- Whoever wishes to be saved must, above all else, hold to the true Christian faith.
- Whoever does not keep this faith pure in all points will certainly perish forever.
- Now this is the true Christian faith:
- We worship one God in three persons and three person in one God,
- without mixing the persons or dividing the divine being.
- For each person-the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit-is distinct,
- but the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one,
- equal in glory and coeternal in majesty.
- What the Father is, so is the Son, and so is the Holy Spirit.
- The Father is uncreated, the Son uncreated, the Holy Spirit uncreated;
- the Father is infinite, the Son infinite, the Holy Spirit infinite;
- the Father is eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal;
- yet they are not three who are eternal, but one who is eternal,
- just as there are not three who are uncreated, nor three who are infinite,
- but there is one who is uncreated and one who is infinite.
- In the same way the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty;
- yet they are not three who are almighty, but there is one who is almighty.
- So the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God;
- yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
- So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord;
- yet they are not three Lords, but one Lord.
- For just as Christian truth compels us to confess each person individually to be God and Lord
- so the true Christian faith forbids us to speak of three Gods or three Lords.
- The Father is neither made nor created nor begotten of anyone.
- The Son is neither made nor created, but is begotten of the Father alone.
- The Holy Spirit is neither made nor created nor begotten,
- but proceeds from the Father and the Son.
- So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son not three Sons;
- one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
- And within this Trinity none comes before or after; none is greater or inferior,
- but all three persons are coequal and coeternal,
- so that in every way, as stated before, all three persons are to be worshiped as one God
- and one God worshiped as three persons.
- Whoever wishes to be saved must have this conviction of the Trinity.
- It is furthermore necessary for eternal salvation truly to believe
- that our Lord Jesus Christ also took on human flesh.
- Now this is the true Christian faith:
- We believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son,
- is both God and man.
- He is God, eternally begotten from the nature of the Father, and he is man, born in time
- from the nature of his mother, fully God, fully man, with rational soul and human flesh,
- equal to the Father as to his deity, less than the Father as to his humanity;
- and though he is both God and man, Christ is not two persons but one,
- one, not by changing the deity into flesh, but by taking the humanity into God;
- one, indeed, not by mixture of the nature, but by unity in one person;
- for just as the rational soul and flesh are one human being,
- so God and man are one Christ.
- He suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose the third day from the dead.
- He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty,
- and from there will come to judge the living and the dead.
- At his coming all people will rise with their own bodies
- to answer for their personal deeds.
- Those who have done good will enter eternal life,
- but those who have done evil will go into eternal fire.
- This is the true Christian faith.
- Whoever does not faithfully and firmly believe this cannot be saved.
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