who we are / westminster shorter catechism / category 2
Category 2, The Westminster Shorter Catechism
Questions 13 - 20 dealing with "original sin" and the "fallen state of man's nature".
- A. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.[37]
- A. The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created, was their eating the forbidden fruit.[39]
- A. The covenant being made with Adam,[40] not only for himself, but for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression.[41]
- A. The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.[42]
- A. The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam’s first sin,[43] the want of original righteousness,[44] and the corruption of his whole nature,[45] which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.[46]
- A. All mankind by their fall lost communion with God,[47] are under his wrath[48] and curse,[49] and so made liable to all the miseries of this life,[50] to death[51] itself, and to the pains of hell forever.[52]
- A. God, having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life,[53] did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer.[54]
The catechism is composed of 107 questions and answers broken down into six categories.
- Category 1, questions 1 - 12:
- Category 2, questions 13 - 20:
- Questions dealing with original sin and the fallen state of man's nature.
- Category 3, questions 21 - 38:
- Category 4, questions 39 - 84:
- Category 5, questions 85 - 97:
- Category 6, questions 98 - 107
This organization mimics the earlier Heidelberg Catechism of the continental Reformed churches.
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