Near the end of the Athanasian Creed, it says "that if you do good" you will be saved. How does this relate to being saved by grace?

Is it correct theology to say that Jesus is God, or God is Jesus?  Do these phrases diminish the Holiness of the Three in One? 

In this area (South Carolina), Baptists predominate. They believe that having the creed (Nicene or Apostles) is at best superfluous when one has the Bible. How would you reply to this viewpoint?

I'm trying to understand your concept of the Trinity. I can see where we start with God the Father, through the Father's word we have Jesus and the Holy Spirit. But I don't quite understand how they can be considered one. I can see how Jesus and the Holy Spirit came from God the Father but how is it that they are God the Father?

How can Christ be sinless when on the cross He took on the sins of the world?

You state that when Jesus died on that cross He was sacrificing His life to save ours. My questions are: Who is "ours"...? What about those who died before He was born? What about those who didn't hear of him and those who still haven't heard of him? How exclusionary is his sacrifice? Is it really as limited as one would NOT expect of a LOVING God?

What is the position of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod on the insertion of the Filioque (and the Son) in the Nicene Creed?

What is the meaning of "Very God of Very God" in the Nicene Creed?

Was Christ the true son of Mary or only implanted as a whole by the Holy Spirit? There seems to be some different views on this--one view that Mary carried Jesus in her womb and gave birth to Him but He was not her biological son. The other that while the Holy Spirit conceived the Christ child, the virgin Mary's egg was used thus giving the God-Man His humanity without sin.

Why is God, the Holy Spirit, viewed as a person and not as a Spirit?

How does the Church arrive at a Friday crucifixion if our Lord plainly said he would descend for three days and three nights? Assuming that Jesus arose on the first day (sometime after the Sabbath but before dawn) and counting backwards I count a Wednesday crucifixion.

One line in the Apostles' Creed says, "On the third day He rose again." Grammatically speaking, for Jesus to have "rose AGAIN" implies that there was a previous rising from the dead for him --- which the Scriptures do not indicate, nor do we teach. Would you please explain for me why the Creed says, "He rose AGAIN"? It would seem that to say, "He rose from the dead . . ." or "He rose" would be more correct.

Could you tell me what exactly "confessional" means to the LCMS?

Tell me about the three creeds of the Church, including their history.

Why does the Missouri Synod believe the three persons of the Trinity are "co-equal and co-eternal, one God"?

In the Nicene Creed we confess the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Could you explain what this statement means?

In the Apostle's Creed, it says, Christ was "...crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again...." But in Luke, Jesus says to the thief next to him: "Surely today you will be with me in paradise." My question is, where in the Bible does it ever talk about Jesus descending into hell?

I had been a MS Lutheran for many years but never really understood a statement in the Apostles' Creed where it says that Jesus descended into hell. Could you explain this more fully to me? Did Jesus have to be tormented in hell as part of the payment for our sins or was the finished work of Christ completed on the cross through his death and shed blood for the full payment for our sins?

I have a question about something that is said in the Nicene Creed that I have been wondering about for a while: “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds” The Creed states that Jesus was begotten before all worlds. I realize that Jesus was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8) and that God dwells in eternity and we dwell in time, but regarding time from the human perspective, Acts 13:33 seems to make it seem like Jesus was begotten at His resurrection, “God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”

The Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed contain the statement that Christ "--descended into hell".  Why is this statement not included in the Nicene Creed?

I am somewhat new to the Lutheran Church and I have asked why Lutherans say "holy Christian church" instead of "holy catholic church?" Saying "holy Christian church" means just that!  The root of the word comes from the Latin and specifically refers to Christ; therefore, we, as Lutherans, partition ourselves from our Judeo-Christian heritage.  Since we use both the Old and New Testament, we believe that our Christian heritage precedes the birth of Christ. If I am not mistaken, "catholic" has its roots in Greek as "katholou" - ("kata" means general and "holou" means whole). As a result, it seems only logical that we believe in the universal or whole church and not just a part.

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