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WHOEVER wishes to be saved must, above all, keep the Catholic
faith. For unless a person keeps this faith whole and entire, he will
undoubtedly be lost forever.
This is what the catholic faith teaches:
we worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity. Neither
confounding the Persons, nor dividing the substance.
For there is one
person of the Father, another of the Son, another of the Holy Spirit.
But the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have one divinity,
equal glory, and coeternal majesty. What the Father is, the Son is,
and the Holy Spirit is. The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated,
and the Holy Spirit is uncreated. The Father is boundless, the Son
is boundless, and the Holy Spirit is boundless. The Father is eternal,
the Son is eternal, and the Holy Spirit is eternal. Nevertheless,
there are not three eternal beings, but one eternal being. So there
are not three uncreated beings, nor three boundless beings, but one
uncreated being and one boundless being. Likewise, the Father is omnipotent,
the Son is omnipotent, the Holy Spirit is omnipotent. Yet there are
not three omnipotent beings, but one omnipotent being.
Thus the Father
is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. However, there
are not three gods, but one God. The Father is Lord, the Son is Lord,
and the Holy Spirit is Lord. However, there as not three lords, but
one Lord. For as we are obliged by Christian truth to acknowledge
every Person singly to be God and Lord, so too are we forbidden
by the Catholic religion to say that there are three Gods or Lords.
The Father was not made, nor created, nor generated by anyone. The
Son is not made, nor created, but begotten by the Father alone.
The
Holy Spirit is not made, nor created, nor generated, but proceeds
from the Father and the Son. There is, then, one Father, not three
Fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three holy
spirits. In this Trinity, there is nothing before or after, nothing
greater or less. The entire three Persons are coeternal and coequal
with one another. So that in all things, as is has been said above,
the Unity is to be worshipped in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity.
He, therefore, who wishes to be saved, must believe thus about the
Trinity. It is also necessary for eternal salvation that he believes
steadfastly in the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Thus
the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, is both God and man. As God, He was begotten
of the substance of the Father before time; as man, He was born in
time of
the substance of His Mother. He is perfect God; and He is perfect
man, with a rational soul and human flesh.
He is equal to the Father
in His divinity, but inferior to the Father in His humanity. Although
He is God and man, He is not two, but one Christ. And He is one, not
because His divinity was changed into flesh, but because His humanity
was assumed unto God. He is one, not by a mingling of substances,
but by unity of person. As a rational soul and flesh are one man:
so God and man are one Christ. He died for our salvation, descended
into hell, and rose from the dead on the third day. He ascended into
heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there
He shall come to judge the living and the dead. At His coming,
all men are to arise with their own bodies; and they are to give an
account
of their own deeds. Those who have done good deeds will
go into eternal life; those who have done evil will go
into the
everlasting fire. This is the Catholic faith. Everyone must believe
it, firmly and steadfastly; otherwise He cannot be saved.
Amen.
Nicene Creed
We believe
in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all
things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus
Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before
all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten,
not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things
were made; who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made
man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered
and was buried; and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father;
and he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and
the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And we
believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds
from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together
is worshiped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets; and we believe
in one holy catholic and apostolic church; we acknowledge one baptism
for the remission of sins; and we look for the resurrection of the
dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
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