In many aspects of secular life, we operate by this principle: If it’s not written down, it didn’t happen. Documentation of facts and agreements is crucial to employment, legal proceedings, leases—even the most mundane portions of life, like recipes and grocery lists.

Why is it, then, that many Christians reject the ecumenical creeds, which are nothing other than the written documentation of ancient Christians of the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude‬ ‭3 NKJV‬‬), as it relates to the Trinity and the two natures of Christ?

The consequence is that we lose access to these essential facts, agreed upon among Christians from antiquity. Without the documentation the Creeds provide, the victories of our ancestors in the faith might as well have never happened. Because, remember: If it’s not written down, it didn’t happen.

This leaves us in a dangerous position. The Bible warns us: Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have set (Proverbs‬ ‭22‬:‭28‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). Without the sober guidance the Creeds provide, we will not know when a man is removing the ancient landmarks. And soon enough, we will find ourselves impoverished, our holy inheritance compromised. And who shall adjudicate?

But what about the doctrine of Sola Scriptura?, someone will ask. Sola Scriptura doesn’t mean solo Scriptura. The Creeds do not stand against Scripture, nor do they claim to be on equal footing with it. They are vetted, faithful guides that document where the ancient landmarks are, when it comes to the Trinity and the doctrine of Christ.

But aren’t the Scriptures self-interpreting?, someone else will ask. Nay, for Scripture teaches us that Huldah the Prophetess had to interpret the Scriptures for King Josiah (2 Kings 22); and Philip had to interpret the Scriptures for the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-38). Josiah and the eunuch were both well-educated, godly men. But someone else still had to guide them through the Scriptures.

In sum, the Athanasian Creed is meant to guide believers safely through the doctrines of the Trinity and the two natures of Christ. Missteps here will result in making shipwreck of our faith (1 Timothy 1:19). We should not want to be left vulnerable to the ignorant, unstable, and unscrupulous teachers who twist the Scriptures to their own destruction—and ours, if we heed them.

Lines 25-26 of the Athanasian Creed are drawing a conclusion from what has come before. Namely, that the eternal relationships of origin within the Trinity don’t indicate a hierarchy within the Trinity.

Lesson from the Creed

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.

Athanasian Creed, Lines 25-26

Explanation from Scripture

The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are God: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew‬ ‭28‬:‭19‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). This is the Trinity in their unity.

They are the First, Second, and Third Persons of the Trinity, not in terms of rank, but according to the order of their eternal processions. They are distinct Persons, yet are still equal. The Father is unbegotten, the Son is eternally begotten, and the Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son. Key here is that these are eternal relationships.

So in John 1:1-2, we read: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God (John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). The Son is distinct from the Father, but both are equally God. Thus, the Son says: All things that the Father has are Mine (John‬ ‭16‬:‭15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). This includes the divine attributes. The Son, like the Father, is uncreated, eternal, infinite, and Almighty. Likewise, Christ prayed: And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was (John‬ ‭17‬:‭5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). Therefore, the Father and the Son are eternally equal in glory.

Or, as the Creed says, they are coeternal and coequal with each other.

This is especially crucial to understand in light of an error that has swept through evangelical Christianity, even the seminaries, during the last 30 years: the eternal relations of origin have been redefined as eternal relationships of authority and submission (ERAS, also called eternal subordination of the Son, or eternal functional subordination, ESS / EFS). For example, evangelical theologian Wayne Grudem has written:

[T]he idea of authority and submission has always existed in the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son in the Trinity. And this means that the idea of authority and submission in interpersonal relationships never began – it has always existed in the eternal relationship between the Father and Son. The doctrine of the Trinity thus indicates that equality of being together with authority and submission to authority are perhaps the most fundamental aspects of interpersonal relationship in the entire universe.

Evangelical Feminism & Biblical Truth, 429

The Athanasian Creed, however, denies that authority and submission has always existed in the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son in the Trinity. Submission means that there are multiple wills in play, so one person yields their will to the other. Thus, submission of one Person in the Trinity would mean that a) There are multiple wills within the Godhead which might sometimes come into conflict; and b) that one of those wills would be wrong, or at least, not as optimal. This would give us either three Gods (multiple divine wills); or at the very least, an imperfect, fallible God.

But the teaching that authority and submission has always existed in the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son in the Trinity isn’t just wrong because the Athanasian Creed says it’s wrong. Scripture denies it, too. For example, Hebrews 5:7-8 declares that Christ in the days of His flesh … offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered (Hebrews‬ ‭5‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). Christ only submits to the Father in His Incarnation, that is, in His flesh, as our representative. It is His human will that submits, not His divine will. That’s why it says He learned obedience. Within His eternal relationship with the Father, there is no authority and submission.

Now, what of the Holy Spirit? Hebrews 9:14 calls Him the eternal Spirit. And in Acts 5:4-5, when Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit (by lying to the Church, among whom the Spirit dwells), Peter told him: You have not lied to men but to God (Acts‬ ‭5‬:‭3-4 ‭NKJV‬‬).

Again, what we can gather from all this is what the Athanasian Creed instructs us to Confess: in their entirety the three persons
are coeternal and coequal with each other.

In sum, the Creed is warning us that when we see words like Father, Son, or begotten, we must not understand this as a procession in time (the Father begets the Son at some point, then the two of them begin to breathe out the Spirit); nor is there inequality in the Trinity, as if the Son were God, Jr., and the Spirit were their junior partner. Rather, they share an equal eternal glory. There is no authority and submission … in the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son [or the Spirit, for that matter] in the Trinity.

Or, as the Creed teaches us to confess: Nothing in this Trinity is before or after, nothing is greater or smaller … So in everything, as was said earlier, we must worship their Trinity in their unity and their unity in their Trinity. Once you move away from this standard, you are moving towards either Tritheism, or confusion. And neither of those options are Christian, since: the Lord is one (Deuteronomy 6:4); and, God is not the author of confusion (1 Corinthians‬ ‭14‬:‭33‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).