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DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCES
The trouble with people is not that they don’t know,
but that they know so much that ain’t so. —Josh Billings, Josh Billings’ Encyclopedia
of Wit and Wisdom
The differences between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam can be addressed on a
number of levels, the most basic of which is that of common sense. Plain Alice in
Wonderland kind of sense, exemplified by such sensible exchanges as:
“’That’s not a regular rule: you invented it just now.’
‘It’s the oldest rule in the book,’ said the King.
‘Then it ought to be Number one,’ said Alice.”45
When correctly applied, this form of logic leaves no room for further argument.
However, a complementary avenue of analysis is to contrast Judaic, Christian and Islamic
teachings, and leave readers to weigh the evidence against their own beliefs.
Let us begin by taking an Alice in Wonderland peek at the history of the
Unitarian/Trinitarian debate.
Unitarians vs. Trinitarians
“They decided that all liars should be whipped.
And a man came along and told them the truth.
And they hanged him.”—T.W.H. Crosland, Little Stories
Many tenets of Trinitarian faith are regarded as the “oldest rules in the book,” but
in fact are derived from nonbiblical sources. Rather than being “rule number one,” as a
person might logically expect given their primacy, these tenets of faith are not to be
found in the Bible at all.
Alice would object.
And, in fact, many great thinkers have objected—thinkers like Bishop Pothinus of
Lyons (murdered in the late second century along with all the dissenting Christians who
petitioned Pope Elutherus for an end to persecution), Leonidas (a follower of Apostolic
Christianity and expositor of Pauline innovations, murdered in 208 CE), Origen (who
died in prison in 254 CE after prolonged torture for preaching the Unity of God andrejection of the Trinity), Diodorus, Pamphilus (tortured and murdered, 309 CE), Lucian
(tortured for his views and killed in 312 CE), Donatus (chosen to be Bishop of Carthage
in 313 CE, and subsequently the leader and inspiration of a Unitarian movement that
grew to dominate Christianity in North Africa right up until Emperor Constantine ordered
their massacre. So complete was their obliteration that little of the sacred writings of this
once huge sect remains), Arius (the presbyter of Alexandria, whose motto was “follow
Jesus as he preached”—killed by poisoning in 336 CE), Eusebius of Nicomedia, and not
to mention the millionplus Christians killed for refusing to accept official church
doctrine in the immediate period following the Council of Nicaea.
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