Must Bible Teachers Be Unpaid And Beg?

Christians have been conditioned to expect anything associated with God’s Word to be free. Just try selling a book on the Bible, Bible software, or even a Bible and you will get a constant stream of letters from judgmental Christians telling you how wrong you are to charge for it—complete with verses from the Bible to back up their argument. But is this what Jesus or Paul taught? Let’s look at the arguments and verses and find the truth.

Don't Be Confused About Bible Prophecy Another Minute

Here's the Bible Prophecy breakthrough you've been waiting for—from two overlooked keys in the hard sayings of Jesus now made plain in the most accurate prophecy research available, because it departs from traditional "anything goes" allegorical interpretations which disregard Jesus' only statement on how to interpret Scripture correctly. (Learn these keys of Jesus in this free article...)

A Reader Comments:

“I've been searching all of my adult life for this kind of wisdom! I have listened to Irvin Baxter for 13 years and the Prophecy Club off and on for the same amount of time. I felt like I only had bits and pieces of the big picture. Then I hit the "wisdom and understanding jackpot" the next night when I typed "Prophecy" into a google search and out of all the sights that were available, I clicked on Tim's site first! It was like God pulled a needle out of a haystack for me in answer to my prayer from the day before!”

Eve Brast, California (Read more testimonials...)

I wrote a book called Know the Future, that contains my own explanations of Bible prophecy. It is not "God's word" and unlike Bibles or Bible software does not even contain a complete copy of the God's word. It is mainly my own words that I worked hard to write which came from thoughts which I worked hard to arrive at through much research. Ever since I have written this book, I have gotten tremendously positive feedback from readers thanking me and expressing how helpful and even life-changing the book has been for them.

At the same time, I constantly receive a few very critical and judgmental emails from Christians who have not read the book. Many Christians seem to think everyone must teach the Bible for free because Jesus did and are mad at me for not doing the same. While it's true Jesus gave his teachings away for free, few understand why he did and then go on to misapply it to everyone else.

Jesus was given new revelation which he was told to give away. He also had the promise of the provision to do so. He repeated all of these promises to his apostles--for a limited time which is now over (see below). And unlike Jesus or the apostles, I am not a prophet with new revelation or supernatural provision or even a calling/mission. I am only collating and explaining the literal prophecies of the future already in the Bible. This takes some time since it is a big difficult book and again requires factoring in new information that is only available now in the end times.

What my critics miss is that anyone alive now can do what I did. They can read the Bible literally and carefully and put everything together if they take the time. So my price does not stop anyone from having the same information for themselves from their Bible. They can make the same breakthroughs I did in understanding the revelations that the prophets already delivered. As God told Daniel, they would only be understood by the wise--not the wicked. (Of course, attacking and condemning someone who teaches the Bible is not a great way to demonstrate your righteousness and wisdom.)

Since I have a family and I am not a supernaturally-provided-for prophet, I have the same problem as everyone else alive today. I need money to support my family. As such, I could not have justified putting so much time into my website and writing, revising and printing of my research as a book if it was not true I could get compensated. Thankfully I knew at the start that Jesus said that "the worker is worthy of his hire". In other words, he does not require I impoverish myself on some self-assumed quest to save the world which would fail anyway.

Others suggest that I do not need to charge but can just give away my work and accept donations. Unfortunately, I know from experience that this simply does not provide enough income. People are naturally apathetic and forget to pay for something they already have in their possession. But worse, this is not the way of provision taught in the Bible for God's servants. The Bible teaches the worker should be paid, no matter what his field. And asking for donations is essentially begging. I take it seriously that the Bible associates begging with wickedness, and says the righteous or their children are never seen begging for bread (see here for details).

Further, since my book is for the truth seeking-servants of God to whom Revelation is addressed (Rev 1:1), I have never worried about the small price tag being a significant barrier to entry. God's servants can pray for his help and God will answer (which I remind them to do).

One man took my advice and found $30 while walking to work which he used to buy my book (because he could not find who lost it) and was very pleased with it (as are the vast majority). So, for some they actually develop their faith and relationship with God just in the very process of finding out about my research, getting excited about it and desiring it and then following through to acquire it. I'm very happy that I'm not enabling begging as the churches do, but teaching people as Jesus did to pray, ask, seek, knock of God instead.

Another problem with applying "freely you have received, freely give" to me is that I have not "freely received" my understanding of the Bible. Not by a long shot. I've been working hard to pay for my food, shelter, clothing, medical, etc. and studying diligently to get here for years. When Jesus said to his disciples "freely you have received, freely give" it was true and right for that special circumstance where they were provided for during their training (even told to not carry a bag or extra cloak or sword). That ended and he told them to carry a bag and sword right before he was arrested. Today, none of us have that promise of supernatural provision and can say we freely received from the master. We have to pay our own bills and search out our own answers from the Bible (which we likely paid for).

That's what makes my book such a bargain at the price. Although you still need to not trust my opinion but diligently see if the answers I share are Biblical like a good Berean (Act 17:11), it still saves you literally years of finding the answers yourself. In fact, I don't know of another prophecy teacher that has put together all the literal answers that I have (but I keep watching). Few take into proper consideration how the prophecies were intentionally sealed by God as Daniel 12 bluntly states, through the psychological barriers that still prevail today as (covered in the very first chapter of my book).

Finally, my next book is in progress and is planned to be made free on my website. I can only make such plans because my first book sells enough to support my family. Later when the traffic rises and income from ads and donations are enough to replace my book income, I can eventually give all my books away for free. I plan this not because of judgmental hate mail from Christians who misunderstand Jesus' ministry (and you're never going to make everyone happy). I plan it because I have a heart to help all the "sheep without a shepherd" truth seekers out there and free is the best way to reach the most once I am able without being worse than infidel in not taking care of my own (1Ti 5:8).

You can find more information on your concerns here.

I trust this article has addressed your concerns satisfactorily. Let me know if not.

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