THIS WE BELIEVE
The Athanasian Creed is named after Athanasius, a staunch defender of the Christian faith in the fourth century. It was prepared to assist the Church in combating two errors that undermined Bible teaching. One error denied that God’s Son and the Holy Spirit are of one being or Godhead with the Father. The other error denied that Jesus Christ is true God and true man in one person. The Athanasian Creed continues to serve the Christian Church as a standard of the truth. It declares that whoever rejects the doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of Christ is without the saving faith.
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, a day on which we reflect upon the mystery at the heart of our faith: that we worship one God in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity. If you think about the Trinity too long, odds are one of two things will happen: your head will start to hurt and/or you might accidentally lapse into some form of heresy. It is for this reason that the Church gives us Creeds which provide us language to articulate these doctrines.
The Trinity is hinted at in the Apostles’ Creed. We profess that we believe in “God the Father almighty,” “Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,” and, “the Holy Spirit.” Yet, the Apostles’ Creed doesn’t flesh out the implications of the Trinity specifically. It remains broad and basic.
The Nicene Creed is more elaborate. The same basic relationship is posited between the Father and the Son as what the Apostles’ Creed affirms, but it emphasizes their same essence by describing Jesus as “God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God; Begotten, not made; Being of one substance with the Father.” It also elaborates on the Holy Ghost as a member of the Godhead, affirming that he is “The Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified.” Still, questions can be raised about the relationships between the various persons of the Trinity.
In Lutheanism the Athanasian Creed is, along with the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, one of the three ecumenical creeds and is placed at the Book of Concord, the historic collection of authoritative doctrinal statements (confessions) of the Lutheran Church. It is still used in the liturgy on Trinity Sunday.
As we approach Trinity Sunday, it is always helpful to read the Athanasian Creed to remind ourselves of what we believe:
ATHANASIAN CREED
Whoever wishes to be saved must, above all else, hold to the true Christian faith.
Whoever does not keep this faith pure in all points will certainly perish forever.
Now this is the true Christian faith:
We worship one God in three persons and three persons in one God, without mixing the persons or dividing the divine being.
For each person—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—is distinct, but the deity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory and coeternal in majesty.
What the Father is, so is the Son, and so is the Holy Spirit. The Father is uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated; the Father is infinite, the Son infinite, the Holy Spirit infinite; the Father is eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal; yet they are not three who are eternal, but there is one who is eternal, just as they are not three who are uncreated, nor three who are infinite, but there is one who is uncreated and one who is infinite.
In the same way the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, and the Holy Spirit is almighty; yet they are not three who are almighty, but there is one who is almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord; yet they are not three Lords, but one Lord.
For just as Christian truth compels us to confess each person individually to be God and Lord, so the true Christian faith forbids us to speak of three Gods or three Lords. The Father is neither made nor created nor begotten of anyone. The Son is neither made nor created, but is begotten of the Father alone. The Holy Spirit is neither made nor created nor begotten, but proceeds from the Father and the Son. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
And within this Trinity none comes before or after; none is greater or inferior, but all three persons are coequal and coeternal, so that in every way, as stated before, all three persons are to be worshiped as one God and one God worshiped as three persons. Whoever wishes to be saved must have this conviction of the Trinity.
It is furthermore necessary for eternal salvation truly to believe that our Lord Jesus Christ also took on human flesh.
Now this is the true Christian faith:
We believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is both God and man. He is God, eternally begotten from the nature of the Father, and he is man, born in time from the nature of his mother, fully God, fully man, with rational soul and human flesh, equal to the Father as to his deity, less than the Father as to his humanity; and though he is both God and Man, Christ is not two persons but one, one, not by changing the deity into flesh, but by taking the humanity into God; one, indeed, not by mixture of the natures, but by unity in one person; for just as the rational soul and flesh are one human being, so God and man are one Christ. He suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose the third day from the dead.
He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty, and from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. At his coming all people will rise with their own bodies to answer for their personal deeds.
Those who have done good will enter eternal life, but those who have done evil will go into eternal fire.
This is the true Christian faith.
Whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe this cannot be saved.
