Belief about deity (God)

Question 1

What is meant by the Apostle’s Creed?

Answer 1

An early statement of Christian belief

Question 2

What is a cosmological argument?

Answer 2

The argument that there must be a ‘first cause’ and that this was God

Question 3

Who is the ‘Father’?

Answer 3

One person of the threefold nature of God

Question 4

What prayer does forgiveness play a part in?

Answer 4

The teaching of forgiveness forms part of the most important and widely used Christian prayer - the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, commonly known as the Lord’s prayer.

Question 5

What is heaven?

Answer 5

A Christian idea of paradise where the soul goes after death if it is free from sin to have eternal life with God

Question 6

What is the Holy Spirit?

Answer 6

One person of the threefold nature of God

Question 7

What does ‘incarnate’ mean?

Answer 7

The doctrine that God took human form in Jesus

Question 8

What is monotheism?

Answer 8

Belief in one God

Question 9

What is the resurrection?

Answer 9

The rising from the dead of Jesus Christ on the third day after crucifixion.

Question 10

Who is the ‘Son’?

Answer 10

One person of the threefold nature of God

Question 11

What is a teleological argument?

Answer 11

The argument that the world is so complex that is must have had a designer and the designer must have been God

Question 12

What is the trinity?

Answer 12

The Christian belief that God is three separate persons within One - Father, Son, and holy spirit

Question 13

What is an ontological argument?

Answer 13

The argument based on the idea that God is greater than anything else people can think of.

Question 14

Christians believe that there is only one God - what is this called?

Answer 14

Monotheism

Question 15

Why do Christians think it is difficult to describe God?

Answer 15

They believe He is not like any other living being

Question 16

What is meant by the term ‘holy’ to describe God?

Answer 16

Special, pure and set apart

Question 17

What part of the Trinity is being talked about in Genesis 1:2?

(“In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth”)

Answer 17

The Father God

Question 18

What do Christians believe about God the Father?

Answer 18

• Creator and sustainer of heaven and earth; cares for everyone and everything
• Acts as a judge and will punish humans if they do wrong
• Forgiving if humans say sorry for the things they have done wrong
• Almighty (powerful)
• ‘Loving Parent’
• Usually referred to as ‘he’ (male)

Question 19

What do Christians believe about God the Son in the form of Jesus Christ?

Answer 19

• Jesus was the son of God; God incarnate; both fully God and fully human
• Born of a human mother, lived a human but sinless life on Earth
• Showed people how to live in the right way so that they could enter the kingdom of Heaven
• Showed God’s love by being crucified so that humans could be forgiven of their wrongdoing
• God showed power over death when Jesus rose from the dead (resurrection)
• Jesus ascended to Heaven and at the end of time he will come as judge

Question 20

What part of the Trinity is being referred to in Luke 30b-33?

(“Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. You will be with child and give birth to a Son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”)

Answer 20

Jesus Christ, the Son

Question 21

What do Christians believe about God in the form of the Holy Spirit?

Answer 21

• After Jesus ascended to Heaven, God sent the Holy Spirit to Earth
• The Power of God at work in the world today
• Used to guide, support and inspire Christians

Question 22

What part of the Trinity is being referred to in Acts 1:8-9?

(“ ‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight.”)

Answer 22

The Holy Spirit

Question 23

Where can the core beliefs about God be found?

Answer 23

In the Apostle’s Creed.

Question 24

Give 4 attributes of God.

Answer 24

• Omnipotent
• Omniscient
• Omnipresent
• Omnibenevolent

Question 25

What is meant by the term ‘omnipotent’?

Answer 25

All-powerful

Question 26

What is meant by the term ‘omniscient’?

Answer 26

All-knowing

Question 27

What is meant by the term ‘omnipresent’?

Answer 27

Everywhere

Question 28

What is meant by the term ‘omnibenevolent’?

Answer 28

All-loving

Question 29

How else can ‘all-powerful’ be described?

Answer 29

Omnipotent

Question 30

How else can ‘all-knowing’ be described?

Answer 30

Omniscient

Question 31

How else can ‘everywhere’ be described?

Answer 31

Omnnipresent

Question 32

How else can ‘all-loving’ be described?

Answer 32

Omnibenevolent

Question 33

Give 6 brief statements about why Christians might believe in God.

Answer 33

• Ontological argument
• Cosmological argument
• Teleological/design argument
• Argument from experience
• Moral argument
• Background and upbringing

Question 34

Explain how an ontological argument might be a reason for a Christian to believe in God.

Answer 34

One Christian thinker, Anselm, said that God should be described as ‘that which nothing greater can be conceived’. This means that God must exist otherwise we could not produce this description.

Question 35

What great Christian thinker came up with the theory of ontological arguments?

Answer 35

Anselm

Question 36

Explain how a cosmological argument might be a reason for a Christian to believe in God.

Answer 36

Thomas Aquinas argued that something cannot come from nothing. He carried on to say that, therefore, because there is a universe, someone or something must have brought it into existence. He said that this ‘first cause’ of the universe was God.

However, although Aquinas said that this ‘first cause’ of the universe was God there is no proof of this statement. It is possible that there was a ‘first cause’ of the universe that was not God.

Question 37

Who came up with the idea of a cosmological argument?

Answer 37

Thomas Aquinas

Question 38

What is a teleological argument also known as?

Answer 38

Design argument