Truth is ancient; it's grey hairs may make it venerable;
it comes from Him who is the ancient of days. --Thomas Watson

 

28 March, 2008 - by Chad   comments: (0) Sound Doctrine   The Value of Catechisms Part 2 Ignorance is the great illness which makes the church weak. Many professing Christians are themselves at a loss to explain even the most basic and fundamental truths about God, the state of fallen man, and the gospel and many critical Christian doctrines. As a result the health of the church is often compromised. Evangelism is often reduced to a weak explanation of the gospel devoid of the knowledge of God's person, works and attributes. There are doctrines which must be understood in order to have saving faith. Just telling people to believe in Jesus is not enough. There are things about Christ that must be properly understood. The name "Jesus" separated from the right knowledge of who He actually is will be all together useless. There must be a right understanding of who God is. Without this there is no distinguishing the God of scripture, the one true and living God, from any number of false concepts. In many cases God may simply be added to a pantheon of other gods, unless His person is properly understood. To that end catechisms can be a great tool, not just for personal study, but as an aid to evangelism. Even if one does not use the catechism directly in a gospel presentation it's questions and answers can help one who wishes to bear witness of Christ in explaining key doctrines, including the person of God. Let's pick up with our catechism Q&A's from where we left off in our first post in this new series on Old Truth: Q.4 What is God? A. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, is his being, wisdom, power, justice, holiness, goodness, and truth. John 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. Job 11:7-9 "Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven --what can you do? Deeper than Sheol--what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea." Q.5 Are there more God's than one? A.There is but one only, the living and true God. Duet 6:4 The Lord our God is one Lord; or The Lord is our God, the Lord is one; or The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. Jer 10:10 But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation. Q.6 How many persons are there in the Godhead? A. There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. Matt 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In this look at the catechism we consider the person of God. We see explained for us the greatness and wisdom of God. His power and might and holiness are taught. We are taught that God is unchanging. We are also taught the all important doctrine of the Trinity. One great truth that can be derived from these few questions is that God has real actual attributes which identify his person. God is not some construct of our imaginations where we can say; "I think God is like this or that." Knowing specific things about God is absolutely vital not only to salvation but to acceptable worship of him. The existence of all other gods is proved false. There is but one true living God. The Godhead is defined by the Trinity. Those foolish men who say that God reveals himself as Allah to the Muslims and Jehovah to the Jews and Jesus Christ to the Christians and Vishnu to the Hindus have their foolish mouths stopped. Not only does the bible teach us that there is only one God but that he exists in three persons all coequal in power and substance and glory. All other religions deny this very doctrine. Some teach that God cannot be in three persons such as the Muslims and the Jews. Others teach that there are many gods like the Hindus. Cults which base their teaching on the bible all have perversions of the Godhead. Some say that Jesus is Michael the archangel and that he became God at his baptism. Others say that Christ is the first created being. All denial of the Trinity is damnable heresy. Salvation apart from the knowledge of the Trinity is not possible, apart from the knowledge of the Trinity there is no knowledge of the true and living God. For Christ himself in invoking the divine name of God said; "Unless you believe that I am you will die in your sins" (John 8:24). In many other places Christ claimed to be God and spoke of his equality with the Father. The distinction of the persons of the Trinity is clear in John's Gospel as well as many other places in scripture, but John 14 is especially good for seeing the Trinity. Here Christ teaches the disciples that the Holy Spirit will be given to be with them forever as the Helper or Comforter, that in place of the personal presence of Christ in the flesh they would have yet God in their midst forever. There is proof that the Holy Spirit is indeed co-equal with the Son and the Father, for who else could fulfill such a role as to bring help and comfort and indeed seal the believers in Christ that their salvation would be secure except God the Holy Spirit. Could the Holy Spirit fulfill such a role if he were only some lesser being? No, indeed not. The Trinity is paramount to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Proper understanding of many doctrines is so crucial to saving knowledge. Catechisms can be useful not only for teaching children. To be sure children have been brought to salvation by learning the catechism and if churches would use them, they could be great tools for evangelism to adults who attend church but are not yet saved. The Puritans considered catechisms a valuable tool in evangelism. The use of catechisms was a key tool in the spreading of the gospel to the heathen. By it's use they could be sure that their preaching was supplemented by a complete and thorough understanding of God, especially to peoples who were polytheistic. Without the proper understanding of the Trinity they could have no right understanding of the one true and living God. Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.969   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism