1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
Continuing from Paul’s last passage in regards to being a workman approved by God, telling Timothy not to have anything to do with quarreling about words and to gently instruct those who oppose the truth. Here Paul gives Timothy a prophetic vision of future events and the ways in which people will behave. He does this to compare what is happening at the present time of when this letter was written, where there were people who were coming into the church and starting arguments and false teachings, to the resulting end days actions of people. It appears from this text that the closer to the last days we come the worse people behave. It is also evident that Paul is also speaking about people within the church during the last days as he states “having a form of godliness but denying its power”.
Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
2 Peter 2:18 “For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.”
Romans 1:18-21 “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”
6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
In verse 6 Paul states that these false teachers are the kind to ‘worm their way’ (manipulate their way through) into homes and ‘gain control’ (teach falsely to gullible people, women in this case). They are always learning new false teachings but never acknowledging truth (Jesus Christ).
8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
Jannes and Jambres are only mentioned here once in the Bible, however from what I’ve read on other sites they are supposedly magicians during the time of Moses. Either way, they were men who had opposed Moses or rather opposed the truth, and thus their errors will be known to those watching.
Exodus 7:8-11 “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform a miracle,’ then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh,’ and it will become a snake.” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret arts: Each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. Yet Pharaoh’s heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said.”
Filed under: 2 Timothy, 2 timothy, Apostle Paul, Bible study, God, Godlessness in the last days, Jesus, New Testament, Paul, timothy
Prime Minister Golda Meir lying had said ‘This country now exists as the fulfillment of a promise made by God Himself. It would be ridiculous to ask it to account for its legitimacy.’ And yet still there is no such New Testament approval, prediction.. And the false Jewish supporters can solely refer to the Old Testament verses now such as Jeremiah Chapter 31, Joel 3:2, Amos 9:15 and Psalm 83: for they undeniably have no New Testament substantiations, support for Israel’s return or possession now of the past promised land.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6) and that there is no other salvation but through him. The saints are described in Revelation as those who “hold to the testimony of Jesus.” ((Rev 12:17 KJV) And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.)
http://thenonconformer.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/what-the-canadian-conservatives-do-not-say-about-israel/
thanks for sharing your views, i read the full article you’ve written… though i’ll be honest i still need to study the rest of the bible to help me understand what is going on regarding Israel and neighboring countries. I have a long way to go still but I did once read an excerpt by Salem Kirban regarding God’s promises to the arabs. He referred to Genesis 16:11, 12, 17:20. I’m wondering if the history of Ishmael has anything to do with today. But I don’t want to make that assumption yet until I’ve studied the scripture more closely.
The apostle John talks of the new jerusalem not the current one, which would mean those who believe in Christ will inherit this new Jerusalem. Would this make the old testament promise of the land void? had Jesus uplifted that promise making the new Jerusalem city available to both Jews and Gentiles?
Jeremiah 31:15 is also written in Matthew 2:18… thought you might be interested. though not to do with inheriting land but Christ and the death of Israel’s sons.