Bible Trivia Questions on Man and Sin

Easy Doctrine — Man & Sin

What did God place at the east of the garden to guard the way to the tree of life?

1. ACherubim and a flaming swordCorrect
2. BSeraphim and a pillar of cloud
3. CA wall of thorns and briers
4. DA gate of bronze and iron

Answer: Cherubim and a flaming sword

Genesis 3:24 · ESV

After driving the man out, God stationed cherubim and a flaming sword turning every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Exile from God's presence is the immediate consequence of the fall, and the barrier is set by God rather than chosen by man.

Genesis 3:24 names the cherubim and the sword; cherubim later guard the mercy seat in Exodus 25:18–22.

Why not this one. Seraphim appear around God's throne in Isaiah 6, and the pillar of cloud leads Israel out of Egypt. Neither has any part in Genesis 3, where the guardians are named as cherubim.

Medium Doctrine — Man & Sin

What name is given to God's promise in Genesis 3:15 that the offspring of the woman would bruise the serpent's head?

1. AThe protoevangeliumCorrect
2. BThe Adamic covenant
3. CThe Noahic covenant
4. DThe Abrahamic covenant

Answer: The protoevangelium

Genesis 3:15 · ESV

The word means first gospel. In the middle of the curse on the serpent, God announces enmity between the serpent and the woman's offspring, and a wound to the serpent's head. The first word of hope after the fall comes from God, unasked.

Genesis 3:15, spoken to the serpent, and echoed in Romans 16:20 and in the conflict of Revelation 12.

Why not this one. That is the covenant of Genesis 9, made after the flood and sealed with the bow in the cloud. It concerns the preservation of the earth, not the crushing of the serpent, and it comes generations later.

Hard Doctrine — Man & Sin

What view of the origin of the soul holds that each individual soul is directly created by God at conception, as opposed to the view that souls are transmitted from parents to children?

1. ATraducianism
2. BMonism
3. CCreationism (of the soul)Correct
4. DEmergentism

Answer: Creationism (of the soul)

Genesis 2:7 · ESV

Creationism here has nothing to do with the origin of the universe; it concerns the origin of each individual soul. The view holds that God immediately creates every soul and joins it to the body being formed, the pattern Genesis 2:7 shows in Adam, whose body was shaped first and then given breath. Zechariah 12:1 speaks of God as the one who forms the spirit within man.

Genesis 2:7; Zechariah 12:1; Hebrews 12:9

Why not this one. The direct rival, which is precisely why it tempts here: the two views answer the same question with opposite mechanisms. Traducianism says the soul is passed down from parents along with the body. Both have been held by orthodox Christians, and neither is settled by an explicit text.

Easy Doctrine — Man & Sin

Who deceived Eve in the garden, according to her own answer to God in Genesis 3:13?

1. AThe serpentCorrect
2. BHer husband
3. CA voice from the tree
4. DAn angel of light

Answer: The serpent

Genesis 3:13 · ESV

Questioned by God, Eve says the serpent deceived her and she ate. The deception was real, but it did not excuse her: God pronounced sentence on her all the same, and Paul later calls her a transgressor.

Genesis 3:1–6 records the serpent's words and the eating, Genesis 3:13 Eve's answer to God, and Genesis 3:16 the sentence pronounced on her.

Why not this one. Adam ate after his wife and blamed her in Genesis 3:12, but Scripture nowhere says he deceived her. Paul says plainly in 1 Timothy 2:14 that Adam was not deceived.

Medium Doctrine — Man & Sin

What TULIP doctrine states that every faculty of fallen man — intellect, will, affections, and conscience — is corrupted by sin, though man is not as evil as he could be?

1. AAbsolute inability
2. BTotal depravityCorrect
3. CRadical corruption
4. DUtter sinfulness

Answer: Total depravity

Romans 3:10–18 · ESV

Total in this doctrine is a statement of extent, not of degree. It means no part of man escaped the corruption, mind and will and affections and conscience all included. It does not mean every person is as wicked as possible; common grace and civil restraint keep people from that. What it does mean is that no faculty is left clean enough to save him.

Romans 3:10–18; Genesis 6:5

Why not this one. A fair description and a phrase some Reformed teachers prefer, precisely because total is so often misheard as maximal. R. C. Sproul argued for it on those grounds. But it is a proposed replacement, not the letter of TULIP, and the T in the acronym still stands for total depravity.

Hard Doctrine — Man & Sin

Romans 3:18 closes Paul's catena of Old Testament quotations about universal sinfulness with what declaration about fallen humanity?

1. ATheir mouth is full of curses and bitterness
2. BTheir feet are swift to shed blood
3. CThere is no fear of God before their eyesCorrect
4. DNo one understands; no one seeks for God

Answer: There is no fear of God before their eyes

Romans 3:18 · ESV

Paul's catena runs from Romans 3:10 through 3:18, stitched from the Psalms and Isaiah, and it moves down the body as it goes: throat, tongue, lips, mouth, feet, and finally eyes. The last line, drawn from Psalm 36:1, names the root under everything listed above it. The problem is not chiefly bad speech or violent action but that God has been removed from view, and conduct follows sight.

Romans 3:18, quoting Psalm 36:1

Why not this one. It genuinely belongs to this catena, at Romans 3:15, drawn from Isaiah 59:7, which is why it feels like a plausible ending. But it comes earlier in the sequence and describes conduct. Paul saves the diagnosis of the heart's posture toward God for the close.

Easy Doctrine — Man & Sin

According to Genesis 1:27, in whose image was man created?

1. AIn the image of the angels
2. BIn the image of GodCorrect
3. CAfter the likeness of the animals
4. DAfter the pattern of creation

Answer: In the image of God

Genesis 1:27 · ESV

The verse says it three times in one breath: in God's image, in the image of God, male and female. Nothing else in the six days is described this way. The animals are made according to their kinds; man is made according to God's own likeness, and the image belongs equally to the man and the woman, and to every person of every race.

Genesis 1:27; BF&M 2000, Article III.

Why not this one. Tempting because angels are the other rational creatures in Scripture, and Psalm 8:5 does set man a little lower than the heavenly beings. But comparison is not derivation. No text makes an angel the pattern for man, and Genesis 1:26 puts that pattern in God's own mouth.

Medium Doctrine — Man & Sin

What doctrine holds that Adam acted as the representative head of all humanity so that his sin is legally counted as the sin of all his descendants?

1. ANatural headship
2. BSeminal headship
3. CFederal headshipCorrect
4. DCovenant of grace

Answer: Federal headship

Romans 5:12–19 · ESV

Federal comes from foedus, covenant. The doctrine says God dealt with Adam as the appointed covenant head of the race, so that his one act counted for all he represented. Romans 5 depends on the parallel: Adam's disobedience brought condemnation to those in him, and Christ's obedience brings justification to those in him. Undo the first headship and you undo the second.

Romans 5:12–19; 1 Corinthians 15:22

Why not this one. The genuine alternative, also called natural or realist headship, and tempting because it explains the same data. It says we were physically present in Adam, in his loins as Hebrews 7:9–10 says of Levi in Abraham. But that grounds the connection in biology rather than the legal appointment Romans 5 stresses.

Hard Doctrine — Man & Sin

On what point about concupiscence remaining in the baptized do Reformed theologians differ from the Council of Trent?

1. AThe Reformed hold that it is truly and properly sin; Trent denied that it is properly sinCorrect
2. BThe Reformed deny that any such disordered desire remains in the regenerate at all
3. CThe Reformed hold that it is a bodily appetite rather than a disorder of the will
4. DThe Reformed hold that it is removed at baptism and returns only through mortal sin

Answer: The Reformed hold that it is truly and properly sin; Trent denied that it is properly sin

Trent granted that concupiscence remains after baptism but called it only an inclination coming from sin, not sin itself. The Reformed answer that disordered desire is already a violation of the law that forbids coveting, which is why believers must repent of what they want and not only of what they do.

Romans 7:7–8 treats coveting itself as sin, and James 1:14–15 traces sin to a person's own desire.

Why not this one. The Reformed insist the opposite: it remains, and remains sinful, throughout the Christian life. Denying that it remains is a perfectionism the confessions reject.

Easy Doctrine — Man & Sin

According to Genesis 2:18, what did God say was not good?

1. AThat the man should be aloneCorrect
2. BThat the man should eat of every tree
3. CThat the man should name the animals
4. DThat the man should work the ground

Answer: That the man should be alone

Genesis 2:18 · ESV

In a creation repeatedly called good, God pronounces one thing not good: the man's solitude. His remedy is to make a helper fit for him, and the woman is that provision. The word helper is used of God himself elsewhere in Scripture and carries no suggestion of a lesser being.

Genesis 2:18 states the lack and God's purpose to supply it; Genesis 2:22 records the making of the woman and Genesis 2:23 the man's glad recognition of her.

Why not this one. Work is given to the man before the fall in Genesis 2:15 as a good task, not a defect. Only the toil and thorns of Genesis 3:17–19 are a consequence of sin.

Medium Doctrine — Man & Sin

What is the distinction between “original sin” and “actual sin” in Reformed anthropology?

1. AOriginal sin affects only the body; actual sin affects only the soul
2. BOriginal sin is the inherited guilt and corruption from Adam; actual sin refers to specific sinful thoughts, words, and deeds committed by individualsCorrect
3. COriginal sin is the first sin ever committed; actual sin is any sin that causes physical harm
4. DOriginal sin requires baptism to remove; actual sin requires personal confession only

Answer: Original sin is the inherited guilt and corruption from Adam; actual sin refers to specific sinful thoughts, words, and deeds committed by individuals

Romans 5:12; James 1:14–15 · ESV

The distinction is between condition and conduct. Original sin is what we are by descent from Adam, the imputed guilt of his transgression together with the corrupt nature that comes with it. Actual sin is what we then do, the particular thoughts, words, and deeds that flow out of that nature. The first explains why children need no instruction in sinning.

Romans 5:12; James 1:14–15; Psalm 51:5

Why not this one. This is the sacramental framing, and it tempts because it does describe a real historic position. But baptism is a believer's obedience picturing a cleansing already accomplished, not the instrument that removes guilt. Christ's blood answers original and actual sin alike.

Hard Doctrine — Man & Sin

Which view of the image of God locates it chiefly in man's exercise of dominion over the creatures as God's royal representative?

1. AThe functional viewCorrect
2. BThe substantive view
3. CThe relational view
4. DThe federal view

Answer: The functional view

Genesis 1:26–28 · ESV

The functional view reads the image as a task: the man and the woman are placed over the creation to rule it on God's behalf. It has strong support in the immediate context of Genesis 1, where image and dominion are stated in one breath, though it is usually held alongside, not instead of, the other emphases.

Genesis 1:26–28 joins the image to dominion over fish, birds and every creeping thing; Psalm 8:6 restates it.

Why not this one. The substantive view locates the image in capacities man possesses, such as reason, will and moral conscience. That is a claim about what man is, not about what he is commissioned to do.