Before calling for the creation of a new catechism in the Palatinate, Elector Frederick III (1516–1576) commissioned a committee to do a general visitation of the Palatine churches.1 Frederick wanted to take the theological temperature of the region that he governed. He was doing the “State of Theology Survey” some four-hundred years before Ligonier Ministries had the idea. What he found concerned him. The church was plagued with superstitious and unsound doctrines. Fear that a demon was around every corner and under every stone motivated participation in extrabiblical religious rituals, and the thought of Christ’s return was terrifying even to believers.
How similar is the theological landscape of the churches in Mexicali and many other parts of Latin America to this day! While Spain was colonizing Latin America, it was also severely persecuting any effort to bring the Protestant Reformation to the Iberian Peninsula. The result was that a huge portion of the New World was left untouched by the effects of the Reformation.
While progress has been made in the last 150 years in Mexico through the missionary efforts of the Presbyterian Church of the United States,2 there is still much left to be done. In Mexicali, superstition related to keeping the devil at bay is rampant. The prosperity gospel that dominates the hearts and minds of many Roman Catholics and evangelicals alike is a pernicious false gospel. Likewise, fear of a secret rapture is also widespread in more conservative circles. In short, the same kind of fear and superstition that plagued Frederick’s Palatinate at the start of his time in office is still present in Mexicali in 2025.
In an effort to rectify this impoverished understanding of Christianity in the Palatinate, Frederick called upon the theological faculty at the University of Heidelberg to create a catechism as a fixed form and model for instruction. In his preface to the Heidelberg Catechism, Frederick said he desired that the catechism would combat the issue that the youth have “been perplexed with irrelevant and needless questions, and at times have been burdened with unsound doctrines.”3 The Heidelberg Catechism, which Frederick affectionately referred to as “my catechism,” serves as a wonderful antidote to superstition.
The beginning of our catechism reminds Christians that we belong to Jesus Christ who has freed us from the tyranny of the devil and watches over us in such a way that not a hair can fall from our heads without the will of our Father in heaven. Question and answer 52 reframes Christ’s return in terms of comfort, not fear, by pointing out that this very judge is the same one who has already offered himself to the severe judgment of God in our place. May these gospel truths resound once again for the comfort and assurance of God’s people; this time in Mexicali.
To that end, Christ Reformed Church (Anaheim, CA), where my wife and I have been members since 2019 and all three of our children have been baptized, has called me to be a church planter-pastor in Mexicali. Our family of five moved in October down to Mexicali, which sits right on the U.S.-Mexico border. It is the capital of Baja California and home to over a million people, who locally refer to themselves as Cachanillas. This desert city below sea level is the fourth hottest city in the Western Hemisphere (it reached 127 degrees this summer).
Our church plant will begin meeting, Lord willing, on Wednesday nights at my house to pray and open God’s Word together. We will begin with a study through Philippians, where Paul exhorts his readers, “Do not be anxious about anything (Phil 4:6)” and “rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4). Those exhortations are grounded in the good news of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. In the previous chapter, Paul rejoices in Christ because he will “be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil 3:9)
This is the wonderful gospel promise that is found in Philippians and summarized so well in the catechism that Frederick III commissioned. May our gracious Lord use this church-planting effort to spread his gospel to the people of Mexicali. Please join with us in praying that God would bless our efforts in inviting our neighbors to this Bible study and that his Holy Spirit would work in their hearts a love for his church and a desire to know his Word.
If you would like to know more about the church plant in Mexicali, follow this link.
Notes
- Lyle D. Bierma, An Introduction to the Heidelberg Catechism: Sources, History, and Theology (Baker Academic, 2005), 50.
- Roberto Arjona Todd, Historia de la Iglesia Presbiteriana en México, (Seminario Reformado, 2005), 13.
- George W. Richards, Heidelberg Catechism: Historical and Doctrinal Studies, The 1911 Swander Memorial Lectures, (Philadelphia: RCUS, 1913) 191.
©Jared Pine. All Rights Reserved.
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Jared Pine
Jared Pine, a native of southern California, graduated from Westminster Seminary California with an M.Div. in 2025. He now serves as a church planter of the URC in Mexicali under the oversight of Christ Reformed (Anaheim, CA). He is married to Miriam, and together they have three children: Caterina, Nole, and Mabel.
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