Boyce Catechism - Bible 6

CATECHISM of James P. Boyce - THE BIBLE 6
Ought it, therefore. to be believed and obeyed?
Yes; as much so as though God had spoken directly to us.

My wife and I have been best friends for a long time. I first saw her when we were in 8th Grade. She was a cheerleader for West End Middle School and I played basketball for Bellevue Middle School. We attended the same high school the following year and started dating. We were only freshman. We are still best friends 22 years later!

One of the things we still have are our letters to one another. To those who don't know... before texting, status updates, and email people used to write on this stuff called paper with what were called pens. These "notes" were passed by hand from one person to another.

We would run into each other in the hallway in between classes and pass those notes to each other. Some were nice. Some were mean. All of them are hysterical to us now.

God has sent us a message. It is His Bible. His Holy Spirit who lives in those who are redeemed by grace allows a proper understanding of the Bible and directs believers in how to apply the truth personally.

God has passed us a written message from His heart to us so that we can know who He is, what He is doing, and how He desires to work in our lives. We must read it and trust in God's Spirit through prayer to apply its truth to our life and enjoy the blessing obedience to God's Word brings.



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."