The Athanasian Creed

Among the short statements of faith used across Christian history, the Athanasian Creed stands out for its clarity and courage. Known by its opening Latin words, “Quicunque vult” (“Whoever wishes”), it sets out in firm, measured sentences what Scripture teaches about God as Trinity and about Jesus Christ as true God and true man. The creed does not compete with the Bible; it serves it. Its phrases are compact because the truths are weighty: there is one God in three persons (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:19), and the one Lord Jesus Christ is both fully divine and fully human for our salvation (John 1:1; John 1:14). This essay traces the origin, formation, acceptance, and usage of the Athanasian Creed and then walks through the scriptural ground from which its lines rise. Our featured chapter is Colossians 1, a chapter that extols Christ as the image of the invisible God and the agent of creation and reconciliation (Colossians 1:15–20).

History shows why such a creed was needed: the church had to say plainly what the Bible already says, for the sake of worship, catechism, and guarding the flock. Scripture then shows why the creed endures: every sentence can be tested and confirmed by texts that do not move. The Athanasian Creed is not the longest creed, but it may be the most precise, because it speaks where confusion harms souls—about who God is and who Jesus is—and it speaks by echoing the words and logic of the prophets and apostles (Isaiah 44:6; Hebrews 1:3).

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Words: 3292 / Time to read: 17 minutes / Audio Podcast: 29 Minutes

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Historical and Cultural Background

The Athanasian Creed did not come from the pen of Athanasius himself, the fourth-century bishop of Alexandria who defended the full deity of the Son. It likely arose in the Latin-speaking West a century or two after his death, when the church needed a clear teaching tool that gathered the fruit of earlier battles and spoke in the language of ordinary believers. Most scholars locate its origins in southern Gaul, where pastors such as Vincent of Lérins and the churches influenced by Augustine taught a strong, Bible-shaped summary of the Trinity and of Christ’s two natures (John 10:30; John 14:9; Philippians 2:6–8). Its Latin cadence, its Western way of speaking about the Spirit’s procession, and its careful stress on the unity of essence and the distinction of persons all point to its home in that region and time (John 15:26; 2 Corinthians 13:14).

Why did a new creed appear after Nicaea and Constantinople had already given the Nicene Creed? Because false teaching often reshapes itself, and because the church needed a fuller catechetical statement in simple sentences. The Nicene Creed had settled the core confession that the Son is true God of true God and the Spirit is Lord and giver of life (John 1:1; Acts 5:3–4). The Athanasian Creed took that victory and taught it in a way that a catechumen could learn and a congregation could confess. It states that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity, without confusing the persons or dividing the essence, and then it gives parallel statements to keep both sides of the truth together (Matthew 28:19; John 17:5). It also sets out, with equal care, that the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is both God and man, perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, one person with two natures, which reflects the Gospel witness and the apostles’ preaching (Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 2:5).

Acceptance and usage show its value. In the medieval West, the creed entered regular worship, especially on Trinity Sunday, and it became part of teaching for clergy and laity alike. Reformers who placed Scripture at the center retained it because its sentences are transparent to Scripture, and because it guards both the glory of the triune God and the saving truth of Christ’s person (Psalm 115:1; John 20:28). Lutherans placed it alongside the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds as one of the “ecumenical creeds,” confessed in services and taught to children, while the Anglican tradition read it publicly in certain seasons and commended it for instruction (Ephesians 4:4–6; Acts 2:42). The Eastern churches did not adopt it for liturgy, largely because it is a Latin composition and because the Nicene Creed already held pride of place, but the doctrine it teaches—the full deity of the Son and Spirit and the true humanity and deity of Christ—is the same doctrine those churches hold from Scripture (John 1:1; Matthew 28:19).

Biblical Narrative

The Athanasian Creed opens by insisting that the catholic faith, the worldwide faith, is this: we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in unity. Scripture’s first light on this truth is the confession of one God, the Lord alone (Deuteronomy 6:4). That same Bible then shows, without apology, the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, while denying that there are three gods (John 17:3; John 1:1; Acts 5:3–4). Jesus sends His disciples to baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” one name, three persons, the very wording the church repeats when it baptizes those who repent and believe (Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:38). Paul blesses churches with “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,” assuming in prayer what is set out in doctrine (2 Corinthians 13:14).

To avoid confusion, the creed says what Scripture demands: we do not confuse the persons or divide the essence. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father; yet each bears the full divine name and glory. The Father is called God (1 Peter 1:2), the Son is called God when Thomas says, “My Lord and my God” and when the Father addresses the Son as God (John 20:28; Hebrews 1:8), and the Spirit is called God when Peter says that lying to the Spirit is lying to God (Acts 5:3–4). Each is almighty, yet there are not three almighties but one Almighty; each is eternal, but there are not three eternals, only one eternal; these lines echo Scripture’s way of speaking when it ascribes divine works and names to the Father, Son, and Spirit while insisting that the Lord is one (Isaiah 44:6; John 1:3; Job 33:4).

The creed also reflects the Bible’s care in speaking about the Spirit’s origin. Jesus says the Spirit proceeds from the Father and that He Himself will send the Spirit from the Father, so the West learned to say that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, while Scripture’s wording remains our guide: the Spirit eternally has His origin from the Father and is sent by the Son in history to comfort and empower the church (John 15:26; John 16:7; Acts 1:8). In every case the point is worship: the Spirit is to be worshiped and glorified together with the Father and the Son because He is the Lord who gives life (2 Corinthians 3:17; Romans 8:11).

Midway through, the creed turns to Christ’s person. “The right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is both God and man.” Scripture says the same with many voices. John opens by calling the Word God and then says the Word became flesh and lived among us (John 1:1; John 1:14). Paul says that in Christ all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form and also says there is one mediator between God and humanity, the man Christ Jesus (Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 2:5). The Gospels show His true humanity in His birth from Mary, His weariness, His tears, His death; and they show His true deity in His authority to forgive sins, His power over wind and sea, His acceptance of worship, and His resurrection on the third day (Luke 1:35; John 4:6; John 11:35; Mark 2:5–7; Mark 4:39; Matthew 14:33; Luke 24:6–7). The creed’s careful wording—that He is perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh, equal to the Father as touching His divinity and less than the Father as touching His humanity—mirrors the Bible’s own language: though He was in very nature God, He humbled Himself and took the form of a servant, being found in appearance as a man (Philippians 2:6–8; Hebrews 2:14–17).

The creed then protects the unity of Christ’s person. It says that although He is God and man, He is not two but one Christ—not by turning divinity into humanity or humanity into divinity, but by the union of the two natures in one person. Scripture gives us the pattern: the one who calms storms also sleeps from weariness, the one who is before Abraham is also the son of David, the one who is the radiance of God’s glory is also the one who tasted death for everyone (Mark 4:38–39; John 8:58; Romans 1:3–4; Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 2:9). This is what the church later called the hypostatic union, Christ fully God and man. The words are short because the mystery is great, but the Bible’s witness keeps both truths intact for salvation’s sake.

The creed ends with last things. It says that the Lord Jesus suffered for our salvation, descended to the realm of the dead, rose again the third day, ascended into heaven, and will come to judge the living and the dead, with all men rising again with their bodies and giving an account (Luke 23:46; 1 Peter 3:18–19; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4; Acts 1:9–11; John 5:28–29). Scripture says that those who believe have eternal life and that those who reject the Son remain under God’s wrath, and Jesus Himself teaches that those who have done good will rise to live and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned (John 3:36; John 5:29; Matthew 25:46). The creed’s opening and closing warnings are not power plays; they are pastor’s words drawn from texts that press us to hold fast to the apostolic gospel and to the Lord it proclaims (Galatians 1:8–9; Jude 3).

Theological Significance

The Athanasian Creed’s first service is to keep two rails in place so the church can run straight: God’s unity and God’s threeness. Scripture guards both. On one hand, there is one Creator, one Lord, one God, who will not share His glory with another (Isaiah 42:8; 1 Corinthians 8:4–6). On the other hand, the Father sends the Son, calls Him God, exalts Him to the highest place, and then sends the Spirit who is also Lord and giver of life (John 3:16–17; Hebrews 1:8; Philippians 2:9–11; Acts 5:3–4). The creed simply sets those rails in a line of short statements that help worshippers avoid two ditches: collapsing the persons into one and making the Son and Spirit masks of the Father, or dividing the essence into three gods and losing biblical monotheism (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 3:16–17).

Its second service is to safeguard the gospel by speaking truly of Christ. If Jesus were less than God, His cross could not bear the world’s sin, and His revelation of the Father would be partial; but Scripture says He is the exact image of God’s being and that the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin (Hebrews 1:3; 1 John 1:7). If Jesus were not truly human, He could not be the last Adam who obeys for us, the High Priest who sympathizes with our weakness, or the mediator who stands between God and humanity; but Scripture calls Him the man Christ Jesus and shows Him learning obedience, suffering, and dying in our stead (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 5:8; Romans 5:18–19). The creed’s balance—equal to the Father as to His divinity, less than the Father as to His humanity—protects the truth that our salvation is the work of the God-man who unites God and humanity in Himself (John 14:9; Philippians 2:6–8).

The creed also models the church’s task in every age: to say no more than Scripture but also no less. Its terms are short because they are tools, not walls. Trinity means one God in three persons, the Bible’s own way of speaking when the Father, Son, and Spirit act and speak in distinction yet in perfect unity (Matthew 28:19; John 15:26). Consubstantial means of the same essence, the point John makes when he calls the Word God and the author of Hebrews makes when he calls the Son the exact representation of God’s being (John 1:1; Hebrews 1:3). Hypostatic union means Christ fully God and man, the truth the Gospels assume when they show the same person sleeping in a boat and stilling the storm with a word (Mark 4:38–39). Procession names the Spirit’s eternal origin from the Father, and Western teaching adds that He proceeds from the Father and the Son in the sense that the Son shares in the sending of the Spirit in history; in all cases, Scripture remains the measure (John 15:26; John 16:7).

Finally, the creed fits within the broad sweep of God’s plan without trying to settle every detail. It does not speak about Israel’s future role or the timing of prophetic events; those are matters the church studies directly from Scripture with care. What it does do is fix the center: the triune God worthy of worship and the incarnate Lord who will return to judge and to reign (Luke 1:32–33; Acts 17:31). Because the center is firm, believers who love the same Lord can keep studying the whole counsel of God while standing together on the truths the creed confesses (2 Timothy 3:16–17; Romans 11:25–29).

Spiritual Lessons and Application

The Athanasian Creed shows how doctrine protects devotion. When a congregation confesses that the Father, Son, and Spirit are each God yet not three gods but one God, they are not speaking in riddles; they are worshiping in truth. Jesus said the Father seeks those who worship in spirit and in truth, and the creed helps the church do that by gathering the Bible’s truth into a form the heart can carry (John 4:23–24). This matters in daily prayer as much as in public worship. Praying to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Spirit becomes more than a formula; it becomes the way Scripture itself teaches us to draw near (Ephesians 2:18; Hebrews 4:14–16).

The creed also tutors conscience. Its opening and closing warnings—whoever wishes to be saved must hold the catholic faith—can sound harsh until we remember that they echo the Lord who says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life,” and the apostles who insist that there is no other name by which we must be saved (John 3:36; Acts 4:12). The point is not to drive away the weak but to guard them. If Jesus is not true God and true man, the gospel collapses. If there are three gods, worship fragments. By giving us true words about the triune God and the God-man, the creed keeps our hope tied to the One who saves (1 Corinthians 15:3–4; Romans 10:9–10).

For teachers and parents, the creed is a ready-made outline for discipleship. Its structure follows the Bible’s: God the Creator, Jesus the Redeemer, the Spirit the life-giver, and the promised return for judgment and resurrection (Genesis 1:1; John 1:14; Romans 8:11; John 5:28–29). Teaching each sentence with open Bibles helps new believers see that these are not church-made notions but Bible truths. Children learn to say “one God in three persons” and then find that pattern at the Jordan when the Son is baptized, the Spirit descends, and the Father speaks (Matthew 3:16–17). They learn that Jesus is both God and man and then discover why: so He could reveal the Father perfectly and bear our sins truly (John 1:18; 1 Peter 2:24).

The creed also steadies unity. Believers who disagree on secondary matters can stand together and confess the Athanasian Creed because it holds only the center: who God is and who Jesus is. Paul calls us to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, a unity rooted in one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all (Ephesians 4:3–6). The creed gives words to that unity, words thick with Scripture and thin on speculation. In a world that prizes novelty, it helps us love what endures (Jeremiah 6:16; Jude 3).

At the same time, the creed fuels hope. It ends by pointing to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, truths Jesus preached when He said the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice, and truths John saw when he beheld the holy city coming down from God, with tears wiped away and death gone (John 5:28–29; Revelation 21:1–4). Confessing that the Judge will return and that bodies will rise does not breed fear for those who are in Christ; it breeds steadiness, courage, and care in how we live by grace, because we know our labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58; 2 Peter 3:11–13).

Conclusion

The Athanasian Creed is a servant of Scripture. Its origin lies in pastors and churches who needed to teach and defend the Bible’s witness to the triune God and to the Lord Jesus Christ. Its formation carried forward the gains of earlier councils by putting the same scriptural truth in brief, balanced sentences. Its acceptance spread because ordinary believers found that it helped them worship, pray, and stand firm. Its usage in catechism and worship has endured because every line returns us to the text of Scripture and to the Lord who speaks there. And its message remains vital: there is one God in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and there is one Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man, who suffered, died, rose, ascended, and will come again to judge the living and the dead (Matthew 28:19; John 1:1; Colossians 2:9; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4; Acts 1:11; John 5:28–29).

Our featured chapter sings the same song in another key. Colossians 1 exalts Christ as the exact image of God, the agent and aim of creation, the head of the church, and the reconciler of all things by His blood. That is why the creed gives Him the titles it does and why the church keeps confessing these truths. They are not museum pieces; they are guardrails for worship and oxygen for hope. To say them is to bow before the Father, confess the Son, and welcome the Spirit, trusting the God who made all things and who will make all things new (Colossians 1:15–20; Revelation 21:5).

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15–17)