One of the questions I received after last week’s Westminster Wednesday had to do with the origin or purpose of a catechism. More directly, “isn’t a catechism for Catholics?” There are two answers to this question; the Roman Catholic Church has a catechism, and the Westminster Shorter Catechism isn’t.
To correct my rookie mistake of not clarifying the origin of the WSC, I want to provide more context for it this week. What is a catechism? What is its purpose?
Because it has been almost 30 years since I went through catechism class at my hometown church, I needed a little help finding a well-thought-out answer. I dropped by Got Questions (link below), a comprehensive question and answer site for those who wish to explore the Christian faith. As of my writing this post, Got Questions has answered 648,411 questions about the Christian faith. Impressive!
According to Got Questions, a catechism is “a summary of instructions through a series of questions and answers, prepared in book form, containing instruction on religious doctrine. The intent of these instructions is that they be used in a class environment or other means of formal instruction. The Westminster Confession, every part of which contains scriptural backing, is one such set of instructions. The Catholic catechism is another famous catechism.” As I said, comprehensive.
There are differences in how Catholics and Protestants understand and interpret the Gospel, particularly about salvation. If you are interested in FTRM exploring the differences in the future, send us an email or drop us a comment below.
On to the questions.
Questions 1 & 2
Q. 3. What does the Bible primarily teach?
A. The Bible primarily teaches what man must believe about God and what God requires of man.
Matt: The 21st-century man and woman living in America bristles at requirements and authority. I do. We live in a culture that produces a sort of hyper-individualism, which is not the way God designed us to run. This is why it looks so counter-cultural when Christians form communities [Chruches] that live under the authority of God’s word. When we submit to the scripture’s commands, we are purposely rejecting our American culture in pursuit of God himself. Rejecting culture doesn’t mean to retreat from culture, but rather that we [Christians] choose another way to live our lives. We have chosen the culture of the Kingdom of God.
Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is spirit, Whose being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth are infinite, eternal, and unchangeable.
Matt: God as the creator of time and space exists outside of time and space. Because God created time, He is timeless. He was never created. We know that God created all matter from nothing, so we can deduce that God is not matter but a spirit. Because he is not matter that is constantly changing at the molecular and atomic level, He is never changing.
His characteristics are made known throughout scripture. One of the great joys of a daily read of the Bible is the Holy Spirit revealing the Triune God’s character. I’ll leave you with 1 John 5:20. The Apostle John reminds his readers that he is truth and what joy it brings in turbulent times like ours to know that he is the truth.
20 And we know that the Son of God has come and rhas given us understanding, so that we may know shim who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and teternal life.
If you want to dig into this more, check out the first part of Historical Jesus series.
