But Mark This

         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 such people. (II Timothy 3:1-5)

Terrible: extremely or distressingly bad or serious; causing or likely to cause terror; sinister

          Paul turns his attention to a warning about what was ahead. Let me begin by suggesting to you that there are the last days, and the Last Days, and the LAST DAYS. I believe that the last days began the day Adam and Eve sinned. The Last Days began with the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The LAST DAYS will begin with the rise of the Anti-Christ. To put it bluntly, we are in the Last Days and have been for some time.

          Let’s reject some notions about how things progress in any of the last days, from no capitals to all capitals. History runs in cycles, sometimes moving closer to God, and other times moving away. At the same time, there is a progression from good (before the fall) to bad (after the fall) to worst (the LAST DAYS.) It’s as if we’re riding a roller coaster with all of its ups and downs and backs and forths. We notice the hills and valleys on the ride, but it’s only once we get off and look back that we notice that the coaster was built on the side of a hill, so that at the end, you are lower than you were. Each part of the coaster is connected to the next and where you are this second isn’t generally too much different from where you were a second ago.

          There are times when it seems as if something has come out of the blue, but the reality is that we probably haven’t paid attention. I believe the LAST DAYS will flow quite naturally from the Last Days, without fanfare. That doesn’t mean the LAST DAYS will not begin with the rapture. I believe they will begin as a reasonable and natural response to the extreme crisis that the disappearance of millions will cause. What I am saying, however, is that we don’t go to bed in the lives we’ve known and wake up to Mad Max. It’s more subtle than that.

            This means that if you look around you will see that today, there are lovers of self. It’s reached nearly a comedic level at the moment, with women paying out big bucks to marry themselves. Music and popular culture are desperate in the. ir promotion of “self-esteem.”  Others demand the right to decide what is right and wrong for themselves, the right to godhood on social media (no one is permitted to disagree with them on their page, godhood over their bodies even if it involves other bodies, and the rights to dictate to others in what terms they may be addressed and to seek legal recourse if those others do not behave as they dictate.

            As for lovers of money, since the 1850s, there has been a political movement that claims to be “for the people” but in truth, it’s about class warfare – the battle between the haves and have nots. It’s all about greed and the hatred of those how have more than you do.

           Do we really need to examine the rest? In every case, we will find examples in our popular culture to show that we are somewhere in the last days spectrum. And Paul’s instruction is to not have anything to do with these people. But, what about loving our neighbors as ourselves?

           Last Friday, I recertified for CPR and AED. It brought to mind other first response trainings I’ve taken. Often, instructors point out that what a first responder must do is to remain within his/her training, and to never endanger himself/herself in trying to help another. We don’t run into burning buildings without fire fighter’s gear. We don’t enter a biohazard area without a biohazard suit. We don’t expose ourselves to gunfire or climb out on ledges. As we face the last days, the Last Days, or the LAST DAYS, there are dangers we are not equipped to handle. The power of the love of self, the love of money, and the misuse of others is great. In fact, most of the things listed had to do with power, and you know the old saying… power corrupts…