Athanasian Creed

Athanasius penned this in defense of orthodoxy.   

Circa 500 A.D.

Whoever wills to be in a state of salvation, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic* faith, which
except everyone shall have kept whole and undefiled without doubt he will perish eternally.
Now the catholic faith is that we worship One God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons nor
dividing the substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit. But the
Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is One, the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal. Such as the
Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit; the Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit
uncreated; the father infinite, the Son infinite, and the Holy Spirit infinite; the Father eternal, the Son eternal, and
the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet not three eternals but one eternal, as also not three infinites, nor three uncreated, but
one uncreated, and one infinite. So, likewise, the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty;
and yet not three almighties but one almighty. So the Father is God, the Son God, and the Holy Spirit God; and yet not
three Gods but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord; and yet not three Lords but
one Lord. For like as we are compelled by Christian truth to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be both God and
Lord; so are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say, there be three Gods or three Lords. The Father is made of
none, neither created nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created but begotten. The Holy Spirit
is of the Father and the Son, not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding. So there is one Father not three
Fathers, one Son not three Sons, and one Holy Spirit not three Holy Spirits. And in this Trinity there is nothing before
or after, nothing greater or less, but the whole three Persons are coeternal together and coequal. So that in all things,
as is aforesaid, the Trinity in Unity and the Unity in Trinity is to be worshipped. He therefore who wills to be in a state
of salvation, let him think thus of the Trinity.

But it is necessary to eternal salvation that he also believe faithfully the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
right faith therefore is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man. He is
God of the substance of the Father begotten before the worlds, and He is man of the substance of His mother born in
the world; perfect God, perfect man subsisting of a reasoning soul and human flesh; equal to the Father as touching
His Godhead, inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood. Who although He be God and Man yet He is not two but
one Christ; one however not by conversion of the Godhead in the flesh, but by taking of the Manhood in God; one
altogether not by confusion of substance but by unity of Person. For as the reasoning soul and flesh is one man, so God
and Man is one Christ. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again from the dead, ascended into
heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, from whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. At whose
coming all men shall rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done
good shall go into life eternal, and they who indeed have done evil into eternal fire.

(* "catholic", meaning universal, not Roman Catholic.)


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