Page 241 - New English Book L
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first hypothesis, you are a Christian, a Trinitarian;
if the second, then you are an unbelieving Jew.
Nevertheless, we who accept neither of these two
propositions are naturally Unitarian Muslims. We
Muslims cannot accept either of the two titles given
to Jesus Christ (pbuh) in the sense which the Churches
and their unreliable Scriptures pretend to ascribe to
those appellations. Not alone is he “the Son of God,”
and not alone “the Son of Man,” for if it be permitted
to call God “Father,” then not only Jesus (pbuh) , but
every prophet and righteous believer is particularly
a “Son of God.” In the same way, if Jesus (pbuh) were
really the son of Joseph (pbuh) the Carpenter, and
had four brothers and several married sisters as the
Gospels pretend, then why alone should he assume
this strange appellation of “the Son of Man” which
is common to any human being?
It would seem that these Christian priests and pastors,
theologians and apologists have a peculiar logic of their
own for reasoning and a special propensity for mysteries
and absurdities. Their logic knows no medium, no
distinction of the terms, and no definite idea of the titles
and appellations they use. They have an enviable taste for
irreconcilable and contradictory statements which they
alone can swallow like boiled eggs. They can believe,
without the least hesitation, that Mary was both virgin
and wife, that Joseph (pbuh) was both spouse and husband,
that James, Jossi, Simon, and Judah were both cousins
of Jesus (pbuh) and his brothers, that Jesus (pbuh) is perfect
God and perfect man, and that “the Son of God,” “the
Son of Man,” “the Lamb,” and “the Son of David (pbuh) ”
are all one and the same person! They feed themselves
on heterogeneous and opposed doctrines that these terms
represent with as greedy an appetite as they feel for bacon
and eggs at breakfast. They never stop to think and ponder