The top 101 questions people ask about God, Christianity, and apologetics based on Google search queries with links to Biblical answers – updated with 2019 data.
Editor Note: The updated Top 101 Theology Questions in 2020 is available now.
Last year, we created our inaugural version of the Top 101 Theological Questions in 2018. It was the most popular post on the blog. The aim of this post is to provide a list of questions that people type into Google every day: questions about God, Christianity, apologetics, and anything else related to Christian theology – aka theology questions. In addition, to the questions, we added a link to a Biblical or true, authoritative post that answers the question.
This year, we wanted to replicate the post with some notable changes:
- Added ‘denominations’ and Christian groups that were mostly absent last year.
- Added sins and doctrines that were mostly absent last year.
- Added Bible characters that were mostly absent last year.
- Added Bible verses that were mostly absent last year.
| Question* | Monthly Search Volume** |
| 1 | What is love? (love) | 3,350,000 |
| 2 | What is the Bible? (bible / scripture) | 1,830,000 |
| 3 | Who is Jesus? (jesus) | 1,500,000 |
| 4 | What is the church? (church) | 1,000,000 |
| 5 | What is the Salvation Army? (salvation army) | 1,000,000 |
| 6 | Who is God? (god) | 823,000 |
| 7 | What is meditation? (meditation) | 673,000 |
| 8 | What is evolution? (evolution) | 673,000 |
| 9 | What is the Big Bang? (big bang) | 673,000 |
| 10 | What is the Catholic Church? (catholic church) | 450,000 |
| 11 | What is a Christian? (christian) | 450,000 |
| 12 | What is heaven? (heaven) | 450,000 |
| 13 | What is sin? (sin / iniquity) | 450,000 |
| 14 | What is hell? (hades / hell) | 368,000 |
| 15 | What is reality? (reality) | 368,000 |
| 16 | What is the gospel? (gospel) | 301,000 |
| 17 | What is salvation? (salvation) | 301,000 |
| 18 | What is prayer? (pray / prayer) | 301,000 |
| 19 | What is the Lord's Prayer? (the lord's prayer) | 301,000 |
| 20 | What does God look like? (god images) | 301,000 |
| 21 | What was Noah's Ark? (noah's ark) | 246,000 |
| 22 | What is Hillsong? (hillsong) & Concerns about Hillsong | 246,000 |
| 23 | What does it mean to be omnipotent? (omnipotent) | 246,000 |
| 24 | What is the serenity prayer? (serenity prayer) | 246,000 |
| 25 | What is baptism? (baptism) | 246,000 |
| 26 | Who Am I? (who am i) | 246,000 |
| 27 | What is agape? (agape) - Biblical Greek word for 'love'. | 201,000 |
| 28 | What is the Apostle's Creed? (apostle's creed) | 201,000 |
| 29 | What is gluttony? (gluttony) | 201,000 |
| 30 | What is the fear of God (fear of god) | 201,000 |
| 31 | What is the meaning of life? (meaning of life) | 201,000 |
| 32 | What is truth? (truth) | 201,000 |
| 33 | What is the Methodist Church? (umc / methodist church) | 165,000 |
| 34 | What is a prayer for healing? (prayer for healing) | 165,000 |
| 35 | What is the Kingdom of Heaven? (kingdom of heaven) | 165,000 |
| 36 | What is a pastor? (pastor) | 165,000 |
| 37 | What is evil? (evil) | 165,000 |
| 38 | What are the fruits of the Spirit? (fruits of the spirit) | 165,000 |
| 39 | Who was Isaiah / What is the book of Isaiah? (isaiah) | 135,000 |
| 40 | What is the Orthodox Church? (orthodox) | 135,000 |
| 41 | What is Presbyterianism? (presbyterian) | 135,000 |
| 42 | What is a deity? (deity) | 135,000 |
| 43 | How to meditate as a Christian? (meditate) | 135,000 |
| 44 | What is fornication? (fornication) | 135,000 |
| 45 | What is an evangelist? (evangelist) | 135,000 |
| 46 | What is reincarnation? (reincarnation) | 135,000 |
| 47 | What is the 'Hail Mary' prayer? (hail mary) | 135,000 |
| 48 | What is a morning prayer? (morning prayer) | 135,000 |
| 49 | Who is the Holy Spirit? (holy spirit) | 135,000 |
| 50 | What is Christian dogma / doctrine? (christian dogma) | 110,000 |
| 51 | Who was Ezekiel / what is the Book of Ezekiel? (ezekiel) | 110,000 |
| 52 | What is Pentecostalism? (pentecostal) | 110,000 |
| 53 | What are some healing scripture verses? (healing scriptures) | 110,000 |
| 54 | What is avarice? (avarice) | 110,000 |
| 55 | What is the Mennonite Church? (mennonite) | 110,000 |
| 56 | What did Jesus look like? (jesus pictures) | 110,000 |
| 57 | Who was Jeremiah / what is the Book of Jeremiah? (Jeremiah) | 90,500 |
| 58 | What is the Book of Ecclesiastes? (Ecclesiastes) | 90,500 |
| 59 | Why do we say 'God bless you' when someone sneezes? (god bless you) | 90,500 |
| 60 | What is the Book of Deuteronomy? (Ecclesiastes) | 90,500 |
| 61 | What is the Immaculate Conception (Mary)? (immaculate conception) | 90,500 |
| 62 | What does Jehovah mean? (jehovah) | 90,500 |
| 63 | What is Communion? (communion) | 90,500 |
| 64 | What is the Book of Psalms? (psalms) | 90,500 |
| 65 | What is an Evangelical? (evangelical) | 90,500 |
| 66 | What is monotheism? (monotheism) | 90,500 |
| 67 | What are some encouraging Bible verses? (encouraging bible verses) | 90,500 |
| 68 | What is deism? (deism) | 90,500 |
| 69 | What does eternal mean? (eternal meaning) | 90,500 |
| 70 | What are some Bible verses about faith? (bible verses about faith) | 90,500 |
| 71 | What are the names of God? (names of god) | 90,500 |
| 72 | Who is the Archangel Michael? (archangel michael) | 90,500 |
| 73 | What is original sin? (original sin) | 90,500 |
| 74 | What is the 'evil eye' and should I be worried about it? (evil eye) | 90,500 |
| 75 | What is life? (what is life) | 90,500 |
| 76 | Who were David & Goliath? (david and goliath) | 74,000 |
| 77 | What is Calvary (calvary) | 74,000 |
| 78 | What is the Baptist church? (baptist church) | 74,000 |
| 79 | What does 'adonai' mean? (adonai) | 74,000 |
| 80 | What is the 'Holy Trinity'? (holy trinity) | 74,000 |
| 81 | What is the Nicene Creed? (nicene creed) | 74,000 |
| 82 | What is a sermon? (sermon) | 74,000 |
| 83 | What is the Episcopal Church denomination? (episcopal church) | 74,000 |
| 84 | What is the Brethren church? (brethren) | 74,000 |
| 85 | What are some inspirational Bible verses? (inspirational bible verses) | 74,000 |
| 86 | What is polytheism? (polytheism) | 74,000 |
| 87 | What are some prayers for strength? (prayers for strength) | 74,000 |
| 88 | What is apologetics? (apologetics) | 74,000 |
| 89 | Does Jesus love me? (jesus loves me) | 74,000 |
| 90 | What is the Act of Contrition (act of contrition) | 74,000 |
| 91 | What is the Seventh Day Adventist church? (seventh day adventists) | 74,000 |
| 92 | What is a spirit? (spirit meaning) | 74,000 |
| 93 | What is a supplication? (supplication) | 74,000 |
| 94 | When was Jesus born? (when was jesus born) | 74,000 |
| 95 | What is mammon? (mammon) | 74,000 |
| 96 | What does 'the Lord is my Shepherd' mean? (lord is my shepherd) Found in Psalm 23 | 60,500 |
| 97 | How to study the Bible? (bible study) | 60,500 |
| 98 | What is the Catholic Bible? (catholic bible) | 60,500 |
| 99 | Who was John the Baptist? (john the baptist) | 60,500 |
| 100 | What is the Church of Christ 'denomination'? | 60,500 |
| 101 | What does 'be still and know that I am God' mean? | 60,500 |
Methodology for Compiling the Top 101 Questions
Every list of popular Christian apologetics questions will be different. Each researcher will filter out good queries that could be considered theology questions or apologetic queries by another researcher. So it’s important to list the assumptions for any set of questions.
- We used Google’s Keyword Planner (a keyword research tool) to compile a new list of theological queries. This year’s research captured more queries not in the last year’s list.
- All search queries are questions, though not all are phrased as questions.
- Many query variations of the same general question. We did compress some queries into one query.
- Initial queries are not necessarily directed towards Christians, but queries can be answered by Christian theology. Ex. “What is the meaning of life”
- Questions are asked by Christians and non-Christians.
- Results are a snapshot of questions the broader culture is asking at the time the keyword research was accessed. In 10 years, the list may be significantly different.
- Like last year’s 101 questions, results are worldwide – NOT just from the US.
Inclusions
- Basic Christian theology questions.
- Psychological questions: who am I.
- Varieties of Christianity: Catholic Church, Methodist Church, etc.
- Science: cosmology, evolution, etc.
- Philosophical questions: what is truth, etc.
- Trustworthiness of Biblical doctrines questions.
Exceptions
- Names and books were removed.
- Types of meditations were removed.
- Individual churches or ministries were removed.
- Bible versions and Bible references were removed.
- Other gods / goddesses were removed.
- Philosophies and religions were removed (unless compared with Christianity).
- Noteable related exceptions: what is freedom, what is philosophy.
* Queries are rephrased in the form of a question. The original query is in parentheses based on the original keyword export.
** Monthly search volume is based on global search volume for all languages for the exact query typed from January 2019. Numbers are estimates based on data Google shares with its advertisers.
