2. The Miserable Fall of Man From God and His Former Estate Under the Bondage of Sin, Death, and All Other Kind of Miseries
Q. What brought them from that blessed estate?
A. Satan, and their own inconstancy.
Q. How were they brought to that inconstancy?
A. Through familiar conference with Satan against the word.
Q. What thing did Satan first seek of them?
A. Distrust and contempt of God’s word.
Q. Why did he begin with their faith?
A. Because he knew it was their life.
Q. How could they consent to their own perdition?
A. They were deceived by the craft of Satan.
Q. What was the craft of Satan here?
A. He persuaded them that good was evil and evil was good.
Q. How could they have been persuaded by Satan if they possessed the Image of God?
A. They possessed the Image of God but not the gift of constancy.
Q. What things did they lose as a result of their fall?
A. The favor and Image of God with the use of the creatures.
Q. What succeeded the loss of the favor and Image of God?
A. The wrath of God and original sin.
Q. What thing is original sin?
A. The corruption of our whole nature.
Q. How does this sin come to us?
A. By natural propagation from our first Parents.
Q. What are the fruits of this sin?
A. All other sins which we commit.
Q. What is the punishment of this sin?
A. Death of the body and soul along with all other miseries.
Q. What other things fell upon this sin?
A. A curse upon the creatures and our banishment from the use of them.
Q. But the most wicked use them abundantly.
A. That is with testimony of an evil conscience.
Q. Such a curse was over the simple act of eating forbidden fruit? [1]
A. The sins committed were more than the eating of the forbidden fruit. [2]
Q. What, then, was their sin?
A. Infidelity, pride, and open rebellion against God.
Q. How can that be pride?
A. They consented to Satan’s lies, mistrusted Gods word, and sought to be equal with God.
Q. Why are we punished for their sin?
A. We are punished for our own sin, seeing we are all in them, standing and falling with them.
Q. What is the estate of their descendants?
A. Under the same bondage of sin.
Q. What natural freedoms do we have?
A. We have the freedom to sin and offend our God.
Q. Do we not have the power to serve and please our God?
A. None at all until we are called and sanctified by God.
Q. Have we lost our minds and wills?
A. No. But we have lost a right mind and a right will.
Q. Natural men may do many good deeds?
A. Yet they cannot please God without faith.
Q. Why did God suffer this fall of man?
A. For the declaration of his mercy and Justice.
Q. Declare that.
A. By his mercy the chosen are delivered and the rest punished by his Justice.
[1] The original reads “These pains were over greater for eating of the forbidden fruit?”
[2] The original reads, “These sins was not eating of the fruit simply.”
An Introduction of the Life and Works of Scottish Reformation John Craig - Part 1
A Short Summary of the Whole Catechism - Introduction
A Short Summary of the Whole Catechism - Chapter 1
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