Theology

The beauty of 52 Sundays

or why we gave two years to bringing the Heidelberg Catechism to video… and more

*****

There is something disarming about the Heidelberg Catechism. It doesn’t begin with abstract definitions, but with comfort. Our only comfort.

Many of us have encountered, or experienced ourselves, a quiet guilt about “not knowing enough theology,” as if faithfulness were measured primarily by intellectual mastery. The Heidelberg resists that posture. Designed to be digested slowly over the course of a year, it teaches with patience. It repeats itself intentionally. It understands that formation takes time.

And it certainly took time to capture that on film.

Today, we find ourselves standing at a moment we honestly didn’t know how to imagine back on July 13th, 2023 when our organization, Faith to Film (FaithToFilm.ca) first took on this project. Every Lord’s Day of the Heidelberg Catechism now has a completed video. Fifty-two videos. Twenty-six pastors. Multiple denominations. One catechism. A full, freely available teaching resource on ReformedConfessions.org that did not exist before, but now it does.

Why we started

Pastor Hans Overduin took on Lord’s Days 15 and 23.

Too often, Christian content is forced to choose between depth and visual excellence. We didn’t think that tradeoff was necessary.

The Reformed confessions, in particular, seemed like an area crying out for this kind of care. Written centuries ago, they articulate truths that remain deeply relevant today. Truths with direct application for people wrestling with today’s fears, today’s doubts, and today’s hope. The church has never failed to recognize their value. They remain central to catechesis, preaching, and discipleship. And yet, the digital representation of them has not sufficiently reflected the clarity, weight, and beauty of the truth they contain.

We wanted to do something about that.

Our broader vision continues to be a single digital home for the Reformed Confessions where learning is layered. A video for introduction. A quiz for reinforcement. Extended material for deeper study. Illustrations that help concepts land. A place where churches can confidently send their people, knowing they will be met with clarity, pastoral care, and theological integrity.

Not to replace traditional catechesis, but to supplement it and to provide access for those who may not have the same proximity to teachers or resources, whether new converts, families, or believers in other parts of the world.

The Heidelberg Catechism felt like the natural place to begin.

We are deeply grateful to the twenty-six pastors who lent their voices to this work. Though they serve in a range of congregational settings, they spoke here in one voice, bearing witness to the unity the Heidelberg Catechism has long provided to the Reformed church. Their participation reflects a shared commitment to teaching what has been confessed, received, and faithfully passed down through generations.

The long middle

Rev. John van Eyk addressed Lord’s Days 11 and 13.

What we didn’t fully anticipate was just how long this patient approach would take. Don’t be mistaken, we understood the importance of moving slowly. We simply wanted the fruit of patience immediately. After all, two and a half years is long enough for enthusiasm to fade. Long enough for schedules to clash, funding to stretch thin, and momentum to feel fragile.

This is why we are so grateful for everyone who supported this work.

There is also a unique weight to the nature of this work. We regularly found ourselves asking difficult questions: Are we honoring the gravity of these truths? Are we preserving the warmth that Ursinus and Olevianus intended? Are we being careful, not only with words, but with images?

There is a real challenge in visually representing biblical and theological concepts while maintaining a healthy reverence for God’s name and character. Navigating that tension was no small task.

So yes, it is true that this has been a challenge, but it’s hard to stay stressed when the very content you are producing is a balm for your own soul. Sitting there, mouse in hand, editing a video on Lord’s Day 1, and being reminded that you are "not your own, but belong body and soul, to your faithful Savior, Jesus Christ." Time after time the words of the pastor on screen would cut straight through the producer mindset and hit the believer's heart.

It really is a profound thing to experience. To realize that the very truths you are trying to broadcast are the same truths holding you together while you do it.

Ready for you to use

Pastor Mark Wagenaar tackled Lord’s Days 52 and 22.

At this point, the Heidelberg Catechism series is no longer a project we are working on, but a free resource the church can now rely on. Go to ReformedConfessions.org, watch the videos, sit with the illustrations, and work through the questions. It is our prayer that it finds its way into your homes, classrooms, membership instruction, or quiet personal study.

We pray that, in the steady rhythms of teaching and repetition, God would use this work as He has so often used catechesis: to form believers who know what they believe, why they believe it, and how that belief shapes their lives before Him and before one another.

Above all, this moment draws our attention away from ourselves and back to the God who preserves His truth across centuries, cultures, and mediums.

As we look forward to the development of the remaining Three Forms of Unity, we rest in the knowledge that the weight of this work does not fall on us. We are not the reason these words endure. We are witnesses to the fact that they do. “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8).

Kyle Vasas and David Visser are a part of the team at Faith to Film which, in addition to ReformedConfessions.org, has done video series on Calvinism and Essential Truths, and is in the planning stage for one on office bearer training. Check out all their work, and how you can support it, at FaithtoFilm.ca.

News

Aussie senator shows us how to do it... and how not to do it

On April 1^st, Australian Senator Ralph Babet gave a speech that got some social media attention for good reason. He explained to all those willing to listen that there is no freedom apart from God. Here is what he said:

“I'm regularly criticized for being overtly Christian. I'm told to keep my faith private, to leave it at the door of this chamber and to speak as though God is irrelevant and truth is negotiable. I just will not do that. I'm not merely a man with opinions. I'm a man under authority, and that authority is the authority of Christ and his church. That changes everything.

“Christianity is not a lifestyle. It's not a cultural accessory. It is a total claim on the human person – on the mind, on the conscience, and on the soul. Here's the reality that my critics refuse to admit: every single person in this chamber serves a doctrine of some sort. Some serve God; others serve Marxist ideology. Some serve the State or maybe even public opinion, but no one is really neutral. So, when I'm told to leave my faith behind, what I'm really being told is: 'Abandon your authority and submit to ours instead.'

“No, I will not do that. I'll not trade eternal truth for political convenience. I won't bow to the false religion of relativism.

“What we are really dealing with here is not the absence of religion but the rise of a new one. It's a creed without God, a morality without foundation. It's a system that demands obedience and calls it tolerance. Let's just be clear: the claim that religion has no place in politics is itself a dogma – an exclusive claim, a coercive claim. The question is not whether beliefs shape this place. They already do. We know that. The question is: which truth will govern us?

“When God is pushed aside, it is not neutrality that replaces Him; it is power. The most oppressive regimes in history did not honor Christ; they rejected Christ. What followed was not freedom. It was control, it was persecution, and it was suffering on an industrial scale. Don't tell me that taking God out of society makes it safer. It just makes it worse.

“Let's speak plainly about what Christianity actually claims. What does it claim? It claims that Jesus Christ is God, that He rose from the dead, and that He established a charge of authority to teach truth in every single age. Just look at the King that we proclaim. He's not a tyrant. He's not a conqueror. He's a king that was crowned with thorns, a King who went on to forgive His executioners, a King who laid down His life for His enemies. Do you know what? That is strength. That is power rightly ordered. That is the model that Christianity calls us to follow. It's not weakness and it's not chaos. It's discipline, strength, and order towards truth and the good.

“Christianity also destroys the modern obsession with moral superiority, because no man earns salvation and no one stands above another. We are all in need of mercy and in need of grace, which means that there is no room for the smugness, the posturing and the endless virtue-signaling that now dominate public life. From that humility comes order, from that order comes justice, and from that justice comes peace.

“I ask you again: what kind of society does that produce? It sounds remarkably like the one that we all claim to want. Let's just be clear again: I'm not going to dilute my faith. I'm not going to pretend that truth is negotiable. I'm not going to speak as though Christ is optional. I serve a higher Authority than this chamber, than this place, and that Authority does not, and will never, change with the polls. A nation that rejects Christ does not become freer. It simply finds a new master; that's all. Some of you in this place don't serve the right master. I won't name names, but you know who you are.”

That’s a message desperately needed in the political sphere. And it did get some social media coverage on Facebook. Unfortunately, the very same day he delivered this speech, the senator also chose to release an April Fool’s Day prank about aliens being real… which is what the mainstream media covered instead.

While this has to be one of the strongest, clearest Christian presentations delivered by a politician in recent memory, Babet is not the ideal messenger. He’s gotten himself in trouble through the years for his tweets, particularly two years back when he used the N-word to enthusiastically endorse an Andrew Tate post. Then, when he was called on that, he followed it up with this:

“In my house, we say . We are sick of you woke ass clowns. Cry more. Write an article. Tweet about me. No one cares what you think.”

Where Babet went wrong here is on the very point his 2026 speech corrects. You can't find the truth by bouncing off a lie; as Babet demonstrated, you won’t end up in the right place by simply doing the opposite of what the woke folk want you to do. That’s because, as Luther noted, there’s more than one way you can fall off a horse. To simply swing away from an error on one side is to put yourself in danger of falling for a completely opposite, every bit as horrible, error on the other side.

Instead, we need to do as the senator – at his best – encouraged: rather than reacting against evil, we need to actively look to the Lord and His Word to find out what’s true and good and right.

Top picture is a screenshot of the senator's speech, from his YouTube channel and is displayed under fair use.