APPENDIX B: WESLEY’S CATECHISM QUESTIONS, 1750

APPENDIX B: WESLEY’S CATECHISM QUESTIONS, 1750

PART ONE: HUMANITY’S PRIMARY PURPOSE IN LIFE

QUESTION ONE: What is Humanity’s purpose in life?

ANSWER: Humanity’s purpose in life is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: 1 Corinthians 10:31; Romans 11:36; Psalm 73:25-26

QUESTION TWO: What commands has God given that we may fulfill that purpose?

ANSWER: The commands God has given us is the Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament.  It is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify God and enjoy him.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: 2 Timothy 3:16; Ephesians 2:20; 1 John 1:3-4

QUESTION THREE: What is taught in the Scriptures?

ANSWER: The Scriptures teach us to believe God and the duty that He requires of us.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: 2 Timothy 1:13; 2 Timothy 3:16

 

PART TWO: GOD

QUESTION FOUR: Who is God?

ANSWER: God is a Spirit who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: John 4:24; Job 11:7; Psalm 90:2; James 1:17; Psalm: 147:5; Revelation 4:8; Revelation 15:4

QUESTION FIVE: Is there only one God?

ANSWER: There is only one living and true God.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Deuteronomy 6:4; Jeremiah 10:10

QUESTION SIX: How many persons are there in the Godhead?

ANSWER: There are three Persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one God, the same in substance and equal in power and glory.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Matthew 28:19; 1 John 5:7

 

PART THREE: THE WORKS OF GOD

QUESTION SEVEN: What is the work of creation?

ANSWER: The work of creation is God’s making of all things out of nothing, by his powerful word, in the space of six days, and deemed it all very good.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Genesis 1; Hebrews 11:3

QUESTION EIGHT: How did God create mankind?

 ANSWER: God created mankind, male and female, in his own image and likeness, and in a state of knowledge, righteousness, and holiness; and he gave them dominion over the earth.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Genesis 1:27-28; Colossians 3:10; Ephesians 4:24

QUESTION NINE: What are God’s works?

ANSWER: God’s works are His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing of all His creatures, and all their actions.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Psalm 145:17; Psalm 104:24; Isaiah 28:29; Hebrews 1:3; Psalm 103:19; Matthew 10:29

QUESTION TEN: What special act did God exercise towards the first man in the state in which he was created?

ANSWER: When God created the first man, he entered into an agreement of life with him, upon a condition of perfect obedience, which forbid him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of Humanity’s death.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Galatians 3:12; Genesis 2:17

QUESTION ELEVEN: Did our first parents continue in the condition they were created in?

ANSWER: Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own wills, fell from the state they were created in by sinning against God.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Genesis 3:6

 

PART FOUR: SIN

QUESTION TWELVE: What is sin?

ANSWER: Sin is the transgression of God’s Law.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: 1 John 3:4

QUESTION THIRTEEN: What sin did our first parents commit that caused them to fall from their original condition?

ANSWER: They ate the forbidden fruit, which was a transgression of God’s Law.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Genesis 3:6

QUESTION FOURTEEN: Did all Humanity fall in Adam’s first transgression?

ANSWER: The covenant made between God and Adam and Eve was not only for Adam and Eve, but for all Humanity descending from them.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Genesis 1:28; Genesis 2:16; Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21

QUESTION FIFTEEN: What state did the fall bring Humanity into?

ANSWER: The fall brought Humanity into a state of sin and misery.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Romans 5:12

QUESTION SIXTEEN: What is so sinful about the condition into which Humanity fell?

ANSWER: The sinfulness of the condition into which Humanity fell consists of the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the lack of his original righteousness, the corruption of the entire human nature (which is commonly called Original Sin), and all transgressions that proceed from it (Actual Sin).

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Romans 5:19; Romans 3:10; Ephesians 2:1; Psalm 51:5

QUESTION SEVENTEEN: What is the misery of that condition into which Humanity fell?

ANSWER: The entire human race, by their fall, lost communion with God.  They are now under God’s wrath and curse, and are then subject to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the agonies of hell forever.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Genesis 3:8; Ephesians 2:3; Galatians 3:10; Romans 6:23

 

PART FIVE: CHRIST

QUESTION EIGHTEEN: Who is Humanity’s Redeemer?

ANSWER: It is the Lord Jesus Christ.  He, being the eternal Son of God, became man.  He was and continues to be God and man in two distinct natures but one Person forever.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: 1 Timothy 2:5; John 1:14; Galatians 4:4; Luke 1:35; Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 7:24

QUESTION NINETEEN: How did Christ, being the Son of God, become human?

ANSWER: Christ the Son of God became human by obtaining for himself a real body and a rational soul.  Being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, he was born of her, yet without sin.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Hebrews 2:14; Hebrews 10:5; Matthew 26:38; Luke 1:31; Hebrews 4:15

QUESTION TWENTY: What office does Christ execute as our Redeemer?

ANSWER: Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the offices of a Prophet, Priest, and king, both in his state of man and God.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Acts 3:22; Hebrews 12:25; Hebrews 5:5; Psalm 2:6; Isaiah 9:6-7

QUESTION TWENTY-ONE: How does Christ execute the office of a Prophet?

ANSWER: Christ executes the office of a Prophet in revealing to us by his word and Spirit the will of God for our salvation.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: John 1:18; John 15:15; John 20:31; John 14:26

QUESTION TWENTY-TWO: How does Christ execute the office of a Priest?

ANSWER: Christ executes the office of a Priest by offering himself once for all time as a sacrifice to satisfy God’s Justice reconciling us to God, and then in making continual intercession for us.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Hebrews 9:14; Hebrews 2:17; Hebrews 7:24-25

QUESTION TWENTY-THREE: How does Christ execute the office of a King?

ANSWER: Christ executes the office of a King in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Psalm 110:3; Isaiah 33:22; 1 Corinthians 15:25

QUESTION TWENTY-FOUR: What was Christ’s Humiliation?

ANSWER: Christ’s humiliation was his being born in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross, in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Luke 2:7; Galatians 4:4; Isaiah 53:2; Luke 22:44; Matthew 27:46; Philippians 2:8; Matthew 12:40

QUESTION TWENTY-FIVE: What does Christ’s Exaltation mean?

ANSWER: Christ’s exaltation means his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up to heaven, and sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: 1 Corinthians 15:4; Mark 16:19; Acts 17:31

 

PART SIX: SALVATION

QUESTION TWENTY-SIX: How do we partake of the redemption purchased by Christ?

ANSWER: We partake of the redemption purchased by Christ by the Holy Spirit applying it to us.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: John 1:11; Titus 3:5

QUESTION TWENTY-SEVEN: How does the Holy Spirit apply the redemption purchased by Christ to us?

ANSWER: The Holy Spirit applies the redemption purchased by Christ to us by working faith in us and uniting us to Christ.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Ephesians 1:13; Ephesians 2:8; Ephesians 3:17

QUESTION TWENTY-EIGHT: What benefits in this life are there for those who genuinely believe?

ANSWER: The benefits are justification, sanctification, and the many benefits that either accompany or flow from them.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: 1 Corinthians 1:30

QUESTION TWENTY-NINE: What is Justification?

ANSWER: Justification is the act of God’s free grace through which he pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight by the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Romans 3:24; Romans 4:6; Ephesians 1:7; 2 Corinthians 5:19; Romans 5:17-19; Galatians 2:16

QUESTION THIRTY: What is Sanctification?

ANSWER: Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace through which we are renewed in our entire person after the image of God, and are enabled to die to sin and live righteously.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Ephesians 4:23-24; Romans 6:6; Romans 8:1

QUESTION THIRTY-ONE: What are the benefits in this life that either accompany or flow from justification and sanctification?

ANSWER: The benefits are the assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Spirit, increase of grace, and perseverance in these till the end.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Romans 5:1; Romans 14:17; 1 John 5:13; 1 Peter 1:5

QUESTION THIRTY-TWO: What benefits do Christians receive from Christ at their death?

ANSWER: The souls of Christians at their death pass into glory, and their bodies rest in their graves, till the resurrection.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Philippians 1:23; Luke 23:43; Isaiah 57:2; Job 19:26

QUESTION THIRTY-THREE: What benefits do Christians receive from Christ at the resurrection?

ANSWER: At the resurrection Christians, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God for all eternity.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: 1 Corinthians 15:43; Matthew 10:32; 1 John 3:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:17

 

PART SEVEN: THE 10 COMMANDMENTS

QUESTION THIRTY-FOUR: What duty does God require of Humanity?

ANSWER: The duty God requires is obedience to his revealed will.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Micah 6:8

QUESTION THIRTY-FIVE: What rule of obedience did God first reveal to Humanity?

ANSWER: The rule that God first revealed was obedience to the Moral Law.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Romans 2:14

QUESTION THIRTY-SIX: Where is the Moral Law found?

ANSWER: In the Ten Commandments.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Deuteronomy 10:4; Matthew 19:17

QUESTION THIRTY-SEVEN: What is the sum of the Ten Commandments?

ANSWER: The sum of the Ten Commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind, and our neighbor as ourselves.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Matthew 22:37

QUESTION THIRTY-EIGHT: What is the Preface to the Ten Commandments?

ANSWER: The Preface to the Ten Commandments is “I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Exodus 20:2

QUESTION THIRTY-NINE: What does the Preface to the Ten Commandments teach us?

ANSWER: The Preface teaches that because God is the Lord our God and Redeemer, we are bound to keep all his Commandments.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Deuteronomy 11:1

QUESTION FORTY: What is the First Commandment?

ANSWER: The First Commandment is that we shall have no other gods before the Lord.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Exodus 20:3

QUESTION FORTY-ONE: What is required in the First Commandment?

ANSWER: It is required that we know and acknowledge God as the only true God, as our God, and to worship and glorify Him accordingly.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: 1 Chronicles 28:9; Deuteronomy 26:17

QUESTION FORTY-TWO: What is forbidden in the First Commandment?

ANSWER: The First Commandment forbids us to deny, or not worship and glorify, the true God as God, and as our God.  It also forbids giving worship and glory to any other thing which is due to God alone.

QUESTION FORTY-THREE: What are we specifically taught by the words “before Me” in the First Commandment?

ANSWER: The words “before Me” in the First Commandment, teach that God, who sees all things, takes notice and is very displeased with the sin of having any other god.

QUESTION FORTY-FOUR: What is the Second Commandment?

ANSWER: The Second Commandment is that we shall not make for ourselves an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  We shall not bow down to them or worship them; for the Lord is our God and is a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth of those who reject Him, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love Him and keep His commandments.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Exodus 20:4-6

QUESTION FORTY-FIVE: What is required in the Second Commandment?

ANSWER: It is required that we receive, observe, and keep in purity, and in their entirety, the worship, and ordinances that God has appointed in his word.

QUESTION FORTY-SIX: What is forbidden in the Second Commandment?

ANSWER: The Second Commandment forbids the worship of God by images, or any other way, not specifically appointed by his word.

QUESTION FORTY-SEVEN: What do we learn from the Second Commandment?

ANSWER: From the Second Commandment we learn that God is sovereign over us, that we are his property, and His zeal for His worship.

QUESTION FORTY-EIGHT: What is the Third Commandment?

ANSWER: The Third Commandment is that we shall not make any wrongful use of the name of the Lord our God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Exodus 20:7

QUESTION FORTY-NINE: What is required in the Third Commandment?

ANSWER: The Third Commandment requires the holy and reverent use of God’s names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word, and works.

QUESTION FIFTY: What is forbidden in the Third Commandment?

ANSWER: The Third Commandment forbids all profaning and abusing of anything that God uses to make Himself known.

QUESTION FIFTY-ONE: What are we to learn from the Third Commandment?

ANSWER: The Third Commandment teaches us that while transgressors of this Commandment may escape punishment from men, the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judgment.

QUESTION FIFTY-TWO: What is the Fourth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Fourth Commandment is to remember the sabbath day and keep it holy.  Six days we shall labor and do all our work.  But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord our God; in which we shall not do any work—we, our son, or our daughter, our male or female slave, our livestock, or the alien resident in our towns.  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore, the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Exodus 20:8-11

QUESTION FIFTY-THREE: What is required in the Fourth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Fourth Commandment requires that we keep holy to God the set times that He has appointed in his word—specifically, the seventh day to be a holy Sabbath to Him.

QUESTION FIFTY-FOUR: Which of the seven days has God appointed to be the weekly Sabbath?

ANSWER: Till the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week (Saturday) to be the weekly Sabbath.  Ever since the resurrection, He appointed the first day of the week (Sunday) as the Sabbath until the end of the world.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Acts 20:7

QUESTION FIFTY-FIVE: How is the Sabbath sanctified?

ANSWER: The Sabbath is sanctified by resting in a holy manner for the entire day.  We even rest from secular employment and recreation, which are lawful on other days.  We spend the whole time in the public and private exercise of God’s worship, except for what time is needed for what is necessary and/or works of mercy.

QUESTION FIFTY-SIX: What are the sins forbidden in the Fourth Commandment?

ANSWER: The sins that are forbidden in the Fourth Commandment are the omission, or careless performance, of the duties that God requires, and the profaning of the day by idleness, or by doing something sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about worldly employments, or recreation.

QUESTION FIFTY-SEVEN: What do we learn from the Fourth Commandment?

ANSWER: We learn from the Fourth Commandment that God allows us six days of the week for our own employment, the seventh day belongs to Him in a special way, and He blesses the Sabbath Day.

QUESTION FIFTY-EIGHT: What is the Fifth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Fifth Commandment is that we honor our father and mother, and we do so that our days may be long in the land that the Lord our God is giving us.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Exodus 20:12

QUESTION FIFTY-NINE: What is required in the Fifth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Fifth Commandment requires that we preserve the honor and perform the duties that belong to everyone in their various places and relationships as superiors, inferiors, and equals.

QUESTION SIXTY: What is forbidden in the Fifth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Fifth Commandment forbids that neglecting or doing anything against the honor and duty that belongs to everyone in their various places and relationships.

QUESTION SIXTY-ONE: What do we learn from the Fifth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Fifth Commandment teaches us that God promises a long life and prosperity, as far as it brings God glory and brings us benefit, to all who keep this commandment.

QUESTION SIXTY-TWO: What is the Sixth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Sixth Commandment is that we shall not murder.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Exodus 20:13

QUESTION SIXTY-THREE: What is required in the Sixth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Sixth Commandment requires all lawful means to preserve our own life and the lives of others.

QUESTION SIXTY-FOUR: What is forbidden in the Sixth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Sixth Commandment forbids the taking of our own lives or the lives of our neighbors unjustly, or anything related to such acts.

QUESTION SIXTY-FIVE: What is the Seventh Commandment?

ANSWER: The Seventh Commandment is that we shall not commit adultery.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Exodus 20:14

QUESTION SIXTY-SIX: What is required in the Seventh Commandment?

ANSWER: The Seventh Commandment requires the preservation of our own and our neighbor’s chastity in thought, speech, and behavior.

QUESTION SIXTY-SEVEN: What is forbidden in the Seventh Commandment?

ANSWER: The Seventh Commandment forbids all vulgar thoughts, words, and actions.

QUESTION SIXTY-EIGHT: What is the Eighth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Eighth Commandment is that we shall not steal.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Exodus 20:15

QUESTION SIXTY-NINE: What is required in the Eighth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Eighth Commandment requires the lawful acquisition and accumulation of ours and other’s wealth and belongings.

QUESTION SEVENTY: What is forbidden in the Eighth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Eighth Commandment forbids whatever unjustly hinders our own, or our neighbor’s wealth and belongings.

QUESTION SEVENTY-ONE: What is the Ninth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Ninth Commandment is that we shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Exodus 20:16

QUESTION SEVENTY-TWO: What is required in the Ninth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Ninth Commandment requires maintaining and promoting honesty between persons and maintaining and promoting our own and our neighbor’s good name, especially when asked to bear witness.

QUESTION SEVENTY-THREE: What is forbidden in the Ninth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Ninth Commandment forbids untruthful bias and whatever would injure our own or our neighbor’s good name.

QUESTION SEVENTY-FOUR: What is the Tenth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Tenth Commandment is that we shall not covet our neighbor’s house; we shall not covet our neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to our neighbor.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Exodus 20:17

QUESTION SEVENTY-FIVE: What is required in the Tenth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Tenth Commandment requires the full contentment with our own condition, and a godly and charitable spirit towards our neighbors and all that is theirs.

QUESTION SEVENTY-SIX: What is forbidden in the Tenth Commandment?

ANSWER: The Tenth Commandment forbids being discontent with our estate and situation, being envious of or unhappy about our neighbor’s good fortune, and all ungodly actions and desires towards anything that is theirs.

QUESTION SEVENTY-SEVEN: Are all transgressions of the law equally heinous?

ANSWER: No.  Some sins in themselves, and by reason of their respective severity, are more heinous in the sight of God than others.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Ezekiel 8:6; Psalm 78:17; John 19:11

QUESTION SEVENTY-EIGHT: What does every sin deserve?

ANSWER: Every sin deserves God’s wrath and curse, both in this life and the life to come.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Ephesians 5:6; Galatians 3:10; Matthew 25:41

 

PART EIGHT: FAITH AND REPENTANCE

QUESTION SEVENTY-NINE: What does God require from us that we may escape the wrath and curse due us because of sin?

ANSWER: To escape the wrath and curse of God due us because of sin, God requires of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life and the careful use of all means by which Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Acts 20:21; Proverbs 8:33-35; Isaiah 55:3

QUESTION EIGHTY: What is faith in Jesus Christ?

ANSWER: Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace through which we receive, and rest upon, Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the Gospel.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: John 1:12; Isaiah 26:3; Philippians 3:9

QUESTION EIGHTY-ONE: What is repentance unto life?

ANSWER: Repentance unto life is a saving grace through which sinners, out of a true sense of their sin and awareness of the mercy of God in Christ, do, with grief and hatred of their sin, turn from their sin unto God with the intention to endeavors after a new life of obedience to God.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Acts 11:18; Acts 2:37-38; Joel 2:13-14; Jeremiah 3:22; Jeremiah 31:18-19; Ezekiel 36:31; Psalm 119:59; 2 Corinthians 7:11; Isaiah 1:16-17

 

PART NINE: THE MEANS OF GRACE

QUESTION EIGHTY-TWO: What are the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption?

ANSWER: The outward means through which Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption are his ordinances, such as the word, sacraments, and prayer.

QUESTION EIGHTY-THREE: How is the word made effectual to salvation?

ANSWER: The Spirit of God makes the reading, but especially the preaching of the word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners, and of building them up in holiness and comfort through faith unto salvation.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Nehemiah 8:8; Acts 26:18; Acts 20:32; Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Psalm 19:7-8; 1 Thessalonians 1:6; Romans 1:16

QUESTION EIGHTY-FOUR: How is the word to be read and heard that it may become effectual to salvation?

ANSWER: For the word to become effectual for salvation, we must diligently apply ourselves to preparation and prayer.  We must receive the word with faith and love, store it in our hearts, and practice it in our lives.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Proverbs 8:34; Psalm 119:18; Hebrews 4:2; 2 Thessalonians 2:10; Psalm 119:11; Luke 8:15; James 1:25

QUESTION EIGHTY-FIVE: How do the sacraments become effectual means of salvation?

ANSWER: The sacraments become effectual means of salvation, not from any virtue in them or from any virtue in those who administer them, but only by the blessing of Christ and the working of his Spirit in them who by faith receive them.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: 1 Corinthians 3:6-7; 1 Peter 3:21; 1 Corinthians 12:13

QUESTION EIGHTY-SIX: What is a sacrament?

ANSWER: A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, where, by visible signs, Christ and the benefits of the new covenant are represented, sealed, and applied to Christians.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Genesis 17:7,10; Romans 4:11; 1 Corinthians 11:23,26

QUESTION EIGHTY-SEVEN: What are the sacraments of the New Testament?

ANSWER: The sacraments of the New Testament are Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

QUESTION EIGHTY-EIGHT: What is Baptism?

ANSWER: Baptism is a sacrament wherein the washing with water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit signifies and seals our engrafting into the family of God through Christ, and partaking of the benefits of the covenant of grace, and our promise to serve the Lord in truth and holiness.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Matthew 28:19; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:27

QUESTION EIGHTY-NINE: To whom is baptism to be administered?

ANSWER: Baptism is to be administered to the members of the visible church.  Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church, till they profess their faith in Christ, and obedience to him; but the infants of such as are members of the visible church are to be baptized.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Acts 8:36; Acts 2:38,41; Colossians 2:11-12; 1 Corinthians 7:14

QUESTION NINETY: What is the Lord’s Supper?

ANSWER: The Lord’s Supper is a sacrament, wherein by giving and receiving bread and wine according to God’s appointment, Christ’s death is showed forth and the worthy receivers are by faith made partakers of His body and blood, with all His benefits for their spiritual nourishment and growth in grace.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:16

QUESTION NINETY-ONE: What is required in the worthy receiving of the Lord’s Supper?

ANSWER: It is required of them that would worthily partake of the Lord’s Supper, that they examine themselves and partake of the Lord’s body through faith and feed upon Him with repentance, love, and renewed obedience to Him, or else they eat and drink judgment to themselves.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: 1 Corinthians 11:28,31; 1 Corinthians 5:7-8

QUESTION NINETY-TWO: What is prayer?

ANSWER: Prayer is an offering up of our desires to God for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Psalm 62:8; Romans 8:27; 1 john 5:14; John 16:23; Daniel 9:4; Philippians 4:6

 

PART TEN: THE LORD’S PRAYER

QUESTION NINETY-THREE: What rule has God given us to direct our prayers?

ANSWER: The whole word of God is used to direct us in prayer; but the special teaching is that form of prayer which Christ taught his disciples, commonly called the Lord’s Prayer.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Matthew 6:9

QUESTION NINETY-FOUR: What does the preface of the Lord’s Prayer teach us?

ANSWER: The preface of the Lord’s Prayer, which is, “Our Father in heaven,” teaches us to draw near to God with all holy reverence and confidence as children to a father, able and ready to help us and that we should pray with and for others.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES: Isaiah 64:9; Romans 8:15; Luke 11:13; Ephesians 6:18; Acts 12:5; 1 Timothy 2:1

QUESTION NINETY-FIVE: What do we pray for in the first petition?

ANSWER: In the first petition, which is, “Hallowed be your name,” we pray that God would enable us, and others, to glorify Him in all ways in which He makes himself known; and that He would shape all things to His own glory.

QUESTION NINETY-SIX: What do we pray for in the second petition?

ANSWER: In the second petition, which is, “Your kingdom come,” we pray that Satan’s kingdom may be destroyed, that the Kingdom of God may be advanced, ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it, and that the Kingdom of God may be hastened.

QUESTION NINETY-SEVEN: What do we pray for in the third petition?

ANSWER: In the third petition, which is, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we pray that God, by his grace, would make us able and willing to know, obey, and submit to His will in all things as the angels do in heaven.

QUESTION NINETY-EIGHT: What do we pray for in the fourth petition?

ANSWER: In the fourth petition, which is, “Give us this day our daily bread,” we pray that, as a free gift of God’s grace, we may receive a competent portion of the good things of this life, and enjoy His blessing with them.

QUESTION NINETY-NINE: What do we pray for in the fifth petition?

ANSWER: In the fifth petition, which is, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors,” we pray that God, for Christ’s sake, would freely pardon all our sins so that by His grace we are enabled, from our heart, to forgive others.

QUESTION ONE HUNDRED: What do we pray for in the sixth petition?

ANSWER: In the sixth petition, which is, “And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one,” we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

QUESTION ONE HUNDRED-ONE: What does the conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer teach us?

ANSWER: The conclusion of the Lord’s Prayer, which is, “For the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours forever.  Amen,” teaches us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in our prayers to praise Him, ascribing Kingdom, power, and glory to Him.  As an expression of our desire and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.