The Last Days Of The Church XXVIII

 Given the long list of things the last days church will have to contend with, and the perilous time these things will bring about, one can readily understand how feelings of unease and trepidation might attempt to worm their way into men’s hearts. Look at all the things Paul said would be present in the last days of the church. How can one’s heart not be troubled by such a thing? Because while these things will be evident, even abundant in the church, there will also be those who will continue to stand on the truth of God’s Word and not waiver.

There is a tonal shift in the last sentence of the fifth verse of Paul’s letter to Timothy that should make us take heart and encourage us. Yes, we are seeing the things Paul said would be signposts of the last days. They are apparent and evident, yet there will still be a remnant. There will be those who will be lovers of money, lovers of self, godless and proud, blasphemers and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, but there will still be those who will remain true to Christ, who will deny themselves, pick up their crosses and follow Him. It is to these faithful few that Paul says, from such people turn away.

By Paul’s words, there is a difference in how we approach and deal with those of the world and in the world who have as yet not known the truth and light of Christ and those within the church, who, having known the way turned from it giving themselves over to the things of the world anew.

To the lost, he encourages Timothy to preach the word and be instant in season and out of season, to convince, rebuke, and exhort, with all longsuffering, while toward those within the household of faith who refuse to receive the truth, he says to turn away.

It’s not as though Paul offers a plethora of options for dealing with those who have forsaken the way of truth. There is but one option: turn away. This doesn’t mean we abandon them; rather we do not give them a platform to spread their destructive ideas. We must not allow the corruption to continue to grow, spread, and persist in its destructive path. Ever since the early church, there has been an ongoing attempt to erode the foundations of truth from without and from within. Those whom God called and anointed as leaders during the first-century church had to contend with it, and whether it’s John, Peter, James, Jude, or Paul, they all wrote regarding the wolves, the godless who would creep in and bring with them destructive heresies. It’s something they witnessed and something that occurred often enough that they felt compelled to warn of.

2 John 1:7-10, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares his evil deeds.”

We open our churches, our pulpits, and our hearts to people whose doctrine we’ve not vetted and who, by their words and deeds, do not abide in the doctrine of Christ. But they’re popular, famous, or some has-been d lister who was in a television show no one remembers, so we make allowances and compromise, not realizing the danger we put ourselves and others in by doing such things.

We’ve sacrificed truth upon the altar of relevance so often that nowadays, anyone who dares to speak the truth is deemed unloving, the odd man out, someone others should steer clear of because they are divisive and lack diplomacy. Since when was being diplomatic a prerequisite? Since when was the ability to compromise and twist the word of God the metric by which we evaluate someone’s teaching?

But you don’t understand. The times, they are changing. True enough, but God doesn’t. So, the choice the modern-day church must make is whether we change with the times or remain steadfast in the ways of God. That question has already been answered for the most part, and we are seeing the consequences of our decisions play out in one denomination after another. The consequences include a loss of spiritual vitality, a dilution of the gospel message, and a blurring of the distinction between the church and the world. We thought if we compromised enough, made enough allowances, and embraced the things the word of God explicitly says we ought not to, we could drag the world into the light. All that’s happened is that a large swath of the church has been pulled into the dark instead, and it’s become so apparent that even those in darkness are pointing to the church, reminding them that they should be different than them.

It’s a whole new kind of scary when the godless starts rebuking the church for the compromised state it finds itself in.

Deception from within is more dangerous by far than deception from without. The reason is that there is an implied trust when someone with a reputation for being a spiritual leader delivers doctrinally unsound teaching. A wolf is a wolf, and everyone recognizes it for what it is. A wolf in sheep’s clothing that can pass itself off as a sheep can do a lot of damage to a congregation before he is unmasked. Even then, those who’ve been taken in by the wolf come to his defense, giving him the benefit of the doubt even when no doubt remains.  

The church and the world cannot be so similar that they become interchangeable, nor can they resemble each other to the extent that one wonders whether they are in church or among the ungodly. Sanctified and set apart mean just that.

1 Peter 2:9-10, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.