When Christian Shahada Changed

In the first century after the disappearance of Jesus, those who followed him continued to affirm the Divine Unity.  This is illustrated by the fact that the Shepherd of Hermas, written in about 90 A.D. was regarded as a book of Revelation by the Church.  The first of the twelve commandments which it contains begins:

First of all, believe that God is One and that He created all things and organized them and out of what did not exist made all things to be, and He contains all things but alone is Himself uncontained[1]

According to Theodore Zahn, the article of faith up until about 250 A.D. was, “I believe in God, the Almighty.[2] Between 180 and 210 A.D. the word “Father” was added before the “Almighty.”  This was bitterly contested by a number of the leaders of the Church.  Bishop Victor and Bishop Zepheysius are on record as condemning this movement, since they regarded it an unthinkable sacrilege to add or subtract any word to the Scriptures.  They opposed the tendency to regard Jesus as divine.  They laid great stress on the Unity of God as expressed in the original teachings of Jesus and asserted that although he was a prophet, he was essentially a man like other men, even if highly favored by his Lord.  The same faith was held by the Churches which had sprung up in North Africa and West Asia.

Jesus: Prophet of Islam page 9-10 ???

[1] The Apostolic Fathers, E.J. Goodspeed.

2 Articles of the Apostolic Creed, Theodore Zahn, pp. 33-37.