st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

"
"
"
"
ICO ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
The author, the Abbe Bourgade, assures us that
this was the very answer he had from two
Mahometans of Algiers,
to whom he had given the
same explanation, while they were one day dis
cussing religious topics on board the Josephine, in
1846. To the ardent, but ill-informed mind of
Mahomet, the nature of the first impressions he
received from Christianity was a matter of the utmost
importance. The apparently idolatrous character of
Christian worship in his day was one grievous
stumbling-block
the apparent obscuration of the
;
unity of the Godhead was another. Believe, there
fore, in God and His are his words towards
apostles,"
the end of the 4th Sura, and say not there are three
Gods. Forbear this ;
it will be better for you. God
is but one God. 7
It appears probable," says Sir William Muir, 1
"that the creed of the Christians of his day was
understood by Mahomet to be, that Mary was one of
the persons in the Trinity. This probably
arose from
the worship paid to the Virgin by the Eastern
Churches, and from the statements of Mahomet s
Jewish followers themselves imperfectly acquainted
with Christianity.
Had the true doctrine,"
he adds,
"regarding
the Virgin Mary been rightly placed
before Mahomet, together with that of the spiritual
and eternal generation of the Son of God, and shown
to be necessarily deducible from the legitimate con
struction of the Scriptures acknowledged by him to
he inspired, could he have refused to approve those
doctrines ?
1
"The Koran," 1878, p. 179.