Shallow, wandering Christians who are not grounded in their faith are a danger to themselves and to others.  It is clear that Christ intends for His Church to grow up to maturity and stability, not being easily tossed about by the latest ideas and schemes (Eph. 4:11-16).  No one grows in Christ without being “firmly rooted…and established in your faith” (Col. 2:7).  Thomas Watson said, “catechising is…needful for Christians to be well instructed in the grounds of religion….it is the best [way] for the grounding and settling of people”. Scripture gives many examples of types of catechisms, i.e., the use of summaries and of digestible portions of truth that would stick best in the minds of God’s people.  For example: In Exodus 20, God gave the Ten Commandments as a summary outline of His entire Law; In Deut. 6:20-25, parents are told to answer a child’s question by giving a summary of God’s great work of redeeming Israel and giving them His Law.  God also gave parents the Passover meal and other memorials and stone monuments as means by which to teach and pass on the faith to future generations; In the Gospels, Jesus gave us “The Lord’s Prayer” as a brief guideline for all our praying (Matt. 6:9-13); The NT has many examples of Christian summaries and thumbnail sketches of the faith, which the early church appears to have memorised, sung, and confessed together – e.g., Eph. 4:4-6, 1 Tim. 3:15-16, Php. 2:6-11.  The purpose of Christ’s two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, are also a kind of visible catechism to keep a church gospel-centred. Paul speaks often to Timothy and Titus of the “faithful sayings” which were loved and recited in the churches (1 Tim. 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; 2 Tim. 2:11; Tit. 3:8).   2 Tim. 1:13 also speaks of how we must “retain, hold on to” the “form, standard, pattern, outline” of “sound words”.  There is great benefit to creeds, confessions, and catechisms that show us the “form” and essence of the apostolic teaching.

Paul said that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).  So we should seize every opportunity to expose our children and others to biblical truth, that they might come to faith.  The whole history of Israel illustrates how God uses prior knowledge to bring later conviction and salvation, as God was using His Law to prepare His people for Christ (Rom. 3; Gal. 3, etc.). Paul states this explicitly in Timothy’s case, saying that “from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:16).  This word, “childhood”, in the NT normally means “infant, baby”.  Long before Timothy understood what he was learning, the
spiritual ‘braai’ was already being prepared:  the coals and fire-lighters were well-laid in his heart, making him all the more ready for the day when the Holy Spirit would come to ignite those truths through regeneration, conviction and conversion and to set him ablaze for Christ.

My friends Seth and Paul, missionaries in the north of this country, have completed a catechism in the Tsonga language. Already they have seen at least four people come to Christ through their catechism sessions!  This kind of up-close-and-personal, house-to-house teaching of the gospel has broken through people’s ignorance in ways that their regular sermons and many other efforts had not yet done (cf. Acts 20:20).

We owe a tremendous debt to our spiritual forefathers in this realm of good catechisms, and we ignore their legacy to our own peril.  A good, historic catechism can be “a giant of mind-sharpening, Christ-worshipping, soul-inspiring devotion” (deYoung). In the early church, catechisms were a favourite tool for preparing baptismal candidates and thus safeguarding the purity of the church from many false conversions.  One of the titles and job descriptions for church fathers like Tertullian and Augustine was that of “catechist”. Unfortunately, with the rise of infant baptism, catechisms became a part of a confirmation process that often gave a false assurance of salvation to any who completed the process (among both Protestants & Catholics).  Many in South Africa who grew up in mainline churches recall their days of catechism as an empty ritual in a dead church:  “Bor-ing!”

The Reformation became the ‘Golden Age of Catechisms’, as reformers like Luther and Calvin heralded the need to recover catechising as essential to the survival of the Church.  Many of the Reformers seized the providential opportunity granted by Gutenberg’s new printing press to produce and spread biblical catechisms as mighty tools for the reformation and strengthening of the Church.  Calvin spoke of the need for the Church to write out treatments “in succession of the principal matters” of Christian truth, and that those who used such catechisms would “make more progress in the school of God in one day than any other person in three months”! You may have heard the stirring story of how God used faithful Baxter, the 17th century Puritan pastor, to transform the whole village of Kidderminster through catechising every household, children and parents alike. Cambridge used to have the position of “college catechist”, filled by a succession of godly, notable pastors.  Even during the Dark Ages, the great medieval emperor, Charlemagne, said that catechising was essential to rescue his era from its embarrassing ignorance.  To this day, the 4th most widely circulated book of all time (after the Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress, and The Imitation of Christ) is the Heidelberg Catechism, which is a rich treasury of gospel teaching that stirs the soul.  We have included a few favourites from that catechism in this booklet also.

Your ability to profit from your Bible reading and sermon hearing will be affected by how many doctrinal hooks and categories you have for placing the things you are learning.  The more you develop a working theology and doctrinal vocabulary, the more you will grasp from each sermon and each passage you read.  Matthew Henry said a good catechism gives you a map of the Promised Land, a bird’s eye view of the Bible so that you can better find your way through it. Henry also wrote, “Catechizing does to the preaching of the word the same good office that John the Baptist did to our Saviour; it prepares the way, and makes its paths straight….”  Thomas Watson said, “To preach and not to catechise is to build without a foundation”.  Another prominent Puritan, John Flavel, said to pastors, “All your excellent sermons will be dashed to pieces, upon the rock of your people’s ignorance. …You can never pitch upon a better project, to promote and secure the success of your labours, than catechising.”

Some will criticise and say that catechisms (like creeds and confessions) replace the Bible and violate the ‘Sola Scriptura’ principle.  But if God did not design for us to need human words that instruct us and explain and apply the Bible for us, then why listen to sermons or seek godly counsel or even read this article? A good catechism, properly used, does not replace Scripture but actually exalts Scripture all the more.  It shows how serious we are about learning and remembering the Bible’s core doctrines.  And in the catechism contained in this booklet, you will see that every page is replete with Scripture references and verses to memorise.  This tool will only make us treasure Scripture more and take God’s Word more seriously.

The more grounded you are in doctrine, the more alert you will be against error.  A good catechism acts as a hedge against heresy and false teaching and aberrant doctrine.  As Spurgeon wrote: “I am persuaded that the use of a good Catechism in all our families will be a great safeguard against the increasing errors of the times….In matters of doctrine you will find orthodox congregations frequently changed to heterodoxy [error] in the course of thirty or forty years, and that is because, too often, there has been no catechising of the children in the essential doctrines of the Gospel.”

– Tim Cantrell, President and Professor of Systematic Theology, Shepherds’ Seminary Africa