“Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.” [1]
The idea that humanity stands on the brink of annihilation is an ancient one. Nearly every culture throughout history has held some kind of doomsday theory. Among previous doomsday cults known and studied even to this day loom such figures as the seer Nostradamus, the Nineteenth century American preacher William Miller and the apocalyptic cult of Jehovah's Witnesses. Add to these numerous Christian apocalyptic groups throughout history and you realise that prophecies concerning the end of time are not a product exclusively for these early days of the Twenty-first Century.
Unsurprisingly, the occult serves as a frequent prophetic source for predictions of apocalypse, and many of the apocalyptic cults witnessed in history, and also in this present day, draw heavily, whether on purpose or through ignorance, on occultic sources. Shifting our focus to the present day we witness a number of cults presenting doomsday messages. Among these cults arising in recent decades are such groups as Heaven's Gate and the Branch Davidians. Add to these any number of “patriot” and “militia” movements with associated dangerous groups such as the neo-Nazis. However, no one should imagine that North America has a monopoly on doomsday cults. Even a casual awareness of recent newsmakers will lead the perceptive reader to recognise apocalyptic groups that include entities such as Arum Japan and the Order of the Solar Temple in Switzerland and Quebec.
Paul, writing almost two thousand years ago, penned a missive to the young pastor of the assembly in Ephesus. In that letter, the Apostle warned of the rise of such apocalyptic groups. The text before us addresses this issue, as does an earlier warning provided the same young preacher in his first letter. “The Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” [1 TIMOTHY 4:1-5]. Consider, then, how we who follow the Saviour are to respond to the challenge of the last days.
What we can say is that as revealed in the Word of God all history is moving toward a cataclysmic conclusion—this present world will end in fire, and God’s new world will begin. Without a doubt, it is this revelation that serves as the basis for uninformed and ignorant people who purport to have secret knowledge concerning what is surely coming. Let’s present an overview of events as revealed in the Word of God.
Peter spoke of this day of transition when he wrote in his second letter, “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” [2 PETER 3:1-13].
However, we who are redeemed, we who are the saved of Christ, are not looking for destruction; we are looking forward to the return of our Master, Jesus the Son of God. Before ever the earth shall be destroyed, we Christians are promised that we shall be gathered to the Lord that we may enjoy the rewards He has promised. Whether we must pass through the chilling waters of death, or whether we are changed at His return, we are certain that we shall be taken from this earth and delivered into the presence of our Lord.
The next great event in God’s timetable is that the saints of the Lord, both living and dead, shall be taken up and into the presence of the Lord. The Word of God teaches, “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words” [1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-18].
When God’s saints have been removed from this earth, their absence and the absence of the Spirit of God Who now dwells among the faithful, will precipitate a reign of evil that will move the world toward the terrifying time identified in Scripture as the Great Tribulation. Immediately after the redeemed of God are raptured out of the earth, a ruler will be raised up by Satan, and this man will exercise absolute power over the whole of the earth. The Apostle alludes to the unveiling of this world ruler when he writes, “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” [2 THESSALONIANS 2:1-12].
Get the picture? The redeemed of God, those individuals who are twice-born, shall be taken from the earth, gathered together to meet the Lord. Such an event, even though it means the absence of a relatively small percentage of the population, will be nevertheless disturbing. It is impossible to account for the sudden absence of millions of people, even though they constitute a small proportion of world population. And yet, this world leader will concoct a lie that turns attention of most away from the obvious. Churches will still be open, pulpits will still be filled, religious programming will continue to be broadcast. Many of the churches of this day are not populated with followers of the Christ, so they can continue as they do now. While there are many professed Christians, those who actually follow the Risen Saviour appear to be distressingly few in number. I fear that a tragic number of preachers have no faith in Christ as Lord, so they can continue preaching following the rapture as they do now.
While the events of the Great Tribulation are described in some detail in the Word of God, those events are not our primary focus in this message. My desire is to speak to the people of God living now in these days leading to the Rapture and the Tribulation that shall follow, so that we are equipped for life in these twilight days before the Tribulation.
SOCIAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL CHALLENGES IN THE LAST DAYS — “Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” [2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5a].
Sadly, most people don't really want the truth. Instead, they want something titillating, something sensationalistic, something exciting. Rumour-mongers, fringe groups or doomsday prophets ensnare a surprising number of people because the message they present seems so exciting. It's intriguing. It adds spice to life and gives people something fun to talk about. Also, it makes the people caught up in this stuff feel as if they have an inside track to truth. Hence, they can feel special, superior to others living about them. In this respect, the message of many of these charlatans is not unlike Gnosticism which threatened the viability of the churches in the days of the Apostles.
The arrival of the new century became a focal point of anxiety, curiosity and interest; it was something new to people. Like sharks sensing blood in the water, many people profiting from frightening gullible people sensed ample financial gain available to them through scaring people with the problems anticipated with Y2K. Perhaps you can remember the fear that was peddled during those waning days of 1999? We were assured that computers would fail, we wouldn’t be able to take money out of our bank accounts, utilities would fail, the world as we knew it was about to end. You may remember the sense of relief many had when they awakened on January 1, 2000. The world was still here, and all the problems we normally associate with this life were still with us.
The Y2K drama had barely ended when ominous reports began to circulate of the end of the world because the Mayan calendar indicated the world’s end in 2012. We even had movies produced that showed what the end of the world would be like in that year. We are a decade beyond 2012, and while the movie can still be viewed on some television stations that play movies that no one watches today, the world didn’t end.
Don’t imagine that people were finished with consulting the Mayan calendar, however. December twenty-first, 2021 was the new end of the world predicted by the Mayan calendar. [2] As you may suspect, the world didn’t end on December 21, 2021. Prognosticators did what prognosticators always do, they adjusted their prognostication to say, “Oh, my, we must use the ‘Long Count Calendar,’” allowing us to say that the end of the world will be December 21, 2022. [3] Don’t hold your breath waiting for this date.
These events that occurred during the present century are not the first attempts to predict the end of the world. Perhaps you have heard of the origin of the Adventist movement. William Miller, a Baptist preacher who ultimately became a Deist, arrived at the conclusion that Christ would return before March 21, 1844. Of course, the Lord failed to meet Mr. Miller’s timetable, but not before thousands had joined the movement.
When Christ didn’t show by the expected date, Miller adjusted his prediction to assure those following him that Jesus would return on October 22, 1844. [4] People didn’t harvest their crops that year. They dressed in white robes and sat on their rooftops throughout the day of October 22. The sun rose, the sun set, night came on, and Christ didn’t return. Some were angered because they had been duped; others simply united with an offshoot of the Millerites, known as the Seventh Day Adventist.
We will do well to heed the words our Master spoke: “Concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake” [MARK 13:32-37].
Why do we focus on the end of time? A major reason for our focus on end times is that people are gullible. Some people will believe almost anything if the right person says it. I’m sorry to say that this is especially true of many in the Christian community. It seems as if few are willing to question or doubt a religious leader, even though God says we should test all things. I suppose that we know that cataclysmic events seem plausible, and so we don’t want to immediately discount any reports of the end of things. We would be embarrassed if some cataclysmic event took place and we were forced to admit that we were caught by surprise.
Moreover, we know that we deserve to be punished as a race. It is inherent to our existence to understand that we are destructive. Wars and spoilage of our environment and unrestrained tampering with our social system assures us that we are deserving of destruction. Perhaps it is an expression of our understanding that we were driven from the paradise into which our first parents were placed and that we have spoiled the earth and all relationships through our own fallen condition. We share a collective guilt for our sinful behaviour, and the knowledge of our culpability is inherent in our makeup. We deserve to be destroyed, and though we aren’t especially eager to be held accountable for the condition of our world, we nevertheless know that we deserve divine judgement.
Another reason for human gullibility is that people love to make idols, especially idols that allow us to look to other humans for solutions to the problems confronting us. Here is what I mean, many people have a favourite preacher, Bible teacher, televangelist, guru, spiritual mentor, or prophecy pundit to whom they pay careful attention. These heroes can do no wrong in the estimate of those who look to them for spiritual insight. Even when these paragons of prophetic insight make foolish predictions, or when they make full-blown prophecies that are proven false, their followers rationalise the mistakes away or simply ignore the errors.
Yet another reason for the gullibility of people is that many people actually want it to be the end of the world. Let's face it, life is tough. And some people simply want to see an end to the constant chaos of life. What can be more comforting than to think the end is just around the corner, especially for us Christians who believe that the end will bring complete deliverance through the return of our Lord and Saviour? It seems easier to let Christ take the heat than for us to stand firm against the evil of this fallen world.
If we who know the Risen Lord allow ourselves to become so obsessed with the idea that we are in the terminus of the last days that we begin to ignore our responsibilities in these last days, our focus will prove damaging to our own walk and also to our testimony in the world. We need to draw unbelievers to us with words that point them to Christ, not about when he may or may not return. This is especially true when Scripture has already told us we will never know the time of his return.
Having made this statement, I do not want anyone to assume that I have become cavalier concerning the last days. We are in the last days! Allow me to say this again: WE ARE IN THE LAST DAYS! However, it must also be said that these last days have been with us for almost two millennia. Do I believe Jesus is coming again? Most assuredly, I believe the Scriptures that our Lord has promised to return! And I live in the knowledge that His return could be momentary. As a follower of the Christ, I must live as though the Saviour could return at any moment, even as I must live as though the full sum of my days on this earth will be lived out before the Lord returns. The situation is that Jesus could return at any moment, but we must live as though He will not return in our lifetime.
I know that the world dismisses the possibility of Christ’s return. They fulfil the prophecy Peter delivered when he wrote, “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
“Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” [2 PETER 3:1-13].
I dare not allow myself to become cavalier concerning the return of my Lord. I must not permit myself to begin to live as though He won’t come. Neither may I begin to imagine, as do some promoting themselves as religious leaders and scholars, that His return is metaphorical, that somehow He comes again each time someone is born into the Family of God. No! I look for the momentary return of Jesus the Son of God!
The admonition of the Apostle must serve to guide the life of each follower of the Risen Saviour. Paul wrote, “It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” [PHILIPPIANS 1:20-23]. I am prepared to live for more years, and yet, I anticipate the return of my Master momentarily.
The teaching delivered to His disciples that His return would be unexpected by many even while instructing them concerning the fulfilment of the Kingdom of Heaven is a constant theme in Jesus’ teaching. Among the places where the Master spoke of His return, few are as extended as the series of parables pointing to His return that are provided for us in the latter chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. First, Jesus prepared His disciples by teaching, “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” [MATTHEW 24:32-35].
To be certain, the disintegration of culture, the constant movement toward societal exaltation of that which is ungodly and unholy, is a constant reminder that the Lord Jesus has pledged there will be an end to the world as we know it. It is not our place to attempt to bring about the dissolution of the world; those of the world will ensure that this is accomplished themselves. And though the degradation of contemporary culture does not necessarily mean that this is the final generation, the steady devolution of culture reminds us that God will not always permit matters to continue in a downward spiral.
Then, Jesus moved to caution against any supposition that we could know the timing of His return. He said, “Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” [MATTHEW 24:36-44].
We must never forget that God has not given us the timing of His return. He has appointed a day when all mankind must be held to account, and the timing of that accounting lies within the purview of God alone. Those who claim to know the timing of these events are liars and fools for thinking they can dictate to God when He must act.
Jesus then taught disciples that the Kingdom of Heaven would be a surprise for many supposed followers who should have been looking for the return of the Bridegroom [see MATTHEW 25:1-13]. The Master concluded this portion of His instruction by warning those who would hear Him, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour” [MATTHEW 25:13]. If we don’t know the timing of His return, then we are assuredly well advised to live in anticipation of His momentary return.
Jesus followed this teaching with the teaching that He has entrusted His property to His servants in anticipation that they will grow what He has conferred on each of His followers [see MATTHEW 25:14-30]. The Master seems clearly to be cautioning that while ecclesiastical conditions will be moving inexorably toward a casual insouciance, His people are not excused from service just because religious conditions are moving toward studied ignorance of contemporary events.
Elsewhere, Doctor Luke relates the words Jesus spoke after the Pharisees feigned interest in the coming of the Kingdom of God. Jesus said to His disciples, “The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, ‘Look, there!’ or ‘Look, here!’ Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. I tell you, in that night there will be two in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left” [LUKE 17:22-36].
The Master is warning those who are so caught up in the affairs of this dying world that failure to live in anticipation of His return imperils them with being left to face the world’s wrath without the tempering presence of either God’s Spirit or of the Bride of Christ. Jesus then told a parable encouraging us not to despair in the face of the world’s hostility. The parable Jesus told was as follows: “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth” [LUKE 18:2-8]? Saint of God, continue to be godly, continue to pray, keep on watching for the Son.
IDENTIFY THE ERROR — “Among [those threatening the Faith] are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith” [2 TIMOTHY 3:6-8].
In rabbinical literature, Jannes and Jambres are the names of Egyptian magicians who opposed Moses when he stood before Pharaoh. It is important for us to note that Paul is not comparing himself to Moses as though he is the great deliverer appointed to lead the saints to the Promised Land; rather, he is making a point concerning what he is teaching and what these men oppose. You will recall that when God sent Moses to Pharaoh to demand that Egypt set the Hebrew people free, the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh… You shall speak all that I command you” [EXODUS 7:1a, 2a].
And of course Moses did speak the precise words that God commanded. Therefore, we are able to assert with confidence that throughout the years of his service before the Lord God, Moses spoke the truth. Consequently, the men whom Paul is warning against are speaking against the truth. Naturally, that should raise the question, “What truth?” And the answer is, God’s truth! We are speaking of the only truth, which is the truth that God has given. Here is a thought that you should hold dear and never forget—all truth is God’s truth. It is of little consequence where you find truth, truth reflects the presence of God. This is why Isaiah speaks of God as the God of truth.
“He who blesses himself in the land
shall bless himself by the God of truth,
and he who takes an oath in the land
shall swear by the God of truth.”
[ISAIAH 65:16a]
We witness the Psalmist making the same confession concerning God when he writes,
“Into Your hand I commit my spirit;
You have ransomed me, O LORD, God of truth.“
[PSALM 31:5 NASB95]
Moses delivered the Law precisely as it was given by the Lord GOD and exactly as He had received it. Similarly, the Apostle has taught the truth concerning Christ Who was crucified and is now risen from the dead as revealed by the Spirit of God. It is this apostolic faith which was delivered to Timothy [see 2 TIMOTHY 1:14] that is to be guarded. This Faith that was delivered by the Apostles is the sacred deposit which must never be harboured nor must it ever be hidden from a dying world. Rather, this is that Faith which is to be declared and transmitted to all people. Those whom Paul is warning Timothy to recognise as evildoers are men who are opposed to God’s truth; these are men guilty of distorting the truth that God has delivered. Therefore, Paul is equating them as men who are making shipwreck of the Faith. Anyone who distorts the message of life that is provided in the Word of God is guilty of making shipwreck of the Faith. Avoid such people and do not show them the courtesy of listening to their drivel even for a moment.
It is an easy thing for followers of Christ to be reactionary whenever we witness the attitudes of those identified with this dying world. Generally, we who walk in the Way accept as complete the commands that God has given. We strive to do what He has commanded and we make every effort not to deviate from commitment to fulfill His will. Because this is true, we feel resentment rising up within our soul at the world’s constant efforts to reorder our culture to fit some novel concept that is obviously at variance with the revealed will of God. We know how the situation will progress before the latest bright concept is fully adopted. In the political realm we who follow the Risen Saviour tend to vote for fiscal conservatives and for those who promise to emphasise stability through maintaining rational and reasonable policies that protect our liberties. In the social realm we avoid novel fads that are at variance with the flow of history. In the ecclesiastical realm we turn from those with a new revelation since God has already spoken, delivering a full and trustworthy revelation of His will.
AVOID THE DANGER — “Avoid such people” [2 TIMOTHY 3:5b]. Here is advice that is ignored to our immediate peril. The people Paul has just described constitute a grave danger to conscientious Christ followers. They must be avoided always! The ancient Christians saw heretical individuals for the danger they represented. Why did the state churches burn at the stake those they deemed to be heretics? They saw their heresies as a grave danger to the faithful. I’m not suggesting that we need to kill heretics, there is no warrant anywhere in Scripture that supports such a position. I am saying that we need to see heresy for the grave, eternal danger posed by treating the heresy as unimportant or as some minor situation.
Peter is blunt when warning the churches of the Diaspora to watch out for false teachers. He writes, “False prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep” [2 PETER 2:1-3].
False teachers introduce destructive heresies, even going so far as to deny the Master Who gave His life as a ransom for them. Here is the grave danger of tolerating such heretics—many follow their sensuality causing the way of truth to be blasphemed!
Paul makes a stunning statement in his teaching concerning the Lord’s Table, writing, “In the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions [schisms] among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions [heresies] among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized” [1 CORINTHIANS 11:17-19]. The word translated “factions” is the Greek term haírseis; we get our English word “heresy” from this Greek term.
Writing to a preacher we know as Titus, the Apostle speaks quite plainly, warning the young preacher, “As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned” [TITUS 3:10-11]. There is no question that the issue is serious. The word that is translated by the English phrase “stirs up division” is the Greek term, hairetikós. The root of the word chosen is that word which we render in English as “heresy.” Older translations often chose to translate this particular word by the English term “heretic,” as exemplified when the English Revised Version translated the verse, “A man that is heretical after a first and second admonition refuse.” Some among us will be familiar with the venerable King James Version, which reads, “A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject.”
I’m not trying to argue about the translation of this verse, but I am pointing out that the earliest churches recognised a serious danger to the unwary when error was tolerated. Dear people, there is no such thing as “a little bit of error.” Tolerating even a little bit of error can lead to destruction. Ultimately, we know that there is no such thing as a “little bit of error." Let’s heed the Apostle John, who has written, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” [1 JOHN 5:21]. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] “Mayan Calendar Prophecies Predictions for 2021-2052,” Daily News Break, https://dailynewsbreak.org/mayan-calendar-prophecies-predictions-for-2021-2052/, accessed 9 April 2022
[3] Zaraki Kenpachi, “Who Predicted the End of the World in 2022, Nostradamus or the Mayans?” Need Magazine, April 21, 2020, https://www.needmagazine.com/end-of-the-world-in-2021-nostradamus-or-the-mayans/, accessed 9 April 2022
[4] Bruce Shelley, “William Miller’s Great Disappointment,” Christian History Magazine-Issue 61: A History of the Second Coming (Christianity Today, Carol Stream, IL 1999)
