II. THE CONTENTION OF THE ATHANASIANS
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WE HAVE already devoted a great deal of time and attention to the Athanasian contention that God exists in three persons, and we have shown that such a belief logically means polytheism in spite of all declarations to the contrary, and since polytheism is ruled out of the possibilities, so must Athanasianism go. We have, however, claimed that it was Divinely permitted to continue as the dominant faith of the Church in spite of its implied polytheism, because it was the only faith which emphasized the essential deity of Christ at the same time that it insisted upon the dual nature of Christ. We do not mean at all to say that the followers of Athanasius in the Christian Church have consciously been polytheists. They have insisted upon the formula that God is one, in spite of the fact that their creed, logically viewed,
