How Roman Catholic or Protestant Deep Down Are You? Take this Quiz by Jim Ayars and Find Out!

 For each of the pairs of statements below, select the statement which you believe is most

correct, in line with your understanding. Then tabulate your selections on the next page.

1 (a) God gives a man right standing with Himself by mercifully accounting him innocent and

virtuous.

(b) God gives a man right standing with Himself by actually making him into an innocent

and virtuous 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 Jesus Christ.

(b) God makes the believer acceptable by infusing Christ’s moral excellence into his life.

4 (a) If a Christian becomes “born again” (regenerate, transformed in character), he will

achieve right standing with God.

(b) If the sinner accepts right standing with God by faith in Christ’s sinless life and atoning

death, he will then experience transformation in character.

5 (a) We receive right standing with God by faith alone in the blood of Christ.

(b) We receive right standing with God by faith which has become active by 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 believing that Christ obeyed the law perfectly for

us.

7 (a) We achieve right standing with God by following Christ’s example by the help of His

enabling grace.

(b) We follow Christ’s example because His sinless life has given us right standing with God.

8 (a) God first pronounces that we are good in His sight, then gives us His Spirit to begin to

make us good.

(b) God sends His Spirit to make us good, and then He will pronounce that we are good.

9 (a) Christ’s intercession at God’s right hand gives us favor in the sight of God.

(b) It is the indwelling Christ that gives us favor in God’s sight.

10 (a) Only by faith in the doing and dying of Christ 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.

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Protestant - Catholic Quiz

If you agreed with the following statements,

you are a Protestant”

1 (a)

2 (a)

3 (a)

4 (b)

5 (a)

6 (b)

7 (b)

8 (a)

9 (a)

10 (a)

Total Selected ____

If you agreed with the following statements,

you are a Roman Catholic:

1 (b)

2 (b)

3 (b)

4 (a)

5 (b)

6 (a)

7 (a)

8 (b)

9 (b)

10 (b)

Total Selected ____

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If you are unable to tell the difference between the two types of statements, you need to do some

careful, prayerful study of the issues involved.

The key question is this: how does one attain to right standing before God.

Rome teaches that our right standing with God is the result of an inner transformation wrought by

grace (a divine power) acting within the believer over time. The official definition of justification is

that it is not merely the forgiveness of sins, but also the sanctification and renovation of the inner man

so that the sinner becomes a friend of God. We are saved by grace flowing to us through the

sacraments.

The Reformation proclaimed that our right standing with God is received by grace (an attribute of

the character of God such that He freely treats us differently than we deserve) through faith in Jesus’

life, death, resurrection, and ascension in our behalf. In union with Christ (a union created by God in

the incarnation of Christ, 1 Corinthians 1:30), we have lived, died, risen, and ascended in His life, death,

resurrection and ascension. We are justified by grace alone, through faith alone, for Christ’s sake alone,

according to the Scriptures alone, all for the glory of God alone.

In Seventh-day Adventism, it is expressed in the phrase “Christ Our Righteousness.” In keeping

with Paul’s writings, it is expressed by the phrase “in Christ.” In ourselves, we are sinners, but in Christ

we are righteous — at the same time, a belief identical to Luther’s SIMUL IUSTUS ET PECATOR —

“we are at the same time righteous and sinner.” In Christ, we have lived a perfect, sinless, righteous,

holy life; in Christ we died at Calvary; in Christ we arose from death to life, and are now a new

creation; in Christ we are now seated at the right hand of God. (Ephesians 2:4-10; Colossians 3:1-5,

Hebrews 10:10, 14). By grace through faith, everything Christ IS, DID, is NOW DOING, and SHALL

DO is ours. Now, within Christ’s imputed righteousness, by faith alone, we grow in grace and in the

knowledge of Christ until we reach full maturity IN CHRIST. We are fully justified and sanctified

within His righteousness. Justification is our title to heaven; sanctification is our fitness for it. Both our

title to heaven and our fitness for it are found in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. (The Review and

Herald, June 4, 1895; Desire of Ages, p. 300).