Questions and answers
Hard Bible Numbers & Statistics
How many times does Jesus say Peter will deny him before the rooster crows twice, according to Mark 14?
- A2
- B3Correct
- C4
- D7
Answer: 3
Mark 14:30 · ESV
Mark alone specifies a rooster crowing twice, and his account tracks it precisely: a first crow after the initial denial, then the second after the third. The prediction comes right after Peter insists he would never fall away, and Mark notes that Peter said it all the more vehemently. The threefold denial is later answered by the threefold question at the sea of Tiberias.
Mark 14:30, 14:66-72; John 21:15-17
Why not this one. Two is the number in the verse, but it belongs to the rooster rather than to Peter. Mark's detail about the second crowing is what makes the two so easy to attach to the wrong subject.
Hard Doctrine — Baptist Faith & Message
BF&M2000 Article XVI (Peace and War) states that the true remedy for the war spirit is what?
- AThe gospel of our LordCorrect
- BInternational treaties and diplomacy enforced by civil law
- CChristian withdrawal from civic and political life
- DA permanent pacifist refusal of all military service
Answer: The gospel of our Lord
BF&M 2000, Article XVI · ESV
The article says it is the duty of Christians to seek peace with all men on principles of righteousness, and that the true remedy for the war spirit is the gospel of our Lord. Note the diagnosis behind the answer: the article treats war as a spirit, something in people, so the remedy it names works on people rather than on arrangements between them.
BF&M 2000, Article XVI.
Why not this one. The article does call Christians to do all in their power to put an end to war and to seek peace, so it is not indifferent to diplomacy. It simply does not locate the remedy there, because a treaty can restrain the war spirit without changing it.
Hard Doctrine — Christ
In Colossians 2:9, Paul writes that 'in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.' The Greek word translated 'fullness' (plērōma) directly refutes which Gnostic-era Christological error?
- AThe notion that Christ possessed only a partial or lesser divine emanationCorrect
- BThe teaching that Christ's humanity was absorbed into his deity at the resurrection
- CThe claim that Christ shared the divine essence only by adoption at his baptism
- DThe idea that Christ's two natures were indistinguishable after the incarnation
Answer: The notion that Christ possessed only a partial or lesser divine emanation
Colossians 2:9 · ESV
Paul writes this into a letter confronting teachers who were slotting Christ into a hierarchy of spiritual powers. Plērōma was their kind of word, used for the total realm of divine emanations from which lesser beings descend. Paul takes it and says the whole of it dwells in Christ, and dwells bodily, so there is no divine remainder above him and nothing to be sought elsewhere.
Colossians 2:8-10; Colossians 1:19
Why not this one. Adoptionism is a real error and Colossians certainly rules it out, so this is a fair inference. But the word fullness is aimed at the question of degree, whether Christ holds all of deity or only a portion of it, rather than at when he came to hold it.
Easy Doctrine — Christian Living
In Matthew's version of the Lord's Prayer, which petition comes first, immediately after the address to the Father in heaven?
- AHallowed be your nameCorrect
- BYour kingdom come
- CYour will be done
- DGive us this day our daily bread
Answer: Hallowed be your name
Matthew 6:9–13 · ESV
Jesus gives the prayer as a pattern, introducing it with an instruction to pray like this. Its order places God's name, kingdom and will before the petitions for bread, forgiveness and deliverance, so that the petitions about the one praying follow rather than lead.
Matthew 6:9–13, given immediately after the warning against many words in 6:7–8.
Why not this one. That is the second petition. It follows the hallowing of the name and is itself followed by the petition about God's will being done on earth as in heaven.
Hard Doctrine — Church & Ordinances
When Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:4–5 instructs the Corinthian church to “deliver this man to Satan,” he is exercising which ecclesiastical practice?
- AApostolic cursing with no hope of restoration
- BExorcism of a demonic presence
- CChurch discipline resulting in excommunicationCorrect
- DFormal anathema reserved for heresy only
Answer: Church discipline resulting in excommunication
1 Corinthians 5:4–5 · ESV
The Corinthian church was tolerating a man living with his father's wife and was proud rather than grieved about it. Paul tells them to assemble and put him out, using the language of handing him over to Satan for removal from the church into the world outside. The stated purpose is that his spirit be saved in the day of the Lord, and 2 Corinthians 2 shows a disciplined man received back.
1 Corinthians 5:1-5; 2 Corinthians 2:5-8.
Why not this one. The wording is severe enough to sound like a curse, so the instinct is understandable. But Paul names the goal in the same sentence, the man's salvation, which makes the act aim at recovery rather than at destruction.
Medium Doctrine — God & the Trinity
In John 8:58, Jesus said ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’ Which divine name does Jesus’ use of ‘I am’ most directly echo?
- AEl Elyon — God Most High, used by Melchizedek in Genesis 14
- BElohim — the generic Hebrew name used in the creation account
- CYHWH — the name God revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14Correct
- DAdonai — the name meaning Lord used throughout the Psalms
Answer: YHWH — the name God revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14
John 8:58 · ESV
The grammar carries the argument. Jesus does not say he was before Abraham, which would only make him older; he shifts to the present tense and claims a mode of existence Abraham never had. The crowd does not accuse him of exaggeration, they reach for stones, because they heard him take up the name from the burning bush. John returns to the phrase repeatedly, including the soldiers falling back in the garden.
John 8:58-59; Exodus 3:14; John 18:5-6
Why not this one. Adonai is the word most tied to calling Jesus Lord, so it feels connected to the claim being made. But Adonai is a title of authority, while the Greek here is the plain I am that renders the divine name of Exodus 3:14.
Easy Doctrine — Grace & Election
In Ezekiel 36:26, what does God promise to do about the heart of stone?
- ARemove it and give a heart of flesh, along with a new spirit withinCorrect
- BSoften it gradually as the people learn to obey the law
- CLeave it as it is and write the law on tablets instead
- DJudge it and then rebuild only the temple in Jerusalem
Answer: Remove it and give a heart of flesh, along with a new spirit within
Ezekiel 36:26 · ESV
God promises a heart transplant rather than a course of instruction. This new covenant promise stands behind the Reformed conviction that God changes the sinner's nature before the sinner can respond in faith.
Ezekiel 36:25–27, where God also promises to put his Spirit within them and to cause them to walk in his statutes and keep his rules.
Why not this one. The order runs the other way in the text. God gives the new heart and his Spirit first, and the obedience that follows is the result he himself causes.
Easy Doctrine — Last Things
The Apostles' Creed confesses that Christ will come again to judge whom?
- AThe living and the deadCorrect
- BThe nations only
- CThe church only
- DThe angels only
Answer: The living and the dead
2 Timothy 4:1 · ESV
The creed follows the apostolic formula: Christ judges the living and the dead. That phrase secures a universal judgment covering those still alive at his coming and those already in the grave, which requires a resurrection first.
2 Timothy 4:1, Acts 10:42 and 1 Peter 4:5, where the same pairing is used of Christ as appointed judge.
Why not this one. Believers do appear before the judgment seat of Christ, but the judgment is not confined to them. Restricting it to the church would empty the creed's phrase and contradict the general resurrection.
Easy Doctrine — Man & Sin
What did God see about the human heart in the days before the flood, according to Genesis 6:5?
- AEvery intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continuallyCorrect
- BThe heart of man was divided between good and evil
- CMan had forgotten the covenant made with Adam
- DMan had turned aside only in matters of worship
Answer: Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually
Genesis 6:5 · ESV
God's assessment before the flood reaches past outward acts to the intentions of the heart, and finds them wholly and continually evil. The verdict is on the inner spring of behavior, not merely on conduct.
Genesis 6:5 gives the verdict; Genesis 8:21 repeats it after the flood, showing the judgment did not cure the condition.
Why not this one. A divided heart would be a milder verdict than the text gives. Genesis 6:5 says only evil, and continually, which is why the flood follows.
Easy Doctrine — Salvation
According to Titus 3:5, God saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own what?
- AMercyCorrect
- BJustice
- CWisdom
- DForeknowledge
Answer: Mercy
Titus 3:5 · ESV
Paul rules out every work the sinner has done as a reason for his salvation and names God's mercy as the sole motive. The verse then describes how that mercy reaches him: the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Mercy arises in God himself; it is not drawn out of anything he found in us.
Titus 3:4-7, which moves from God's kindness to regeneration to justification by grace and the hope of eternal life.
Why not this one. Peter does tie election to God's foreknowledge, but Titus 3:5 names mercy as the reason God saved us, over against our works.
Easy Doctrine — The Holy Spirit
In Genesis 1:2, what is the Spirit of God described as doing?
- AHovering over the face of the watersCorrect
- BDividing the light from the darkness
- CResting from all his work on the seventh day
- DWalking in the garden in the cool of the day
Answer: Hovering over the face of the waters
Genesis 1:2 · ESV
The Spirit is present and active at creation itself, before any covenant or prophet. Scripture's first mention of him is a work of ordering and life-giving over the unformed deep, which fits the Nicene confession of him as the Lord and giver of life. His work therefore predates Israel, the prophets and the church.
Genesis 1:2, with Job 33:4 and Psalm 104:30 attributing the beginning and renewal of creaturely life to the Spirit.
Why not this one. That describes the LORD God in Genesis 3:8, after the fall, and is not said of the Spirit in the creation account.
Hard Doctrine — The Scriptures
Jesus declared in John 10:35 that 'Scripture cannot be' what — a statement often cited as His own affirmation of the Bible's inerrancy?
- AChanged
- BBrokenCorrect
- CDisputed
- DRevised
Answer: Broken
John 10:35 · ESV
The setting sharpens the claim. Jesus is at the Feast of Dedication, charged with blasphemy, and he answers by reaching for a single word in Psalm 82, a short and obscure psalm. He builds his defense on that one word and then adds the aside that Scripture cannot be broken. The verb means loosed or annulled, and he treats the smallest detail of an unremarkable text as unbreakable.
John 10:31-36; Psalm 82:6
Why not this one. Changed is a fair guess in English and states something Christians do believe about God's word. But the verb here is not about the text being altered by copyists. It is about the text being set aside or nullified as though it did not bind, and that is precisely what Jesus refuses to allow his accusers to do.