their united powers. And, in fact, the old Pagans never thought of their gods as perfect. Each god was a monarch reigning over a separate realm, with which the others might not interfere. Like monarchs, too, they often fought with each other for mastery, and one or other of them was beaten.
That form of religion known as Dualism, i.e. the belief in two opposing deities, which was the religion professed by the ancient Persians, is a striking illustration of the truth that only the one God can be the perfect” that is, the true God. The gods of the Persians, Ormuzd and Ahriman, were respectively the good and the evil powers, who were always fighting with each other for the empire of the world; and, according as one or the other prevailed, human life was happy or miserable. Clearly, neither of these alternately triumphant and defeated deities could be perfect.1 And the same objection applies to the doctrine of the Trinity which fills so large a place in the religion of our Christian neighbours. Christianity claims to be a monotheistic religion—a religion, that is, which teaches that there is only one God. In this respect it is in agreement with Judaism. But while Judaism teaches that there is but one God, and that He is one, Christianity teaches that there is but one God, and that He is three. In some mysterious way, according to the Church, God, though one Being, is yet composed of three distinct persons. To hold such a doctrine is to charge God with imperfection. Each of these three persons cannot be perfect Deity, all-powerful or all-wise; for if so, why should there be three? Each must have a domain from which the others are shut out. Christianity seems indeed to admit this. It distinguishes the three persons of the Trinity as respectively man’s Creator, his Redeemer, and his Sanctifier.
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Author: Morris Joseph
Keywords: monotheist, monotheistic, Monotheism, Jewish monotheism, Echad, One god, Hear O Israel, Shema, Hear Oh Israel, LORD our God is One Lord, Only one god, Three in one, Tri-unity, Trinity, Three gods, Dualism, Polytheism, Jesus is God, Jesus is not God, Three persons, Triune
Bible reference(s): Genesis 1:26, Genesis 3:22, Deuteronomy 6:4, Psa 86:10, Zechariah 14:9, Mark 12:29, Mark 12:32, John 10:30, John 17:22, John 20:28, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Ephesians 4:6, 1 Timothy 2:5, James 2:19, 1 John 5:7
Source: Rabbi Judaism as Creed and Life (London: Macmillan, 1910), pp. 49-53.
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