Reformed Theology Bible Trivia Questions

Easy Doctrine — Baptist Faith & Message

How many articles does the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 contain?

1. A12
2. B18Correct
3. C24
4. D30

Answer: 18

BF&M 2000 · ESV

The 2000 edition has eighteen articles, running from The Scriptures through The Family. It is a short confession by historic standards, closer to a summary than to a systematic theology.

Each article is followed by a list of supporting texts rather than by argument, on the principle stated in 2 Timothy 3:16 that Scripture itself is what teaches and corrects. Article I is followed by seventeen more, ending with The Family.

Why not this one. No edition has had twenty-four articles. The 1925 statement had twenty-five and the 1963 revision had seventeen.

Hard Doctrine — Christ

Chalcedon guards the two natures with four adverbs that fall into two pairs. Which error does the pair without division, without separation exclude?

1. AThe splitting of Christ into two subjects, so that a human person is merely joined to the divine SonCorrect
2. BThe blending of the two natures into a single new nature
3. CThe replacement of Christ's human mind by the divine Word
4. DThe reduction of the Son to the highest of God's creatures

Answer: The splitting of Christ into two subjects, so that a human person is merely joined to the divine Son

The Definition of Chalcedon (AD 451) · ESV

The four adverbs work in pairs against opposite errors. Without confusion and without change guard the distinction of the natures; without division and without separation guard the unity of the person. The second pair says the natures never come apart into two who's, so it is one Christ who acts and suffers.

The Definition of Chalcedon (AD 451), which follows Ephesus (431) and precedes Constantinople II (553).

Why not this one. That is the Eutychian error, and Chalcedon excludes it with the other pair, without confusion and without change. It is a real error, but not the one the division and separation clause addresses.

Hard Doctrine — Christian Living

What did the Reformers mean by describing the Christian as simultaneously righteous and a sinner?

1. AThat the believer is counted righteous in Christ while sin remains in himCorrect
2. BThat righteousness and sin alternate in a believer's life
3. CThat a believer's standing is uncertain until the judgment
4. DThat justification is gradual and never complete in this life

Answer: That the believer is counted righteous in Christ while sin remains in him

The phrase holds two things together that are easily traded against each other. Justification is a verdict already pronounced and complete, so the believer's standing is settled; sanctification is a work still in progress, so the believer's condition is not. Losing the first produces anxiety, and losing the second produces complacency.

Romans 4:5; Romans 7:21-25; 1 John 1:8-9.

Why not this one. This is the position the phrase was framed against. If the verdict were gradual then the righteousness would be the believer's own in progress rather than Christ's reckoned to him, and the assurance the Reformers were arguing for would collapse.

Easy Doctrine — Church & Ordinances

According to BF&M 2000, Article VII, baptism is prerequisite to what?

1. AThe privileges of church membership and the Lord's SupperCorrect
2. BSalvation and the forgiveness of sins
3. COrdination to the pastoral office
4. DReceiving the gift of the Holy Spirit

Answer: The privileges of church membership and the Lord's Supper

BF&M 2000, Article VII · ESV

Baptism is a church ordinance, and Article VII places it before membership and before the Table. The order is confession first, then baptism, then the fellowship and the Supper of the gathered church.

BF&M 2000, Article VII; the pattern appears in Acts 2:41-42, where those who received the word were baptized and then devoted themselves to the church's life, and again in Acts 8:12.

Why not this one. That is baptismal regeneration, which the same article denies. Baptism symbolizes a faith already given; it does not produce or complete it.

Medium Doctrine — God & the Trinity

Which heresy taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three distinct persons but three successive ‘modes’ or roles of one person?

1. AArianism
2. BTritheism
3. CModalismCorrect
4. DDocetism

Answer: Modalism

BF&M 2000, Article II · ESV

Modalism keeps the one God by giving up the three, treating Father, Son, and Spirit as a single person wearing successive masks, Creator then Redeemer then Indweller. It cannot handle the baptism at the Jordan, where the Son stands in the water, the Spirit descends, and the Father speaks from heaven in the same moment. Most of the familiar Trinity illustrations, water and ice and steam above all, are modalism in picture form.

Matthew 3:16-17; BF&M 2000, Article II

Why not this one. Arianism is the other great fourth-century error and gets grabbed by association. But Arius never denied that the Son is a distinct person; he denied that the Son is fully God, calling him the first and highest of creatures.

Medium Doctrine — Grace & Election

Which statement correctly states what the doctrine of total depravity claims?

1. ASin has corrupted every part of human nature, so that no one is able to turn to God unaidedCorrect
2. BEvery person is at every moment as wicked as it is possible for a human being to be
3. COnly the body is corrupted by sin, while the mind and the will remain sound
4. DPeople are born innocent and become sinful only by imitating those around them

Answer: Sin has corrupted every part of human nature, so that no one is able to turn to God unaided

Romans 3:10–12 · ESV

The word 'total' describes the extent of corruption across mind, will, and affections, not its intensity in any one person. Depraved people still do much civil good; what they cannot do is savingly turn to God on their own.

Romans 3:10–12, Genesis 6:5, and Ephesians 4:18, which together reach the mind, the heart, and the will.

Why not this one. This confuses total depravity with absolute depravity. Scripture describes degrees of wickedness and God's restraint of evil, so the doctrine claims extent rather than maximum degree.

Hard Doctrine — Last Things

Which millennial position holds that Christ returns before a future earthly reign, that the church passes through the tribulation, and that no separate secret removal of the church precedes it?

1. AHistoric premillennialismCorrect
2. BDispensational premillennialism
3. CAmillennialism
4. DPostmillennialism

Answer: Historic premillennialism

Revelation 20:1-6 · ESV

Historic premillennialism expects a literal future reign of Christ on earth following his return, but unlike the dispensational form it has the church present through tribulation and does not divide the return into two stages. The BF&M does not settle the millennium, and Southern Baptists hold each of these views.

Revelation 20:1-6 is the disputed passage; BF&M 2000, Article X confesses the return, resurrection and judgment without naming a millennial scheme.

Why not this one. It shares the expectation of an earthly millennium, which makes it the near miss, but it adds a pretribulation removal of the church and a standing distinction between Israel and the church.

Medium Doctrine — Man & Sin

How does BF&M 2000 Article III describe man as he was in the beginning?

1. AInnocent of sin and endowed by his Creator with freedom of choiceCorrect
2. BConfirmed in righteousness and unable to fall
3. CNeutral toward good and evil and without moral capacity
4. DImmature and inclined toward sin from the first

Answer: Innocent of sin and endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice

BF&M 2000, Article III · ESV

The article says that in the beginning man was innocent of sin and endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice, and that by his free choice man sinned against God. Innocence is not the same as confirmed holiness; it was a state that could be, and was, forfeited.

BF&M 2000, Article III, following Genesis 1–3 and Ecclesiastes 7:29.

Why not this one. If Adam could not fall, the fall could not have happened. The article says freedom of choice, and the account in Genesis 3 shows that freedom exercised against God.

Hard Doctrine — Salvation

Which of these is a declarative act complete at once, admitting no degrees, rather than a work carried on progressively in the believer?

1. AJustificationCorrect
2. BSanctification
3. CMortification
4. DVivification

Answer: Justification

Romans 5:1 · ESV

Justification is a verdict, and a verdict is either pronounced or not; no one is more justified this year than last. The other three name aspects of the lifelong work of change: sanctification broadly, with the putting to death of sin and the quickening to righteousness as its two sides.

Romans 5:1 for the settled verdict, and Colossians 3:5-10 for putting off and putting on.

Why not this one. Mortification is the believer's ongoing putting to death of indwelling sin, so by definition it has degrees and is never finished in this life.

Hard Doctrine — The Holy Spirit

The BF&M 2000 leaves the continuation of the sign gifts an open question. Which claim about the Spirit does it affirm as not open to dispute?

1. AHe indwells every believerCorrect
2. BHe gives the gift of tongues to every believer
3. CHe is received as a second blessing some time after conversion
4. DHe gives new revelation equal in authority to Scripture

Answer: He indwells every believer

BF&M 2000, Article II.C · ESV

The confession states plainly that the Spirit dwells in every believer, sealing him to the day of redemption. His full deity, his personhood and his indwelling of all Christians are settled matters; the extent and duration of particular gifts are not. Charity is owed on the open question and clarity on the closed one.

BF&M 2000, Article II.C, resting on Romans 8:9 and 1 Corinthians 6:19.

Why not this one. The same confession makes Scripture the criterion by which every claim is judged, so no later word may stand beside it as an equal authority. Article I sets Scripture as the standard for every such claim.

Hard Doctrine — The Scriptures

Which view of Scripture holds that the Bible is a fallible human witness that only becomes the word of God when God uses it to confront a reader?

1. AThe neo-orthodox viewCorrect
2. BThe verbal plenary view
3. CThe dictation view
4. DThe natural intuition theory

Answer: The neo-orthodox view

BF&M 2000, Article I · ESV

On this view revelation is an event in the reader rather than a property of the text, so the Bible may contain errors and still serve as an occasion of encounter. Scripture's own claim is different: it is God's word before anyone reads it.

BF&M 2000, Article I, says the Bible is God's revelation of himself to man and that all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.

Why not this one. That theory treats the biblical writers as religious geniuses whose insight was heightened but not God-given. It also denies inspiration, but it locates the Bible's value in the authors rather than in the reader's encounter.

Hard New Testament — Acts of the Apostles

What did Paul and Barnabas do in the churches at Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch as they retraced their steps at the end of the first journey?

1. AThey appointed elders in every church, with prayer and fastingCorrect
2. BThey appointed one bishop to oversee the whole region
3. CThey left written letters and appointed no officers at all
4. DThey appointed deacons and left the elders to be sent later

Answer: They appointed elders in every church, with prayer and fasting

Acts 14:23 · ESV

Returning through the very cities where they had been opposed, they strengthened the souls of the disciples and set leadership in place before moving on. Acts shows a plurality of elders appointed in each congregation, then committed with prayer and fasting to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Acts 14:21-23; the same plural pattern appears when Paul summons the elders of the Ephesian church in Acts 20:17.

Why not this one. No single regional officer is ever appointed in Acts. Elders are appointed church by church and in the plural, and Paul later addresses the Ephesian elders together as overseers of one flock.