Catechism question number 4 January 23, 2008
Posted by jwilliams2 in Christian Life.6 comments
This coming Sunday night the children that I teach in Children’s Choir will be expected to have tried to memorize the answer to question number 4 of the Baptist Catechism. The question is:
Question 4: What is the Word of God?
Answer: The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, being given by divine inspiration, are the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
Scripture: 2 Peter 1:21; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17; Isaiah 8:20; Matthew 5:17- 18; 1 Corinthians 2:13; Psalm 19:7-8.
Comment: “Scriptures” is a special word for the “writings” of the OT and NT. Perhaps you will want to explain that the OT deals with God’s word that came before Jesus was born; and the NT is the word of God that came after Jesus was born. “Infallible” means it will never lead us astray in what it teaches. It is true and does not err. It can be trusted. “Faith” refers to right thinking and feeling; and “practice” refers to right doing. We measure our thoughts and emotions and actions by the rule of the Bible. “Inspiration” means that it is God-breathed: by his Spirit he guided his spokesmen to speak his word in their language.
I continue to be amazed at how quickly and efficiently these children are able to memorize these answers and spout them out when called upon. One may ask “How much do the children actually understand?” as some of them are quite young. The two things that jump out to me that are important for us to understand are: One, children are capable of digesting large chunks of information; and Two, even though we may not know what they get, at least they will have a foundation of truth to build upon.
As parents and teachers maybe we need to realize that sometimes (probably more often than not) our children are more capable than we realize and that we should not limit their potential to learn based on our incapacities to teach.
What do you think?
