The passage in question reads as follows in the New King James Bible: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.”

Let us review Christ’s different statements one at a time.

First, He speaks of His disciples as sheep in the midst of wolves.

Barnes Notes on the Bible states: “I send you, inoffensive and harmless, into a cold, unfriendly, and cruel world.” The Benson Commentary adds: “I now send you forth weak and defenceless among a wicked, cruel, and persecuting people.” Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary elaborates: “Our Lord warned his disciples to prepare for persecution. They were to avoid all things which gave advantage to their enemies, all meddling with worldly or political concerns, all appearance of evil or selfishness, and all underhand measures.”

The basis of the question is correct; we do think that true Christian values are the only ones that would work in this society making it a much happier, safer and more enjoyable world than it currently is. What we see around us today is a world in turmoil, but this was prophesied.

We have made it clear on so many occasions that we believe that the 6,000 years allocated to man is almost up and that we are living in the end times. A passage in the New Testament sums up the behaviour of man at the end of this age: “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

We are living in a world that can be very discouraging and depressing, and a word of encouragement can be very uplifting. We know that in our spiritual life, roadblocks will be put in front of us in order to deter us from achieving our goal, but we mustn’t let these deter us in any way! We can and will win if we keep the Way of God.

What is the definition of encouragement?   In collinsdictionary.com we read that it is “the activity of encouraging someone, or something that is said or done in order to encourage them.” It then gives the following synonyms: “inspiration, help, support, aid, favour, comfort, comforting, cheer, cheering, consolation, reassurance, morale boosting, succour.”

Merriam Webster gives these definitions of encourage:

The importance of this period relates to the covenants God made with Abraham—which included God’s promise to deliver Abraham’s future descendants from slavery:

“Then He said to Abram: ‘Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions’” (Genesis 15:13-14).

The time did come when God began to fulfill His promise to save the people of Israel, and God chose Moses to lead the nation out of Egypt:

“And the LORD said: ‘I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt’” (Exodus 3:7-10).

This is a fundamental question that affects every facet of life. If there is no God, then everything is determined by man. It seems that the consensus of opinion in society is that concepts of right and wrong are just a matter of personal choice.

Dr J Slattery, writing specifically about sexual matters, stated the following:

“In today’s culture, right and wrong are sorted through a grid of what we perceive as being the best for ourselves and our fellow humans. Essentially, human beings are now ‘god,’ with the authority to determine our own moral compass. With this type of humanistic worldview, morality is defined as ‘do no harm.’ Ethics and morality are measured by whether or not people are harmed. ‘She’s not hurting anyone, so how could she be doing something wrong?’ From this perspective, Christians who stand against gay marriage, for example, are thought to be doing harm. They are ‘hurting’ people who want to celebrate the gay lifestyle. In contrast, those who want to participate in gay marriage are viewed as doing no harm.”

The Worldwide Church of God Bible Hymnal which was originally published in 1974 (“Hymnal”), is, and has been for a long time, an integral part of our weekly Sabbath and annual Holy Day services. In the opening notes of the Hymnal, headed, “How This Hymnal Came to Be,” Mr Herbert W Armstrong gave the historical background, and below are a few of the observations he made:

“It is… scriptural to sing hymns. Jesus sang hymns. After His last Passover, it is recorded, ‘And when they had sung [a] hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives’ (Matthew 26:30). I knew that the Psalms were, in fact, songs—or hymns. It was clear in my mind that God’s people should sing God’s inspired words, not man’s uninspired and often unscriptural words. But the Bible has not preserved nor revealed to us the music. God has left it to us to compose the music.

It is interesting to review this section of Scripture although Mr Norbert Link has already addressed aspects of this recently in a member letter and a StandingWatch programme.  In this Q&A, we want to show specific details of some of the New Testament apostles and make appropriate observations on a number of Scriptural references.

First of all, let us read what Deuteronomy 18:20-22 says:

“But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death. You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?’ If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.”

It’s a good question to ask and one to carefully consider; after all, they were doing the Work of God not long after Jesus was crucified and returned to heaven. In fact, this question is more important than we may, at first, think!

We know the process that true Christians have to go through when they are called by God. In his sermon on the Day of Pentecost, just 7 weeks after Jesus’ resurrection, Acts 2:38 states: “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” It is not just a question of “giving your heart to the Lord” but a complete change of direction. We read that we are to “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13). The Authorized Version has here, more accurately, “But straight is the gate, and narrow is the way…”

The word fool is defined as a person who acts unwisely or imprudently. The Bible has an added significance to this word as someone who disregards God’s Word.

Several Scriptures that describe such a person, often contrasting him- or herself with one who is wise and/or righteous, can be found in Ecclesiastes 10:2-3. A fool’s heart continually goes towards foolishness (Proverbs 26:4-12).  Fools do not learn their lesson from their mistakes and they continue on with them, doing the same foolish things over and over again, leading to their own destruction (Isaiah 32:6).

The book of Proverbs lists quite a few more characteristics of fools in contrast to the wise:  They don’t care about understanding (Proverbs 18:2, 6-7); they hate knowledge (Proverbs 1:22); they love doing evil (Proverbs 10:23); they broadcast folly or stupidity (Proverbs 12:23); they speak perversity (Proverbs 19:1); they are quick-tempered (Proverbs 12:16); they are deceitful and mock sin (Proverbs 14:8-9); they reject discipline and bring grief to their parents (Proverbs 15:5, 20; 17:25; 19:13); and they give in to sexual immorality through lustful behavior (Proverbs 6:32; 7:7-23).

We cover the matter of sexual sins in our booklet “God’s Teachings on Sexual Relationships” on pages 95-105, showing, quite clearly, that homosexuality is most certainly condemned in the Bible.

We read in Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible the following notes about Sodom: “A city on the shore of the Salt Sea south of Engedi; destroyed in the days of Abraham and Lot along with Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim.  BC 1900.”   All four cities are mentioned in Genesis 10:19.

On the website Britannica.com, we read: “Sodom and Gomorrah, notoriously sinful cities in the biblical book of Genesis, destroyed by ‘sulfur and fire’ because of their wickedness (Genesis 19:24). Sodom and Gomorrah along with the cities of Admah, Zeboiim, and Zoar (Bela) constituted the five ‘cities of the plain,’ and they are referenced throughout both the Old and New Testaments and the Qur’an.”