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Catechism · Continental Reformed

Heidelberg Catechism

Note. Scripture proofs show the King James text. A few whole-chapter references are given without text.
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  1. 1 What is your only comfort in life and death?
  2. 2 What do you need to know in order to live and die in the joy of this comfort?
  3. 3 From where do you know your sins and misery?
  4. 4 What does God’s law require of us?
  5. 5 Can you keep all this perfectly?
  6. 6 Did God, then, create man so wicked and perverse?
  7. 7 From where, then, did man’s depraved nature come?
  8. 8 But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined to all evil?
  9. 9 Is God, then, not unjust by requiring in His law what man cannot do?
  10. 10 Will God allow such disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished?
  11. 11 But is God not also merciful?
  12. 12 Since, according to God’s righteous judgment we deserve temporal and eternal punishment, how can we escape this punishment and be again received into favour?
  13. 13 Can we ourselves make this payment?
  14. 14 Can any mere creature pay for us?
  15. 15 What kind of mediator and deliverer must we seek?
  16. 16 Why must He be a true and righteous man?
  17. 17 Why must He at the same time be true God?
  18. 18 But who is that Mediator who at the same time is true God and a true and righteous man?
  19. 19 From where do you know this?
  20. 20 Are all men, then, saved by Christ just as they perished through Adam?
  21. 21 What is true faith?
  22. 22 What, then, must a Christian believe?
  23. 23 What are these articles?
  24. 24 How are these articles divided?
  25. 25 Since there is only one God,[1] why do you speak of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
  26. 26 What do you believe when you say: I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth?
  27. 27 What do you understand by the providence of God?
  28. 28 What does it benefit us to know that God has created all things and still upholds them by His providence?
  29. 29 Why is the Son of God called Jesus, that is, Saviour?
  30. 30 Do those believe in the only Saviour Jesus who seek their salvation and well-being from saints, in themselves, or anywhere else?
  31. 31 Why is He called Christ, that is, Anointed?
  32. 32 Why are you called a Christian?
  33. 33 Why is He called God’s only begotten Son, since we also are children of God?
  34. 34 Why do you call Him our Lord?
  35. 35 What do you confess when you say: He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary?
  36. 36 What benefit do you receive from the holy conception and birth of Christ?
  37. 37 What do you confess when you say that He suffered?
  38. 38 Why did He suffer under Pontius Pilate as judge?
  39. 39 Does it have a special meaning that Christ was crucified and did not die in a different way?
  40. 40 Why was it necessary for Christ to humble Himself even unto death?
  41. 41 Why was he buried?
  42. 42 Since Christ has died for us, why do we still have to die?
  43. 43 What further benefit do we receive from Christ’s sacrifice and death on the cross?
  44. 44 Why is there added: He descended into hell?
  45. 45 How does Christ’s resurrection benefit us?
  46. 46 What do you confess when you say, He ascended into heaven?
  47. 47 Is Christ, then, not with us until the end of the world, as He has promised us?[1]
  48. 48 But are the two natures in Christ not separated from each other if His human nature is not present wherever His divinity is?
  49. 49 How does Christ’s ascension into heaven benefit us?
  50. 50 Why is it added, And sits at the right hand of God?
  51. 51 How does the glory of Christ, our Head, benefit us?
  52. 52 What comfort is it to you that Christ will come to judge the living and the dead?
  53. 53 What do you believe concerning the Holy Spirit?
  54. 54 What do you believe concerning the holy catholic Christian church?
  55. 55 What do you understand by the communion of saints?
  56. 56 What do you believe concerning the forgiveness of sins?
  57. 57 What comfort does the resurrection of the body offer you?
  58. 58 What comfort do you receive from the article about the life everlasting?
  59. 59 But what does it help you now that you believe all this?
  60. 60 How are you righteous before God?
  61. 61 Why do you say that you are righteous only by faith?
  62. 62 But why can our good works not be our righteousness before God, or at least a part of it?
  63. 63 But do our good works earn nothing, even though God promises to reward them in this life and the next?
  64. 64 Does this teaching not make people careless and wicked?
  65. 65 Since then faith alone makes us share in Christ and all His benefits, where does this faith come from?
  66. 66 What are the sacraments?
  67. 67 Are both the Word and the sacraments then intended to focus our faith on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation?
  68. 68 How many sacraments has Christ instituted in the new covenant?
  69. 69 How does holy baptism signify and seal to you that the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross benefits you?
  70. 70 What does it mean to be washed with Christ’s blood and Spirit?
  71. 71 Where has Christ promised that He will wash us with His blood and Spirit as surely as we are washed with the water of baptism?
  72. 72 Does this outward washing with water itself wash away sins?
  73. 73 Why then does the Holy Spirit call baptism the washing of regeneration and the washing away of sins?
  74. 74 Should infants, too, be baptized?
  75. 75 How does the Lord’s Supper signify and seal to you that you share in Christ’s one sacrifice on the cross and in all His gifts?
  76. 76 What does it mean to eat the crucified body of Christ and to drink His shed blood?
  77. 77 Where has Christ promised that He will nourish and refresh believers with His body and blood as surely as they eat of this broken bread and drink of this cup?
  78. 78 Are then the bread and wine changed into the real body and blood of Christ?
  79. 79 Why then does Christ call the bread His body and the cup His blood, or the new covenant in His blood, and why does Paul speak of a participation in the body and blood of Christ?
  80. 80 What difference is there between the Lord’s supper and the papal mass?
  81. 81 Who are to come to the table of the Lord?
  82. 82 Are those also to be admitted to the Lord’s supper who by their confession and life show that they are unbelieving and ungodly?
  83. 83 What are the keys of the kingdom of heaven?
  84. 84 How is the kingdom of heaven opened and closed by the preaching of the gospel?
  85. 85 How is the kingdom of heaven closed and opened by church discipline?
  86. 86 Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace alone through Christ, without any merit of our own, why must we yet do good works?
  87. 87 Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and impenitent walk of life?
  88. 88 What is the true repentance or conversion of man?
  89. 89 What is the dying of the old nature?
  90. 90 What is the coming to life of the new nature?
  91. 91 But what are good works?
  92. 92 What is the law of the LORD?
  93. 93 How are these commandments divided?
  94. 94 What does the LORD require in the first commandment?
  95. 95 What is idolatry?
  96. 96 What does God require in the second commandment?
  97. 97 May we then not make any image at all?
  98. 98 But may images not be tolerated in the churches as “books for the laity”?
  99. 99 What is required in the third commandment?
  100. 100 Is the blaspheming of God’s Name by swearing and cursing such a grievous sin that God is angry also with those who do not prevent and forbid it as much as they can?
  101. 101 But may we swear an oath by the Name of God in a godly manner?
  102. 102 May we also swear by saints or other creatures?
  103. 103 What does God require in the fourth commandment?
  104. 104 What does God require in the fifth commandment?
  105. 105 What does God require in the sixth commandment?
  106. 106 But does this commandment speak only of killing?
  107. 107 Is it enough, then, that we do not kill our neighbour in any such way?
  108. 108 What does the seventh commandment teach us?
  109. 109 Does God in this commandment forbid nothing more than adultery and similar shameful sins?
  110. 110 What does God forbid in the eighth commandment?
  111. 111 What does God require of you in this commandment?
  112. 112 What is required in the ninth commandment?
  113. 113 What does the tenth commandment require of us?
  114. 114 But can those converted to God keep these commandments perfectly?
  115. 115 If in this life no one can keep the ten commandments perfectly, why does God have them preached so strictly?
  116. 116 Why is prayer necessary for Christians?
  117. 117 What belongs to a prayer which pleases God and is heard by Him?
  118. 118 What has God commanded us to ask of Him?
  119. 119 What is the Lord’s prayer?
  120. 120 Why has Christ commanded us to address God as Our Father?
  121. 121 Why is there added, Who art in heaven?
  122. 122 What is the first petition?
  123. 123 What is the second petition?
  124. 124 What is the third petition?
  125. 125 What is the fourth petition?
  126. 126 What is the fifth petition?
  127. 127 What is the sixth petition?
  128. 128 How do you conclude your prayer?
  129. 129 What does the word Amen mean?

Edition & Source Public domain

Source
The Heidelberg Catechism
Translation
English translation as published by apuritansmind.com; Scripture proofs: King James Version
Published
First published 1563
Copyright
Public domain.
License
Public domain
Attribution
Public domain. Text transcribed from apuritansmind.com, which reformed.org's historic-documents index links to. Compared automatically with the PDF at heidelberg-catechism.com, which is the same translation family: 217 of 258 questions and answers matched. Of the 41 that did not, I checked 18 by hand: Q12, Q18, Q27, Q56 and Q61 differ in wording, and the others were page-layout noise in the PDF; the remaining 23 were not checked by hand. Not yet proofread against a printed edition. Part divisions are the standard ones (Q1–2 introduction; Q3–11 misery; Q12–85 deliverance; Q86–129 thankfulness). The question 23 creed text had verse-number markers removed. Scripture proof texts are the King James Version, from the public-domain Project Gutenberg edition, added with tools/add_kjv.py. A few references could not be matched to verses (whole-chapter references such as ‘Genesis 1 throughout’, and typing slips in the source) and are shown without text.

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Cite as The Heidelberg Catechism. First published 1563. https://www.apuritansmind.com/creeds-and-confessions/the-heidelberg-catechism-by-zacharias-ursinus/