Westminster Shorter Catechism

Question 1

1. What is the chief end of man?

Answer 1

A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Question 2

2. What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?

Answer 2

A. The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

Question 3

3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?

Answer 3

A. The Scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

Question 4

4. What is God?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

5. Are there more Gods than one?

Answer 5

A. There is but one only, the living and true God.

Question 6

6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?

Answer 6

A. There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

Question 7

7. What are the decrees of God?

Answer 7

A. The decrees of God are, his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.

Question 8

8. How doth God execute his decrees?

Answer 8

A. God executes his decrees in the works of creation and providence.

Question 9

9. What is the work of creation?

Answer 9

A. The work of creation is, God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.

Question 10

10. How did God create man?

Answer 10

A. God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

Question 11

11. What are God’s works of providence?

Answer 11

A. God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.

Question 12

12. What special act of providence did God exercise towards man in the estate wherein he was created?

Answer 12

A. When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon pain of death.

Question 13

13. Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?

Answer 13

A. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.

Question 14

14. What is sin?

Answer 14

A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

Question 15

15. What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?

Answer 15

A. The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.

Question 16

16. Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first transgression?

Answer 16

A. The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.

Romans 5:12 - “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…”

Question 17

17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?

Answer 17

A. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.

Question 18

18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?

Answer 18

A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

Question 19

19. What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?

Answer 19

A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries of this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

Romans 6:23 - “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Question 20

20. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?

Answer 20

A. God, having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.

Question 21

21. Who is the Redeemer of God’s elect?

Answer 21

A. The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continues to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever.

Question 22

22. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?

Answer 22

A. Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body, and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.

Question 23

23. What offices doth Christ execute as our Redeemer?

Answer 23

A. Christ, as our Redeemer, executes the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.

Question 24

24. How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?

Answer 24

A. Christ executes the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by his Word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.

Question 25

25. How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?

Answer 25

A. Christ executes the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us.

Question 26

26. How doth Christ execute the office of a king?

Answer 26

A. 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.

Question 27

30. How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?

Answer 27

A. The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

Question 28

31. What is effectual calling?

Answer 28

A. Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.

John 6:44 - “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”

Question 29

32. What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life?

Answer 29

A. They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption, and sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them.

Question 30

33. What is justification?

Answer 30

A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardons all our sins, and accepts us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

Question 31

34. What is adoption?

Answer 31

A. Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges, of the sons of God.

John 1:12 - “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…”

Question 32

35. What is sanctification?

Answer 32

A. Sanctification is the work of God’s free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.

Ephesians 4:24 - “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness”

Question 33

36. What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?

Answer 33

A. The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.

Question 34

60. How is the sabbath to be sanctified?

Answer 34

A. The sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.

Question 35

82. Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God?

Answer 35

A. No mere man, since the fall, is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but doth daily break them in thought, word, and deed.

Question 36

86. What is faith in Jesus Christ?

Answer 36

A. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.

Question 37

87. What is repentance unto life?

Answer 37

A. Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.

Jeremiah 3:22 - “Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness…”

Question 38

91. How do the sacraments become effectual means of salvation?

Answer 38

The sacraments become effectual means of salvation, not from any virtue in them, or in him that doth adminster them; but only by the blessing of Christ, and the working of his Spirit in them that by faith receive them.

Question 39

92. What is a sacrament?

Answer 39

A. A sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ; wherein, by sensible signs, Christ, and the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers.