The Last Days Of The Church VIII

2 Timothy 3:1, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.”

There’s danger, then there’s danger. There’s a danger you can see coming, the danger you can anticipate, the danger for which you can prepare, and the danger against which you can defend. Then there’s the danger you can’t see coming, the kind of danger that blindsides you, like getting t-boned by a car while going through a green light or having your boat propeller fall off and sink into the deep while you’re putting around in the middle of a lake. Although I’m no seafaring aficionado, I’ve heard stories.

As Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, he sat in a dungeon in Rome. It wasn’t the first time; it was the second time this had happened to him, and he was so close to the finish line that he could taste it. This was to be his last epistle. Soon, he would be martyred and go to his reward. His words, penned in the shadow of death, carry a profound significance.

By some grace and divine providence, Paul was allowed some parchment and a quill and made use of his time in prison by tying up loose ends and edifying Timothy, whom he’d mentored and trusted to continue the ministry once he was gone. True men of God never retire. Even when their flesh grows weak, and they are no longer the tip of the spear in the ministry to which they were called, they spend their time mentoring those who will take up the charge once they are gone, for the Kingdom and the work thereof remains paramount in their lives to the very end. Ministry is not a career. It is a calling, a vocation, a purpose to which one devotes one's life in its entirety throughout.

The timing of this writing matters lest anyone insist that the early church had as yet not seen any peril of which they should be aware or that Paul was referring to persecution or the godless waxing worse as the danger to which he was referring. That he would not consider the times he lived in perilous is illogical and fraught with cognitive dissonance. He was sitting in a Roman prison waiting to be executed, so if the perilous times he was referring to had anything to do with persecution or the godless, it would have been redundant.

Paul was an educated man with a specific background and a certain pedigree that would prohibit him from stating the obvious or being needlessly repetitive. This was a man who, before his conversion, was a Pharisee of Pharisees, taught the law by Gamaliel, a man who, in his own right, was held in great esteem by all the learned men of his time.

Paul used words both sparingly and judiciously, and if he contends that in the last days, perilous times will come, we must determine the source of the peril and what the peril will entail. This is not a matter of casual observation, but a call for deep understanding and discernment.

Jesus warned regarding the last days of the world with a purpose in mind, and now Paul warns of the last days of the church with a similar purpose and intent.

Ignorance is bliss only to the ignorant and indifferent. It raises my hackles any time those whose singular purpose is to rightly divide the Word shrug their shoulders and gloss over a passage they don’t want to examine because they deem it trivial. It’s in the Book; therefore, it’s not trivial. There is a purpose for every dot and tittle contained in the Bible. If we dare to dismiss large swaths of God’s word because we think there is more fertile or less dense soil we can till that will demand less exertion on our part, especially when those swaths have to do with the last days, we are being unfaithful to the calling to which we have been called.

Given that the early church was already living in perilous times and was already being persecuted, rejected, martyred, and denounced by the powers of the day, the nature of the peril Paul warns will come during the last days must be something altogether different than what they were already used to.

That’s not to say the current peril would be done away with, just that another layer of peril would present itself during the last days, from a different source, in a different iteration, and those with eyes to see have already witnessed it take shape and form before their eyes.

The second reality we must contend with is that the perilous times Paul speaks of are a certainty. There was no addendum or caveat. It was a declarative statement: But know this: in the last days, perilous times will come.

He didn’t say perilous times would come if you didn’t vote Republican or Democrat, nor did he say that perilous times would come unless your church had a fully funded building fund or you belonged to a particular denomination. That perilous times would come was a prophetic certainty, with no possibility of redress or correction.

I’m often asked what the church could have done to save the world, and the answer is nothing. There is nothing the church could have done to save the world as a whole, but there are plenty of things it could have done to be more effective at helping to save individuals out of the world by clearly pointing the way to Jesus. The two are not the same thing, but since conflating ideas has become the banner most churches are flying nowadays, we make it out to be so.

What the contemporary church could have done that it has failed to do is live according to Scripture and be desperate for the presence and power of God in its midst. Had that occurred, though the world would not be saved, the world would likely look different than it does because at least there would have been some pushback against the darkness.

Could have, should have, spilled milk and bitter regrets. We chose apathy, indifference, lukewarmness, and duplicity because these things did not infringe upon our flesh to any discernable degree. We chose the form of godliness, thinking it would suffice, and honored God with our lips while our hearts were far from Him, thinking He’d have to make due.

The modern-day church isn’t dealing with some rogue mole on its scalp from too much sun that the doctor can excise in five seconds flat with a scalpel and some numbing agent. We’re talking stage four metastatic cancer that has spread to most organs. Dark? Perhaps. True? Just look at all the prominent dominoes that have fallen over the past few months, and you tell me.

As an aside, I think the kids call it foreshadowing, Paul foresaw the downfall of man-made religious fiefs and those who lorded over them during the last days as well. Everything you need to know is in the Book. You just have to be diligent in studying it.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.