1. Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Christian faith;
2. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
3. And the Christian faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
4. Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
5. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.
6. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
7. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.
8. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
9. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
10. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.
11. And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal.
12. As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.
13. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.
14. And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty.
15. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God;
16. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
17. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord;
18. And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.
19. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;
20. So are we forbidden by the Christian religion to say; There are three Gods or three Lords.
21. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.
22. The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten.
23. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
24. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
25. And in this Trinity none is afore or after another; none is greater or less than another.
26. But the whole three persons are coeternal, and coequal.
27. So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
28. He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.
29. Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
30. For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.
31. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world.
32. Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
33. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.
34. Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.
35. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God.
36. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.
37. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ;
38. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead;
39. He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty;
40. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
41. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies;
42. and shall give account of their own works.
43. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
44. This is the Christian faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved.
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6 comments:
I like Creeds!
They express the Christian faith in a clear manner and do not allow for shenanigans of the 'self'.
They are like the greeting cards that we give each other. They might not be our words (we didn't write them) but they express something of ourselves in them to the reader, or hearer.
Agreed!
And the Athanasian Creed so concisely and articulately expresses the Christian faith in a detail I could only hope to express in words.
I find the following two statements very useful:
(1)"One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God."
(2) "Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood."
The second I think goes some way to open up the the mystery of when Jesus refers to His Father in a way that implies superiority of the Father. It is captured by Paul who describes the self emptying (kenosis) of God's status in Jesus in Philippians 2:6-8
"Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but STRIPPED HIMSELF [of all privilages and rightful dignity] (Amplified version)taking the very natur of a servant, being made in human likeness...."
I love this passage - it is for me what makes God, my God!
Greetings Wayne Dawg
This is not however, the creed of Jesus, nor of his disciples.
Jesus solely identified the Father as the only true GOD.
[John 17.3]
Paul & the early church concurred:
(1 Cor 8:4) ... that there is none other God but one.
(1 Cor 8:6) But to us there is but one God, the Father, ...
The creed of Jesus is the Shema, Deut 6.4ff
(Mark 12:28-32) And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is,
Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:
It ought to be obvious then, that neither Jesus nor the scribe, subscribed to anything in the so-called Athanansian creed
(which was written years after Athanasius!!)
The one thing I would agree with in these statements is that they are incomprehensible. Thankfully the Scriptures do not teach these things.
Therefore, I recommend this video:
The Human Jesus
Take a couple of hours to watch it; and prayerfully it will aid you in your quest for truth.
Yours In Messiah
Adam Pastor
Hello Adam Pastor -
Thanks for stopping by and commenting on the creed.
Obviously I will whole heartedly disagree with you position that the Scriptures do not teach these things. They do. They do most succinctly.
I have been very busy this week and have not had time to update my blog as much as I like to. To refute your position that the Scriptures do not teach these things would take a lot of time to through point by point.
I know that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that has been made. And that Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He (Jesus, Emanuel; God with us) came to His own and His own received Him not. Ref John 1:1-14
God has revealed Himself in the flesh through Jesus Christ. Christ came to this world so that man could be reconciled back to God. Jesus did this perfectly through His substitutionary atonement on the cross. A perfect God-man died for imperfect man. Through that death and resurrection God completed a legal transaction that allows Him to justify wicked sinful humanity.
Through repentance and faith in Christ we can be reconciled back to God and God can pardon us of our sins not because we are good people, but because we are bad people who have been forgiven by a good God.
I pray you continue to search the Scriptures and God reveals Himself to you more fully.
Dawg
"Before Abraham was, I AM."
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