Boyce Catechism - Bible 3

CATECHISM of James P. Boyce - THE BIBLE 3
Into what two parts is it divided?
Into the Old and New Testaments.

God has not given us two distinct realities of Himself. In His grace God has given us truth through stories, songs, parables, wisdom literature, and prophesies in the Old Testament. In the New Testament God shared Himself with us through stories, letters, and prophecies. In both Testaments we find the same God revealing Himself through a unique person in a specific culture.

Both Testaments point to the Cross of Christ. Christ is at the center of human history. It is how we date ourselves: BC (Before Christ) or (After Death). The Cross of Christ is what stands in the middle of the Testaments.

Both Testaments point to God as the gracious almighty King of heaven and earth. He is revealed as the creator and sustainer of all things. There is nothing that is beyond Him. In His wisdom He made all that is. In His grace He is redeeming a people for Himself and one day He will reclaim creation for Himself.

Both Testaments point to grace through faith in Christ alone as the means of salvation. There is no other way in which a person can be saved. Those who lived with access only to the Old Testament were able to look forward to the coming sacrifice of the God-Man. Others of us can now look back with the knowledge of the New Testament to what God accomplished through His Son to redeem the world.

Without the benefit and blessing of the Holy Spirit no one can discern the Truth found in both Testaments (1 Corinthians 2:6-16). We must pray for understanding.

James Petigru Boyce (1827–1888) was a Baptist theologian, pastor, and seminary professor. Boyce was educated at Brown University under Francis Wayland, whose evangelical sermons contributed to Boyce’s conversion, and at Princeton Theological Seminary under Charles Hodge. Boyce became a pastor, then a university professor, and finally the founder and first president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he taught theology from 1859 until his death in 1888. Throughout his ministry Boyce insisted on the importance of theological education for all ministers. In a preface, he described his Abstract of Systematic Theology, published the year before his death, as follows: "This volume is published the rather as a practical text book, for the study of the system of doctrine taught in the Word of God, than as a contribution to theological science."