Westminster Shorter Catechism

The fourth and final assertion about God in the Here We Stand series: He is the God of inscrutable tri-personality. Pastor Martin gives a simple statement of the doctrine from the Shorter Catechism, lays out the four biblical categories that force Trinitarian belief upon the church (monotheism, the Godhood of Father/Son/Spirit, their distinct personhood, and their unity in the one divine essence), traces the doctrine's history as latent in the Old Testament, patent in the New, and articulated in controversy, and draws out two practical implications: the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God and of all our comfortable dependence on Him.

The first of two messages on unconditional election. Pastor Martin gives a simple statement of the doctrine from the Westminster Shorter Catechism, then establishes its biblical basis first through the explicit testimony of key words (elect, foreknow, predestinate) and key passages (Matthew 11, John 6, John 17, Acts 13, Romans 9, 1-2 Thessalonians), and begins the implicit testimony drawn from God's pattern of dealings with Israel, the doctrine of sin, and the doctrine of God's sovereignty.

Pastor Martin gives the simple statement of the biblical doctrine of Christ's person from the Shorter Catechism (truly God, truly man, two distinct natures united in one person forever), traces how the Athanasian Creed and Chalcedon articulated this confession in response to heresy, and then begins the biblical basis by expounding the first category of texts — those that explicitly designate Christ as God. He handles John 1:1, John 20:28, and Romans 9:5, pressing the conclusion that only one clear witness is needed to prove Christ's deity and calling hearers to fall with Thomas before their Lord and God.