CATECHISM---PRIOR TO 1984 CONFESSION OF FAITH


1.What is the chief end of man?
Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

2.What rule has God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him?
The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament, is the only infallible rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him.

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

4. What is God?
God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

5.Are there more gods than one?
There is one only, the living and true God.

6.How many persons are there in the Godhead?
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.

7.What are the decrees of God?
The decrees of God are His wise and holy purposes to do what shall be for His glory. Sin not being for His glory, therefore, He has not decreed it.

8.How does God execute His decrees?
God executes His decrees in the works of creation, providence, and grace.

9.What is the work of creation?
The work of creation is God's making all things by the word of His power, and all very good.

10.How did God create man?
God created man, male and female, in uprightness and in His own image, endowed with all the attributes of moral agency.

11.What are God's works of providence?
God's works of providence are His preserving and so governing His creatures, and overruling their actions, as to manifest His wisdom, power, and goodness in promoting their welfare.

12.What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created?
When God had created man, He entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience, forbidding him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, upon pain and death.

13.Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?
Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created by sinning against God.

14.What is sin?
Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

15.What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?
The sin whereby our first prents fell from the estate wherein they were created was their disobeying God's command in eating the forbidden fruit.

16.What effect did Adam's sin have upon his posterity?
Adam's sin corrupted his moral nature and alienated him f rom God; and all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation inherit his corruption of nature, and become subject to sin and death.

17.Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
The fall brought mankind into a state of alienation from God, which is spiritual death.

18. What does God require, that we may escape the punishment due for sin?
To escape the punishment due for sin, God requires of us repentance toward Him and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

19. What is repentance toward God?
Repentance toward God is that exercise whereby the sinner, out of a true sense of his guilt, with grief and hatred of sin, turns from it.

20.What is faith in Jesus Christ?
Faith in Jesus Christ, the ability of which is of grace, is receiving and resting upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered to us in the gospel.

21.What are the evils of that estate into which mankind fell?
Mankind, in consequence of the fall, have no communion with God, discern not spiritual things, prefer sin to holiness, suffer from the fear of death and remorse of conscience, and from the apprehension of future punishment.

22.Did God leave mankind to perish in this estate?
No; God out of His mere good pleasure and love, did provide salvation for all mankind.

23.How did God provide salvation for mankind?
By giving His Son, who became man, and so was and continues to be both God and man in one person, to be a propitiation for the sins of the world.

24.How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
Christ, the Son of God, became man by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, yet without sin.

25. What offices does Christ execute as our Redeemer?
Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the office of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in His estate of humiliation and exaltation.

26. How does Christ execute the office of a prophet?
Christ executes the office of a prophet in revealing to us, by His Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.

27.How does Christ execute the office of a priest?
Christ executes the office of a priest in having once offered Himself a sacrifice for sin, in reconciling us to God, and in making continual intercession for us.

28.How does Christ execute the office of a king?
Christ executes the office of a king in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all His and our enemies.

29. Wherein did Christ's humiliation consist?
Christ's humiliation consisted in His incarnation and the liabilities therewith connected, especially in His being made a sin offering for us, and in His death and burial.

30.Wherein consists Christ's exaltation?
Christ's exaltation consists in His resurrection from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God, the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.

31.How do we become partakers of the redemption provided by Christ?
We become partakers of the Redemption provided by Christ through the application of it to us by the Holy Spirit.

32.How does the Holy Spirit apply to us the Redemption provided by Christ?
The Holy Spirit applies to us the merits of Christ's death by taking of the things that are Christ's and showing them unto us, and thus enabling us to believe to the saving of our souls.

33.What is the work of the Holy Spirit?
The work of the Holy Spirit is to reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment; to regenerate, comfort, and guide those who trust in Christ.

34.What benefits do those united to Christ derive from this union in this life?
Those who are united to Christ are justified, regenerated, adopted, sanctified, and enabled to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth.

35. What is justification?
Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein He pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

36. What is regeneration?
Regeneration is such renewing of the heart by the Holy Spirit as constitutes us new creatures in Christ, and enables us to love and enjoy God.

37. What is adoption?
Adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to to all the privileges, of the sons of God.

38.What is growth in grace?
To grow in grace is to increase in the knowledge of spiritual things, to come to a deeper consciousness of our moral frailties and of our need of God's sustaining grace, by which alone we are enabled more faithfully to execute our vow of consecration, restrain our passions, and rejoice in the assurance that all things work together for our ultimate good.

39.What benefits do believers receive from Christ at their death?
The spirits of believers are, at death, freed from all temptation, all occasion of sin and suffering, and pass immediately into glory.

40.What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
At the resurrection the spirits of believers are clothed upon with spiritual and incorruptible bodies, fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God forever.

41.What does God require of man?
God requires of man obedience to His revealed will.

42. What rule of obedience did God reveal to man?
The moral law.

43.Wherein is the moral law summarily comprehended?
The moral law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments.

44.What is the sum of the Ten Commandments?
The sum of the Ten Commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our mind and heart, and our neighbor as ourselves.

45.What is the preface to the Ten Commandments?
The preface to the Ten Commandments is in these wrods: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."

46. What does the preface to the Ten Commandments teach?
The preface to the Ten Commandments teaches that because God is the Lord, and our God and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all His commandments.

47. Which is the first commandment?
The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

48.What is required of the first commandment?
The first commandment requires us to acknowledge and worship the true God only.

49. What is forbidden in the first commandment?
The first commandment forbids the worship of any other than the true God.

50. What is specially taught by the words, "Before me", in the first commandment?
The words, "before me," in the first commandment, teach that God is much displeased with the sin of having any other god.

51. Which is the second commandment?
The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing which is in heaven above,or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.

52.What is required in the second commandment?
The second commandment requires that the the worship of God shall be maintained in simplicity and purity.

53. What is forbidden in the second commandment?
The second commandment forbids the worshiping of God by images, or in any other way not appointed in His Word.

54.What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment?
The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God's sovereignity over us,His property in us, and His zeal for His own worship.

55. What is the third commandment?
The third commandment is, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.

56.What is required in the third commandment?
The third commandment requires the holy and reverent use of God's name.

57.What is forbidden in the third commandment?
The third commandment forbids all profanity or improper use of God's name.

58. What is the reason annexed to the third commandment?
The reason annexed to the third commandment is, that however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape His righteous judgment.

59.Which is the fourth commandment?
The fourth commandment is, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

60. What is required in the fourth commandment?
The fourth commandment requires one day out of seven to be kept as a holy Sabbath unto God.

61.Which day of the seven had God appointed to be the Sabbath?
God has been pleased to appoint one day in seven to be kept holy unto Him, which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, after the resurrection of Christ was changed unto the first day of the week, which, in the Scriptures, is called the Lord's Day.

62. How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?
The Sabbath is to be sactified by resting from employments and recreations of a secular character, by the public and private worship of God, and by works of necessity and mercy.

63.What is forbidden in the fourth commandment?
The fourth commandment forbids the omission or careless performance of the duties required, and the profanation of the day by idleness, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments and recreations.

64.What are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment?
The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment are God's setting apart six days of the week for our own employments, His designating the seventh as the Sabbath of the Lord, His own example, and His blessing the Sabbath day.

65.Which is the fifth commandment?
The fifth commandment is, Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

66.What is required in the fifth commandment?
The fifth commandment requires children to honor their parents, and to obey them in all things lawful.

67.What is forbidden in the fifth commandment?
The fifth commandment forbids all kinds of dishonor and disobedience, in things lawful, toward parents.

68.What is the reason annexed to the fifth commandment?
The reason annexed to the fifth commandment is a promise of long life and prosperity, as far as it shall serve for God's glory and their own good, to all such as keep this commandment.

69.What is the sixth commandment?
The sixth commandment is, Thou shalt not kill.

70.What is required in the sixth commandment?
The sixth commandment requires all lawful endeavors to preserve our own life and the life of others.

71.What is forbidden in the sixth commandment?
The sixth commandment forbids the taking away of our own life, or the life of another, unlawfully, or whatsoever tends thereunto.

72.Which is the seventh commandment?
The seventh commandment is, Thou shalt not commit adultery.

73. What is required in the seventh commandment?
The seventh commandment requires chastity in desires and actions.

74.What is forbidden in the seventh commandment?
The seventh commandment forbids all unchaste desires and actions.

75.Which is the eighth commandment?
The eighth commandment is, Thou shalt not steal.

76.What is required in the eighth commandment?
The eighth commandment requires honesty in all our dealings with, and conduct toward, others in regard to property.

77.What is forbidden in the eighth commandment?
The eighth commandment forbids the taking by stealth, or by force, or by misrepresentation, what justly belongs to another.

78.Which is the ninth commandment?
The ninth commandment is, Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

79. What is required in the ninth commandment?
The ninth commandment requires a conscientious regard to truth in reference to others.

80.What is forbidden in the ninth commandment?
The ninth commandment forbids whatever varies from the truth, or conceals it, or is injurious to the good name or rights of another.

81.Which is the tenth commandment?
The tenth commandment is, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.

82. What is required in the tenth commandment?
The tenth commandment requires contentment with our own condition, with a right and charitable frame of spirit toward another, and all that is his.

83.What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?
The tenth commandment forbids all discontentment with our own estate, envying or grieving at the good of another, and all inordinate motions or affections to any thing that is his.

84.Is any man perfectly able to keep the moral law?
No

85.Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous?
Some sins in themselves, and by reason of the several aggravations, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.

86.What does every sin deserve?
Every sin, being an offense against God, deserves His displeasure, and subjects the sinner thereto.

87.What are the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption?
The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption are His ordinances, especially the Word, sacraments and prayer.

88. How is the Word made effectual to salvation?
The Holy Spirit makes the reading, and especially the preaching, of the Word an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.

89. How is the Word to be read and heard, that it may become effectual unto salvation?
That the Word may become effectual unto salvation, we must attend thereunto with diligence, preparation, and prayer; receive it with faith and love, lay it up in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.

90.How do the sacraments beceom effectual means of growth in grace to believers?
The sacraments become effectual means of growth in grace, not from any virtue in them, or in him who administers them, but only by the blessing of Christ, and the working of the Holy Spirit in those who by faith receive them.

91.What is a sacrament?
A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, wherein, by sensible signs, He and the benefits of the new covenant are symbolized.

92.What are the sacraments of the New Testament?
The sacraments of the New Testament are Baptism and the Lord's Supper.

93.What is baptism?
Water baptism is asacrament administered in the name of the Trinity, is symoblic of regeneration, is the seal of the Covenant of Grace,a nd with adults, is declarative of a purpose ot live according to God's word.

94.To whom is baptism to be administered?
Baptism is to be administered to believers and their infant children.

95..What is the Lord's Supper?
The Lord's Supper is a sacrament instituted by Christ, and is commemorative of His death, in the celebration of which the communicant declares His faith in Christ as a crucified, risen, and ascended Saviour, who will return again without sin unto salvation.

96.What is required of those who partake of the Lord's Supper?
Those who partake of the Lord's Supper are required to examine themselves as to whether Christ dwells in them by faith, enabling them spiritually to discern His body.

97. What is prayer?
Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies.

98.What rule has God given for our direction in prayer?
The whole Word of God is of use to direct us in prayer, but the special rule of direction is that form of prayer which Christ taught His disciples, commonly called the Lord's Prayer.

99.What does the preface of the Lord's Prayer teach us?
The preface of the Lord's Prayer--which is, Our Father which art in heaven--teaches us to draw near to God with holy reverence and confidence, as children to a father able and ready to help us, and that we should pray with and for others.

100.For what do we pray in the first petition?
In the first petition--which is, Hallowed be thy name--we pray that God would enable us and others to always think and speak of His name with the deepest reverence.

101.For what do we pray in the second petition?
In the second petition, which is Thy kingdom come--we pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed, and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it, and kept in it, and that the kingdom of glory may be hastened.

102. For what do we pray in the third petition?
In the third petition, which is Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven--we pray that God, by His grace would make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to His will in all things, as the angels do in heaven.

103. For what do we pray in the fourth petition?
In the fourth petition, which is, Give us this day our daily bread---we pray that God's free gift we may receive a competent portion of the good things of life, and enjoy His blessing with them.

104. For what do we pray in the fifth petition?
In the fifth petition--which is, And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors--we pray that God,f or Christ's sake, would freely pardon all our sins; which we are the rather encouraged to ask, because by His grace we are enabled from the heart to forgive others.

105. For what do we pray in the sixth petition?
In the sixth petition--which is, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil---we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.