The Bible: Sin, Evil, Guilt Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jeremiah

Jeremiah is known for being one of the more depressing of the Old Testament prophets, and this passage (Jeremiah 17:9) is hardly an exception. After saying that the heart is evil beyond understanding, God goes on to describe how He examines the heart to give everybody whatever their actions deserve. (You probably knew that Peter is not a book of the Bible.)

Answer: Everyone has become corrupt and no one does good.

God finds that "All have turned away; all alike have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one" (Psalm 14:3). Paul uses this passage along with several other Old Testament passages in Romans 3:9-20 to show that the whole world is sinful.

Answer: The things that come out of the person

Jesus had been criticized because He and His disciples had violated a Jewish tradition of washing their hands ritually before eating. After responding to them directly, Jesus got the crowd's attention and said that "Nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him." Later the disciples asked about what that meant. Jesus said that nothing from outside can defile a man because it goes into his stomach, not his heart and then it is eliminated. Rather, the things that come out of people's hearts defile them. Jesus then listed some of the bad things that can come out of a person's heart: "evil thoughts, sexual immoralities, thefts, murders," etc.

Answer: Upright

The writer of Ecclesiastes says, "I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes" (Ecclesiastes 7:29 HCSB). Conservative Christians believe that all mankind are born sinners since Adam rebelled against God by eating the fruit. Romans 5:12 is used to support this: "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned" (HCSB).

Answer: His own iniquity

There are many passages in the Psalms and Proverbs that talk about wicked people being trapped in their own schemes: "A wicked man's iniquities entrap him; he is entangled in the ropes of his own sin"; "[The wicked one] dug a pit and hollowed it out but fell into the hole he had made"; "Let ruin come on him unexpectedly, and let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it-- to his ruin" (Proverbs 5:22, Psalms 35:8, Psalms 35:8; also see Psalms 9:15 and Psalms 141:10).

This reminds one of the "Roadrunner" cartoons, don't you think?

Answer: The glory of God

A less than obscure passage, Romans 3:23 is the first verse in the Romans Road. The New Living Translation reads, "For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard."

Answer: born, conceived

Psalm 51 is believed to have been written by King David after he committed adultery with Bathsheba. (Here the LEB is used rather than the HCSB because it lends itself better to a fill-in-the-blanks question.)

Answer: The works of the flesh

The 'works of the flesh' are discussed shortly before the much more famous 'fruit of the spirit.' Paul warns regarding the works of the flesh that "those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:21).

Answer: Everyone who remains in the Father

"Everyone who remains in [the Father] does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen Him or known Him." Most Christians don't believe that a real believer will never sin at all. 'Sin' here is usually taken to mean to 'sin habitually' or 'sin often.' Some of the modern versions translate the text accordingly: the NIV, for example, says, "No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him."

Answer: death

If you're playing this quiz through, do you remember Romans 5:12 from question 4? After Adam ate the fruit God told Adam, "You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground, since you were taken from it. For you are dust, and you will return to dust" (Genesis 3:19, HCSB).