The natural knowledge of God tells us only that there is a god, something that virtually everyone acknowledges, even if it is only a “prime cause” or “nature.” We only know the living God, the God who is really there, because he has chosen to reveal Himself through the inspired Word given to Adam and Eve and to their descendants, and then written by the Prophets in the Old Testament and by the Apostles and Evangelists in the New Testament.
Because of the deceit of the devil and of the sinful nature of man, God is continually misrepresented and the faith of people is turned away from the true God. In the Old Testament, God identified Himself as the One who had revealed Himself to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and as YAWEH, (or Jehovah), I AM. This is the unique name He revealed as His own. Interchangeably with this He revealed Himself also in the Spirit of God, and in the Angel of the Lord. For this reason the first-century Jews who accepted Christ as their Messiah had no difficulty with the understanding of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Because of the centrality of Christ as God the Son in God’s work to save us, early Christians confessed that Jesus is at the same time true man, as well as God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and yet not three Gods, but One. Jesus Identified himself also with YAWEH, declaring, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” At various times false teachers arose who denied different aspects of the reality of God, especially the divinity of Christ. In response, statements of belief called creeds were written to clearly state what God has revealed about Himself in the Bible.
While we grow in our understanding of the God in whom we believe, the important thing is that our faith is in the God who is really there. For that reason to deny what God has said about Himself is to put our faith in something other than the God who is there – a figment of our imagination.
The Athanasian Creed is the most extensive of the three ecumenical or catholic (meaning “universal,” accepted by all Christian churches) creeds.
Being written after the year 600 (and after many heresies had been refuted) this creed contrasts such false teaching with the truth. This creed accentuates the fact that our faith rests in the God who really did create us, redeem us, and call us to faith through the gospel, and that only such faith is a saving faith. It clearly teaches that faith in any other god leads to damnation.
The Athanasian Creed is traditionally confessed in the divine service on Trinity Sunday, because of its exhaustive expression of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
One clause that is sometimes jarring to Lutheran ears is #39, “And they that have done good will enter into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.” What about “salvation by grace through faith”? This is a good reminder that Jesus fulfilled the law for us; He did not abolish it. On judgment day sinners have no place with the Holy God. Our salvation comes through faith in Christ who atoned for our sins, taking them away so that we may actually live and do those things that are good. By faith we have nothing but good works before God.