Westminster Shorter Catechism

Memory cards for questions 11 to 20

10 fold-over cards, three to a page (4 pages). Cut on the dashed lines, fold each card on its dotted line and glue it back to back.

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Westminster Shorter Catechism · Q11

What are God’s works of providence?

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Answer 11

God’s works of providence are his most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.

Psalm 145:17; Psalm 104:24; Isaiah 28:29; Hebrews 1:3; Psalm 103:19; Matthew 10:29-31

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Westminster Shorter Catechism · Q12

What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created?

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Answer 12

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 pain of death.

Galatians 3:12; Genesis 2:17

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Westminster Shorter Catechism · Q13

Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?

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Answer 13

Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created, by sinning against God.

Genesis 3:6-8, 13; Ecclesiastes 7:29

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Westminster Shorter Catechism · Q14

What is sin?

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Answer 14

Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

1 John 3:4

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Westminster Shorter Catechism · Q15

What was the sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created?

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Answer 15

The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created was their eating the forbidden fruit.

Genesis 3:6, 12

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Westminster Shorter Catechism · Q16

Did all mankind fall in Adam’s first transgression?

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Answer 16

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.

Genesis 2:16-17; Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22

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Westminster Shorter Catechism · Q17

Into what estate did the fall bring mankind?

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Answer 17

The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.

Romans 5:12

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Westminster Shorter Catechism · Q18

Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell?

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Answer 18

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.

Romans 5:12, 19; Romans 5:10-20; Ephesians 2:1-3; James 1:14-15; Matthew 15:19

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Westminster Shorter Catechism · Q19

What is the misery of that estate whereinto man fell?

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Answer 19

All mankind by their fall lost communion with God, are under his wrath and curse, and so made liable to all the miseries in this life, to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever.

Genesis 3:8, 10, 24; Ephesians 2:2-3; Galatians 3:10; Lamentations 3:39; Romans 6:23; Matthew 25:41, 46

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Westminster Shorter Catechism · Q20

Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?

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Answer 20

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.

Ephesians 1:4; Romans 3:20-22; Galatians 3:21-22

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