Heidelberg Catechism Questions 3,4, and 5

[Blue Tick]

Question 3. Whence knowest thou thy misery?

Answer: Out of the law of God.

Question 4. What does the law of God require of us?

Answer: Christ teaches us that briefly, Matt. 22:37-40, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first and the great commandment; and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Question 5. Canst thou keep all these things perfectly?

Answer: In no wise; for I am prone by nature to hate God and my neighbour.

 

[Seb]

The answer to Q5 always hits me like a sledgehammer.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

I know the Westminster Standards are sometimes more precise than the HC and the BC but I love how the HC puts things.

I was just mourning today with a Brother over our lost loved ones who are Roman Catholic. Were the answer to Question 5 to sink in then the Roman Catholic Church would be empty.

 

[Blue Tick]

I know the Westminster Standards are sometimes more precise than the HC and the BC but I love how the HC puts things.


I was just mourning today with a Brother over our lost loved ones who are Roman Catholic. Were the answer to Question 5 to sink in then the Roman Catholic Church would be empty.

I like how the HC has a pastoral tenderness attached to it.

 

[JohnGill]

The HC's 'nickname' is "The Book of Comfort."

The precision is found in Ursinus' Commentary. Many of his arguments are along these lines:

4. Besides him in whom the whole Deity is, there is another in whom it is likewise. The whole Deity is in the Father. Therefore the Godhead is not in the Son. Ans. We deny the major (premise), because the same essence which is in the Father, is also entire in the Son and Holy Ghost. From page 200, Certain sophisms of heretics against the eternal Deity of the briefly refuted

The rest of the refutations are in the same format. An understanding of logic amongst the readers was assumed in his writings.