Christian Living Bible Trivia Questions

Easy Doctrine — Christian Living

BF&M 2000 Article XVII calls which arrangement the Christian ideal?

1. AA free church in a free stateCorrect
2. BA national church under a Christian magistrate
3. CA church withdrawn entirely from public life
4. DA state guided in all things by the church

Answer: A free church in a free state

BF&M 2000, Article XVII · ESV

The phrase is deliberately symmetrical. The church is free of the state's control, and the state is free of the church's, and neither owes the other its allegiance. It is not a claim that faith should be private: the same confession sends Christians into every part of common life. It is a claim about who may compel worship, and the answer is nobody.

BF&M 2000, Article XVII.

Why not this one. This is the arrangement most of Christendom had, and the one Baptists in England and colonial America were dissenting from when they argued for liberty. The article rejects it whoever is at the head of it.

Medium Doctrine — Christian Living

Paul opens the question of food offered to idols in 1 Corinthians 8 with a contrast between knowledge and love. What does he say each of them does?

1. AKnowledge puffs up, but love builds upCorrect
2. BKnowledge frees, but love binds
3. CKnowledge divides, but love unites
4. DKnowledge is partial, but love never ends

Answer: Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up

1 Corinthians 8:1 · ESV

Paul grants the Corinthians the knowledge they claim and then measures it by its effect on other people. The whole argument of the chapter turns on that contrast: being right about idols does not by itself settle how the strong should act toward a brother who does not share it.

1 Corinthians 8:1, introducing the case Paul decides in 8:9–13 about the stumbling block.

Why not this one. That echoes 1 Corinthians 13:8–10, where Paul is arguing that knowledge will pass away. It is a different point in a different chapter.

Hard Doctrine — Christian Living

Baptists hold that the ordinances do not convey grace by the mere performance of the rite. Which Latin phrase names the view being denied?

1. AEx opere operatoCorrect
2. BEx opere operantis
3. CLex orandi, lex credendi
4. DExtra ecclesiam nulla salus

Answer: Ex opere operato

BF&M 2000, Article VII · ESV

The phrase means by the work worked: the rite is held to convey grace by being duly performed, apart from the faith of the one receiving it. Baptists locate the benefit of baptism and the Supper in what they signify and in the faith they are received with instead.

BF&M 2000, Article VII, which describes baptism and the Lord's Supper as symbolic acts of obedience.

Why not this one. That phrase means by the work of the one working, placing efficacy in the disposition of the minister or recipient. It is the contrasting formula, not the one denied here.

Easy Doctrine — Christian Living

What term describes the ongoing work of God’s Spirit conforming the believer more and more to the image of Christ after justification?

1. AJustification
2. BSanctificationCorrect
3. CGlorification
4. DRegeneration

Answer: Sanctification

1 Thessalonians 4:3 · ESV

Scripture uses different words for different moments in salvation. Justification is a verdict declared once and never repeated, regeneration is the new birth and a single act of the Spirit, and glorification is the finished work at the resurrection. Sanctification is the one described as ongoing, a setting apart that begins in regeneration and continues as growth in grace across a whole life.

1 Thessalonians 4:3; BF&M 2000, Article IV

Why not this one. Tempting because glorification really does end with the believer fully conformed to Christ. But Paul places it at the last link of the chain in Romans 8:30, after calling and justifying, not as the present daily work of the Spirit.

Medium Doctrine — Christian Living

In Colossians 3:23–24, Paul tells bondservants to work heartily. For whom does he say the work is done, and what does he say they will receive?

1. AFor the Lord, and they will receive the inheritance as their rewardCorrect
2. BFor their masters, and they will receive their wages in due season
3. CFor the church, and they will receive the praise of the brothers
4. DFor their conscience, and they will receive a clear standing before men

Answer: For the Lord, and they will receive the inheritance as their reward

Colossians 3:23–24 · ESV

Paul is addressing slaves doing the least regarded labour in the household, and he tells them that the real recipient of that labour is Christ, whom they serve. The verse became a standard text in the Reformation account of ordinary work as a calling from God rather than a lesser sphere of life.

Colossians 3:23–24, in the household instructions of 3:18–4:1; compare 1 Corinthians 7:17.

Why not this one. Paul says the work is done for the Lord and not for men, and the reward he names is an inheritance rather than wages.

Hard Doctrine — Christian Living

In Hebrews 12:14, believers are urged to ‘strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.’ In Reformed theology, this verse teaches that holiness is evidence of what?

1. AThe ability to earn eternal life through effort
2. BGenuine saving faith (evidence of election and regeneration)Correct
3. CSinless perfection as a condition of final salvation
4. DA second blessing distinct from initial conversion

Answer: Genuine saving faith (evidence of election and regeneration)

Hebrews 12:14 · ESV

The Reformed reading holds two things together here. Holiness is genuinely necessary, since the verse says no one will see the Lord without it, and it is not the ground of acceptance, since that ground is the righteousness of Christ received by faith. Both stand because sanctification is the certain fruit of a real work of grace, so its presence testifies that faith is genuine and its absence testifies that it is not.

Hebrews 12:14; Ephesians 2:8-10; 1 John 3:9-10

Why not this one. This is where the verse leads if necessity is confused with merit, and it is the most common misstep. But Hebrews 10:14 has already said Christ perfected for all time those who are being sanctified, which places the striving after the accomplished work rather than before it.

Easy Doctrine — Christian Living

In Galatians 5:22–23, which quality stands last in Paul's list of the fruit of the Spirit?

1. ASelf-controlCorrect
2. BLove
3. CKindness
4. DJoy

Answer: Self-control

Galatians 5:22–23 · ESV

Paul's list runs love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Self-control closes it, and the clause about no law standing against such things follows immediately. The nine are called fruit in the singular, one yield of one Spirit rather than nine separate achievements.

Galatians 5:22–23, set against the works of the flesh named in 5:19–21.

Why not this one. Love opens the list rather than closing it, and Paul has already made love the summing up of the whole law nine verses earlier in 5:14.

Medium Doctrine — Christian Living

BF&M 2000 Article XI on Evangelism and Missions states that it is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ to do what?

1. ASupport only professional missionaries
2. BEndeavor to make disciples of all nationsCorrect
3. CWitness only within one’s own culture
4. DWait for a special calling before sharing the gospel

Answer: Endeavor to make disciples of all nations

BF&M 2000, Article XI · ESV

Article XI places the obligation on every follower of Christ and every church, not on a specialized class within them. It ties the duty to the new birth itself, saying that the birth of a person's spirit by God's Spirit means the birth of love for others, so missionary effort rests on a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life as well as on Christ's express command.

BF&M 2000, Article XI; Matthew 28:19-20

Why not this one. Close enough to be tempting, since the article does commend the sending and supporting of missionaries. But it names the duty and privilege as belonging to every follower of Christ, and grounds that in the new birth rather than in a special office.

Hard Doctrine — Christian Living

What did the Reformers mean by recovering the idea of vocation?

1. AThat ordinary work is itself a calling from God, not a lesser state than church officeCorrect
2. BThat every believer should expect a specific inward call to a particular trade
3. CThat the church should train believers for skilled employment
4. DThat work is a consequence of the fall and is endured rather than offered

Answer: That ordinary work is itself a calling from God, not a lesser state than church office

Medieval usage had reserved the word for those who entered religious orders, which left the farmer and the magistrate in a second tier. The Reformers applied it to the plough and the bench, arguing that the shoemaker serves God in making a good shoe. Genesis puts work before the fall, so the curse fell on its difficulty rather than on the thing itself.

Genesis 2:15; Colossians 3:23-24.

Why not this one. The thorns and the sweat are a consequence of the fall, and Genesis 3 says so. But the man is put in the garden to work it in chapter 2, before any of that, which is the distinction this view misses.

Easy Doctrine — Christian Living

How many commandments make up the moral law that God gave to Israel at Sinai and that Reformed theology regards as binding on all people?

1. ASeven
2. BTenCorrect
3. CTwelve
4. DSix hundred thirteen

Answer: Ten

Exodus 20:1–17 · ESV

Deuteronomy 4:13 and Exodus 34:28 call them the ten words, which is where the term Decalogue comes from, and Exodus 20 sets them out before the case laws that follow. Reformed theology divides the Mosaic law into moral, ceremonial and civil, holding that the ceremonial law was fulfilled in Christ and the civil law expired with the nation of Israel, while the moral law summarized in these ten remains binding on everyone.

Exodus 20:1-17; Deuteronomy 4:13

Why not this one. A real number, the rabbinic count of the commands in the Torah, which is why it feels authoritative. But that total covers the whole Mosaic corpus including sacrifice and ritual, not the moral summary written on the two tablets.

Medium Doctrine — Christian Living

According to 1 Corinthians 6:19–20, the believer’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit; therefore, believers are to glorify God in their body. On what basis does Paul ground this obligation?

1. AThey earned their own righteousness
2. BThey were born with a pure nature
3. CThey were bought with a priceCorrect
4. DThey received a special sanctifying gift

Answer: They were bought with a price

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 · ESV

Paul's argument in this passage runs on ownership. The Corinthian slogan was that all things are lawful; he answers that the body belongs to the Lord, that the Spirit given by God dwells in it as in a temple, and that a believer is not his own because a price was paid to purchase him. The verb carries the sense of the slave market, and the price named elsewhere is the blood of Christ.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 1 Peter 1:18-19

Why not this one. Close, because the passage really does say the Holy Spirit is in the believer and is from God. But the indwelling is what makes the body a temple, while the reason Paul gives for the obligation that follows is the purchase.

Hard Doctrine — Christian Living

The 1689 London Baptist Confession says the grace of faith is ordinarily wrought by the ministry of the Word. Alongside the Word, which means does it name as increasing and strengthening faith?

1. AThe administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and prayerCorrect
2. BThe reading of the Fathers and the decrees of councils
3. CPrivate confession to a minister and works of penance
4. DVows of abstinence and the veneration of relics

Answer: The administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and prayer

1689 London Baptist Confession, 14.1 · ESV

Baptists deny that the ordinances confer grace by the act performed, yet the confession still counts them, with the Word and prayer, among the means God appointed by which faith already given is increased and strengthened. In that sense the ordinances are both symbols of obedience and means of grace at the same time.

1689 London Baptist Confession, 14.1, on how the grace of faith is wrought and increased.

Why not this one. Rome numbers penance among its sacraments. No Baptist confession lists it, and 14.1 names no such means.