Questions and answers
Hard Doctrine — Baptist Faith & Message
The 2000 revision added a clause to Article II saying God's perfect knowledge extends even to the future decisions of his free creatures. The committee said this answered modern denials of what?
- AGod's omniscience and exhaustive foreknowledgeCorrect
- BThe full deity of the Holy Spirit
- CThe eternal generation of the Son
- DThe creation of the world out of nothing
Answer: God's omniscience and exhaustive foreknowledge
BF&M 2000, Article II · ESV
The clause was written against the view that God does not know the free future. The committee said it was reaffirming what the Bible and the Baptist tradition had always held. Article II now says God's perfect knowledge reaches past, present, and future alike.
Isaiah 46:9-10 has God declaring the end from the beginning, and Psalm 139:1-4 has him knowing words before they are spoken.
Why not this one. The 2000 revision did add the words describing the Spirit as fully divine in Article II, section C, but that was not the denial this clause about foreknowledge was aimed at.
Hard Doctrine — Christ
The risen Christ calls himself the first and the last in Revelation 1:17. Why is that phrase a claim to full deity?
- AIt is a self-description God uses of himself in Isaiah, where he denies that there is any god besides himCorrect
- BIt ranks him first among the prophets and last among the martyrs
- CIt marks him as the first to die under Rome and the last to be raised
- DIt names him first and last among the messengers sent to the seven churches
Answer: It is a self-description God uses of himself in Isaiah, where he denies that there is any god besides him
Isaiah 44:6 · ESV
In Isaiah the phrase belongs to the LORD's argument against idols: he alone spans all of history, so no other god exists. When the risen Christ takes the same words on his own lips, and John falls at his feet as though dead, the claim is identity with the God of Isaiah, not a rank among creatures.
Isaiah 44:6 and Isaiah 48:12, taken up by Christ in Revelation 1:17 and 22:13.
Why not this one. Revelation never uses the phrase as a ranking among people. In Isaiah it is the LORD's own exclusive self-designation, which is exactly why its transfer to Christ carries such weight.
Easy Doctrine — Church & Ordinances
In Matthew 28:19, into whose name did Jesus command that disciples be baptized?
- AThe Father and of the Son and of the Holy SpiritCorrect
- BThe Lord God of Israel
- CThe Father and of the Son
- DMoses and the prophets
Answer: The Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Matthew 28:19 · ESV
The commission names one name shared by three persons, which is why the baptismal formula has always been a plain confession of the Trinity as well as an act of obedience.
Matthew 28:19, where the singular word name governs all three persons.
Why not this one. Omitting the Spirit truncates the formula Jesus actually gave. The Spirit is named alongside the Father and the Son, and the church has never treated the third clause as optional. Acts records baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, but that shorthand identifies the confession being made rather than supplying a rival formula.
Medium Doctrine — God & the Trinity
When Scripture speaks of God's arm, eyes, or hand, what is the technical name for this way of speaking?
- AAnthropomorphismCorrect
- BTheophany
- CTypology
- DAllegory
Answer: Anthropomorphism
Isaiah 59:1 · ESV
An anthropomorphism describes God in human bodily terms so that creatures can grasp him. It is true speech, not false: God's arm really is his power to save. But it does not mean God has a body, since Jesus says God is spirit and the second commandment forbids picturing him.
Isaiah 59:1 and Psalm 34:15, read alongside John 4:24 and Deuteronomy 4:15-16.
Why not this one. A theophany is an actual visible appearance of God, as at the burning bush, not a figure of speech about his arm or eyes.
Medium Doctrine — Grace & Election
In Romans 9:18, Paul writes that God 'has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.' What doctrine does this passage primarily support?
- AGod's absolute sovereignty in election and reprobationCorrect
- BThe equal standing of every person before God at judgment
- CThe conditionality of salvation on human cooperation
- DThe idea that God responds to human initiative in seeking him
Answer: God's absolute sovereignty in election and reprobation
Romans 9:18 · ESV
Pharaoh is the case in view, quoted from Exodus 9:16 one verse earlier. Exodus itself says both that God hardened Pharaoh's heart and that Pharaoh hardened his own, and Paul does not soften either. The clue that he means the strong sense is the objection he anticipates in verse 19, asking why God still finds fault; nobody raises that complaint against a mild reading.
Romans 9:17-19; Exodus 9:12, 9:16, 8:15.
Why not this one. It is the instinctive way to relieve the pressure of the verse, and it keeps the sense of fairness intact. But it is the very assumption Paul's imagined objector is making, and his reply in verses 20 and following does not grant it. He answers with the potter, not with a qualification.
Medium Doctrine — Last Things
In 2 Peter 3:9, what reason does Peter give for what some count as slowness in the Lord's promised coming?
- AHe is patient, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentanceCorrect
- BHe waits until the full number of the nations has rebelled
- CHe has withdrawn the promise from that generation
- DHe measures time only by the reckoning of the prophets
Answer: He is patient, not wishing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance
2 Peter 3:9 · ESV
Scoffers treat the delay as evidence that the promise has failed. Peter answers that the delay is mercy: God is patient toward his own, giving room for repentance, and the day will come suddenly when it comes.
2 Peter 3:3-10, where Peter also reminds his readers that with the Lord a day is as a thousand years.
Why not this one. This is close to the scoffers' own charge, that all things continue unchanged since the fathers fell asleep. Peter rejects it outright: the promise stands, God does not measure delay as men do, and the interval is filled with mercy toward those still to repent.
Hard Doctrine — Man & Sin
What specific aspect of the imago Dei did the Fall corrupt but not entirely destroy, which Reformed theology says is both defaced and yet still the basis for human dignity and accountability before God?
- AThe physical resemblance to God
- BThe ability to perform saving works
- CThe immortality of the soul
- DThe moral and rational likeness to GodCorrect
Answer: The moral and rational likeness to God
Genesis 9:6; James 3:9 · ESV
Reformed theology distinguishes a broader and a narrower sense of the image. The narrower, the knowledge, righteousness, and holiness that Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10 say are restored in Christ, was lost in the fall. The broader sense, man's rational and moral constitution as God's accountable representative, was corrupted but remains, which is why Genesis 9:6 and James 3:9 still appeal to it after Eden.
Genesis 9:6; James 3:9; Colossians 3:10
Why not this one. It attracts because it is something that plainly survived the fall and bears on accountability. But the fall did not corrupt it at all; the soul's continuance is untouched. The question asks for what was defaced yet not destroyed, and only the moral and rational likeness fits both halves.
Hard Doctrine — Salvation
In the debate over the logical order of God's eternal decrees, what does supralapsarianism hold?
- AThe decree to elect some and pass by others logically precedes the decree to permit the fallCorrect
- BThe decree to permit the fall logically precedes the decree of election
- CThe decree of a universal atonement logically precedes the decree of election
- DElection is decreed on the basis of faith God foresaw in the individual
Answer: The decree to elect some and pass by others logically precedes the decree to permit the fall
Ephesians 1:4-5 · ESV
The question is one of logical priority within a single eternal purpose, not of chronology; God does not decree in sequence. Supralapsarians place election above the fall in that order, infralapsarians below it, and both hold election to be unconditional.
Ephesians 1:4-5 and Romans 9:11-13, where the purpose of election stands apart from anything done by the individual.
Why not this one. That is conditional election, the Arminian position Dort rejected; it belongs to no lapsarian view, since both hold election to be unconditional.
Hard Doctrine — The Holy Spirit
Which council expanded the creed's brief line about the Holy Spirit into a full confession of his deity, against those who denied it?
- AThe First Council of Constantinople (381)Correct
- BThe First Council of Nicaea (325)
- CThe Council of Ephesus (431)
- DThe Council of Chalcedon (451)
Answer: The First Council of Constantinople (381)
The Nicene Creed (381) · ESV
Nicaea in 325 had said little more than that the church believes in the Holy Spirit. Constantinople in 381 answered those who denied his deity by confessing him as Lord and giver of life, worshiped and glorified with the Father and the Son, who spoke by the prophets.
The creed commonly called Nicene is in fact the Niceno-Constantinopolitan text finalized in 381.
Why not this one. Nicaea addressed the deity of the Son against Arius; its statement on the Spirit was a single short clause that later needed expanding. Its creed needed expansion a generation later.
Hard Doctrine — The Scriptures
What term describes the teaching that God superintended the copying and transmission of Scripture so that His word has been reliably preserved for the church through the centuries?
- ACanonization
- BIllumination
- CPreservationCorrect
- DTransmission
Answer: Preservation
Psalm 12:6–7 · ESV
Preservation is God's ongoing care over the text after inspiration finished its work. Jesus said not the smallest stroke of a letter would pass from the Law until all is accomplished. The doctrine does not claim any single copy is flawless. It claims that through thousands of manuscripts God has kept his word intact, so that no article of faith rests on a disputed reading.
Psalm 12:6-7; Matthew 5:18
Why not this one. Transmission describes the same history from the human side, the long labor of scribes copying and recopying by hand, and that overlap makes it a reasonable guess. But it is a neutral word that could equally describe a text being corrupted. Preservation names the divine superintendence that kept the copying from destroying what God had given.
Medium Miracles of the Bible
What happened to the Philistine idol Dagon when the captured ark was set beside it?
- AIt fell before the ark, its head and hands broken offCorrect
- BIt was consumed by fire from heaven
- CIt sank into the ground overnight
- DIt was carried off by the Philistines to Gath
Answer: It fell before the ark, its head and hands broken off
1 Samuel 5:3-4 · ESV
Twice the image of Dagon was found fallen face down before the ark, and the second morning its head and both hands lay severed on the threshold. Israel had lost a battle, but the Lord was not a captive; he defeated the god of his captors without an army. Plague followed the ark from city to city until the Philistines sent it back to Israel on a new cart.
1 Samuel 5:3-4 records both mornings and the broken head and hands.
Why not this one. The ark, not the idol, was moved on to Gath after plague broke out in Ashdod; Dagon stayed in his own ruined temple.
Easy New Testament — Acts of the Apostles
How did Herod die at Caesarea after he accepted the crowd's cry that his voice was the voice of a god?
- AHe was struck down by an angel of the Lord and eaten by wormsCorrect
- BHe was stoned to death by the crowd in the theater
- CHe was assassinated by his own bodyguard at a banquet
- DHe fell ill and died aboard a ship bound for Rome
Answer: He was struck down by an angel of the Lord and eaten by worms
Acts 12:21-23 · ESV
Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat, and delivered an address to the people of Tyre and Sidon. When the crowd hailed his voice as divine, an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory. Luke sets his death beside a pointed contrast: the word of God increased and multiplied.
Acts 12:20-24 records the speech, the acclamation, the judgment, and the growth of the word.
Why not this one. Stoning belongs to Stephen at Jerusalem and to Paul at Lystra, and a theater riot belongs to Ephesus, so the elements sound familiar. Herod died under a direct judgment of God at the height of his acclaim.