Sunday School Class

Day 1: Westminster Shorter Catechism at Grace Presbyterian Church

By Julio Martinez Jr.

Great discussions this morning. I got my booklet for the class and I'm glad to say that it's going to be a great class. Today we talked about the church and missiology. I had a couple questions about that, but unfortunately Ron couldn't answer them because of time constraints. I'm happy to know, however, that as Presbyterians we affirm the dominion mandate and in effect, the mandate to "Christianize" the world. To the dismay of many evangelicals, however, there is a growing "intellectual promiscuity"[1] that is plaguing the church worldwide.

Christians are dumbing down and are therefore ill-equipped for that very task, i.e., evangelization. Just this last Saturday, there were a couple of Latino Christians (allegedly Christian) who opposed the preaching of the gospel. This really caused me to scratch my head in confusion, seeing that there is ample evidence to the contrary in the Old[2] and New Testament Scriptures. (It apparently was nebulous to read the sign in front of them which states to withhold personal critiques from Christians publicly. It seems like this discipline called reading is very strange!) In effect, I have made it my aim to finish a book called "Beyond the Bounds" in order to respond to these sorts of remarks. I intend on making my findings into slides on PowerPoint. (I might just turn it into a pamphlet as well, but I digress.)

Back on point. We, the church, are now embarking on a study of the Westminster Shorter Catechism—in my view, one of the best catechisms in all of Christendom. We only covered the introduction to the class, which aimed at the telos of the class—or the general purpose of the class—which is growth in grace, understanding and stewardship, all of which define Reformed Piety & Ethics.

NOTES

[1] I wrote a scathing letter to the catholic (universal) church concerning her promiscuity and urge her to action. My letter can be found on my WordPress titled, "Intellectual Promiscuity: A Letter to the Reserved Christian." <http://jmartinez83.wordpress.com/2008/07/12/intellectual-promiscuity—letter-to-the-reserved-christian/>

[2] For the Old Testament passages, see Bahnsen's "For Whom was the Law Intended." It can be found online at http://cmfnow.com under the free articles. If you're interested in the article, just email me at jmartinez.reformed@gmail.com. I'll be happy to forward the material.