Questions and answers
Easy Doctrine — Christ
In John 1:29, John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the 'Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.' What does this title highlight about Jesus?
- AHis atoning sacrifice for sinCorrect
- BHis royal lineage from David
- CHis role as teacher and prophet
- DHis eternal preexistence as the Word
Answer: His atoning sacrifice for sin
John 1:29 · ESV
John the Baptist says this as Jesus is walking toward him, and every word of it is sacrificial. Lamb recalls the Passover lamb whose blood turned death away from the house, and the daily offerings of the temple; taking away sin is the language of a sacrifice that actually removes guilt rather than covering it for another year. This is the announcement that the substitute has arrived.
John 1:29-36; Exodus 12; Isaiah 53:7
Why not this one. John does confess Christ's preexistence in the very next breath, saying that Jesus ranks before him because he was before him, so this is genuinely in the passage. But it is the point of verse 30, not of the lamb image, which is about sacrifice.
Medium Doctrine — Christ
In Revelation 5:6, John sees a vision of Christ in heaven as a 'Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and seven eyes.' What do the seven eyes represent according to that verse?
- AThe seven spirits of God sent out into all the earthCorrect
- BThe seven churches of Asia Minor under his oversight
- CThe seven angels who stand before the throne of God
- DThe fullness of Christ's divine knowledge and omniscience
Answer: The seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth
Revelation 5:6 · ESV
John hears about a conquering lion and turns to see a slaughtered lamb, standing. The horns are the standard image of power and the seven of each signals fullness, and the vision itself supplies the reading of the eyes, identifying them as the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth. The picture leans on Zechariah 4:10, where the eyes of the Lord range through the whole earth.
Revelation 5:5-6; Zechariah 4:10
Why not this one. Eyes naturally suggest seeing, and Christ is in fact omniscient, so this reads as the obvious inference. The verse does not leave it to inference, and its own explanation ties the eyes to the Spirit sent out into the earth rather than to knowledge as an attribute.
Hard Doctrine — Christ
The doctrine that Christ has two distinct wills — a divine will and a human will — operating in harmony was affirmed against what seventh-century heresy?
- AMonothelitismCorrect
- BMonophysitism
- CNestorianism
- DApollinarianism
Answer: Monothelitism
Third Council of Constantinople (AD 681) · ESV
Monothelitism was offered as a peace proposal after monophysitism failed, granting two natures but only one will. Constantinople in 681 rejected it on the ground that willing belongs to a nature, so a complete human nature includes a human will. Gethsemane is the plain evidence: Jesus distinguishes his own will from the Father's and submits it, which requires two wills in harmony, not one.
Third Council of Constantinople (681); Luke 22:42
Why not this one. These are relatives, and that is what makes the confusion natural. Monophysitism merged the two natures into one; monothelitism conceded the two natures under pressure from Chalcedon but kept the same instinct by leaving Christ with only one will.
Easy Doctrine — Christ
According to the Gospel of Matthew, how was Jesus conceived?
- ABy the Holy Spirit in the virgin MaryCorrect
- BBy the power of God the Father alone
- CThrough a miraculous angelic overshadowing of Joseph
- DThrough the eternal pre-existence of his human nature
Answer: By the Holy Spirit in the virgin Mary
Matthew 1:20 · ESV
Matthew tells this from Joseph's side. He had resolved to divorce Mary quietly when an angel appeared to him in a dream and told him that what was conceived in her was from the Holy Spirit. The virgin conception is reported as an event, not a theological figure, and it secures both that Jesus is truly born of a human mother and that his existence does not begin with an ordinary human father.
Matthew 1:18-25
Why not this one. This is close enough to sound reverent, and every work of God is the work of the whole Trinity. But Matthew and Luke both name the Holy Spirit specifically as the agent, and blurring that loses the particular way Scripture speaks about the incarnation.
Medium Doctrine — Christ
Which heresy held that Christ's two natures were so separate they constituted two persons — a divine person and a human person?
- ANestorianismCorrect
- BApollinarianism
- CDocetism
- DArianism
Answer: Nestorianism
BF&M 2000, Article II.B · ESV
Nestorianism so guarded the distinction between the natures that the unity of the person was lost, leaving something like two subjects side by side. The pastoral test was the word Theotokos, God-bearer, which Nestorius resisted because he thought Mary bore only the man. Orthodoxy answered that the one born of her is the one person of the Son, so what is said of either nature is said of him.
BF&M 2000, Article II.B; Council of Ephesus (431)
Why not this one. Both are ancient errors about the natures, and both were condemned, so they are easy to swap. Apollinarianism erred in the opposite direction, collapsing too much into one by replacing Christ's human mind with the Logos rather than splitting him into two persons.
Hard Doctrine — Christ
Which Latin phrase states the doctrine of Christ's impeccability, that he was not able to sin?
- ANon posse peccareCorrect
- BPosse non peccare
- CPosse peccare
- DNon posse non peccare
Answer: Non posse peccare
Hebrews 4:15 · ESV
Augustine's four phrases map the states of human nature: able to sin and able not to sin before the fall, not able not to sin after it, and not able to sin in glory. Impeccability applies the last to Christ, since the one tempted is a divine person, so the temptations were genuine but could not succeed.
Hebrews 4:15 for the reality of the temptations without sin, and Hebrews 7:26 for his separation from sinners.
Why not this one. This means able not to sin, the condition of Adam before the fall, who could stand or fall. It falls short of impeccability, because it leaves failure a live possibility.
Easy Doctrine — Christ
In Acts 3:22 Peter cites Moses' promise of a prophet like himself whom God would raise up. To whom does Peter apply the promise?
- AJesusCorrect
- BJohn the Baptist
- CElijah
- DJoshua
Answer: Jesus
Acts 3:22 · ESV
Peter reads Deuteronomy 18:15 as pointing past every later prophet to Christ, and warns that refusing to listen to this prophet cuts a person off from the people. This is the prophetic office of Christ in the plainest terms: he does not merely carry God's word, he is God's final word to his people.
Acts 3:22-23, quoting Deuteronomy 18:15-19 in Peter's sermon at Solomon's portico.
Why not this one. John was a prophet and more than a prophet, but he identified himself as a voice preparing the way and explicitly denied being the Prophet when questioned in John 1:21-23.
Medium Doctrine — Christ
Jesus most frequently called himself by which title in the Gospels, drawing on Daniel 7:13–14?
- ASon of ManCorrect
- BSon of David
- CServant of God
- DSon of Abraham
Answer: Son of Man
Daniel 7:13–14; Mark 10:45 · ESV
The phrase sounds modest, and that is part of its usefulness, but Daniel's vision gives it enormous weight. One like a son of man comes with the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of Days and receives dominion and a kingdom that will never pass away. Jesus draws on it constantly, joining it to service and suffering when he says the Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many.
Daniel 7:13-14; Mark 10:45; Mark 14:62
Why not this one. Son of David is a true title and is used of Jesus often, by blind Bartimaeus and by the crowds at the triumphal entry. But it is what others called him rather than his own habitual self-designation, and he sometimes pressed on it to show it was not sufficient.
Hard Doctrine — Christ
Four titles of Jesus, four different claims. Which title applies to him the Greek word the Septuagint uses to translate the divine name?
- ALordCorrect
- BChrist
- CSon of Man
- DRabbi
Answer: Lord
Romans 10:9-13 · ESV
Kyrios is the word the Greek Old Testament puts where the Hebrew has the covenant name, so calling Jesus Lord in a Jewish setting is more than courtesy. Paul makes the point unmistakable by moving from confessing Jesus as Lord to a promise about calling on the name of the LORD in Joel.
Romans 10:9-13, which applies Joel 2:32 to Christ; compare 1 Corinthians 8:6.
Why not this one. Christ renders Messiah, the anointed one, and names an office he fills as prophet, priest and king. It identifies his commission rather than transferring the divine name to him.
Easy Doctrine — Christ
According to Hebrews 4:15, Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet was without what?
- ASinCorrect
- BSuffering
- CDoubt
- DWeakness
Answer: Sin
Hebrews 4:15 · ESV
The argument of Hebrews depends on both halves of this verse. Our high priest is not remote from us, because he has been tested in every respect as we are, and he is able to save us, because he came through that testing without sin. His sinlessness is not the sinlessness of someone who never felt the pull; it is the sinlessness of someone who felt it fully and never gave way.
Hebrews 4:14-16
Why not this one. Weakness is the tempting answer because the verse is about weakness, but it says the opposite of what this option assumes. Christ sympathizes with our weaknesses precisely because he shared them, taking a real human nature with real hunger, tiredness, and grief.
Medium Doctrine — Christ
Isaiah 7:14 prophesies that a virgin will bear a son whose name will be called Immanuel. Matthew 1:23 translates Immanuel to mean what?
- AGod with usCorrect
- BGod saves us
- CGod redeems us
- DGod above us
Answer: God with us
Matthew 1:23 · ESV
Matthew supplies the translation himself, which is unusual and deliberate. He has just recorded the angel telling Joseph to name the child Jesus, and now he cites Isaiah's sign of the virgin and the child called Immanuel. The two names give the two sides of the same event: God has come to be with his people, and he has come in order to save them from their sins.
Matthew 1:21-23; Isaiah 7:14
Why not this one. This is the right meaning attached to the wrong name. It is close to what the name Jesus means, the Lord saves, and Matthew explains that one only two verses earlier, so the two explanations sit almost side by side and are easy to trade.
Hard Doctrine — Christ
Romans 1:4 says Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power by his resurrection. Why does this not mean he became the Son at that point?
- AThe resurrection publicly installed as reigning King the one who was already the eternal SonCorrect
- BHe had already received divine sonship at his baptism instead
- CSon of God here means only that he was a righteous man vindicated by God
- DThe resurrection conferred on him a divine nature he did not previously possess
Answer: The resurrection publicly installed as reigning King the one who was already the eternal Son
Romans 1:3-4 · ESV
Paul says the gospel concerns God's Son, and only then describes what happened to that Son, so sonship precedes the resurrection in the sentence itself. What the resurrection adds is not the status of Son but its public display in power, the enthronement of the Son who took David's flesh.
Romans 1:3-4, with the pre-existing Son sent in Romans 8:3 and Galatians 4:4.
Why not this one. This trades one adoptionist moment for another. The voice at the Jordan identifies a Son already there; John 1:1-2 places the Word with God before anything was made.