Questions and answers
Medium Doctrine — Christ
Which Old Testament verse, used by Jesus against the Pharisees in Matthew 22:44 and by Peter at Pentecost, is the main ground for saying Christ is seated at God's right hand?
- APsalm 110:1Correct
- BPsalm 2:7
- CPsalm 16:10
- DPsalm 118:22
Answer: Psalm 110:1
Psalm 110:1 · ESV
Psalm 110 opens with the LORD telling David's Lord to sit at his right hand until his enemies are made a footstool. Jesus uses it to show that Messiah is more than David's son, and Peter uses it to explain the ascension. It is the single most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament.
Psalm 110:1, cited in Matthew 22:44 and Acts 2:34-35, and echoed in Hebrews 1:13.
Why not this one. Peter does quote it at Pentecost, but for a different point: that God would not let his Holy One see corruption, which speaks to the resurrection rather than the session.
Hard Doctrine — Christian Living
Matthew 6 gives two different faults in prayer. The hypocrites pray in order to be seen by others; what does Jesus say the Gentiles suppose?
- AThat they will be heard for their many wordsCorrect
- BThat their prayers must be made at fixed hours
- CThat God is moved by loud crying
- DThat prayer avails only when made at the temple
Answer: That they will be heard for their many words
Matthew 6:7–8 · ESV
The two faults are distinct. The hypocrite's problem is his audience, and Jesus answers it with the shut door; the Gentile's problem is his theory of how God is persuaded, and Jesus answers that one by saying the Father already knows what is needed before the asking.
Matthew 6:5–6 for the first fault and 6:7–8 for the second, standing immediately before the Lord's Prayer.
Why not this one. Loud crying describes the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18:28. What Jesus names here is the piling up of empty phrases, not volume.
Easy Doctrine — Grace & Election
Romans 6:23 contrasts wages with a free gift. What is the free gift?
- AEternal life in Christ Jesus our LordCorrect
- BFreedom from the law of Moses
- CThe forgiveness of past sins only
- DLength of days in the promised land
Answer: Eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
Romans 6:23 · ESV
Death is what sin earns; eternal life is not earned at all but given. The two halves of the verse deliberately use different categories, wages set against a gift, and the gift comes in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23, which closes Paul's argument about being set free from sin, becoming slaves of God, and receiving a fruit that leads to sanctification.
Why not this one. Paul does treat the believer's relation to the law in Romans 7, but the gift named in this verse is eternal life, and it is located in Christ rather than in release from the law.
Medium Doctrine — Last Things
In Titus 2:13, what does Paul call the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ?
- AOur blessed hopeCorrect
- BThe day of redemption
- CThe crown of righteousness
- DThe hope of glory
Answer: Our blessed hope
Titus 2:13 · ESV
The return of Christ is named the blessed hope of the church, and Paul makes it the motive for self-controlled and godly living in the present age. The verse also plainly calls Jesus our great God and Savior.
Titus 2:11-14, where grace trains believers to wait for that appearing, and where Christ is said to have given himself to purify a people for his own possession.
Why not this one. That phrase is genuine Pauline language, but it belongs to 2 Timothy 4:8, where it is the reward laid up for all who have loved Christ's appearing. It is not the title given to the appearing itself.
Easy Doctrine — Salvation
According to Romans 10:9, alongside confessing with the mouth that Jesus is Lord, what must one believe in the heart?
- AThat God raised him from the deadCorrect
- BThat he was born of a virgin
- CThat he will judge the living and the dead
- DThat he fed the five thousand
Answer: That God raised him from the dead
Romans 10:9 · ESV
Paul names the resurrection as the content of saving belief, because the empty tomb is God's public verdict that the sacrifice was accepted and the Son vindicated. Confession and belief go together: mouth and heart, not one without the other. Neither is a work that earns the verdict; both are the response of a heart God has already made alive.
Romans 10:9-13, where Paul applies Deuteronomy's nearness of the word to the gospel he preaches.
Why not this one. The creeds rightly confess Christ as coming judge, but Romans 10:9 specifies belief that God raised him from the dead.
Medium Doctrine — The Holy Spirit
In Psalm 51, David asks God not to cast him from his presence and not to take what from him?
- AYour Holy SpiritCorrect
- BYour steadfast love
- CYour holy temple
- DYour anointing oil
Answer: Your Holy Spirit
Psalm 51:11 · ESV
David prays this after his sin with Bathsheba, with Saul's example fresh in Israel's memory. The petition reflects the old covenant situation, in which the Spirit's anointing on a king could be withdrawn, rather than the new covenant sealing that guarantees the day of redemption. New covenant believers stand on different ground at exactly this point.
Psalm 51:11, best read alongside 1 Samuel 16:14 and contrasted with Ephesians 4:30.
Why not this one. David appeals to God's steadfast love in verse 1 as the very ground of his plea; he never asks that it not be taken away.
Easy Doctrine — The Scriptures
Which psalm is the longest chapter in the Bible, with almost every one of its verses speaking of God's word, law, statutes or precepts?
- APsalm 119Correct
- BPsalm 19
- CPsalm 1
- DPsalm 139
Answer: Psalm 119
Psalm 119 · ESV
Psalm 119 runs to 176 verses arranged in twenty-two stanzas, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and is a sustained meditation on the excellence of God's written word. Its length is itself a kind of argument about how much there is to say.
Psalm 119, the longest chapter in Scripture, longer than several whole books of the Bible.
Why not this one. Psalm 19 also praises the law of the LORD as perfect and reviving the soul, but it is only fourteen verses long and its first half concerns the witness of the heavens rather than the written word.
Medium Famous Verses — Fill in the Blank (ESV)
“Jesus wept.” — Which book, chapter, and verse is this?
- AJohn 11:35Correct
- BJohn 11:33
- CLuke 19:41
- DJohn 11:38
Answer: John 11:35
John 11:35 · ESV
Jesus stays away deliberately and arrives at Bethany four days after the burial, meets Martha and then Mary, and weeps at the tomb of a friend he is about to raise. Verse 33 records that he was deeply moved and troubled, verse 38 that he was moved again at the tomb; the tears fall between those two notes. It is the shortest verse in most English Bibles, though not in the Greek.
John 11:1-44.
Why not this one. Jesus does weep a second time in the Gospels, over Jerusalem on the descent from the Mount of Olives, so this is a real memory rather than an invented one. The Greek there describes a loud lament, not the quiet shedding of tears John records.
Medium Miracles of the Bible
What Aramaic words did Jesus speak when he raised the synagogue ruler's daughter?
- ATalitha cumiCorrect
- BEphphatha
- CEloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani
- DMaranatha
Answer: Talitha cumi
Mark 5:41 · ESV
Taking the child by the hand, Jesus told her in Aramaic to arise, and she got up and walked. Mark keeps the original words and then translates them, preserving the immediacy of a command that raised the dead as simply as waking a sleeper. Only Peter, James, John, and the child's parents were allowed into the room.
Mark 5:41-42 gives the words and the girl's rising.
Why not this one. This is a real word of Jesus, spoken over a deaf man with a speech impediment in the Decapolis, but it belongs to that healing and not to the raising of the girl.
Medium New Testament — Acts of the Apostles
Which prophet was the Ethiopian eunuch reading in his chariot when Philip ran up to him?
- AIsaiahCorrect
- BJoel
- CAmos
- DDaniel
Answer: Isaiah
Acts 8:28-33 · ESV
The eunuch was reading aloud the passage about a sheep led to the slaughter and a lamb silent before its shearer, and he asked whether the prophet spoke of himself or of someone else. Beginning with that very Scripture, Philip told him the good news about Jesus.
Acts 8:28-35, where the quoted passage is Isaiah 53:7-8.
Why not this one. Joel is the prophet Peter cites at Pentecost for the outpouring of the Spirit, and Amos is the one James cites at the Jerusalem Council, so both are quoted in Acts. The suffering servant text in the chariot comes from Isaiah.
Easy New Testament — General Epistles & Revelation
James 1:22 warns against a particular self-deception. What does it tell believers to be?
- ADoers of the word, and not hearers onlyCorrect
- BTeachers of the word, and not students only
- CGuardians of the word, and not readers only
- DHearers of the word, and not judges of it
Answer: Doers of the word, and not hearers only
James 1:22 · ESV
James says a man who hears without doing is like someone who glances in a mirror and immediately forgets his own face. Hearing that leaves no trace deceives the hearer into thinking he has received something when he has not. The doer, by contrast, looks into the perfect law of liberty, perseveres, and is blessed in his doing.
James 1:22–25.
Why not this one. James actually discourages a rush into teaching, warning in 3:1 that teachers will be judged with greater strictness. The contrast in 1:22 is hearing against doing.
Easy New Testament — Paul’s Letters
In Ephesians 6:2–3, which commandment does Paul call the first commandment with a promise?
- AHonor your father and motherCorrect
- BYou shall not murder
- CRemember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy
- DYou shall not covet
Answer: Honor your father and mother
Ephesians 6:2–3 · ESV
Paul roots the obedience of children in the fifth commandment and repeats the promise attached to it, that it may go well with them and that they may live long in the land. The moral law is not set aside by the gospel but applied inside the Christian household.
Ephesians 6:1–3, quoting the fifth commandment as it stands in Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16, within Paul’s instructions on the ordering of the home.
Why not this one. The fourth commandment is the longest and carries a stated rationale drawn from creation, but no promise of blessing to the one who keeps it. Paul points to the fifth, which does carry one.