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Dear Gary,
I really connect with your post. I believe what you have said and
am also amazed at the way these things are being received and not
received by many in the church.
I am amazed at God's way in which He can deliver the wise while at
the same time turning the foolish over to their own way and letting
them not see what is so evident to the wise. So much so that as the
wise try to tell the foolish they only react with hostility as you said
here from your post when they are warned of the soon rapture:
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The reaction was amazing; some in denial, some apathetic
and some hostile. And these are people who go to church to worship God every week?
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I have discovered with sadness that many who go to church and we
think are worshipping God are in fact only near Him with their mouths
but their hearts are far from Him.
I discovered something the other day that has not yet faded from
my mind just how serious the situation is. And that is this: You know
that scripture that says "In the latter days perilous times shall come
for men shall be lovers of their own selves..." etc?
I have often seen this scripture used to illustrate the nature of
the world before Jesus comes back. I have seen it used in videos where
they show gay pride parades or heavy metal bands and rock stars in all
their regalia and excess and riotous behavior and other examples of
blatant worldliness while this scripture is quoted. And to be sure this
has always seemed appropriate to me. Until just the other day when I
looked up this verse because I was looking for the last part of it and
only then did it hit me who these people are that the whole scripture
is focusing on. It is not the world at large that Paul is warning
Timothy about that will become all these evil things in the latter days
but rather people within the church itself!
The scripture is in 2 Timothy and chapter 3 and is as follows:
2 Timothy 3
1. This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4. Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
6.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive
silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
7. Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth:
men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
It shocked me to discover that the people that Paul is speaking of
are people that go to church! Not gays out in the street being worldly
or rock stars in all their obvious evil, but church-goers who have a
form of godliness and are ever learning but never able to come to a
knowledge of the truth! This has never been so consciously noticed by
me before because I always focused on the first part of this and
somehow separated it from the last part as though the two passages were
separate and speaking of two completely different groups of people. But
to realize that this is all referring to church-going people and they
have all these attributes just floors me. Yet I know that it is true.
Paul goes on to compare these kinds of people to a couple of
trouble-makers that were in the Israelites' camp under Moses called
Jannes and Jambres and says that even as those men withstood Moses so
also these in our day within the church will be resisting the truth
because they are men of corrupt minds who are reprobate concerning the
faith. Yet they are in the church. Very strong words.
If someone were to say these things against them today and not be
quoting Paul, someone might accuse them of judging them or of having
bitterness in the vine and usurping God's place of authority and being
an instrument of the enemy and bringing derision and destruction or of
turning and rending others rather than sounding the very warning that
Paul told Timothy to be aware of! I am not ashamed of the truth of God
and what He has promised. I will hold fast my confidence and look for
the blessed hope every day and no man shall steal my crown. Neither
will I apologize for turning away from such as Paul describes that are
in the church (from such turn away) as though I was afraid to be called
an instrument of bitterness and negativity for judging them. If you
want to fellowship with them to keep the peace that is yours to decide.
But I think that a separation is taking place as we speak and I wish to
be on the Lord's side of it and not the world's or those who are
reprobate concerning the faith. Perilous times are here! |