Jude, the brother of our Lord, instructs us to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude‬ ‭1‬:‭3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). Likewise, St. Paul told his young apprentice Timothy: Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us (1 Timothy‬ ‭1‬:‭13‬-‭14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). What Paul, as an old Apostle, taught the younger preacher, is to be heeded by every believer, and collectively by the Church in each generation.

What Jude and Paul told those early believers is precisely what the four so-called “ecumenical Creeds”—the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Definition of Chalcedon—are doing: contending for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and holding fast to the pattern of sound words which were given to us by the Apostles.

They are not extra-biblical. Rather they describe and safeguard what we might call a minimum viable theology. They establish the necessary ingredients for what C.S. Lewis called “mere Christianity”: the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times. Essential Christianity.

They’re not meant to umpire every conceivable question of theology and practice. Rather, they provide, as I said, a minimum viable set of commonplaces that make conversations among Christians possible: What do we mean by God? What did Christ accomplish? What is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit? What happens to believers after this life?

Essentially, if you answer these questions any other way than: 1) We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; 2) For us men and for our salvation, He came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; 3) With the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; 4) The resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting—then whatever else you might call your religion, you are not a Christian.

If that seems oppressive to you, every one of those points is a summary of what the Bible actually teaches, and is defended easily from Scripture. More to the point, if we won’t sign off on them, we are left to the tyranny of whatever the elders or a pastor of each particular church thinks Christianity to be. Or worse—to the opinion of each individual Christian. This creates exactly the environment we should hope to avoid: In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges‬ ‭21‬:‭25‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). When you reject the wisdom contained in the ecumenical Creeds, you are actually saying that your personal interpretation is sovereign over Scripture. You’re saying that you or your pastor or your elders are the final arbiter of the pattern of sound words. That each generation may decide for itself what is the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Fundamentally, the ecumenical Creeds are the servants of Scripture and the Church; not the other way around. They provide a common language in which Christians may converse intelligibly about the Scriptures and the God to whom they bear witness. The alternative is that each man tries to build his own tower into the heavens, and make a name for himself; and just as we see at Babel, our language will be confused and we will not be able to speak to one another, and will be scattered to descend into idolatry, injustice, and depravity.

The same arrogance that drove the men of Babel is the driving force behind every heretic.

This year, the Sermonator is going line-by-line through the Athanasian Creed, with Scripture. The Athanasian Creed is sort of an omnibus statement of faith around two essential points of doctrine: the Trinity, and the divine and human natures of Christ. As such it refutes the errors of the docetic Gnostics, who taught that Christ isn’t truly Man; the Arians, who taught that He isn’t truly God; the Marcionites, who taught that the Lord Yahweh of the Old Testament is not the Father Christ prayed to; the semi-Arians who taught that the Holy Spirit is not God; and the Sabellians, who held that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were just three masks worn by a single divine Person.

These aren’t just old heresies. They’re always being recycled. You have Sabellianism in Oneness Pentecostalism (T.D. Jakes). You’ve got Joel Osteen’s wife claiming Jesus was “just a man” until God touched Him with the Holy Spirit—a form of another ancient heresy called adoptionism. You have a distinctly Marcionite tendency among many so-called “progressive” Christians who wish to “unhitch” our theology from the Old Testament (see Greg Boyd and Andy Stanley).

I have no interest in either being complacent in the face of these damning errors; or reinventing the wheel to try and contend earnestly for the faith against them relying only on my own wits. You shouldn’t either.

Lesson from the Creed

Thus the Father is Lord,
the Son is Lord,
the Holy Spirit is Lord.
Yet there are not three lords;
there is but one Lord.

Just as Christian truth compels us
to confess each person individually
    as both God and Lord,
so catholic [1] religion forbids us
to say that there are three gods or lords.

Athanasian Creed, Lines 17-20

[1] Again, notice this is little- c catholic. It means, again, quoting from Lewis: the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times.

Exposition from Scripture

These lines are a summary of what has come before; namely an explanation of what it means to worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. Beginning at the next line, the Creed will lay out what is distinct about each Person—what properly belongs to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Lord in the Old Testament is LORD, that is, Yahweh. The Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, translated this with kyrios—Lord—and this term is used of all three Persons of the Godhead in the New Testament.

The Father is Lord. So Christ prays: I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes (Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭25‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

The Son is Lord. When Christ was born, the angels announced to the shepherds of Bethlehem: For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Luke‬ ‭2‬:‭11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). Likewise in Acts 10:36, Peter proclaims that Christ is Lord of all. Speaking of Christ, Paul says: And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power (1 Corinthians‬ ‭6‬:‭14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). And Revelation 17:14 calls Him Lord of lords and King of kings.

The Holy Spirit is Lord. St. Paul affirms: Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

Just as Father, Son, and Spirit are all called God in Scripture; and are each said to have the divine attributes of aseity (being uncreated), eternity, infinity, and omnipotence (being Almighty); so all are called Lord by the Scriptures.

Yet there are not three lords; there is but one Lord. For it is written: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! (Deuteronomy‬ ‭6‬:‭4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

There is no contradiction. There is but one God and Lord; and the one God is three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

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. In other words, as it relates to the Godhead, this is the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints, which we must not only believe; but for which we must also contend earnestly.