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Reformed Churches - Creeds and Confessions
The Heidelberg Catechism
The Heidelberg Catechism, the second of our doctrinal standards, was written in Heidelberg
at the request of Elector Frederick III, ruler of the most influential German province, the Palatinate, from 1559
to 1576. This pious Christian prince commissioned Zacharius Ursinus, twenty-eight years of age and professor of
theology at the Heidelberg University, and Caspar Olevianus, twenty-six years old and Frederick's court preacher,
to prepare a catechism for instructing the youth and for guiding pastors and teachers.
Frederick obtained the advice and cooperation of the entire theological faculty in the preparation of the Catechism.
The Heidelberg Catechism was adopted by a Synod in Heidelberg and published in German with a preface by Frederick
III, dated January 19, 1563. A second and third German edition, each with some small additions, as well as a Latin
translation were published in Heidelberg in the same year.
The Catechism was soon divided into fifty-two sections, so that a section of the Catechism could be explained to
the churches each Sunday of the year. In the Netherlands this Heidelberg Catechism became generally and favourably
known almost as soon as it came from the press, mainly through the efforts of Petrus Dathenus, who translated it
into the Dutch language and added this translation to his Dutch rendering of the Genevan Psalter, which was published
in 1566. In the same year Peter Gabriel set the example of explaining this catechism to his congregation at Amsterdam
in his Sunday afternoon sermons.
The National Synods of the sixteenth century adopted it as one of the Three Forms of Unity, requiring office-bearers
to subscribe to it and ministers to explain it to the churches. These requirements were strongly emphasized by
the great Synod of Dort in 1618-19.
The Heidelberg Catechism has been translated into many languages and is the most influential and the most generally
accepted of the several catechisms of Reformation times. |
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LORD'S DAY 1
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1. Q.
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What is your only comfort in life and death?
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A.
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That I am not my own,1 but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death,2 to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.3 He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood,4 and has set me free from all the power of the devil.5 He also preserves me in such a way6 that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head;7 indeed, all things must work together
for my salvation.8
Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life9 and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.10
1 1 Cor 6:19, 20. 2 Rom 14:7-9. 3 1 Cor 3:23; Tit 2:14. 4 1 Pet 1:18, 19; 1 Jn 1:7; 2:2. 5 Jn 8:34-36; Heb 2:14, 15; 1 Jn 3:8. 6 Jn 6:39, 40; 10:27-30; 2 Thess 3:3; 1 Pet 1:5. 7 Mt 10:29-31; Lk 21:16-18. 8 Rom 8:28. 9 Rom 8:15, 16; 2 Cor 1:21, 22; 5:5; Eph 1:13, 14. 10 Rom 8:14.
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2. Q.
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What do you need to know in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
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A.
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First, how great my sins and misery are;1 second, how I am delivered from all my sins and misery;2 third, how I am to be thankful to God for such deliverance.3
1 Rom 3:9, 10; 1 Jn 1:10. 2 Jn 17:3; Acts 4:12; 10:43. 3 Mt 5:16; Rom 6:13; Eph 5:8-10; 1 Pet 2:9, 10.
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The First Part
OUR SIN AND MISERY
LORD'S DAY 2
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3. Q.
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From where do you know your sins and misery?
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A.
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From the law of God.1
1 Rom 3: 20; 7:7-25.
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4. Q.
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What does God's law require of us?
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A.
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Christ teaches us this in a summary in Matthew 22: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with
all your mind.1
This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On
these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.2
1 Deut 6:5. 2 Lev 19:18.
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5. Q.
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Can you keep all this perfectly?
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A.
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No,1 I am inclined by nature to hate God and my neighbour.2
1 Rom 3:10, 23; 1 Jn 1:8, 10. 2 Gen 6:5; 8:21; Jer 17:9; Rom 7:23; 8:7; Eph 2:3; Tit 3:3.
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LORD'S DAY 3
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6. Q.
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Did God, then, create man so wicked and perverse?
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A.
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No, on the contrary, God created man good1 and in His image,2 that is, in true righteousness and holiness,3 so that he might rightly know God his Creator,4 heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal blessedness to praise and glorify Him.5
1 Gen 1:31. 2 Gen 1:26, 27. 3 Eph 4:24. 4 Col 3:10. 5 Ps 8.
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7. Q.
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From where, then, did man's depraved nature come?
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A.
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From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise,1 for there our nature became so corrupt2 that we are all conceived and born
in sin.3
1 Gen 3. 2 Rom 5:12, 18, 19. 3 Ps 51:5.
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8. Q.
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But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all
evil?
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A.
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Yes,1 unless we are regenerated by the Spirit of God.2
1 Gen 6:5; 8:21; Job 14:4; Is 53:6. 2 Jn 3:3-5.
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LORD'S DAY 4
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9. Q.
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But does not God do man an injustice by requiring in His law what man cannot do?
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A.
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No, for God so created man that he was able to do it.1 But man, at the instigation of the devil,2 in deliberate disobedience3 robbed himself and all his descendants of these gifts.4
1 Gen 1:31. 2 Gen 3:13; Jn 8:44; 1 Tim 2:13, 14. 3 Gen 3:6. 4 Rom 5:12, 18, 19.
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10. Q.
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Will God allow such disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished?
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A.
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Certainly not. He is terribly displeased with our original sin as well as our actual
sins. Therefore He will punish them by a just judgment both now and eternally,1 as He has declared:2 Cursed be every one who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and
do them (Galatians
3:10).
1 Gen 2:17; Ex 34:7; Ps 5:4-6; 7:11; Nahum 1:2; Rom 1:18; 5:12; 2 Deut 27:26.
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11. Q.
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But is God not also merciful?
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A.
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God is indeed merciful,1 but He is also just.2 His justice requires that sin committed against the most high majesty of God also be punished
with the most severe, that is, with everlasting, punishment of body and soul.3
1 Ex 20:6; 34:6, 7; Ps 103:8, 9. 2 Ex 20:5; 34:7; Deut 7:9-11; Ps 5:4-6; Heb 10:30, 31. 3 Mt 25:45, 46.
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