We will help ourselves answer the question of our title if we first answer these questions: What is the nature of the subject matter we are teaching? Who are we teaching? Then we can ask who has the responsibility and authority to teach. In answer to the first question I will argue that since what we teach in catechism is the Scriptures and the Confessions, it should properly therefore, be con­sidered the official teaching ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ.

The Bible in a Trust Account⤒🔗

What are we trying to engrave in these young minds and hearts? Two things, are we not? We want them to know the Bible and the Confessions. God has entrusted the Bible to the Church. What Paul says of Israel is true of the Church, "to them were committed the oracles of God." (Rom. 3:2. See also Rom. 9:4 and 1 Tim. 3:15.) We also find Paul saying that the ministry of the gospel is a stewardship (1 Cor. 4:1). God then has com­mitted the Scriptures to the Church in trust. God holds her responsible to translate it, pass it on, defend it, preach it and teach it. Preaching and teaching the Bible then is the official min­istry and responsibility of the Church. God placed the Bible into the keeping of the Church. The true Church has always accepted the respon­sibility to guard, defend and promote the Scriptures through her official preach­ing and teaching. Would this not mean then that the Church should catechise from the Bible as part of her official teaching ministry?

The Church Gave Birth to the Confessions←⤒🔗

What about the confessions? We do not hold them equal to the Bible for they are a work of a different character altogether. Where the Bible is God's Word to man, the Confessions are man's words to God. Although it is man's word, that does not make it either non-essential or insignificant. The Confes­sions are not the words of just anybody but they are both the creation and the property of the Church of Jesus Christ. It follows then, that when she teaches them she should do so in an official manner.

Allow Little Children...←⤒🔗

Who should be taught? It is my position that catechism should begin when a child starts formal schooling in grade one. Because many do not accept this position I would like to make a case for it.

Everyone seems to realize that little children are easily indoctrinated except Christ­ians. TV and its advertisers recognize it. Francis Xavier recognized it. Do you remember him? He was a Jesuit missionary of the six­teenth century who was reported to have said, "Give me the children until they are seven and anyone may have them after."

Little children are in their formative years — their minds, their hearts, their affections, are soft and mal­leable. Little children have such beautiful trusting faith, for they so often believe sim­ply because daddy says so, or because the teacher says so.

Cultivate a relation of love and trust with little children and capitalize on it. Invest when they are young, for these are the years when a relatively small investment of time and effort really pays off. Just think what your investment of $1000 would be worth now if you got into Microsoft when it was a young company ten years ago. Microsoft will perish, but those who invest in little children under the blessing of God will see growth and investment returns for ever and ever.

Let me paraphrase Ecclesiastes 12: Remember now their Creator in the days of their childhood, before the days draw near, and before you know it, their character is formed, their mind has lost its elasticity, and you can do little with them any more. Now we look at some objections to catechising little children.

One objection is that most churches have Sunday School programs for young children, so catechism is unnecessary. The answer to that objection you can find in chapter 2. The other objec­tion is really because of a misunderstanding of what catechism is. There was an idea in Holland and carried over to North America that catechism meant the Heidelberg Catechism (or Compendium) and that it began for the youth at about age 12 or 13. Where was the Scripture catechising? The schools took care of it and then later in North America the churches set up Sunday School for those ages five to thirteen. Today both the day schools and the Sunday Schools have largely failed.

I would urge the churches to begin catechism at age six. Many people though still think of catechism as starting with teenagers. This is main­ly because the Dutch Reformed heritage automati­cally equates catechism with the Heidelberg. That defini­tion is too narrow. The Heidelberg Catechism is a map; there are others as well. Matthew Henry wrote a Scripture Catechism, for, said he, "the history of Scripture is most proper to acquaint your children with in the first place..."¹We should begin then with little children and start by catechising them in the Bible.

Looking Back We See ... Little Children←⤒🔗

Let me show you that histor­ically the Church has cate­chised the very young. We start with John Calvin in the dedication of the Catechism of the Church of Geneva, "It has ever been the practice of the Church, ... to see that children should be duly instructed in the Christian religion."²

"It has ever been the practice of the Church..." to instruct children. How young? We have noted before that the Jewish synagogue schools used the catechetical method of question and answer. We have only to add that those schools catechised Jewish children from five to ten years of age using the Old Testament as the only text.

The early Church catechised young children. A canon attributed to the sixth General Council of Constantinople (AD 680) promoted schools in all the country churches. "Very young children were taught to memo­rize the Scriptures, and at the same time to understand them."³

Later, when the Church of Rome declined, the Waldenses, Wycliffites, and Bohemian Brethren, allowed no child to grow up without being able to give an account of its faiths ⁴

Both the reformers and the Reformation churches give evidence that catechism instruction began at an early age. Calvin insisted children attend catechetical classes. Luther claimed that "every child under catechetical instruction ought to know the truths of the entire gospel, ... by the time he is nine or ten years of age."⁵ John Knox in his Book of Discipline said, "...the young children must be publicly examined in their cate­chism."⁶Let's remember too, that historians credit the Jesuit, Francis Xavier, with saying, "Give me the chil­dren until they are seven years old, and anyone may take them afterwards."⁷One hundred years after the Reformation began, the churches of Palatinate reported catechism for "boys and girls"; the churches of Emden reported that young children of five and six recited the principal questions of the catechisms.⁸

Let me wrap up my arguments There are two main positions I wanted to gain in your mind. First, both the Scripture and the Confessions are the official possessions of the Church and therefore she is officially responsible for teaching them.

Second, the Church should begin catechetical instruction at an early age. Remember that the testimony of the Jewish syna­gogues, the early Church, the forerunners of the Reformation, the reformers and Reformation churches, and the churches a hundred years later, all unite in calling for young children to be cat­echized.

Now What?←⤒🔗

Now then, having made it through the preliminary questions, we may set about to answer the main one: Who is to teach catechism? My answer is this: the Church should, for catechism must be in the Scriptures and in the Confessions. How shall she do it? It is an official task, and through the elders she must do three things. First, she must choose a catechism book for Scripture and one for the Confessions. Second, she must lay upon parents the responsibility to instruct the children at home in the catechism. Third, she must appoint those who are then to catechise those children. We will discuss those three duties in the next install­ments.