Theology Matters

Michael McEvoy
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This podcast broadcasts the seminar lessons for Great Commission Baptist Church in Summerville, SC. The main teacher is Michael McEvoy.

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  1. EPISODE 172

    Baptist Catechism - Lesson 01 - Introduction to Catechism

    Lesson 1: Introduction to Catechism  This year, Lord willing, we are going to walk together through The Baptist Catechism, a late-17th-century summary of Christian doctrine that stands alongside, and grows out of, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. Before we start memorizing and explaining individual questions and answers, we need to slow down and address some introductory issues: What is a catechism? Why would we use one today? Who is it for? How does it relate to a confession of faith and to Scripture itself? What Is a Catechism? A catechism is a biblically-shaped, historically-tested tool for teaching the core doctrines of the Christian faith, especially to children and new believers, as a concise summary of what we believe.   It is biblically-shaped in both content and method. In terms of content, a catechism is not trying to introduce new ideas; it is simply gathering and arranging what Scripture already teaches about God, man, sin, Christ, salvation, the church, and the Christian life. In terms of method, it follows a pattern we see in the New Testament itself. Luke tells Theophilus that he has written his Gospel “that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:4), literally, “the things in which you have been catechized”. The apostles assume that believers will receive clear, ordered instruction in the faith, and that this “pattern of the sound words” (2 Timothy 1:13) will be handed down and entrusted to others (2 Timothy 2:2). A catechism is simply one way the church has obeyed that instinct. It is also historically-tested. From the early church, where new converts (catechumens) were instructed before baptism, through the Reformation, where Luther’s Small Catechism, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Westminster Shorter Catechism were written to teach ordinary Christians, the people of God have used concise summaries of core doctrine to pass on the faith. This Baptist Catechism stands in that stream. Seventeenth-century Particular Baptists took the same concern for careful instruction and produced a catechism that reflected their confession of faith. In other words, whatever else you may think about a document from 1695, it is not cutting-edge or experimental; it is a well-worn tool the church has been using in one form or another for a very long time. The form of a catechism is intentionally simple: question and answer. The question raises the issue; the answer gives a clear, memorizable summary. This format is built for the ear and for the memory. It invites parents to ask and children to respond. It gives children and new believers short sentences they can carry with them even before they have many passages memorized. Each answer is meant to be unpacked and supported by multiple Scripture texts, but the catechism itself provides the “bones” of Christian truth in a form that can actually be remembered. Finally, a catechism is a tool, not a rival authority. Scripture alone is inspired, inerrant, and finally binding on the conscience. As the London Baptist Confession of Faith puts it in its first sentence: The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. (1689 LBCF Chapter 1 § 1; emphasis mine) The catechism (or creed or confession) only has value as it faithfully echoes what Scripture teaches.  A helpful picture is this: the Bible is the landscape of God’s revelation; a confession is a carefully drawn map of that landscape; a catechism is the legend and trail guide that helps us read the map and find our way. The map and trail guide can never replace the land, but they can help us see the main features and how they fit together so that we can walk the land more wisely. As we study this catechism, our constant concern will be to trace each answer back into the text of Scripture, not to be devoted to a book from 1695, but so that we will be more firmly grounded in God’s Word. Who It’s For; What It’s For A catechism is written for the whole people of God, but it has a special eye toward those who most need clarity and simplicity. Historically, catechisms have been used first of all for children. Fathers are commanded to bring their children up “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4), but many Christian parents feel the weight of that calling without any structure for how to do it. A catechism gives fathers and mothers a concrete way to obey that command: they can ask the questions, hear the answers, and then open the Bible together to see why those answers are true. In that sense, a catechism belongs in the living room and around the dinner table every bit as much as it belongs in the classroom. Catechisms are also for new believers. Someone who has recently come to faith often knows the basics—that Christ died and rose again—but may not yet see how the doctrines of God, man, sin, grace, and the church fit together. A catechism does not replace regular Bible reading, but it gives a new Christian a “framework” for reading: the big categories are already in place, and as they read the Scriptures those categories begin to fill out. It is much easier to recognize the shape of biblical teaching when you have already learned a simple outline of that teaching in question-and-answer form. At the same time, catechisms are not just for beginners. Seasoned believers, elders, and teachers also need the discipline of stating the truth clearly. The longer we are Christians, the more tempted we can be to live on vague impressions of Bible truth instead of sharp, well-defined convictions. Working through a catechism forces us to ask, “How would I say this? What, exactly, do I believe about God’s providence, or about justification, or about the church?” It exposes places where our thinking has grown fuzzy and helps bring our minds back into alignment with Scripture. So what is a catechism for? At the most basic level, it is for clarity and memory. The questions and answers give us short sentences that can be learned by heart. Those sentences are not meant to sit there as bare formulas; they are meant to become hooks on which we hang many passages of Scripture and many hours of preaching and teaching. Over time, the catechism becomes a kind of mental filing cabinet: when you hear a sermon on God’s attributes or on repentance or on the Lord’s Supper, you have a place to file it. A catechism is also for discipleship and unity in the church. When parents, children, new believers, and long-time members are all learning the same questions and answers, we gain a shared vocabulary for talking about the things of God. It becomes easier to counsel, to correct, and to encourage one another when we already agree on the basic categories. Instead of each household inventing its own private way of “doing doctrine,” the church can walk together in a pattern of sound words that has been tested and proved. Finally, a catechism is for stability and protection. We live in a time when doctrinal confusion is normal and error spreads quickly. A well-used catechism functions like a set of guardrails: it keeps us from drifting off into vague spirituality on one side or into novel speculations on the other. It reminds us, again and again, of the central things:    Who God is What the gospel is What the church is What God requires of us for belief and practice   Used this way, a catechism is not simply an academic exercise, but a means God uses to root Christians more deeply in the truth so that they are not “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Ephesians 4:14) If you come all year, pay attention, and do a little bit of work at home during the week, by the end of the year, you will have a better systematic theology than most seminary graduates. That said, the catechism does not cover every topic or every question of interest. Catechism and Confession A catechism and a confession of faith are closely related, but they are not the same thing. Both are human summaries of what Scripture teaches, and both are meant to serve the church, but they serve in different ways. A confession (like the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith) is a church’s formal, public statement of doctrine. It is written article by article, in continuous prose, and it is meant to say, “This is what we, as a church, believe the Bible teaches.” A catechism takes that same doctrinal content and rearranges it into short, memorizable questions and answers for teaching and discipleship. You can think of the confession as the church’s constitution, and the catechism as the teaching manual that grows out of that constitution. The confession gives fuller, more detailed treatments of each doctrine, often with careful distinctions that matter for ordination, church membership, and unity among elders and churches. The catechism takes the same truths and puts them on the bottom shelf: brief, clear answers that a child can memorize and a new believer can grasp. If you read the confession and the catechism side by side, you will find the same topics: God and his decrees, creation and providence, the fall and sin, the person and work of Christ, effectual calling, justification, sanctification, the church, the ordinances, and so on. The content is the same; the presentation is different. Because of that, it is important to say that neither a confession nor a catechism stands above Scripture. Scripture alone is inspired, inerrant, and finally authoritative. Our confessions and catechisms are “subordinate standards”: they have a kind of derivative authority only insofar as they faithfully echo what the Bible says. In our own congregation, the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 (BFM2000) is the formal doctrinal statement our elders have adopted and under which the

    52 min

  2. EPISODE 173

    Baptist Catechism - Lesson 02 - Catechism Use and Structure

    Lesson 2: Catechism Use and Structure  This week I want to turn from the “what” and the “why” to the “how.” If a catechism is a biblically-shaped, historically-tested tool for teaching the core doctrines of the faith, then how do we actually use that tool in real life? What might it look like for you, for your family, and for our church to put this catechism to work over the coming year? And as we do that, where are we going? How is this particular Baptist Catechism put together, and what kind of roadmap does its structure give us for the truths we’ll be walking through? Very Brief Review: What a Catechism Is (and Isn’t) Last week we said that a catechism is a biblically-shaped, historically-tested tool for teaching the core doctrines of the Christian faith, especially to children and new believers, as a concise summary of what we believe. In other words, it gathers and arranges what Scripture already teaches about: God Man Sin Christ Salvation The Church The Christian life It presents those truths in short questions and answers that ordinary Christians can actually remember. We also stressed what a catechism is not. It is not a second Bible, and it is not a replacement for regular Bible reading and preaching. Scripture alone is inspired, inerrant, and finally authoritative; the catechism only has value as it faithfully echoes what Scripture says. As we saw from the 1689 LBCF and the BFM2000: The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. (1689 LBCF Chapter 1 § 1) [The Holy Bible / Scripture] reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. (BFM 2000, 1. The Scriptures, emphasis mine) This is important because some people get the wrong impression that when we cite a confession or catechism, we are supplanting the Scriptures. This is not so. Those lesser standards organize and systematize the Scriptures in a summary way (confession) that is easy to memorize (catechism). Nor is our goal to produce people who can recite words they do not believe. Memorization by itself does not create faith, but it does give the mind clear, biblical truth for the Spirit to press into the heart. So as we come into this second week, the picture to keep in mind is still the same: the Bible is the landscape of God’s revelation; the confession is the map that lays out its contours; the catechism is the legend and trail guide that teaches us how to read that map. Used rightly, it helps us see the main features and how they fit together, so that we can walk the land (live in the Scriptures) more wisely. How to Use a Catechism: Basic Principles Before we talk about where to use a catechism (in our own lives, in our homes, and in the church), we need to be clear on the basic posture with which we approach it. If we get the how wrong at this level, we can turn a very good tool into something cold and unhelpful. Used rightly, though, a catechism can become a steady means of grace in the Christian life. First, we must always use a catechism under Scripture. The questions and answers are never the last word; they are a way of summarizing the Word. That means we should keep our Bibles open. When we read or recite an answer, the instinct we want to develop is, “Where do we see this in Scripture?” Each of you should have received a copy of the catechism. This particular copy includes both scriptural references that are original to the 1695 version as well as other references that the editors added for the same purpose. Over time, each question should become a doorway into particular texts and passages. If we ever find ourselves trusting the catechism more than the Bible, or quoting it instead of the Bible as our final authority, we have lost our way. The catechism serves us well only as it keeps sending us back into the text of Scripture itself. Second, we should use a catechism with an eye to head, heart, and life together. The questions and answers certainly aim at the mind: they clarify definitions, draw necessary distinctions, and give us sentences we can remember. But the goal is not bare information. Sound doctrine is meant to lead to love for God and obedience to God (1 Timothy 1:5; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). As we memorize and review, we should be asking, “What does this teach me about who God is? How should this shape my affections? What should change in my life if this answer is true?” If we stop at mere mental agreement, we are using the catechism as a mere textbook instead of as a means of discipleship. Third, we should use a catechism in dependence on the Holy Spirit and in fellowship with the church. The same Spirit who inspired Scripture must illumine our minds and warm our hearts as we study it, whether directly from the text or through the lens of a catechism. That is why our use of the catechism ought to be covered in prayer: praying before we read, praying as we teach our children, praying that God would press these truths into us and not let them sit on the surface. And we do this together, not in isolation. As members of one body, we help one another grasp and apply these doctrines, through conversation, questions, encouragement, and correction, so that we “grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). Finally, we should use a catechism with patience and repetition. By design, it is not something you master in a week and then set aside. It is meant to be returned to again and again, the way you might slowly walk the same well-loved path many times. Some questions will come easily; others will feel dense and difficult. That is normal. The task is simply to keep going, to review what we have learned, to add a little more, and to trust that steady exposure to clear, biblical truth will bear fruit over time. Our aim this year is not perfection, but faithfulness: to handle this tool in a way that honors Scripture and helps us grow. Where to Use a Catechism: Personal, Family, and Church If the catechism is a tool, the next question is simply: where do we keep it in use? The answer is: everywhere the Christian life is actually lived: in private, in the home, and in the gathered church. Each of those settings gives the catechism a slightly different role, but the same goal: to help the Word of Christ “dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16). In private, a catechism can become part of your ordinary walk with the Lord. It is not meant to replace Bible reading or prayer, but to sit alongside them. In practice, that might mean slowly working through a handful of questions during the week—reading the question and answer, looking up the main Scripture references, and then turning those truths into prayer. It might mean choosing one question to memorize and reflect on, repeating it to yourself throughout the day. Over time, the catechism becomes a kind of mental framework for your private devotions. When you read a psalm about God’s attributes, or a passage about justification by faith, you already have a place to “file” what you are seeing. The catechism starts to give you words when you are at a loss for words, and it steadies your thoughts when your own feelings are foggy or confused. In the home, a catechism is crafted to help parents, especially fathers, obey the command to bring their children up “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:4) You do not have to reinvent Christian teaching from scratch for your household; you can receive and use a pattern of sound words that has already been tested. Family use does not need to be complicated.  It could be as simple as picking a regular time, perhaps after a meal or at bedtime, asking one or two questions, hearing the answers together, and briefly explaining or illustrating what they mean. As children grow, they can begin to read the questions aloud, to find the Scripture references, and to ask their own questions about the meaning. Even if your home is busy and noisy and inconsistent (which is most homes), a simple habit of catechizing a few times a week will, over the years, put a remarkable amount of truth into young hearts and minds. And for families without children at home, the same pattern can still serve a husband and wife, or even a single believer and a roommate or friend, as a simple form of shared discipleship. Even mature believers will benefit from use of the catechism! In the gathered church, a catechism helps us teach and guard the faith together. That is what we are doing in this class, but the usefulness does not stop here. When a congregation has at least a basic acquaintance with the same questions and answers, it gives us a shared vocabulary for ministry. A teacher can assume certain categories are already familiar. An elder or small-group leader can draw on the catechism while explaining the gospel, or God’s attributes, or repentance. It can be used in membership interviews, in one-on-one discipleship, and even in counseling, as we remind one another of who God is and what He has promised. The goal is not that everyone becomes a walking index of question numbers, but that we all grow more fluent in speaking biblical truth in clear, careful ways. Again, this is a conduit for us to know the Scriptures and, through them, the God of Scripture. When these three settings begin to reinforce one another, the effect is powerful. What you are memorizing and meditating on personally can be rehearsed and discussed in the family; what families are learning at home can be reinforced and clarified in the life of the church; what is taught publicly in the church can be carried back into private devotions and household worship. The same questions and answers echo in the study, around the dinner table

    50 min

  3. EPISODE 174

    Baptist Catechism - Lesson 03 - Questions 1 and 2

    Lesson 3: Questions 1 and 2  This is our first “real” catechism lesson after two weeks of introduction. We have asked what a catechism is, why we should use one, how it relates to Scripture and to confessions of faith, and how this particular Baptist Catechism is structured. Now we begin at the beginning. Today we take up Questions 1 and 2, which lay the foundation for everything that follows. Before we speak about sin or salvation, about the church or the Christian life, we must first ask: Who is God? And then: What is our basic obligation toward Him? Question 1: Who is God? Who is the first and chiefest being? God is the first and chiefest being.   The catechism does not begin by asking about us, our needs, our feelings, our destiny. It begins with God Himself. That is already a rebuke to our age. We are used to thinking of ourselves as the center of the story, but Scripture begins, “In the beginning, God…” (Genesis 1:1). The first question of the catechism simply follows the Bible’s own order: before there was a world, before there were angels or humans or anything else, there was God. The language of the answer is carefully chosen.  To say that God is the first being is to say that He is “before all things” (Colossians 1:17). He is not simply the first link in a chain of causes; He is the Creator, the One who “inhabits eternity” (Isaiah 57:15), the unique uncreated hook from which every chain of created causes hangs. There never was a time when He was not. Indeed, I believe that God exists outside of time and created time (which is admittedly a mind boggler). Everything else that exists has a beginning. Only God is eternal, without origin, without dependence. The theologians call this God’s aseity, His “from-Himself-ness”. He has life in Himself. He is not sustained by anything outside of Himself. To say that God is the chiefest being is to confess that He is not only first in time but supreme in worth. There are many beings in God’s universe: angels, men and women, animals, and stars. But there is only One who is infinitely glorious, infinitely excellent, the fountain of all goodness and beauty and truth. God is not merely bigger or stronger than we are; He is in a different category altogether. He alone is the Creator; everything else is creature/creation. He alone is to be worshiped; everything else is to worship. The catechism points us to passages like Isaiah 44:6, 48:12, and Psalm 97:9. In Isaiah 44:6 the Lord declares, “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.” In Isaiah 48:12, He calls Israel to listen to Him: “I am he; I am the first, and I am the last.” In Psalm 97:9: “For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.” (There are no rival gods, as question 8 will make clear.) In each text, God takes to Himself the language of absolute priority and supremacy. He is the first, the last, and everything in between belongs to Him. When the risen Christ in Revelation says, “I am the first and the last” (Revelation 1:17), He is sharing in this divine identity; but here in the catechism we are starting at the beginning: the one living and true God is the first and chiefest Being. What difference does this make? First, it humbles us. If God is the first and chiefest being, then we are not. That sounds obvious, but functionally we often live as if our plans and our preferences were ultimate. This first question presses us to remember that we are creatures before we are anything else. We exist from God and for God. Our time, our breath, our gifts, our opportunities, all of it is from His hand. There is no such thing as an “independent” human being. We are radically dependent every moment on the God Who is not dependent on anyone. Second, it clarifies the goal of all theology and all catechesis. Since God is the first and chiefest being, then the aim of our study is not primarily to gain control over the material or to master a system; it is to know, love, and worship Him. Doctrine is not an end in itself. I love doctrine. I love study. But if we treat those things like ends instead of means, we miss the goal. Instead, doctrine is a means of seeing the glory of the first and chiefest Being more clearly. The more clearly we see Him, the more we will understand ourselves and the world He has made. Third, it grounds our comfort. If the universe began in blind chance, or in some impersonal force, then we are ultimately alone. But if everything flows from the wise and good God Who is the first and chiefest Being, then our lives are not accidents. The God Who stands at the beginning also stands over today and the end. Nothing in our experience surprises Him, and nothing is beyond His power. When we pray, we are not speaking into the void; we are coming to the One Who was “before all things” (Colossians 1:17) and Who “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). Finally, this question calls us to worship. If God is the first and chiefest Being, He is worthy of our highest thoughts and our deepest affections. There is no part of our lives that should be walled off from Him, as if He could be an “add-on” to an otherwise self-contained existence. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the source and goal of all things. The right response to this first answer is not simply to nod in agreement, but to bow in adoration: “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!” (Psalm 34:3). Question 2: Must we believe in Him? Ought everyone to believe there is a God? Everyone ought to believe there is a God; and it is their great sin and folly who do not.   If Question 1 tells us who God is, Question 2 tells us what our most basic duty is in light of that truth. The catechism moves from God’s identity to our obligation. The moment we say, “God is the first and chiefest Being”, we are faced with another question: “What does that mean for me?” The answer begins at the ground floor: everyone ought to believe there is a God. That word “ought” is important. It tells us that believing in God is not optional. We are not dealing here with a preference (some people enjoy coffee, others prefer tea) but with a moral obligation. Since God is the first and chiefest Being, then every creature made by Him and sustained by Him owes Him faith, honor, and obedience. To refuse to believe in Him is not a neutral position; it is disloyalty and rebellion at the deepest level. The catechism supports this with Hebrews 11:6: “Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Faith, at its most basic, begins with belief in God’s existence and character. You cannot come to God if you insist on denying that He is there. Psalm 14:1 speaks even more sharply: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” The psalmist is not mocking intellectual weakness; he is diagnosing moral rebellion. To say “there is no God” in the face of God’s self-revelation in creation and conscience is not brave; it is seditious folly. Notice, then, the seriousness of the catechism’s language: “it is their great sin and folly who do not.” In our culture, unbelief and skepticism are often treated as sophisticated or enlightened. Scripture treats persistent unbelief as culpable. Romans 1 tells us that what can be known about God is plain in the things that have been made, so that people are “without excuse.” (Romans 1:20) The problem is not that the evidence for God is too small; the problem is that the human heart does not want to honor Him as God. The refusal to believe is not neutral, but morally charged. At the same time, the catechism’s bluntness should not make us harsh. The same Scriptures that call unbelief a great sin also remind us that faith itself is a gift of God’s grace. None of us believes simply because we are smarter or more spiritual than our neighbors. By nature we were all “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). If we now confess the living God, it is because He has opened our eyes. That should make us humble and compassionate. When we meet someone who denies God’s existence, we are looking at what we ourselves would be apart from His mercy. How does this question shape the way we live? First, it reminds us that faith in God is the fundamental duty of every human being. Before all else, God commands us to believe that He is and that He is worthy of trust. Evangelism, then, is not an optional hobby for a few extroverted Christians; it is our loving response to the reality that our friends and neighbors are accountable to the God they ignore. When we call them to believe, we are not inviting them to join a club; we are summoning them back to their Maker, Whom they deny. Second, it helps us to see the moral dimension of doubt and unbelief in our own lives. Christians are not exempt from seasons of doubt. We can be confused, discouraged, or shaken by suffering. Those experiences are real and should be handled gently. Yet even in those seasons, Hebrews 11:6 reminds us of what is non-negotiable: “whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” When we are tempted to live as if God were small or distant or indifferent, this question calls us back to the basic posture of faith. Third, this question teaches us how to speak in a world that treats unbelief as normal. The catechism will not let us say, “Some people believe in God, others don’t, and both choices are equally valid.” It tells the truth: it is a great sin and folly not to believe in the God Who made us and reveals Himself so clearly. That does not mean we are called to be abrasive or arrogant. But it does mean we must not be embarrassed by the Bible’s evaluation. Unbelief is not a harmless lifestyle choice. It is a betrayal of t

    45 min

  4. EPISODE 175

    Baptist Catechism - Lesson 04 - Questions 3 and 4

    Lesson 4: Questions 3 and 4  In our first two lessons we asked what a catechism is, why it is worth our time, and how this particular Baptist Catechism is structured. In Lesson 3 we began the catechism itself and saw that God is the first and chiefest Being, and that everyone ought to believe there is a God. Today we go one step further and ask two very basic but very important questions: 1) How may we know there is a God? and 2) Where, exactly, do we hear His voice? Questions 3 and 4 move us from the duty to believe in God to the way He makes Himself known and the place His people must look for a sure word. Question 3: How do we know Him? How may we know there is a God? The light of nature in man, and the works of God, plainly declare there is a God; but His Word and Spirit only, do it fully and effectually for the salvation of sinners.   This question assumes what we saw in Question 2: everyone ought to believe there is a God. Now the catechism asks, “How may we know it? Where does that knowledge come from?” The answer has two parts. First, it speaks of the light of nature in man, and the works of God. Second, it speaks of His Word and Spirit. In other words, God makes Himself known in creation and conscience (natural revelation), and He makes Himself known in Scripture and by His Spirit (special revelation). The first declares Him plainly; only the second reveals Him fully and savingly. 1. The light of nature and the works of God The “light of nature in man” refers to the knowledge of God that is built into us as creatures made in His image. Human beings are not blank slates. We are born into a world God has made, and we are born with a capacity, and an obligation, to recognize Him. Paul says in Romans 1 that “what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.” (Romans 1:19) How has He done that? “For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” (Romans 1:20) Creation itself preaches. The world is not silent about its Maker. And God’s witness is not only around us but within us: even the Gentiles “show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness” (Romans 2:15). Psalm 19 speaks in the same way. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.” (Psalm 19:1-3) Every sunrise and every starry night is a type of sermon. The created order is saying, “There is a God, and He is glorious and powerful and wise.” When Paul addresses the philosophers in Athens he begins here: “The God Who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth…” (Acts 17:24). Before he names Christ, he reminds them that they live in God’s world, breathe God’s air, and depend on Him for life itself. So how may we know there is a God? The catechism says the light of nature in us and the works of God around us plainly declare it. Denying God’s existence is not an honest mistake; it is a rejection of what creation and conscience are constantly pressing upon us. As Romans 1 puts it, people “are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20) To call back to Question 2, this is why unbelief is a “great sin and folly”: it is a refusal to receive what God has made plain. At the same time, this general revelation has limits. It tells us that there is a God, that He is powerful, wise, and worthy of honor, but it does not tell us how a sinner can be reconciled to Him. The stars do not preach the cross. The mountains do not announce the resurrection. Our consciences can accuse us, but they cannot cleanse us. For that we need something more. 2. His Word and Spirit only, for the salvation of sinners The second half of the answer says, “but His Word and Spirit only, do it fully and effectually for the salvation of sinners.” The “it” here is the declaration of the knowledge of God. Creation tells us truly that there is a God, but only God’s Word and Spirit give the full and saving knowledge of Him that sinners need. Paul reminds Timothy that “the sacred writings… are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 3:15) The same Scripture he goes on to describe as “breathed out by God” (2 Timothy 3:16) is the instrument God uses to reveal His saving purpose in Christ. Creation (natural revelation) can show us God’s eternal power and divine nature, but the Bible (special revelation) tells us His name, His covenant, His promises, and the gospel of His Son. Yet even Scripture, read merely as an ancient book, will not save. Many people have studied the Bible as literature or history and remained unchanged. That is why the catechism joins Word and Spirit together. Paul says, “these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:10) The same Spirit Who inspired Scripture must illumine our minds and open our hearts so that we not only understand the words on the page but receive them as God’s living and active Word to us. This keeps us from two opposite errors. On the one hand, we must not think that the Spirit speaks saving truth to us apart from the Word. The Spirit is not a free-floating source of new revelations. He works through the Scriptures He inspired. On the other hand, we must not reduce Bible reading to a bare exercise of intellect, as if a clever mind could reason its way to salvation without the Spirit’s work. The Word is the sword of the Spirit. He wields it where He pleases, but He does not work without it. What, then, does this mean for us? First, it means that we should learn to hear God’s voice in creation without stopping there. Let the heavens remind you of His glory; let your conscience remind you that you are accountable to Him. When you watch a storm roll in or see a newborn child, say with the psalmist, “This is my Father’s world.” But do not imagine that this is enough. Let creation push you toward the Scriptures, where God speaks not only as Creator but as Redeemer. Second, it means that we ought to take the Word seriously and depend on the Spirit consciously. When you open your Bible, you are not doing a merely human exercise. You are coming to the God Who has breathed out this Word and Who delights to make it living and powerful in the hands of His Spirit. Pray as you read: “Lord, by Your Spirit, show me Yourself. Make these words wise unto salvation, deeper unto obedience.” Third, it gives shape to our evangelism. When we speak with unbelieving friends, we can appeal to the world they already inhabit and the conscience they already have. We can say, in effect, “You know there is a God; creation and your own heart testify to Him.” But we must then move to the Word, especially the Word about Christ, trusting that only the Scriptures, attended by the Spirit, can bring about a saving knowledge of God. Arguments may clear away some objections; only the Word and Spirit can give life. Question 4: What Scriptures has He revealed? What is the Word of God? The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, are the Word of God, and the only certain rule of faith and obedience.   Question 3 ends by telling us that God’s Word and Spirit fully and effectually reveal Him for the salvation of sinners. Naturally, the next question is, “What is this Word of God we are talking about?” The answer is precise and wonderfully simple: “The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, are the Word of God, and the only certain rule of faith and obedience.” 1. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament The catechism does not leave “Word of God” vague. In an age when people speak easily of “hearing from God” in all sorts of ways, it ties the phrase firmly to a specific, concrete collection of writings: the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. These sixty-six books, no more and no less, are the Word of God written. (The Confession defines exactly which sixty-six books we mean.) Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “all Scripture is breathed out by God”. The word he uses points to the divine origin of Scripture. These are not merely human opinions about God; they are God’s own speech through human authors. Peter can therefore say, “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21) When Scripture speaks, God speaks. Ephesians 2:20 tells us that the church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.” The “apostles and prophets” here are the authorized messengers whose teaching we now have preserved in Scripture: the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles. The image of a foundation implies something laid once for all. God is not continually adding new layers of authoritative revelation; He has given His church a fixed, written standard. By identifying the Word of God with the Old and New Testaments, the catechism is teaching us that the canon is closed and that God’s people are to look to the Bible, not to new supposed revelations, for the standard of truth. God may providentially guide, impress, convict, and encourage His people in many ways, but none of those impressions are equal to Scripture, and none of them may correct or compete with it. This also means that the Old and New Testaments stand together as one Word of God. We do not have a harsh God of the Old Testament and a kind God of the New (a common objection, both ancient and modern), or an obsolete revelation followed by a superior one. The same God Who spoke by Moses and the prophets has now spoken finally by His Son and by those He appoin

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  5. EPISODE 176

    Baptist Catechism - Lesson 05 - Questions 5 and 6

    Lesson 5: Questions 5 and 6  In Lessons 3 and 4 we saw that God is the first and chiefest Being (Q1), that everyone ought to believe there is a God (Q2), and that He has not left Himself without witness. The light of nature in us and the works of God around us plainly declare that there is a God, but His Word and Spirit alone reveal Him fully and savingly (Q3). We also saw that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God and the only certain rule of faith and obedience (Q4). Today we stay on that “front porch” of the catechism for two more questions. Now that we know what the Scriptures are, we ask two questions:  Who are they for? What, in broad outline, do they teach us? Question 5 – Who can read the Bible? May all men make use of the Holy Scripture? All men are not only permitted, but commanded and exhorted, to read, hear, and understand the Holy Scriptures.   1. A radical “yes” in a world that said “no” This answer was not written in a vacuum. In the centuries before the Reformation, the ordinary people of God in the West had very limited access to Scripture. The Bible was chained to pulpits, kept in Latin, read and explained chiefly by clergy. In various times and places, the Roman Catholic Church discouraged or even forbade laypeople from owning or reading vernacular translations without permission. Some men who fought for a Bible in the common tongue were martyred. The practical message was clear: the Bible is not for you; it is for the Church to manage on your behalf. Against that backdrop, this question lands with a thunderclap: “May all men make use of the Holy Scripture?” The answer is a resounding, Reformation-shaped YES. Not only may they; they must. The catechism insists that all people are “not only permitted, but commanded and exhorted” to read, hear, and understand the Scriptures. That is a huge statement. The Bible itself teaches this. Jesus says to His opponents in John 5:39, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me.” He assumes that they are reading. The problem is not that they go to the Scriptures; the problem is that they refuse to come to Him to Whom the Scriptures point. The Lord does not rebuke them for studying the Bible; He rebukes them for missing Christ in the Bible. In the Old Testament, God requires even kings to be personally under the Word. Deuteronomy 17:18-19 says that when the king sits on the throne he is to write for himself a copy of the law, keep it with him, and read it “all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God” and carefully keep His words. If the highest political authority in the land is commanded to be a daily Bible reader so that he may fear and obey God, then the Scriptures are clearly meant for more than a small religious elite. At the beginning of Revelation we read: “Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it” (Revelation 1:3). There is blessing for the one who reads and for the many who hear and keep. God has tied spiritual blessing to exposure to the words He has written. So the catechism is not being bold for the sake of boldness. It is simply drawing out what Scripture already teaches: God intends His written Word to be used by all His people. To withhold the Bible from them is to resist His design. 2. God’s goodness in permission, command, and exhortation Notice how the answer piles up verbs. We are: permitted, commanded, and exhorted    Permission means God throws the door wide open. You are allowed to come. He does not say, “Stand back and let the experts handle this.” Scripture doesn’t forbid access; it invites it. He welcomes you to open His book and listen to His voice. [1] “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. [2] Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. [3] Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. (Isaiah 55:1-3, ESV) Command means He cares enough to require what is good. He knows that we need His Word more than we realize, so He does not leave engagement with Scripture as a hobby for unusually keen Christians. He orders us to do what leads to life. Exhortation adds the note of appeal and encouragement. God does not only bark orders; He urges, invites, persuades: “Today, if you hear his voice…” (Psalm 95:7b; Hebrews 3:15b). He calls us to the very thing that will bless us.    This is sheer kindness. God knows that left to ourselves we drift. He knows that our hearts are prone to wander and that we will try to live on our own wisdom. So He permits us to read His Word, commands us to do so, and then exhorts us to obey that command, all for our good. In Scripture we find Christ, and in Christ, by the Spirit, we find life. The story of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 illustrates all of this. Luke tells us that he was sitting in his chariot, reading Isaiah the prophet aloud. Philip runs up and asks, “Do you understand what you are reading?” (Acts 8:30). The eunuch is not rebuked for reading; he is helped to understand. God sends a preacher to come alongside his reading so that he might see Christ in the text and believe. That is still how God works: He puts the Word into our hands and then, by teachers and by His Spirit, helps us to grasp its meaning. This helps us to avoid two ditches:  We DO reject the medieval Roman Catholic view of a church that “does the work for us”. We DO NOT reject God’s patterns for faithful preachers and teachers in the church. 3. Read, hear, understand – and help one another The catechism says we are to read, hear, and understand the Scriptures. To read is the ordinary discipline of opening the Bible for ourselves. Not everyone can read; some must rely more on hearing. But where God has given the ability, regular personal reading is part of obedience to this question. It need not be heroic in scale; it simply needs to be steady. To hear reminds us that Scripture is meant to be a public book. It is to be read aloud in the congregation, preached, and discussed. Much of our “use” of Scripture will come through listening together as a church and as families. To understand guards us from bare exposure to the words without grasping their sense. Understanding takes time, patience, and help. It is not a reason to stay away; it is a reason to keep coming back with questions and with prayer, trusting that God wants His Word to be understood.   Putting Question 5 together, then, we can say this: God has not locked His Word away from ordinary believers; He has opened it to them, and in opening it He has loved them. He permits, commands, and exhorts us to do what is good: to attend to the Scriptures in which, by the Spirit, we meet His Son. Question 6 – What does the Bible teach me? What things are chiefly contained in the Holy Scriptures? The Holy Scriptures chiefly contain what man ought to believe concerning God, and what duty God requireth of man.   If Question 5 tells us that the Bible is for all of God’s people, Question 6 tells us, in one sentence, what the Bible is mainly about. It gives us a simple, reliable framework for reading Scripture and for understanding the shape of the catechism itself. 1. What we ought to believe concerning God First, the Holy Scriptures “chiefly contain what man ought to believe concerning God”. The Bible is, before anything else, God’s self-revelation. It tells us who He is: His being, His attributes, His purposes, His works in creation and providence, His covenants, His promises, His judgments, and His mercy in Christ. Paul urges Timothy, “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 1:13) That “pattern of sound words” is the apostolic teaching about God and His saving work. Scripture gives us that pattern in written form. It tells us what to believe about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; about Christ’s person and work; about sin, grace, and glory. In 2 Timothy 3:15, Paul reminds Timothy that from childhood he has known “the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” The way the Scriptures make us wise for salvation is by telling us the truth about God and about His way of saving sinners.  Therefore, faith is not a leap into the dark; it is trust in what God has actually said.  If we separate Christian living from Scriptural truths that the Bible teaches us to believe about God, we end up with either moralism or mysticism. The first half of Question 6 guards us against that.  The Bible is not mainly about us; it is mainly about God. 2. What duty God requireth of man Second, the Scriptures “chiefly contain… what duty God requireth of man”. The Bible does not only reveal God; it reveals His will for our lives, what obedience looks like: His commandments, His warnings, His encouragements, His examples. So, doctrine and duty belong together. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 continues, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” Scripture teaches what to believe. It reproves and corrects us. It trains us in righteousness so that we may be “equipped for every good work”, i.e., what to do. What God commands, He defines. We do not have to guess what love for Him and neighbor should

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  6. EPISODE 177

    Baptist Catechism - Lesson 06 - Questions 7, 8, and 9

    Lesson 6: Questions 7 , 8, and 9 In lessons 3, 4, and 5, we stood together on the “front porch” of the catechism. We saw that God is the first and chiefest Being (Q1), that everyone ought to believe there is a God (Q2), that He has made Himself known in creation and conscience, and that He speaks savingly in His Word by His Spirit (Q3). We learned that the Holy Scriptures are the only certain rule of what we are to believe and how we are to live (Q4), that all men are allowed, required, and encouraged to know God’s Word (Q5). Now we step “inside the house”. Part 1 of the catechism begins to unfold “what man ought to believe concerning God” (Q6, Part 1), and it starts with the most basic questions of all:  What is God? How many gods are there? Who exactly is this God we worship? Question 7 – What Is God? What is God? God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.   This is one of the most important sentences in the whole catechism. It does not tell us everything about God. That would be impossible. But it gathers up some of the Bible’s clearest and most basic truths about who He is. And getting to the bottom of this answer could fill a lifetime of study. 1. God is a Spirit The answer begins, “God is a Spirit”. Jesus says in John 4:24, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” God is not made of matter. He does not have a body like we do. He is invisible, not confined to one place, not limited by physical weakness. When Scripture speaks of His “hand” or “eyes”, it is using picture language so that we can understand His power and knowledge; it is not telling us that He has a physical body. 2. Infinite, eternal, and unchangeable Next the catechism says that God is “infinite, eternal, and unchangeable”. These are sometimes called “incommunicable” attributes, ways in which God is utterly unlike His creatures. Infinite means He is without limit. The book of Job asks, “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.” (Job 11:7-9). We can truly know God because He reveals Himself, but we can never have exhaustive knowledge of Him. Eternal means He has no beginning and no end. Moses prays, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting You are God.” (Psalm 90:2) God simply exists. He does not grow older and is not subject to time. Unchangeable (immutable) means He does not shift or drift. James 1:17 says that in God there is “no variation or shadow due to change.” When God says “i am who i am” to Moses (Exodus 3:14), He is claiming a kind of settled, self-existent being we cannot fully grasp. He does not become more loving or less holy over time; He always is who He is. This is the root thought behind confessing “a God without passions”. God is not void of emotions, but of changing emotions (passions). “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) 3. …in His wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth The catechism then takes this threefold description and lays it over seven specific perfections of God: His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Three adjectives and seven nouns give us ten strokes of the brush, a way of signaling fullness. These seven are often called “communicable” attributes, which are real, though faint and dependent, creaturely echoes in us as His image-bearers. That is, we have finite, creaturely, changeable reflections of them because we are made in the image of God. Being: God’s being is that He simply is. When He says to Moses, “i am who i am” (Exodus 3:14), He is naming Himself as the One whose existence is from Himself and not from another. God’s being is underived and necessary; ours is derived and dependent. Wisdom: Psalm 147:5 says, “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond measure.” God’s wisdom means He always knows the best ends and the best means. He never misjudges a situation; He never needs more information. Power: God is almighty. In the vision of heaven we hear the living creatures calling out day and night, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Revelation 4:8). His power is not like creaturely strength scaled up; it is the power of the One who spoke worlds into being and upholds them by “the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3). Holiness: Revelation 15:4 asks, “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy.” God’s holiness is His moral purity and His “set-apartness” from all evil. He is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Justice: God always does what is right. He never perverts judgment, never overlooks true guilt, never condemns the innocent. In Exodus 34:6-7 the Lord proclaims His name as “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,” and yet also as the One “who will by no means clear the guilty.” His justice is not at odds with His mercy; both flow from His holy character. Goodness: God is good in Himself and good in all that He does. He overflows in kindness, generosity, and steadfast love. Exodus 34 ties His goodness to His compassion and steadfast love; every created joy is a small beam from the uncreated sun of His goodness. Note: this description (like a beam from the sun) is not a description of the Trinity! Truth: God is true and truthful. He is “the God of truth”; He cannot lie or deceive. His words always match reality, and in fact they define reality. When He makes promises, He keeps them. Taken together, these seven perfections, stretched out under the banner “infinite, eternal, and unchangeable”, give us a rich starting point for knowing the God of Scripture. He is not only above us in being; He is also the fountain of every created reflection of being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Question 8 – How many gods are there? Are there more gods than one? There is but one only, the living and true God.   1. The basic confession of Israel and the Church (Spiritual Israel) The fundamental text here is Deuteronomy 6:4, the “Shema”: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” In a world filled with idols and rival deities, Israel is taught to confess that the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is one. There are not multiple gods sharing power and competing for attention. There is one Creator, one Lord, one Judge, one Redeemer. The New Testament takes up this same confession. Paul writes, “We know that ‘an idol has no real existence’, and that ‘there is no God but one.’” (1 Corinthians 8:4) The “gods” of the nations are not rival deities in the same category as the Lord; they are not truly gods at all. Behind them may stand demonic powers or simply human imagination, but in terms of true deity there is but one only. 2. The living and true God The catechism does not merely say “one God”; it says “the living and true God.” That language echoes several passages. For example, in Jeremiah 10:10 we read, “But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King.” The prophets contrast the living God with lifeless idols that have mouths but do not speak, eyes but do not see, hands but do not feel. 3. Monotheism that makes room for Question 9 This strict monotheism is not the opposite of the Trinity; it is the starting point. Before we say anything about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we must be clear: Christians are not tritheists. We do not believe in three gods. We confess with Israel of old that the Lord is one. The one God is the living and true God, and we will soon see that this one God exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Question 9 – What about the Trinity? 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 essence, equal in power and glory.   1. One God in three persons The answer is carefully balanced: “There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” “These three are one God, the same in essence, equal in power and glory.” The word essence points back to what we said in Question 7: God’s being or nature; i.e., what God is. There is one divine essence. The word person points to the three distinct whos who each fully possess that one divine essence: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is mystery but not contradictory. Scripture forces us to hold three truths together: There is one God (Deuteronomy 6:4). The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each called God, act as God, and receive worship as God. The Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Father; they are personally distinct and relate to one another in love. The doctrine of the Trinity is simply the Church’s way of honoring all three truths without collapsing any of them. 2. Baptistic use of 1 John 5:7 and our approach today Historically, many 17th-century Baptists cited 1 John 5:7 in the form found in the King James Version: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” That phrase (“the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one”) is called the Johannine Comma. Today, most scholars and modern translations agree that this longer wording is not part of John’s original letter. It appears in later Greek manuscripts and seems to have been a marginal note that eventually slipped into the tex

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  7. EPISODE 178

    Baptist Catechism - Lesson 07 - Questions 10 and 11

    Lesson 7: Questions  10 and 11 In Lesson 6 we asked who God is. We saw that: He is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being and all His perfections There is but one only, the living and true God This one God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the same in essence, equal in power and glory This week we ask a different kind of question. If this is who God is, what has He purposed to do; and how does He bring those purposes about in the real world? Questions 10 and 11 introduce us to the decrees of God and to His works of creation and providence as the way those decrees are carried out. Question 10 — What Are the Decrees of God? What are the decrees of God? The decrees of God are His eternal purpose, according to the counsel of His will, whereby, for His own glory, He hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.   This answer gives us four key phrases to think about:  Eternal purpose Counsel of His will For His own glory Foreordained whatsoever comes to pass    We will take them in turn and then ask what difference this makes for Christian discipleship. 1. His eternal purpose The decrees of God are first of all described as “His eternal purpose”. That means that God’s plan is not something He invented part way through history as He reacted to human choices or unexpected events. Before He created the world, God already knew and willed all that would come to pass. Paul writes in Ephesians 1:4 that God “chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” A few verses later he says that God “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11). Election is one part of that eternal purpose, but the language is broader. God works all things according to His will. There is nothing outside the scope of His purpose. Lamentations 3:37 pushes in the same direction. In the middle of a book full of tears, Jeremiah asks, “Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?” Behind every event stands the sovereign Lord. His decree is not a cold, abstract blueprint; it is His settled, personal intention about the world He has made. 2. According to the counsel of His will The catechism says that God’s decrees are His eternal purpose “according to the counsel of His will”. That phrase reminds us that God does not decree blindly or arbitrarily. He does not cast lots in heaven to decide how history will go. His decree reflects His own perfect justice, goodness, and truth. When Scripture speaks of the “counsel” of God, it is using human language for something that happens within the life of God Himself. He needs no advisers, yet His purposes are fully thought out and perfectly wise. In Isaiah 46:10, the Lord says, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.” There is no gap between what God decides and what God does; there is no gap between what would be wise and what He actually decrees. This means that, even when we do not understand why something has happened, we are not dealing with random fate or blind necessity. We are dealing with the counsel of a Father Who is wise and good, even when His ways are hidden from us. We can trust even when we don’t understand.  3. For His own glory Next, the catechism tells us that God’s decrees are “for His own glory”. God’s purpose is God-centered. That can sound unsettling or selfish until we remember who God is. If the triune God is the first and chiefest Being, then His own glory really is the highest and best end of all things. There is nothing higher for Him to aim at or glorify. Scripture is unashamed about this. Paul says that God chose us, predestined us, redeemed us, and sealed us with the Spirit “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Ephesians 1:6) and again “to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:12, 14). Romans 9:22-23 goes even further and says that God endures vessels of wrath and prepares vessels of mercy “in order to make known the riches of his glory”. His decrees display who He is, ordered toward the glory of His excellencies for the good of His people.  This does not mean that God’s glory is in competition with our good. On the contrary, our deepest good is to see and share in the glory of God. If God decreed anything less than His own glory, He would be decreeing something less than our true joy. Romans 8:28 reminds us that “for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (emphasis mine) 4. Foreordained whatsoever comes to pass The most sweeping part of the definition is the last clause: God has “foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.” Nothing that happens in heaven or on earth falls outside His decree. Nothing. That includes the rise and fall of nations; the length of our days; the details of our lives; and, in a way that stretches our minds, even the sinful actions of creatures. Romans 9:22-23 again reminds us that God’s purpose encompasses even the hard realities of judgment. Isaiah 46:10 has the Lord “declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done”. He does not merely know the future; He declares it. History is not a film He has watched in advance; it is a story He has authored. Lamentations 3:37 exposes our instinct to limit God’s control. That question expects the answer: no one. If something comes to pass, it is because the Lord has, in some sense, commanded it. At this point we must be careful. Scripture is equally clear that God is not the author of sin and that humans are responsible for their actions. But we are not puppets. Sin is what we want to do; our choices are real and morally charged. Yet those choices are never outside God’s sovereign purpose. The clearest example is the cross. Acts 2:23 says that Jesus was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” and yet Peter tells the crowd, “you crucified and killed” Him. God decreed the crucifixion for our salvation; the people who carried it out are still accountable. Later in Acts, the believers say, “for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.” (Acts 4:27-28) If God decreed the most heinous evil to ever exist, the crucifixion of Christ, then all other troubling evil falls under His provision, too. 5. Why this doctrine matters The decrees of God are not given to win arguments, but for our comfort and our humility. They humble us. We are not ultimately in control of our own lives. We make real choices and those choices matter; yet behind all of them stands the eternal purpose of God. Nothing that happens is devoid of purpose. They comfort us. If God has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass according to the counsel of His wise and good will, then there are no accidents in His world. Nothing can separate us from His love in Christ (Romans 8:38-39), because there is no event that lies outside His decree. We can trust in the midst of suffering, because we trust the One through Whose hands the suffering comes. They motivate us to worship. When we see God’s hand not only in the big movements of history but also in the details of our own story, it should lead us to say with Paul, “To Him be glory forever.” (Romans 11:36) Question 11 — How Doth God Execute His Decrees? How doth God execute His decrees? God executeth His decrees in the works of creation and providence.   Question 10 told us that God has an eternal purpose whereby He has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. Question 11 tells us how that purpose is carried out in time. The answer is beautifully simple. God executes His decrees in two great works: creation and providence. Everything God does in history fits under one of these two headings. 1. Creation as the beginning of the decree in time Creation is the moment when God’s eternal purpose begins to unfold in space and time. Until God speaks, there is no world, no history, no human story in which His decree can be carried out. Genesis 1 presents God creating by His Word and Spirit. He calls things into existence that did not exist; He orders and fills the world; He makes man in His image. The doctrine of decree guards us from thinking of creation as a whim or an experiment. God did not create because He was lonely or bored. He created in line with His eternal purpose to display His glory. The world exists so that the triune God might be known and praised. This gives weight to the created order. The physical world is not a distraction from God’s plan; it is the stage on which that plan is enacted. Human bodies, material culture, time, and place all matter, because they are the arena where God executes His decree. 2. Providence as God’s ongoing execution of His decree Providence is the ongoing work by which God sustains, governs, and directs all His creatures and all their actions. Creation is God’s decree beginning; providence is His decree worked out in time. Although Question 11 does not list proof texts, Scripture is full of them. Hebrews 1:3 says that Christ “upholds the universe by the word of his power.” Colossians 1:17 says that in Him “all things hold together.” Jesus tells us that not even a sparrow falls to the ground apart from our Father and that the hairs of our heads are all numbered (Matthew 10:29-30). Proverbs reminds us that “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9) Providence has several strands. Preservation: God keeps creation in existence. If He withdrew His sustaining hand, everything would collapse into nothing. Government: God directs all creatures and events toward His appointed ends. Kings and empires rise and

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  8. EPISODE 179

    Baptist Catechism - Lesson 08 - Questions 12 and 13

    Lesson 8: Questions  12 and 13 Last time we considered how God not only decrees all things from all eternity, but also carries out His decree in real history, especially through His works of creation and providence. Today we focus on creation itself, and then on man as God’s image-bearer. Question 12: What is the work of creation? What is the work of creation? The work of creation is God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.   This answer is short, but it gives us a worldview. It teaches us to see the world as God’s world, and ourselves as God’s creatures. Hebrews 11:3 also reminds us that creation is something we ultimately know because God has spoken. “By faith we understand…” does not mean “by blind leap we guess.” It means we trust God’s Word about the beginning. There are many things we can observe and measure in the created order, but none of us was there at the first moment. Genesis 1 and Hebrews 11:3 teach us to receive God’s account as true and to let it set the boundaries for all our thinking about origins. 1. God’s making all things Genesis opens with a sharp distinction: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) There is God and there is everything else. That Creator/creature distinction is the foundation for worship. God is not the biggest thing in the universe; He brought the universe into being. The world is not self-originating. It exists because God willed it (Revelation 4:11) and it belongs to Him by right of creation. That means creation is not meaningless. Since God made all things, then creation has a given purpose. We may explore, cultivate, and study it, but we are not free to assign it whatever meaning we prefer. The most basic fact about reality is not “I think,” but “God created.” Genesis 1:1 is not simply a poetic way of saying “things happened a long time ago.” It is a declaration of ultimate reality: God is, and everything else is created. That means the universe is not its own cause. The created order is real, orderly, measurable, and worth studying, but never independent, ultimate, or self-originating. That Creator/creature distinction also exposes why the dominant “origins story” of our age is not neutral. Modern culture often urges us to interpret the world as if matter is all that exists, as if time and chance are the only “creators”, and as if life is an accident that became meaningful only because we assigned meaning to it. But that is not science. It is a religion that rivals biblical Christianity. Genesis will not let us speak that way. Genesis, indeed the Bible as a whole, insists that the most basic fact underneath every fact is not “nature did it”, but “God created”. This is why Christians must reject macro-evolution, the claim that all living things arose by an undirected process from a common ancestor over immense time, so that God’s creative work is either reduced to a distant trigger or removed entirely. This evolutionary story, as commonly framed, asks us to treat death, struggle, waste, and survival-by-competition as the engine that builds life. Yet Scripture teaches that God made the world by His command, with purposeful order, and pronounced it “very good”. Creation is craftsmanship, not accident. It is a work of the living God. And we should say plainly: we do not reject science. Christians have every reason to love true science, because Scripture teaches that the world is intelligible: it comes from the mind of God, not from chaos. We welcome careful observation, honest measurement, repeatable testing, and humble conclusions. But we refuse the rule that says, “God is not allowed as an explanation.” That rule is not scientific; it is a religious commitment. Our conclusions must be bounded by God’s Word. So Genesis 1:1 is not merely the Bible’s first sentence; it is the boundary stone of all our thinking. It tells us who we are (creatures), what the world is (created), who created (God), why (God’s glory), and how we should study it: as servants under the Lordship of the Creator, receiving Scripture as our highest authority even while we gladly investigate His handiwork. 2. Of nothing The catechism says God made all things “of nothing”. Hebrews 11:3 teaches the same doctrine: “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” God did not shape pre-existing matter; He called matter itself into being. This guards us from two opposite errors. On one side is the instinct (both ancient and modern) to treat matter as eternal and ultimate, with God reduced to an organizer. On the other side is the temptation to treat the world as an extension of God, as if creation were somehow divine. Scripture refuses both. God alone is eternal. Everything else is contingent and created, dependent on His will. 3. By the word of his power Genesis 1 is built on a repeated refrain: “And God said…” (Genesis 1:3,6,9,11,14,20,24,26). Creation happens by divine speech. “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3) That is why the catechism calls it “the word of his power”. God’s word is not merely informative; it is effective. When He commands, reality conforms to His will. Notice also the wisdom and order of God’s speech. God separates and arranges. He forms realms and fills them. He gives the world rhythm and structure: “evening and morning”, seasons, days, and years (Genesis 1:14). The universe is intelligible because it comes from the mind of God. This is one reason Christians can love learning about the created order. We study it as craftsmanship, not as deity. 4. In the space of six days The catechism’s phrase, “in the space of six days”, is not an incidental detail. Rather, it’s a straightforward echo of what Scripture itself presents in Genesis 1-2. The repeated cadence of “evening and morning” (Genesis 1:5,8,13,19,23,31) reads like ordinary days, and Genesis 2:1-3 crowns the account by showing that God finished his work and then rested on the 7th day, setting a real pattern into the fabric of the world. Later, when God gives the 4th commandment, he explicitly grounds Israel’s weekly rhythm in God’s own Creation Week: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:11) In other words, the weekly Sabbath command is not built on a metaphorical week, but on God’s own 6-day work followed by a 7th-day rest. The catechism is simply teaching believers to receive that biblical pattern as it stands: a genuine, historical Creation Week — 6 normal days of divine work, followed by a 7th day of rest. And that truth shapes more than our timeline; it shapes our theology and our lives. God is not hurried or improvisational. He creates with purpose, order, and completion. He speaks, it is done; He finishes, and then he rests, not because He is weary, but because His work is perfect and complete. That means our limits are not defects. The day-night cycle, the week, the rhythm of labor and rest, these are gifts, woven into pre-Fall creation itself. We learn to live as creatures under a wise Creator: working diligently within the boundaries he gives, resting gladly when he commands, and refusing the old temptation to live as though time, structure, and dependence are problems to overcome rather than mercies to receive. 5. And all very good Finally, the answer ends where Genesis 1 ends: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31, emphasis mine). Before sin enters, the creation is good. Matter, bodies, marriage, fruitfulness, and work are all good. The world is God’s gift, not a mistake. This matters because many spiritualities despise the physical world, as if holiness meant escaping matter. Scripture goes the other way. It teaches us to receive God’s gifts with gratitude, and to use them rightly. Sin will distort what God made good, but it does not make creation itself evil. That is why redemption is not God throwing creation away, but God restoring what He made. (Romans 8:18-25) So Question 12 teaches us to confess the living God as Creator: making all things from nothing, by the word of His power, in the space of six days, and all very good (Genesis 1; Hebrews 11:3). That confession fuels worship, humility, and gratitude. Question 13: How did God create man? How did God create man? God created man, male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.   Genesis slows down when it reaches humanity. God has spoken many creatures into being, but when He comes to man He speaks as if He is marking something special: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” (Genesis 1:26) The catechism summarizes five key truths. Notice, too, that Genesis 1:26 uses the plural: “Let us make man…” We should not press that line as if the doctrine of the Trinity rests on it, but we also should not ignore it. By the time we reach the full light of the New Testament, we learn that the one God eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Remember Question 9. Here at the beginning, the language fits comfortably within that later clarity: the Creator is not solitary and lonely, but personal and rich in fellowship. 1. God created man Human beings are creatures. That means dependence: we receive life; we do not originate it. It also means accountability: the One who made us has authority over us. But it also means dignity. If God created man, then human life has value that cannot be earned or lost based on usefulness. The unborn, the disabled, and the elderly all share the same gro

    51 min
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This podcast broadcasts the seminar lessons for Great Commission Baptist Church in Summerville, SC. The main teacher is Michael McEvoy.

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