September 2023 News update
Please accept my apologies that there have been no news updates on this website for over twelve months, and very few additional materials placed on the site during this time. I’ve been kept very busy with other ministry matters, and have had a few health issues to cope with as well. Now, with the inclusion of a further study titled “Living in a world of fear” in the Publications section (Further single subject studies), I feel led by the Holy Spirit to continue to develop the theme of fear. Here we are looking at the twin areas of fear in the world and change in the Church. The two go hand-in-hand and present us with a very great challenge. As usual, ths study is in PDF format, and available for free downloading. A number of church fellowships have asked for this subject to be presented to their congregations, and I hope very shortly to record a YouTube video to place on this website as well. As with some of the other studies on this website, the video and the written study will be complementary to each other.
August 2022 News update
Just recently I’ve shared with several groups the important meeting the Lord held with His disciples at Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16 v 13 – 20, Mark 8 v 27 – 30, Luke 9 v 18 – 20). The Lord asked them two very critical questions: “Who do people say I am?” and “Who do you say I am?”. In answer to the first question the disciples told Him, quite correctly, that ordinary people were cautiously wondering whether Jesus was a great prophet come back to life. Despite privately feeling that He was indeed the Christ (Messiah), many people were afraid of saying this openly as the authorities had warned that if anyone did so, they would not be allowed into the temple – excommunicated in other words. Thus they would not be able to go there to offer sacrifices for God’s forgiveness, and therefore would not be able to enter Heaven. Their opinion of Jesus was prejudiced by fear. The second question, addressed to the disciples, was answered by Peter on behalf of them all, saying that they believed Jesus was the Christ. Jesus immediately assured them that they knew this through divine revelation.
Fear and revelation. In matters concerning the Lord Jesus, when the world is beset by fear, the Church needs divine revelation. The tremendous uncertainty developing in world affairs is leading to anger, hatred, political impotence, chaos – and then fear. Often this is the only way the Holy Spirit can carry out His work of convicting of sin, righteousness and judgement (John 16 v 8). That’s how it was when the crowd were fearful on the Day of Pentecost, and that’s how it was with the frightened Philippian jailor in the middle of the night. At such times we need to be hearing from the Lord very clearly and obediently; we will need revelation, not tradition. Peter’s response to the crowd and Paul’s response to the jailor were each so powerfully a moment of revelation. Now is the time for watching and praying; there may shortly be an urgent time for revelation and then declaration.
April 2022 News update
In these very uncertain times I am often questioned about current affairs and the outworking of prophetic scripture. I don’t want to give the impression that I have an infallible hotline to the mind of God, but feel that when asked I need to share a little of what as far as I can see seems to be happening, in line with scripture. I’ve never made a secret of my conviction that God’s dealing with humanity throughout history divides into eras, or dispensations, that this is a correct reading of scripture, and that each era finishes with a time of judgement. It seems that in every era, before thetime of judgement, God in His grace gives due warning of what lies ahead. I believe that quitepossibly this is what is happening now.
Following the vicious attempt of Satan to prevent Israel returning to their God-given land (and to tryto do this Satan used Hitler, the widespread anti-Semitism of that time, the Second World War, and the Holocaust) God gloriously brought Israel back as promised in 1948 after almost two millennia. There followed 70 years of an incredibly rapid demonstration of God’s blessing on this world. From 1948 to 2018 there was the most unparalled worldwide growth in prosperity, peace, medical science, communications and transport, education, etc, etc. It seemed in many nations to be a time of “peace and safety”; the triumph of democracy and the “end of history”. Since 2018, suddenly we have had a new universal and very infectious viral disease, and now the re-emergence of the powerful spiritual forces seen in Russian national history over many centuries, leading to tremendous deception, bloodshed and hardship, all affecting many countries in the world in one way or another. Now, as far as we can tell, we are moving into a considerable international economic crisis. All these are a fairly moderate foreshadowing of disasters the world can expect, but much more severely, under the time of God’s judgement during the Tribulation at the end of this age, according to scripture.
Of course, as Christians we shall not see the actual outpouring of God’s judgement, but because we are still here until the Rapture, not only is God’s warnings tempered by grace (e.g., the rapid provision of vaccines, worldwide support for Ukraine, etc), but also as “watchmen on the wall” we are to give warning to the world that what we are experiencing now is a foreshadowing of something far more serious just ahead. Sadly, if all this is true, then by and large the Church seems to be failing in its task of warning the world of impending judgement, and we need to seek much more authority from the Holy Spirit to enable us to be true watchmen at this critical time
August 2021 News update
Following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions in the UK over the summer months, our thoughts have turned to what God is saying to His people in the light of all that is happening in the world right now. For many of us there is a strong feeling that these are the days leading up to the return of the Lord Jesus, first in the air for those who have accepted Him as Saviour and Lord (His Bride), and this will be the event we call the Rapture. After that, the 7-year period of judgement on Earth marks the end of the Church Age, and then Jesus returns with His Bride, when His feet stand on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, to bring in the long-promised millennial reign on David’s throne. An interim written study and video looking at this subject have been placed on this website in recent weeks under the reference Luke 18 v 1 – 8, but they have now been replaced with a more complete study and video on the same subject. This publication and video are now indicated by the reference Psalm 89 v 14a and the heading “Thy Kingdom Come – with Righteousness and Justice”.
We are aware that there have been some intermittent interruptions to the availability of the website, and we hope this has not been too much of a problem to anyone. We do apologise, and investigations are ongoing, as we are not sure what is causing this. Thank you so much for your continuing interest in the Bible studies we are putting on the site, and we pray that the Lord will richly bless you as we share the Word of God together.
April 2021 News update
All the Bible studies in the three books shown under Publications, Books by David Herring, are now available as freely downloadable individual studies in PDF format, and they are listed under each of the books in that section of this website. The books themselves are still available by request, but our prayer is that now all the contents will be easily accessible worldwide, they will be a blessing to many of the Lord’s people. We will continue to add new material, both in video and written format, as the Holy Spirit leads and inspires.
While adding these studies, we have taken the opportunity to refresh the website by changing some of the pictures of the Quantock country. If you would like to copy and paste any of the pictures for personal use elsewhere (private use only; non-commercial please), then feel free. After all, it is God’s creation and therefore His copyright! Once copied and pasted you should be able to enlarge them as required.
February 2021 News update
Here in the UK, we are still under a measure of lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Along with all other social gatherings we are limited in the numbers allowed to worship together in our churches. When we do meet, in these much smaller numbers, we must maintain social distancing and wear facemasks. As a result, most Christian fellowships are still conducting their various services on the internet, using pre-recorded videos, live streaming, Zoom-type facilities, and written bulletins and studies. My own Bible teaching ministry is now almost entirely conducted in this way, and this website reflects this with a regular supply of new videos and written materials. The whole situation makes me realise how important resources such as this website are to the Christian community worldwide.
As promised, I have included, as individual studies under “publications”, more of the written studies contained in the study books. There are a few more to do, but I hope to finish the process soon. The books are still available, but by publishing their contents freely as individual downloadable studies I hope they will be more widely used.
After prayerful thought it has been decided not to open a PayPal account for donations but make all the resources available on this website freely available. After all, it is a faith ministry. Anyone wishing to support the ministry can always make contact via the email address, but I trust the Lord to look after all our needs.
While we look to the Lord for His blessing and eternal reward for all our work for Him, I do appreciate the kind comments that have been made. Forgive me for not responding to all your comments, but just now time does not allow me to engage in detailed responses. We are all grateful for expressions that encourage us, but the real purpose of this ministry is to encourage us all in our walking and talking with the Lord as we continue the Christian journey.
September 2020 News update
As promised in June, a number of written studies and videos have been added, and we hope to continue this process as an important part of our ministry. As studies and videos are being added they will initially be listed in green to indicate a new item.
With all that is happening in world affairs at present, many people are wondering about implications for the biblical teaching on the Lord’s return. I certainly do not have all the answers! However, the little book “All hail, King Jesus” contains eleven general studies on the subject, and most of these studies were, in addition, listed individually under Publications and freely downloadable. The remaining three studies have now also been included individually as free downloads. The books are still available if requested, but I am very concerned that teaching on the subject is as freely, widely and quickly available as possible. I am thinking of doing the same with the other two study books in due course, so that eventually all the individual studies contained in these books will be freely available for downloading on this website. Then anyone will have the option of the studies as single papers or in book format.
We have not yet opened a PayPal account, but may do so in the near future. The only purpose would be to facilitate anyone’s kind donations in support of the ministry, as even the books are simply offered on a donation basis and not at a set sale price. But please understand that donations are not a condition of downloading any of the material on this website; our concern is that the Word of God is freely available to anyone seeking His truth in these uncertain days.
June 2020 News update
I write this after we have passed through the strange experience of “Lockdown” during the Covid-19 pandemic. During this time, in the UK we have not been allowed to meet normally in our church fellowship services. The result has been a great extension of Christian ministry through virtual services on the Internet, using many different programmes and methods. Some services have been live, some pre-recorded, many a combination of both. This whole area of activity has resulted in me being asked to provide teaching notes on Bible passages, often supported by a video.
On this website this has had two results. Firstly, under the Publications menu we have added “Passages of Scripture Studies”. Secondly, all this new and necessary ministry activity has spurred us on to open up the “Recordings” menu (now called “Videos”), incorporating some of these videos. Please bear in mind that the videos were originally prepared for specific services at different church fellowships, and the mention of each occasion has not been edited out. Now we have embarked on this aspect of ministry, I hope to add more video recordings regularly.
Once again, many thanks for visiting Quantock Ministries, and we pray you will continue to be blessed as you use these materials for your personal study of the scriptures and your walk with Jesus.
September 2019 News update
At last we’ve found time to do some work on this website – thanks for your patience!
I do hope you enjoy the new photos of Quantock Country, taken during the course of Spring and Summer 2019. We’ll add and/or change them as we take others that you may like. If you would like to copy any of them for personal use, just feel free and go ahead; we love this part of God’s creation and want to share its beauty.
I’ve added a new Bible study booklet, All Hail, King Jesus, which brings together all the studies on the Lord’s return – eschatology to be theological! I’ve also added a couple of new individual studies which are freely downloadable. One of them, Anger and the Christian, comes from rather difficult personal circumstances this year, and I hope it will be a help to anyone going through similar experiences.
My apologies that online payments are still not available, but I hope we will address this issue shortly. In the meantime, thanks for comments that have been received, and it’s a joy to know that some of the material has been a real blessing to a number of folks.
February 2019 News
Thanks for browsing this website. You’re very welcome and I hope you come back again. This is my first internet presence and the intention is just to keep it simple and useful. New publications will be added regularly as they are prepared, both books and individual studies. If individual studies in the books are required for group use, these can also be supplied by email in PDF format.
For anyone who has looked at this site before, I apologise that not much has happened since it was launched this time last year. The demands of other ministry duties have been rather overwhelming over the past twelve months. One or two individual studies have been added for free downloading but the main areas of construction still await our attention. Please be patient, and I hope to arrange for publications to be available on a donation basis via PayPal and/or credit or debit cards soon. Recordings of Bible studies, for listening online or for downloading, will be added later, it is hoped. It is also my intention to make this website even more attractive by including other pictures of the beautiful Quantock Hills. I hope to update this news section from time to time.
One development over the past year which may be of interest is the launch of a new website by another member of Durleigh Christian Fellowship, www.signsofthetimes.xyz. This is a very comprehensive website, illustrating the vast number of signs foretold in the Bible, and which are clearly visible today, indicating the nearness of the Lord’s Return. Please spare a moment to look at this site.
The prayer of all of us involved at Quantock Ministries and Durleigh Christian Fellowship is that through this website the Lord Jesus will be glorified, the truth of scripture upheld, and individuals much blessed as they seek to know more of the mind of God.
David Herring