Questions & Answers

The Athanasian Creed was probably written around 500 A.D. in Southern Gaul (France). The German tribes that had invaded this part of the world were Arians. The Arian heresy had been condemned by the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. and by the Council of Constantinople in 381 (from which we get our Nicene Creed).

The Arians denied that Jesus could be God in the same sense that God the Father is God. They believed that the Son of God was created by God and was less than God. They, therefore, rejected God as he has revealed himself in the Holy Scriptures. They were worshiping a god of their own making.

The Athanasian Creed, in the strongest of terms, rejects these various arrors concerning the person of Christ and the Trinity.

Our Savior himself says, "Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor that Father who sent him" (John 5:22-23). According to these words, those who withhold from the Son the honor that they give to the Father (e.g., that he is true God from all eternity) also deny the Father. They are not true believers.

The creed, however, is not condemning simple Christians whose knowledge and understanding is incomplete. We do not have to be able to explain complex scriptural doctrine in order to be saved. The Athanasian Creed, nevertheless, is condemning those who deny and reject these vital scriptural truths. Those who reject the doctrine of the Trinity and the true deity of Christ are not Christian.