How can we not forget?

It is no secret that I love books.  Incidentally, I also love bookstores.  Since I do not love spending money, I really love bookstores that sell books for cheap.  Every time I go to visit my parents I make a special trip out to the (sort of) near by Goodwill Bookstore. This place has allowed me to greatly increase my book collection without breaking the bank account.  Whenever I go in, I always stop to check out the Christian/Religious section first.  As you can imagine the shelves are usually filled with the usual assortment of Joel Osteen, Max Lucado, Left Behind, and Christian Western Romance books.  But every now and then buried beneath all of this, there is a gem that is worth attention.  Usually the books I am excited to see on the shelves are books that I already own, but over Thanksgiving I stumbled across The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism  by Kevin DeYoung.  I was familiar with DeYoung's writings via the blogosphere, but I had never read any of his books before.  I decided to spend the three bucks and give this one a shot.  I do not regret having spent it.  This post will be part review of his book and part a plea for Christians today to regain their passion for the Creeds and Confessions of the past.

Kevin DeYoung is the senior pastor of University Reformed Church in East Lansing Michigan.  The church is a part of the Reformed Church of America (RCA) and happens to be located right across the street from Michigan State University.  Even though I have never read any of his books, I have been intrigued by many of his titles.  Perhaps these may prick you interest as well (or at least make you smile): Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God's Will or How to Make A Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Impressions, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, Etc.; Why We're Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be); and Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion.  As you can probably tell, this guy has a pretty good sense of humor, a relaxed writing style, and deep love for Christ and the church.  He is a fairly young guy who holds a deep respect for that old time religion from which many of a younger (and a surprising number from older) generations have begun to move away. 

Unfortunately, many in the church today do not want to talk about theology or doctrine at all.  They find it a dry, dusty, and outdated subject.  You have probably heard people say things like: "I just want someone to tell me about the Bible, not what some man thinks about the Bible," "I want the Word, not some man made doctrine," or perhaps "No creed but Christ; no book but the Bible!"  Now people who say things like this are generally well meaning.  I love theology and I feel like the erosion of doctrinal teachings in the evangelical church today has been detrimental to not only the spiritual life and growth of her members, but also to its outreach and evangelism.  While I love theology and doctrine, I agree with the first two examples above to some degree.  I do not want to be taught a man made doctrine, but one that is derived from Scripture.  Unfortunately, people who say that they don't want to be taught man made doctrines rarely specify which doctrines they find man made and which are acceptable.  It has been my experience that those who do not want to discuss or learn doctrine or theology are often the first to fall into error.  As a Protestant Evangelical, you tell people that Christ died for your sins.  Well, that's theology and it is a doctrine that you believe.  Now the question comes up "Who or what is Jesus? Is he God or man or both?"  In order to answer this question you need a doctrine of Jesus to help you to answer it.  Another example would be the concept of the Trinity.  The word Trinity is never mentioned in the Bible.  Does this mean that the doctrine of the Trinity is unbiblical?  By no means!  The idea of the Trinity is taught in Scripture, but yet it took a little while for the church to hammer out some of the details and implications of what the Bible taught about this subject.  We need theology and right doctrine to keep our thoughts inline with what the Bible teaches.  Keep in mind that theology has not always had such a bad reputation.  Theology was once considered to be "the mother of all sciences."  William Perkins even once remarked that, "theology is the science of living blessedly forever."^[1]  We can see that this is far from the dry and dusty corner of history that we try to exile theology to.  Now this is important because DeYoung's book is about theology, and specifically a 16th century catechism: the Heidelberg Catechism. 

Unfortunately, for a good number of our churches, catechisms have gone the way of the buffalo.  While it used to be a popular way to teach the Bible to congregations, few remember them today.  It wasn't until I was in college that I ever even heard the term.  All a catechism is a series of questions and answers dealing with biblical concepts.  In my denomination our churches are bound to the Westminster Confession of Faith.  This Confession does not take the place of Scripture (just give chapter one a read to dispel that myth), but rather safe guards our understanding of the Scripture.  Basically a confession explains what we feel the Scripture teaches concerning certain issues in a systematic way.  For the most part, I agree with the WCF's teachings, but I do take some exceptions.  The Larger and Shorter Catechism is based off of the WCF as a memory aid for us to learn what it is the Bible teaches about certain topics.  I am of the opinion that the WCF is the best summary of biblical doctrine that we have ever produced and I would encourage every one to grab a copy and read it.  If you are so inclined, I would also encourage you to memorize the Shorter Catechism, the benefits of doing this will probably surprise you.  When I was memorizing it, I found myself recalling specific conversations I had had with people throughout the years and was wishing that I had had the information available to me that was found in the catechism.  Now even though I believe the WCF is the best of the confessions, others have produced excellent confessions and catechisms to accompany them. 

The Heidelberg Catechism was published in 1534 in, you guessed it, Heidelberg Austria.  This Catechism was commissioned to serve three main purposes:

                                    1) To educate children

                                    2) To guide preachers

                                    3) To provide a unifying confession for the local Protestant churches^[2]

                                   

In keeping with these goals, the HC is simply worded, systematic in its approach, and relatively accessible to practically any bible believing Protestant denomination with only minor adjustments. For example the HC promotes the practice of infant baptism. This is a doctrine that some denominations reject. However, the majority of the HC should be edifying for most. I feel like I should be clear to point out that this confession is a Reformed confession.  However, its inherent Calvinism rarely ever pops up.  When it does, it is only hardly noticeably. In the introduction to DeYoung's book Jerry Bridges writes, "There will be a few points in this book that readers from non-Reformed position will disagree with.  But don't be put off by these few points of disagreement.  Overall this is an exciting book that will prove helpful to people of all theological persuasion."^[3]

The HC is broken into weeks or Lord's days as they are called, and this is how Kevin has structured his book.  Ideally, one would take the week to memorize and reflect on the questions posed each Lord's day.  If you stuck to this format you would have the HC memorized in 52 weeks.  This catechism follows a pretty standard catechism formula of guilt, grace, gratitude.  It is also similar to most other catechisms in that it deals with theological concepts, the Ten Commandments, and ends with an explanation of the Apostles Creed.  What DeYoung does is takes each Lord's day and makes it a chapter.  He gives the catechism questions/answers and then writes a little bit about them.  I think the longest chapter is maybe six pages.  Personally, I found the book to be a refreshing break from the books that I have been reading.  I found his writing style to be engaging, pastoral, and practical.  I read straight through the book, I didn't attempt to memorize the catechism, or spend the week contemplating the concepts as I have been exposed to these ideas before.  So while there was nothing really new in this book for me, I still enjoyed it.

When I was in high school, I was very active in our church.  Missions and evangelism was always emphasized on Wednesday and Sunday.  I don't remember exactly when it was, but there was a definite point in time when I began to realize that evangelism was all that we focused on.  I noticed that the driving force in the sermons was for us to go and tell people about Jesus and the majority of our programs were purely evangelical.  It felt to me that we were to call people out of the world and into church and then once they were there they were to go out and do the same.  Now please understand that I am not saying that missions and evangelism are not important.  They are vital to the growth of the Kingdom.  My point here is that while evangelism is important and getting people to come to church is important, we have got to be teaching more in our churches than simply "go and reach the lost." 

It is precisely here that I found Kevin's book to be extremely helpful.  He is a pastor who is concerned for congregations.  This book is written for regular people who are not training to be theologians.  He deals with heavy theology in a way that is both accessible and engaging.  You won't be bored reading this book.  He gives good expositions on the Christian faith and doctrines, but there is much more to be said on each of the subjects he deals with.  I like this because the casual reader can read each chapter and enjoy it and learn from it, but you can also get a good foundation from which to go a little deeper and do further study on certain topics if you so desire.  While I don't completely agree with every aspect of his exposition (or the HC for that matter) I really enjoyed this book and I can honestly without reservation recommend it to anyone who has any interest in the Christian faith and what it is about.  I will close with an extended quote from his introduction:

 The only thing more difficult than finding the truth is not losing it. What starts out as new and precious becomes plain and old. What begins a thrilling discovery becomes a rote exercise. What provokes one generation to sacrifice and passion becomes in the next generation a cause for rebellion and apathy. Why is it that denominations and church movements almost always drift from their theological moorings? Why is it that people who grow up in the church are often less articulate about their faith than the new Christian who converted at forty five? Why is it that those who grow up with creeds and confessions are usually the ones who hate them most?

Perhaps it's because truth is like the tip of your nose- it's hardest to see when it's right in front of you.

No doubt, the church in the West has many new things to learn.  But for the most part, everything we need to learn is what we've already forgotten.  The chief theological task now facing the Western church is not to reinvent or to be relevant but to remember. We must remember the old, old story. We must remember the faith once delivered to the saints. We must remember the truths that spark reformation, revival, and regeneration.

And because we want to remember all this, we must also remember- if we are fortunate enough to have ever heard of them in the first place- our creeds, confessions, and catechisms

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^[1]      William Perkins, The Work of William Perkins, ed. Ian Breward (Appleford, U.K.: Sutton Courtenay, 1970), p. 177.

^[2]      Kevin DeYoung, The Good News We Almost Forgot, (Chicago: Moody Publishers  2010), pg. 17.

^[3] ibid. 11.