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Soli Deo Gloria
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Athanasian Creed 6th CenturyWhoever desires to be saved should above all hold to the catholic
faith. Anyone who does not keep it whole and unbroken will doubtless
perish eternally. Just as Christian truth compels us to confess each person individually as both 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 from anyone. The Son was neither made nor created; he was begotten from the Father alone. The Holy Spirit was neither made nor created nor begotten; he proceeds from the Father and the Son. Accordingly there is one Father, not three fathers; there is one Son, not three sons; there is one Holy Spirit, not three holy spirits. Nothing in this trinity is before or after, nothing is greater or smaller; in their entirety the three persons are coeternal and coequal with each other. So in everything, as was said earlier, we must worship their trinity in their unity and their unity in their trinity. Anyone then who desires to be saved should think thus about the trinity. But it is necessary for eternal salvation that one also believe in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully. Now this is the true faith: That we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, is both God and human, equally. He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time; and he is human from the essence of his mother, born in time; completely God, completely human, with a rational soul and human flesh; equal to the Father as regards divinity, less than the Father as regards humanity. Although he is God and human, yet Christ is not two, but one. He is one, however, not by his divinity being turned into flesh, but by God's taking humanity to himself. He is one, certainly not by the blending of his essence, but by the
unity of his person. For just as one human is both rational soul and
flesh, so too the one Christ is both God and human. He suffered for our
salvation; he descended to hell; he arose from the dead; he ascended to
heaven; he is seated at the Father's right hand; from there he will come
to judge the living and the dead. At his coming all people will arise
bodily and give an accounting of their own deeds. Those who have done good
will enter eternal life, and those who have done evil will enter eternal
fire. This is the catholic faith: one cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully. |
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