Catechism Quotes

“I’ll forever be grateful to my childhood pastor for making me read the Heidelberg Catechism and meet in his office with him to talk about it before I made a profession of faith in the fourth grade. I was nervous to meet with him, even more nervous to meet before all the elders. But both meetings were pleasant. And besides, I was forced to read through all 129 questions and answers at age nine.That was a blessing I didn’t realize at the time. Ever since then I’ve had a copy of the Catechism and have grown to understand it and cherish it more and more over the years.”
― Kevin DeYoung, The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism

“Others have suggested that the disciples deliberately lied, thus spreading the story that Jesus had risen from the dead in order to keep their movement going. But this becomes preposterous when we remember that the disciples were willing to die rather than to deny that Jesus rose from the dead. Some say that they just cannot believe “the story of the miracle." But the trouble is, that they must then decide what to do with the “miracle of the story." That is, they are left with the insoluble problem of how such a sober story could ever have been written. The story is either true, or else it is the product of insanity or wickedness. And, after nearly two thousand years, no one has been able to show that it comes from either insane or wicked men. No satisfactory explanation has come forth except to believe that it actually did happen.”
― G.I. Williamson

“We must begin by purifying ourselves before purifying others; we must be instructed to be able to instruct, become light to illuminate, draw close to God to bring him close to others, be sanctified to sanctify, lead by the hand and counsel prudently.”
― Saint Gregory Nazianzus

“Stories are like catechisms, but they're catechisms for your impulses, they're catechisms with flesh on.”
― N.D. Wilson

“Missiologists have in recent years begun to think seriously about inculturation, and historians have begun to learn from them. When the Christian message is inserted into a cultural framework, if the messengers are insensitive to the local culture the result can be cultural imperialism. On the other hand, if they grant too much hegemony to the local culture, the result at best is 'syncretism' and at worst 'Christo-paganism.' Things are most wholesome when sensitive interchange takes place leading to 'a truly critical symbiosis.' But for this to happen, there must be a second stage - a time of 'pastoral follow-up work,' of catechizing and life formation enabling the new faith to express its genius in the institutions and reflexes of its new host culture.”
― Alan Kreider, The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom

“God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.”
― Plenary Councils of Baltimore, Baltimore Catechism, No. 3

“That's total mech waste. I'm glad I trusted my gut and didn't hand this thing over to the Order. I'm glad I sat with this commonplace for so many units. I'm not sure if I've ever believed in the transmogrification. I'm not too sure if I cared very much about this book at all. But I think if I had handed this book over to the Order, Mr. Smalls and his cronies would have burned this book. Even if I am not sure about the transmogrification of the data I can see now so many units later so much of Pop and Mabel’s cryptz in here. I think it's true what they say about youth thinking they’ve got it all figured out. I'm glad I attempted as hard as I could to stave off rigidity. So many of my fellow etceterists found their little box, climbed inside, had the box taped shut from the outside with the help of peer reinforcement, taped it from the inside too, parceled themselves off, and lost themselves in the realm of the archival sublime.”
― Chase Griffin