you only preach this to put fear in people...... you are only in it for the money.....just like all all misisteries..........you dont tell the truth....just the fear..... but your day will come... believe me........

I can certainly understand, from the recent and existing ministries that do have extensive fund raising programs, how you would feel about people being in it "for the money". I'm sorry that the Scriptures cause you fear. The Bible says that :

1 John 4:17
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

You are correct in saying our day will come.

Romans 14:
1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
...
7 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

I know you are frustrated, but don't make us your object of frustration. I am frustrated by the huge monetary bills that sin (which is defined/described in the Scriptures) has cost our nation. We need to get back to the simplicity of monogamy, stable family units, consistency in human relationships, and hope for a better future. This would greatly reduce the swapping of social diseases and mental stress. Can you argue that that we do not have a tremendous social and personal medical expenditures because we did not adhere to the warnings from the Scriptures?

God set down the Ten Commandments as a government of Theocracy, if you please. If we could have followed these precepts, which were mostly to govern relationships between neighbors, then I challenge you to consider how much better we would be today. Let me apologize that you are hearing in Bible teachings and seeing in the Christian community around you only chaos and "give me, give me, give me." It started way back there when people rejected Theocracy and embraced the bondage of an earthly king.

I Samuel 8
1 And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel.
...
4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah,
5 And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.
6 But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.
7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
8 According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.
9 Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.
10 And Samuel told all the words of the LORD unto the people that asked of him a king.
11 And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
12 And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
13 And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
14 And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
15 And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
16 And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
17 He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.
19 Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;
20 That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles.
21 And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD.
22 And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king. And Samuel said unto the men of Israel, Go ye every man unto his city.

I cannot undo this. I can only say that by "walking in the Spirit," a person can have a great hope, peace, and a relatively stable subsistence during their life span.

As to our taking money. We do not have any fund raising agenda. We work at our chosen professions. At one point in Paul's ministry, he had to serve a carnal church full of chaos and confusion—not unlike the church world today. Paul would not be obligated to this church by taking money from them. The apostle Paul wrote this.

II Thessalonians 3:
1 Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:
2 And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.
3 But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
4 And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you.
5 And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ.
6 Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.
7 For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you;
8 Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:
9 Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.
10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.
14 And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed.
15 Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

Tina

Don Wrote:

Hello Tina:

Let me begin my response with a quote from 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Consequently, we can know that God does not want His children to be filled with fear at the end time, or at any other time for that matter.

Also, let me take an excerpt from booklet five, chapter fourteen of our on-line book THE CLOCK OF THE AGES. (You can find the book by going to our home page [http://doweknow.com/revelations/] and clicking on the CLOCK OF THE AGES button.)

THE UNUSUAL--AN END-TIME SIGN

Let's look first at the time of the unusual or the excessive. In Isaiah 29:6 we see for Israel a future day of "thunder, earthquakes, great noise, with storm and tempest and the flame of devouring fire…"—all in prophetic foreshadowing. In Matthew 24:7 Jesus picks up on this end-time word: "...and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers [or many] places." Truly nature has shown herself to have a nasty temper now and then, since the time of the fall of Jerusalem; but as the end-time approaches, we can look for her tantrums to increase and for her fury to affect more and more of the world! Jesus Himself told us that as it was at the time of the flood, so would it be in the day that He returns; so, let's consider the weather at the time of the flood. The Scriptures tell us that prior to this event, it had never rained on the earth; instead, heavy dew came up at night and watered the plants. At the time of the end of that age, the sky darkened, the thunder roared, the lightning flashed, the rain came, and strange new weather patterns were developed—all this a type for the later days.

This quote is from a chapter filled with comments about the end-time signs given to the Church; and it is only one of the end-time signs that we discuss.

Severe weather patterns when taken by themselves have little prophetic significance. But when viewed in light of the fulfillment of all the other end-time signs, they take on significance. If you want to study all of the end-time signs, let me refer you to the CLOCK OF THE AGES. For the remainder of this WRAP, let me address this matter of fear; for fear and the end times will go hand in hand.

Luke 21:25-27
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

Here in Luke, Jesus is telling us that at the end of our age, people's hearts shall be failing them because of fear and because of looking after those things which are coming on the earth. Does this mean that people will be dying of heart attacks? or that they will be losing it psychologically and spiritually? or both?

Let's take a moment to consider why God gave us the sensation of fear. It is normal for us to have fear. In fact, fear is a very important gift to man. Fear can keep us from doing something stupid to our bodies. Fear can keep us from harm's way. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and a reverential fear of our Heavenly Father will keep us from a bad attitude. Fear of "missing the mark" can motivate us to do those things that are pleasing to God which in turn delivers us from the corruption of the flesh. Fear of the death and the grave and what may follow them can turn our thoughts to things eternal. If we will heed these beneficial fears, we will profit thereby. It is interesting to note that although most beneficial fears are our companions for life, the closer we walk with the Lord, the less fearful are the shadows of the valley of death. In fact, the Apostle Paul, whose life we are to emulate, had this to say when reflecting upon the end of his life of service to the Lord.

2Ti 4:6-8
For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
I have fought a good fight, I have finished [my] course, I have kept the faith:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them
also that love his appearing.

I don't know if anyone can walk with the Lord so completely that all fear of the unknown concerning our passing over into eternity is removed, and maybe even replaced with anticipation, but it does seem to me that if it were the intent of the Church to find out, everyone would profit thereby—especially the ones that are depending upon us to be the light of the world.

So far, we've only talked about fears that can be beneficial; but there is a fear that is a destructive force. This fear is not of God. If we are drawing closer to the time of our Lord's return, then we can expect this fear to become more and more prevalent. However, as I've already quoted, we believers have not been given the spirit of fear, but the Spirit of a sound mind. And if we will study the Bible to show ourselves approved unto God, and if we will do the best we can to deny the flesh and walk in the Spirit daily, then we need not be subject to fear so that it controls us. Sadly, many who are making merchandise of the church in the pretense of serving it are actually playing on the end-time fears. These need to be exposed. Let me insert another quote from our on-line book THE CLOCK OF THE AGES.

TESTING THE SPIRITS

Throughout our age the word to the Church has been "...test the spirits to see if they be of God"; but at the end time when the Church itself is being tested, this command will have special significance to the Body. Of course, for the Church to obey this command, it will have to study the Word on an individual basis so that each member might show himself approved unto his God and have a first-hand knowledge of the Scriptures—especially of its prophetic portions! After all, it is only through the Scriptures that the end-time Church will be able to understand the things going on around it. Likewise, the Scriptures will alert the end-time believer to the self-ordained, self-serving leaders in the churches, and the false prophets in its midst who would use the prophetic Word to alarm the believers and have them running scared instead of standing in the gap whereunto they are called.

We know that it is important to God that His children be strong and of a good courage—for this is the mark of a heart filled with faith. We also know that faith is given to them who give themselves to studying the Word of God; and as we learn from Paul, a life full of witnessing and service is a life filled with faith. Consequently, we can know that those who are looking unto Jesus and looking unto His Word—instead of looking after those things which are coming on the earth—will be strong of heart and will not fail in their efforts to be pleasing to their Lord.

We are praying for you that you'll be strong in the Lord and stand whereunto you are called. Pray for us that we will be bold to always answer men the reason for our faith.

Maranatha,

Don

P.S.