Perilous Times
Art Nelson
Introduction
When Paul wrote to
Timothy instructing him about ministry and how to conduct himself in the things
of God, he also gave this prophetic warning:
2 Timothy 3:1-5 NASB But
realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
(2) For men will be lovers of self, lovers of
money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
(3) unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips,
without self-control, brutal, haters of good, (4)
treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
(5) holding to a form of godliness, although they
have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
In these verses
there are eighteen characteristics of moral issues—character problems that will
characterize people during the last days. Verse two begins with “for”, which
means that these eighteen character defects are the reason for the difficult
times coming.
The NASB
translation of “difficult” is rather weak. The King James Bible translates it as
“perilous times”. According to Thayer's Greek Definitions, the original word not
only means difficult, hard, and perilous; it also means harsh, fierce, savage,
troublesome, and dangerous. Yes, the last days will be difficult, tough to bear
because of the deterioration of human character in the people.
The difficult times
are the result of three evil loves:
-
love of
self;
-
love of
money; and
-
love of
pleasure
These begin and end
this set of Scriptures. Love of self is first, which leads to a love of money,
which ends with love of pleasure. These three evil loves corrupt human nature
completely. Today, we live in a culture that is given over to these and is
possibly unparalleled in its embrace of self love, money, and pleasure. In a
society where majority rules it is inevitable that the majority will support and
vote for anything that feeds self desires.
Notice that Paul
tells Timothy that these people hold to “a form of godliness” but have denied
its power. He is not talking about pagans here. He is talking about those who
profess Christ; they are believers. They practice a form of godliness; that is,
an outward piety, but without the inward reality. They have denied the Lord His
right to change them and their lifestyle. They are religious. They sing hymns;
they go to church; but the object of their affection is themselves.
It is the word of
the cross that is the enemy of self. Jesus made it very clear that to follow Him
we had to do two things: 1) deny ourselves; 2) take up our cross daily.
Luke 9:23-24 NASB And He
was saying to them
all, "If anyone
wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and
follow Me.
(24)
"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever
loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.
We have to deny
self to even take up the cross. Once we take it up, we are doing the same thing
that Jesus did—we are going to a place to die. We can't know resurrection life
until we have died on the cross. The cross is the power of God for us that are
being saved, sanctified, and conformed to the image of Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:18 NASB For
the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who
are being saved it is the power of God.
Those who hold to
“a form of godliness” but deny its power are those who are denying the word of
the cross and its application to their life with the result that they are
unchanged. They remain lovers of self, lovers of money, and lovers of pleasure.
[For further
study of the difference in the Blood of Jesus and the Cross of Jesus and their
application to us see
Ministry Basics Lesson 11 The Foundation of Ministry on the website.]
As a whole our
churches have quietly quit teaching the power of the cross and the need to
change, to be conformed to the image of Christ. Instead there has been an
insidious twisting of the Scriptures by principles of psychology to support
maintaining the three evil loves. For example, the scriptures say “love your
neighbor as yourself”. I have heard this twisted in this way: you can't love
your neighbor until you have learned to love yourself first. Now, does that
sound even remotely like anything that Jesus would say? I think not. As a matter
of fact, it contradicts things that Jesus did say. Yet, in many churches there
is much teaching about loving self in order to increase your self-esteem.
The televangelists
blatantly preach a gospel of greed promoting the love of money by twisting the
Scriptures about giving, planting financial seeds and releasing a financial
harvest. Yet Jesus said,
Matthew 6:24 NASB
"No one can serve two masters; for either
he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and
despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
The seeker friendly
preachers build their empires on the idea of “success”, a “christianized version
of course, but still success as the world knows it. They twist the Scriptures
about us being sons of God, King's kids that have the right to be always be
blessed. They preach that God intends for all of us to be successful, to enjoy a
life full of all that the world has to offer. Success and its lifestyle are our
due and nothing can stand in the way of our achieving it. Our life should be
free from problems so that we can be happy for that is God's will. How utterly
alien to the Scriptures is this twisted version of God's purpose. Paul spoke
plainly about the necessity of persecution and suffering:
2 Timothy 3:12 NASB Indeed,
all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
2 Thessalonians 1:4-5 NASB
(4) therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you
among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all
your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. (5)
This is
a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you will be considered
worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering.
This is what Jesus
said:
John 16:33 NASB
"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me
you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have
overcome the world."
This is what Peter
said:
1 Peter 5:9-10 NASB But
resist him, firm in your
faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by
your brethren who are in the world.
(10)
After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you
to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen
and
establish you.
This small sampling
of verses make it very clear that God did not promise us a trouble free, pain
free, problem free successful life full of the pleasures of this world. As a
matter of fact, John tells us clearly of the problem with all of this:
1 John 2:15 NASB Do not
love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love
of the Father is not in him.
So, we have the
churches who have quit preaching the word of the cross, the power of the Holy
Spirit, the sanctification of believers and substituted psychology based, feel
good, messages on success, money and a trouble free life. The result is the
moral decay of the character of the believer that brings us into perilous times
during the last days.
We need to remember
that the Man of Lawlessness who operates in the spirit of Antichrist is a
religious person—outwardly pious. While the words that he speaks are blasphemous
toward God, they will stir the hearts and minds of those who follow the three
evil loves of self, money and pleasure. They will sound like godly words to them
and will appeal to their love of themselves in a way that appears godly.
The falling away
that occurs before the appearance of the man of lawlessness is the falling away
from the love of God and into the fullness of the love of self. It is this that
creates the perilous times for those who love God and want to walk godly in His
ways.
Brethren, the times
are upon us. There is something more important than “me” or “us”. It is God's
people, His spiritual house. Are we going to live our lives to please ourselves;
to seek our own good pleasure and pursue our own ambitions? Or, are we going to
live our lives for the glory of God, His house, and the people of God?
©
2003-2009 by Art Nelson and
Lifestream Teaching
Ministries
Previous issues of Present Truth are on the website: www.Lifestreamteaching.com
For comments or questions contact Art Nelson at this address:
artnelson@lifestreamteaching.com
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