Catechism: Lessons in Truth

So, like I said in my Tinker Bell post, I am reading a lot.
The current book is titled “Grounded in the Gospel” a book on teaching the basics of the Gospel. “Building Believers the old fashioned way” is the subtitle of the book,.
I really, really like this book. So much I bought my best friend a copy. And, since I had bought it on kindle, I bought myself a paperback copy too. I plan on using it, marking it up and otherwise.
The book also includes a short chapter on church history. Specifically the first four centuries of the church. I thought I knew some of it. I was wrong. Very, very wrong. It was a needed assault on my worldview. I, like many of my peers, have a truncated view of the world. Not just physically, but chronologically speaking. In a way we do this: creation, Adam, Abraham, David, Jesus, Fall of Rome, Reformation, Enlightenment, American founding, steam engine, world war, and then everything that matters like computers and internet and smartphones.
Four hundred years is a very long time. It seems absurd to even say that, but we have a tendency to treat antiquity with something on the level of polite disdain. As though they were uneducated yokels. I will venture to say that we “modern, western Christians” are more the uneducated yokels than they were.
We say insipid things like “the wrong side of history.” Is history a vinyl record with a B side? We stand on the shoulders of giants, Sir Isaac Newton is reported to have said. He was referring to the massive contribution of science by all those who had gone before him. We have this silly view that things MUST “progress”, or improve. Star Trek and all it’s attendant spin-offs are examples of this thinking. Arthur C Clarke and his “the future is better than anything we have imagined” silly talk is yet another example. Of course, it’s all a result of the theory of evolution. That we came from primordial ooze and now have conscientiousness. All by random chance. And the world came from a big bang, also a something from nothing scenario. An event that violates every known law of physics created the laws of physics after it was established to keep itself running in an orderly fashion after a rather disorderly entrance. But really I digress from my point.
Our church fathers (and mothers, but fathers in the all encompassing sense) endured the kind of persecution we modern westerners routinely ignore on the nightly news in Syria and Iraq (another blog for another time). They were teaching Christ in a time when it could really cost you. If it might cost you your life, would you believe on Christ Jesus? What was necessary to be saved? What were the central tenets of the faith? What does our Lord require of us? How do you live in this world while you wait for release to the next?
Our ancestors thought long and hard about these questions. They endured trials and tortures. They developed methods to teach the new comers. And the new comers learned. And then the new comers became the teachers to the next new comers. And it was serious stuff. Again, because you could suffer for being a follower of Christ.

They developed methods of teaching to aid in building believers, they were called catechisms. We might prefer a more modern word: lessons. The things of faith were taught, repeated and then taught again. Because we need them. God is Holy. The world screams that He is not. God seeks and saves the lost. The world screams he is a kill-joy and mean taskmaster. God the Son humbled himself to come to earth to die in our place on a cross. The world screams Jesus was just a good teacher. We must be taught and retaught Truth. Because the world needs to hear it and we need to believe it, because our lives depend on Him.

What are they you ask. Well, some are simple and some are more in depth. But I’d venture to wager that you know some of them already. The Nicene Creed and Apostles Creed are probably the two easiest examples.

The Nicene Creed:

We believe in one God the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. Of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us and our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;  he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

There is a lot of truth in there. It’s also nothing but truth. Distilled, undiluted capital T truth. Now, I’m not saying there isn’t more to be taught but this is essential stuff here. Jesus as misunderstood teacher doesn’t fit in here. Jesus’s miraculous birth is in here. This creed is a great starting point for analyzing the things the world is telling you. If what you are being told doesn’t fit with this creed, then it isn’t truth you are being told. Respond in love however. We are a joyful people because of the great hope that resides within us. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come!

The Roman Catholic Church has developed many catechisms. The Reformation brought us the Westminster Confession of Faith , The Westminster Shorter Catechism , other Church Documents and the 39 Articles of Faith . The whole New Testament is instruction as well. So pick up your bible and be taught by God.