In my first pastorate, in the New Rochelle, New York, I was thrilled to discover Hagstrom’s maps of the five boroughs of New York City and Westchester County. They saved countless hours of driving and prevented me from ending up lost in one of the dangerous parts of the metropolitan area. Best of all, they helped me to become familiar with the fascinating place in which we lived.

Discovering the Westminster Confession and Catechisms was even more thrilling. With this accurate Bible map, I became familiar with the terrain, avoided getting lost, and learned to be at home with the complex and wonderful world of the Bible.

I often hear this expressed by Christians: “I want to listen to what God says, not the words of men.” This is tantamount to saying, “I do not need a map. I can find my own way.” But, while this stance may first appear to be humble, it is actually supremely arrogant. The Reformed Baptist preacher C. H. Spurgeon, who retained many of the Presbyterian instincts with which he was raised, had a sharp answer to people of this ilk:

Of course, you are not such wiseacres as to think or say that you can expound Scriptures without assistance from the works of divines and learned men who have labored before you in the field of exposition. If you are of that opinion, pray remain so, for you are not worth the trouble of conversion, and like a little coterie who think with you, would resent the attempt as an insult to your infallibility. It seems odd that certain men who talk so much about what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves should think so little of what He has revealed to others. (Commenting and Commentaries, 1)

When Washington’s troops built their fortifications in Brooklyn, he insisted that they explore the terrain before battle in order to be surefooted during the rapid movements required in battle. Likewise, catechizing should be a chief concern of the church militant.

Catechizing in Scripture

The concept of catechizing is found in many places in Scripture, even where the word itself is not used. The leaders of God’s people have been given the task of forming the thinking and living of the church. Therefore, the religion of the covenant of grace has always been a religion of the catechism. In Genesis 18:19, the Lord said of Abraham, “I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice.” Catechizing is the way of guarding and keeping the church in the way. In the Shema, we have an old covenant command to catechize:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deut. 6:4–7)

An example of this kind of old covenant catechizing is Psalm 119, structured as an alphabetic acrostic based on the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet to aid in memorizing. Catechizing continues in the New Testament. Paul describes his fellow Jews as those who “know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law” (Rom. 2:18; cf. 1 Cor. 14:19, Gal. 6:6).

In our congregation we teach our young people that when it comes to biblical truth, dogs and cats get along: the certainties of historic Christian faith, known as dogmas, are formed in us by the process of catechizing. Of course, memorizing is only the beginning of spiritual formation, but it is an essential ingredient. As Paul tells Timothy, “Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:13). We could translate the phrase “pattern of the sound words” as “standard of healthy doctrines.”  The specific form, as well as the systematic relationship, of sound teaching is crucial to biblical discipleship.

The actual word “catechize”—as well as the idea of catechism—is also found in Scripture. Luke told Theophilus that he wrote the gospel to catechize Theophilus: “that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:4). The Greek verb for “taught” is katēcheō, from which we derive our English word catechize, literally “to sound a thing in one’s ears, impressing it upon one by word of mouth” (Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon). “The things” are literally “the word” (Luke 1:2, 4), that is, the doctrines, the truths. The question-and-answer format is a time-tested way of achieving this end. One of the central tasks of the church is to inculcate the truth through oral instruction. Inculcate means “to impress upon the mind by frequent repetition or persistent urging” (Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language). The passive voice in the verb “taught” indicates that Theophilus did not seclude himself to privately study the Bible but humbled himself under the teaching of the church. The ancient church continued this apostolic tradition in preparing new converts to publicly profess their faith in Christ. They were appropriately referred to as “catechumens.”

An odd usage of the word “catechize” is “to charm or fascinate” (Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament). This is precisely what the church seeks to do with what is memorized: to show how utterly charming and delightful is the truth of God’s Word as, start-to-finish, it reveals his amazing grace. To teach God’s accomplishment and application of our redemption in Jesus Christ is to captivate us, molding our hearts and lives with God’s truth. This became the all-consuming task and passion of Apollos as Luke describes him in Acts 18:25: “[This man] had been instructed [catechized] in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus.”

Traveling with a Map

The doctrinal map helps us find our way. Many are concerned that an extensive written statement of faith like the Westminster Confession, and its teaching instruments the Catechisms, will undermine the authority of the Bible. Actually, confessions and catechisms help us to appreciate the Bible more. Without them, the Bible becomes either a closed book or a seriously misunderstood book.

Just as no one confuses a map with the reality of the terrain it depicts, so we understand that catechism is not a stand-alone source of truth but a help for us to understand the terrain of the Bible itself. Reading the Bible confirms the terrain, just as traveling confirms the accuracy of a map. A map tells us what to look for and keeps us from getting lost. “Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way” (Prov. 19:2). Learn the map, and you will find your way. Forsake it, and you will soon be lost.

One of the reasons the church is presently filled with so much error is that she has forgotten her past. She has lost the map and is floundering in dark and dangerous places. We are fortified with true doctrine “that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Eph. 4:14). The ancient church struggled with much doctrinal error. It took centuries to develop sound theology after the New Testament record was completed. Eventually the church fleshed out a very important segment of the doctrinal map by defining the Trinity and the two natures of Christ. The authors of our confession and catechisms relied heavily on these formulations. It is dangerous and foolhardy to travel as pilgrims without the map our forefathers have labored so arduously to provide.

The doctrinal map helps us to make spiritual progress individually and corporately. Without a good map, we make our own way very slowly, if at all. Imagine moving into a new area and refusing to buy a map, while insisting on making your own. Each time you went out to explore, you would add to and revise your map. Your progress would be painfully slow.

But with a good map, the wisdom of others helps us make quicker, and more importantly, better, progress. Confession writers throughout church history are like biblical cartographers. Their collective wisdom, tested and verified over the centuries, is an accurate, systematic guide to the teaching of the Bible. American Christians often sound like Thomas Paine in The Age of Reason (1794–1795) who once proclaimed that his only church was his own mind. But, as Presbyterians, the catechisms should be ringing in our ears.

To ensure safe and profitable travel through the terrain of Scripture, ministers and elders should be fostering the time-honored practice of catechizing in our congregations.   

The author is an OP minister and the editor of Ordained Servant. A version of this article was originally published in Ordained Servant 16 (2007). New Horizons, July 2023.