❖ Athanasian Creed, Part 3

Whoever desires to be saved should above all hold to the catholic faith. Anyone who does not keep it whole and unbroken will doubtless perish eternally. Now this is the catholic faith:

that we worship one God in Trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confounding their persons nor dividing the essence…

But it is necessary for eternal salvation that one also believe in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully.

Now this is the true faith:

that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son,

is both God and man, equally.

He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time;

and he is man from the essence of his mother, born in time;

completely God, completely man, with a rational soul and human flesh;

equal to the Father as regards divinity,

less than the Father as regards humanity.

Although he is God and man, yet Christ is not two, but one.

He is one, however, not by his divinity being turned into flesh,

but by God’s taking humanity to himself.

He is one, certainly not by the blending of his essence,

but by the unity of his person.

For just as one man is both rational soul and flesh,

so too the one Christ is both God and man.

He suffered for our salvation;

he descended to hell;

he arose from the dead on the third day;

he ascended to heaven;

he is seated at the Father’s right hand;

from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

At his coming all people will arise bodily and give an accounting of their own deeds.

Those who have done good will enter eternal life,

and those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.

This is the catholic faith: that one cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully.