"Say not there are three Gods, God is but One God."—(Koran.)

The doctrine of the Trinity is the highest and most mysterious doctrine of the Christian church. It declares that there are three persons in the Godhead or divine nature—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost—and that "these three are one true, eternal God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory, although distinguished by their personal propensities." The most celebrated statement of the doctrine is to be found in the Athanasian creed,[368:1] which asserts that:

As M. Reville remarks:

We shall now see that this very peculiar doctrine of three in one, and one in three, is of heathen origin, and that it must fall with all the other dogmas of the Christian religion.

The number three is sacred in all theories derived from oriental sources. Deity is always a trinity of some kind, or the successive emanations proceeded in threes.[369:1]

If we turn to India we shall find that one of the most prominent features in the Indian theology is the doctrine of a divine triad, governing all things. This triad is called Tri-murti—from the Sanscrit word tri (three) and murti (form)—and consists of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. It is an inseparable unity, though three in form.[369:2]

"When the universal and infinite being Brahma—the only really existing entity, wholly without form, and unbound and unaffected by the three Gunas or by qualities of any kind—wished to create for his own entertainment the phenomena of the universe, he assumed the quality of activity and became a male person, as Brahma the creator. Next, in the progress of still further self-evolution, he willed to invest himself with the second quality of goodness, as Vishnu the preserver, and with the third quality of darkness, as Siva the destroyer. This development of the doctrine of triple manifestation (tri-murti), which appears first in the Brahmanized version of the Indian Epics, had already been adumbrated in the Veda in the triple form of fire, and in the triad of gods, Agni, Surya, and Indra; and in other ways."[369:3]

This divine Tri-murti—says the Brahmans and the sacred books—is indivisible in essence, and indivisible in action; mystery profound! which is explained in the following manner:

Brahma represents the creative principle, the unreflected or unevolved protogoneus state of divinity—the Father.

Vishnu represents the protecting and preserving principle, the evolved or reflected state of divinity—the Son.[369:4]

Siva is the principle that presides at destruction and re-construction—the Holy Spirit.[369:5]

The third person was the Destroyer, or, in his good capacity, the Regenerator. The dove was the emblem of the Regenerator. As the spiritus was the passive cause (brooding on the face of the waters) by which all things sprang into life, the dove became the emblem of the Spirit, or Holy Ghost, the third person.

These three gods are the first and the highest manifestations of the Eternal Essence, and are typified by the three letters composing the mystic syllable OM or AUM. They constitute the well known Trimurti or Triad of divine forms which characterizes Hindooism. It is usual to describe these three gods as Creator, Preserver and Destroyer, but this gives a very inadequate idea of their complex characters. Nor does the conception of their relationship to each other become clearer when it is ascertained that their functions are constantly interchangeable, and that each may take the place of the other, according to the sentiment expressed by the greatest of Indian poets, Kalidasa (Kumara-sambhava, Griffith, vii. 44):

A devout person called Attencin, becoming convinced that he should worship but one deity, thus addressed Brahma, Vishnu and Siva:

The three gods became manifest to him, and replied:

Sir William Jones says:

Thomas Maurice, in his "Indian Antiquities," describes a magnificent piece of Indian sculpture, of exquisite workmanship, and of stupendous antiquity, namely:

Fig. No. 34 is a representation of an Indian sculpture, intended to represent the Triune God,[371:2] evidently similar to the one described above by Mr. Maurice. It is taken from "a very ancient granite" in the museum at the "Indian House," and was dug from the ruins of a temple in the island of Bombay.

The Buddhists, as well as the Brahmans, have had their Trinity from a very early period.

Mr. Faber, in his "Origin of Heathen Idolatry," says:

In this Trinity Vajrapani answers to Brahma, or Jehovah, the "All-father," Manjusri is the "deified teacher," the counterpart of Crishna or Jesus, and Avalokitesvara is the "Holy Spirit."

Buddha was believed by his followers to be, not only an incarnation of the deity, but "God himself in human form"—as the followers of Crishna believed him to be—and therefore "three gods in one." This is clearly illustrated by the following address delivered to Buddha by a devotee called Amora:

The inhabitants of China and Japan, the majority of whom are Buddhists, worship God in the form of a Trinity. Their name for him (Buddha) is Fo, and in speaking of the Trinity they say: "The three pure, precious or honorable Fo."[372:1] This triad is represented in their temples by images similar to those found in the pagodas of India, and when they speak of God they say: "Fo is one person, but has three forms."[372:2]

In a chapel belonging to the monastery of Poo-ta-la, which was found in Manchow-Tartary, was to be seen representations of Fo, in the form of three persons.[372:3]

Navarette, in his account of China, says:

And Mr. Faber, in his "Origin of Heathen Idolatry," says:

The mystic syllable O. M. or A. U. M. is also reverenced by the Chinese and Japanese,[372:4] as we have found it reverenced by the inhabitants of India.

The followers of Laou-tsze, or Laou-keum-tsze—a celebrated philosopher of China, and deified hero, born 604 B. C.—known as the Taou sect, are also worshipers of a Trinity.[372:5] It was the leading feature in Laou-keun's system of philosophical theology, that Taou, the eternal reason, produced one; one produced two; two produced three; and three produced all things.[372:6] This was a sentence which Laou-keun continually repeated, and which Mr. Maurice considers, "a most singular axiom for a heathen philosopher."[372:7]

The sacred volumes of the Chinese state that:

The ancient emperors of China solemnly sacrificed, every three years, to "Him who is One and Three."[372:9]

The ancient Egyptians worshiped God in the form of a Trinity, which was represented in sculptures on the most ancient of their temples. The celebrated symbol of the wing, the globe, and the serpent, is supposed to have stood for the different attributes of God.[373:1]

The priests of Memphis, in Egypt, explained this mystery to the novice, by intimating that the premier (first) monad created the dyad, who engendered the triad, and that it is this triad which shines through nature.

Thulis, a great monarch, who at one time reigned over all Egypt, and who was in the habit of consulting the oracle of Serapis, is said to have addressed the oracle in these words:

The oracle answered thus:

The idea of calling the second person in the Trinity the Logos, or Word[373:3] is an Egyptian feature, and was engrafted into Christianity many centuries after the time of Christ Jesus.[373:4] Apollo, who had his tomb at Delphi in Egypt, was called the Word.[373:5]

Mr. Bonwick, in his "Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought," says:

The Assyrians had Marduk for their Logos;[374:2] one of their sacred addresses to him reads thus:

The Chaldeans had their Memra or "Word of God," corresponding to the Greek Logos, which designated that being who organized and who still governs the world, and is inferior to God only.[374:4]

The Logos was with Philoa most interesting subject of discourse, tempting him to wonderful feats of imagination. There is scarcely a personifying or exalting epithet that he did not bestow on the Divine Reason. He described it as a distinct being; called it "a Rock," "The Summit of the Universe," "Before all things," "First-begotten Son of God," "Eternal Bread from Heaven," "Fountain of Wisdom," "Guide to God," "Substitute for God," "Image of God," "Priest," "Creator of the Worlds," "Second God," "Interpreter of God," "Ambassador of God," "Power of God," "King," "Angel," "Man," "Mediator," "Light," "The Beginning," "The East," "The Name of God," "The Intercessor."[374:5]

This is exactly the Logos of John. It becomes a man, "is made flesh;" appears as an incarnation; in order that the God whom "no man has seen at any time," may be manifested.

The worship of God in the form of a Trinity was to be found among the ancient Greeks. When the priests were about to offer up a sacrifice to the gods, the altar was three times sprinkled by dipping a laurel branch in holy water, and the people assembled around it were three times sprinkled also. Frankincense was taken from the censer with three fingers, and strewed upon the altar three times. This was done because an oracle had declared that all sacred things ought to be in threes, therefore, that number was scrupulously observed in most religious ceremonies.[374:6]

Orpheus[374:7] wrote that:

This Trinitarian view of the Deity he is said to have brought from Egypt, and the Christian Fathers of the third and fourth centuries claimed that Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Plato—who taught the doctrine of the Trinity—had drawn their theological philosophy from the writings of Orpheus.[375:2]

The works of Plato were extensively studied by the Church Fathers, one of whom joyfully recognizes in the great teacher, the schoolmaster who, in the fullness of time, was destined to educate the heathen for Christ, as Moses did the Jews.[375:3]

The celebrated passage: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,"[375:4] is a fragment of some Pagan treatise on the Platonic philosophy, evidently written by IrenÆus.[375:5] It is quoted by Amelius, a Pagan philosopher, as strictly applicable to the Logos, or Mercury, the Word, apparently as an honorable testimony borne to the Pagan deity by a barbarian—for such is what he calls the writer of John i. 1. His words are:

The Christian Father, Justin Martyr, apologizing for the Christian religion, tells the Emperor Antoninus Pius, that the Pagans need not taunt the Christians for worshiping the Logos, which "was with God, and was God," as they were also guilty of the same act.

We see, then, that the title "Word" or "Logos," being applied to Jesus, is another piece of Pagan amalgamation with Christianity. It did not receive its authorized Christian form until the middle of the second century after Christ.[376:1]

The ancient Pagan Romans worshiped a Trinity. An oracle is said to have declared that there was, "first God, then the Word, and with them the Spirit."[376:2]

Here we see distinctly enumerated, God, the Logos, and the Spirit or Holy Ghost, in ancient Rome, where the most celebrated temple of this capital—that of Jupiter Capitolinus—was dedicated to three deities, which three deities were honored with joint worship.[376:3]

The ancient Persians worshiped a Trinity.[376:4] This trinity consisted of Oromasdes, Mithras, and Ahriman.[376:5] It was virtually the same as that of the Hindoos: Oromasdes was the Creator, Mithras was the "Son of God," the "Saviour," the "Mediator" or "Intercessor," and Ahriman was the Destroyer. In the oracles of Zoroaster the Persian lawgiver, is to be found the following sentence:

Plutarch, "De Iside et Osiride," says:

The Assyrians and Phenicians worshiped a Trinity.[376:7]

"It is a curious and instructive fact, that the Jews had symbols of the divine Unity in Trinity as well as the Pagans."[376:8] The Cabbala had its Trinity: "the Ancient, whose name is sanctified, is with three heads, which make but one."[376:9]

Rabbi Simeon Ben Jochai says:

According to Dr. Parkhurst:

"The Vandals[376:10] had a god called Triglaff. One of these was found at Hertungerberg, near Brandenburg (in Prussia). He was represented with three heads. This was apparently the Trinity of Paganism."[377:1]