2025 edition · 6 min · pages 181–187
50-Question Study Guide
Review the twelve weeks
Foundations of Hope: A 50-Question Study Guide
This quiz is designed to help you reflect on the material covered in the 12-week series. Use it as a tool to solidify your understanding and prepare you to give a reason for the hope that you have.
Part I: The Foundation of Faith (Weeks 1-3)
The Cosmological Argument 1. Explain the Kalam Cosmological Argument in its three-step syllogism. Why is the first premise "Whatever begins to exist has a cause" and not "Everything has a cause"? 2. What scientific evidence, such as the Big Bang theory and the Second Law of Thermodynamics, supports the premise that "the universe began to exist"? 3. How does the Leibnizian Cosmological Argument (Argument from Contingency) differ from the Kalam argument? What is the role of the Principle of Sufficient Reason in this argument? 4. What key attributes of the "First Cause" can be deduced from the Cosmological Argument? Explain how the argument leads to a personal creator. The Teleological Argument 5. Describe William Paley's "Watchmaker" analogy. What was its primary weakness, especially in light of 19th-century scientific developments? 6. What is the Fine-Tuning Argument? Provide two specific examples of physical constants that appear to be precisely calibrated for life to exist. 7. How does the "Multiverse Hypothesis" attempt to explain fine-tuning? What are the primary philosophical and scientific challenges to this hypothesis? 8. Some critics claim the Fine-Tuning argument is a "God of the Gaps" fallacy. How would you respond to this charge, explaining why it is an "inference to the best explanation" based on knowledge, not ignorance? The Moral Argument 9. State the Moral Argument in its logical, three-step form. Why is the distinction between "objective" and "subjective" morality crucial to this argument? 10. How does C.S. Lewis use the phenomenon of "quarreling" to argue for the existence of a universal Moral Law? 11. How does the Christian worldview account for the fact that atheists can be morally good people? What is the difference between moral ontology (the grounding of morality) and moral epistemology (the knowledge of morality)? 12. Explain the Euthyphro Dilemma. What is the "third option" that provides a solution to this dilemma from a Christian perspective?
Part II: The Historical Bedrock (Weeks 4-5)
Reliability of the New Testament 13. What are the two key questions of the "bibliographical test" for ancient documents? 14. How does the New Testament compare to other classical works like Homer's Iliad in terms of the number of manuscripts and the time gap between the original and the earliest copies? 15. A skeptic claims, "There are hundreds of thousands of errors in the New Testament manuscripts. " How would you explain the nature of these "variants" and why they actually strengthen, rather than weaken, our confidence in the text? 16. Name two archaeological discoveries that corroborate specific people or places mentioned in the New Testament and explain their significance. 17. Why were the Gnostic gospels (like the "Gospel of Thomas") not included in the New Testament canon? Name two of the three criteria the early church used to recognize authoritative books. Eyewitness Evidence 18. Why is the creed in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 considered a "historical bombshell"? What does its early date tell us about the development of core Christian beliefs? 19. Explain the "Criterion of Embarrassment. " Why is the testimony of women as the first witnesses to the empty tomb a powerful example of this criterion? 20. What key facts about Jesus can be established from the writings of non-Christian historians like Tacitus and Josephus?
Part III: The Central Claim (Weeks 6-9)
The Crucifixion and Empty Tomb 21. Describe the primary medical cause of death by Roman crucifixion. 22. What is the "Swoon Theory, " and what are the three main arguments (medical, physical, and psychological) that refute it? 23. What is the medical significance of the Gospel of John's report that "blood and water" flowed from Jesus' pierced side? 24. Summarize the "J.E.T.S. " argument for the empty tomb. Which of the four points do you find most compelling? 25. How does the "enemy attestation" (the story that the disciples stole the body) ironically provide evidence for the empty tomb? 26. Why is the "Wrong Tomb Theory" considered highly implausible by historians? The Appearances and Transformed Lives 27. Why is the appearance of the risen Jesus to a group of over 500 people at once a significant challenge to the "Hallucination Theory"? 28. Besides the group appearances, what are two other major problems with explaining the resurrection appearances as hallucinations? 29. Describe the state of the disciples immediately after the crucifixion. What is the best explanation for their sudden and radical transformation into bold proclaimers of the resurrection? 30. Why is the conversion of James, the brother of Jesus, considered a key piece of evidence? What was his attitude toward Jesus during Jesus's ministry? 31. Explain why the conversion of Saul of Tarsus (Paul) is often called the most powerful piece of circumstantial evidence for the resurrection. 32. People die for their beliefs all the time. What makes the martyrdom of the apostles different and why is it evidence for their sincerity?
Part IV: Corroborating Forensic Evidence (Weeks 10-11)
The Shroud of Turin 33. What was the stunning discovery made by photographer Secondo Pia in 1898? Why would this feature be nearly impossible for a medieval forger to create? 34. What did the 1978 STURP team conclude about the nature of the image on the Shroud? Is it a painting, a scorch, or something else? 35. What is meant by the claim that the Shroud image contains "3D spatial information"? 36. The 1988 Carbon-14 test dated the Shroud to the Middle Ages. Describe two of the major scientific criticisms that have since been raised against the validity of that test. 37. How do the forensic details on the Shroud (e.g., nail wounds in the wrists, cap-like crown of thorns) align with the Gospel accounts and modern medical knowledge, yet contradict centuries of Christian art? The Sudarium of Oviedo 38. What is the Sudarium of Oviedo, and what was its purpose according to first-century Jewish burial customs? 39. Describe two key forensic links (e.g., blood type, pollen, stain patterns) that connect the Sudarium of Oviedo to the Shroud of Turin. 40. How does the well-documented history of the Sudarium present a major challenge to the medieval dating of the Shroud of Turin?
Part V: The Commission & Synthesis (Week 12 & Overall)
41. Explain C.S. Lewis's "Liar, Lunatic, or Lord" trilemma. Why is the option of Jesus being merely a "great moral teacher" not logically coherent according to Lewis? 42. What does 1 Peter 3:15 command believers to do? What two attitudes are essential when carrying out this command? 43. How do the philosophical arguments for God (Weeks 1-3) provide a crucial foundation for considering the historical claims about Jesus (Weeks 4-9)? 44. The "Minimal Facts" approach intentionally uses only data accepted by a wide range of scholars. What is the strategic advantage of this method in a conversation with a skeptic? 45. Why is it important to establish the reliability of the New Testament documents before examining the specific claims about the resurrection? 46. How do the empty tomb and the post-resurrection appearances work together to form a more powerful case than either piece of evidence would on its own? 47. If a friend argued that morality is just a product of evolution for survival, how would you respond using concepts from the Moral Argument? 48. Synthesize the evidence from the course to explain why the resurrection of Jesus is the best explanation for the known historical facts. 49. What is the difference between "proof" and "evidence" in the context of apologetics? Why does the Christian faith rest on a cumulative case of evidence rather than a single, definitive proof? 50. After reviewing all the evidence, which single argument or piece of evidence from this course has been the most personally impactful for your own faith, and why?