Shorter Catechism 2008

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Westminster Shorter Catechism 2008 Weekly Schedule

Week 1 -- starts January 6 Q 1: What is the chief end of man? A: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
Week 2 -- starts January 13 Q 2: What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him? A: The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.
Week 3 -- starts January 20 Q 3: What do the scriptures principally teach? A: The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
Week 4 -- starts January 27 Q 4: What is God? A: God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.
Week 5 -- starts February 3 Q 5: Are there more Gods than one? A: There is but one only, the living and true God. Q 6: How many persons are there in the godhead? A: There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
Week 6 -- starts February 10 Q 7: What are the decrees of God? A: The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pa
Week 7 -- starts February 17 Q 8: How doth God execute his decrees? A: God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence.
Week 8 -- starts February 24 Q 9: What is the work of creation? A: The work of creation is God's making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.
Week 9 -- starts March 2 Q 10: How did God create man? A: God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
Week 10 -- starts March 9 Q 11: What are God's works of providence? A: God's works of providence are his most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.
Week 11 -- starts March 16 Q 12: What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created? A: When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death.
Week 12 -- starts March 23 Q 13: Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created? 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.
Week 13 -- starts March 30 Q 14: What is sin? A: Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.
Week 14 -- starts April 6 Q 15: What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created? A: The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created was their eating the forbidden fruit.
Week 15 -- starts April 13 Q 16: Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression? A: The covenant being made with Adam, 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.
Week 16 -- starts April 20 Q 17: Into what estate did the fall bring mankind? A: The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.
Week 17 -- starts April 27 Q 18: Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell? A: The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.
Week 18 -- starts May 4 Q 19: What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell? A: All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.
Week 19 -- starts May 11 Q 20: Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery? A: God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, 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.
Week 20 -- starts May 18 Q 21: Who is the redeemer of God's elect? A: The only redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever.
Week 21 -- starts May 25 Q 22: How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man? A: Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.
Week 22 -- starts June 1 Q 23: What offices doth Christ execute as our redeemer? A: Christ, as our redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.
Week 23 -- starts June 8 Q 24: How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet? A: Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by his word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.
Week 24 -- starts June 15 Q 25: How doth Christ execute the office of a priest? A: Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God; and in making continual intercession for us.
Week 25 -- starts June 22 Q 26: How doth Christ execute the office of a king? A: Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.
Week 26 -- starts June 29 Q 27: Wherein did Christ's humiliation consist? A: Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.
Week 27 -- starts July 6 Q 28: Wherein consisteth Christ's exaltation? A: Christ's exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.
Week 28 -- starts July 13 Q 29: How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? A: We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit.
Week 29 -- starts July 20 Q 30: How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? A: The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.
Week 30 -- starts July 27 Q 31: What is effectual calling? A: Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.
Week 31 -- starts August 3 Q 32: What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life? A: They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption and sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them.
Week 32 -- starts August 10 Q 33: What is justification? A: Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.
Week 33 -- starts August 17 Q 34: What is adoption? A: Adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of, the sons of God.
Week 34 -- starts August 24 Q 35: What is sanctification? A: Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.
Week 35 -- starts August 31 Q 36: What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification? A: The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification, are, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.
Week 36 -- starts September 7 Q 37: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death? A: The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.
Week 37 -- starts September 14 Q 38: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection? A: At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.
Week 38 -- starts September 21 Q 39: What is the duty which God requireth of man? A: The duty which God requireth of man is obedience to his revealed will. Q 40: What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience? A: The rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience was the moral law.
Week 39 -- starts September 28 Q 41: Where is the moral law summarily comprehended? A: The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments.
Week 40 -- starts October 5 Q 42: What is the sum of the ten commandments? A: The sum of the ten commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.
Week 41 -- starts October 12 Q 43: What is the preface to the ten commandments? A: The preface to the ten commandments is in these words, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Week 42 -- starts October 19 Q 44: What doth the preface to the ten commandments teach us? A: The preface to the ten commandments teacheth us that because God is the Lord, and our God, and redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments.
Week 43 -- starts October 26 Q 45: Which is the first commandment? A: The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Week 44 -- starts November 2 Q 46: What is required in the first commandment? A: The first commandment requireth us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him accordingly.
Week 45 -- starts November 9 Q 47: What is forbidden in the first commandment? A: The first commandment forbiddeth the denying, or not worshiping and glorifying the true God as God, and our God; and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due to him alone.
Week 46 -- starts November 16 Q 48: What are we specially taught by these words before me in the first commandment? A: These words before me in the first commandment teach us that God, who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other god.
Week 47 -- starts November 23 Q 49: Which is the second commandment? A: The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Week 48 -- starts November 30 Q 50: What is required in the second commandment? A: The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in his word.
Week 49 -- starts December 7 Q 51: What is forbidden in the second commandment? A: The second commandment forbiddeth the worshiping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his word.
Week 50 -- starts December 14 Q 52: What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment? A: The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God's sovereignty over us, his propriety in us, and the zeal he hath to his own worship.
Week 51 -- starts December 21 Q 53: Which is the third commandment? A: The third commandment is, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Week 52 -- starts December 28 Q 54: What is required in the third commandment? A: The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God's names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word and works.

Week 1 -- starts January 6
Q 1: What is the chief end of man?
A: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Week 2 -- starts January 13
Q 2: What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
A: The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

Week 3 -- starts January 20
Q 3: What do the scriptures principally teach?
A: The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

Week 4 -- starts January 27
Q 4: What is God?
A: God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.

Week 5 -- starts February 3
Q 5: Are there more Gods than one?
A: There is but one only, the living and true God.

Q 6: How many persons are there in the godhead?
A: There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

Week 6 -- starts February 10
Q 7: What are the decrees of God?
A: The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pa

Week 7 -- starts February 17
Q 8: How doth God execute his decrees?
A: God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence.

Week 8 -- starts February 24
Q 9: What is the work of creation?
A: The work of creation is God's making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.

Week 9 -- starts March 2
Q 10: How did God create man?
A: God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.

Week 10 -- starts March 9
Q 11: What are God's works of providence?
A: God's works of providence are his most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.

Week 11 -- starts March 16
Q 12: What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created?
A: When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death.

Week 12 -- starts March 23
Q 13: Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?
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.

Week 13 -- starts March 30
Q 14: What is sin?
A: Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

Week 14 -- starts April 6
Q 15: What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?
A: The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created was their eating the forbidden fruit.

Week 15 -- starts April 13
Q 16: Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression?
A: The covenant being made with Adam, 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.

Week 16 -- starts April 20
Q 17: Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?
A: The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.

Week 17 -- starts April 27
Q 18: Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?
A: The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin; together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.

Week 18 -- starts May 4
Q 19: What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?
A: All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

Week 19 -- starts May 11
Q 20: Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
A: God having, out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, 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.

Week 20 -- starts May 18
Q 21: Who is the redeemer of God's elect?
A: The only redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man in two distinct natures, and one person, forever.

Week 21 -- starts May 25
Q 22: How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
A: Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.

Week 22 -- starts June 1
Q 23: What offices doth Christ execute as our redeemer?
A: Christ, as our redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.

Week 23 -- starts June 8
Q 24: How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?
A: Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by his word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.

Week 24 -- starts June 15
Q 25: How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?
A: Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God; and in making continual intercession for us.

Week 25 -- starts June 22
Q 26: How doth Christ execute the office of a king?
A: Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

Week 26 -- starts June 29
Q 27: Wherein did Christ's humiliation consist?
A: Christ's humiliation consisted in his being born, and that in a low condition, made under the law, undergoing the miseries of this life, the wrath of God, and the cursed death of the cross; in being buried, and continuing under the power of death for a time.

Week 27 -- starts July 6
Q 28: Wherein consisteth Christ's exaltation?
A: Christ's exaltation consisteth in his rising again from the dead on the third day, in ascending up into heaven, in sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and in coming to judge the world at the last day.

Week 28 -- starts July 13
Q 29: How are we made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ?
A: We are made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ, by the effectual application of it to us by his Holy Spirit.

Week 29 -- starts July 20
Q 30: How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?
A: The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

Week 30 -- starts July 27
Q 31: What is effectual calling?
A: Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.

Week 31 -- starts August 3
Q 32: What benefits do they that are effectually called partake of in this life?
A: They that are effectually called do in this life partake of justification, adoption and sanctification, and the several benefits which in this life do either accompany or flow from them.

Week 32 -- starts August 10
Q 33: What is justification?
A: Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.

Week 33 -- starts August 17
Q 34: What is adoption?
A: Adoption is an act of God's free grace, whereby we are received into the number, and have a right to all the privileges of, the sons of God.

Week 34 -- starts August 24
Q 35: What is sanctification?
A: Sanctification is the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.

Week 35 -- starts August 31
Q 36: What are the benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification?
A: The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification, are, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.

Week 36 -- starts September 7
Q 37: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?
A: The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.

Week 37 -- starts September 14
Q 38: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection?
A: At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.

Week 38 -- starts September 21
Q 39: What is the duty which God requireth of man?
A: The duty which God requireth of man is obedience to his revealed will.

Q 40: What did God at first reveal to man for the rule of his obedience?
A: The rule which God at first revealed to man for his obedience was the moral law.

Week 39 -- starts September 28
Q 41: Where is the moral law summarily comprehended?
A: The moral law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments.

Week 40 -- starts October 5
Q 42: What is the sum of the ten commandments?
A: The sum of the ten commandments is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbor as ourselves.

Week 41 -- starts October 12
Q 43: What is the preface to the ten commandments?
A: The preface to the ten commandments is in these words, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Week 42 -- starts October 19
Q 44: What doth the preface to the ten commandments teach us?
A: The preface to the ten commandments teacheth us that because God is the Lord, and our God, and redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments.

Week 43 -- starts October 26
Q 45: Which is the first commandment?
A: The first commandment is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Week 44 -- starts November 2
Q 46: What is required in the first commandment?
A: The first commandment requireth us to know and acknowledge God to be the only true God, and our God; and to worship and glorify him accordingly.

Week 45 -- starts November 9
Q 47: What is forbidden in the first commandment?
A: The first commandment forbiddeth the denying, or not worshiping and glorifying the true God as God, and our God; and the giving of that worship and glory to any other, which is due to him alone.

Week 46 -- starts November 16
Q 48: What are we specially taught by these words before me in the first commandment?
A: These words before me in the first commandment teach us that God, who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other god.

Week 47 -- starts November 23
Q 49: Which is the second commandment?
A: The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Week 48 -- starts November 30
Q 50: What is required in the second commandment?
A: The second commandment requireth the receiving, observing, and keeping pure and entire, all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath appointed in his word.

Week 49 -- starts December 7
Q 51: What is forbidden in the second commandment?
A: The second commandment forbiddeth the worshiping of God by images, or any other way not appointed in his word.

Week 50 -- starts December 14
Q 52: What are the reasons annexed to the second commandment?
A: The reasons annexed to the second commandment are, God's sovereignty over us, his propriety in us, and the zeal he hath to his own worship.

Week 51 -- starts December 21
Q 53: Which is the third commandment?
A: The third commandment is, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Week 52 -- starts December 28
Q 54: What is required in the third commandment?
A: The third commandment requireth the holy and reverent use of God's names, titles, attributes, ordinances, word and works.