Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Matthew 28:19-20 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . . teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you."
THE CATECHISMS
We have seen how the early church found it necessary to go into greater detail with their confessions and articles of faith in order to defend against error and false teaching, and to proclaim the truth of God's revealed Word. Sadly, in our time we find the opposite trend. The trend of churches and denominations in our time is to decrease the strength of their confessions due to unionistic tendencies. A very sad state of affairs indeed!
Martin Luther was not the first to compile a catechism. Books of instruction in the Christian faith have been around since the first century. The early church writing entitled Didache ("The Teaching") was a catechism from the late first or early second century. It's focus was on teaching the Ten Commandments. Over time, instruction was expanded to include the Apostles' or Nicene Creed, the Lord's Prayer, as well as the Sacraments and various other aspects of Christian training.
During the Middle Ages, such instruction in the Christian faith was almost completely lost and the majority of people were very spiritually ignorant. During a visitation of the churches in Saxony (1527-1529), Luther discovered that the majority of the people and their pastors did not even have a basic knowledge of the Christian faith! This instilled in Luther the need for a book of instruction teaching the basics of Biblical doctrine. So Luther made it a priority to publish a simple book of the Bible's teachings which could be used in the church, schools, and home to instruct the people in these truths.
Luther began by preaching a series of sermons on the chief teachings of Scripture for the purpose of instructing the people. From those sermons Luther first completed the Large Catechism. The purpose of the Large catechism was to teach the basics of the Christian faith primarily to pastors and teachers.
The Small Catechism was intended for the instruction of children. Luther realized that instruction at church was not enough. Instruction had to be done at home as well. Of all the confessions of the Lutheran church, none have had as great an impact as Luther's Small Catechism. It has, for good reason, been called "The gem of the Reformation."
