SECTION FOUR: 
THE PLAN OF GOD

In this fourth section of the Catechism, we will examine Articles 13-25 of our Statement of Faith in the Discipline. These 12 Articles address the Plan of God and how He executes that plan through us in relationship to one another and, ultimately, the rest of Creation. Thus, our doctrines of the Plan of God begin with articulating what the Church is and then focus primarily on how the Church conducts itself when gathered. 

There is much more that could have been addressed here on the many ways in which the People of God move in step with Him as they carry out His continued mission to reconcile the world to Himself through the Body of Jesus Christ, but that was apparently not what was on the forefront of the minds of those who drafted the original 39 Articles of the Anglican Church. Moreover, based on his silence on the matter of Missiology within the original 25 Articles, it appears that John Wesley was likewise content with how Article 22 grants freedom to individual congregations to pursue these things as needed, in their particular local contexts. Once again, in this section, you will notice that the attempts to differentiate Anglicanism, and for John Wesley, Methodism, from the doctrines of Roman Catholicism take greater precedence than previously. 

Once again, you will find that as you go through this section, there are some doctrines that, on their face, are so far removed from contemporary practice as to almost seem irrelevant. And once again, this is not entirely true; however, to understand why they do, in fact, remain relevant, we have attempted to demonstrate how these Articles fit into their historical context while also being interconnected with the other Articles.