Brief Exposition (Stanley) n. 34

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

34. It is to be observed that in the Apostles' Creed it is said " I believe in God the Father. . . in Jesus Christ. . . and in the Holy Ghost," and in the Nicene Creed: "I believe in one God, the Father. . . in one Lord Jesus Christ... and in the Holy Ghost"; thus, only in one God. But in the Athanasian Creed it is said: "In God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost"; thus, in three Gods. Yet because the authors and favourers of this creed saw clearly that an idea of three Gods would inevitably result from the expressions used therein, in order that this might be remedied, they asserted that one substance or essence belongs to the three. But, in truth, from these expressions no other idea arises than that there are three Gods of one mind and agreeing together. For when one indivisible substance or essence is attributed to the Three, it does not remove the idea of three, but confuses it. This is because the expression is a metaphysical one, and metaphysics with all its ingenuity cannot make one out of three Persons, each of Whom is God. It may, indeed, make a unity of them in utterance, but never in the idea.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church