The Catechism: A Defense

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Deuteronomy 6:5-7 ESV

This is the deepest cry of my heart. I know that it must be important to you too! I read these words, and inspiration swells like an orchestral piece in my mind. How, today, I will live devotionally so my children will see how I love my Creator and Redeemer, and how I will teach them to as well. Then they rise…and a lovely chaos ensues…all thoughts pertaining to anything other than food, clothing, tidying, breakfast, and the order of the day try to flee. We have different strategies for coping with these distractions.

I am guessing that you have some sort of Bible time routine with your children, or that they attend AWANA or Sunday School regularly. This means they are being loaded with things that please the Lord. But are they retaining and understanding the tenets of what God teaches us in His word? And how can you be sure?

The Catechism. No, I am not Catholic. The Catechism is a series of questions and answers about the basics (and even more involved tenets) of our faith. 

Recently, The Gospel coalition put out a 52 question catechism that you can find online at http://www.newcitycatechism.com/home.php. These are questions with a scripture proof, a commentary, and a prayer. There is also the Westminster Catechism (Presbyterian), Spurgeon’s Catechism (which you can read through at http://www.spurgeon.org/catechis.htm) and many others. We use the Shorter Catechism A Baptist Version (http://www.graceandtruthbooks.com/product/the-shorter-catechism-a-baptist-version).

Catechisms are very helpful to gauge what we really understand. If we can’t articulate it, it is doubtful we understand it meaningfully. In this case, we are teaching our children to articulate it before they can understand it. They can explain what the scriptures principally teach (Questions 4) concisely and clearly.

While admirable to memorize questions and answers, I find it futile if they are not accompanied with the Bible verses that prove, elaborate upon, or give examples of what the child just recited.

Teaching my kids about the truth, without feeding them The Truth is foolish. I am glad that they know a phrase defending the trustworthiness of scripture (Question 3). However, I am happier that they know 1 Thessalonians 2:13 (“For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.”)This (or the other verses listed with each question) shows from the word of God that it is the word of God (not just because Papa and Mama say)! 

The Bible is what God uses to convert the soul, to teach, to draw out the secrets of our hearts, and to give us faith (Ps. 19:7, Rom. 15:4, 1 Cor. 14:24-25, Rom. 10:17 – yes, I got all these from the catechism’s section on this J)!

Even if you or your children just memorize the references for the scriptures that explicate the questions, I would recommend that you purchase a catechism for personal reference and reflection.

On a side note, I don’t agree with everything that the catechism teaches, and I don’t always think that all the verses support the truth presented in the answer that we just memorized. Sometimes we may need to find better verses or skip a section.

I encourage you to embark on a thoughtful, deliberate, and systematic program of teaching your children what the Bible teaches in a topical way. A Catechism may just be the tool you are missing!