Yesterday, I described some of the situation that Martin Luther faced when he wrote the Small Catechism and the Large Catechism back in the 1520's. Many people couldn't read at that time, and from the visitations to the churches throughout Germany, Luther and the German reformers had discovered a great deal of ignorance about the Christian faith. This led Luther to write the two catechisms that still bear his name as simple means of teaching the Christian faith to those who didn't really know its content.
It's kind of ironic that this same type of description could be used to describe our society today here in North America. I say it's ironic because we live in an era of unprecedented access. Just last week, I was playing around with my new Kindle and discovered that I could download the ESV Bible for free, along with at least one or two other versions. For anyone with internet access, you can find pretty much any translation online. And then, if you were so inclined, you could probably pick one up at any hotel that you stay at, just look in the nightstand drawers.
However, even though access isn't really a problem, it seems that most people don't really know what the Bible says. Over the years, I've heard a number of comments that people would make and then confidently say that the Bible said it, or that it was God's own truth. The truth is, most of what I've heard in those cases isn't in there. Despite great access, it seems that most people don't really know much about the basics of the Christian faith.
This is where I see a great opportunity to make use of Luther's catechisms. They aren't long dissertations that people will have to wade and muck their way through. They are brief, to the point, and they describe the basics of the Christian faith to such a degree that anyone who believes what they teach can confidently claim to be a Christian.
Even though we live in an age of unprecedented access, teaching the contents of the faith simply seems to be a good approach. It seems that we can no longer take it for granted that people know what the Christian faith really is. I was reminded of this several years ago when I had a group of college students come to me, saying that they wanted to learn a little bit about the Christian faith. I had some Bibles at our table for our first meeting, and asked them to open up to the Gospel of Matthew. After watching them fumble around to figure out what Matthew was, and where it was in the Bible, I realized that I cannot take it for granted that people really know the Bible anymore.
That's where simplicity seems to come into the picture. People tend not to spend a lot of time reading about something that may only hold their interest marginally.
It's kind of ironic that this same type of description could be used to describe our society today here in North America. I say it's ironic because we live in an era of unprecedented access. Just last week, I was playing around with my new Kindle and discovered that I could download the ESV Bible for free, along with at least one or two other versions. For anyone with internet access, you can find pretty much any translation online. And then, if you were so inclined, you could probably pick one up at any hotel that you stay at, just look in the nightstand drawers.
However, even though access isn't really a problem, it seems that most people don't really know what the Bible says. Over the years, I've heard a number of comments that people would make and then confidently say that the Bible said it, or that it was God's own truth. The truth is, most of what I've heard in those cases isn't in there. Despite great access, it seems that most people don't really know much about the basics of the Christian faith.
This is where I see a great opportunity to make use of Luther's catechisms. They aren't long dissertations that people will have to wade and muck their way through. They are brief, to the point, and they describe the basics of the Christian faith to such a degree that anyone who believes what they teach can confidently claim to be a Christian.
Even though we live in an age of unprecedented access, teaching the contents of the faith simply seems to be a good approach. It seems that we can no longer take it for granted that people know what the Christian faith really is. I was reminded of this several years ago when I had a group of college students come to me, saying that they wanted to learn a little bit about the Christian faith. I had some Bibles at our table for our first meeting, and asked them to open up to the Gospel of Matthew. After watching them fumble around to figure out what Matthew was, and where it was in the Bible, I realized that I cannot take it for granted that people really know the Bible anymore.
That's where simplicity seems to come into the picture. People tend not to spend a lot of time reading about something that may only hold their interest marginally.
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