I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son, our Lord;
He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary;
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell.
On the third day He arose from the dead;
He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit;
I believe a holy catholic Christian church, the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting. Amen.
LORD'S DAY 8
24. Q.
How are these articles divided?
A.
Into three parts: the first is about God the Father and our creation; the second about God the Son and our redemption; the third about God the Holy Spirit and our sanctification.
25. Q.
Since there is only one God,1 why do you speak of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
A.
Because God has so revealed Himself in His Word2 that these three distinct persons are the one, true, eternal God.
1 Deut 6:4; Is 44:6; 45:5; 1 Cor 8:4, 6. 2 Gen 1:2, 3; Is 61:1; 63:8-10; Mt 3:16, 17; 28:18, 19; Lk 4:18; Jn 14:26; 15:26; 2 Cor 13:14; Gal 4:6; Tit 3:5, 6.
The Heidelberg Catechism was written in Heidelberg at the request of Elector Frederick III, ruler of the most influential German province, the Palatinate, from 1559 to 1576. This pious Christian prince commissioned Zacharius Ursinus, twenty-eight years of age and professor of theology at the Heidelberg University, and Caspar Olevianus, twenty-six years old and Frederick's court preacher, to prepare a catechism for instructing the youth and for guiding pastors and teachers.
Frederick obtained the advice and cooperation of the entire theological faculty in the preparation of the Catechism. The Heidelberg Catechism was adopted by a Synod in Heidelberg and published in German with a preface by Frederick III, dated January 19, 1563. A second and third German edition, each with some small additions, as well as a Latin translation were published in Heidelberg in the same year. The Catechism was soon divided into fifty-two sections, so that a section of the Catechism could be explained to the churches each Sunday of the year.
In the Netherlands this Heidelberg Catechism became generally and favourably known almost as soon as it came from the press, mainly through the efforts of Petrus Dathenus, who translated it into the Dutch language and added this translation to his Dutch rendering of the Genevan Psalter, which was published in 1566. In the same year Peter Gabriel set the example of explaining this catechism to his congregation at Amsterdam in his Sunday afternoon sermons.
The National Synods of the sixteenth century adopted it as one of the Three Forms of Unity, requiring office-bearers to subscribe to it and ministers to explain it to the churches. These requirements were strongly emphasized by the great Synod of Dort in 1618-19. The Heidelberg Catechism has been translated into many languages and is the most influential and the most generally accepted of the several catechisms of Reformation times.
