Cross-Cutting Topics
60 study questions and answers, quoted from the Revised Version (1885/1895).
How many books are in the Protestant Bible, and how are they divided?
66 — 39 Old Testament and 27 New Testament.
Gen-Rev
In what languages was the Bible originally written?
Hebrew (most of the Old Testament), Aramaic (parts of Daniel and Ezra), and Koine Greek (the New Testament).
Dan 2:4-7:28; Ezra 4:8-6:18
What is the Septuagint?
The Greek translation of the Old Testament made from the 3rd century BC, widely used by the early Church.
cf. Matt 1:23 quoting Isa 7:14 LXX
What is a covenant, and how many major ones does Scripture trace?
A binding relationship established by God; commonly counted as Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and New.
Gen 9; 15; Exod 19; 2 Sam 7; Jer 31
What is typology?
Reading persons, events or institutions of the Old Testament as divinely intended patterns fulfilled in Christ.
Rom 5:14; Col 2:17; Heb 10:1
What is the difference between justification and sanctification?
Justification is God's declaration that the believer is righteous; sanctification is the ongoing work of being made holy.
Rom 5:1; 1 Thess 4:3
What is the difference between propitiation and expiation?
Propitiation turns aside wrath directed at the sinner; expiation removes the guilt of the sin itself. Scripture holds both.
Rom 3:25; 1 John 2:2; Heb 9:26
What is the hypostatic union?
The doctrine that Christ is one Person in two natures, fully God and fully man, without confusion or division.
John 1:14; Col 2:9
What are the traditional attributes of God grouped as?
Incommunicable (eternity, immutability, omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience) and communicable (holiness, justice, love, mercy, faithfulness).
Ps 90:2; Mal 3:6; Ps 139:7-10; 1 John 4:8
What is general revelation versus special revelation?
General: God made known through creation and conscience. Special: God made known through Scripture and supremely in Christ.
Ps 19:1-4; Rom 1:20; 2:15; Heb 1:1-2
What is the canon, and what criteria shaped its recognition?
The list of books recognised as Scripture; recognised by apostolic origin, orthodoxy of content, and widespread use in the churches.
2 Pet 3:15-16; Luke 1:1-4
What are the first four Ecumenical Councils and their chief decisions?
Nicaea 325 (the Son is of one substance with the Father), Constantinople 381 (the deity of the Spirit), Ephesus 431 (Mary as Theotokos, Christ's unity of Person), Chalcedon 451 (two natures in one Person).
Nicene Creed
What are the traditional marks of the Church in the Creed?
One, holy, catholic (universal) and apostolic.
Nicene Creed; Eph 4:4-6
What are the ordinances or sacraments recognised across traditions?
All hold baptism and the Lord's Supper; Catholic and Orthodox recognise seven, adding confirmation/chrismation, penance, anointing, orders, and marriage.
Matt 28:19; 1 Cor 11:23-26
What does "eschatology" mean, and what four events does it centre on?
The doctrine of last things — Christ's return, the resurrection, the final judgment, and the eternal state.
1 Thess 4:16; John 5:28-29; Rev 20:12; Rev 21:1
What is the Trinity, stated in one sentence?
One God in three co-equal, co-eternal Persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — one in essence, distinct in relation.
Matt 28:19; 2 Cor 13:14
What is the difference between the immanent and economic Trinity?
The immanent Trinity is God in himself; the economic Trinity is God as revealed in creation and redemption.
John 17:5,24
What is meant by 'original sin'?
The corrupt condition inherited from Adam, distinguished from actual sins committed.
Rom 5:12; Ps 51:5
What is prevenient grace?
Grace that precedes and enables a human response to God, prominent in Wesleyan and Catholic theology.
John 6:44; Titus 2:11
What is regeneration?
The new birth — the Spirit's act of imparting spiritual life to the dead sinner.
John 3:5; Titus 3:5
What is imputation?
The reckoning of Christ's righteousness to the believer and the believer's sin to Christ.
2 Cor 5:21; Rom 4:6
What is the difference between mortal and venial sin?
A Catholic distinction between sin that destroys charity in the soul and sin that wounds without destroying it.
1 John 5:16-17
What are the theological and cardinal virtues?
Theological: faith, hope, charity. Cardinal: prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude.
1 Cor 13:13; Wis 8:7
What is the analogy of faith?
The principle that Scripture interprets Scripture, obscure passages read by clear ones.
Rom 12:6
What are the four classic senses of Scripture?
Literal, allegorical, moral (tropological), and anagogical.
Medieval Quadriga
What is inerrancy versus infallibility?
Inerrancy: Scripture is without error in all it affirms. Infallibility: it cannot fail in its purpose of salvation.
2 Tim 3:16; John 10:35
What is apostolic succession?
The doctrine that bishops stand in an unbroken line of ordination from the apostles.
2 Tim 2:2; Acts 1:20
What is the difference between transubstantiation, consubstantiation, real spiritual presence, and memorialism?
Four Eucharistic views: substance changed; Christ 'in, with, under'; true spiritual feeding by faith; remembrance only.
1 Cor 11:23-29
What is the communion of saints?
The fellowship of all believers, living and departed, in Christ.
Heb 12:1; Eph 4:4
What is the difference between latria, dulia and hyperdulia?
Worship due to God alone; honour given to saints; the higher honour given to Mary in Catholic usage.
Matt 4:10; Luke 1:48
What is theosis or deification?
The Eastern doctrine that believers participate in the divine energies, becoming by grace what God is by nature.
2 Pet 1:4
What is the filioque, and why did it divide East and West?
The Western addition that the Spirit proceeds 'and from the Son'; the East objected to both the doctrine and the unilateral change.
John 15:26
What are the five solas of the Reformation?
Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, glory to God alone.
Reformation formulae
What are the traditional means of grace?
Word, sacrament and prayer, through which God ordinarily conveys grace.
Acts 2:42
What is the difference between amillennialism, premillennialism and postmillennialism?
Christ returns after a symbolic reign; before a literal thousand years; after a gospel-triumphant age.
Rev 20:1-6
What is the intermediate state?
The condition of the soul between death and resurrection, variously described as sleep, paradise, or conscious rest.
Luke 23:43; Phil 1:23
What is meant by 'the perspicuity of Scripture'?
That Scripture's saving message is clear enough for ordinary readers, though not all passages are equally plain.
Ps 119:130; 2 Pet 3:16
What is natural law?
Moral order knowable by reason from creation, distinct from but consistent with revealed law.
Rom 2:14-15
What is the difference between common and saving grace?
Common grace restrains evil and gives good to all; saving grace effects redemption.
Matt 5:45; Eph 2:8
What are the classic marks of a true church at the Reformation?
The word rightly preached, the sacraments rightly administered, and discipline rightly exercised.
Augsburg Confession VII
What is the difference between exegesis and eisegesis?
Drawing meaning out of the text versus reading meaning into it.
2 Tim 2:15
What is progressive revelation?
The principle that God disclosed truth gradually, culminating in Christ.
Heb 1:1-2
What is the difference between the ordo salutis and the historia salutis?
The order of salvation in an individual versus the history of salvation across the ages.
Rom 8:29-30; Gal 4:4
What is meant by the 'already and not yet'?
That the kingdom has genuinely arrived in Christ but is not yet consummated.
Luke 17:21; Rom 8:23
What is union with Christ?
The believer's incorporation into Christ, the source of every other saving benefit.
Rom 6:5; Eph 1:3
What is the difference between monergism and synergism?
Whether regeneration is God's work alone or a cooperation of divine and human wills.
John 1:13; Phil 2:12-13
What is the covenant of works and the covenant of grace?
A Reformed framework contrasting Adam's probation with the gracious covenant in Christ.
Hos 6:7; Rom 5:12-19
What is meant by the perspicuity and the sufficiency of Scripture?
That its saving message is clear and that it contains all things necessary for salvation.
Ps 119:130; 2 Tim 3:15-17
What is the regulative versus the normative principle of worship?
Worship may include only what Scripture commands, versus whatever it does not forbid.
Deut 12:32; Col 2:23
What are the classical arguments for God's existence?
Cosmological, teleological, ontological, moral and the argument from religious experience.
Rom 1:20; Ps 19:1
What is theodicy?
The attempt to justify God's goodness and power in the face of evil.
Job 38-42; Rom 9:20
What is the difference between an attribute and a person of God?
Attributes are what God is; Persons are who God is, distinguished by eternal relations.
John 1:1; Exod 34:6
What is divine simplicity?
That God is not composed of parts; his attributes are identical with his essence.
Deut 6:4; 1 John 1:5
What is divine impassibility, and why is it debated?
That God is not subject to involuntary emotional change; critics argue it undercuts a suffering God.
Mal 3:6; Hos 11:8
What is the difference between the visible and invisible church?
The institution as it appears, and the total company of the truly regenerate known to God.
2 Tim 2:19; Matt 13:24-30
What are the classical spiritual disciplines?
Prayer, fasting, study, worship, service, solitude, silence, confession and celebration.
Matt 6:1-18
What is the difference between imputed and infused righteousness?
Righteousness credited to the believer's account, versus righteousness poured into and transforming them.
Rom 4:5; Titus 3:5-6
What is the sensus plenior?
A fuller sense of a text intended by God beyond what the human author consciously knew.
1 Pet 1:10-12
What is meant by the incommunicable attributes of God?
Those not shared with creatures — aseity, infinity, immutability, eternity, omnipresence.
Ps 90:2; Jer 23:24
What is the difference between apologetics, polemics and catechesis?
Defending the faith to outsiders, contending against error within, and instructing the faithful.
1 Pet 3:15; Jude 3; Luke 1:4