"The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living, teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome." -- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 85
BIBLE QUESTIONS FOR PROTESTANTS 1: SOLA SCRIPTURA
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." Matt 28:19-20
"He said to them, 'Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature'." Mark 16:15
"You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." Acts 1:8
Question 1: Christ here commanded the apostles to:
A. Write the Scriptures, so that all people may learn the truth
B. Teach some people for a while, but then write the Scriptures for everyone else
C. Teach, proclaim and bear witness to the truth to every creature in all nations to the end of the age.
"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of Truth…" Jn 14:16-17
"But when he comes, the Spirit of Truth, he will guide you to all truth."
"And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit'." Jn 20:22
Question 2: According to Scripture what is "God-breathed"?
A. Scripture alone
B. The apostles and Scripture
Question 3: According to Scripture, how long will the Spirit of Truth remain?
A. Until Pentecost
B. Until the Bible is written
C. Always
Question 4: According to Scripture, what function will this Spirit perform for its possessors?
A. Inspire ecstatic dance
B. Guide to some truth, with an admixture of error
C. Guide to all truth
"Beloved, although I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I now feel a need to to write to encourage you to contend for the faith that was once for all handed down to the holy ones." - Jude vs 3
Question 5: How was the faith received?
A. Bit by bit, as those who wrote the Scriptures revealed it
B. Once for all, handed directly to the holy ones
Question 6: Was this faith complete prior to the writing of all of Scripture (c. 90 AD)?
A. Yes
B. No
Question 7: Was this faith complete prior to the canonization of Scripture (c. 400 AD)?
A. Yes
B. No
"Take as your norm the sound words that you heard from me, in faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard this rich trust with the help of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us." 2 Tim 1:13-14
Question 8: The norm of faith for the early Bishops like Timothy was:
A. Scripture alone
B. The sound words they received from the apostles
Question 9: These words make up a rich trust of the Faith
A. True
B. False
Question 10: The Holy Spirit that dwells inside the apostles and the early bishops like Timothy will help guard this rich trust of the Faith.
A. True
B. False
"You have followed my teaching, way of life, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance…But you, remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it, and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work." 2 Tim 3:10,14-17
Question 11: The teaching, way of life and faith that Timothy followed, he learned from:
A. The Scriptures
B. The apostle Paul
Question 12: Since the New Testament was not written when Timothy was a child, and he was an uncircumcised Greek from Asia Minor(Acts 16), the Scriptures that he knew as a child that Paul says are inspired by God are most likely:
A. The Hebrew Tanahk used by Palestinian Jews
B. The Greek Septuagint, which includes the Catholic Deuterocanonical books, used by Greek speaking Jews in Asia Minor
Question 13: The Scriptures are here described as:
A. Entirely sufficient
B. Useful
"Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat a meal?' He said to them in reply, 'And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" Matt 15:2-3
Question 14: In this verse Jesus indicates that:
A. All traditions are bad
B. Breaking God's commandments for the sake of a tradition is bad
"Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the Traditions you were taught, either by oral statement or by a letter of ours." 2 Thess 2:15
Question 15: The believers are here commanded to hold fast to:
A. Scripture alone
B. Traditions
Question 16: How were these Traditions received?
A. Apostolic letters
B. Oral teaching
C. All of the above
Question 17: According to this verse, not only the written, but also the oral Tradition taught by the apostles will make its recipients stand firm in the faith.
A. True
B. False
"I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the Traditions, just as I handed them on to you." 1 Cor 11:2
Question 18: The apostle handed on to his church:
A. Bibles
B. Traditions
Question 19: It is praiseworthy to hold fast to Apostolic Traditions, exactly as they handed them on.
A. True
B. False
"We instruct you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to shun any brother who conducts himself in a disorderly way and not according to the Tradition they received from us." 2 Thess 3:6
Question 20: The Thessalonian church received Tradition from the apostles
A. True
B. False
Question 21: The rule of conduct instructed here to the Thessalonian church is:
A. Scripture
B. Democratic vote
C. Tradition
Question 22: If someone does not conduct themselves according to the Tradition received from the Apostles, they should be shunned by the Church.
A. True
B. False
"But if I should be delayed, you should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of Truth." 1 Tim 3: 15
Question 23: What does the Scripture describe as the 'pillar and bulwark of Truth'?
A. The Bible
B. The Church
"Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures." Luke 24:27
"Then he opened their mind to understand the Scriptures." Luke 24: 45
Question 24: The scriptures were so clear that the apostles did not need an authoritative interpreter.
A. True
B. False
"Phillip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, 'Do you understand what you are reading?' He replied, 'How can I, unless someone instructs me?'" Acts 8:30-31
Question 25: The Ethiopian needed no one to instruct him, since what he was reading was so clearly expounded that not only the learned, but the unlearned could understand it.
A. True
B. False
"Know this first of all, that there is no prophecy of Scripture that is a matter for private interpretation, for no prophecy ever came through human will, but rather human beings, moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke under the influence of God." 2 Pt 1:20-21
Question 26: Which prophecies of Scripture are a matter for private interpretation?
A. Some
B. All
C. None
"And consider the patience of our Lord as salvation, as our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, also wrote to you, speaking of these things as he does in all his letters. In them there are some things that are hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, just as they do the other Scriptures." 2 Pt 3:15-16
Question 27: Some things in Paul's letters are hard to understand.
A. True
B. False
Question 28: Ignorant people distort not only Paul's letters, but all the Scriptures.
A. True
B. False
Question 29: Those who distort the Scriptures bring about their own destruction.
A. True
B. False
"I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create dissentions and obstacles, in opposition to the teaching that you learned; avoid them. For such people do not serve our Lord Christ…" Rom 16:17-18
Question 30: Those who oppose the teaching learned from apostles cause dissentions.
A. True
B. False
Question 31. Christians should avoid those who cause dissentions and obstacles.
A. True
B. False
"Whoever teaches something different and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the religious teaching is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid disposition for arguments and verbal disputes." 1 Tim 6:3-4
Question 32: What is to be our rule of faith?
A. The sound words of Jesus
B. Apostolic religious teaching
C. All of the above
Question 33: Whoever does not agree with the apostolic religious teaching is:
A. Still understanding the "essentials" of the faith
B. Conceited, understanding nothing
"But you, beloved, remember the words spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, for they told you, 'In the last times there will be scoffers who will live according to their own godless desires.' These are the ones who cause divisions; they live on the natural plane, devoid of the Spirit." Jude vs 17-19
Question 34: The apostles warned about people who would cause divisions.
A. True
B. False
Question 35: Those who cause divisions in the Church are:
A. Following the Spirit's prompting
B. Devoid of the Spirit
Extra-biblical questions:
"But again, when we refer them to that Tradition which originates with the Apostles, which is preserved by means of the succession of presbyters in the churches, they object to Tradition, saying that they themselves are wiser not merely than the presbyters, but even than the Apostles, because they have discovered the "unadulterated" truth…it comes to this, therefore, that these men do now consent neither to Scripture nor to Tradition." - Irenaeus, "Against Heresies, c. 180 AD
Question 36: What does Irenaeus say is the rule of faith in the second century Church?
A. The Bible alone (hint: there was no canonical Bible yet)
B. Scripture and Tradition
Question 37: How does he say they received their Tradition?
A. They made it up
B. The succession of presbyters preserved it
Question 38: What does he say was the characteristic of the heretics of his time?
A. Clinging to the Apostolic Tradition
B. Objecting to Apostolic Tradition
Extra Credit questions:
Question 39: Which book of the Bible lists which books are included in the Bible?
Question 40: Who wrote the Gospel of Mark and how do you know?
Question 41: Who wrote the book of Hebrews?
Question 42: Why are the Acts of Peter, the Acts of Paul, Paul's Epistle to the Laodiceans, Paul's Epistle to Seneca, the Epistles of Barnabas, the Epistles of Clement, and other writings of the Apostolic age not in the Bible?
Question 43: Before the writing and canonization of the Bible (a period of approx 60 years and 350 years, respectively), what was the rule of faith in the Church and the standard of orthodoxy? Did this rule change?
Question 44: If someone does not own a Bible (the situation of most prior to Gutenberg), can they know the Gospel truth with certainty? How?
Question 45: If someone cannot read, can they know the Gospel truth with certainty? How?
Question 46: Are unity, catholicity, and apostolicity defining characteristics of the Church that Christ established?
