The Mustard Seed
The Story Behind the Athanasian Creed
The word "creed" is from the Latin word credo, which means "I believe." A creed expresses what a person or a group believes to be true. Some churches prefer to call their creed a "statement of faith."
The first widely accepted creed of the Christian church is called the Apostles' Creed. It is a simple statement which describes the work of the Triune (3-in-1) God -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When new converts were baptized, they expressed their faith in God with the words of the Apostles' Creed.
Later a serious controversy developed over "Who is Jesus?" A popular teacher named Arius taught that Jesus is not true God, but only a super-angel, the first thing that God created. In response to Arius' false teaching, the Christian Church expanded the Apostle's Creed to emphasize the Bible's teaching that Jesus Christ is eternally true God. Today we call this the Nicene Creed.
Also during this time Christians struggled with ways to describe God. We know that the Bible teaches that there is only one God. So who or what are the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? And how do they relate to each other? Teachers came up with explanations which made perfect sense -- they were very logical -- but also were very wrong. A general label for their teaching is "monarchianism." This teaching emphasized that God is one God, while it rejected that God is also three Persons.
One group of monarchians taught that God is God the Father only, just as Arius taught. But these folks said that Jesus was only a good man. They taught that when God saw what a good man Jesus was, God gave Jesus the "Christ-spirit" at his baptism, which made him "Jesus Christ." Their view was that "Jesus Christ" is not one person, but "Jesus" and "Christ" are two persons, one human and the other spirit. They taught that it was the "Christ-spirit" in the man Jesus which helped him to teach and do miracles. Then, they said, when Jesus was crucified, the "Christ-spirit" left Jesus to die alone, only as a man. This teaching is called "adoptionism," as a way of describing how God "adopted" the man Jesus. Today we see similar teachings in the modern New Age movement.
Adoptionism makes good sense, so what is wrong with it? (1) This teaching goes against everything that the Bible says about who Jesus is. (2) Because the adoptionist "Jesus" was only human, he can only be our example, not our Savior. Only God can save us from our sins, and the "Jesus" that both Arius and the adoptionists offer us was not God.
Another group of monarchians taught that in the course of history God took on three different roles, or we might say that God had three different masks. In the Old Testament God was the Father, the creator, law-giver, and judge. Then in the New Testament, God took off the Father mask and became the Son, Jesus Christ -- true God and true man -- who suffered and died on the cross for our sins. Then when He ascended into heaven, God took off the Son mask and became the Holy Spirit who touched the Apostles on Pentecost and touches us today. This teaching emphasizes that God is only one person that has three different names or titles to describe the ways (or "modes") He worked in at three different times in history. This teaching is called "modalism."
When we ask our students what is wrong with this way of describing God, they immediately answer, "Look at what happened at Jesus' baptism!" When Jesus (the Son) was baptized, the Holy Spirit came on Him, and the Father spoke from heaven. All three Persons were distinctly there. Throughout Jesus' life, we see Him in prayer. To whom did He pray? Himself? When Jesus was on the cross, what was the first thing He said? "Father, forgive them..." Later He cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?!" To whom was Jesus speaking? After His resurrection, Jesus told the women who had gone to the tomb, "I am going to my Father and your Father." Modalism make good sense. But because it clearly contradicts the Bible, we must reject it.
As a way to correct these and other wrong teachings about God -- the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- the church composed a statement of faith which emphasizes that there is only one God consisting of three distinct Persons. They named this creed in honor of Athanasius, who in a previous generation had urged the church to test all of its teaching with what the Bible says. (Athanasius was a leader in the struggle against Arianism).
You will find the complete Athanasian Creed, both text and signed, on christdeaf.org/bible.
