Sinclair Ferguson

so there was an implied question.

Mary had a little lamb, she would say, and then she would build it up.

And the catechisms, when they were used for children, they were used for both children and adults, were ways of teaching basic Christian truth in very simple ways by

in the best catechism, short questions with short answers.

Now, there were some catechisms, quite a lot of catechisms actually, written around the time of the Reformation and for about the next 150 years that were longer.

They were like short manuals of Christian theology.

But the ones that were used most, like the shorter catechism, which was written in the middle of the 17th century,

were intended to give very basic answers to very important questions and to put into people's minds what I think of as Velcro strips that would enable truth to stick in their minds that would then enable them to be able to see their own experience

the preaching they were listening to and the world through lenses, that's a mixed metaphor, Velcro strips and lenses, but through lenses that were crafted according to the teaching of scripture so that they would have spiritually speaking 2020 vision.

And from the time of the Reformation through to about the end of the 17th century was a great period of writing catechisms.

There were, I believe, about 700 different catechisms published in England within that 150 to 200 year span.

So the people who wrote them were really experts.

They knew how to do it.

And I've sometimes said to people, try and write your own catechism.

And the first question is, what is the first question?

And everyone who knows the shorter catechism thinks, oh, that's the first question.

But blank that out.

Where do you actually begin?

And when you ask that kind of question, you realize

that that was a period when men who had great theological and pastoral experience were wrestling with the question, what is the best way to teach someone the basics of the Christian faith?