Bible Trivia Questions about the Church

Easy Bible Numbers & Statistics

How many apostles were chosen by Jesus?

1. A7.
2. B10.
3. C12.Correct
4. D70.

Answer: 12.

Matthew 10:1–4 · ESV

The number is deliberate. Twelve matches the twelve tribes, and Jesus makes the link explicit when he tells the Twelve they will sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. That is also why the church in Acts moves to fill Judas's place before Pentecost rather than continuing with eleven; the number itself was carrying meaning about the renewed people of God.

Matthew 10:1-4; Matthew 19:28; Acts 1:15-26

Why not this one. Seventy points to a real sending in Luke 10, where Jesus appoints a larger group and sends them ahead of him two by two. They are a wider commission for a particular mission, never called the Twelve.

Easy Doctrine — Baptist Faith & Message

Which edition of the Baptist Faith and Message first stated that the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture?

1. AThe 1925 edition
2. BThe 1963 edition
3. CThe 1998 amendment
4. DThe 2000 editionCorrect

Answer: The 2000 edition

BF&M 2000, Article VI · ESV

The sentence was added to Article VI in 2000, paired with the affirmation that both men and women are gifted for service in the church. Neither earlier edition addressed the question. Article VI names the church's two scriptural offices in the same paragraph.

The article cites 1 Timothy 2:9-14 and 1 Timothy 3:1-15 for the qualifications and the restriction. The committee said it acted on biblical authority and on the near-unanimous practice of the churches.

Why not this one. The 1998 amendment added the article on the family and spoke to marriage and the home, not to who may hold the pastoral office.

Hard Doctrine — Christ

In Ephesians 4:8-11 Paul grounds Christ's gift of apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers in which event?

1. AHis ascension on high, where he led a host of captives and gave gifts to menCorrect
2. BHis baptism, where the Spirit descended and remained on him
3. CHis transfiguration, where his glory was shown to three disciples
4. DHis appearance to more than five hundred brothers at one time

Answer: His ascension on high, where he led a host of captives and gave gifts to men

Ephesians 4:8 · ESV

Paul reads Psalm 68 as a victor's procession: the conqueror ascends and distributes spoil. Applied to Christ, the church's ministers are the plunder of his triumph, handed out from the throne. Church office is therefore a function of the ascended Christ's rule, not merely a human arrangement.

Ephesians 4:8-11, quoting Psalm 68:18, with the descent and ascent explained in Ephesians 4:9-10.

Why not this one. That appearance is real, and Paul lists it in 1 Corinthians 15:6 as resurrection evidence, but it is not the event Ephesians 4 names as the source of the gifts.

Medium Doctrine — Christian Living

According to BF&M 2000 Article XVI, what does the confession name as the true remedy for the war spirit?

1. AThe gospel of our LordCorrect
2. BTreaties enforced by international law
3. CThe refusal of all military service
4. DThe spread of prosperity among nations

Answer: The gospel of our Lord

BF&M 2000, Article XVI · ESV

The diagnosis is in the phrase itself. The article treats war as a spirit, something in people rather than only an arrangement between states, and the remedy it names therefore works on people. It does not follow that diplomacy is worthless: the same article calls Christians to do all in their power to secure peace.

BF&M 2000, Article XVI.

Why not this one. Some Christian traditions do hold this, and hold it seriously. The article does not: it calls for seeking peace on principles of righteousness without requiring pacifism of every believer.

Easy Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

In Acts 9, who baptized Saul of Tarsus at Damascus?

1. AAnaniasCorrect
2. BBarnabas
3. CPeter
4. DSilas

Answer: Ananias

Acts 9:17-18 · ESV

The Lord sent Ananias, a disciple at Damascus, to lay hands on Saul. Scales seemed to fall away from his eyes, his sight returned, and he rose and was baptized. Ananias went reluctantly, having heard how much harm Saul had done to the saints, and then greeted him as a brother.

Acts 9:10-19; Paul recounts the same episode in Acts 22:12-16, where Ananias calls on him to rise and be baptized.

Why not this one. Barnabas is the one who later vouched for Saul before the apostles in Jerusalem, in Acts 9:27, but he had no part in the baptism at Damascus.

Hard Doctrine — Grace & Election

What does the 'corporate election' reading of Ephesians 1 hold?

1. AThat God chose the church as a body in Christ, and individuals are elect only by belonging to itCorrect
2. BThat God chose particular individuals in Christ before the foundation of the world
3. CThat God chose Israel only, so that the church is not properly called elect
4. DThat God's choice falls on each person at the moment of their conversion

Answer: That God chose the church as a body in Christ, and individuals are elect only by belonging to it

On this reading election is primarily of a group, and a person becomes one of the elect by joining that group through faith. It is a real alternative reading, offered chiefly by those who reject unconditional individual election.

Ephesians 1:4–5 is the disputed text, and the corporate reading appeals to Israel's election as a nation for its pattern.

Why not this one. This is the individual reading that the corporate view is set against, and it is what the BF&M affirms when it calls election the purpose by which God regenerates and justifies sinners.

Hard Doctrine — Salvation

What name is given to the teaching that the new birth is conveyed by the act of baptism itself?

1. ABaptismal regenerationCorrect
2. BSacerdotalism
3. CSacramental union
4. DDecisionism

Answer: Baptismal regeneration

Titus 3:5 · ESV

Baptists hold that baptism is an ordinance for those already born again, picturing a union with Christ's death and resurrection that the Spirit has already worked. Nothing in the water conveys life, and the thief on the cross was saved without it. The sign is not the thing it signifies.

Titus 3:5 and Acts 8:36-38, where baptism follows believing; BF&M 2000, Article VII.

Why not this one. Sacerdotalism is the broader claim that a priesthood mediates grace to the people; it is a related error but not the specific name for baptism effecting the new birth.

Easy Doctrine — The Holy Spirit

According to Acts 1:8, what would the disciples become when the Holy Spirit came upon them?

1. AHis witnesses, to the end of the earthCorrect
2. BRulers seated over the twelve tribes of Israel
3. CPriests serving in a rebuilt Jerusalem temple
4. DTeachers of the law in the synagogues of Judea

Answer: His witnesses, to the end of the earth

Acts 1:8 · ESV

The Spirit's coming is tied to mission. Power is promised not for private experience but so that the apostles will testify to Christ in widening circles, from Jerusalem outward to the ends of the earth. Acts then narrates exactly that expansion, city by city.

Acts 1:8 is Jesus' last recorded word before the ascension, and it supplies the outline of the book that follows, from Pentecost in Jerusalem to Paul preaching in Rome.

Why not this one. Jesus does promise the Twelve thrones in Matthew 19:28, but that is a future kingdom promise, not what he says the Spirit's coming will make them.

Hard Doctrine — The Scriptures

Which statement best expresses the Protestant understanding of how the biblical canon came about?

1. AThe church recognized the authority the books already possessed by inspirationCorrect
2. BCouncils conferred authority on writings that had none of their own
3. CThe canon was fixed by a vote of the bishops at Nicaea in 325
4. DEach local church chose its own books, so no common canon existed

Answer: The church recognized the authority the books already possessed by inspiration

A book is canonical because God breathed it out, not because the church later approved it. The church's role was that of a witness identifying what was already its Lord's voice, in the way sheep know the shepherd rather than appoint him.

2 Timothy 3:16 grounds authority in inspiration; John 10:27 pictures Christ's people recognizing his voice.

Why not this one. Nicaea dealt with the deity of Christ against Arius and took no action on the canon. The claim that it settled the biblical books is a modern legend with no support in the records.

Easy Miracles of the Bible

In Acts, whose shadow did people hope would fall on the sick as he passed by?

1. APeterCorrect
2. BPaul
3. CStephen
4. DBarnabas

Answer: Peter

Acts 5:15 · ESV

The sick were carried into the streets on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he came by, and crowds from the surrounding towns were healed. The power was Christ's, at work through the apostolic witness in Jerusalem. Luke sets the scene after the apostles had already been arrested once and released.

Acts 5:15-16 describes the beds in the streets and the healings.

Why not this one. Handkerchiefs and aprons carried from Paul's body brought healing at Ephesus, but the account of the shadow in the Jerusalem streets belongs to Peter.

Medium New Testament — Acts of the Apostles

What was the content of Peter’s vision at Joppa that God used to prepare him to go to Cornelius?

1. AA ladder reaching to heaven with angels ascending and descending upon it
2. BA great sheet descending with all kinds of animals, and a voice telling him to kill and eatCorrect
3. CA burning bush from which God spoke the name of a Roman soldier
4. DA dove resting on a Gentile man whom God declared to be clean

Answer: A great sheet descending with all kinds of animals, and a voice telling him to kill and eat

Acts 10:11–13 · ESV

Peter was hungry, praying on the roof at Simon the tanner's house, when he saw something like a great sheet let down by its four corners holding all kinds of animals, reptiles, and birds. The voice told him to kill and eat; he refused as one who had never eaten anything common or unclean, and was told three times not to call common what God had made clean. While he was still puzzling over it, Cornelius's men arrived at the gate.

Acts 10:9-23

Why not this one. That is Jacob's dream at Bethel in Genesis 28, and it does involve something let down from heaven, which makes it feel plausible. Peter's vision, though, concerned clean and unclean food, and its point was about people rather than a stairway.

Hard New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation

Which of the seven churches is warned that the devil is about to throw some of its members into prison, and that it will have tribulation for ten days?

1. ASmyrnaCorrect
2. BPhiladelphia
3. CEphesus
4. DSardis

Answer: Smyrna

Revelation 2:10 · ESV

Smyrna is a poor and slandered church about to face imprisonment, and Christ tells it to be faithful unto death and receive the crown of life. He introduces himself to them as the one who died and came to life, which is exactly the comfort a martyr church needs, and the ten days mark the trial as measured and limited.

Revelation 2:8–11.

Why not this one. Philadelphia is promised protection through the hour of trial coming on the whole world, a different promise. The specific ten days of tribulation are said to Smyrna.