Are you a Roman Catholic or a Christian?
Grab pen and paper and take the following ten-question quiz (formulated by Dr. J. Ronald Blue of Dallas Theological Seminary). How you do will determine whether you’re a Roman Catholic or a Christian.
Choose the position which is most true:
1:
A). God gives a man right standing with Himself by mercifully accounting him righteous.
B). God gives a man right standing with Himself by actually making him into a righteous person.
2:
A). God gives a man right standing with Himself by placing Christ’s goodness and virtue to his credit.
B). God gives a man right standing with Himself by putting Christ’s goodness and virtue into his heart.
3:
A). God accepts the believer because of the moral excellence found in Christ.
B). God makes a believer acceptable by infusing Christ’s moral excellence into his life.
4:
A). If a man becomes born again, he will achieve right standing with God.
B). If a sinner receives right standing with God, he will then experience a transformation of character and life.
5:
A). We receive right standing with God through faith alone.
B). We receive right standing with God by faith and love.
6:
A). We achieve right standing with God by having Christ live out His life of obedience in us.
B). We achieve right standing with God by receiving the truth that he obeyed the Law of God perfectly for us.
7:
A). We achieve right standing with God by following Christ’s example by the help of enabling grace.
B). We follow Christ’s example because His life has given us right standing with God.
8:
A). God first declares us good, and then His Spirit begins making us good.
B). God sends His Spirit to make us good, and then He will declare that we are good.
9:
A). Christ’s finished work on the cross and intercession at God’s right hand gives us favor in God’s sight.
B). It is the indwelling Christ that gives us favor in God’s sight.
10:
A). Only by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness can we fully satisfy the claims of the Ten Commandments.
B). By the power of the Holy Spirit living in us we can fully satisfy the claims of the Ten Commandments.
Bonus Question 1:
You get to Heaven by works: True or False
Bonus Question 2:
Our faith is the ground of our salvation: True or False
Answers . . .
1: A
2: A
3. A
4. B
5. A
6. B
7. B
8. A
9. A
10. A
Bonus 1: True.
We get to Heaven by works, just not by our works. We get to heaven by Christ’s works.
Bonus 2: False.
Christ, not our faith, is the ground of our salvation.
“If you think faith is the ground of your salvation, your salvation is only as strong as your faith.” – Brian Borgman
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For those who want more of an explanation on the answers to this quiz, I encourage you to check out this coming Thursday’s sermon of the week by Brian Borgman (found here) in which he gives his congregation this same quiz, provides them with the answers, then answers their questions about it. I highly recommend this upcoming message on the doctrine of justification–especially if you didn’t do so well on this quiz.
By the way, if you’re wondering how I did, I didn’t fare so well. I only got eight out of ten questions right, and I got both of the bonus questions wrong. My wife, however, got all ten questions right, including the bonus questions. Perhaps I need to take a break from blogging and let her take my place.
Christ Alone Wyoming 
Quizzes first thing in the morning…brother! I got eight as well, but the first bonus question was a trick question! Got the second bonus question right though. Thanks for the eye opener.
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I’ve been studying the Gospel and the Roman cult for a while and got all but #4 right, plus bonus question #2. Some of the questions are cleverly worded and the sequencing of correct answers from A to B is very good. As noted, bonus #1 is a trick question.
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I don’t see anything objectionable to many of those questions, so it’s odd that the “quiz” would be framed to make most of the “B” options seem heretical (given that “A” is most often the “right answer”).
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Nick:
The most clever deceptions (or the best counterfeits) sound so much like truth that it’s often hard to tell the difference. The value in such quizzes is that it forces us to acutely determine if what we believe is actually what the Bible teaches.
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Heh Manfred,
#4 got me as well…. Along with both bonus questions…
I still don’t consider myself rc though 🙂
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I don’t know if failing the quiz would indicate a Roman Catholic or a Purpose Driven disciple. I see both groups answering the questions the same way (incorrectly).
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I have only browsed through, but I have had to look twice. It’s in the wording like twisting Scripture. When we really examine what someone says by Scripture we will reject the false, accept the true. Yes we must be Bereans
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It says so much about discernment, doesn’t it? It’s not between truth and lie, but between truth and almost truth.
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I have a question for each of you: how do we, as Christians, know which books (of the hundreds+ that circulated in the first couple of hundred years of the Church) are authentic, Spirit-authored, inerrant books that belong in the New Testament?
Honestly look at how the early Church discerned what was what, and what belonged in the Scriptures, and ask yourself a second question: what would that process have been like without an authoritative Church?
Thankfully we had (and have) that authoritative Church, and as a direct result we have the blessings of the Bible in our lives.
You’re welcome 🙂
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Bob Lorenzo,
God revealed to man which books are authentic. “the authoritative Church” – by which I assume you mean the Roman Catholic Cult, did not determine this and was not in existence during the first few centuries AD. The church of Rome has done its best to confuse Scripture, add to it, lock it up, and kill those who wanted to make it available for all. Yet God used even some Roman Catholics to preserve His Word while trying to consolidate their power – using the sinful bent of man for His purposes as He has done since time began.
We have God alone to thank for the Bible – no man or organization of man can claim any part of creating or preserving it.
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Well, I got a 50/50, and both bonus questions right… Guess that means that I should study harder…. Would any of you be willing to help? I still have a lot to learn and I’d like to erase as much of this Roman guck in my brain as possible..
Thanks…
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Greetings everyone. The corresponding sermon to this quiz (which explains the differences between Rome’s view of justification and the Bible’s view of justification) is up and can be found here. In this message, Borgman actually gives his congregation this same quiz, gives them the answers, and then responds to the congregation’s questions about it.
_______________________
Why is it that whenever we discuss or present a falsehood of Rome, the usual response is either:
1). “Rome follows a succession of apostles beginning with Peter the first Pope” [even though the evidence proves Peter was NOT the first pope (or any pope for that matter)]
or
2). “Rome put the Bible together” [which I guess means they have exclusive rights to it and can kill people for possessing a copy of it in their native tongue, or just add and subtract to it at will]
Both of these rote responses never deal directly with the topic at hand and both of them smack of “nanny nanny boo boo.”
For the sake of argument, let’s say Rome did put the Bible together, how would this equate to all its abominable teachings being sound?
Did not God use the wicked neighbors of Israel to punish her for her rebellion? Did not God use the legalistic Pharisees and the pagan Romans in His plan of redemption when they crucified Christ upon the cross?
God’s use of the wicked does not ascribe goodness to them, instead, God’s use of the wicked reveals His total sovereignty over His creation. Amen.
– Pilgrim
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The real question is this: which Roman Catholic canon is the RCC to follow? The canon that was “infallibly determined” by the early church? If so, which one? The one determined by the Synod of Hippo? The 1st Council of Carthage? The 2nd Council of Carthage? The Council of Rome? Damasus’ Vulgate? The list compiled by Innocent I?
Or maybe they should use the canon that was “infallibly determined” at the Council of Trent more than 1000 years later? Of course, one thing they won’t mention is that Trent excluded, by silence, the book of 1st Esdras–a book that was “infallibly determined” to be “Sacred Scripture”.
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It seems that the RCC is being discussed everywhere the last while. Here, SermonAudio, my blog and other places are all a flutter with Catholic subjects. Something’s in the wind…
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BabyCakes3677:
You asked: “Would any of you be willing to help?”
Just let us know how we can help you.
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Yes BayCakes3677, I am fairly new at all this as well. Growing by the day, receiving God’s truth, instruction and discipline, but still green behind the gills. These guys on this blog are wonderful and you, I and anyone else who wants to grow and learn will receive an eternity’s worth of fruit to munch on. Bless you for your willingness!
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Bob L asked: I have a question for each of you: how do we, as Christians, know which books (of the hundreds+ that circulated in the first couple of hundred years of the Church) are authentic, Spirit-authored, inerrant books that belong in the New Testament?
I reply: They’re in the Bible.
Bob asked: Honestly look at how the early Church discerned what was what, and what belonged in the Scriptures, and ask yourself a second question: what would that process have been like without an authoritative Church?
I reply: As FP has already pointed out, neither Hippo nor Carthage were binding ecumenical councils; and we find many Romanist theologians, including Popes, holding to a different canon of Scripture after both of these non-ecumenical, provincial councils.
In fact Trent was the first Romanist council that dogmatically listed the canon for use in that false church’s system, which thing didn’t occur until 1546. Of course since Trent’s decree defined not only which NT books were “canon”, but also which OT books (e.g. the apocryphal/deuterocanonical books), we are left with the incredible yet unavoidable conclusion that not even the Jews knew their own OT canon, and that it was in fact unknowable to anyone until Trent’s “infallible” decree.
Of course this assertion is laughably absurd, but that’s just Rome’s confused, contorted, tortured, and reliably wrong theology at work. As usual Rome’s position is perfectly inverted from the truth, and therefore she gets things exactly backwards.
As God’s Word, the canon has always been the canon. The canon was the canon before Trent, and before Carthage, and before Hippo, and before Athanasius, and before time. God’s Word has always been God’s Word because it was in the beginning (John 1:1). Canonicity is a function of inspiration, not ecclesiology. But sadly for Romanists the church serves as final authority resulting in the inescapable and fatal rule of sola ecclesia, in contradistinction to the God honoring doctrine of Sola Scriptura, the formal principle of the Reformation.
The 66 inspired books of the Holy Bible – sacred Scripture – comprise the norm that norms for Christian believers, whereas the harlot church of Rome refuses to be normed by Scripture, instead usurping its rightful place and blasphemously injecting herself into its role, declaring herself to be the norm that norms. She thereby explicitly sits in the place of God, and implicitly declares herself to be God – the unique and authoritative viva voce.
Bob L asserted: Thankfully we had (and have) that authoritative Church, and as a direct result we have the blessings of the Bible in our lives.
I reply: Exactly wrong, again. Your comment makes it quite clear that you haven’t carefully thought through the epistemological implications of your position. You seem to be fond of asking questions and making baseless assertions, but I wonder if you would you like to answer questions about Rome’s so-called “Sacred Tradition” which thing you must credit with “giving us the canon” due to your a priori presupposition of the ultimate authority of the Romanist church (i.e. “sola ecclesia”)?
Ironically since you necessarily hold to “sola ecclesia”, any questions about the reliability, veracity, and even evidence for so-called “Sacred Tradition” are completely unanswerable for you.
Why?
Well, because Rome must be right.
Why?
Well, because Rome is always right.
Why?
Well, because Rome is infallible.
Why?
Well, because Rome says so…
See how it works? Never mind that you have to base your arguments upon fables, falsehoods, and fabrications. Whatever works for you, I guess…
But now we can all see your naked epistomological fallacy, Bob L: you simply assert infallible knowledge of the canon because you blindly accept what the “Mother Church” tells you based on nothing more than an ephemeral, unprovable, and intangible “Sacred Tradition”.
Now, I have a question for you: How do you personally know that “Sacred Tradition?” is true?
Oops! Now you’re back at square one! You see, by blindly embracing Rome you’ve simply managed to move the question back a step.
You’re welcome 🙂
In Christ,
CD
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Roman Catholics *are* most certainly Christians! I’m sure it was an unintentional error, but by leaving us out of Christianity you are calling us pagans, which is offensive and hurtful.The correct terminology would be “Are you a Roman Catholic or a Protestant?”
Blessings
SB
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Shelby,
The same statement could be used to ask “Are you a Protestant or a Christian?” It is not a denomination or set of creeds that makes you a Christian. Let me ask you a different question.
If you were to die today and stand before God in judgment, as all will do one day at the end of their lives, and if He were to ask you, “Why should I let you, Shelby, into My heaven?” What would your answer be? Make sure you have the right answer because your eternity depends on the correct answer. We sincerely look forward to hearing back from you.
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