Category: Creeds & Confessions

Question 29: Why is the Son of God called Jesus, that is, a Savior?

Answer: Because He saveth us, and delivereth us from our sins;1 and likewise, because we ought not to seek, neither can find salvation in any other.2

Remember the Heidelberg Catechism (HC) is in Section II (our Deliverance) as a significant portion explaining the meaning of Apostle’s Creed (AC). We have looked at the first strophe of the AC and now we turn to the second strophe that confesses the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep in mind before we press on that the meaning of the AC that we have confessed as mere Christianity has already left much of the Christian Church in the West as strangers to the true meaning of Biblical Christianity. The high view of God’s Sovereignty set forth already in the HC has separated us from Arminians (All Pentecostals, Wesleyans, Nazarenes, Church of God, Methodists, Free Methodists, etc.)  and Roman Catholics. We may all mouth the same words when confessing the AC but we are each clearly filling those words with different meaning. Nobody, among the various expressions of Christianity has the high view of God that the Reformed have as has been set forth in the HC. This means that the Reformed vis-a-vis the other expressions of Christianity have a very different feel about them. The upshot of that is that we Reformed are not only strangers to the world but we don’t exactly fit in with the non-Reformed crowd either.

As we come to HC Q. 29 the catechizers turn to consider the magnificent Lord Jesus Christ as the bringer and provider of our salvation. The Catechizers point out here the essence of the name and title of our Deliverer.

Jesus has the name He has because He saves us from our sins.

1Matt. 1:21, And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.

The name “Jesus” literally means “Jehovah is Salvation.”  Jesus’ name in English comes from the Latin Isus, which is a transliteration of the Greek Iesous, which is a transliteration of the Aramaic name Yeshua, which comes from the Hebrew Yehoshua, or Joshua. The name comes from the Hebrew verb yasha, which means “he saves,” and the proper name “Ya,” which is short for the name Yahweh.

Paying close attention here we understand that the Joshua of the OT in his work then is a prefiguring of the Jesus which was to come. Just as Joshua was faithful in bringing God’s people into the Promised land so Jesus brings God’s people into God’s Kingdom. Joshua as God’s warrior for God’s people is a preview of Jesus being God’s warrior for God’s people. Joshua fights the enemies of God and Jesus does the same, triumphing over them as Joshua did. Jesus is thus the greater Joshua in the deliverance/salvation He provides. Joshua provided only a temporal deliverance. Jesus provides an eternal deliverance from our sins.

The sins which Jesus saves us from are those acts whereby we seek to de-God, God while seeking to en-God ourselves as God. The sins which Jesus saves us from are our acts of treason and rebellion against the rightful ruler of the cosmos. The sins which Jesus saves us from includes our sin nature as from our Father Adam, our own lack of conformity to God’s law standard and any violation of the same. Jesus as savior saves us from sin, self, and Satan’s hegemony over us as his vassals, and most importantly from the just wrath of God. When we think of Jesus the first reality that we should think of is that Jesus is our salvation.

All men who refuse this salvation live their whole lives seeking to find some kind of salvation precisely because they refuse to be saved with the only salvation that can save them. It is only in the Christ of the Bible wherein men can cease their pursuits of pseudo-salvations and know the peace that deliverance from danger brings. The people you know or meet who are not saved by this Jesus are people who are twisted by their rebellion, and their instinctual understanding that God’s wrath remains upon them. That twistedness that comes from a lack of being saved will demonstrate itself in a host of possible permutations.

The unsaved refuse to learn that we ought not to seek, neither can find salvation in any other.2

This teaches the hard exclusivity that is characteristic of Biblical Christianity. Christianity teaches that there is no way to salvation (to be right and so have peace with God by our sins being extinguished) except through He who was provided by God the Father Almighty as the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.

 2Acts 4:12, Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

If we will not be saved from our sins by He who is named “Jehovah is salvation,” then we will not be saved. This of course means that all those who put their hope in religions other than Biblical Christianity remain dead in their sins and so remain unsaved. Our compassion on unsaved men compels us to tell Muslims, Mormons, Jews, Hindus, Roman Catholics (see HC Q. & A. 30) Eastern Orthodox, etc. that it is only the Jesus of the Bible that can save.

Out of love for God and for those unsaved we placard and herald Jesus Christ as the only way for lost, wearied, and sad men to have salvation and so find peace with God.

Question 28: What advantage is it to us to know that God has created, and by His providence doth still uphold all things?

The Heidelberg Catechism, being closer to the Medieval Church than it is to the modern Church that came in with the Enlightenment breathes with a devotional air. Throughout the HC the Catechizer will provide this kind of question and answer in order to make sure that student comprehends what we might call the cash value of the doctrine. The HC is not interested in an abstracted theology that doesn’t have traction in every day life. As such we get these kind of questions. Here we find a rich and still practical theology.

Here, the interest is making sure that the student understands the impact of the truth of God’s providence as in the life of the believer. Urisinus and Olevianus as the Catechizers desires their students to take the truth of God’s providence and find daily comfort in their lives from the belief of this Doctrine.

The question once again pushes the student in the direction that all of their living is conditioned by the Creator, Sustainers, and Governor of all things. There is no living absent of God’s providence and control. Indeed, it is the case that in God we live, and move, and have our being. All of our lives are lived out before the face of God to whom we must give an account. For the Catechizer’s the God of the Bible is not remote but closer to us than our next breath.

It is good to return to these realities if only because modern man lives as if the sky above him is bronze with no notion of the reality of God. The Christian is a different kind of man. He knows that all of life is life as dictated and directed by the kind and merciful providence of God. All of life is riven with the testimony of the God’s divine control and we as God’s people should find the benefit/advantage of that truth.

Answer: That we may be patient in adversity;8 thankful in prosperity;9 and that in all things, which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father,10 that nothing shall separate us from His love;11 since all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move.12

The Catechizers are brutally honest. God’s providence does not erase the reality of adversity that we face in our lives.

Ps. 39:10, Remove Thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of Thine hand.

However, with their confession of God’s providence the sting is taken out of the adversity the Christian faces because the Christian knows that any and all adversity is adversity that is under the direction and control of God the Father Almighty. We do not live in a world that is dictated by chance, fate, or bad luck. All that comes into our lives, including our adversity, comes into our lives as fashioned by God’s providence.

8Rom. 5:3, And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience hope.

Even in our adversity the Christian can glory because we know that as God’s providence is directing all things the final outcome of that adversity will work in us godly character, and one of the things that the Christian desires above all else is godly character.

God’s providence is also intended to cause us to lift our eyes in gratitude when God determines to bless us with prosperity. The tears of heaven sent adversity may last through the night but the joy of heaven sent prosperity cometh in the morning.

What a glory that we should be given the instinct to be thankful to our benevolent God when He heaps prosperity upon us.

9Deut. 8:10, When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which He hath given thee.

Thankless Christians when soaked with prosperity is a terrible oxymoron.

This truth of God’s providence of course makes a completely dependent people shut up to God’s wisdom as to what is best for us. This embrace of the doctrine of God’s providence has the ultimate purpose, in terms of the advantage it is to be to God’s people, to work in us a placing of our firm trust in our faithful God and Father. God the Father Almighty knows what is best for us — both in terms of adversity and prosperity — and this providence of God is intended that we invest our reliance upon Him who has shown His faithfulness to Himself and us in providing His Son as a surety that we did not deserve. If our lives were only characterized by daily adversity (God forbid) the reality that God the Father Almighty has provided the prosperity found in providing Jesus Christ as our deliverance announces that God has shown Himself faithful in His providence.

1 Thes. 5:18, In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

This firm trust in God driven by confidence in His exhaustive providence is to fill us with the confidence that nothing shall separate us from His love.

^{Romans 8:35} Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This reality that we, as the people of God the Father Almighty, can be separated from the love of God for His people reminds us that it is God’s love for His people as conditioned by love for Himself, that everything that comes into our lives by way of God’s providence is from the hand of God who is expressing His love to us in His providence as it unfolds in our lives.

The hard thing in all this is the ability to continue to believe in God’s goodness and love for us when providence brings adversity. It is at those times when we will be tempted to question a providence of God that is anchored in His love for us as conditioned by His love for Himself.

This is why it is good to learn our catechism and the truths therein before being visited by a hard providence because when we are in the hot box of a hard providence it is even more difficult to learn the truth being taught here. When parents are holding a child born crippled at birth it is hard at that point to lean on God’s providence if we have not already learned it. When persecution comes knocking it is hard at that point to lean on God’s providence if we have not already owned it. When wasting disease visits us it is hard at that point to lean on God’s providence if we have not already learned it. Let us pray earnestly that we might get this doctrine in the very marrow of our bones.

The catechism ends here reminding us again that “all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move.12″

Every event that happens in creation serves God’s purposes because every event that happens in creation has no reality apart from the reality that God gives it in His providence. Whether we consider the malevolence of our arch-enemy;

12Job 1:12, And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.

Job 2:6, And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

Or rather we consider the movement of Satan’s armies;

Matt. 8:31, So the devils besought Him, saying, If Thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.

Or rather we consider the operation of any secondary cause;

Isa. 10:15, Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood

Nothing happens in all creation apart from our Father’s leave. Nothing can come into our life apart from our Father’s leave.

Let us briefly ask what we would have to say if all this were not true. We would have to say that

1.) God is not God since God by definition is one who has totalistic and exhaustive sovereignty. If God’s providence is not true than God would not be worth worshiping since he would be just some kind of celestial bystander who would be as taken by surprise at the events that enter into our lives as we are. Take pity on those who worship a God who does not have the kind of providence that we learn in our Heidelberg Catechism.

2.) We would have to cower in fear of man. If God’s providence is not true than we are fools to cross tyrants or the wicked in our lives. It is God’s providence that gives us the courage to have no fear of man. It is God’s providence that causes us to realize that man can do nothing to us apart from God’s leave. A lack of confidence in God’s providence would make cowards of all of us.

3.) We would go mad with the grief that enters into our lives. It is only confidence in God’s goodness and providence that steadies us when hardships and persecutions come into our lives. If we really lived in a time plus chance plus circumstance world we would not be able bear up under the burdens of this life. Only the reality of God’s providence provides a backdrop wherein we can press on when life presses us down.

4.) We would not continue to contend for the crown rights of Jesus Christ in every area of life. Were we not confident of God’s providence we would not strive to bring every area of life under His authority. Apart from God’s providence we would hunker down and not risk great things for the glory of God, being fearful of what might come into our lives absent a God who controls all things.

God’s providence works in us both to accept hardship as from the hand of God while at the same time energizing us to contend, compete, and contest for the glory of our great God.

O Sovereign God,

We thank thee with all our being for your providence. We thank you that it is true that all our life is conditioned by you and dependent upon you. We pray that we might grow to adore you more and more because of your providence in our lives. We pray that you might keep us from being like Job’s wife who assigned wickedness to you because of what you ordained for Job and His family. Grant us thy favor to be confident in your goodness no matter come what may. Help us to be like our Father Job, who, despite the hard providence in his life refused to curse God. Help us to be like our Father St. Paul who was driven on by the confidence in your providence to never cease in opposing your enemies at every turn.

Grant us your grace, in light of your providence, to never surrender.

In Christ’s name we pray 

AMEN

Question 27: What dost thou mean by the providence of God?

Answer: The almighty and everywhere present power of God;1 whereby, as it were by His hand, He upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures;2 so that herbs and grass, rain and drought,3 fruitful and barren years, meat and drink,4 health and sickness,5 riches and poverty,6 yea, and all things come, not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.7

In Question 27 we are still dealing with the work of the Father confessed in the Apostles Creed. We now have moved from the creation work of God the Father Almighty to His ongoing work of sustaining (upholding) and governing His creation. The word the Catechizers use for God’s continuous work of upholding (sustaining) and governing His creation is “providence.”

This idea of providence was once central to the ways Christian’s spoke. If you listen carefully, the way we currently speak lacks this idea of providence. Instead, you will hear the idea of “luck” falling out of people’s mouths. And while we don’t want to be too exacting when we deal with people, it simply is the case that “luck” in our thinking has often replaced the idea of God’s total and overweening providence. This is to be expected from a people who have lost awareness of living in God’s presence. “Luck” bespeaks mindless chance, whereas “providence” reminds us that all things happen by God’s almighty and everywhere present power. We live in a world that pulses with God’s providential control exercised as by His upholding and governing all things.

Heb. 1:3, Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

The reality of God’s providence reminds us we do not live in a world upheld and governed by dark chaos and old night. The world and the events of the world do not unfold randomly or haphazardly but unfold as ordered by God the Father’s everywhere present power. This providence of God reminds us that God is always present — always present as a Father to His people and always present as an exacting judge to the reprobate. God the Father Almighty is never in need of anything from His creatures and is the one who;

giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us: for in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring.

Acts 17:25–28

Were humans wise they would, upon learning this, fall on their faces to worship He who upholds and governs all things.

The fact that God the Father Almighty upholds and governs all things reminds us that God is not absent from the world He has created. God is present and is not silent. His presence is attested to by all that happens. The idea that God upholds all things communicates the truth that the continuance of the cosmos and everything in it is dependent upon God the Father Almighty. The idea that God governs all things communicates the truth that this continuing cosmos is ordered and ruled by the God whose power and person is always and everywhere present.

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
⁸ If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in ^[c]hell, behold, You are there.
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰ Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall ^[d]fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
¹² Indeed, the darkness ^[e]shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

Psalm 139

Whereas before we have been considering God’s Almightiness (Omnipotence) here it is God’s omnipresence (everywhere present at all times) that is emphasized.

As Question 27 ends we return to the matter of God’s everywhere present power with a litany of examples explaining the exhaustiveness of God’s upholding and governing. It is God’s the Father’s almighty upholding and governing hand that accounts for;

herbs and grass, rain and drought,3 fruitful and barren years, meat and drink,4 health and sickness,5 riches and poverty,6 yea, and all things come, not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.7

We should not miss here that the Catechizer’s insist everything — both what we call blessing and what we call tragedy — come to us ordered by God’s sustaining and upholding. This life for the Christian is ordered by a personal God whose sovereignty is total and complete.

This is a truth that is required to be embraced by faith. For example, it is only faith in God’s goodness and providence that carried and carries me through having a much loved grand-daughter who was born broken and damaged with severe cerebral palsy. Can I receive even this as coming from the hand of God the Father Almighty who upholds and governs all things by His mighty hand or shall I begin to conclude that somehow God was absent from such a sorrow filled reality? If God is absent from the bumps and bruises of life then when those times come where is the Christian to turn? To the fates? To the idea that somehow Satan overcame God? To some kind of idea that teaches, “well, God didn’t want this but, you know, sometimes God is sovereign enough to not be sovereign.” Away with all such foolishness. If God is God then away with ideas of “bad luck,” or “chance” or anything else. If God is God let us praise His name by kissing the Shepherd’s staff when in His wisdom He wields it upon us. If God’s providence is not true in just this kind of manner then I have no interest in worshiping God. All things are from the Lord God omnipotent. And while I may struggle with some of those realities (a broken grand-daughter for example) at the end of the day I must join with my Father Job and say;

“Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”

Other faith traditions (Arminianism) who seek to lessen God’s sovereignty don’t solve the problem of evil. Instead what they give you is the reality of the evil as combined by a God who can’t do anything about it. One ends up with not only the evil but also a severely diminished God hardly worth worshiping.

When God chooses to send to His people drought, barren years, sickness, and poverty, God’s people must be equipped in knowing that God is good and that this good God has sufficient reasons yet unknown and undeclared to us as to His purposes for the drought, barren years, sickness, and poverty that are providentially sent and ordered for our lives. We must remember that our good God will “will make whatever evils He sends upon me, in this valley of tears, turn out to my advantage.”

The Scriptures that explicitly teach that God the Father Almighty, in His work of providence, does indeed governs all that comes into our lives is taught explicitly in Scripture;

A.) God’s providence and rain

3Jer. 5:24, Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in His season: He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

4Acts 14:17, Nevertheless He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

B.) God’s Providence and sickness and health;

5John 9:3, Jesus answered, Neither hath this (blind) man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

C.) God’s providence in wealth and poverty;

6Prov. 22:2, The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all.

Job 1:21, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

D.) There is no such thing as chance. God providentially ordains all;

7Matt. 10:29–30, Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

Eph. 1:11, In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.

Christians have a choice. They can either worship the God of the Bible who by His providence upholds and governs all things and so be realistic about the word “sovereignty” or they can worship a god of their own imagination.

Addendum

One final word here. When it comes to God’s providence we insist that though we affirm God’s providence we admit that we don’t always know what God is doing in His providence. There is, within some expressions of Christianity, a knee-jerk pseudo-prophetic inclination for people to think they can always interpret God’s providence. Some people are inclined to think they can file through God’s filing cabinets are hard drives and be able to tell you why a hardship comes into your life. While, it is certainly true that there are times when we may be able to trace out the lineaments of what God is doing in His providence, we need to be careful about falling into a “this is that” mentality. It simply is the case that we often do not know why God is doing or has done what He is doing or has done. For example, I will never know, in this life with certainty, why God wounded my Grand-daughter Ella. Similarly, there are many things that will come into our lives that we will have to wait till the eschaton arrives in order to understand. Be wary of people who think they can tell you what every piece of God’s providence in our life means. They can be well intended and fruit-cakes at the same time.

Question 26: What believest thou when thou sayest, “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth?”

Answer: That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (who of nothing made heaven and earth, with all that is in them;1 who likewise upholds and governs the same by His eternal counsel and providence)2 is for the sake of Christ His Son, my God and my Father; on whom I rely so entirely, that I have no doubt but He will provide me with all things necessary for soul and body;3 and further, that He will make whatever evils He sends upon me, in this valley of tears, turn out to my advantage;4 for He is able to do it, being Almighty God,5 and willing, being a faithful Father.6
_______________

We recall as we come to question 26 that we are in section II of the Heidelberg Catechism which is titled “Our Deliverance.” This section is committed to explaining how great a salvation we have in Jesus Christ in delivering the Christian from their sin and misery (Section I). The methodology used to do so for the next 33 questions and answers is to break down the Apostles Creed as to what it precisely mean when one confesses the Apostles Creed.

We must say at the outset that this methodology foists precision on the mind. We learn, via this method, not only the greatness our our deliverance from our sin and misery but also what exactly the Apostle’s Creed means. This explanation of the Apostle’s Creed that is given in the HC separates Biblical Christians from those who are repeating the Creed with a foreign accent. Because of the precision of the explanation we will get in this section we no longer can accept a vanilla Christianity that has a “Kumbaya” feel. By the time the Catechizers are finished with this section certain expressions of Christianity are ruled as contrary to the intent of the Apostle’s Creed and the Scriptures. This is not accidental.

When the Creed was written it was written for a specific part of Europe that found people of different expressions of Christianity living cheek by jowl next to each other. One purpose of the Catechism was to educate those who would use the HC how it was that they were different from Roman Catholics, Anabaptists, and Lutherans. There are questions and answers in the HC while not explicitly mentioning the differences between Calvinism and these other sub-expressions of Christianity are clearly attacking these other sub-expressions of Christianity as being inadequate.

The HC is interested in teaching its students to be Calvinists. It does not apologize for doing so. In the process once the HC is understood the confessor will inevitably want to see other sub-expressions of Christianity re-think their errant view.

One more thing here. Because of the precision of the HC we are no longer allowed to think that just because ten people affirm the Apostle’s Creed that therefore all ten affirm the Apostle’s Creed in its proper meaning.  The catechizers are teaching here that reciting the words of the Creed is only significant inasmuch as those confessing the Creed are filling those words with the same meaning.

With that introduction we turn to the question;

Question 26: What believest thou when thou sayest, “I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth?”

The Apostle’s Creed has three strophes that can be broken down according to each member of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This reminds us that to affirm the Christian faith is to affirm a set of doctrines as gathered from Scripture. Christianity is the life of the mind before it is the life of experience, feeling, or emotion. The HC teaches us that in order to claim Christianity we have to know our doctrine — know what we believe and why we believe it and what we don’t believe and why we don’t believe it.

The central basic truth about the Father that all Christians to be Christian must confess is that the Father is “almighty” (Sovereign, Omnipotent) and that this Almighty God is the creator of the cosmos. This one simple truth is denied by everyone in the Christian community except for the Reformed. The idea that God the Father is almighty, is the heart that beats in Calvinism. The Calvinist, following Scripture, believes that God,

^{Isaiah 46:10} Declares the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: ¹¹ Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.

For the Calvinist God is never envisioned as waiting upon man to react. God is always the actor and man is always the re-actor. The Calvinists believes that all depends upon the Sovereign God. The Calvinist believes that in God we live, and move, have our being.

The HC puts it this way in the answer;

Answer: That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (who of nothing made heaven and earth, with all that is in them;1 who likewise upholds and governs the same by His eternal counsel and providence)2 is for the sake of Christ His Son, my God and my Father; on whom I rely so entirely, that I have no doubt but He will provide me with all things necessary for soul and body;3 and further, that He will make whatever evils He sends upon me, in this valley of tears, turn out to my advantage;4 for He is able to do it, being Almighty God,5 and willing, being a faithful Father.6

1.) Note that by referring to the Father as “the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” chases off any notion of trinitarian subordinationism in the Godhead. From eternity past the Father has been the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There never was a time when the Lord Jesus Christ was not eternally begotten of the Father. Right out of the gate Arian doctrine (Jehovah Witnesses) is ruled out of bounds.

2.) Note next that this Almighty Father is only known to us in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father can be known only through the Son and the Father and Son can only be known as taught in the pages of the Bible. If anyone wants to know the Father they must know the Son.

All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. (Mt. 12:27)

3.) Thirdly, note that the Almighty God is the Creator God. The HC will go on to teach that the Son is known for His work of Redemption and the Spirit is known for His work of Sanctification. The Father is known for the work of Creation. However, these realities should not be too woodenly construed since any work of any member of the Trinity finds all the members of the Trinity participating. (This is known as the Doctrine of perichoresis.)

4.) When the HC teaches of God that;

“He of nothing made heaven and earth, with all that is in them; who likewise upholds and governs the same by His eternal counsel and providence”

They appeal to passages like, Gen. 1 and 2 as well as;

Ps. 33:6, By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

Here we find eliminated the possibility of what has come to be called “theistic evolution.” The HC does not allow anyone who confesses it to believe in this 19th century doctrine that teaches that God co-operated with or orchestrated the Big Bang so as to create, by means of evolution with its mechanism of natural selection considered in its macro sense, the cosmos. This would eliminate men like Tim Keller from being accepted as a member in a church that embraced the HC.

5.) The troika of creation, sustaining (upholds) and governing is found in this answer. God is the creator, sustainer, and governor of His cosmos. This teaches us, contra to Deism, that upon creation God did not wander away leaving His creation to itself. No, The Father Almighty, not only created the Cosmo by His divine fiat Word also sustains (upholds) and governs His cosmos. This teaches that that the Father Almighty, “Maker of heaven and earth” is personal. He continues to be involved with His creation via the means of sustaining the cosmos as well as directly governing the affairs of men.

Ps. 115:3, But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased.

Matt. 10:29, Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

6.) This answer also teaches us the distinction between God and His creation contra all expressions of pantheism. God is the creator God, distinct from His creation.

7.) Note in this question that those who confess the HC understand that God is only the God of anyone by means of their coming under the safety of Christ His Son.

“is for the sake of Christ His Son, my God and my Father;”

Heb. 1:3, Who (Jesus Christ) being the brightness of His (God the Father Almighty) glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Only those in Christ can call Almighty God their “God and Father.” Those who are not in Christ only know the Almighty God as Judge and as a celestial terrorist as against them. For those outside of Christ the “Almightiness of the Father” is only unto them the reasons for night sweats and nightmares. There is only safety from the Almighty Father as in Jesus Christ who purged our sins.

8.) Note that once in Christ we boast of our dependent relationship;

on whom I rely so entirely, that I have no doubt but He will provide me with all things necessary for soul and body;3

Christians understand that the Almightiness of God the Father is a source of rest and a reason to put off panic. We understand the truth of the Apostle’s creed teaches us that God is the God who provides. Being confident of that how is it that those who affirm and embrace the Almightiness of God could ever fear of what man can do to us? Because of this truth, the Christians who can get this truth in their marrow will be characterized as fearless — never cowering before men or their threats.

The embrace of this Doctrine throughout history explains why Tyrants have hated having Calvinists living in their Kingdoms. Calvinists do not bend to the capricious will of Tyrants because they know that God will provide them with all things necessary for body and soul. Tyrants have no means to instill fear in the garden variety Calvinist.

Rom. 8:15–16, For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

9.) Note that the Catechizers affirm that God provides for us body and soul. This affirmation rules out any kind of Christianity that is characterized as being concerned only about our souls as if God is unconcerned with our physical existence. The God who provides for our souls provides for our bodily existence. God likes matter. He made it and so provides for it.

Matt. 6:26, Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

10.) God the Father’s Almightiness extends so broadly that it is understood that God, while not being the author of evil, is the one who controls everything that comes into the life of His sons and daughters. The evils that God, the Father, sends upon us, in this valley of tears are evils that turn to our advantage and so from the perspective of eternity are a blessing to us.

Ps. 55:22, Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

This is strong medicine. The Calvinist believes so absolutely in the Almightiness of God the Father that he understands that nothing comes into His life except through the hands of a sovereign God who loves us for the sake of Christ. For the Calvinist this is not a time plus chance plus circumstance world.

“Though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”

For the Calvinist the Devil is God’s Devil on a long leash. For  the Calvinist God’s Sovereignty is not some after-thought. Again, as mentioned earlier this turns the Calvinist into human steel. He knows the world is personal and that it is chock full of God’s intention. If this is true and if God is a Father to His people — the Church, then what fear does the Calvinist have of a world, a devil, a circumstance that each and all belong to God the Father Almighty?

11.) Note that the Catechizers refer to this life as “valley of tears.” The Calvinist, while optimistic because of God’s Almightiness, names the world for what it is. The world is often a “valley of tears.” This reminds us to be realistic about what this world is. However, even in the valley of tears, evil is turns out to our advantage. As such, among the tears, there is continuous reasons to rejoice.

12.) The Catechizers round out this question by reminding us of the character of the God we serve.

for He is able to do it (turn all things to our advantage), being Almighty God,5 and willing, being a faithful Father.6

Note again here that God’s Almightiness is only a treasure to us — His people — in light of His being a faithful Father and He is only a Faithful Father in light of the fact that we flee to Christ to discover that the Almighty God is our Defense and sure help in time of need only because we are the younger brethren to the magnificent and glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

Rom. 8:28, And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

Rom. 4:21, And being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform.

Matt. 6:26, Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

HC question 26 has the effect of delivering us from effeminate non-Reformed views of the doctrine of God. The contemporary Christian world is awash is weak doctrines of God that deny, implicitly or explicitly, the reality that God is always angular and never will be made smooth. The God of the Bible is a ferocious God who can never be tamed, and yet this wild God is our God for the sake of Jesus Christ. This irrepressible, unpredictable, Almighty God is a God to His people whose intent is always to the end of glorifying Himself by pursuing His people’s good.

Is your understanding of God the Father Almighty, this understanding? If it is not search the Scriptures to see that these things are so.

Personally, I wouldn’t bother with worshipping any other explanation of God.