What is your feeling regarding the G12 cell structure, that is popular amongst the churches? It appears to have all the bells and whistles,with “add ons”. I personally believe that we do not need a name for the gathering of the believers in houses, and also that it maybe a pyramid scheme without money. Please assist.

I have a question regarding “orbs.” And also, if you have time, gold dust, jewels, gold teeth, etc…. For the first question, in photographs, you can sometimes see round orbs. Sometimes a photo is saturated and sometimes just one or two. They appear lacy, and bubbly on the interior of the orb, and sometimes colorful. Some in the Church appear to believe these are angelic beings. On the other hand, many in the Occult believe them to be spirit beings of individuals whom have died (obviously this is untrue). What is your take on this? I have found that orbs are believed to be angelic beings by those also believing in gold dust, jewels appearing, and gold teeth during times of “worship.” (Although that would be a generalization, so forgive me for that) What can you teach on the validity of all these matters?

Does it make sense to pray for a soon -possibly the soonest- rapture? I mean, can we influence with our prayer the timing of the rapture? I know that it is based on the number of the people who get saved and will be part of the church and I know that God knows all these persons. So, does a kind of request to the Lord make sense, if we pray for that regularly and ask Him to speed up things with these people and all the necessary processes too? Will He speed up things and a much sooner rapture is possible if we pray for it?

I have wondered about what we will know of our past relationships once we’re in Heaven. I have read of God wiping away all tears. Will we not have knowledge of family who were not saved and what of our relationships with those who were saved? I am happily married and have asked if I will know of the relationship we had once we are in heaven.

I need an answer to a question that could throw off the idea of the Rapture or worse-found an error in the Bible. Perhaps there is already an answer to it, perhaps there’s a misinterpretation somewhere along the line or perhaps some further study needs to go into this.

The question:

The bible says – “It is appointed for man to die once, but after that the judgment,” Hebrews (9:27).

How is it then that many believers who are Raptured are alive? Please help with this, have I misunderstood something?

In 1 Corinthians 11: 17-30 Paul talks about the Corinthians observing the Lord’s Supper. But he rebuked them saying that what they were doing was not good; not proper. I have observed that many pastors (evangelicals pastors) emphasize confession of sins before taking the communion – a matter of 2-5 minutes of examining oneself and saying a prayer of confession, then the bread and the cup are being passed.

As I understand the passage it didn’t look like Paul was giving new directives on confessions. Also, if confession of sins is a pre-requisite of taking the communion I believe it shifts the focus of this memorial service, making it about us instead of Jesus and the Cross.

What is really meant by Paul in saying “examine yourself?” Is it examine ourseves in the area of our sins, unworthiness? Or is it examine our approach in taking the Lord’s supper memorial?

I was raised in (a denominational) church where you really don’t hear the word “saved”, however I believe I was saved as a child when I thanked Jesus ( not out loud, but in my head) for dying for me. I feel it was then that I made it personal to me.

When my daughter was 3 she asked me to pray so she could go to heaven. I led her in a simple prayer at that time. She is now 15 and still remembers that and feels that is when she was saved. Since that time we have heard pastors and friends say you shouldn’t lead a 3 year old to the Lord because they are too young to understand. It makes my daughter upset to think people are doubting her salvation. She also has a hard time telling her testimony because of that. Sometimes I wonder if the church is getting to hung up on a “sinners prayer” instead of “saved by faith”.

I have told her it really doesn’t matter what you say or when, but what you beleive in your heart. I would really appreciate your thoughts on this. I would hate to think she is not really saved but only thinks she is.

I want to state that I am a pre-trib believer, that I have studied Thessalonians, looked at Rev. 4:10, am very aware of mid-trib, post-trib, pre-mill.,a-mill,post-mill. and stick with the golden rule of Bible interpretation.

My question is: WHEN did Rev.4:1 come into view as a Rapture point (yes, I am aware of the early church fathers and their belief in the Rapture, i.e Pseudo-Ephraim of Syria also), when did this particular verse become a Rapture point? (yes, I know that the word rapture is not in the modern translations comes from the Latin Vulgate).

Apart from designating John as a church symbol, for which there is not a justifiable cause or purpose, there is so small evidence to suggest anything other than what is read.(Golden Rule) If one symbolizes John as the church simply because he was called up to heaven, then are we not also required to take on the purpose of the calling and say that the church(raptured) would only be taken up to heaven to be shown the things that were yet to take place? John was to be shown the things that are yet to take place, “come up here”, does not mean anything else. It just seems that alot of believers go to great lengths to explain this verse as a symbolic illustration of the rapture. Getting references from this verse with loose ties from more well known “rapture” scriptures, is supposition.

My husband and I have been Christians for a long time. We faithfully and gratefully tithed for many years. But when severe financial problems caused partly by life-threatening ill health and the rest by poor financial choices occurred, we waivered. We started frantically trying to pay day to day living expenses that were piling up and tragically abandoned our tithing out of a misguided sense of responsibility. We put our responsibility to our earthly debtors above our responsibility to obey God. We are ashamed.

Some doctrinal confusion from various pastors’ opinions also entered in to the mix and we have remained confused about it ever since. We finally went bankrupt, lost our home and are living with relatives. The ill health in both of us is still present, but stable and we are still earning. We are elderly.

Here is our question. We intend to resume tithing. But is it acceptable to ask forgiveness for having robbed God for several years and start anew from here? Or is it more proper to pay more than 10% in an attempt to repay our tithe debt to God as best we can? Please understand that our motives aren’t intended to sound stingy. We just don’t know whether we are putting ourselves under unnecessary bondage with trying to catch up a huge debt by paying many years of unpaid tithes. Thank you for helping us discover the correct wisdom in this matter.

In one of your answers you said children have guardian angels. What is their purpose, if this is true? I keep hearing more and more on the news of small children, even babies being sexually molested. Where is the protector, the guardian? What, then, is the role of the guardian angel? I do believe in angels but I do not believe in guardian angels as being an angel who is with someone 100% of the time no matter what the age simply because of the molestation of children that is on the increase in this world.