Questions and answers
Medium Bible Numbers & Statistics
How many qualities does Paul list as the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22–23?
- ANineCorrect
- BSeven
- CTwelve
- DThree
Answer: Nine
Galatians 5:22–23 · ESV
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control make nine. Paul calls them fruit in the singular, one harvest with nine aspects, and sets the whole against the works of the flesh he has just catalogued in the previous verses.
Galatians 5:22–23 gives the nine and adds that against such things there is no law; the contrasting list stands in verses 19–21.
Why not this one. Seven is a natural guess because it is the Bible's number of completeness, but counting Paul's actual list yields nine.
Medium Doctrine — Baptist Faith & Message
According to BF&M2000 Article II(C), what is the primary work of the Holy Spirit in relation to unbelievers?
- AConvicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgmentCorrect
- BGranting miraculous signs to authenticate every preacher
- CProviding general moral guidance to all people without conviction
- DInspiring only the canonical authors of Scripture
Answer: Convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment
BF&M 2000, Article II(C) · ESV
The threefold phrase comes from John 16:8, where Jesus says the Helper will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment. Naming this as the Spirit's work toward unbelievers matters for how Baptists have understood evangelism: persuasion and preaching are real means, but the conviction that precedes conversion is not something a preacher can manufacture.
BF&M 2000, Article II.C; John 16:8-11.
Why not this one. The Spirit did inspire the writers, and the article says so in the same paragraph. The word that fails here is only: the article goes on to list conviction, regeneration, indwelling, sealing and gifting as ongoing work.
Medium Doctrine — Christ
In John 16:7 Jesus tells the disciples it is to their advantage that he go away. What reason does he give?
- AIf he does not go away, the Helper will not come to themCorrect
- BIf he does not go away, they will not receive power to work miracles
- CIf he does not go away, the prophecies concerning Elijah cannot be fulfilled
- DIf he does not go away, the Father cannot be glorified in the Son
Answer: If he does not go away, the Helper will not come to them
John 16:7 · ESV
The ascension is not a loss the church endures but a gain it receives. Christ's departure in the flesh is the condition of the Spirit's coming, so the disciples exchange a Lord beside them for a Lord who indwells them by his Spirit everywhere at once. Pentecost is thus a consequence of the ascension.
John 16:7, in the upper room discourse; fulfilled in Acts 2:33, where the ascended Christ pours out the Spirit.
Why not this one. Jesus does speak of the Father being glorified in him, in John 14:13, but that is not the reason given for the advantage of his departure. Here the stated reason is the Helper's coming.
Easy Doctrine — Christian Living
In Galatians 5, Paul sets the fruit of the Spirit against which list of behaviors?
- AThe works of the fleshCorrect
- BThe works of darkness
- CThe works of the devil
- DThe works of the law
Answer: The works of the flesh
Galatians 5:19–23 · ESV
Paul names the works of the flesh in verses 19-21 and the fruit of the Spirit in verses 22-23. The two lists are the outcomes of the two ways of walking he described in verse 16, and the grammar differs: works in the plural, and fruit in the singular.
Galatians 5:19–23, following the contrast between flesh and Spirit set out in 5:16–18.
Why not this one. Paul does use that phrase in Galatians, but for law-keeping offered as the ground of acceptance, and he sets it against faith rather than against the Spirit's fruit.
Medium Doctrine — Church & Ordinances
In Acts 19, Paul finds disciples at Ephesus who had received only John's baptism. What happens next?
- AThey are baptized in the name of the Lord JesusCorrect
- BThey are told that John's baptism is sufficient
- CThey are circumcised and received into the synagogue
- DThey are sent to Jerusalem to be baptized by Peter
Answer: They are baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus
Acts 19:1-5 · ESV
John's baptism was a baptism of repentance pointing forward to the one coming after him. Once these men heard and believed that message fulfilled in Jesus, they were baptized again, this time into his name.
Acts 19:1-7, after which Paul laid hands on them and the Holy Spirit came upon them.
Why not this one. The narrative shows the opposite. Their earlier washing was not treated as Christian baptism, which is why Luke records a second one after they believed. His sequence of hearing, believing, and then baptism holds throughout Acts.
Medium Doctrine — God & the Trinity
Scripture says the Holy Spirit can be grieved, lied to, and insulted. What does that language establish about him?
- AThat he is a person, not an impersonal forceCorrect
- BThat he is lesser in being than the Father
- CThat he is a created being of the highest rank
- DThat he acts only through the offices of the church
Answer: That he is a person, not an impersonal force
Ephesians 4:30 · ESV
A force cannot be grieved or lied to. The verbs Scripture uses of the Spirit are personal ones, and alongside them he teaches, testifies, intercedes, forbids and distributes gifts as he wills. The Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, not the power or influence of the other two.
Ephesians 4:30; Acts 5:3; Hebrews 10:29; John 14:26; 1 Corinthians 12:11.
Why not this one. Personal language says nothing about rank, and the church has confessed the Spirit as worshiped and glorified together with the Father and the Son.
Easy Doctrine — Grace & Election
According to Philippians 2:13, who works in believers both to will and to work for his good pleasure?
- AGodCorrect
- BThe conscience
- CThe law of Moses
- DThe believer's own resolve
Answer: God
Philippians 2:13 · ESV
God works on the will itself, not merely on outward behavior. This is why Reformed theology insists that grace does not bypass the human will but renews it, so that the believer genuinely and freely wills what God wills.
Philippians 2:12–13, where the command to work out our salvation is grounded in the fact that God is at work in us.
Why not this one. Verse 12 does command real effort with fear and trembling, but verse 13 gives the reason that effort is possible at all: God produces both the willing and the working.
Hard Doctrine — Salvation
If regeneration precedes and produces faith, why does Reformed theology still insist that preaching is necessary?
- AThe Spirit ordinarily gives new birth through the word preached, which is his appointed meansCorrect
- BPreaching persuades the will to cooperate so that regeneration may then follow
- CPreaching serves only to build up those who are already born again
- DPreaching supplies the merit that regeneration afterward applies
Answer: The Spirit ordinarily gives new birth through the word preached, which is his appointed means
1 Peter 1:23 · ESV
God ordains ends and means together. Sovereignty in the new birth does not make preaching optional, because the same God who gives life gives it through the living and abiding word, which is why Paul asks how they will believe without a preacher. Sovereign grace establishes means rather than dispensing with them.
1 Peter 1:23 and James 1:18, born again through the word of truth; Romans 10:14-17.
Why not this one. This reverses the order and makes the new birth wait on a decision of the unregenerate will, which Scripture says is dead in trespasses and unable to submit to God.
Hard Doctrine — The Holy Spirit
Which theological term describes the Spirit's work of setting apart believers to God at the moment of conversion, sometimes distinguished from the Spirit's progressive ongoing work of moral transformation?
- ADefinitive sanctificationCorrect
- BProgressive sanctification
- CInitial justification
- DPositional adoption
Answer: Definitive sanctification
1 Corinthians 6:11 · ESV
Paul reminds the Corinthians that they were washed, sanctified and justified, all in the past tense and with sanctified sitting before justified. That order shows he can use the word for a completed act, a decisive transfer out of the old life into God's possession. It is why he can address a badly behaving church as saints, that is, holy ones, with chapters of correction still to write.
1 Corinthians 6:11, with the greeting in 1:2.
Why not this one. Adoption really is a once for all change of status granted at conversion, so the instinct is sound. But adoption concerns family, being made sons with a right to the inheritance, while sanctification concerns being set apart to God as holy.
Hard Miracles of the Bible
What happened to the seven sons of Sceva when they tried to invoke the name of Jesus over an evil spirit?
- AThe man overpowered them, and they fled wounded and nakedCorrect
- BThey were struck blind for a season
- CThey fell down dead before the crowd
- DThey were seized and imprisoned by the magistrates
Answer: The man overpowered them, and they fled wounded and naked
Acts 19:13-16 · ESV
Itinerant exorcists tried to use the name of Jesus as a formula, and the spirit answered that it knew Jesus and Paul but not them. The man leapt on them and overpowered them, and they fled from the house wounded and stripped, so that fear fell on Ephesus and the name was honored. Many who had practiced magic arts then brought their books together and burned them publicly.
Acts 19:13-17 records the attempt and its outcome.
Why not this one. Temporary blindness was the judgment on Elymas the magician before the proconsul on Cyprus, not on the sons of Sceva at Ephesus.
Hard New Testament — Acts of the Apostles
During Paul’s second missionary journey, he was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia and was then prevented from going into Bithynia. To which city did he next travel, where he received the Macedonian vision?
- APhilippi
- BThessalonica
- CTroasCorrect
- DCorinth
Answer: Troas
Acts 16:6–8 · ESV
Blocked from Asia and then from Bithynia, Paul's company went past Mysia and came down to Troas on the Aegean coast, where a Macedonian man appeared to Paul in the night asking for help. Immediately after that vision Luke's narrative slips into the first person plural, suggesting he joined the party at Troas. From there they sailed to Samothrace and Neapolis and on to Philippi, carrying the gospel into Europe.
Acts 16:6-12
Why not this one. Philippi is where they went after the vision rather than where they received it. It was the leading city of that district of Macedonia and the first place they preached on the European side of the crossing.
Hard New Testament — Paul’s Letters
List the pieces of the armor of God (Ephesians 6, ESV).
- ABelt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit.Correct
- BBelt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit, cloak of prayer.
- CBelt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, sandals of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit.
- DBelt of truth, breastplate of faith, shoes of the gospel of peace, shield of righteousness, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit.
Answer: Belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit.
Ephesians 6 · ESV
Six pieces, and only the last is an offensive weapon, which Paul identifies for the reader as the word of God. Prayer follows in verse 18, but he introduces it with a different construction rather than adding it to the equipment list, so the armor itself stops at six. The pieces are also assigned, not chosen: truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation.
Ephesians 6:14–17, with prayer added in 6:18.
Why not this one. Prayer really does come next in the passage, which makes a seventh piece feel right. Paul never gives it a garment, though, and there is no cloak anywhere in the armor; verse 18 shifts from what the soldier wears to how he stands.