Church and Ordinances Bible Trivia

Easy Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

In Ephesians 4:11–12, Christ gives gifts to his church including pastors and teachers. For what purpose does He give these gifted leaders?

1. ATo rule over the congregation with absolute authority
2. BTo perform the sacraments on behalf of the laity
3. CTo equip the saints for the work of ministryCorrect
4. DTo manage the church’s financial resources

Answer: To equip the saints for the work of ministry

Ephesians 4:12 · ESV

Paul's sentence puts the ministry in the hands of the whole body. Leaders equip, the saints do the work, and the body is built up until it reaches maturity and the fullness of Christ. This is the biblical answer to a clergy that performs the church's work on everyone else's behalf, and verse 16 completes it with every joint contributing as the body grows.

Ephesians 4:11-16.

Why not this one. Traditions that sharply divide clergy from laity read the gifts of verse 11 this way, and pastors do lead in baptism and the Supper. But Paul assigns them a training role, and Baptists deny that any priestly class stands between believers and God.

Medium Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

In 1 Timothy 5:17, elders who rule well, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching, are worthy of what?

1. ADouble honorCorrect
2. BA double portion of the inheritance
3. CThe right hand of fellowship
4. DExemption from public rebuke

Answer: Double honor

1 Timothy 5:17 · ESV

Double honor covers both respect and material support, which is why Paul immediately cites the unmuzzled ox and the laborer's wages. Churches owe their preaching elders more than goodwill. Paul is not creating two ranks of elder but marking out those whose labor is preaching and teaching.

1 Timothy 5:17-18, quoting Deuteronomy 25:4 and the saying about the laborer's wages.

Why not this one. The very next verses require rebuke before all for elders who persist in sin. Honor and accountability run together in this passage rather than against each other.

Hard Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

In 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15, how is a brother who refuses to obey the apostolic instruction to be regarded?

1. ANot as an enemy, but warned as a brotherCorrect
2. BAs an enemy of the gospel to be publicly opposed
3. CAs an unbeliever with whom no contact of any kind is allowed
4. DAs a weaker brother whose conduct must be accommodated

Answer: Not as an enemy, but warned as a brother

2 Thessalonians 3:15 · ESV

Paul tells the church to mark the man out and withhold association, with shame and repentance as the goal, and then immediately guards the tone in which that is done. Discipline is administered by people who still want him back.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-15, concerning those walking in idleness; verse 6 directs the church to keep away from every such brother.

Why not this one. The weaker brother of Romans 14 has a tender conscience over matters that are indifferent. The man here is disobeying a clear apostolic command, which is why he is warned rather than accommodated.

Easy Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

What two elements did Jesus take and give to his disciples when he instituted the Lord's Supper?

1. ABread and the cupCorrect
2. BA lamb and bitter herbs
3. COil and salt
4. DHoney and unleavened cakes

Answer: Bread and the cup

Matthew 26:26-28 · ESV

Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and then took a cup and gave thanks, naming them his body and his blood of the covenant. Those two elements are what the churches have observed ever since, and he gave thanks over each of them.

Matthew 26:26-28 and 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 22:19-20 names the same two elements.

Why not this one. The lamb and bitter herbs belonged to the Passover meal being eaten that night, but Jesus did not take them as the elements of the new ordinance. He took bread and a cup, and no New Testament church is ever shown observing the Supper with a lamb.

Medium Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

In 2 Corinthians 2:6-8, what does Paul urge the church to do for the man who has been punished by the majority?

1. AForgive and comfort him, and reaffirm their love for himCorrect
2. BDeliver him again to Satan for the destruction of the flesh
3. CRequire a full year of probation before restoring him
4. DSend him to the apostles at Jerusalem for judgment

Answer: Forgive and comfort him, and reaffirm their love for him

2 Corinthians 2:6-8 · ESV

Discipline aims at restoration, not permanent exclusion. Paul says the punishment is enough, and warns that without forgiveness the man may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow and Satan will gain the advantage. Paul even makes his own forgiveness follow the church's, treating the congregation as the body that acted.

2 Corinthians 2:5-11.

Why not this one. Scripture sets no fixed term. The measure Paul gives is repentance, and once that is evident the church is to restore the man rather than impose an interval of its own devising.

Hard Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

The Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 departs from the Westminster Confession in its chapter on baptism. Whom does it name as the only proper subjects of the ordinance?

1. AThose who actually profess repentance toward God and faith in Jesus ChristCorrect
2. BBelievers together with the infant children of at least one believing parent
3. CAll who present themselves and submit to the church's instruction
4. DThose confirmed by the laying on of an elder's hands

Answer: Those who actually profess repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ

The 1689 follows Westminster closely on most doctrines and then parts company here, restricting baptism to those who personally profess faith and obedience to Christ. That single change is what makes it a Baptist confession, and it also drops Westminster's provision extending the sign to the infants of believing parents.

Second London Baptist Confession (1689), chapter 29; the same conviction is stated in BF&M 2000, Article VII.

Why not this one. That is the Westminster Confession's position at chapter 28, and it is exactly the clause the Baptist framers rewrote.

Easy Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

According to Baptist theology, which persons are the proper subjects of baptism?

1. AInfants of covenant families
2. BBelievers onlyCorrect
3. CAll who present themselves
4. DThose confirmed by elders

Answer: Believers only

BF&M 2000, Article VII · ESV

Every baptism in Acts follows a profession. The crowd at Pentecost hears and receives Peter's word first, the Ethiopian official asks for baptism only after Philip explains Isaiah to him, and the Philippian jailer and his household are baptized after the word is spoken to them. Baptism is a confession the candidate makes, so it belongs to those able to make it.

BF&M 2000, Article VII; Acts 2:41; 8:35-38; 16:32-33.

Why not this one. This is the strongest paedobaptist case, resting on circumcision as a covenant sign given to eight-day-old sons. Baptists answer that the new covenant community is defined by the new birth rather than by household descent, so its sign waits for faith.

Medium Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

Church discipline as described in Matthew 18 begins with which step?

1. AAnnouncing the sin to the congregation
2. BGoing to the sinning brother privatelyCorrect
3. CBringing two or three witnesses immediately
4. DRequesting the elders to remove him

Answer: Going to the sinning brother privately

Matthew 18:15 · ESV

Jesus keeps the circle as small as possible for as long as possible. The opening move is one person going to another alone, and if he listens there the matter ends with a brother regained and no one else ever knowing. Each later step widens the circle only because the previous one was refused.

Matthew 18:15; compare Galatians 6:1.

Why not this one. This is the actual second step, and the word immediately is what spoils it. Jesus draws the two or three witnesses from Deuteronomy 19:15, and they come in only after the private appeal has already failed.

Hard Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

Paedobaptists cite the household baptisms of Acts 16. What does Luke report about the Philippian jailer's household that Baptists take as decisive?

1. AThe whole household rejoiced that he had believed in GodCorrect
2. BHis children were reckoned within the covenant along with him
3. CHe was baptized before the word of the Lord was spoken to him
4. DThe missionaries baptized his household while he was absent

Answer: The whole household rejoiced that he had believed in God

Acts 16:34 · ESV

The narrative supplies what the bare phrase household baptism does not. Paul spoke the word to all who were in the house, and the household is described as rejoicing at belief, which is a description of believers being baptized. The word of the Lord was spoken to all in the house before anyone went down to the water.

Acts 16:32-34; the same pattern of hearing and believing before baptism runs through Acts.

Why not this one. Luke never mentions children in the jailer's house or applies covenant reckoning to them. The argument has to be imported into the passage rather than read from it.

Easy Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

The Greek word ekklesia, translated "church" in the New Testament, means what?

1. AAssemblyCorrect
2. BBuilding
3. CSacrifice
4. DKingdom

Answer: Assembly

Acts 19:39 · ESV

Ekklesia names a gathered assembly of people. The church in the New Testament is never a structure but a company of believers called out and gathered, which is why Baptists locate the church in the members rather than the property.

The same word is used of a civic assembly in Acts 19:39, and of Israel gathered at Sinai in Acts 7:38. Both senses describe people convened.

Why not this one. English usage drifted toward the meeting house, but Scripture calls the people the building, made of living stones, and never applies ekklesia to bricks.

Medium Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

Which sixteenth-century movement took its name from its practice of baptizing believers who had already been baptized as infants?

1. AThe AnabaptistsCorrect
2. BThe Arminians
3. CThe Albigensians
4. DThe Antinomians

Answer: The Anabaptists

Anabaptist means rebaptizer, a label given by opponents who regarded infant baptism as valid. Those who bore it denied they were baptizing twice, since they held the first washing was no baptism at all.

The movement's own summary is the Schleitheim Confession of 1527, whose first article restricts baptism to those who have learned repentance and amendment of life.

Why not this one. The Arminians were a seventeenth-century Dutch party disputing predestination and the perseverance of the saints. Their remonstrance was about the decree of election, not about the subjects of baptism.

Hard Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

Which statement does BF&M 2000, Article VI make about men and women in the church?

1. ABoth men and women are gifted for service in the church, while the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by ScriptureCorrect
2. BMen and women may hold every office of the church on equal terms
3. CWomen may serve only in ministries directed to women and children
4. DOnly ordained men may carry out any ministry within the church

Answer: Both men and women are gifted for service in the church, while the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture

BF&M 2000, Article VI · ESV

The article affirms two things at once and hedges neither. Gifting for service is genuinely given to men and women alike, and the pastoral office is nevertheless restricted to qualified men.

BF&M 2000, Article VI, resting on 1 Timothy 2:12, the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9, and Genesis 1:27 on the equal bearing of God's image.

Why not this one. The confession says no such thing. It affirms that women are gifted for service in the church without confining that service to one set of ministries, while reserving the pastoral office to men.