Westminster Shorter Catechism

Question 1

1. What is the chief end of man?

Answer 1

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

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

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

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

There is but one only, the living and true God

Question 6

6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?

Answer 6

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

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

God executeth His decrees in the works of creation and providence

Question 9

9. What is the work of creation?

Answer 9

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

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

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 toward man in the estate wherein he was created?

Answer 12

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 the pain of death.

Question 13

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

Answer 13

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

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

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

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.

Question 17

17. Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?

Answer 17

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

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

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

Question 20

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

Answer 20

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.