Wilhelm Loehe on the Filioque

from

Questions and Answers

to the Six Chief Parts of Luther's Small Catechism

397. On whom do you believe in the Third Article?

The Holy Ghost.

398. Who is the Holy Ghost?

The Third Person of the Godhead, equal to the Father and the Son in essence, majesty, and glory.

399. What do you believe concerning the Holy Ghost?

That from all eternity He proceeds from the Father and from the Son, and has been sent by the Father and by the Son for the sanctification of men.

400. What is the meaning of the words,

"He proceedeth from the Father and the Son"?

They denote the manner of the origin of the Third Person of the Trinity, as it is described in the Athanasian Creed:

"The Father is made of none: neither created, nor begotten.

"The Son is of the Father alone: not made, nor created, but begotten.

"The Holy Ghost is of the Father, and of the Son: neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding."

All our imagination and thought fall short of this thrice-holy mystery.

401. Is all Christendom agreed in the doctrine

of the proession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son?

No. The Eastern church believes that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father alone.

402. Why?

Because no express word declaring His procession from the Son is found in the Scriptures.

403. Why then is it believed in the West?

Because otherwise the Father and the Son would not be equal. John xvi. 15.

Because otherwise the order of Persons would not be clear, nor would it be evident which is the Second, and which is the Third Person.

Because otherwise the Holy Ghost would be sent by the Father alone, and not by the Father and the Son. John xv. 26; xvi. 7; xiv. 26.

Because otherwise the Spirit could not be called the Spirit of the Son. Gal. iv. 6.

Published by Repristination Press;
translated by Edward T. Horn and copyright by the same, 1893,

Pages 102-3.