"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, and therefore I have compiled this little manual from the Westminster Assembly's and Baptist catechisms, for the use of my own church and congregation. Those who use it in their families or classes must labour to explain the sense; but the words should be carefully learned by heart, for they will be understood better as years pass.
May the Lord bless my dear friends and their families evermore, is the prayer of their loving pastor."
C.H. Spurgeon
1 Question: What is the chief end of man?
A Man's chief end is to glorify God, (1Co_10:31) and to enjoy him for ever (Psa_73:25-26)
2 Question: What rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify him?
A The Word of God which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (Eph_2:20 2Ti_3:16) is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify God and enjoy him (1Jn_1:3).
3 Question: What do the Scriptures principally teach?
A The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man (2Ti_1:13 Ec 12:13).
4 Question: What is God?
A God is Spirit (Joh_4:24), infinite (Job_11:7), eternal (Psa_90:2 1Ti_1:17), and unchangeable (Jam_1:17), in his being, (Exo_3:14), wisdom, power (Psa_147:5), holiness (Rev_4:8), justice, goodness and truth (Exo_34:6-7).
5 Question: Are there more Gods than one?
A There is but one only (Deu_6:4), the living and true God (Jer_10:10).
6 Question: 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 essence, equal in power and glory (1Jn_5:7 Mat_28:19).
7 Question: What are the decrees of God?
A The decrees of God are his eternal purpose according to the counsel of his own will, whereby for his own glory he has foreordained whatever comes to pass (Eph_1:11-12).
8 Question: How does God execute his decrees?
A God executes his decrees in the works of creation (Rev_4:11), and providence (Dan_4:35).
9 Question: What is the work of creation?
A The work of creation is God's making all things (Gen_1:1) of nothing, by the Word of his power (Heb_11:3), in six normal consecutive days (Exo_20:11), and all very good (Gen_1:31).
10 Question: How did God create man?
A God created man, male and female, after his own image (Gen_1:27), in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness (Col_3:10 Eph_4:24) with dominion over the creatures (Gen_1:28).
11 Question: What are God's works of providence?
A God's works of providence are his most holy (Psa_145:17), wise (Isa_28:29), and powerful (Heb_1:3) preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions (Psa_103:19 Mat_10:29).
12 Question: What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the state wherein he was created?
A When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience (Gal_3:12), forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death (Gen_2:17).
13 Question: Did our first parents continue in the state wherein they were created?
A Our first parents being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the state wherein they were created, by sinning against God (Ec 7:29) by eating the forbidden fruit (Gen_3:6-8).
14 Question: What is sin?
A Sin is any want of conformity to, or transgression of the law of God (1Jn_3:4).
15 Question: Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?
A The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression (1Co_15:22 Rom_5:12).
16 Question: Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
A The fall brought mankind into a state of sin and misery (Rom_5:18).
17 Question: Wherein consists the sinfulness of that state whereinto man fell?
A The sinfulness of that state whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin (Rom_5:19), the want of original righteousness (Rom_3:10), and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin (Eph_2:1 Psa_51:5), together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it (Mat_15:19).
18 Question: What is the misery of that state whereinto man fell?
A All mankind, by their fall, lost communion with God (Gen_3:8; Gen_3:24), are under his wrath and curse (Eph_2:3 Gal_3:10), and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell for ever (Rom_6:23 Mat_25:41).
19 Question: Did God leave all mankind to perish in the state of sin and misery?
A God having, out of his good pleasure from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life (2Th_2:13) did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the state of sin and misery, and to bring them into a state of salvation by a Redeemer (Rom_5:21).
20 Question: Who is the Redeemer of God's elect?
A The only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ (1Ti_2:5), who being the eternal Son of God, became man (Joh_1:14) and so was and continues to be God and man, in two distinct natures and one person for ever (1Ti_3:16 Col_2:9).
21 Question: How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
A Christ, the son of God, became man by taking to himself a true body (Heb_2:14) and a reasonable soul (Mat_26:38 Heb_4:15), being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary, and born of her (Luk_1:31; Luk_1:35) yet without sin (Heb_7:26).
22 Question: What offices does Christ execute as our Redeemer?
A Christ as our Redeemer executes the offices of a prophet (Act_3:22), of a priest (Heb_5:6), and of a king (Psa_2:6), both in his state of humiliation and exaltation.
23 Question: How does Christ execute the office of a prophet?
A Christ executes the office of a prophet, in revealing to us (Joh_1:18), by his Word (Joh_20:31), and Spirit (Joh_14:26), the will of God for our salvation.
24 Question: How does Christ execute the office of a priest?
A Christ executes the office of a priest, in his once offering up himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice (Heb_9:28), and to reconcile us to God (Heb_2:17) and in making continual intercession for us (Heb_7:25).
25 Question: How does Christ execute the office of a king?
A Christ executes the office of a king in subduing us to himself (Psa_110:3), in ruling and defending us (Mat_2:6 1Co_15:25) and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.
26 Question: Wherein did Christ's humiliation consist?
A Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition (Luk_2:7) made under the law (Gal_4:4), undergoing the miseries of this life (Isa_53:3), the wrath of God (Mat_27:46), and the cursed death of the cross (Php_2:8); in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time ().
A Christ's exaltation consists in his rising again from the dead on the third day (1Co_15:4), in ascending up into heaven, and sitting at the right hand of God the Father (Mr 16:19), and in coming to judge the world at the last day (Act_17:31).
28 Question: How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
A We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us (Joh_1:12) by his Holy Spirit (Tit_3:5-6).
29 Question: How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us (Eph_2:8) and by it uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling (Eph_3:17).
30 Question: What is effectual calling?
A Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit (2Ti_1:9) whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery (Act_2:37), enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ (Act_26:18), and renewing our wills (Eze_36:26), he does persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the gospel (Joh_6:44-45).
31 Question: What benefits do they who are effectually called, partake of in this life?
A They who are effectually called, do in this life partake of justification, (Rom_8:30), adoption (Eph_1:5), sanctification, and the various benefits which in this life do either accompany, or flow from them (1Co_1:30).
32 Question: What is justification?
A Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins (Rom_3:24 Eph_1:7), and accepts us as righteous in his sight (2Co_5:21) only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us (Rom_5:19), and received by faith alone (Gal_2:16 Php_3:9).
33 Question: What is adoption?
A Adoption is an act of God's free grace (1Jn_3:1) whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God (Joh_1:12 Rom_8:17).
34 Question: What is sanctification?
A Sanctification is the work of God's Spirit (2Th_2:13) whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God (Eph_4:24) and are enabled more and more to die to sin, and live to righteousness (Rom_6:11).
35 Question: What are the benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?
A The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification (Rom_5:1-2; Rom_5:5), are assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom_14:17), increase of grace, perseverance in it to the end (Pro_4:18 1Jn_5:13 1Pe_1:5).
36 Question: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at their death?
A The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness (Heb_12:23) and do immediately pass into glory (Php_1:23 2Co_5:8 Luk_23:43), and their bodies, being still united to Christ (1Th_4:14) do rest in their graves (Isa_57:2) till the resurrection (Job_19:26).
37 Question: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory (1Co_15:43), shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment (Mat_10:32), and made perfectly blessed both in soul and body in the full enjoying of God (1Jn_3:2) to all eternity (1Th_4:17).
38 Question: What shall be done to the wicked at their death?
A The souls of the wicked shall at their death be cast into the torments of hell (Luk_16:22-24), and their bodies lie in their graves till the resurrection and judgment of the great day (Psa_49:14).
39 Question: What shall be done to the wicked at the day of judgment?
A At the day of judgment the bodies of the wicked being raised out of their graves, shall be sentenced, together with their souls, to unspeakable torments with the devil and his angels for ever (Dan_12:1-13