Scripture answers
Careful answers to common Bible questions, each weighed verse by verse by who is speaking (God, Jesus, the apostles), with word-for-word verified citations. Open any question for the summary, then see SAM's full analysis.
Contested
- Was Jesus crucified on Wednesday or Friday?Contested
- Does Colossians 2:16 abolish the Sabbath?Inferred
- Is the seventh-day Sabbath binding on Gentiles?Contested
- Is baptism required for salvation?Contested
- Will there be a literal thousand-year reign (the millennium)?Contested
- Does scripture permit divorce and remarriage?Contested
- Are any foods forbidden to Christians today?Contested
- Are head coverings commanded in worship?Contested
- Can a Christian lose their salvation?Contested
- Is the Christian Sabbath Saturday or Sunday?Contested
- Is speaking in tongues for today?Contested
- Is hell eternal conscious torment or annihilation?Contested
- Is the rapture biblical?Contested
- Does the Bible teach predestination?Contested
- Did Jesus descend into hell?Contested
- Was humanity vegetarian before the flood?Direct
- Are the clean and unclean food laws of Leviticus 11 binding on Christians?Contested
- Does the Bible forbid eating pork?Direct
- Does Peter's vision in Acts 10 abolish the food laws?Direct
- Does Mark 7:19 declare all foods clean?Inferred
- What did the Jerusalem Council require Gentiles to abstain from?Direct
- Is eating blood forbidden to Christians?Direct
- Is eating meat sacrificed to idols permitted?Contested
- Does the Bible promise physical healing to every believer?Inferred
- Is sickness caused by personal sin?Inferred
- Is a failure to be healed a failure of faith?Inferred
- Did the gift of healing continue after the apostles?Contested
- What was Paul's thorn in the flesh?Absent
- Why did Paul leave Trophimus sick and tell Timothy to take wine for his stomach?Direct
- Will there be sickness after the resurrection?Inferred
- Was the Sabbath given before Sinai?Direct
- Is the Sabbath command moral law or ceremonial law?Contested
- Did Jesus break the Sabbath?Contested
- Did the early church meet on the first day of the week?Direct
- Does the Old Testament death penalty for working on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:2-3, Numbers 15:32-36) still apply today, and what does it show about the kind of law the Sabbath was?Inferred
- Did Paul keep the seventh-day Sabbath (Acts 17:2, Acts 18:4, 1 Corinthians 9:20-21)?Direct
- Does the Bible say the Sabbath would end or continue (Hosea 2:11, Matthew 24:20, Isaiah 66:23)?Inferred
- Do the New Testament calls to keep God's commandments (John 14:15, 1 John 5:3, Revelation 12:17, Revelation 14:12) include the seventh-day Sabbath (Matthew 19:17-19, Romans 13:8-10, James 2:10-11)?Inferred
- Were the Ten Commandments abolished at the cross (2 Corinthians 3:7-11, Ephesians 2:14-16, Hebrews 8:13, Matthew 5:17-19)?Inferred
Is it taught?
Canon
- Is 1 Enoch inspired or canonical scripture?Inferred
- Who wrote the letter to the Hebrews?Absent
- Are the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonical) books inspired scripture?Inferred
- When a New Testament writer quotes a non-biblical source (Paul quoting pagan poets in Acts 17:28, 1 Corinthians 15:33 and Titus 1:12, or Jude quoting Enoch), does that make the source scripture?Inferred
Christian living
Verse meaning
- What does John 1:1 mean ('the Word was God')?Inferred
- What does John 8:58 mean ('before Abraham was, I am')?Direct
- What does 1 Peter 3:21 mean ('baptism now saves you')?Contested
- What does John 3:5 mean ('born of water and Spirit')?Contested
- What does Romans 14:5 mean about esteeming one day above another?Inferred
- What does Matthew 16:18 mean ('on this rock I will build my church')?Contested
- What does James 2:24 mean ('justified by works and not by faith alone')?Inferred
- What does 1 Timothy 2:12 mean about women teaching?Contested
- What does 2 Timothy 3:16 mean that scripture is 'God-breathed'?Direct
- What does Malachi 3:10 mean about the tithe?Direct
- What does 'by his stripes we are healed' (Isaiah 53:5) mean?Inferred
- Does James 5:14-15 promise healing through prayer and anointing?Inferred
- Does Hebrews 4 teach a remaining Sabbath rest?Inferred
- Does Galatians 4:10 condemn observing days?Inferred
- What does 'the Lord's day' in Revelation 1:10 mean?Inferred
Who is Jesus?
Salvation
- Are we saved by faith alone, or by faith plus works?Inferred
- Is Jesus the only way to salvation?Direct
- Is repentance required for salvation, or is belief alone enough?Inferred
- What happens to those who never heard the gospel?Contested
- Will everyone ultimately be saved?Inferred
- Must you confess Jesus as Lord out loud to be saved?Inferred
- Can you be saved without belonging to a church?Inferred
- Does continuing to sin after conversion cost you your salvation?Contested
- What is the unforgivable sin, the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit that Jesus spoke of?Direct
- Can a person today commit the unforgivable sin, and how would they know?Inferred
- What does the parable of the sower say about those who believe for a while and then fall away?Direct
- Does salvation depend on continuing in the faith, or is it settled once for all?Contested
Death & the soul
- Are the dead conscious, or do they sleep until the resurrection?Contested
- Do believers spend eternity in heaven, or on a renewed earth?Inferred
- Is the soul naturally immortal, or can it die?Inferred
- What did Jesus promise the thief on the cross (Luke 23:43)?Direct
- What happens to a person immediately after death?Contested
- What is sheol (hades) — the grave, or a place of the dead?Inferred
- What is the second death in Revelation?Direct
- When does the resurrection happen, and who is raised?Contested
Unseen realm
- Who were the Nephilim in Genesis 6?Contested
- Who are the 'sons of God' in Genesis 6:1-4?Contested
- Were the Nephilim giants — what does the word Nephilim actually mean?Inferred
- How were there Nephilim after the flood (Numbers 13:33)?Contested
- What do Jude and 2 Peter say about the angels who sinned?Direct
- Who were the Anakim and Rephaim?Direct
End times
- Does the Bible promise that believers will be kept from God's wrath or from the tribulation (1 Thessalonians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 5:9, Revelation 3:10)?Contested
- Does the book of Revelation place the church in heaven before the tribulation (Revelation 4:1) or on earth during it (Revelation 7:14)?Contested
- In Jesus' teaching about the end of the age, who is taken first: the righteous or the wicked (Matthew 13:30, Matthew 13:40-43, Matthew 24:40-41)?Direct
- Can Christ return at any moment, or must other events happen first (Titus 2:13, Matthew 24:42-44, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3)?Contested
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