Evangelical Fundamentals

PART TWO

Evangelical Belief and Doctrine

The Evangelical Catechism Explained

for use in Catechetical Instruction, The Sunday School and the Home

PREFACE

Next to the Bible the Evangelical Catechism is the most important element in the Evangelical scheme of Christian education. In it there have been laid down the fundamentals of Christian teaching as gathered from the Bible in accordance with the principle expressed in the Evangelical doctrinal statement. Because familiarity with these teachings is essential to true Christian life and conduct, the study of the Catechism has been made a part of the regular confirmation instruction, and the importance of a thoro study of its contents cannot easily be exaggerated. 

In most Evangelical churches conditions are such that it is difficult if not impossible to secure sufficient study of the Catechism in the confirmation class alone. The help of the Sunday-school has therefore been enlisted in order to relieve the pastor of a large amount of memory drill work, and to help the pupil to a better understanding of the pastor’s teaching. The introduction of the Catechism as supplementary material for the Junior and early Intermediate grades will give the pupil an orderly and connected idea of the teachings of the Bible and prepare him for a better appreciation of confirmation instruction. 

Hitherto Sunday-school teachers have been handicapped in making the best use of the Catechism by the absence of a suitable explanation and guide. The little volume presented herewith is a somewhat abridged translation of Dr. D. Irion’s “Er-klaerung des Evangelischen Katechismus,” which has been of such great service to Evangelical pastors in the teaching of the 

Catechism. The writer undertook the translation in the hope that the work might perform a similar service not only to the constantly growing number of pastors who must use the English language in their confirmation classes, but also to Sunday-school teachers in their supplementary work, and thus prove a help in the development of the Evangelical idea of Christian education and in the training of Christian character. 

Since the book has been designed for use in connection with the English Catechism, only the Bible passages used in that edition are quoted in full. 

St. Louis, Missouri, August, 1916                                                                                         J. H. H.