The Last Days Of The Church L

 It’s easy to gloss over the fact that all the epistles Paul penned, except for the two letters to Timothy and the lone letter to Titus, contained in the New Testament, were written to existing churches, dealing with issues they were currently being confronted with at the time. The devil didn’t commence his scheming and conniving in the twentieth century; he’s been at it since the very beginning of the church. What has changed is that it has become easier by far to disseminate deception in our day and age than ever before, and the enemy is making full use of the technology at hand to ensnare as many unstable souls as he can in his net of deceit. 

Paul could not have foreseen the advances in technology two thousand years later, nor did he have any reason to think the world would be any different during the time his prophetic writing would be fulfilled. It’s one of those overlooked nuggets that makes one realize how vivid and intricate God’s foreknowledge is. When He says He knows the end from the beginning, He means it. It’s not broad strokes or an outline. The Bible is not some Rorschach inkblot test where everyone sees something different. The details are explicit, and although those tasked with delivering the messages couldn’t process how such things could come about, they were nevertheless faithful in doing it, knowing their origin.

It’s not my job to try to intuit what God meant or how I see events unfolding to facilitate the fulfillment of a particular revelation. My job is to deliver it verbatim, and with that, my task is done, and I move on to the next task God has for me. That would be akin to being hired as a dishwasher in a restaurant and spending eight hours washing the same plate over and over again while the dirty dishes pile up around me. There’s always work to be done. Given ten lifetimes, there will still be work to be done, so rehashing one thing over and over again makes for inefficient use of the most precious resource we’ve been given, which is time.

Paul could have spent the rest of his life wondering how so many would be deceived or why they would turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to fables, but that was not his duty. His duty was to pen the warning regarding the last days of the church and paint a picture of how things would be. He didn’t say there would be a possibility, probability, or likelihood that these things would occur, but with the certainty that could only come about by divine revelation, he declared that they would be.

Fables are for children. Believing that something diametrically opposed to scripture is about to occur within the church just because a certain individual or denomination insists it will demands that you ignore the written Word and all the warnings contained therein. The question isn’t whether or not we would prefer a different outcome but whether or not our beliefs are aligned with what the Word of God says will be. It’s the only way to keep from being disappointed, disillusioned, and disheartened when what men have promised does not materialize and every attempt at manufacturing it falls short and crumbles into dust.

You cannot manufacture revival. You cannot fabricate an awakening. All the flashing lights, smog machines, and overly emotional crooning will be of no avail if God doesn’t stir the heart. Even if there is an emotional response, it’s only temporary and will fade as soon as the individual returns to his daily life.

Such things are wholly dependent upon God. Not only is it His arena, it’s His game and His rules. The only question one needs to answer when contemplating whether or not we will see what many have coined an end-times revival is whether the church, the household of faith, and those calling themselves sons and daughters of God are living out their faith and walking in righteousness as the Word of God insists they must.

The Christian walk begins with the denial and death of self. It begins with the renunciation and rejection of what was, for the high honor of knowing Him, replacing our will for His, and making certain that Christ and no other is on the throne of our hearts. We do not serve Him in the hope of gaining some earthly treasure or material thing. Rather, we forfeit all for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Being in Christ isn’t being a better-dressed version of your old self; it’s being a wholly new creation wherein the old things have passed away. By this metric alone, we can gain a clear understanding of how many are walking about today with the Lord on their lips but nowhere near their hearts.

It’s neither legalism nor being nitpicky; It’s what the Word of God says must happen if we are in Christ. To be as we were, to do as we did, to walk as we walked, and to practice what we practiced after claiming to be in Christ as before we were in Him proves that we are only pretending to be a new creation and have not truly become one.

So, what is the point within the broader discussion of the last days of the church? As with most simple points, it is profound in its implications. A carnal man cannot show other carnal men how to be spiritually minded. An old creation cannot teach other old creations how to become new creations. One who only claims to be in Christ cannot tell others how to truly be in Him.

If the modern-day church were as strong, righteous, powerful, and full of the Spirit as it thinks itself to be, perhaps I would hold out hope for a glorious resurgence of righteousness that would sweep the nations from sea to shining sea. Sadly, it is not. We think we are just as the Laodiceans did, and just like the Laodiceans, we are too proud and stiffnecked to acknowledge our spiritual frailty and lukewarm attitude toward the will of God.

If all the modern-day church has to point to as God’s favor and blessing are mega-churches and overflowing coffers, what will they have when these things are stripped away, and the faithful will be forced to revert to meeting in secret and going from house to house to have fellowship? If our identity is in the things of this earth, will we have any identity to speak of when those things are snatched away?

The question of the hour isn’t whether there will be an earth-shattering revival but rather how much of what calls itself the church will survive the coming storm.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

The Last Days Of The Church XLIX

If we know the problem and we know the remedy, then why can’t we fix the church and then the world? Why can’t I be just a tad hopeful that we will course correct and return to truth and righteousness as our banner rather than the multi-colored flags some churches have taken to flying from their steeples? Because the church isn’t a lawn mower or a vacuum cleaner. The church isn’t a tool, a gadget, or a piece of equipment. It is comprised of members who have free will and autonomy, and though a doctor might write you a prescription, it’s up to you to pick it up from the pharmacy and follow the instructions diligently.

It’s not that God didn’t want to heal and restore; it’s that men resisted Him and were unwilling to do as He commanded in order to be healed. God said as much through Jeremiah when it came to Babylon, wherein had it not resisted, it would have likewise been healed.

Even though the Lord is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, many are, because they refuse to do the one thing that will keep them from perishing. It’s sad and tragic but an ever-present reality that seems more evident with each passing day.

2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

If God’s desire is that all should come to repentance, why doesn’t He just make them? Because that would not be true repentance of heart; it would be merely forced compliance. We have seen what happens long-term when forced compliance is visited upon an individual, a nation, or the entire world. Eventually, people become bitter, angry, and resentful toward those who force them to do something against their will, whether by threat of being fired from their job or shunned by society.

Jesus said, take My yoke upon you and learn from Me. It must be a voluntary action, not forced upon any man, for if the yoke is forced upon the neck of an individual, soon it will begin to chafe, and bitterness and resentment are not far off. He is willing to give to all who are willing to receive in full understanding of what they are receiving. Once you take His yoke upon you, you are no longer your own; you are His. You go where He leads, do as He commands, and submit to His authority in all things.  

God is not interested in automatons who serve Him mechanically but have no love in their hearts for Him or desire to obey Him. You’ll never hear someone say they genuinely love God because He made them do it. We love Him because He first loved us and sent Jesus to reconcile us unto Him, not because He kept His knee on our chest until we finally relented. Jesus is not a tyrant, nor is the One who sent Him, so He stands at the door and knocks, and if anyone hears His voice and opens the door, He will enter therein.

Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

Irresistible grace may sound good on paper, except for the Scripture passages that clearly say otherwise and the countless souls who resist it daily. It can’t be thrust upon anyone without their consent, and more often than not, no matter how well you try to explain it or the passion with which you detail it, they will still reject it because their sin is more of a priority to them than forgiveness or being reconciled to God.

Jesus didn’t say He’d kick in your door and keep you in a choke hold until you cried, uncle. He said He stands at the door and knocks, and if you hear His voice and open the door, then you can fellowship with Him. Whether He facilitates someone hearing the knock or makes sure they do is a topic worth pondering, but it’s still up to the individual to open the door.

If God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, and it was something He could force, compel, or otherwise make happen, then Him not doing so would not only be a cruel and heartless thing but contravene His declared desire that none should perish.

We’re twisting ourselves into pretzels, and the way is no longer clear before us because we’ve disregarded and swept aside the one thing that serves as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. Without the light of the Word, we wander in darkness, never surefooted or certain about which way to go, either falling behind or stalling altogether, giving heed to teachings and ruminations that stunt our growth and serve as a paralytic to our walk.

Some of us are stuck in the same place, wandering in a circle, and seeing no clear path forward, not because there isn’t one but because we chose to follow our hearts, our feelings, or other men’s directions rather than submitting to Scripture and doing as it commands.

Anyone who studies early church history readily understands that this is not a new malady; it’s not a new disorder or a modern-day invention. Gnostics, agnostics, mystics, and all manner of divergent and unbiblical practices existed at the genesis of it all. Paul confronted such things in his letters to the Corinthians, the Galatians, and the Colossians, and John spent the better part of his epistles sounding the alarm against such aberrant doctrines.

They weren’t being unloving or contentious, nor were they trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. They understood the grave dangers associated with believing something contrary to Scripture and the detrimental effects it would have on the household of faith.

The one glaring difference between then and now is that there is a lot more aberrant doctrine and a lot fewer men warning about it. This has created the perfect environment for the flood of strange fire and unbiblical teaching we’ve seen of late, and watching it wash over the church with only a handful still standing on the truth of scripture can be disheartening, if not outright demoralizing.

More and more are being turned aside to fables, as Paul warned, giving heed to deceiving spirits, whether due to their desire to feel spiritually superior or because they have itching ears and cannot abide in the truth. It is a choice men make, whether for good or ill. Men choose to cling to Christ and the truth of Scripture, or they go in search of fables and doctrines of men that allow them to hopscotch between the church and the world without the weight of accountability or consequence of action.

They’re looking for someone to give them a license to pursue the lusts of the flesh while reassuring them that it will hold no eternal repercussions. Do as you will has been the motto of the lukewarm and duplicitous for millennia, but no matter who the individual giving you consent might be or how many degrees he might have nailed to his wall, as long as God’s position is well-defined in Scripture, He is still against it.

The Word of God will stand as a testimony against those who choose to ignore it or dismiss it. Not men’s doctrines, teachings, or theories, but the Word of God. It is the Word we must be in harmony with, and it’s authority we must submit to, and nothing else.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

The Last Days Of The Church XLVIII

 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”

The closer we get to the end, the less desirable sound doctrine and truth will become not for those of the world but for those within the household of faith. Those of the world were never ones to endure sound doctrine, to begin with, and the only noticeable consequence of those within the church no longer enduring it is that the world is rotting and falling apart at an accelerated rate. If salt loses its flavor, it also loses its ability to be a preservative. Once the church ceased opposing sin and decided that its best course of action was to go along to get along, the rate of putrefaction increased exponentially. What would have taken a decade to worm its way to normalcy from the fringes, now takes a month flat, and once that is accepted, we move on to the next thing at breakneck speed. Just look at what has been normalized within the last few years, and you’ll understand what I mean.

Anyone thinking of starting a ministry or building a large platform by preaching the truth hasn’t bothered to read the Bible and contextualize what the last days of the church will look like. It’s because the desire of their heart is a big name, a big church, or a big outreach rather than preaching the whole counsel of God that so many give in to compromise and begin to prune the truth in order for it to be less prickly, and more in tune with the flavor palate of this present generation.

For those still unaware, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Olive Garden is not authentic Italian food. Its food is designed for the American palate and has Italian-sounding names. If Italians ate bottomless breadsticks and dipping sauces with every meal, they’d need to tear down every ancient town and widen the streets so the people could get from one place to the other.

If you’ve ever been to Italy, eaten real Italian food, and likewise enjoyed the guilty pleasure of Olive Garden on occasion, you will likely have noticed that you feel different after sitting down for a meal in one versus the other. While real Italian food is light, and you get up from the table well-fed and satisfied, there’s no unwarranted bloating, heartburn, sauce-scented burps, or infrequent sweating. Take Olive Garden for a spin on a given evening, and you’ll think your gut turned into a lead balloon, and come the morning, you’d pay double what you paid for the meal only to go back in time and not have it at all.

Oddly enough, having enjoyed both the real and the inauthentic, a surprising number prefer the inauthentic over the real because it harmonizes with their flavor profile. This mirrors the rejection of sound doctrine in favor of teachings that align with personal desires. What do you mean the only ingredients in authentic spaghetti pomodoro are noodles, crushed tomatoes, garlic, and basil? What about the heavy cream and sticks of butter? It just doesn’t taste right without them.

This is what Paul meant when he said they would not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. It’s not that they didn’t know the truth. It’s that they preferred the lie. It’s not that they never encountered sound doctrine, but their desires overrode the need to submit to it, and so, they found alternatives to remain in the flesh while claiming to no longer be in it.

Who are the ‘they’ Paul is referring to? No one wants to answer that question because it would mean acknowledging the reality that many within the church are not members of the body, and many who claim to know Christ do not belong to Him and serve Him in name only.

The tragedy here is that these are people who will hear the truth and actively seek to turn their ears away from it and be turned aside to fables. It’s not that they never come in contact with the truth, hear sound doctrine, or sit under biblical teaching, but that they make the conscious choice to reject these things in lieu of fables and doctrine pleasing to the flesh.

False teachers are a byproduct of men’s itching ears, just as readily as they are nefarious agents of the enemy tasked with bringing in division and destructive heresy. If the devil would stop sending his minions into churches in order to wreak havoc, those with itching ears would seek them out because they cannot endure sound doctrine.

The law of supply and demand applies to the church as well, and as long as there will be those among us with itching ears, someone will come along to cater to them and supply them with aberrant teaching that is not tethered in the truth, in the gospel, or in Christ. They prefer the fables over the truth of scripture and so actively seek out those who would supply them.

If you want to anger a casual Christian, all you have to do is quote scripture. It’s not even anger. It’s more akin to rage, and not just any rage, but the blackout rage some people experience, wherein they are no longer in control of their actions or faculties, and when they snap out of their delirium, they can’t believe they were capable of such horrors. Since they can’t defend their positions biblically, the vitriol will likely be a personal attack, wholly unconnected to the topic at hand, because if you can’t debate your stance, you must deflect from it.

It’s not that there isn’t overwhelming evidence that they are wrong; they prefer it over the truth, and it’s a hill they’re willing to make their last stand on because the itching ears demand it.

It’s gotten bad, and it will get worse. You have supposed believers roaming about denying the Lordship of Christ, the inerrancy of scripture, the need for repentance, sanctification, and holiness, and they do it with such passion that one realizes they really believe what they are saying. Yes, men can genuinely believe a lie. There are religions in the world for which men disintegrate themselves, shed blood, and spill blood, and they, too, are lies. If what you believe is contrary to what Scripture says, authentic as your belief might be, it’s still a fable. That’s the barometer. That’s the acid test. That’s the standard: Scripture.

The Word of God is the source of sound doctrine, so when Paul tells us that men will not endure or otherwise reject sound doctrine, he is, in fact, telling us that men will reject Scripture in lieu of men’s ruminations and opinions.

It's not enough to know the truth. You must love the truth and submit to it. You must walk in truth and speak truth, knowing that there will be headwinds and opposition because the number of those who will not endure it and prefer fables instead will only grow and multiply.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

The Last Days Of The Church XLVII

 There are a handful of things my wife is perpetually obsessive about. The girls brushing their teeth before bed is one, cleaning the kitchen before calling it a night is another, and making sure all the doors are locked before we turn out the lights is a third. It’s not that we live in an unsafe neighborhood or have problems with break-ins, but every night, without fail, she’ll check the front door and the garage door to make sure the tumbler is turned and we are secure in our abode. If, perchance, she didn’t check the doors on a given night, she’ll wake up from a dead sleep, go downstairs, and check. Otherwise, she’ll be tossing and turning until sunrise.

We take precautions not because we expect the worst possible thing to happen but because there is a chance that, at some point, something might. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. One small act, such as turning the lock on the door, may prevent having to deal with someone who stumbled into your house for whatever reason, whether with malicious intent or because they thought it was their home.

Your home is your castle, and you should feel safe within its confines. Often, we have the same mindset when it comes to church or fellowship. We let down our guard and take none of the preventative measures the Bible instructs us to take because we believe nothing bad could ever happen as long as we are within the walls of the citadel rather than without. It’s one of the reasons deception from within the body is so effective and why it takes so long to ferret out once it begins to spread. We don’t want to believe that some agent of destruction made it past the front door. We don’t want to acknowledge that there are those who have crept in with destructive heresies, even though the Bible warns that such people exist and will only multiply as the end draws near.

Vigilance is never a waste of time. Some people tend to think that it is because by being vigilant one avoids certain situations before they can escalate, and wrongly assume that had they not taken the time to be vigilant, nothing untoward would have happened anyway.

On one of the rare occasions I got the flu, a friend suggested that I take high doses of cayenne pepper to mitigate the symptoms. I did as he insisted but still went through all the travails of coughing, sneezing, cold sweats, and body aches. When later asked how it had gone, and after being informed that it had done nothing for me, his response was, imagine how much worse it would have been if you hadn’t taken the pepper. It’s circular logic, to be sure, but I could neither confirm nor deny his statement.

It is because the Word commands us to be watchful and sober, guarding our hearts and being aware of the dangers that we do so, not to wonder in hindsight whether or not there was any benefit to it.

In my life, I’ve traveled to what have been deemed some of the most dangerous regions in the world and never had any issues to speak of because I am constantly aware of my environment and don’t ignore danger signs when they arise. I’ve traveled to Muslim countries during Ramadan, some of the most violent cities in South America, and even make regular trips to the south side of Chicago without ever once being in an altercation. Why? Because I am situationally aware and understand the dynamics of a place before I set foot in it.

During my travels, I’ve also encountered naïve and wholly unaware individuals who could just as easily have had ‘victim’ tattooed on their forehead and painted a bullseye on their back the moment they stepped off the plane. Usually, they were tourists who didn’t bother to take into account that they were in a different country, on a different continent, well outside the safety of their gated communities, still wearing the Rolex on their wrist and flashing wads of cash as though it was burning a hole in their pockets.

If you let the wolf in among the sheep, the wolf is going to eat. The wolf does not look upon sheep as something cute and cuddly but as food. There are no feelings of warmth or empathy, nor is there an inherent desire to protect it but to devour it and satiate its hunger. It’s his nature, and as any predator, he is constantly on the lookout for prey.

Conversely, if you let a deceiver in among the children of God, he will attempt to deceive because that is likewise his nature. There is no love in the heart of a deceiver. They have no interest in growing anyone spiritually but rather making individuals dependent upon them as a person, then exploiting them for as long as they can for as much as they can. Deceptive practices in religious communities can range from financial exploitation to emotional manipulation. Once all the wool has been sheared, and there is nothing left to take, they’ll leave the sheep where they found them, wounded and bleeding, or worse still, try to sell them to another who will, in turn, attempt to exploit them if at all possible. 

A wolf in sheep’s clothing might look like a sheep, but its nature remains that of a wolf. Are they trying to pull you away from Jesus or bring you closer to Him? Are they sowing life, or are they disseminating a way that leads unto death? Are they encouraging true and undefiled worship of God, which involves genuine reverence, humility, and love for God, or insisting on some formulaic practice that becomes nothing more than muscle memory if repeated often enough?

We’ve all run across someone, whether at a cash register in a grocery store or a bank teller, who asks how you are, and you can give them the most out-of-this-world, improbable answer, and they’ll plaster on a fake smile and say, that’s nice. It’s not like they heard you or processed the words you said; their response is automated and instinctual because they do it a hundred times a day. That’s what worship has become for some people. Because they’ve never felt true intimacy with God, because they never had that life-altering moment wherein His presence was so overwhelming that it destroyed the fabric of their reality, they go through the motions week in and week out, singing along, clapping along, closing their eyes when everyone else does, and nodding in unison with the rest.

If being in God's presence and having fellowship with Him is no more impactful than grabbing a grilled cheese at your favorite gas station, then what you define as being in God's presence isn’t really so. One true encounter with Jesus transforms a life utterly. It will turn your entire world upside down and inside out because the old you must be put to the cross in order for the new you to thrive. It’s not painless or as easy as saying a prayer in front of your television; it is life-altering to the utmost.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

The Last Days Of The Church XLVI

 The enemy’s camp is fully funded. It’s not on a shoestring budget or barely getting by; it is a financial powerhouse. In 2022 alone, the most prominent murder mill in the world, responsible for close to half a million innocent lives snuffed out before any of them could feel the sun on their face, had a revenue of over two billion dollars, with another two and a half billion dollars in assets. If money or the abundance thereof were the metric by which we measure God’s blessing, then we would have to conclude that the most ruthless and profane among the godless are blessed beyond measure.

That the devil’s minions would attempt to throw money around to buy influence, acceptance, and validation is not uncommon or unexpected. Every time they’ve needed the masses to be nudged one way or another by those they deemed their spiritual betters, their willingness to throw legal tender at the problem was evident. The only unknown was the number of zeroes it would take to make it a reality, but they figured that one out soon enough. For some, it didn’t even take a big check, just the promise of rubbing elbows with the influential and revered.

I’m sure they justified it to themselves somehow, whether via the greater good theory or the underlying belief that the sheep just didn’t know what was good for them and so must be made to see the light of reason. Big names with big churches and big platforms sold out and, if necessary, even brought Jesus into the mix, insisting that He, too, would comply with mandates and tyrants if given half the chance.

If your convictions are for sale to the highest bidder, then there is neither stability, steadfastness, nor undeterred purposefulness in your heart. We’ve seen it all too often, wherein men are turned to and fro depending on which way the wind is blowing on a particular day, and their principles are situational and given to change at the drop of a hat.

Each will have an explanation for the hard turn, whether it’s a change of heart or an evolution in the way they see the world. Some of the slimier ones resort to using love and tolerance as a distraction from their cowardice, conveniently glossing over the fact that God didn’t have a change of heart or evolve to greater enlightenment; they just thought they knew better than Him, or whatever the godless were offering was worth the betrayal.

And yet, we keep defending the indefensible because we don’t want to deal with the reality that the men we’ve put our faith in have betrayed it, and those we trusted to provide spiritual sustenance have been dripping venom into our hearts for countless years.

Our first mistake was putting our trust in men. Our second mistake was believing them over the words of scripture. If you’ve ever wondered how the modern-day church became what it is, those two choices were the beginning of our downfall. The more we hoped in men, the less we looked to Jesus, and the more our hearts were filled with the desire for the things of this earth, the less we yearned for the things above.

Paul wasn’t bold and steadfast because it was his nature. He became bold and steadfast because he had come to the knowledge of the truth of who Jesus is, and that gave him boldness to preach a risen Christ and steadfastness to endure all manner of hardship for His name’s sake.

Jesus makes us more than we are and gives us the necessary tools to overcome, persevere, and live out our calling as long as our focus is on Him and not ourselves. Men give in to cowardice because their comfort rather than Christ becomes the center of their universe. They give in to compromise because they’re unwilling to pay the cost of remaining faithful to Jesus when the road gets hard and the enemy gets vicious. It’s not that God can’t work through us; it’s that we rather He not because we deem the cost of being used by Him too much to bear.

We look at all the anecdotal evidence in the aggregate and conclude that given enough razzle-dazzle and sleight of hand, most people won’t even notice that we’re talking out both sides of our mouth, and little if any, of what we say stirs true commitment, repentance, and faithfulness to Christ in the hearts of those who hear us. What’s more, those who’ve watered down the message of the gospel seem to be prospering. If our ultimate goal is self rather than the glory of God, why put ourselves through the fires of sanctification and self-denial? Why be hated by the world when we can be double-tongued, duplicitous, and faithless and still be first in line at every potluck?

This is why our purpose must be well-defined and immovable. If it’s not, there will always be opportunities to skirt the uncomfortable parts, tame down the truth, or omit certain steps required in men’s spiritual growth to make our own walk less austere. A steadfast and well-defined purpose is our compass in the storm of compromise.

Timothy thoroughly studied three areas of Paul’s life: his doctrine, his walk, and his steadfastness. He’d passed the acid test on all three counts, and Paul reminds Timothy of this to reinforce the idea that it is through lived experience that he’d drawn the conclusions he had regarding the Christian walk and the prerequisites required for being a good and faithful soldier of Jesus Christ.

We rarely consider how much harder those of the early church had it than we do in our modern age. Sure, the disciples walked with Jesus, learned from Him, and saw His life, but a few decades on, all the next iteration of the church had were second-hand accounts and testimonies of those who knew someone who’d walked with Jesus.

It’s not as though they had the written Word to turn to for guidance, and those who oversaw the established religious system of the time weren’t much help because they were set on the destruction of the followers of Christ. Through it all, through the waves of martyrdom, through the persecutions, through the hardships and travails, the true body of Christ endured, persevered, and had the wherewithal to pass the truth on to the next generation.

It took the devil a while to figure it out, but he eventually realized that if you can corrupt the young before the seed of truth is planted in their hearts, if you can take easily impressionable minds and steer them toward darkness before they ever know the light exists, given enough time there will be no one left to pass the truth down to the next generation, nor will there be any who will be receptive to it in it.

Even if he’d figured it out, until recently, it was almost impossible to corrupt the minds of an entire generation wholesale. Parents still parented, schools still taught math and history, churches still preached Jesus, and the stream of corruption could be dammed up by unplugging the family television.

Nowadays, you’re likely to find more devices with internet access than physical Bibles in any given home, from phones to tablets, to video games, laptops, or smart televisions, and what was once an entry point that needed to be monitored turned into a dozen that couldn’t be managed even if both parents were home full time. We are where we are because we’ve allowed it. We are where we are because we fell for the poison pill couched in the idea that we can let strangers on the internet teach our children the way they should go and trust that they had the best of intentions. Oh, the magnanimity of free content. Highly stylized, subversive, biased, indoctrinating, God-denying, God-hating, free content.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

The Last Days Of The Church XLV

 If we are driven by circumstances or feelings rather than the pursuit of godliness and true devotion, there will always be something to distract us from the way or send us down some rabbit trail or another, wasting time and energy while remaining in the same spiritual state as we were. If the enemy can’t convince you to betray the truth, if he can’t tempt you away from the foot of the cross, the next best option he has at his disposal is to keep you stagnant, in the same place, rehashing the same things, never growing, maturing, or advancing beyond the milk of God’s word to the meat thereof. He’s hoping to run out the clock so when the trumpet sounds you have no oil in your lamp, none in reserve, and nowhere to get it from in a timely fashion.

The devil has contingencies for his contingencies. His purpose is to keep you from realizing the authority you have in Christ and walking in it. However that comes about is fine with him, as long as you don’t pose a danger, as long as the power of God does not reside in you, and as long as you don’t threaten his machinations.

If you’ve ever wondered why the enemy leaves some men alone and others he attacks with the ferocity of a rabid hyena, now you know. The devil will oppose you in proportion to the danger you pose to his plans. Hence, the reason those in leadership must be ever more vigilant, knowing that the enemy has a target on their back and would like nothing more than to see their demise. The enemy attacks you because you pose a threat. He leaves you alone because you don’t. It’s not God’s favor that the world doesn’t hate you. The world doesn’t hate you because there is no Jesus to be found in you. By you, I mean the royal you, and this is not targeted at any one individual in particular, just a generalization based on observable patterns throughout my life.

If we were to examine the lives of those who walked in obedience and authority through the prism of the flesh, if we were to gauge their successes based on the world’s metrics, we would readily conclude that they were failures, never having reached their potential or adequately monetized their platforms. If only someone had told them about Patreon, Indiegogo, Kickstarter, or Buy Me a Coffee, perhaps they wouldn’t have to work for a living. It’s not that they don’t know about it. It’s that they refuse to exploit the sheep of God’s pasture to make their existence more palatable. The goal is obedience, not comfort or ease of life.

It’s the lesson many have had to learn the hard way: When you are dependent upon others for your daily bread, they hold sway over you, and whenever you say something they don’t like, even though it aligns with the Word, their response is to tighten the purse strings until you see the error of your ways.

Eventually, it becomes a game of pandering to those with the fattest wallets, and as was the case in the olden days, we begin to hand out allowances and sell indulgences because we don’t want to rock the boat or risk spoiling a good thing. Especially when it comes to those who started out doctrinally sound and began teaching greater and greater deceptions, there is a good likelihood that somewhere along the way, there was someone with money who asserted influence over them and suggested that they tone down all the talk of holiness unto the Lord, or repentance and sanctification.

The most detrimental thing an elder board or a church body can do is use the power of the purse to influence an individual who is tasked with rightly dividing the Word and preaching the gospel. This happens more often than anyone dares to imagine, and the fruit of it is always bitter and poisonous.

Throughout our forty years of ministry, there have been instances wherein we were made offers others thought us mad for turning down because they came with the promise of endless resources and means by which we could grow the work tenfold, thirtyfold, even fifty-fold if we had the stomach for it. All it would take to have all the money we would ever need and finance all the projects we could ever dream of was to make one small compromise, which, weighed against all the good we could do with the money we’d receive, was outright insignificant. At least, that’s how it was presented to us.

We were offered planeloads full of aid going in and out of Romania, which we would be responsible for distributing, and cash on hand to fund church buildings and more orphanages, all for the small price of distributing the Book of Mormon in country.

Since context matters, at the time, our family of seven was living in a two-bedroom apartment that also doubled as the ministry office. My mom cleaned homes, and my dad worked two jobs to pay the rent.

My grandfather and I were picked up in a limousine—the first our neighborhood had likely seen in its entire existence—flown to Branson, Missouri, and pitched this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do things as a ministry we’d only dreamed of. My grandfather was less than cordial in his refusal of the offer, not because he was angling for more or because it was paltry, but because he knew that one compromise would beget another, and it is a far better thing to have the favor of God than the favor of man.

It’s hard to find men that can’t be bought nowadays. You can look far and wide and find nary a one that isn’t for sale at the right price, but those that are unmoved by promises of station, position, or financial windfalls and are steadfast in their convictions even though they know it will cost them something by being so, stand the test of time, and continue the journey long after those who sold themselves abandon it.

Even though we were poor by any metric, and life was difficult, it was not a hard decision for my grandfather to make, nor did it take him time to debate its merits. When asked to compromise something you know you ought not, the answer should always be a hard no. Your soul is not for sale, and your relationship with God is not currency or something to barter away in exchange for the fleeting things of this world.

If the enemy can’t get you to back down with the stick, he’ll offer the carrot. To the devil, it doesn’t matter which will cause you to capitulate, only that you do. Not only are we to endure hardships as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, but we must also resist making compromises in exchange for an easier, more comfortable existence.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

The Last Days Of The Church XLIV

 We’re looking for things to get better, hoping, praying, and daydreaming about when things will turn around, but the Bible warns that evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. We’re headed in one direction, the trajectory is set, and we are seeing the things that the Bible warned coming to pass before our eyes, yet we remain insistent that it’s just a glitch, a momentary valley, and in no time at all we will be on the mountaintop anew bringing in the sheaves.

Both evil men and impostors will only grow worse. The godless will become more godless still, giving into their lust and hedonism to the point that it would make any decent person blush, and those who pretend to be of the household of faith will get better at faking virtue while exploiting the innocent to their heart’s content.

How do we know that impostors will infiltrate the household of faith? The godless have no reason to pretend to be something they’re not. It’s only within the church that an impostor would have any interest in deceiving. Their primary purpose is to mislead for personal gain or to lead people away from the truth of Christ. This deceit is their hallmark, and we must be vigilant against it.

We’ve all seen the singer or actor who found Jesus long enough to promote their latest project, then nevermore a peep out of them regarding faith or a transformed life. Of all the impostors making their way through the church, those are the least dangerous. The ones that pose the greatest danger are the impostors who feign obedience to the Master while attempting to undermine His words, commands, and edicts. As Peter put it, they bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them.

2 Peter 2:1-3, “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”

Although their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber, we cannot ignore the warning that until they are judged, many will follow their destructive ways. Likewise, the reality that it is due to such individuals who have crept in among God’s people that the way of truth will be blasphemed cannot be ignored or swept aside. When the way of truth is blasphemed, it means that the reputation and credibility of the Christian faith are damaged in the eyes of the world and some within the church.

The liars, impostors, and false teachers among us will be the excuse the godless need in order to unleash persecution upon the followers of Christ, pointing to the worst among us and lumping us all into one basket. When you want to make a point, you focus on the lowest common denominator and erroneously theorize that everyone among the group of individuals you are attempting to vilify is cut of the same cloth.

There is a nefarious purpose beyond deceiving when it comes to the impostors, and that is to ally with the godless at the opportune moment and attempt to make the hearts of the righteous sad and simultaneously strengthen the hand of the wicked, insisting that those who cling to Christ are in the wrong for standing on Biblical truth. When it suits the plans of the godless, they can point to those because of whom the way will be blasphemed as negative examples of Christianity as a whole or as luminaries who understand the virtues of compromising and giving a little to get a little. It’s situational. It always is, and as long as they get their way, the godless don’t care who they temporarily align themselves with.

While much of the church is playing checkers, the devil is playing chess, and he’s moved his pieces into position so subtly and over time that it will be a shock to the system when the impostors are revealed for who they are. Unfortunately, it will not be before they’ve wrought their damage and undermined the foundations of the household of faith to the fullest extent allowed them.

So how do we survive this gauntlet of deceivers, impostors, false teachers, false christs, false prophets, and panderers? The answer is simple, but its implications are far-reaching because if you are determined to know Christ and Him crucified, if you’ve purposed in your heart to remain faithful to the end no matter what that might entail, you will invariably be walking a lonely road, and those you once considered friends, family, brothers, or sisters will either turn on you or declare themselves your sworn enemy for not following their destructive ways.

Once we’ve purposed in our hearts that we will follow after Christ no matter the cost, that we will keep our eyes firmly affixed upon Him and not waiver no matter the pressure brought to bear to follow the pack, everything falls into place, and the journey becomes less perplexing. It doesn’t become easy or trouble-free because there is bound to be pain and heartache along the way due to the course to which we committed, but we’ll know where we are in relation to Christ, where we’re going, and what our ultimate destination will be.

As children of God, we do not deal in shades of gray; rather, we deal in absolutes. Either we obey Him, or we don’t. Either we walk in His ways or our own. Either we are light, or we’re not, and anyone that insists there is a middle ground, a means of pleasing both God and Mammon, the flesh and the spiritual man, is either speaking from ignorance or a veiled desire to deceive as they are deceived.

Misery loves company and that is never more true than when someone wanders from the truth and embraces some extra-biblical doctrine that they then feel compelled to share, spread, and insist upon. Unless you’re living in a hole in the ground, you’re likely to run across some abstract doctrine or teaching that seems right until you compare it to what the Bible says and see the truth of it. Whether or not something bears witness is not the litmus test for what we should believe; whether or not it’s Biblical is.

Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

The Last Days Of The Church XLIII

 Expectations can be dangerous depending on whether or not they are tethered in reality. It’s not the expectation in and of itself that is dangerous per se, but rather our innate reaction when what we expect never comes to fruition. Our excitement begins to wane, our conviction is weakened, and eventually, what once brought us a sense of purpose transforms into bitterness and angst.

If you’ve ever fallen for an infomercial and ordered the product only to be wholly underwhelmed and disappointed by the results, you know of what I speak. Whether it’s the infomercials targeted at one’s waistline, wherein one is promised that a single pill every morning will have you watching the weight melt off so quickly that you’ll think it’s magic, or the slap chop promising instant restaurant-style vegetables cut to your specifications with no more effort than gently slapping the gadget. When what was promised does not materialize, you’re underwhelmed by the results, and you can’t help but feel like you’ve been swindled.

Herein lies the danger of promising believers a life the Bible never did and insisting that they will live an existence contrary to what the Word of God insists they will if they desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. There has been a concerted effort going on forty years now to convince the children of God that their expectations should focus on ease of life, comfort, and prosperity rather than the presence, power, and authority of Christ in their lives. All you have to do is sign on the dotted line, and you, too, could reap the harvest of untold riches. You, too, could access the wealth of the wicked to your heart’s content and revel in the acquisition of worthless baubles until you have to buy a second home just to store them all.

Just dial the number on your screen, pay the paltry fifty bucks, and we’ll send you an embossed certificate declaring that you are now an earl or a duke, lord of your fiefdom, and royalty if in your own eyes. In reality, you’re paying fifty bucks for a piece of paper someone printed out for less than a dollar that holds no weight or intrinsic value.

I believe that one of the reasons for the great falling away is that many a soul took men’s words to heart in relation to what they should expect as believers rather than what the Bible says we should expect.

If I set out for a hike through the woods and the sign says it’s a one-hour round trip journey, mostly flat and readily assailed, and it turns into a grueling five-hour climb, chances are a couple of hours in, I’ll give up altogether and try to find my way back to the starting point. The contemporary church isn’t doing anyone any favors by trying to make the Christian walk seem like something it isn’t. On the contrary, many fall into disillusionment and despair because what they were promised and the future that was painted for them, all bright, shiny, and full of merriment, turns out to be the opposite, not because God lied but because men lied, and the individuals in question never bothered to go to the Word to see if what they were told was true.

2 Timothy 3:12-13, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

Paul is direct in telling Timothy, as well as all of us, what we can expect if we desire to live godly in Christ Jesus. There is no room for ambiguity in his writing, nor is there any other way to take it other than how it was written. All means all, not just some, a handful, or a select group of people who drew the short straw and didn’t get a chance to partake in the prosperity gravy train that was stopping at every station but theirs.

The only variant is the intensity and length of persecution those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer. Most may suffer little, and some may suffer much, but all will suffer if they desire to live godly. The sad reality is that men are willing to compromise their pursuit of living godly in order to spare themselves from the aforementioned persecution. Even if in most cases, especially in the West, as yet, the persecution is light, involving verbal ridicule or being de-platformed from some site or another, many have taken to self-censoring and omitting vital truths just so they don’t get the dreaded e-mail informing them that they have a strike on their channel, or that the interwebs have chosen to unperson them.

As yet, the calls to silence believers altogether, round them up, and reeducate them are only taking place on the fringes and have not become mainstream, but give it time, and you’ll understand the words of Jesus more vividly than you ever thought you would when He said that if they hated Him, they would likewise hate you for serving Him.

What’s troubling is that even now, when persecution in the West is in its infancy stage, many within the church are already saying that they’ve reached the end of their tether and they can’t bear one more day of such hardship. I want to sympathize, I really do, but it’s like complaining about a hangnail to someone who just lost a thumb. If you’re at your wit's end and think this is bad, then what’s coming will leave you concussed and wheezing for breath.  

If you are not preparing for the advent of persecution as one who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus, then you’re ignoring the Bible and not taking the steps necessary for you to endure to the end. It’s not as though we weren’t warned; we just chose to ignore the warnings and strap on our rose-colored glasses and blinders to boot.

We deny the reality of what’s taking place around us because it’s too disturbing to acknowledge. We dismiss new laws that are being passed and codified that will eventually criminalize the reading of Scripture in the church because we still believe that we are a godly nation or that the godless would never be so brazen. The cold reality is that the godless only want to coexist as long as they are in the minority or, as yet, do not possess all the levers of power necessary for complete control. Once full control is attained, once they know they can persecute the godly without consequence, then the whole notion of coexisting goes out the window, and the only option on the table is compliance or else.

What becomes of the millions of bleating sheep who were never told they would have to suffer persecution? What will their reaction be when, instead of wealth and riches beyond imagining, they are faced with a damp dungeon or worse? How will they then view the grinning men behind their local pulpits who insisted they had nothing to worry about and that it would be nothing but rainbows and cotton candy, sunshine, and lollipops all the way up to the pearly gates?

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

The Last Days Of The Church XLII

 Of all the things Paul could have listed as having been carefully followed by Timothy, he began with doctrine. He didn’t focus on the superficial, nor did he start out with delivery, inflection, tonality, or cadence. Paul’s desire wasn’t to make Timothy a good preacher or orator but to make him a soldier of the cross, a warrior fully equipped to do battle against the forces of darkness.

Doctrine matters. It’s not just a matter of belief, it is the bedrock of our faith. The fundamentals of what you believe, why you believe it, and whether or not it’s rooted in the truth of God’s word matter far more than whether you have gravitas or presence or any of the other things the church seems to prioritize today over doctrine.

You don’t have to look far to find examples of doctrinally vapid individuals who preside over some of the biggest congregations in the world just because they can fake a smile and wear a suit well. Whenever such individuals are pressed on what they believe, the word salad flowing forth from their mouths makes one question whether they’re sitting across from a politician rather than a pastor or teacher of the Word because their doctrine has not been established in truth and everything they claim to believe is situational.

If the Bible calls it sin, it’s sin unless you’re sitting across from Oprah and trying to ingratiate yourself with her. Then it’s no longer sin; it’s just not God’s best for you. But you know, heaven’s a big place, and God needs to fill it, and we can’t expect that He’ll only fill it with the righteous.

It’s like concert tickets that go on sale the night before the show because the venue is only halfway sold out, and they need to fill the seats. Wait long enough, and surely God will make some sort of concession. Time is drawing close, and plenty of mansions in the Father’s house are still waiting for tenants. The only problem with that mindset is that God didn’t take out a loan to finance the building of His mansions, so he’s not letting them go on the cheap to keep from getting foreclosed on.

Notwithstanding men’s high opinions of themselves, if God said nothing wicked or defiled would enter His kingdom unless there is a correction or retraction by God Himself, we would do well to believe Him at His word.  

Before knowing anything else about an individual who asserts any sort of spiritual authority in your life, first and foremost, carefully study their doctrine and see if they are in harmony with scripture. Don’t be impressed by their titles or the size of their ministry. They can call themselves prophets, bishops, elders, pastors, or evangelists to the nations, but if their doctrine is off, steer clear.

We get caught up in the superficial and fail to dig deeper to see if there is anything of substance. But he calls himself a prophet, and she calls herself a prophetess. Men call themselves women, too. It doesn’t make it true, now does it?

Setting aside that it’s a personal pet peeve of mine when someone introduces themselves by their title rather than their name first, anyone who insists that you view them through a certain prism or in a certain role without giving you the opportunity to vet them should be approached with a healthy dose of skepticism. No, I will not refer to you as a prophet, and as far as caring how you feel about my unwillingness to address you as such, that’s a you problem, not a me problem.

Paul did not present his life as a testimony or himself as a living witness as a means of garnering vainglory or the praise of men, but rather as a model of what Timothy would have to endure in order to be a vessel of honor in the hands of His master. They weren’t empty words or experiences he had not lived. Paul pointed to the reality of his own life and concluded that although it had not been easy, the Lord had delivered him out of all his predicaments. By reminding him of all he’d gone through, Paul hoped to encourage young Timothy to remain true to the calling to which he had been called and not waiver in the face of hardship, persecution, rejection, or afflictions.

Choose wisely who you model your life after because it’s one of the most important decisions you will ever make. That one decision will ripple throughout the rest of your time on earth, and whether for good or ill, you will have to live with the consequences of your choice.

We choose our mentors based on who we want to be. If your desire is to be a faithful, obedient servant of Christ, you will gravitate toward someone who is likewise walking in obedience and faithfulness, gleaning wisdom from their lives and their walk. If your desire is to be a pied piper who knows how to take up a good offering and gives people what they want rather than what they need, there are plenty of those within the church as well, and most of them are more than happy to take you under their wing.

Their desire will not be to make you more like Jesus but more like themselves, and with time, this will become obvious. For the sake of your soul and spiritual well-being, avoid anyone whose desire is to mentor you into becoming something other than Christlike, no matter how flattering it may be for your flesh or what fantastical future they promise you will have if only will follow the steps they’ve laid out for you.

It may sound jaded, but it’s the reality we’re living in, and while those who would exploit the sheep of God’s pasture for their selfish gains are too many to number, true men of God who walk humbly with their Lord are becoming rarer by the day, living their lives of obedience in obscurity, far from the limelight and accolades of the lukewarm.

I’ve known a few such men throughout my life, and everyone had something profound to teach me. Likewise, every single one pointed the way to Jesus as the one whom we should follow, giving Him the glory and honor for whatever calling they had been called to and whatever God had done through them, whether great or small.

There will be signs, there always are. It is inevitable as long as you are not taken in by the charisma of an individual, their title, or their presence. Do they fear God and keep His commandments? Since this is the whole duty of man, it must be evident in the lives of those from whom we would take spiritual succor.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

The Last Days Of The Church XLI

 What is happening in the modern-day church didn't happen overnight. It didn’t happen instantly, but it required decades of incremental decline and a pattern of the young having fewer and fewer noble examples to look up to and take cues from. Rather than model themselves after Jesus, they picked men they deemed successful, men they wanted to be like one day, and emulated them rather than the Christ.

I don’t want to be hated, rejected, persecuted, or martyred. Therefore, I will emulate the characteristics, mannerisms, doctrine, and teachings of those whom the world seems to accept, love, and embrace. The reason so many came to this conclusion was that the desire of their heart was never righteousness or sanctification but rather success and, more importantly, success as defined by the world.

Paul offered his life and ministry as an example for Timothy to follow. He was able to do this because He, in turn, imitated Christ. His desire was never for Timothy to imitate him in lieu of Christ. It was that Timothy looked upon his life and ministry, knowing that he himself had been faithful to the calling to which he’d been called and walked in obedience to Jesus.

1 Corinthians 11:1, “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”

How many pastors, preachers, evangelists, and teachers can say that and mean it? How many can say that and know it to be true in our day and age? We are where we are because, with each new iteration of leaders and spiritual luminaries, we’ve strayed further and further from the truth and have now come to the point that, in most cases, there is no discernable difference between those of the world and those of the church.

The rot begins at the head and spreads to the rest of the body. It’s always been the case, but even so, those who continue to sit under the teachings of such individuals are not exempted from accountability because it is the duty of each of us as individuals to study the Word and conclude whether what we are hearing from the mouths of men is in harmony with Scripture.

1 Timothy 4:1-3, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”

A warning is only effective if those being warned heed it. Its function is to make you aware that a specific action will have inherent consequences or that there is danger afoot, such as touching a live wire, which will likely kill you, or pouring a scalding cup of coffee on yourself, which will likely burn.

If the Spirit expressly warns that in the latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, it is a warning we must take to heart and acknowledge. We should be beyond debating whether someone can depart from the faith, because the Bible says they will. Whether that clashes with your denomination’s doctrine is of no concern to me. The warning was given. Whether we heed it or ignore it is solely up to us as individuals. What is clear is that we will have no excuses or loopholes we can point to when we stand before the Almighty and give account. The consequences of not heeding this warning are grave, and we must be mindful of this as we navigate our journey of faith.

If we believed something contrary to Scripture, it was a choice we made as individuals while ignoring the warnings, teachings, and instructions of the Word of God. Men are not without fault for believing lies. All they had to do was go to the Word of God and defer to it in all manners spiritual, ignoring and rejecting anyone or anything that would sound discordant and be in contrast to what the Bible says.

Can it really be that simple? Can it really be that cut and dry? Most things usually are when you strip away the artifice. Whether they deemed the way too difficult, too mundane, too time-consuming, or too absent the accolades and honorifics of the godless, many a soul chose to believe extra-biblical teachings and wander down paths they were never meant to go down.

Simplicity in all things is not something to be avoided, scoffed at, or looked down upon. It is the ideal and leads to a life of peace, joy, and fellowship with God. I am His, and He is mine. He speaks, and I obey; He directs, and I follow. My duty is not to try and convince Him that His way isn’t optimal or that I should be appointed to a higher station in life; it is to joyfully do as He commands, knowing that obedience is better than sacrifice, and it is the act of obedience that He will reward upon His return. Obedience to God’s commands is not a burden but a source of joy and peace.

The duty of the true believer is to be a lighthouse in the midst of a darkened ocean. We are dutybound to be a beacon of hope in a world of despair, and if we fail in this one area, it doesn’t matter how big our ministries get or how many campuses our church has; we’ve still failed to fulfill our primary task. There’s enough confusion in the world already. The children of God ought not to contribute to it by what they teach or what they pursue in lieu of Christ.

The broader question is whether they are still children of God if the entirety of their pursuit is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus, but that’s for God to decide. Our duty as those who know the way of truth is to continue to walk in it and turn away from those who would, by word or deed, attempt to detour us from the path.

In order to be certain we are walking in the truth and the light, we must do as Paul said Timothy had done and carefully follow the example of Jesus in every area of our lives. It’s not something we set about haphazardly or when we have a few minutes to spare on a given day, but a way of life to which we surrender and dedicate the entirety of our existence. Timothy had carefully followed Paul’s doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, and afflictions and so could rightly conclude that his actions and his words were not dissimilar or contradictory. There was no hypocrisy or hidden motive in Paul’s walk and ministry. He lived what he preached and preached what he lived, and to him, Christ was everything.

How many leaders and pastors could pass that acid test today, wherein if their lives were carefully followed, one would conclude that they were, indeed, the person they claimed to be and walked in the truth they claimed to walk? What do men see when they carefully follow your life? What testimony do we present to those who are near? Far more critical questions than who will win the next elections and something within our ability as individuals to affect.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr. 

The Last Days Of The Church XL

 If Paul had adopted the mindset of do as I say, not as I do, perhaps his message to Timothy would not have resonated the way it does. The instruction Paul lays out is not theoretical. The man practiced what he preached and brought the receipts to prove it. It’s the difference between an academic in a tweed blazer describing the storming of the beach at Normandy and a soldier who was actually there and lived it. Paul lived it, and he was not shy about reminding Timothy about his lived experiences and all the things he had to endure for the sake of the gospel.

I’m not saying you necessarily have to endure persecution or go through suffering in order to understand God more deeply, but it sure does help. Between someone who understands the theory of faith on paper and someone whose faith carried them through the bleakest, darkest times imaginable, I’ll take the person with the lived experience of having seen the hand of God at work in their lives.

They may not be as pretty to look at, and there will be battle scars and barely healed wounds, but having lived it, they will not romanticize battle nor minimize the effort it takes to push ever onward toward victory. It’s called spiritual warfare for a reason, but far too many clueless harpies with a platform have convinced many in the church that it’s as easy as yelling ‘basta!’ and never at any time are they in any danger of being wounded or worse. This has created an entire niche subculture, wherein everyone and their aunt Rosie is a part-time demon hunter chomping at the bit to go ham on the devil. That they’re still at it only proves they haven’t run across a real one yet, but when they do, they quickly realize there is quite a bit more danger involved in this than in knitting or amateur pottery.

Just as I don’t believe the pink-haired lady or her gaggle of clucking hens never encountered a true demonic power they had to contend with, I’ve also come to think that the reason many pastors and preachers are so flippant and lackadaisical about God is because they never truly encountered Him. They know of Him, have read of His works, and perused His word on occasion. They’ve taken classes on homiletics, eschatology, or theology, perhaps even got around to writing a doctoral thesis on the genealogy of Rahab, but as far as having an encounter with the God they’ve been studying or knowing the feeling of freefalling with no safety net only to be caught up in His arms, the best they manage is reading the testimonies of others in third world countries.

I’m not throwing shade or discounting the benefits of education. I’m not even questioning the sincerity of those who attend these institutions of higher learning. The sheltered, coddled upbringing of most in the West made knowing suffering or persecution impossible and the notion of trusting God an option rather than the only option.

This freedom we’ve abused and taken for granted is itself a two-edged sword because it never compelled us to count the cost of serving Jesus, just the cost of tuition, and there were always student loans for that.

If Jesus insists that following Him has a cost, we must consider that cost and acknowledge its reality. What am I willing to forfeit for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ? Is it time, friends, relatives, prominence, wealth, my home, or my life? What’s the cutoff, and is there one?

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul tells us he suffered the loss of all things and counted them as rubbish that he might gain Christ. For many today, even the thought of setting aside an hour each morning to spend time with God and in His word is a heavy lift, never mind suffering the loss of all things.

Paul isn’t trying to soften the blow or make ministry seem like something it’s not. He presented an authentic portrait based on personal experience, warning Timothy that he should expect no less in terms of hardship, persecution, and travail. That seems like quite the departure from what’s being peddled today, wherein sunshine and lollipops await beyond uttering a prayer.

This is the way. The way is rife with persecution and afflictions, with hardship and travail, and if not for the last words Paul penned to Timothy, it would seem downright unassailable. Yes, he went through all these things and more, yet his testimony remained that the Lord delivered him out of all of them.

Walk with God long enough, and you will not be deterred by afflictions or persecution because you know that your deliverance is only a matter of time. God’s promise isn’t that you will be spared hardship if you remain steadfast and unmoved in the truth but that He will be an ever-present help in such circumstances. He is your deliverer. He is the one that walks with you through the fire and the flood, that His name might be glorified, and that those who will later hear your testimony will understand it was not by your strength, ingenuity, or prowess that you were delivered, but by His mighty had.

Collectivism is not biblical. The Word clearly tells us that the soul that sins will die. Everyone else around you might be doing something, validating it, co-signing it, but if the Bible says we ought not to practice such things, then the Word will judge us as lone individuals when we stand before the Almighty. Your neighbor’s righteousness will not be imputed upon you, nor will their sins. Hence the reason Paul makes the distinction between others within the household of faith that have given in to all manner of debilitating, destructive practices and the young man to whom he is penning the letter, namely Timothy.

He wants Timothy to be aware of the dangers of compromise from within, then begins his next thought with ‘but you.’ All these others might be lovers of self, despisers of good, and having a form of godliness, but you, you should be different, set apart, firmly established in the way you must go because you’ve seen the difference between a life of compromise and a life of obedience. You know the distinction between those paying God lip service and those living for God.

The overarching theme of Paul’s second letter to Timothy was to learn how to spot the real from the fake, turn away from the one, and have continued fellowship with the other. Using the eat the meat and spit out the bones analogy, some among us stay under a teaching or in a church far longer than we ought to, even though they see the writing on the wall, and the inconsistencies become so evident that they are glaring.

I know change is hard. I know trying to find a new fellowship or new brothers and sisters with which to come together is time-consuming and in itself taxing, but that never figured into Paul’s equation when he said to turn away from such people. Your spiritual health must take precedence, and if you’re not growing, maturing, drawing ever closer to Jesus, and learning to walk by faith and not by sight, it is incumbent upon you to find a fellowship where you are.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.