The Athanasian Creed (included in full at the end of this article) was and is widely accepted by all major branches of the Church. Reading through it, one is struck by the illogicality and incomprehensibility of the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity. As I read it, many questions come to mind.
Question 1
“Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly” (Athanasian Creed).
The Creed is from the 5th or 6th century CE. What happened to those Christians in the years from the first Christians until the 6th century? Fortunately for many, the Second Council of Constantinople fully defined the Trinity in 381 CE; so, this cuts the danger period in half. Even so, that’s still approx. 300 years of Christians (can I call them that?) who didn’t believe in the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity because they didn’t know about it yet.
Have they been excused because the doctrine of the Trinity hadn’t been fully worked out in those intervening years? One would reasonably think so. Or, has their existence been totally extinguished because of their unbelief? Are they asleep in the grave awaiting the Judgment for their sin? Are they in hell because they didn’t believe in the Trinity; or in Purgatory, working off the sin of not believing in the Trinity? Are they safe in an eternal refuge with God despite not having believed that he is a God in three equally divine Persons, as described in this ridiculous creed?
Taking the creedal statement as stated, they all have “perished everlastingly”; but whether that means their existence has been annihilated, or they’re languishing in hell, suffering eternal torment in the flames of hell and the lake of fire, I can’t say.
The Athanasian Creed is a dogmatic statement of faith made by the Catholic Church, so it can’t be changed; therefore, the statement which damns all who do not believe in the Trinity must be accepted. Furthermore, it was physically enforced, under pain of death, by the Emperor.
But if all who didn’t believe in the Trinitarian statement in the Athanasian Creed have perished everlastingly, then all the Church Fathers and doctors and bishops and popes up to 381 CE have perished; but these were the men who were involved in the development of the doctrine – don’t they get a pass? And all the Christians in the churches which the apostles founded are done for, gone, extinguished. Even Tertullian, who coined the term “Trinity” didn’t understand the Catholic doctrine fully, so he’s gone; Origen, who came up with the doozy that Jesus is eternally begotten by the Father, is also gone because he still didn’t understand the doctrine fully – and you can’t believe something if you don’t understand it. Athanasias was a staunch defender of a Trinity but he lucked out because he died in his ignorance in 373, just 8 years prior to the starting date of is 381 CE when people could start getting saved. Even God’s unwillingness to allow people to perish (2 Pet 3:9) wouldn’t have come into force until 381 CE. “This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved”. Sorry, guys. A dogma is a dogma and we can’t bypass it.
Question 2
God, speaking through the prophet Malachi, stated: “I, the LORD, do not change” (3:6 REB). And yet, the Trinity took on an extra person – the human nature of Jesus:
“For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost…..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.”
This statement tells us that Jesus – who is God, as we were told in the earlier statement we just looked at – HAS changed. He has taken unto himself a human nature. So, he is no longer pure deity, the same substance as the Father and the Holy Spirit. His deity is still pure deity, but now it has forever been joined to a human nature. Jesus has changed. In eternity he was 100% deity, no more, no less. But when he entered time through being born as a human, he irrevocably and eternally became the Man Jesus. His human nature was joined to the divine without fusion – the divine nature and the human nature were each 100% pure; yet they were joined in the one Christ.
How such a being could exist defies logic and rationality, and could send a person insane trying to understand it. This is evidenced by the fact that various controversies raged for several centuries over the humanity and deity of Jesus, and how they work together; some thought he was an incorporeal being, a phantom; some thought Jesus was a human upon whom the divine Christ descended and inhabited at his baptism until Jesus went to the cross, at which time the divine Christ left him because he (Christ) cannot die; others questioned how divinity and humanity existed together in Christ; was the human nature absorbed by the divine nature; how many natures did he have; how many wills did he have. But the bottom line is that somehow Jesus took to himself a human nature, and they exist together in the one body.
Which can only mean that Jesus has changed – he is no longer just deity; he is now divine and human; no longer God the Son but the God-man Therefore, there must be four “somethings” in the Trinity – the Trinity can no longer be a Trinity – it is a Quadriple. Which means that God has changed. Even if one argues that Jesus is still Jesus, one Being, by taking a human nature to himself, he is different to what he was before his incarnation. So, he has changed. If something is different to what it was on an earlier occasion, it has changed – it is different; no longer the same.
Despite the semantics of bishops and scholars and church councils over the centuries, I don’t see how any other conclusion can be reached. Jesus was fully divine in eternity; now he is fully divine AND fully human! HE-HAS-CHANGED.
So, does this change mean he is no longer perfect? One cannot change perfection without corrupting it. Nothing can be taken from the perfect because that would make it less than perfect. Nothing can be added to it because that implies that it wasn’t perfect before the addition. Perfection is perfect. Any alteration to it of any kind makes it imperfect.
But…can adding a perfect human nature to a perfect divine nature retain perfection? Can two perfections be combined to make a single perfection? A human nature, even a sinless human nature, is intrinsically inferior to and less than God because it is a creation of God. So, logically, adding even a perfect creation lessens the perfect; so, the perfect is no longer perfect.
All this philosophising is doing my head in; but I can’t not see these ramifications for the Trinity.
The contingency of God
This is important. God, being contingent, means that he depends on nothing and nobody whatsoever; he is self-existent. If the whole of creation were to disappear, God would still “be”. If the creation disappeared and he created another, he would not be dependent on it; in fact, the opposite is the case – the would still creation depend totally on God for its existence.
But the Athanasian Creed tells us that it is only the Father who is contingent. Neither Jesus nor the Holy Spirit are contingent because their existence depends on the Father. The creeds tell us that Jesus is eternally begotten of the Father, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds (whatever that means) from the Father and the Son.
“Eternally begotten” is simply a gobbledygook name for something which is meaningless. How can anything be eternally begotten? The very term “beget” means a once-only beginning. A man begets a son – this is a once-only event. Once the son has been begotten, he grows and develops for the rest of his life. It is impossible and unreasonable to say that anything can be eternally begotten. This is a concept invented by Origen (185-254 CE), marking a significant stage in the centuries-long development of the doctrine of the Trinity.
For Christ to be begotten, he had an origin. If he is eternally being begotten by the Father, his being, his existence, depends on the Father. This means he is not contingent; which means he is not self-existent; which means he is not God.
The same applies to the Holy Spirit. His existence depends not only on the Father but also on the Son, because he is proceeding from them both (another illogicality). This means he, too, is not contingent; which means he is not self-existent; which means he is not God.
Repercussions for questioning
According to the Athanasian Creed, I’m speaking blasphemy and will “everlastingly perish”. But why should I perish simply because I raise logical (to me, at least) questions? I’m not defying God, I’m simply trying to understand him, as far as my finite intelligence will permit. And these are the thoughts that continually confront me with regard to the Trinity doctrine as stated by the Athanasian Creed.
And I’m not going against the divine revelation of Scripture – there is no divine revelation of this doctrine as stated in the Athanasian Creed; it is man-made, no doubt with good intentions, but man-made nevertheless.
Why should I hang my soul’s eternal well-being on the ideas of a man-made construct and pagan philosophy combination? God asks that of nobody. The Catholic doctrine of the Trinity was not revealed from heaven; it is a concept found in Egyptian mythology, an invention of the genius of the human mind; and became a dogma reached through the use of PAGAN Greek philosophy, which took several centuries to develop, formulate, and define. And the Church condemns to hell any and all who do not accept it. This God does not do.
The Church should never have tried to define something which God left unclear. Yes, it is the task of theologians to untangle the mysteries of Scripture, but some things should be left alone, as does Scripture. They should have just accepted what Scripture says. This is the approach the Eastern Orthodox churches take to the Eucharist and Purgatory – they acknowledge them but don’t seek to define them.
At times, Jesus seems to avoid saying that he is God (Mk 10:18; Jn 20:17), while at other times he is stated to be deity (Jn 1:1-2, 14; Heb 1:8-9; Rev 1:18). Matthew mentions the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit together in one statement (Matt 28:19), but nowhere are these three stated to be a Trinity, such as that defined in the Athanasian Creed.
Another consideration is that God made clear to Israel that he is a Unity (Isa 42:8; 43:10-12; 44:6-8), and insisted that Israel worship him as such. When they worshipped idols, he punished them by violently banishing them to a seventy-years captivity in a foreign land.
So why, when Jesus came, didn’t he tell Israel and the Church that God is a Trinity? If Jesus was sent to reveal God, why didn’t he mention the triune nature of God? Jesus, being the exact image of God doesn’t describe God as a Trinity; it only says that Jesus is exactly like God. A coin had the exact image of the Roman emperor; it wasn’t the emperor; it was an exact image of him. So why do we take it that when Jesus is described as the exact image of God and the brightness of his glory (Heb 1:3), it is saying that he is the second Person of a divine Trinity? And why didn’t Jesus tell Israel that they now have to worship him as a Trinity?
But Jesus didn’t tell them that. Sometimes he called himself a prophet and distanced himself from any hint of being more than that. At other times he claimed deity, and the NT writers also claimed that for him. Why did God call Jesus his Son rather than identify him as the second person of a divine Trinity? How can Jesus be with God and yet be God (Jn 1:1)?
If Israel was required to change their centuries-old understanding that God was a Unity, didn’t they deserve to be told by God that all their past understanding was now to be tipped upside-down, and he worshipped as an incomprehensible triune being?
None of this makes sense; and the confusion which resulted from the lack of clear revelation remains with us today, with Jews, Muslims, and many Christian groups understanding God as a Unity, and Catholic and Evangelical Christians understanding him as a Trinity.
“As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible”.
The Athanasian Creed
Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone 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 Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.
The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Ghost uncreate. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost 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 Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So likewise, the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost 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 both 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 Ghost 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 Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity, none is afore, or after other; none is greater, or less than another; But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together and co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved is must think thus 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 at the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence he will come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men will 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.