^[1]It turns 450 years old today.

Here are 5 reasons ^[2] to read the catechism this year.

Moody Publishers, publisher of Kevin DeYoung’s The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism ^[3], has made available Jerry Bridge’s foreword along with the introduction and first chapter by Kevin. You can download it here ^[4] for free.

If you need some motivation that this is worth your time, here is some encouragement from Sinclair Ferguson:

I cannot over exaggerate how good this book is. Here is a crash course in life-changing biblical teaching, a wake-up call to the slumbering, a blood transfusion for the spiritually anemic, a solid meal for the mature—and much more: conversational, cutting where needed, gospel-filled, and clear.

The Good News We Almost Forgot has it all: honesty, truth, grace, plain-speaking, encouragement, wisdom, and hope. It may not make you wish you were Dutch—but it should certainly make you feel that being a Christian is the greatest thing in the world, today or any day!