How Are Dogs & Cats Depicted in the Bible? – Weekly Q&A for November 7, 2024

How Are Dogs & Cats Depicted in the Bible?

From Smitha – Dogs are very loyal, innocent, and unconditionally loving. We have a lot to learn from them. But the Bible teaches otherwise. And there is no mention of beautifully created cats in the Bible. Why is it so?

A recent video I watched, where a man was arguing against the inerrancy of the Bible.

His position was, “the Bible makes lots of mistakes,” and this was one of his arguments.

The Bible generally presents dogs in a negative light:

Isaiah 56:10-11

His watchmen are blind,
They are all ignorant;
They are all dumb dogs,
They cannot bark;
Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
Yes, they are greedy dogs
Which never have enough.

Psalm 22:16

For dogs have surrounded Me;

Matthew 7:6

Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine,

Philippians 3:2

Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!

Revelation 22:15

But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.

But the argument, “this proves the Bible is filled with errors, because we know that dogs are awesome, and the Bible says (or implies) they aren’t” – that argument is nuts.

• If this is the kind of argument you’re making against the infallibility of the Bible, your arguments are really weak.

We understand and interpret the Bible in light of its original languages, its geographical setting, its historical setting, and its cultural setting.

In the cultures the Bible came from, dogs were – in general – rightly perceived as dangerous, threatening scavengers. So, Smitha, the Bible’s presentation of dogs makes perfect sense in consideration of its historic and cultural setting.

As for why the Bible doesn’t mention cats – there’s really no good answer to this. There are lots of animals the Bible doesn’t mention, so nothing should be read into the fact that domestic cats are not mentioned in the Bible (of course, lions and leopards are mentioned).

How do we react to false teachers who refuse to repent? The Bible says to have nothing to do with them, but are they considered our enemies whom we are called to love?

I think you’re putting your finger on something here. Obviously, we are not supposed to do evil against unbelievers. We’re not supposed to slash their tires or play pranks upon them or troll them in some way. No, no; we are to display love to them.

So, what does the Bible mean when it says, “Have nothing to do with them”? I think it means, first, to do nothing to support them in their sin. This was especially the case in the ancient world of the New Testament. False prophets would travel around and hope to be lodged in someone’s house. Within the New Testament context, the biblical response would be, “Don’t let them stay at your house. If you do, you’re supporting their work. You’re giving them the wherewithal to spread their false doctrine in your area for another day. Send them on. Have nothing to do with them.”

A second aspect of “having nothing to do with” regards Christian fellowship. In other words, it needs to be very plain in your own heart, to your own Christian community, and to the unbelievers, “We do not regard these people as believers. We’re not going to regard them as brothers or sisters. No, they are in deep error, and we’re not going to consider them to be among us.”

There are many problems in Christian churches today where people tend to pretend that severe doctrinal problems just don’t exist, as if they’re not present. Their attitude is, “Well, who cares? You can have this great area of compromise, either in your doctrine or maybe in your manner of living, and we’ll just look the other way and pretend it’s not there.” You know, the New Testament church of Corinth was doing that. They harbored a notorious sinner in their midst, and Paul rebuked them. He said, “You need to put that man out of the circle of fellowship.” Happily, when the Corinthians followed these instructions of the apostle Paul, the man repented. That is the goal. By refusing to play a game of “let’s pretend you really are a believer,” that person is motivated toward repentance.

That’s the idea in this concept. We are still to love them in the normal, customary things, but we also recognize that they are, in fact, unbelievers. We are not to be against them, but we are not to support them and help them in their work in any way, and we are definitely not to pretend that they are really okay and right with God.

How do you know if you have a gift?

I’m going to assume that you mean a spiritual gift of some kind. The Bible describes spiritual gifts that God distributes to His people, such as gifts of mercy, gifts of helps, gifts of teaching, gifts of administration, gifts of leadership, gifts of generosity, and so on.

I would say that if you have a gift, you will see and notice the blessing of God on you as you practice or carry out that gift. Not only will you see or notice the blessing of God upon you, but you will also see and notice what I might call the pleasure of God upon it.

For example, I believe that one of the spiritual gifts that God has given me is the gift of teaching and preaching. I believe it’s part of a pastoral gift that God has given me, because one of the fundamental responsibilities of a pastor is to preach and teach God’s people. It’s not the only responsibility by any means, but it is one of the chief ones.

How did I know that I had the gift of teaching? Well, when I taught, there seemed to be some measure of blessing upon it. I don’t want to exaggerate, especially about the early years. It’s not like I was some kind of “boy wonder” preaching. Nevertheless, when I would exercise that gift, there seemed to be some sense of blessing upon it. That’s one way to know that you have a gift.

But it wasn’t only that. It was also because something in me resonated with it and was excited about the exercise of that gift. I felt God’s pleasure when I taught His Word, even though I want to teach it better, and I worked at teaching it better, and I still do. I could sense God’s pleasure in it. So, those are two ways to recognize a gifting in your life: you’ll have at least a small sense of God’s blessing on it, and a sense of God’s pleasure.

A third way to know is that other people will see or sense something as well. I’m not trying to say for a moment that it has to be dramatic. If you have the gift of helps or administration or mercy or whatever it is, it doesn’t have to be that someone remarks, “Oh, my heavens. I’ve never seen anybody do it like that ever before.” It doesn’t have to be like that. Maybe not everybody, but at least some other people will notice there’s something in the way that the Lord is using a person.

In practical terms, how does a wife submit to her husband?

God bless you for your desire to obey what God says. Friends, there is no doubt that Colossians, Ephesians, and other passages in the New Testament teach the special responsibility of a wife to submit to her husband. Ephesians 5:22 says, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” The word submit means “to come under the order or authority of” someone. It means to recognize that God has given your household a head. Now, I’m not thinking about the general headship of Jesus Christ, which of course, is true. But the Bible specifically says that the husband is the head of the wife, and by extrapolation, I’ll say the head of the home, because he is the head over the children as well. The husband is the head of the home, and you need to make a choice to come under that headship, under that authority.

I think it’s very important to point out that proper submission on the part of a Christian wife does not mean silence. Submission does not equal silence! But it does mean coming under the authority of the head. If I were to say to my wife that I believe it’s best for us to do this or that or the other thing and she disagrees, I want to hear her disagreement. Maybe she sees something in the whole situation that I don’t see. Maybe she has considered something that I have not considered. Well, I want to see it. I want to hear it. I want to know it. This can be very helpful to me. So, a wife shouldn’t feel that submission means silence.

Obviously, we are called to do it respectfully. This applies to how we speak to all people that are in God’s family, period. We should always speak respectfully to other people. So as a wife, you respectfully speak to your husband, telling him what you see and what you think, and then you say, “But, dear husband, I’ll leave the decision up with you. I trust you to decide what’s best for us.”

Now, you didn’t ask a question about the husband’s headship, but if I were to talk about the husband’s headship, this is what I would emphasize. The husband’s responsibility is not to decide what’s best for himself, and it’s not to decide what’s best for his wife. The husband’s responsibility is to decide what’s best for them as a couple, what’s best for us. With the input and the support of his wife, he is well able to do that. So really, it means letting your husband take the lead. You can say, “What do you think, dear husband of mine? I trust you to decide what’s best for us in this matter. This is what I think. Now, what’s your decision?” And this can be done without usurping his position.

This word for submission is a military term, where someone is in a superior rank. It doesn’t mean necessarily that they’re a better person, but that they have a higher rank. In the same way, you need to come under rank of your husband and recognize and trust him and let him lead.

Now, let me add one more thing. I think that the commands given to a Christian wife for submission in marriage are very broad. I think that they require a lot from a Christian wife. I think that if a Christian wife is truly going to submit to her husband, there is going to be a true measure of dying to self in there, just as if a husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church, is going to be a measure of dying to himself. Each of them has to die to self, they just do it in slightly different ways.

It is important to add that, even though the command given to the wife to submit to her husband is strong, nobody should think that it’s absolute submission. On a human level, a horizontal level between people, God never commands absolute submission. God commands me to submit to My employer, but not if my employer tells me to sin, and not if my employer abuses me. God commands me to submit to My government, but not if my government tells me to sin, and not if my government abuses me. God commands a child to submit to their parent, but not if the parent tells the child to sin, and not if the parent abuses the child. I want to make it very clear that the command to a Christian wife to submit to her husband is strong and challenging. In some way or another, she’s going to have to die to self in order to fulfill it. But God never commands absolute submission. On a human or horizontal level, we always obey God before man.

Why does God sometimes repeat a person’s name in the Bible?

Is this a Hebraic technique for emphasis? I looked up this double name usage & found nothing. What are your thoughts here? And did I miss any? Best to you!

Genesis 22:11 – “Abraham, Abraham!”

Exodus 3:4 – “Moses, Moses!”

1 Samuel 3:10 – “Samuel! Samuel!”

Luke 10:41 – “Martha, Martha,…”

Acts 9:4, 22:7, 26:14 – “Saul, Saul,…”



I don’t think those are the only double uses of a name in Scripture, but those are the ones that come to mind immediately. Your intuition is correct; this is a Hebraic technique for emphasis. In Hebrew literature, emphasis is expressed by repetition. They didn’t have bigger, bolder fonts or typesets, so one of the ways they could express emphasis in biblical Hebrew literature was by repetition.

Here is what I say in my commentary: When God repeats a name twice, it is to display deep emotion, but not necessarily anger. In Luke 10:41, Jesus said, “Martha, Martha.” He wasn’t angry with her, but He was deeply moved. In Matthew 23:37, Jesus said, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” which again expresses more of a depth of emotion than anger. When God cried out to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads,” I don’t think that was an announcement of God’s anger against Saul, even though obviously God was not pleased. But more than it being an expression of anger, God was deeply moved on Saul’s behalf. So yes, it’s a means of communicating emphasis. It’s indicating deep emotion on the part of God.

Is there a point where you shouldn’t pray for someone’s salvation? Is it possible to come back to God if you’re an apostate?

I would say to pray for someone until you have an inner illumination from the Holy Spirit that you should no longer pray for them. The Bible does talk about ceasing to pray for people, but I think that point would be prompted by a genuine inner illumination that would lead somebody to say, “No, this just isn’t something I should pray for anymore. God, would release me from the responsibility to pray for this person’s salvation?”

Is it possible to come back to God if you’re an apostate? Well, yes, but once you come back to God, you’re no longer an apostate. Apostasy is demonstrated in the refusal to come back. Some people would argue, “Well, if you come back, you were never apostate to begin with.” Whatever you want to say, a person who is considered an apostate today can come back to the faith. They can come back to the Lord.

Friends, if that’s you, come back to Jesus. I wonder if there is somebody listening right now who has turned their back on Jesus Christ. You used to walk with Him. You used to believe. You used to count yourself among believers. Now you’ve turned your back on God. Maybe you’d say you’ve deconstructed. Maybe you say you’ve apostatized. Maybe you say you’ve become an atheist. You can turn back. God will receive you with open arms. But don’t presume. If you sense anything inside of you right now saying that you should do this, follow up on it immediately, because you may not always feel that way.