Did Jesus Redeem Mankind? — Page 14
14 him for a lunatic. Then addressing him I asked whether. God, the Father, had, independently, the power to create the world. He said He had. Next I asked him if God, the Son, had independently the power to create the world. He affirmed that he had. Then I asked him if God, the Holy Ghost, had likewise similar power to create the universe. He said he too had. Then I observed that all this looked very much like the lifting of the pencil from the table in the aforesaid manner. When all three had equal power and could do the creative work equally well, they were wasting their time; as they could very well bring the world into being individually. . Then I asked him if he could tell me of a particular job which,. God the Father could do but God the Son could not, which again God the Son could, but God the Holy Ghost could not, or God the Holy Ghost could, but God the Father could not, or, God the Son, could, but God the Father could not. . He said there was no such undertaking as either one of them could and the other one could not do. Then I asked him what all this fuss meant: that if two gods sat idle, it really became a great predicament that they could do a job but were wasting their time, and if all three jointly undertook a business, while each one could do it equally well, it looked something mad. He lost his equanimity and remarked that vicarious atonement constituted the basis of Christianity. and that one understood Trinity only after his belief in. Christianity. I observed that his theory led from one hypothesis to another in that one could not believe until one understood Trinity and one could not understand Trinity until one believed and that as such all logic rejected this as an impossible thing. He begged to be excused and wanted the talk to be confined to the theory of vicarious atonement.