“But the
Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith.” 1
Timothy 4:1
In Greek
language there are two words for
“time": Χρόνος / chronos and καιρός / kairos. Chronos is
best understood as a period of time or swathe of time measured over seconds,
minutes, hours, days, months or years. We gauge chronos with watches and
clocks. A chronology is a sequence of time concerning real world events. Kairos
on the other hand is more specific. Kairos denotes an exact or specific time,
era or incidence.
Paul uses this
word in its plural form kairoi three times in the Pastoral Epistles. None of
them are in a positive context either.
He speaks of
the times of apostasy in 1 Timothy 4:1
The Spirit
clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow
deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
The difficult
times in 2 Timothy 3:1-5
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.
The times of
disinterest in the Word in 2 Timothy 4:3, 4
For the time
will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit
their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to
say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from
the truth and turn aside to myths.
Each era of
spiritual decline can be seen age after age and it is heralded by the signs
mentioned. Specifically, in the last days things will be pretty horrible. Are
we in the last days or what many would call the End of Times? Yeah, I’d say so.
We are clearly entering into them. We must also understand that anything after
the ascension of Christ into Heaven in bodily form is considered the
last/latter days but in the truest sense though I believe we are running out of
time.
A Time of Defection
Apostesontai and its root word (cognate) is where we get the
word for apostasy. People will willingly defect from the Christian faith
through their own choices and sin. There will be no one to blame but
themselves. Isn't this exactly what we see today en
masse? Laws are being passed to specifically snub the Christian
Faith. Laws like the Obergefell v Hodges ruling that specifically flaunts
sexual immorality in God’s face as the law of the land, just as Roe
v Wade flaunted
murder in His face 40 years ago? How can we possible expect that God will
forebear these perversions and miscarriages of justice without judgment?
The entirety
of the US government system and to most extents the education system have
removed God under the premise of separation of Church and State. Nearly all of
the scientific establishment which is the secular world’s new religion also
serves at the altar of godlessness. I truly believe the inability of people to
think logically and reason nowadays is the onset or beginning of said judgment
because Romans 1 tells us that those who have apostatized from God are given
over to their sins and their minds become seared to the point where they
approve of one another’s sin which they know is wrong. In other words they
cannot think correctly. Therefore I believe the commencement of judgment is
already upon us.
We currently
live in a specific time where people specifically have difficulty naming
anything that is evil as evil (Isaiah 5). The spineless church, mostly for fear
of losing members or tax exempt status are afraid or refuse to call things
heretical or call sin a sin. Hence we have the open acceptance of homosexuality
by mainline churches in the last year. Tolerance accepts all except things that
Christianity deems appropriate. We teach everything but Christ and the
Gospel in some churches. Tolerance of sin and unrighteousness, intolerance of
righteousness. The tongues of people are singed as the sting of their acid
words towards Christ and true Christians spill out like a cesspool from between
rotten teeth. Apostasy has reached a cliff event and is now snowballing in an
exponential manner. Even the non-believers know something is genuinely wrong
and society’s collective rhetorical question is now, “What is happening in
society?”
We’re
currently in the process of being turned over to judgment and wrath of God just
as Israel was multiple times in the Old Testament. The future the Bible spoke
of in prophecy is now. The future is now. In the church it is even more
insidious. It comes in the form of sermons that are pleasing to hear. Sermons
that entertain more than they teach. Sermons that aren’t really sermons at all,
they are more allegorical platitudes and motivational speeches of
self-affirmation. It is talk of a god minus the Gospel and Jesus. It’s the kneejerk
reaction to centuries of senseless dogmatic legalism. It is moralizing that
speaks but seldom acts and it is full of bombast and devoid of grace.
It is speeches
full of biblical idioms and phrases but empty of theology and the true message
of the Gospel. Because it is so empty of true Biblical content simple or even overt
twists of truth and narrative concern no one and go unrecognized. Everything is status quo as long as the message makes us
feel good. We hear man-focused missives instead of God-focused veneration.
I sit back
tonight and read the writing of the Church Fathers about of the heresy of old.
I read about the Creeds and Catechisms that were formulated to quell them and I
realize these heresies went nowhere. They are still with us repackaged and
relabeled. In our modern churches and modern culture I see the likes of
Docetism, Gnosticism, Modalism and Arianism and a pile of others and I
realize…nothing has changed. There is nothing new under the sun. It has only been amplified and quickened by
technological / intellectual arrogance and Biblical illiteracy. Quickened by
giving it new life and quickened by being sped up…as we race towards a cliff, a
future of judgment. A judgment who’s first wave has already arrived. A judgment that is now.
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