I don't believe fear serves any purpose but to deny the faith in God; cause us to over-react; turn to escapism.....ie entertainment, distractions, alcohol and drugs and sinful indulgences; make bad decisions cause we seek security and safety rather than living and making decisions based on principal.
What do I think?
I think we are living in the end times.
I think we will not be spared the troubles which will be faced by the people of the world.
I do believe there is a rapture of the church........but.......... I also believe the experiences which are already being visited in third world countries is also going to be the experience of the Western World before and leading to the great tribulation.
I believe the Western Church has been lulled to sleep and apathy by the teachings and the promises of the rapture and is not being prepared and built up in the exercise of faith, witness, testamony and ministry, against the persecution and calamity which it will face before the rapture. I believe that in part, the heaviness of this judgement, when it comes to the church, will be the just recompense for the laity who was unwilling to repent, and the clergy who failed to preach repentance and holiness and obediance, and the overall failure of Christian to take decisive stands against immorality when we had the chance; we preferred the approval of man over the favor of God, and we don't even know one another outside our circle and our churches and the world sees no difference between the saved and the unsaved, in how we live, in how we regard each other, or in how we honor the Word. They see our divorce rate, our shacking up, our out-of wed-lock births, our drunkenness, drug abuse, addictions to pornography, the closeted and secret sins that we stand against and indulge unashamedly in secret, the theft in the work place, the sick call-ins when we're not sick, the tax fraud, the ignoring of speed laws, the slacking in the work place, etc..... and we look so much like 'them' we make 'sin' look like 'hipocrite' and God's grace look like an excuse.
I think 'the church' will regret the confusion of the babble of translations which it has accepted when the memory work of yesteryear is so slack and the familiarity with the scripture has been delegated to leadership and scholars rather than a frequent and daily pursuit by individuals: I think the contemporary church will regret the passive expectations of its attendees when its very life will depend on the strength of interactions and relationships and participation of all in the instruction, witness, and service which it has suppressed in preference for the control of order and beauty of entertainment.
We should not be taken unaware nor unprepared by any occurrence: Nuclear accident or terror attack or war: Famine: Hunger: Disease: Persecution: Oppression: Restriction: Betrayal: Criminal attack: Financial and energy crisis. Natural disasters.
raying: 
