The Counsel of the Westminster.

The Church of Christ cannot be creedless and live. Especially in an age of doubt and confusion, it is her duty to define the Christian faith and proclaim it to the world.

Well. After thinking about it for a while, I decided continue the Order of Salvation series in another way. It would be great education for me to not simply write about what's already in my heart, but to learn and study what men older than me have written about these things of God. So we'll still cover the order of salvation... it's just going to take a lot longer, haha - because I really want to go through the Westminster Larger Catechism. A catechism is a written document instructing men in the form of question and answer. I've been reading the Larger Catechism and I'm just too eager to sit down and dissect it. If you wish to follow along, as always I'll record my ventures on this blog. My blog posts will be just as much for me as it is for you.

But to make a clear point right away: The Westminster Catechism is not Scripture. It is, though, a summary of Scripture, and it scripturally defends every single sentence contained within. So it would not be correct to think of this study as a study of the Catechism itself; no, this is a study of the Word of God with the help of the Westminster divines' writings. I'm not interested in what these divines had to say about God; I'm interested in what God has to say about Himself, and these men dedicated their life in organizing the Scripture into very nice categories.

And something interesting to think about before we start. Yes, the Westminster Confession and Catechism is the confession of the Reformed Presbyterian Church; but you might not know that it was also adopted by the Baptist denomination as well. Truly, the churches who claim to be Baptist are suppost to teach and agree with this confession (except on the few things that the Baptist denomination changed whenever it adopted it, namely, a change in the area of worship of God and a change in the area of baptism. But appart from that, it is idenitcal). But most Baptist churches today don't even acknolwedge that this is a part of their confession - which is half the reason I quoted the first sentence in this blog.

The Westminster Catechism is divided into three parts:

I. An Introduction to the Scriptures
II. Questions about What Man is to Believe Concerning God
III. Questions about What is the Duty that God Requires of Men

An Introduction to the Scriptures
God tells us to always be ready to answer those who ask for the reason of the hope within us (1 Pet. 3:15). The catechism starts with five wonderful questions that every Christian is commanded by God to be able to answer. These questions and answers are:

Q1. What is the chief and highest end of man?
A1. Man's chief and highest end is to glorify God, and to fully enjoy Him forever.

Q2. How does it appear that there is a God?
A2. The very light of nature in man, and the works of God, declare plainly that there is a God; but only His word and Spirit sufficiently and effectually reveal Him unto men for their salvation.

Q3. What is the word of God?
A3. The holy scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the word of God, the only rule of faith and obedience.

Q4. How does it appear that the Scriptures manifest themselves to be the word of God?
A4. The scriptures manifest themselves to be the word of God, by their majesty and purity, by the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; by their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation: but the Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the scriptures in the heart of man, is able fully to persuade it that they are the very word of God.

Q5. What do the scriptures principally teach?
A5. The scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.


I hope you look forward to testing and proving these statements with scripture in time to come. Lordwilling, I'll type up a concise post for each question as the weeks go by.