3 Reasons to Catechize Your Kids

A time-tested method of learning the Christian faith and passing it on to the next generation is catechizing. A catechism is a teaching tool that summarizes the Bible’s teaching through a question-and-answer format, and catechizing is training others to memorize those answers. Teaching our children such truths about God does not guarantee that the Holy Spirit will give them faith, but in the words of Thomas Watson, “Catechizing is laying the foundation.”1 Rightly has this process been called “the Christian’s ABCs.”2

God calls His people to pass along truths about God to the next generation, that they might put their faith in Him and praise Him (Deut. 6:7; Ps. 48:13; 78:6; 2 Tim. 1:5). Below are three reasons to do this by catechizing.

1. Catechizing is biblical.

Before law schools utilized the Socratic method, the Bible recorded the use of questions and answers to teach about God:

Who is this King of glory?

The Lord of hosts,

he is the King of glory. (Ps. 24:10; see also Amos 3:3–6)

Likewise, in Exodus 12:26–27, questions and answers about God led to worship.

We get the word catechize from the New Testament, which describes Christian teaching as catechism (see Luke 1:4; Acts 21:21–24; Gal. 6:6). Apollos is one successful example: “An eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed [katēcheō] in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus” (Acts 18:24–28). Catechizing, teaching others about the “way of the Lord,” reflects a scriptural pattern.

2. # Catechisms distill the essentials of Scripture for memorization.

Learning the Bible can be an intimidating challenge for new believers. Where does one start? Faithful catechisms provide a map to help us navigate the Bible itself. The primary author of the Heidelberg Catechism, Zacharias Ursinus (1534–1583) wrote, “For as the doctrine of the catechism . . . are taken out of the Scriptures, and are directed by them as their rule, so they lead us, as it were, by the hand to the Scriptures.”3 Early in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, for example, we are directed to what “the Scriptures principally teach” (Q&A 3). Good catechisms simplify our task of passing on the faith by distilling essential teachings of the Bible into clear, memorable statements. One good example is Heidelberg Catechism 21:

Q. What is true faith?

A. True faith is

not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true

all that God has revealed to us in his Word;

it is also a wholehearted trust,

which the Holy Spirit works in me by the gospel,

that God has freely granted, not only to others to me also,

forgiveness of sins,

eternal righteousness,

and salvation.

These gifts are purely of grace,

only because of Christ’s merit.

Good catechisms like the Heidelberg and the Westminster Shorter also contain proof-texts to give readers confidence that what is said reflects the Bible. Thus, they reflect the “pattern of sound words” passed down for our edification (2 Tim. 1:13; 2 Thess. 2:15; Acts 17:11; Jude 3).

3. The world, the flesh, and the devil also catechize.

If we do not ask and answer important questions about God for ourselves and our children, we can be sure that others will. It was in a catechetical format that the devil tempted Adam and Eve: “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Gen. 3:1). Likewise, our own sinful natures propagandize our souls, questioning God. The book of Malachi is structured around such questions, starting with people challenging God’s pledge of love: “‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have you loved us?’” (Mal. 1:2). Finally, the unbelieving world will catechize us to its own values if we are not careful. The Psalms reflect this:

My tears have been my food

day and night,

while they say to me all the day long,

‘Where is your God?” (Ps. 42:3)

Likewise, Old Testament nations ask mocking questions of people of faith, such as the Assyrians surrounding Jerusalem and asking how they can trust in the Lord (Isa. 36:5–7; see also Ps. 79:10; 115:2; Deut. 29:24).

The world, the flesh, and the devil battle against us, directing us to see our purpose in life as “to glorify and enjoy ourselves as long as possible.” We need catechisms to remind us of biblical truths, like the precious reality that man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (Westminster Shorter Catechism 1).

Truths like these, expressed in the short statements of a catechism, not only inform our minds, but through the Spirit’s work, they also capture our hearts. As Archibald Alexander said of the Westminster catechisms and confession:

We love them most of all because they contain the truth of God—that truth which forms the foundation of our hopes. As our fathers prized them, and we prize them, so may our children and our children’s children love and preserve them.4

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Ligonier Ministries