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Faithfullyliven:the podcast
The Athanasian Creed and Its Impact on Christian Doctrine
In this thoughtful episode, we dive into the historical context surrounding the Athanasian Creed. Join us on Faithfullyliven: the Podcast as we unravel the creed's critical role in providing doctrinal clarity, protecting against heresies, and guiding new believers in their spiritual journey. Emphasizing the unity and co-equality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we explore why these foundational beliefs are not just theological concepts but are essential for salvation.
References from the show
What is the Athanasian Creed? https://www.gotquestions.org/Athanasian-creed.html
Historic Creeds and Confessions, electronic ed. (Oak Harbor: Lexham Press, 1997).
Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical Notes: The History of Creeds, vol. 1 (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1878), 35.
Know The Creeds and Councils by Justin S. Holcomb (2014)
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Welcome to Faithfully Living, the podcast where we learn how to live for Christ in our daily lives.
Speaker 1:I am Dwan, your host, and I would like to invite you on a journey with me to explore and learn how to be a faithful follower of Christ. Hi everyone, welcome to Faithfully Living, the podcast, where we strive to encourage you to live for Christ faithfully by offering guidance on how to study the Bible, how to understand the Bible better and how to remain faithful to historic Christianity in a contemporary society. Where we are back with another episode about creeds, confessions and confessions of the Christian faith. So we're on our last episode of this series. The last episode we talked about the Nicene Creed. If you haven't heard that, go back and listen to it. Today we are going to be looking at the Athanasian Creed Athanasian Creed, but before we get into the creed, I just want to remind you that we've talked about the importance of creeds and also the importance of as believers. It's so important for us to know what we believe and why. And these creeds from the early church creeds, confessions and catechisms. They were helpful for believers because they summarize the key tenets and doctrines of the Christian faith and they held an important function in the life of the Christian church. So if you remember or you may not remember from last time, I'm just going to go over what important functions did they have for the church and they can also have for us today. So they provided doctrinal clarity by giving a clear, unified expression of Christian faith, such as the nature of God, christ and the Holy Spirit and salvation and the holy spirit and salvation. Two, it can guard against heresies and doctrinal errors by clearly defining what christians believe. Three, they are helpful for instructing new believers and guarding christian education. Four, they serve as a concise summary of the faith, making it easier to teach fundamental, foundational I'm sorry christian beliefs. Five, by reciting the creeds and worship, it helps to connect believers with historic faith of the church. And then the last one, it fosters a sense of community with past generations of Christians and remind us of our shared beliefs.
Speaker 1:All right, let us dive into the Athanasian Creed. All right, so first let's read the Athanasian Creed so you can kind of get a feel of what it's about. This is a long creed, so just bear with me as I read through it. Whoever will be saved, before all things, it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith. Which faith, except every one to keep whole and undefined. Without doubt, he shall perish everlasting.
Speaker 1:And the Catholic faith is this that we worship the God in Trinity and Trinity in unity. Neither confounding the persons, are dividing the substance, for there is one of the Father, another of the Son and another of the Holy Spirit, but the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal, such as the Father is, such as the Son and such as the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated and the Spirit uncreated. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
Speaker 1:The Father eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal, and yet they are not three eternals but one eternal, as also there are not three uncreated, nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated, oneprehensible. So, likewise, the father is almighty, the son is almighty, the spirit is almighty, and yet they are not three almighties but one almighty. So the father is god, the son is god, the holy spirit is God, and yet are not three gods but one God. So, likewise, the father is Lord, the son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord, and yet they are not three lords but one Lord, for like as we are compelled by the Christian veracity to acknowledge every person by himself to be god and lord, so we are forbidden by catholic religion to say that there are three gods or three lords. The father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The son is of the father alone and not made nor begotten.
Speaker 1:Sorry, the father, sorry nor begotten, but proceeding so there is one Father, not three Fathers. One Son, not three Sons. One Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. And in this Trinity there is, and in this Trinity none is afore or after another, none is greater or less than another, but the whole three persons Are co-equal and co-eternal and co-equal, so that in all things as aforesaid, the unity in Trinity and the Trinity in unity Is to be worshipped. He, therefore, that will be saved Must thus think of the trinity.
Speaker 1:Furthermore, is it necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe, rightly, the incarnation of our lord jesus christ. For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is. Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, is God and man, god of the substance of the father, begotten before worlds. A man of substance of his mother, born, born in the world, perfect God and perfect man, of immeas measurable soul and human flesh, subsiding, equal to the father as touching his Godhead, and infernal, inferior to the father as touching his manhood, who, though he is God and man, yet he is not two but one Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking that of manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance but by unity of person, for as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ. Who suffered for our salvation, descending into hell, rose again the third day, so God and man is one Christ. To judge the quick and the dead, all those coming, all men shall rise again with their bodies and shall give account of their own works, and they that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil in eternal fire. They that have done evil in eternal fire. This is the Catholic faith which, except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved. All right, so that was. That was kind of a long one.
Speaker 1:So, as you can hear, the Athanasian Creed is another early summary of Christian doctrine. So, like the Apostles' Creed, the origin of the Athanasian Creed it's unknown. It's suggested that it originated from, you know, athanasius, which is kind of like the name that it's ascribed to. But since the 19th century and they've kind of ascribed it to Athanasius, the Bishop of Alexander, who was an arch defender of the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity. But there's a traditional view where some historians and scholars have challenged that kind of like in the mid 17th century, that people are scholars and historians abandoned the, the idea that athanasius actually wrote the athanasian creed. So somebody else probably wrote it. Um, so that's why I say we don't know. So the the creed. And they came to this conclusion because they couldn't find the creed or any of what the creed said within the writings of athanasius or like any of his commentaries. So that's why they've decided that are believed, like traditionally, that he didn't. He didn't write this creed.
Speaker 1:So let's talk a little bit about Athanasius. Who was he? So Athanasius, he was born around AD 298. He lived in Alexandria, egypt. He was the Archbishop of Alexandria and kind of lived in the 4th century. He was a pastor, a preacher, a theologian. He was one of the defenders of the doctrine of the deity of Christ at the Council of Nicaea and he was ardent in his defense that the father and the son are the very same substance At the nations. He was a very ardent defender of the Christian faith and his battles did not go without suffering. He spent a lot of time banished from his position in Alexandria and a lot of his work are still in print today.
Speaker 1:Some of the things he's written. One thing he wrote the. Some of the things he's written. One thing he wrote the life of the anonity um. It talks about a young man who goes into the wilderness to defeat his demons. He wrote a book on on the incarnation and that talks about or outlines the ramifications of the bodily incarnation of Christ. So, like I said earlier, athanasius, he was there at the Council of Nicaea and when he heard Ares' false teaching, he immediately refuted the idea that Jesus the Son was not eternal. Jesus the son was not eternal, that the begotten of the son are the other ends of the word that you know. Jesus was not God, he. He denounced it and talked about the eternal relationship between the father and the son and that it was not or is not a temporary event. It's something that Jesus is not a created being. So, athanasius, he was recognized as the leading spokesperson at the council, for his view that the son is fully God and that Jesus is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. And the majority of bishops at the council agreed with Athanasius, and so that's how they went on to develop the Nicene Creed and how that was adopted.
Speaker 1:Alright, so let's explore and read more about the creed itself. So the Athanasian Creed seems to be written primarily to refute the doctrines involving the deity and humanity of Christ, such as we talked about in the episode before Arianism. We talked about it at the episode before Arianism. So in the book Historic Creeds and Confessions it says the Athanasian Creed is noted for its strong focus on the doctrine of the Trinity, and you could kind of hear that when we were reading through the creed a little bit ago. So he says Schaeffer notes that the Athanasian Creed is a strong contrast with the is set forth is the undisputable condition of salvation and that those who reject it will be lost forever.
Speaker 1:So he was essentially saying that if you don't believe in the Trinity and incarnation of Jesus Christ, you're not believing in the core belief of how we have salvation and essentially who God is. And then in this book called no Decrees and Councils by Justin Holcomb. He says the Athanasian Creed Called no Decrees. And Councils by Justin Holcomb. He says the Athanasian Creed consists of 42 articles, which can be divided into three parts. The first part addresses the Trinity, relaying heavily on Augustine's ideas and even quoting some passages from Augustine on the Trinity verbatim, like strongly indicating that it was not written. So they're saying strongly indicating this is given evidence of why the Athanasian Creed was not written by Athanasius himself, because Athanasius, when augustine was a young man, so he, these verbatim sections that come from augustine's writings, could not have been written by athanasius. All right, so the second part, um, they're saying it defends the two natures of Jesus and in the Chalcedon had explained and summarized the results of the fourth and fifth century debates and presenting them in the reality and then distilling them in lyrical and Latin form.
Speaker 1:The third part of the creed consists of a set of condemnations that assert that any who would be saved must adhere to the teachings of the creed. These statements, you know kind of, they say, left bad taste in the mouths of some who do not like to see you know opponents damned. But must recall that all early Christian creeds and confessions contained anathemas, listing of Christian beliefs, rendering unacceptable to Christian conviction by truths expressed in the very same creed. And then there are some notes on the issue in the creed that the phrase of the Catholic Church we saw this in the Apostles' Creed also, it does not refer to the Roman Catholic Church but refers to Catholic meaning, universal, if you remember it demands the belief that in all of the tenets of the creed for salvation, and then not all of the tenets that they list in there are not mandatory for salvation. So to explain a little bit more, the creed demanded beliefs. Like all of these tenets within the creeded were important for salvation.
Speaker 1:There are some in there that are not important for salvation, but all in all the athanasian creed is a good summary of christian doctrine on the subject of the trinity, the deity and then also the humanity of of jesus christ. So you know, as believers the trinity is often hard to describe without, you know, being borderline on heresy. You know, either you you make god out to be three gods or you make him out to be three persons Father, son and Holy Spirit into a sham. So when you look at history of the church, this creed gives a thorough attempt to describe the doctrine of the Trinity and it sets boundaries to kind of combat and prevent heresies from kind of like warming their way in the church, even though we have seen how people have either say they don't believe in the trinity, um, bringing arguments like the trinity is not in the bible. Of course we know the trinity is not in the bible, but the I guess the best way I can put it is like the concept or the tenet or doctrine of the Trinity.
Speaker 1:We can see that evident, you know, in the Bible. So I think it's incredible to see how the truth of God is passed on throughout history, is passed on throughout history, how, you know, early believers were thinking about things within history but they were also combating, you know, false doctrine and heresies. So even for us, you know, back during that time they had to, you know, fight against the heresies of the church. But they also have to know what the bible says. So you have to know what the bible says in order to, you know, combat the false doctrines or heresies that we see in the church and we definitely have those, you know, in the church. So I think it's, you know, helpful as believers in christ, to you know, learn and understand the doctrines of the bible and to understand them better. You know, they're going to give us a good understanding of who god is, his nature and how we can learn, how we can learn more about him so we can, you know, definitely build our trust on the truth and character of god. That's going to always stand.
Speaker 1:So I hope this episode was helpful and then also the last couple of episodes talking about the creeds of the christian faith. Go back and listen to those previous episodes and then also go back and like do some study yourself about the, the creeds, and look into the catechisms and the confessions of the of the christian faith. They're, they're there to be a help to us as believers and to help us understand, you know, what we believe, help us to understand what we believe and to put in a way that helps us to understand it better, kind of summarize it. Of course, remember that this does not take the place of scripture. It's just there to enhance our memory to, you know, get those key doctrine and tenets of the Christian faith into our brain, all right, well, thank you for listening and until next time, remember God is always good and he's always faithful. Thank you for listening to the podcast. Do me a favor by following the podcast and leaving a review to help spread the word. I look forward to hearing from you.
