Questions and Answers

Whenever and wherever it is necessary, we try to give the background to any question which can give reasons and explanations that might not otherwise be taken into account.

Let us look into the background of Lot. He was the son of Abraham’s brother, Haran, and his wife was Milcah (see Genesis 11:27-29).   We may have read these events many times before, but it is helpful to review them again with the thought in our mind that we are all, to one degree or another, a product of our environment.   Bearing that in mind may give more than a clue as to why some terrible sins could have been committed.

In Genesis 12:1-4 we read:

“Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.  I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’   So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.”

We read in the following verse: “Then Abram…

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In the first part of this two-part series, we covered a number of areas where we have to be careful about the company we keep.   Let us move on to the question of friends.

Our good and true friends are those who will be with us in the bad times as well as in good times.   They will not be fair-weather friends. We have to be aware of the admonition in Proverbs 16:28: “A perverse man sows strife, And a whisperer separates the best of friends.”

Proverbs 17:17 states that “A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity.” A friendship that is underpinned by God’s Holy Spirit and the love of God will be able to withstand the inevitable ups and downs that life throws at us.   The Free Dictionary states that “Human beings necessarily depend on one another, as you can’t manage all by yourself; no man is an island.  This expression is a quotation from John Donne’s Devotions (1624).”

A very important and vital part of the company we keep is outlined in Proverbs 27:6: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”   Very often, we can bridle when we are told something that…

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For someone who is called by God into His true Church, the company that he or she keeps is of paramount importance.   When someone responds to God’s calling, they will repent, be baptised and receive God’s Holy Spirit as they start on their onward journey towards the eternal Kingdom of God (compare Acts 2:38).   Anything that is a stumbling block or hindrance to their progress is to be resisted with all of their might, and with help from God, that can be achieved.

We can’t choose our family but we can choose our friends.   As one old saying goes, “friends are the family you choose.”

The American entrepreneur and motivational speaker Jim Rohn said that “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Bearing this in mind, we should think about the people with whom we spend time, particularly bearing in mind the great calling that God has given us.

There will be those who may have no interest in our beliefs but on the face of it may seem to be good friends.  In such a case, we have to determine whether they will be a help or hindrance to our Christian Way of Life.

The Bible…

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You may be referring to the phrase that was used in a sermon that “you have to be sold on the Way of Life” to be a true Christian.

When someone is called into the true Church of God, it is a unique calling from God, as we read in John 6:44 where Jesus said: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.” In fact, Jesus repeated this in verse 65 of the same chapter, prefacing His comments with: “I have said to you…,” and then reiterating that a calling from the Father was necessary.

Unfortunately, today there are those who say that they have been seeking God and join a church of their choice, but that is not a calling from God. It is a priceless privilege to be called by God at this time, and He places in His church those whom He chooses.

The Free Dictionary online describes the phrase “to be sold on something” as an idiom, and idioms are classified as figurative language which is the use of words in an unusual or imaginative manner. It describes the phrase as follows:

“…to be…

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We realize that we might surprise many people when we say that we are not born again—that nobody is or ever has been born again, except for Jesus Christ, the firstborn of many brethren. True Christians, dead or alive, are God the Father’s sons and daughters and Christ’s brothers and sisters, but they are not born again yet. We will explain this further in this Q&A.

On September 7, 2021, God’s Church will celebrate the Feast of Trumpets. This day pictures many things, including the return of Jesus Christ and our resurrection or change to eternal life. It is then that we will enter the Kingdom or Family of God—when we inherit eternal life as God Beings—when we will become born again.

As we will show, the correct understanding of the born again question is of tremendous and vital importance; actually, it is an issue of salvation. If we do not comprehend the full meaning, we may be rejecting other aspects of the Truth of God. We speak from experience, as this has happened to many members of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) after the death of its late human leader, Herbert W. Armstrong, and we are sad to say that…

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There are many Scriptures that focus on the importance of prophecy. In fact, depending on different estimates, prophecy in the Bible takes up between 25% to 33% of all that is written. It is there for a reason – and if we ignore Bible prophecy, we are ignoring a large portion of God’s Word!

In 1 Thessalonians 5:20-21, we read: “Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good.” We are admonished to prove what is written in the Word of God where there are hundreds of prophecies in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament. There are those who may try and forecast future events with varying degrees of success and plenty of failures, but only God tells of many events in His Word without any mistakes or errors. When prophecies come to pass, the accuracy of the Bible is proved.

Prophecy is, simply stated, history written in advance.

In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, we read: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Many today look at many sources to…

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Let us review the biblical references to what Jesus said in respect to the mustard seed.

We read in Matthew 13:31-32: “Another parable He put forth to them, saying: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field,  which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.’” (Also compare Mark 4:31 and Luke 13:18-19.)

The only two other references to the mustard seed in the Bible are in Matthew 17:20 and Luke 17:6 when they are used in the context of faith.

We read on the website personpaper.com about which is the smallest seed in the world:

“There are 300,000 species of seed-bearing plants in the world that we know of. Among these, the smallest seed belongs to an orchid known as Aerides odorata. This flowering plant lives in areas across China, Southeast Asia, and the Philippines, preferring a rainforest-type habitat. The seed of the Aerides odorata is only 0.2 millimeters in length. That may be a little hard to picture, so here is more of a…

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For many years, the (now defunct) Worldwide Church of God (WCG), under its human leader, Herbert W. Armstrong, knew the answer to this question. WCG also knew that God is not a Trinity, but a Family, consisting of two Persons—the Father and the Son. It knew that the Son—Jesus Christ—died and was dead for three days and three nights, and that He was resurrected by God the Father. WCG also knew that even though God is Spirit or a Spirit being, He has spiritual form and shape.

When Mr. Armstrong died, changes were introduced under the new administration, in order to become more like “orthodox” Christianity. At first, it was proclaimed that God is just one Person, but He consists of three “hypostases” or modes of being. The “new” WCG adopted this concept from the Greek Orthodox Church. But not being satisfied with that “explanation,” it moved on to embrace the concept of the Trinity, as taught by the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant churches—one Person in three Persons.  (A long-time Evangelist stated at the time that the transition from the Greek Orthodox Church’s concept to the Roman Catholic Church’s concept was never explained.)

With this change, the idea was promulgated…

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The Church of God has understood for many years that Jesus Christ was THE God of the Old Testament. In more recent times, some have lost this understanding and teach now that Jesus was “a” God, but not “the” God of the Old Testament, or that He did not exist prior to His human birth. Some even teach now that the Father was THE God of the Old Testament.

All these assumptions and concepts are wrong.

In our booklet, “Do You Know the Jesus of the Bible?”, we said the following in chapter 1:

“Colossians 1:16 states that ‘all things’—visible and invisible—were created ‘by’ and ‘through’ Jesus Christ. We see in John 1:1–3 that ‘all things’ were made through the Word—the Logos—Jesus Christ; and Hebrews 1:1–2; 2:10 tells us that God the Father made ‘the worlds’ or the entire universe and ‘all things’ ‘through’ Jesus Christ.”

This shows that it was Jesus Christ who created Adam and Eve. Continuing:

“Jesus Christ spoke of His own pre-existence over and over again. At one time, He stated boldly that He—AS God—had lived before Abraham. The Jews were so outraged that they were willing to stone Jesus. Notice the dialogue and the reaction of the Jews to…

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In a recent Editorial, we stated “that no one has seen God the Father, except in a vision.” When people saw God in the Old Testament, they saw Jesus Christ. We continued:

“When we consider the example of Moses, we find in Exodus 33:11 that ‘the LORD spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend’… in Exodus 33:18, Moses asked to see God’s glory. In verse 20 God or Jesus Christ replied and said: ‘You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.’ In verse 23 we find that God did allow Moses to see His back, but not His face. God stated later that Moses saw the form or similitude of the LORD (Numbers 12:8). In these examples, men and, at times, women, had seen the appearance of God, actually Jesus Christ…”

We state much more about Jesus Christ, being the God of the Old Testament, in our free booklet, “Jesus Christ—A Great Mystery.”

On the other hand, while people never saw God the Father “face to face,” they DID see Him in visions. The Old Testament writers knew about the existence of the Father, and in the New Testament, further visions…

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