Usually when I'm discussing a Confession or a Catechism in a group or on social media, someone always says “I don’t adhere to a particular confession or Catechism, they don’t matter anyway.”
When I hear that, my first initial reaction is to say “That tells me that you have never actually read any, you don’t know what they say and you probably don’t really know what they are.”
I don’t say that though.
But I want to.
I’ll admit it. It bothers me when people say that.
It’s like saying “I’m not a Calvinist or an Arminian or a Molonist, I’m just a Christian”. Which is ridiculous because if you are a Christian, you either believe the doctrine of Calvinism or you believe the doctrine of Arminianism or you believe the doctrine of Molonism (by the way, Molonism is just stupid and if you believe it you should repent).
Like it or not, you are either a Calvinist, an Arminian or a Molonist, regardless of what you call yourself.
Don’t believe me? Look them up.
Anyway. The confessions.
Before you announce to the world that you refuse to adhere to a confession (or just argue about them on Facebook) read them and then decide.
This is the confession my church adheres to.
Did you know that when looking for a new church that one of the things you should ask is "what confession does your church adhere to?"
If they say they don't adhere to one at all or that they have their own (red flag!) you should be asking a lot more questions..
Or just move on to the next one..
This is very similar to the London Baptist Confession except the part about baptism. It's Presbyterian so they believe in baptizing infants (they don't believe it's a saving baptism though)..
Almost every Christian pastor on the planet has talked about Martin Luther nailing his 95 thesis to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. But how many of you have taken the time read it or really have any idea of what it actually says?
The pastor (and I use the term loosely) of my ex-church was always bringing it up, usually when he was introducing the next weird thing that a church really shouldn't be doing. He would remind us that at one time Martin Luther defied the “legalistic and religious” church in order to bring them down and expose them.
He always described that moment as Martin Luther challenging the church as if he were standing on the steps of the church, his hammer ringing out, boldly confronting them with the real truth and daring them to deal with it!
Well guess what?
That's not really why he nailed his thesis to the door. In fact, he probably didn't even use nails and a hammer, but glue. He wasn't defying or challenging the church, and he wasn't trying to start a reformation.
He loved his church.
He didn't even expect what he put on the door to cause such a scandal.
The door of the church had always been used as a community bulletin board. Lots of people glued stuff to it. It was where the people would go to read the latest announcements.
Luther’s thesis was just one of many announcements glued to that door.
Martin Luther was unhappy about the selling of merits and felt that the practice was unbiblical, so he posted his reasons (the 95 thesis) on the door and requested that they would hold a debate to sort it all out.
That was it.
It was the younger people in the town who saw the thesis, had it copied and sent it out to the surrounding towns.
It was after that, that Martin Luther began to learn more and speak out more and eventually became the great reformer that he is known as today; and even then, he still clung to a few heretical ideas that no one who brags about that moment wants to talk about now.
A personal confession of faith written in 1563.
It's absolutely wonderful.
I'm in the process of writing down a portion of it every day along with a Resolution (see below).
Written by a synod of Reformed theologians in Dordtrecht, Netherlands, in 1618-19.
It's main purpose was to set the record strait about the conflict between Calvinism and Arminianism.
I read through it every couple of months.
I'm going to start copying a portion of it daily when I finish going through the Resolutions and the Catechism.
If you have never read anything by (or about) Jonathan Edwards, please do!
He was a Puritan pastor and theologian, thought by many to be the greatest theological mind that this country has ever produced. His preaching, which helped spark the First Great Awakening, emphasized man’s sin, God’s judgment, God’s sovereignty, the necessity of personal conversion, and justification by faith.
He wrote these resolutions when he was 17 and 19 and read them out loud to himself once a week until his death.
Alright, I know I started a comment on this days ago while I was at work, and got distracted and probably never hit publish. SO my thought on this was, people who grew up in the church like I did may have a different understanding of "catechism", thus driving the response. When I grew up in the Evangelical Covenant church, part of our religious education included learning the catechism. Between the ages of 12-14, we attended confirmation classes, where we went through the topics they felt were pertinent to our understanding in our faith. The two years of Wednesday evening classes ended when we were 14, with our official presentation of the catechism to the church membership, and then the ceremony of being "confirmed" or accepted for membership into the church. The process of checking our knowledge of the catechism consisted of us being told which card to memorize for the questioning by the church elders, and when we demonstrated that we knew it, we "passed". I don't know of anyone who DIDN'T pass. Most of the kids I grew up with were Catholic, and went to CCD every Wednesday. I can't say that they seemed any more aware of their catechism than I was, growing up. It was just part of what you did in being part of the church. I'm not saying that excuses any of us as adults of not understanding it, just that many of us, who did grow up in those traditions, may associate it with an irrelevant bit of tradition that just didn't mean much to us when we were adolescents.
ReplyDeleteThat's really sad. And sorta dumb. That's not what catechism was written for. At least not the Heidelberg. The Catholics have some strange ones, and I'm not going to say that every church should just write up their own *cough Life Code cough* and force everyone to memorize it; but the Heidelberg was written for a reason, and a good one. While it is not necessary because the Bible is sufficient, it is extremely helpful to solidify or expand the faith of a believer.
DeleteBut what if the kids who are memorizing it aren't saved? Just like the Bible, they won't understand it and it won't mean anything to them. I bet if they were to read it again now as adults (and believers) they would feel differently about it.