The Form of Sound Words

Catechetical Preaching is an honored tradition stretching back to the Apostolic era. Paul exhorts Timothy to hold fast to the “form of sounds words” (2 Tim 1:13). Hebrews 5:12 speaks of the “first principles of the oracles of God.”

The Puritan worthy, Thomas Watson, understands the value of this ministry method and expresses himself as follows:

To preach, and not to catechise, is to build without a foundation. This way of catechising is not novel, it is apostolical. The primitive church had their forms of catechism: so much those phrases imply, a ‘form of sound words,’ 2 Tim. 1:13. and ‘the first principles of the oracles of God,’ Heb. 5:12.; and since the church had their catechumenoi, as Grotius and Erasmus observe, many of the ancient fathers have written for it, Fulgentius, Austin, Theodoret, Lactantius, and others. God hath given great success to it. By this laying down of grounds of religion catechistically, Christians have been clearly instructed and wondrously built up in the Christian faith; insomuch, that Julian the apostate, seeing the great success of catechising, did put down all schools and places of public literature, and instructing of youth. Watson, T. (1855). The Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, Comprising His Celebrated Body of Divinity, in a Series of Lectures on the Shorter Catechism, and Various Sermons and Treatises (p. 8). Robert Carter & Brothers. This study provides a sampling of catechetical works which have served the souls of God’s Sheep over the centuries.

Introduction – 02 – Of Fruits and Roots

Why catechize God’s sheep? Because the Word must be “sounded down” into our souls before roots can be sent down into the ground of God’s grace. Good preaching is like a rooting hormone, it stimulates the growth of roots of righteousness (Prov 12:12) which enable the Believer to be grounded and settled in the faith (Col 1:21-24).

A. W. Tozer expresses this need is his classic pithy style:

A tree can weather almost any storm if its root is sound, but when the fig tree which our Lord cursed “dried up from the roots” it immediately “withered away” (Mark 11:20–21). A church that is soundly rooted cannot be destroyed, but nothing can save a church whose root is dried up. No stimulation, no advertising campaigns, no gifts of money and no beautiful edifice can bring back life to the rootless tree. Tozer, A. W. (1986). The Root of the Righteous. (p. 5). WingSpread.

Introduction – 01 – Explanation of the Concept of a Catechism

The Upper Room Christian Assembly Catechism (URCAC) project is introduced in this study.

The essence of good catechizing is but the exercise of a minister’s God-given duty to “sound down” the Word of God – to echo the Voice of heaven via a thorough, systematic, plan of public preaching. This time-honored tradition has served the Saints of many generations and proven itself to be an effective instrument of instruction that helps the Believer to develop Roots of Righteousness.

Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the discipline of catechizing the Church should be experienced as an engaging encounter with the Word of God that draws from the efforts of our godly predecessors while flowing in the liberty of catering the project to the Spirit’s knowledge of our present needs.