THE ATHANASIAN CREED
This creed is named after St. 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.
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, and the
Holy Spirit uncreated;
The Father is eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy
Spirit eternal;
Any 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;
And 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;
And 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 not 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 reasonable soul and flesh are
one human being, so God and man are one Christ.
Who 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 willl come to judge the living and the
dead.
At his coming all people will rise again 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
everlasting fire.
This is the true Christian Faith.
Whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe
this cannot be saved.