Questions and answers
Hard Bible Numbers & Statistics
When Elijah complained that he alone was left, God answered that he had kept how many in Israel who had not bowed to Baal — a figure Paul later cites as proof of a remnant?
- ASeven thousandCorrect
- BThree thousand
- CTen thousand
- DTwelve thousand
Answer: Seven thousand
1 Kings 19:18 · ESV
God tells Elijah he has left himself seven thousand in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Paul takes the episode as the pattern of God's dealing with his people: at the present time also there is a remnant, chosen by grace and kept by God rather than self-selected.
1 Kings 19:18 records the answer to Elijah at Horeb, and Romans 11:2–5 quotes it and draws the conclusion about the remnant.
Why not this one. Three thousand is the number that fell after the golden calf and the number added to the church at Pentecost, but not Elijah's remnant.
Hard Doctrine — Baptist Faith & Message
BF&M2000 Article V addresses the security of the believer. How does it describe this security?
- AAll true believers endure to the end and are kept by the power of GodCorrect
- BBelievers may forfeit salvation by committing mortal sins
- CAssurance is only possible near the end of life after proven faithfulness
- DSecurity depends on continued reception of the sacraments
Answer: All true believers endure to the end and are kept by the power of God
BF&M 2000, Article V · ESV
The article states that all true believers endure to the end, and that those God has accepted in Christ and sanctified by his Spirit will never fall away from the state of grace but shall persevere to the end. Notice which way the guarantee runs: the security rests on God keeping them, not on their keeping themselves, which is why Baptists have preferred the word perseverance to the looser eternal security.
BF&M 2000, Article V; John 10:28-29.
Why not this one. The article does say that believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, incur consequences, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ, so it is not naive about failure. What it denies is that such failure can undo what God has done.
Easy Doctrine — Christ
According to 1 John 2:1, who is the advocate with the Father for a believer who sins?
- AJesus Christ the righteousCorrect
- BThe archangel Michael
- CThe apostles who first believed
- DThe saints who have gone before
Answer: Jesus Christ the righteous
1 John 2:1 · ESV
John writes so his readers will not sin, then adds what holds when they do: there is an advocate, and he is qualified precisely by being righteous. The advocacy is not a plea for leniency but the presentation of a propitiation already made, which is why the next verse names Christ as that propitiation.
1 John 2:1-2, where the advocate with the Father is immediately identified as the propitiation for our sins.
Why not this one. Scripture never assigns departed believers an advocate's role. The New Testament confines heavenly intercession for the church to Christ and the Spirit, as Romans 8:26-34 shows.
Easy Doctrine — Christian Living
Which phrase from Galatians 5 describes the virtues the Holy Spirit produces in the life of a believer?
- AThe gifts of the Spirit
- BThe fruit of the SpiritCorrect
- CThe armor of God
- DThe works of the flesh
Answer: The fruit of the Spirit
Galatians 5:22–23 · ESV
Paul sets this list against the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21, and the contrast is deliberate. Works are things a person does, while fruit is what grows out of a life the Spirit has taken over. The noun is singular, one cluster of nine qualities rather than a menu to choose from, and the list closes with the remark that no law stands against such things.
Galatians 5:22-23
Why not this one. Easy to confuse, since both come from the same Spirit. But the gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 are distributed differently to different members for the good of the body, while the fruit is expected to appear in every believer without exception.
Medium Doctrine — Church & Ordinances
In 1 Peter 3:21, Peter says baptism saves not as a removal of dirt from the body but as what?
- AAn appeal to God for a good conscienceCorrect
- BA washing away of original sin
- CThe seal of the covenant placed on infants
- DA pledge of obedience made to the church
Answer: An appeal to God for a good conscience
1 Peter 3:21 · ESV
Peter guards the very verse most often used for baptismal regeneration. He denies that the water cleanses anything physical and locates the saving power in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to which the believer's appeal is directed.
1 Peter 3:20-22, where the flood is presented as the corresponding figure; 1 Peter 1:3 grounds the new birth in that same resurrection.
Why not this one. That reading makes the rite itself effective, which Peter's own qualifying clause rules out. The verse grounds salvation in Christ's resurrection, not in the application of water.
Easy Doctrine — Grace & Election
According to Ephesians 2:1, what was the spiritual condition of believers before God acted on them?
- ADead in the trespasses and sins in which they once walkedCorrect
- BSick and weakened, but still reaching out toward God
- CNeutral, with the will inclined neither to good nor evil
- DIgnorant of the law and therefore innocent before God
Answer: Dead in the trespasses and sins in which they once walked
Ephesians 2:1 · ESV
Paul's picture is not of a patient but of a corpse. Spiritual death is the reason salvation must begin with God making the dead alive, and it is why Reformed theology insists the first move in conversion is God's.
Ephesians 2:1–5 moves from 'dead in the trespasses and sins' to God, being rich in mercy, making us alive together with Christ, and adds that we are saved by grace.
Why not this one. This softens death into illness, leaving the sinner able to cooperate. Paul chose the stronger word, and Romans 3:11 denies that anyone seeks God on his own.
Medium Doctrine — Last Things
In 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, what happens to the builder whose work is burned up when it is tested by fire?
- AHe suffers loss, but he himself is saved as through fireCorrect
- BHe forfeits his salvation and is judged with unbelievers
- CHe is purified by suffering before he may enter heaven
- DHe is raised without a body until the final judgment
Answer: He suffers loss, but he himself is saved as through fire
1 Corinthians 3:15 · ESV
The fire tests a servant's work, not his standing in Christ. Worthless building material is consumed and the builder loses reward, yet he is saved, because the foundation of the church is Christ and the believer rests on him.
1 Corinthians 3:10-15, read alongside Romans 8:1 and the perseverance of the saints.
Why not this one. This verse has long been pressed into service for purgatory, but the fire here tests works at the day of judgment, not souls in an interim place, and the man is said to be saved, not to be made fit for salvation.
Hard Doctrine — Man & Sin
How did sin “spread to all men” according to Romans 5:12 (ESV)?
- ABecause Adam taught sin to his children
- BBecause all sinnedCorrect
- CBecause the devil deceived each person individually
- DBecause the law made sin known to all
Answer: Because all sinned
Romans 5:12 · ESV
The clause is the hinge of the passage, and Paul breaks off his sentence right after it, not finishing the thought until verse 18. Reformed readers take the aorist as pointing back to the one act just named: all sinned in Adam, in that his sin was reckoned to those he represented. That reading lets verses 13 and 14 make sense, since death reigned even over those who had broken no explicit command.
Romans 5:12–14
Why not this one. This is the Pelagian answer, sin spreading by bad example, and it tempts because imitation is obviously part of how sin travels. But it cannot account for verse 14. Infants and those who never received a command still died, which means something other than imitation was already reigning over them.
Medium Doctrine — Salvation
What is the ultimate goal of the entire ordo salutis — the telos toward which every step of salvation is directed, according to Romans 8:29?
- AThe forgiveness of all past sins
- BEntrance into the visible church
- CConformity to the image of God's SonCorrect
- DAchievement of sinless perfection in this life
Answer: Conformity to the image of God's Son
Romans 8:29 · ESV
Romans 8:29 gives predestination a purpose clause. God chose his people so that they would be conformed to the image of his Son, and so that the Son would be firstborn among many brothers. The goal is not simply rescued individuals but a family bearing the likeness of the elder brother. Forgiveness, justification and sanctification all serve that end rather than being the end.
Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2
Why not this one. Forgiveness is what most people are seeking when they first come to Christ, and it is certainly granted. But Paul makes it a means toward something larger, and a salvation that stopped at pardon would leave the believer unchanged and unlike Christ.
Medium Doctrine — The Holy Spirit
Progressive sanctification — the ongoing work of the Spirit making believers more holy — is distinct from which other act of God that is declared once for all at conversion?
- AJustificationCorrect
- BRegeneration
- CDefinitive sanctification
- DAdoption
Answer: Justification
BF&M 2000, Article IV · ESV
Justification is a verdict, pronounced once and complete the moment a sinner is united to Christ, and it never grows or shrinks because it concerns standing rather than condition. Sanctification is the Spirit's ongoing work in that same person, uneven and lifelong. Keeping the two apart is what lets a struggling believer be fully accepted and still unfinished.
BF&M 2000, Article IV.
Why not this one. This is genuinely once for all at conversion, so it looks like the answer. But it is still sanctification, a setting apart of the person, not a declaration about his legal standing. The classic contrast with the progressive work is the verdict.
Easy Doctrine — The Scriptures
According to 2 Timothy 3:15, the sacred writings Timothy had known from childhood are able to make him wise for salvation through faith in whom?
- AChrist JesusCorrect
- BMoses
- CAbraham
- DDavid
Answer: Christ Jesus
2 Timothy 3:15 · ESV
Scripture does not merely inform; it makes a person wise unto salvation, and it does so by bringing the reader to faith in Christ. The Old Testament Timothy learned as a boy was already pointing him to the Savior.
Paul writes this in 2 Timothy 3:15, one verse before he calls all Scripture breathed out by God. The sacred writings Timothy knew from childhood were the Old Testament, taught him by his mother and grandmother.
Why not this one. Moses wrote of Christ and the Law was a guardian until Christ came, but Paul names faith in Christ Jesus, not faith in Moses, as the way the Scriptures save.
Easy New Testament — Acts of the Apostles
Which woman at Philippi, a seller of purple goods from Thyatira, had her heart opened by the Lord to pay attention to Paul's words?
- ALydiaCorrect
- BDamaris
- CPriscilla
- DDorcas
Answer: Lydia
Acts 16:14 · ESV
Lydia was already a worshiper of God when she heard Paul at the riverside place of prayer outside the city. Luke traces her response not to her own openness but to the Lord, who opened her heart, and she and her household were baptized and pressed the missionaries to stay in her house.
Acts 16:13-15 gives her trade, her home city, the Lord's opening of her heart, and her hospitality.
Why not this one. Damaris believed at Athens after Paul spoke at the Areopagus and is named alongside Dionysius, so she is a genuine convert in Acts. She is not connected with Philippi or with the purple trade.