Did the thief on the cross know about the Trinity? Could he have discussed the Athanasian Creed?
“Did the thief on the cross know about the Trinity? Could he have discussed the Athanasian Creed?”
First of all, you don’t know what the thief on the cross knew or did not know. So out goes that argument. However, is the Triune God revealed in the Old Testament? Look at Genesis 1:1-3; 1:26; 3:22; 11:7; 18:1-3; Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 2; Psalm 22; Psalm 45; Psalm 110; Isaiah 7:10-14; Isaiah 9:6-7; Isaiah 40; Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Isaiah 61; Jeremiah 23; Jeremiah 33:14-18; Ezekiel 34; Daniel 9:16-19; Daniel 12:1-3; Malachi 3:1-2; Malachi 4:4-6. These are only some of many verses that allude to the fact that God is both singular and plural, that He has a Son and a Spirit, and that the very word God, in Hebrew, is a plural form and yet is always treated grammatically as if it were singular.
Look also at how Jesus Himself used these and other passages in the New Testament. Did He expect those who heard Him to know that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was Triune, and that He was the eternal Son? Yes, He did. That is what the three ecumenical creeds set forth, nothing more and certainly nothing less.
Second, the Athanasian Creed comes along 500 years later. So, of course, the thief did not know of it or its wording. But which statement in it is not backed up by many verses of the Old and New Testament? The Athanasian Creed, like the Apostles and Nicene before it, simply draws from the Scriptures who God is, what He has done, and what He has promised to do.
So, in short, I find your argument specious and lacking in value, just as I find Stanley’s statements lacking and incorrect. What God has spoken cannot be denied without great peril.