seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
2 Timothy 3:1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God[a] may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
a. 2 Timothy 3:17 Or that you, a man of God
This is from bible-studys.org.
Such savage, dangerous eras or epochs will increase in frequency and severity as the return of Christ approaches. The church age is fraught with these dangerous movements accumulating strength as the end nears (Matt. 7:15; 24:11-12, 24; 2 Peter 2:1-2).
In previous lessons, Paul has been cautioning Timothy of false teaching that will come in the church. In this lesson, Paul speaks prophetically of the last days. This will be things that are happening primarily out of the church in society itself, but much of it taking place in the church, as well.
Perilous times would be times of great uncertainty. Possibly, a better way to say this would be to say dangerous times. I believe if you will carefully investigate this with me, you will agree this is speaking of the very days we live in.
There has never been a time when the statement "lovers of their own selves" was truer than in our society today. I believe that much of this can be blamed on Secular Humanism in the public schools. Children are taught that everything is relative to something else. They are not taught absolutes, especially of discipline. The Bible teaches absolutes.
The child, that grows up believing himself to be the center of everything, finds it difficult to put God at the center of his life. They can easily fall into being lovers of their own selves.
When you believe that you are the center of everything, then you believe that anything you want should be yours, even if it belongs to someone else. You can see that coveting is a form of loving yourself as well. Bragging seems to be the rule of the day.
True loyalty seems to be a thing of the past. For a few dollars, our best friend will do you in. The main one we are traitors to is our self. "Heady" means falling forward. The Bible would call this unstable in all thy ways. Highminded means to inflate with self-conceit. How many things in our life come before God?
“A form of godliness” is mere religion without “power” or spiritual life. Paul commands Timothy to “turn away” from these false teachers who prey upon “silly women laded with sins,” who are especially susceptible to false teachers. “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”, condemns not intense study but some esoteric quest for truth apart from God’s Word.
We may appear to be a Christian to the world; we may even profess to being a Christian. My question is, if you were on trial for being a Christian, could you be convicted by the evidence in your life? Would God declare you a Christian, by the condition of your heart, or would he say get away from me, I never knew you? (Matt. 7:23).
This false doctrine had already started then, and the church was just a few years old. The only thing that would break this deadly chain of getting worse and worse would be to come in direct contact with the Truth.
A false doctrine does not get better as it is told. It comes from Satan in the first place, and gets worse and worse every time it is told. When a person is evil, his conscience gets where it is not working. Each sin gets a little worse until he is totally consumed with sin.
God has always brought messages to His people through the mouth, or pen of men. I like to think of the Bible as God's instruction to man for living victorious lives. You might think of it as a road map which guides us at every intersection of life. If we stick with the guide, it will keep us from taking the wrong turn.
If the Bible says something, there is a reason. We may not understand the reason at the time, but if it says it, it has a purpose. We can learn from other's experiences in the Bible.
1 Corinthians 10:11 "Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come."
If it were not for the Scriptures, we would not know how to be righteous. Righteousness is received, not earned. We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
This is from enduringword.com.Those who creep into households: Paul knew that they dangers were in the world in his day and would be increasingly present in the last days before the return of Jesus. However, he seemed especially concerned that these would creep into households. It is one thing to have such evil present in the world; it is another thing to allow it into your home.
Make captives of gullible women: Those marked by the last days depravity Paul mentioned in the previous verses want to take others captive, and it can do this among the gullible, those who will believe or pay attention to most anything if it is packaged the right way.
Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth: The spirit of the last days has a certain intelligence about it; the high priests of the spirit of the last days know how to make things work and how to lead us away by various lusts. But for all their skill, for all of their marketing brilliance and knowledge, they never come to truth.
But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse: Evil men refers to the obvious, open enemies of Jesus; impostors refers to those who appear good and many think of as fine, but they are actually destructive forces among Jesus’ followers.
I thought, when I opened this chapter, that it was going to be about end times. You know... I thought I would get some specific information... like the leaf on the third tree on the left will drop at dusk when the sun's ray hits that tree at a particular angle. Instead I see that things will just get even harder to deal with. The scripture mentions two men and gullible women. These are examples of how bad ideas get into the church.
According to the author of "got questions".... the two guys might have been the magicians who met with Moses and Pharaoh. They were the smarty pants who matched Moses with magic..... until they all threw down their staff tuning them into snakes.... and Moses' snake ate their snake.
I am a gullible woman. I was raised in the church. I was only allowed to watch certain TV shows. I spent my early childhood sitting in Mr. Whipple's apple trees discussing "miracles" with my friends. In the late 60's I started working for a living.... and I started butting into people who knew a whole lot more about life than me..... I was engaged to a man who had been to Vietnam not once but twice.... he knew a whole lot more than me. He could have told me the sky would change to green at the end of the day... and give me some obscure chapter and verse and I would have believed him.... he was after all a soldier who had been around and seen so much more... so he mist be telling me the truth.
But when I read this chapter.... I thought about the last women's Sunday School I attended. The "teacher" started off the "hour" with prayer requests.... they went around the room getting a request from each.... and the back story... the gossip. That lasted about 15 minutes. Then there was the prayer.... and ever tiny thing discussed was covered.... with a bunch of "Lord"s thrown in for the sake of reverence. You know how it goes.... " Lord help us pray Lord for Aunt Genie's bad knee Lord... the right knee Lord... it's a awful fright Lord... she can't stand on it to back the pies for the church raffle Lord.... so help her Lord find a way to the drugstore so she can get that special salve Lord.... " You know the type... and that takes another five minutes.
After that they read the scripture for the day. Each woman reads a verse.... and each reads it from their Bible. The first verse might be in KJV... the next few in AS and a verse in NIV and back to KJV..... so each secretly doesn't really have a clue what the verse actually says because the translations don't agree. After the scripture... there's the Study Lesson. It's been my experience that most of the lessons grown women get in Sunday School is more of an affirmation of their righteousness than a learning experience. They are instructed in all the things they have to avoid.... all the hateful stuff that might get them in the day... but these women are not like the female prostitutes in the first church in Corinth... these are good righteous women who go to church every Sunday.... and they bring their whole wonderful family... and they sit in the exact same pew... and they hold their hymnal just so to show they are well versed in the traditions of the church..... these are good women... who really aren't learning a darn thing.
Paul was warning about complacency. While we are reading scripture in four different translations.... someone can slip in a fake lesson... and the gullible women in the church... passionate souls for the church that they are.... will grab that "new lesson" and run with it like it's true.... because it's in a book in the church... not the Bible mind you.... a book someone bought from a media empire run by idol worshipers..... and they don't have a clue.
While parents are vigilant about what programs or media their children are watching.... so they don't get a glimpse of an X rated show.... the preachers should be vigilant about what media their teachers use in the Sunday Schools. Teaching hate or racism is not exactly what Jesus was teaching..... something to consider at least...right?
I'm gullible..... I admit it.... that's why I use a translation of the Bible I can read and understand. I use several commentaries and challenge them when they don't agree. And I have stopped looking for the exclusivity and started enjoying the inclusivity of His Mission.
Paul warned Timothy to watch out for magicians playing with the gospel to delude gullible women... who would passionately yet unwittingly spread a lie as if it were true.
The end times will have plenty of gullible women...... that's the only way it will work.... gullible women spreading lies thinking they are telling people the "new truth".
