I exchanged a few emails last week with a guy who had some questions about the statements in the Athanasian Creed about salvation, namely the first two sentences: “Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled; without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.” The Creed then goes on to talk about the Trinity the Incarnation, Hypostatic Union, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and Return of Christ, along with the general resurrection and judgment of humanity. It then ends by saying, “This is the Catholic Faith; which except a man believe truly and firmly, he cannot be saved.”
About three years ago Ryan Jones asked a question about salvation in the Athanasian Creed, although his concern was a bit different in that he was curious about the juxtaposition of judgment according to deeds and salvation according to faith. I pointed out that ‘holding’ and ‘keeping’ the faith was as much about ‘doing’ as believing and then I pointed to the passages in the Bible that show the same thing (John 5:21-30 cf. John 3:18 or Rom. 2:1-10 cf. Eph. 2:8-9). The question in my recent email exchange was similar but different. The basic thrust of the question was does one have to believe all these things as a prerequisite to salvation? The answer is both yes and no but it depends on one’s perspective of salvation.
I’ll be so bold as to generalize and say that many, if not most, Protestants think of getting “saved” as an entry point. In other words, I just got “saved” and now I’m in the game. Those who read their NT carefully will notice that salvation is spoken of as a past, present, and future reality (if you wanna talk about justification, sanctification, and glorification then fine, do it, I won’t stop you). But I’m of the opinion that the Athanasian Creed had in mind final salvation, i.e., the end game. We’re dealing with a period of the Church’s history that knew nothing (or if it knew anything at all it knew very little) of something like eternal security or perseverance of the saints as the Reformed understand it (I know my Calvinist friends will tell me it’s in the Bible; I disagree but that’s another topic). Salvation was given to those who endured (cf. Matt. 10:22 and note the use of υπομεινας which can connote maintaining belief [BDAG, 1039]).
So while belief in these things might not necessarily have been prerequisites to initial salvation (although in reality these things were in large part included in one’s baptismal confession, even if in abbreviated form) they were certainly prerequisites to final salvation. How could one be saved finally if they didn’t believe in the God that saved them; if they didn’t believe in the death, resurrection, ascension, and return of their Lord and Savior? And remember, this belief was equated with (and if not equated with then foundational to) worship, as the Creed says, “And the Catholic faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity.” How could one be saved if they didn’t worship the God who saves? According to the Athanasian Creed, they couldn’t.
B”H
Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth 
A most interesting post. I so often forget to think in “multiple tenses.”
Alex: So many of us do!
Nick, what about the verse that says something like, “He who is saved WILL endure to the end?”
Drew: Which verse is that? It sounds a lot like Matthew 10:22 (cf. 24:13) but in reverse.
You’re right Nick. So this seems to indicate conditional salvation doesn’t it? My OSAS friends insist on the version I cited above and that is exactly what we should find if unconditional security is true.
Hey, thanks for the link. At the time I wrote the post, I was tending to think of judgment and salvation as opposites of one another – when you are saved you are no longer under judgment. That seems to be the traditional Lutheran view (if I understand it correctly), which is what I found so strange. I particularly like your language that I was juxtaposing “judgment according to works” with “salvation according to faith.” This is just slightly different wording than I used, and I think it helps to sharpen the discussion. Your parallel in wording brings out the fact that judgment and salvation are not diametrically opposed concepts.
This is fun. Maybe I should get back into this whole blogging thing.
Ryan: You should get back to it!