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…
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