CTK GREETING HOLY PEOPLE OF GOD,
A small number of Lutheran churches will use the Athanasian Creed in place of the Nicene or Apostles’ Creed on Trinity Sunday. It is used on this Sunday because of how it confesses and proclaims the Trinity. Rather than use it in worship, here it is for you to read and a little context in which the Athanasian Creed developed.
THE ATHANASIAN CREED
Whoever wants to be saved, should above all cling to the catholic faith.
Whoever does not guard it whole and inviolable will doubtless perish eternally.
Now this is the catholic faith:
We worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being.
For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Spirit is still another.
But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty.
What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit.
Uncreated is the Father; uncreated is the Son; uncreated is the Spirit.
The Father is infinite; the Son is infinite; the Holy Spirit is infinite.
Eternal is the Father; eternal is the Son; eternal is the Spirit:
And yet there are not three eternal beings, but one who is eternal; as there are not three uncreated and unlimited beings, but one who is uncreated and unlimited.
Almighty is the Father; almighty is the Son; almighty is the Spirit:
And yet there are not three almighty beings, but one who is almighty.
Thus the Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God:
And yet there are not three gods, but one God.
Thus the Father is Lord; the Son is Lord; the Holy Spirit is Lord:
And yet there are not three lords, but one Lord.
As Christian truth compels us to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so catholic religion forbids us to say that there are three gods or lords.
The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten the Son was neither made nor created, but was alone begotten of the Father; the Spirit was neither made nor created, but is proceeding from the Father and the Son.
Thus there is one Father, not three fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three spirits.
And in this Trinity, no one is before or after, greater or less than the other but all three persons are in themselves, coeternal and coequal; and so we must worship the Trinity in unity and the one God in three persons.
Whoever wants to be saved should think thus about the Trinity.
It is necessary for eternal salvation that one also faithfully believe that our Lord Jesus became flesh.
For this is the true faith that we believe and confess:
That our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, is both God and man.
He is God, begotten before all worlds from the being of the Father, and he is man, born in the world from the being of his mother— existing fully as God, and fully as man with a rational soul and a human body; equal to the Father in divinity, subordinate to the Father in humanity.
Although he is God and man, he is not divided, but is one Christ.
He is united because God has taken humanity into himself; he does not transform deity into humanity.
He is completely one in the unity of his person, without confusing his natures.
For as the rational soul and body are one person so the one Christ is God and man.
He suffered death for our salvation.
He descended into hell and rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
At his coming all people shall rise bodily to give an account of their own deeds.
Those who have done good will enter eternal life, those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.
This is the catholic faith.
One cannot be saved without believing this firmly and faithfully.
From sundaysandseasons.com.
The following is a slightly edited article from Philip Bartelt on “The Athanasian Creed and Its Importance.”
“Athanasius didn’t actually write the creed that bears his name. In fact, the true author remains unknown. What is known is that it originated in southern Gaul (modern-day France) in the late 5th century. This places its writing a century and a half after Athanasius died and on the other side of the Mediterranean. The earliest documentation of the Athanasian Creed comes from the sermons of Caesarius of Arles who preached the basics of Christianity using the creed as a foundation.
“Over the next 300 years, the creed would experience a great deal of popularity, showing up in sermons, psalters, and the monastic morning prayer services. It held such prominence in the Church by the time of the Reformation that it was considered equal to the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds as a confession of the true, catholic and apostolic faith. For this reason, the Athanasian Creed makes an appearance in the Lutheran Confessions alongside the other two to demonstrate the unity of the reformers with the historic and catholic faith.
Athanasian Creed is a reaffirmation and clarification of all the early Church councils and the Nicene Creed which fought tooth and nail to preserve the orthodox faith against heretics like Nestorius, Arius, Eutyches, Apollinaris, Sabellius, Macedonius, and Paul of Samosata. Athanasius may not have written it, but its words encapsulate everything he stood for. The two primary targets of the Athanasian Creed are the heresies promoted by Nestorius and Arius.
Arius could easily be considered the godfather of all heretics with most heresies tracing back to him. He is known for denying Christ’s divinity in order to maintain the oneness of God over and against the threeness of God. Arius claimed that Christ was a creature of God and not God Himself. While He shared in god-like qualities, the Father and the Son did not share the same “substance” to use the language of the creed. For this reason, the first half of the Athanasian Creed is devoted to expressing the oneness of God according to His “substance” and the threeness of God according to His “persons.” You have to feel a measure of sympathy for the creedal authors because they were given the monumental task of clearly expressing one of the greatest mysteries in the whole Bible! God is one, and God is three.
The last half of the Athanasian Creed is aimed squarely at Nestorius who denied that the second person of the Trinity is true God and true man united in the person of Jesus. Nestorius wanted to keep Christ’s divinity as far away from His humanity as possible because of the scandal that divinity would have anything to do with humanity. It’s widely held even today that the finite cannot contain the infinite. The Old Testament emphasis on the separation of clean and unclean, the sacred and the profane also presents a problem for Nestorius when it comes to Jesus’ divine and human natures. But as the creed says, it is not that divinity was transformed into humanity, but that God took up humanity into himself. As the Servant Song of Isaiah 53 beautifully states, He carries our humanity and our infirmity in order to redeem humanity and conquer our infirmity.”
Whether we like it or not, the Athanasian Creed is a part of our history, proclaiming and confessing the struggles of the early church as they wrestled with God and the emerging doctrine of the Trinity. We bristle at the words, “Whoever does not guard [the catholic faith] whole and inviolable will doubtless perish eternally;” and “One cannot be saved without believing this firmly and faithfully.” And “Those who have done good will enter eternal life, those who have done evil will enter eternal fire. This is the catholic faith, one cannot be saved without believing this firmly and faithfully.” As these words grate up against our doctrine of justification by grace through faith we are saved.
When the church fights, when Christ proclaimers disagree we produce a creed like the Athanasian Creed which can serve as a negative example. It teaches the complexities ofour unity and the unity of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In our disagreements we need to remember that Jesus is in the very middle of what we trust as we try to find language that is faithful to God, who is more than our words can describe. We continue to focus on God and what God is doing and remember God’s good news made known to us in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.
Have a very blessed Holy Trinity Sunday!
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
