Paul’s letters to Timothy are the instructions from a
mentor to a young pastor, one of the first ever, and
contain advice on what to do and how to do it, as well as
what not to do. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect given
the relationship.
But for no apparent reason Paul tucked several warnings
about the end times into various places in his
instructions. These are things Paul knew Timothy wouldn’t
have to deal with because he clearly described them as
characteristics of the Latter Days. We’ll take them each in
turn.
1 Timothy 4:1-2
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will
abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things
taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical
liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot
iron.
When I read this one I always think of certain
televangelists who espouse a perversion of the prosperity
gospel. They know what they’re teaching is a compilation of
half truths and outright lies, so in effect they’re
twisting God’s word to steal from their followers. And
without the least bit of shame they enjoy the lifestyles of
the rich and famous at the expense of their contributors
who, according to some reports, come primarily from the
bottom 25% of the economic scale.
Taking advantage of their followers’ lack of Bible
knowledge and misguided desire for a more abundant life ,
these predators foist one get rich quick scheme after
another on their desperate flocks, bilking them out of the
few discretionary dollars they have and leaving them worse
off in the bargain. And they do it in the name of God. It
makes you wonder what He’ll say to them come judgment time.
But the prosperity teachers aren’t the only ones in this
category. There are others who teach things they know are
contrary to what the Bible says. Some of these things come
under the heading of conditional salvation, grace plus
works, partial rapture, and other false teaching that can
steal the joy of your salvation and rob you of your
certainty. Their objective is to imprison you within
boundaries of rules they themselves can’t follow. Read
Colossians 2:8-23 for Paul’s opinion on these modern day
legalists.
Then there are those who either treat the prophecies of our
time as if they were already accomplished in history, or as
if they’re never going to be accomplished because they’re
all allegorical. These teachers also know what they’re
saying can’t be reconciled with Scripture, but they ask you
to believe it anyway, trusting in their superior intellect
or advanced education instead of your own common sense.
They take passages that can be clearly understood just as
they’re written by anyone with an average intellect and
make them hopelessly confusing by violating the rules of
context, re-defining terms, and making that which is real
into something symbolic.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last
days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents,
ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous,
without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather
than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying
its power. Have nothing to do with them.
Just as you become convinced that Paul is describing the
unbelieving world in our time and are vigorously nodding
your head in agreement, he says that these people have a
form of godliness but deny its power. Then you realize he
was writing about those believers in name only, who spend 6
½ days each week living lives indistinguishable from
unbelievers, grabbing all they can get from our material
world by any means necessary while contributing little or
nothing to the work of the Kingdom. These people lead two
lives, the one they’re serious about, and the one that’s
just for show. Guess which is which.
Paul was not blind to the behavior of these people, nor was
this the only time he warned us to stay from them. Listen
to what he told the Corinthians.
I have written you in my letter not to associate with
sexually immoral people – not at all meaning the people of
this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or
idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
But now I am writing you that you must not associate with
anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral
or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a
swindler. With such a man do not even eat (1 Cor. 5:9-11).
Notice he said “anyone who calls himself a brother” instead
of “anyone who is a brother.” I think he was doubting that
someone who behaves in this manner could have been saved in
the first place.
2 Timothy 4:3-4
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound
doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will
gather around them a great number of teachers to say what
their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears
away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Here the focus is on the emerging church movement in all
its various forms. In business schools, students learn to
develop strategies based on a driving force. One such
driving force is the market. A market driven strategy
requires the business enterprise to focus on what they
perceive to be the wants and needs of their target
customers and adapt themselves to meet these needs in a
more effective way.
Correctly predicting the growing demand for a religious
organization that could meet the needs of a self centered,
self sufficient generation, the leaders of the emerging
church movement developed such a strategy. They took the
focus off God and put it on the congregation. Entertainment
replaced worship, philosophy replaced theology, and good
works replaced victorious living.
Borrowing a phrase from Dominion Theology they began
calling it “bringing Heaven to Earth” to make it sound more
appealing to their idealistic target market. Little do
their followers realize that for believers, these good
works will be burned up in the fire (1 Cor. 3:14-15), and
for unbelievers they’ll be woefully insufficient for entry
into the kingdom (John 3:3). God has His own strategy for
bringing Heaven to Earth and it doesn’t include the
emerging church. Commenting on their works in his letter to
Laodicea, Jesus said, “I know your deeds, that you are
neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the
other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I
am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3:15-16)
They’re excited about the great entertainment, the
stimulating talk, and the good works, but not about the
Lord.
Irrespective of that, both the seats and the coffers soon
filled, signs that their market driven strategy was
working, and for many the emerging church was soon the
place to be. This was especially true for those who had
become bored with traditional Church and wanted a place
where they could feel good and do good with no messages
about sin and salvation to convict them. The gospel was not
missed in its absence.
Besides, “All of our attempts to define the right form of
the Gospel are just human interpretations,” the movement’s
leaders claim. “We must avoid a naive or excessive
confidence in any telling of the Gospel story, since no
articulation of the gospel today can presume to be exactly
identical to the original meaning Christ and the apostles
proclaimed.” In a sense, they’re saying since its
impossible to know what the Gospel story really is we
shouldn’t put too much faith in it.
Learning about the rapidly approaching End Times and the
need to be ready for it has also been skipped. Instead, the
“excessive” study of prophecy is called a distraction from
the real work of the Church. These things were done by
design, since the goal is to have non-believers make up at
least half of the congregation. The market is much bigger
that way and the non-believers help move the believers away
from theological absolutes, like the need to be born again
and the importance of prophecy.
In the next verse of His letter Jesus offered additional
criticism. “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and
do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are
wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” (Rev. 3:17) His
letter to the Church in Laodicea contains no commendation
for their works and offers no escape from the end times
judgments, just a plea to be allowed back into their midst
(Rev. 3:20).
But Wait There’s More
Over fourteen years earlier in his second letter to the
Thessalonians Paul had first warned us about the apostasy
of the latter days, calling it one of the signs that would
mark the end of the age. In 2 Thes. 2:1 Paul began to
address their questions about two events, the (2nd) coming
of our Lord, and our being gathered to Him (the rapture).
He was responding to information they had received saying
the day of the Lord had already come. He told them not to
worry because several things had to happen first.
Paul didn’t go into things like the regathering of Israel,
the beginning of Daniel’s 70th Week, or the building of a
Temple. Israel had not been dispersed yet, and the Second
Temple was still standing. He focused on events that are
more gentile in nature.
A careful reading of 2 Thes. 2:3-8 shows the order in which
he said these things would take place. He said the apostasy
would happen first (verse 3), then the rapture of the
Church when the Holy Spirit is taken out of the way (verse
7), and finally the revealing of the anti-Christ followed
by the 2nd Coming (verse 8). (If you don’t read this
passage carefully, you could become confused by Paul’s
mention of the anti-Christ in verses 3-4. But verse 8
clearly places the official unveiling of the anti-Christ
after the removal of the Holy Spirit.) Even a casual
observation shows that we’re well into the time of the
first sign.
What should be our reaction to this? First is to remember
that God’s Word said this would happen so there’s no point
in bemoaning the fact that it’s happening. Instead we
should be encouraged to know the end of the Age is getting
closer. Jesus said the true Church would become weaker and
less influential as the end approaches (Rev. 3:8). As the
world moves further and further from God, those of us who
follow Him will naturally feel less comfortable and be less
welcome here.
If you live in the United States, stop confusing your
country with your church. No believer outside the US makes
this mistake, and the fact is the Church has neither a home
nor a land on Earth. Our citizenship is in Heaven (Phil.
3:20) and we look for a city whose architect and builder is
God (Hebr. 11:10).
No matter where we live in the world we have to remember
that we’re aliens here and our visit is about over. Soon
we’ll be going home where we belong.
In the mean time we have to stop depending on organized
religion to meet our needs. In some places the Church is
being forced underground. In others we’re going willingly.
But either way the gulf between religion and the Church is
growing wider by the day.
If you can’t find a God worshiping, Bible teaching church
where you live, don’t settle for what you can get. Gather a
small group of like minded believers and worship at home.
Paul and Timothy didn’t have a huge bureaucracy behind
them. They didn’t have million dollar buildings or
professionally designed programs. They didn’t even have the
New Testament. Yet they found a way to worship God, and to
help others do the same.
Stop supporting groups who are trying to bring Heaven to
Earth and start sending your treasure to Heaven. I could
tell you stories all day along about what God can do with a
hand full of people He can trust. Ask the Lord to identify
a need for you to meet in His name and then work in His
strength to meet it. Apart from Him nothing you do has any
value to the Kingdom (John 15:5).
Dig into prophecy. It’s the single biggest topic in the
Bible and more is written about our life and times than any
other period in history. Know what you believe and why you
believe it.
Do these things and you can make the time we have left the
most rewarding and enjoyable time you’ve ever known. You
can almost hear the Footsteps Of The Messiah.
mentor to a young pastor, one of the first ever, and
contain advice on what to do and how to do it, as well as
what not to do. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect given
the relationship.
But for no apparent reason Paul tucked several warnings
about the end times into various places in his
instructions. These are things Paul knew Timothy wouldn’t
have to deal with because he clearly described them as
characteristics of the Latter Days. We’ll take them each in
turn.
1 Timothy 4:1-2
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will
abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things
taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical
liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot
iron.
When I read this one I always think of certain
televangelists who espouse a perversion of the prosperity
gospel. They know what they’re teaching is a compilation of
half truths and outright lies, so in effect they’re
twisting God’s word to steal from their followers. And
without the least bit of shame they enjoy the lifestyles of
the rich and famous at the expense of their contributors
who, according to some reports, come primarily from the
bottom 25% of the economic scale.
Taking advantage of their followers’ lack of Bible
knowledge and misguided desire for a more abundant life ,
these predators foist one get rich quick scheme after
another on their desperate flocks, bilking them out of the
few discretionary dollars they have and leaving them worse
off in the bargain. And they do it in the name of God. It
makes you wonder what He’ll say to them come judgment time.
But the prosperity teachers aren’t the only ones in this
category. There are others who teach things they know are
contrary to what the Bible says. Some of these things come
under the heading of conditional salvation, grace plus
works, partial rapture, and other false teaching that can
steal the joy of your salvation and rob you of your
certainty. Their objective is to imprison you within
boundaries of rules they themselves can’t follow. Read
Colossians 2:8-23 for Paul’s opinion on these modern day
legalists.
Then there are those who either treat the prophecies of our
time as if they were already accomplished in history, or as
if they’re never going to be accomplished because they’re
all allegorical. These teachers also know what they’re
saying can’t be reconciled with Scripture, but they ask you
to believe it anyway, trusting in their superior intellect
or advanced education instead of your own common sense.
They take passages that can be clearly understood just as
they’re written by anyone with an average intellect and
make them hopelessly confusing by violating the rules of
context, re-defining terms, and making that which is real
into something symbolic.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last
days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents,
ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous,
without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,
treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather
than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying
its power. Have nothing to do with them.
Just as you become convinced that Paul is describing the
unbelieving world in our time and are vigorously nodding
your head in agreement, he says that these people have a
form of godliness but deny its power. Then you realize he
was writing about those believers in name only, who spend 6
½ days each week living lives indistinguishable from
unbelievers, grabbing all they can get from our material
world by any means necessary while contributing little or
nothing to the work of the Kingdom. These people lead two
lives, the one they’re serious about, and the one that’s
just for show. Guess which is which.
Paul was not blind to the behavior of these people, nor was
this the only time he warned us to stay from them. Listen
to what he told the Corinthians.
I have written you in my letter not to associate with
sexually immoral people – not at all meaning the people of
this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or
idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
But now I am writing you that you must not associate with
anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral
or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a
swindler. With such a man do not even eat (1 Cor. 5:9-11).
Notice he said “anyone who calls himself a brother” instead
of “anyone who is a brother.” I think he was doubting that
someone who behaves in this manner could have been saved in
the first place.
2 Timothy 4:3-4
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound
doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will
gather around them a great number of teachers to say what
their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears
away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Here the focus is on the emerging church movement in all
its various forms. In business schools, students learn to
develop strategies based on a driving force. One such
driving force is the market. A market driven strategy
requires the business enterprise to focus on what they
perceive to be the wants and needs of their target
customers and adapt themselves to meet these needs in a
more effective way.
Correctly predicting the growing demand for a religious
organization that could meet the needs of a self centered,
self sufficient generation, the leaders of the emerging
church movement developed such a strategy. They took the
focus off God and put it on the congregation. Entertainment
replaced worship, philosophy replaced theology, and good
works replaced victorious living.
Borrowing a phrase from Dominion Theology they began
calling it “bringing Heaven to Earth” to make it sound more
appealing to their idealistic target market. Little do
their followers realize that for believers, these good
works will be burned up in the fire (1 Cor. 3:14-15), and
for unbelievers they’ll be woefully insufficient for entry
into the kingdom (John 3:3). God has His own strategy for
bringing Heaven to Earth and it doesn’t include the
emerging church. Commenting on their works in his letter to
Laodicea, Jesus said, “I know your deeds, that you are
neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the
other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I
am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3:15-16)
They’re excited about the great entertainment, the
stimulating talk, and the good works, but not about the
Lord.
Irrespective of that, both the seats and the coffers soon
filled, signs that their market driven strategy was
working, and for many the emerging church was soon the
place to be. This was especially true for those who had
become bored with traditional Church and wanted a place
where they could feel good and do good with no messages
about sin and salvation to convict them. The gospel was not
missed in its absence.
Besides, “All of our attempts to define the right form of
the Gospel are just human interpretations,” the movement’s
leaders claim. “We must avoid a naive or excessive
confidence in any telling of the Gospel story, since no
articulation of the gospel today can presume to be exactly
identical to the original meaning Christ and the apostles
proclaimed.” In a sense, they’re saying since its
impossible to know what the Gospel story really is we
shouldn’t put too much faith in it.
Learning about the rapidly approaching End Times and the
need to be ready for it has also been skipped. Instead, the
“excessive” study of prophecy is called a distraction from
the real work of the Church. These things were done by
design, since the goal is to have non-believers make up at
least half of the congregation. The market is much bigger
that way and the non-believers help move the believers away
from theological absolutes, like the need to be born again
and the importance of prophecy.
In the next verse of His letter Jesus offered additional
criticism. “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and
do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are
wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” (Rev. 3:17) His
letter to the Church in Laodicea contains no commendation
for their works and offers no escape from the end times
judgments, just a plea to be allowed back into their midst
(Rev. 3:20).
But Wait There’s More
Over fourteen years earlier in his second letter to the
Thessalonians Paul had first warned us about the apostasy
of the latter days, calling it one of the signs that would
mark the end of the age. In 2 Thes. 2:1 Paul began to
address their questions about two events, the (2nd) coming
of our Lord, and our being gathered to Him (the rapture).
He was responding to information they had received saying
the day of the Lord had already come. He told them not to
worry because several things had to happen first.
Paul didn’t go into things like the regathering of Israel,
the beginning of Daniel’s 70th Week, or the building of a
Temple. Israel had not been dispersed yet, and the Second
Temple was still standing. He focused on events that are
more gentile in nature.
A careful reading of 2 Thes. 2:3-8 shows the order in which
he said these things would take place. He said the apostasy
would happen first (verse 3), then the rapture of the
Church when the Holy Spirit is taken out of the way (verse
7), and finally the revealing of the anti-Christ followed
by the 2nd Coming (verse 8). (If you don’t read this
passage carefully, you could become confused by Paul’s
mention of the anti-Christ in verses 3-4. But verse 8
clearly places the official unveiling of the anti-Christ
after the removal of the Holy Spirit.) Even a casual
observation shows that we’re well into the time of the
first sign.
What should be our reaction to this? First is to remember
that God’s Word said this would happen so there’s no point
in bemoaning the fact that it’s happening. Instead we
should be encouraged to know the end of the Age is getting
closer. Jesus said the true Church would become weaker and
less influential as the end approaches (Rev. 3:8). As the
world moves further and further from God, those of us who
follow Him will naturally feel less comfortable and be less
welcome here.
If you live in the United States, stop confusing your
country with your church. No believer outside the US makes
this mistake, and the fact is the Church has neither a home
nor a land on Earth. Our citizenship is in Heaven (Phil.
3:20) and we look for a city whose architect and builder is
God (Hebr. 11:10).
No matter where we live in the world we have to remember
that we’re aliens here and our visit is about over. Soon
we’ll be going home where we belong.
In the mean time we have to stop depending on organized
religion to meet our needs. In some places the Church is
being forced underground. In others we’re going willingly.
But either way the gulf between religion and the Church is
growing wider by the day.
If you can’t find a God worshiping, Bible teaching church
where you live, don’t settle for what you can get. Gather a
small group of like minded believers and worship at home.
Paul and Timothy didn’t have a huge bureaucracy behind
them. They didn’t have million dollar buildings or
professionally designed programs. They didn’t even have the
New Testament. Yet they found a way to worship God, and to
help others do the same.
Stop supporting groups who are trying to bring Heaven to
Earth and start sending your treasure to Heaven. I could
tell you stories all day along about what God can do with a
hand full of people He can trust. Ask the Lord to identify
a need for you to meet in His name and then work in His
strength to meet it. Apart from Him nothing you do has any
value to the Kingdom (John 15:5).
Dig into prophecy. It’s the single biggest topic in the
Bible and more is written about our life and times than any
other period in history. Know what you believe and why you
believe it.
Do these things and you can make the time we have left the
most rewarding and enjoyable time you’ve ever known. You
can almost hear the Footsteps Of The Messiah.
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