Athanasian Creed · 5 of 9

Concerning Athanasius

43.CONCERNING ATHANASIUS It was granted me to speak with Athanasius; and because he had confirmed himself in the faith of three Gods, he vacillated among the three; nor was he able to acknowledge one God; and from this it has come to pass that he is in error in regard to all things; nor can he know anything of the truth of faith. So, also, is it with others who have confirmed themselves in the faith of three Gods. But they who have not confirmed themselves in that faith, but who have merely heard it and retained it, and still with the faith of one God, come into heaven; for as they did not confirm themselves in it, they reject the idea of three Gods, and preserve the idea of one God.

44.They say that it is not allowable to enter with the understanding also into the things which concern the Trinity, because this is from certain passages of the Word in the external sense. But while this faith reigns, and while this is required and confirmed, there is then no room for the understanding to be enlightened. Such faith closes the way of access for the light, and indeed for the understanding of the Word in the spiritual sense; when yet if one believes that the Divine is in the Lord alone, the understanding can be enlightened from many passages in the Word, which passages are not otherwise seen or understood; as, that He is one with the Father; and others besides. I heard certain spirits reasoning concerning the three Persons, and yet one God; and they reasoned from the words in the Creed, that they are of one substance or one essence, and thus that the three are one; or, as is there said, that Trinity is in Unity and Unity in Trinity; thus believing that still there is one Divine; and in this manner they confirmed themselves with the lips that they are one trine and thus that it is difficult for them to believe in a unanimous trine. However, it was then said to them that they are able to say such things, and can persuade others who attend to nothing but the words that such is the case; but it was said, “Think of one, consisting of three Persons, each of whom is God”-and it was asked whether they were then able to say or utter, one God; but they could not. It was thence evident that those things were mere words; but that every one of them thought no otherwise than of three Gods. And it was said further that such things are in the Athanasian faith, for the reason that they were able in no other way to connect one with the other; knowing from interior thought, and from the Word also, that God is one, and consequently that there is only one Person.

45.The Lord liberated and liberates from hell all who are in truths from good, and thus those who receive Him thereby; thus He subjugated the hells and glorified His Human. (See many passages concerning redemption in Apocalypse Explained; and others besides in the Gospels, especially the prophecies concerning Him, as given in Luke 1-2, and in Matthew 1:21.)

46.In the Creed of Athanasius they assume that His Human consists of a rational soul and a body; and thus, as if the soul of every man were from the mother; but the soul of everyone is from the father, and its clothing from the mother; wherefore in those words Athanasius is in error. The soul of the Lord was the Divine Itself, as is plainly shown in Matthew and Luke; consequently it is plain that His soul was His own Divine Itself. And whereas the body is not the man, without the soul, (indeed, whatever belongs to the body, even to its least particle, lives from the soul) consequently such as the soul is, such is the body; and the body is formed to the likeness of the soul; hence to such likeness are formed the young of animals, eggs, and also grafts, as is well known. And so they make three parts in the Lord, when yet there are two, the Divine and the Human; and these two are one only Person.

47.As soul and body make one man, so the Divine and the Human is one Christ; and this is in accordance with the Creed of Athanasius.

48.First it is said that He is Man from the rational soul and the body, and thus that the soul is from the mother; it is afterwards said that as soul and body are one man, so the Divine and the Human is one Christ. This is a manifest contradiction.