The Creed

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.

And the catholic faith is this: 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, 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 coeternal.

Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Spirit uncreate. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal. As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Spirit Almighty. And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Almighty.

So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So likewise 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 the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be 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 of the Son; neither made, nor created, 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 none is afore, or after another; none is greater, or less than another. But the whole three Persons are coeternal, and coequal. 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.

Furthermore, it is 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, the Son of God, is God and Man; God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the Substance of his Mother, born in the world; Perfect God, and Perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the Father, as touching his Manhood. Who although he be God and Man, yet he is not two, but one Christ. One; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the 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; descended into hell; rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into heaven, he sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence he shall come to judge the quick 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 everlasting; and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.

This is the catholic faith; which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.

Background and Historical Setting

The Athanasian Creed — known by its Latin opening as the Quicunque vult (“Whosoever will [be saved]”) — is the most precise and demanding of the catholic creeds, a tightly reasoned exposition of the Trinity and the incarnation. It is unique among the creeds in being a sustained piece of theological argument rather than a baptismal confession, and in pronouncing explicit warnings on the necessity of the true faith.

Its name is honorific, not historical. Despite the title, the creed was not written by Athanasius, the great fourth-century defender of Nicaea. The evidence is decisive: it was composed in Latin (Athanasius wrote in Greek), it shows no awareness of the specific controversies he fought, and it reflects the more developed, settled Trinitarian and Christological vocabulary of the Latin West after Augustine. The early Eastern church did not know it. Scholars place its composition in southern Gaul (modern France) in roughly the fifth or sixth century; some have linked it to the circle of Augustine’s heirs, and a few to figures like Vincent of Lérins, but the author is unknown. The name attached because the creed so faithfully summarized the Athanasian (Nicene) faith.

Because it is a Western document, the Athanasian Creed has been received in the West but not the East; the Eastern Orthodox have never used it, partly because of its unfamiliarity and partly because of its inclusion of the filioque (“the Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son”). In the medieval and Reformation West it held an honored place, recited in worship (often at the office of Prime) and printed among the church’s authoritative symbols. It remains the most rigorous short statement of orthodox Trinitarian faith the church possesses.

What It Guards Against

The creed is constructed to exclude error from every side at once, holding the two great truths — one God in three persons, and one Christ in two natures — against all their distortions.

• Modalism / Sabellianism — collapsing the three into one person who appears in different modes. Guarded by “neither confounding the Persons” and “there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.”
• Tritheism — making the three into three gods. Guarded relentlessly: “they are not three Gods, but one God”; “we are forbidden… to say, There be three Gods.”
• Arianism / Subordinationism — making the Son or Spirit lesser or created. Guarded by “the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal”; “none is greater, or less than another”; “coeternal, and coequal.”
• Nestorianism — dividing Christ into two persons. Guarded by “not two, but one Christ… by unity of Person.”
• Eutychianism / Monophysitism — fusing the natures. Guarded by “not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh… not by confusion of Substance.”
• Apollinarianism — denying Christ a full human soul. Guarded by “of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.”

A Walk Through the Creed

The creed falls into two great parts, framed by the opening and closing warnings: the Trinity (sections 1–4) and the Incarnation (sections 5–6).

The opening warning. “Whosoever will be saved… must hold the catholic faith.” The creed announces its stakes at once: right confession of God matters for salvation. (Its force is treated under the Reformed Reading.)

The Trinity: unity and distinction held together. “We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.” Here is the whole doctrine in one line: three persons truly distinct, one substance truly shared (Deut. 6:4; Matt. 28:19). The creed then proves it by a rhythmic test: each attribute (uncreate, eternal, almighty, God, Lord) is affirmed of each person, and yet not multiplied — “not three eternals, but one eternal.” What is true of the substance is one; what distinguishes the persons is not the substance. “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30), yet the Father sends the Son (John 5:23) and both send the Spirit (John 15:26).

The relations of origin. “The Father is made of none… The Son is of the Father alone… begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son… proceeding.” The persons are distinguished not by greater or lesser deity but by their eternal relations: the Father unbegotten, the Son begotten, the Spirit proceeding (John 1:14, 18; John 15:26). “None is afore, or after another; none is greater, or less” (John 1:1; Phil. 2:6).

The incarnation. “Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man.” The second part turns from how God is three-in-one to how the Son is two-natured. “God, of the Substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the Substance of his Mother, born in the world” (John 1:1, 14; Gal. 4:4). “Perfect God, and Perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh” — a complete humanity (Heb. 2:17). “Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead; and inferior to the Father, as touching his Manhood” — both said of the one Christ, each according to its nature (John 10:30; John 14:28). The union is stated with Chalcedonian care: “not two, but one Christ… not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of the Manhood into God… not by confusion of Substance, but by unity of Person.” The memorable analogy follows: “as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one Christ.”

The gospel and the consummation. “Who suffered for our salvation; descended into hell; rose again the third day… ascended into heaven… from whence he shall come to judge” (1 Cor. 15:3–4; Acts 1:9–11; Acts 17:31). “All men shall rise again with their bodies; and shall give account for their own works” (John 5:28–29; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:12–13). The one God, rightly confessed, is the God who saves and judges in Christ.

The closing warning. “This is the catholic faith; which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.”

Key Doctrinal Points

• One God in three coequal, coeternal persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — “neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance.”
• The persons are distinguished by their eternal relations of origin: the Father unbegotten, the Son begotten, the Spirit proceeding (from the Father and the Son).
• The three are equal in glory and majesty; none greater or less, none before or after.
• Jesus Christ is one person in two complete natures — perfect God and perfect man, with a rational soul — equal to the Father as God, lesser as man.
• The natures are united without conversion or confusion, by unity of person, not by mixture of substance.
• Christ’s saving work and his return to judge bring the doctrine home to salvation and to the resurrection of all.

Scriptural Foundation

• Deut. 6:4 — “The LORD our God, the LORD is one” — the unity of God the creed everywhere upholds.
• Matt. 28:19 — the one “name” of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — three persons, one name.
• John 1:1, 14 — “the Word was God… and the Word became flesh” — eternal deity and true incarnation.
• John 10:30; 14:28 — “I and the Father are one” and “the Father is greater than I” — equal as God, lesser as man, in the one Christ.
• John 15:26 — the Spirit “proceeds from the Father” and is sent by the Son.
• Phil. 2:6–8 — “in the form of God… took the form of a servant” — one person in two natures.
• 2 Cor. 13:14 — the grace of the Son, love of the Father, and fellowship of the Spirit — the triune blessing.
• John 5:28–29 — all will rise and “come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

A Reformed Reading: Clarifications and Disputed Points

Not written by Athanasius; a Western creed. The Reformed receive the creed for its content, not its legendary authorship, and freely acknowledge that it is a fifth- or sixth-century Latin composition, not a work of Athanasius. This honesty does not diminish it; the creed earns its authority by faithfully summarizing Scripture, which is the only ground on which any creed binds. Being Western, it is not received by the Eastern church, and its filioque (“the Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son”) is one reason; the Reformed, with the West, affirm that clause (see the Nicene Creed reference for the fuller discussion).

The “damnatory” (or “warning”) clauses. This is the point most in need of careful, charitable handling. The creed opens and closes — and twice in the middle insists — that one must hold this faith “whole and undefiled” or “perish everlastingly,” and “cannot be saved.” These clauses have troubled many and led some churches to drop the creed from worship. The Reformed do not soften the words but read them rightly:

First, they assert the necessity of the true faith, not salvation by intellectual achievement or by works. The creed is not teaching that one earns heaven by mastering Trinitarian metaphysics, nor that the precise comprehension of every clause is the condition of salvation. It is asserting that the object of saving faith is the true and living God — the Trinity, and Christ as God and man — and that to embrace a counterfeit (an Arian “Christ,” a unitarian “god,” a Christ who is not truly God or not truly man) is to embrace a different gospel that cannot save (Gal. 1:8–9; 2 John 9; John 8:24). To reject the true God knowingly and finally is indeed to perish; this is the consistent witness of Scripture.

Second, the warnings concern the faith confessed, not the believer’s depth of theological skill. A simple Christian who trusts the triune God revealed in Scripture holds “the catholic faith” though he could not parse homoousios; he believes truly even what he cannot fully articulate. The creed condemns the heresies, not the unlearned. As the Reformed read it, the warning falls on those who would set the church’s confession aside for a false god of their own devising — not on the weak or the doubting who cleave, however haltingly, to the true Christ.

Third, the final mention of judgment “according to works” (“they that have done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into everlasting fire”) is not works-righteousness. It echoes Scripture’s own teaching that the final judgment manifests the reality of faith by its fruit (Matt. 25:31–46; John 5:28–29; James 2:17). Works are the evidence of living faith, not its ground; the Reformed read the clause in harmony with justification by faith alone (Rom. 3:28; Eph. 2:8–10). So understood, the warning clauses are a sober and loving fence around the gospel, not a denial of grace.

“The Father incomprehensible.” A note on archaic English: in the older sense incomprehensible means “unbounded, immeasurable, not able to be contained or grasped” — not “unintelligible.” The Latin is immensus (“immeasurable”). The creed confesses that each person is infinite and boundless, not that God cannot be known at all.

How the Reformed Standards Receive It

The Reformed churches received the Athanasian Creed as the third of the great catholic creeds. The Belgic Confession (Article 9) names it explicitly alongside the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds: “we willingly receive the three creeds — the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian — and also that which the early fathers agreed with these.” The continental Reformed (the Three Forms of Unity tradition) thus formally confess it. Its rigorous Trinitarianism stands behind the Trinitarian articles of both the Belgic Confession (Art. 8–11) and the Westminster Confession (II.3), and its two-natures Christology behind Westminster VIII.2 and Belgic 18–19. The Westminster Standards do not append the Athanasian Creed (as some Anglican formularies did by printing it for liturgical use), but the Westminster divines stood within its doctrine entirely. Received as a subordinate standard, it is honored because, and so far as, it summarizes the Word of God.

Christ and the Gospel in the Creed

For all its precision, the Athanasian Creed is not a cold puzzle but a confession that drives to the gospel. Its first half labors to confess God rightly as Trinity because the God who saves us is this God — the Father who plans redemption, the Son who accomplishes it, the Spirit who applies it. Its second half turns at once to “our Lord Jesus Christ… God and Man,” and from his person moves straight to his work: “Who suffered for our salvation; descended into hell; rose again… ascended… shall come to judge.” The doctrine and the gospel are one seamless confession. The creed insists on the deity and humanity of Christ precisely because our salvation depends on both — a Mediator equal to the Father as God, and one with us as man. To confess the Quicunque is to bow before the triune God and to rest, with the whole catholic church, on the Christ who is God and man for us.

Questions for Reflection and Application

• Q: Does the creed teach that I must understand the Trinity perfectly to be saved?

Biblical answer: No — it teaches that saving faith must rest on the true God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, and on Christ as God and man (Matt. 28:19; John 17:3; John 8:24); we are saved by trusting the true God, not by mastering theology. Why it matters: It frees the humble believer from fear while guarding the church against false gods and false christs that cannot save (Gal. 1:8–9).

• Q: How can the Son be both “equal to the Father” and “inferior to the Father”?

Biblical answer: Equal “as touching his Godhead” (John 10:30; Phil. 2:6) and inferior “as touching his Manhood” (John 14:28) — both are true of the one Christ, each according to one of his two natures. Why it matters: It teaches me to read the Gospels rightly, attributing to the one Lord what belongs to each nature, and so to marvel that the eternal God truly became a servant for me.

• Q: What should I make of the warning that one who does not hold this faith “cannot be saved”?

Biblical answer: Scripture itself warns that to reject the true Christ is to perish (John 8:24; 2 John 9) and that another gospel is no gospel (Gal. 1:8–9); the warning falls on embracing a counterfeit God, not on weak or unlearned faith in the true one. Why it matters: It presses me to make sure my faith rests on the God who is really there, and to hold the church’s hard-won confession as a treasure rather than a burden.

• Q: If judgment is “according to works,” am I saved by what I do?

Biblical answer: No — we are justified by faith apart from works (Rom. 3:28; Eph. 2:8–9), and the judgment according to works displays faith by its fruit (Matt. 25:31–46; James 2:17); works are the evidence, not the ground, of salvation. Why it matters: It holds together grace and the seriousness of a life transformed by grace, so I neither presume nor despair but live out a faith that bears fruit.

For Confession and Memory

The Athanasian Creed is long and rhythmic, built for recitation; in churches that use it, it is read responsively, its parallel lines falling like a chant. Few will commit the whole to memory, but its central confession can be carried always: one God in three persons, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance; one Christ in two natures, equal to the Father as God, one with us as man. Confess it as the church’s most exact praise of the Trinity — not to parse God, who is immensus, beyond measure, but to worship him rightly. Read its warnings not with terror but with resolve: to hold fast the true and living God who has made himself known, and to rest on the Christ who is God and man for our salvation.

Further Reading

• Belgic Confession, Article 9 (the explicit reception of the three creeds); Articles 8–11 and 18–19.
• Westminster Confession of Faith, II.3 and VIII.2.
• Augustine, On the Trinity (the Latin theology that stands behind the creed).
• John Calvin, Institutes, I.13 (the Trinity; the persons and their relations).
• J. N. D. Kelly, The Athanasian Creed (the standard study of its origin and meaning).
• Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything.