Friday, September 30, 2011

2 Timothy 3:2


Copyright Ó 2011 J. Neely
2 Timothy 3:2

2 For [gar] men [anthropos] shall be [esomai] lovers of their own selves, [philautos] covetous, [philarguros] boasters, [alazon] proud, [huperephanos] blasphemers, [blasphemos] disobedient [apeithes] to parents, [goneus] unthankful, [acharistos] unholy, [anosios]KJV-Interlinear

2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, NASB

Our context carries over from the previous chapter, in that wickedness will exist generally throughout society, but more specifically wickedness will exist from within Christianity, and even more specifically, this wickedness within Christianity, will swell in the latter days of the Christian era, thus forming perilous times.

Those perilous times will be the Tribulation preceded by the impending Rapture.

Thus extreme wickedness gives over to the rule of Satan and the pattern of his rule which is the policy of evil.

And even though these characteristics have existed in society throughout history, and exist among unbelievers as well as believers, the subject here is the pattern of life that will exist among believers near the end, perhaps the last couple of generations, of the Church Age.

Just as the Tribulation will demonstrate the extremes that humanity will go to in rejection of truth, so too, then the end of our current dispensation will lay the groundwork for that evil time.

No timeframe is defined.  No dates are specified.

This is a pattern or trend, that will become increasingly dominant throughout Christianity as well as throughout the world.

The first sin is the love of self.  This is perhaps the sewer out of which all of the remaining sins, come.

Lovers is ‘phil,’ which comes out of ‘phileo,’ which is used in the relationships of people in friendship.  The Father loved ‘phileo’ the son, Jesus loved ‘phileo’ John, Pauls love ‘phileo’ for believers, and so forth.

The object is ‘autos’ or self.  And when self is elevated above others, then God and others are eliminated from the relationship orientation of life.  Self becomes more important than spouse, family, friends, work, community, honor, responsibility and so forth.

Lucifer loved self and thus became Satan.  Adam and Eve came to love self and then came sin.  In every case, when self is elevated, God is ignored and trouble begins.

Society will eventually love self to an extreme, and thus the end of human history will result.

And even in our current day, self love is becoming the standard for therapeutic treatment.  And that is nothing more than a problem being treated by a problem.  The result will be worse than the original problem.

Resulting from love of self, is the love of things, or covetousness. And so materialism will grow rapidly as the secular side of society places great value on the things of life.

Following this is boastfulness, wherein the person boasts in things of self, that he is not.  Boasting elevates self, exaggerates facts such that they have no basis in truth.  Boasting makes one competitive thus attacking any competition in order to advance ones self.  People do this in office politics, in gossip, in marriage, in politics, in celebrity circles, in any form of social or public setting.  Truth is set aside in order to bring attention and credit to ones self.  Authority is rejected.

Arrogance or pride, carry the connotation of elevating ones self above, or making ones self superior in some way.  The arrogant create an atmosphere of superiority in thought, in opinions, in favoritism, in standards, in beliefs, and all at the expense of others.  Bias and prejudice result.

This high opinion leads to blasphemy or abusive and slanderous and contemptuous attacks against others.  Others become beneath you.  Other ideas become beneath yours.

When an older generation is wicked in general, then the younger generation is not trained properly in life and they become disobedient.  This leads to a succeeding generation that will follow in the footsteps of their evil parents and thus become even more wicked.

Wickedness can never satisfy or complete ones self.  Thus never achieving satisfaction, leads to ungratefulness.  An ungrateful society wants more, is never satisfied, and that leads to even greater problems.

Unholy is generally a term that means lacking of righteousness and justice.  These are two terms that define holiness.  When a person believes in Christ they receive imputed into their life, Gods righteousness and Gods justice, which serves to define salvation.

However, once saved, then a person cannot become unsaved  One cannot unborn themselves.

Therefore, believers who pursue a path of wickedness, will lose sight of sinless perfection, no spiritual life, will lose sight of justice, no washing or confession.  They will leave the spiritual behind, become imitators of unbelievers, and thus be no better than unbelievers as far as the functions of the world go.

In the future, sooner or later, apostate thinking will take over the world.  Certainly there will be believers, for the Rapture exists to remove believers from this world.  But the general idea here is that the spiritual functions of Christianity will dwindle down to near nothing, but not completely eliminated, as other things, activities, outlooks, things, beliefs and so forth begin to prevail throughout society.

Prior to the flood, Noah and his family, eight people, were all that were left before the flood came.  There were fewer people to be rescued in Sodom when Abraham wanted the city saved for the sake of Lot.  The Rapture will most likely see millions being removed as the world will by then reject truth, and thus God will remove it, and in a dramatic way.

Remember we have already studied the three great gaps in history, wherein spiritual declines led to major changes in history.  The first was in Noah’s day, when during a period of 120 years apostasy led to the flood.

The second was during the last four centuries prior to the birth of Christ, when divine revelation stopped as the Old Testament books were concluded several centuries prior to the First Advent, because of the rejection of the Messiah.

And the third major gap in history will occur at the end of our dispensation when it would appear that there will be no further additional new believers in Christ, due to the lack of the teaching or hearing of the gospel, let alone the teaching of doctrine. 

Thus requiring a major change, the Rapture, in order to bring society back to their senses, in which millions will be saved during the Tribulation, who might otherwise not have been saved were it not for the Rapture.

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Daily Bible Study Links – Fri. 9-30-2011


Daily Bible Study Links – Fri. 9-30-2011
Today’s Daily Bible Study:  


Today’s Study

Friday – Daily Bible Study – 2 Timothy 3:2 –  Describe the trends and to whom they will apply 


Prior studies of the past week and month:


Daily Bible Study E-Books
(For your e-book reader or computer)

Parables of Christ

Revelation  /  Psalms / 1 Timothy / 1 Peter
Isaiah / Jude




Important links:
Main Daily Bible Study web site:  http://www.DailyBibleStudy.Org  
Daily Bible Study Library:  http://www.dailybiblestudy.org/library.html
Daily Bible Study News on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/jneelyranch 
How to prepare for your daily study:  http://www.dailybiblestudy.org/how-to-prepare.html
Two Year Bible Reading Plan:  http://www.dailybiblestudy.org/biblestudy/two_year 

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Daily Bible Study is written by John Neely:  http://www.NeelyRanch.Com



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Thursday, September 29, 2011

2 Timothy 3:1

Copyright Ó 2011 J. Neely
2 Timothy 3:1

1 This [touto] know [ginosko] also, [de] that [hoti] in [en] the last [eschatos] days [hemera] perilous [chalepos] times [kairos] shall come. [enistemi] KJV-Interlinear

3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. NASB

Now we have the phrase ‘last days.’  We have already learned that there is a specific and technical term for ‘last days,’ which applies to the last seven years of the Age of Israel, known as the Tribulation.  But that is not our context here.  So be careful how you read passages of scripture so that you do not get off track.

In the last chapter, our subject was generally the negative attitude of believers.

This chapter continues that thread, and in the next chapter, in chapter four, Paul will make reference to the increasing apostasy that will occur among believers.

Therefore, in this verse, the reference to ‘last days,’ is not to the period that will occur after the Rapture, but to the end of our current dispensation when believers are still here.

We already know that when the Rapture occurs, all believers will be removed from this world, leaving only unbelievers.  We already know that during the Tribulation. Those seven years will be without the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit, thus evil will run rampant.

New believers in the Tribulation will be turning to God in droves, not turning away.

This verse and following, however, is speaking of an increasingly negative population, wherein negative attitudes toward doctrine will be replaced by wickedness on all levels.

This supports the comment that Paul made in 2 Thessalonians, that a great apostasy must first occur before the anti-christ and the end days will be revealed.

Our current dispensation, the Church Age, began fifty days after the Cross.  The Cross occured on the day of Passover.  Fifty days later, on the Feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was given, thus kicking off our dispensation.

In our current dispensation, when a person believes in Christ, all three members of the Godhead, reside within each believer, making our bodies into a Temple (residence of God).

This is spiritual of course, and thus their presence cannot be measured or detected.  None of this shenanigan and nonsense holy roller stuff is legitimate.  So do not be fooled by folks who pretend to be filled or overwhelmed resulting in emotional or physical displays.

What you can expect to find in this world is a population, even of believers, who are self serving and self pleasing, leading to greater apostasy, greater confusion, greater moral decay, and more tolerance for wickedness in its many forms.

And as the true church of Christianity embraces these types of false practices, more and more believers will turn to the appeals of human viewpoint and even emotional outbursts that are intended to draw attention rather than teach.  Sound doctrine thus gets replaced by false and empty displays of emotion and opinion.

And just as the trend predictions for our current dispensation have come true, namely a rapid increase in population, a rapid increase in technology, in travel, in weather patterns, in earthquakes, and so forth, so also, there has been and will continue to be, a rapid increase in the falling away from sound doctrine, being replaced by an equally rapid increase in apostasy.

Apostasy you recall is simply an embracing of that which is false.  And the false of this world is a broad range of topics and activities and philosophies and such.

In other words, truth is set aside, and the lies of the world, are pursued.

And this will lead to the difficult times as Paul states here in our current verse.  Difficult times describe all manner of social and economic and natural problems that will lead to a time that can also be described as perilous.

Difficult, ‘chlepos,’ means perilous, difficult, dangerous, fierce.  And that is a good description of life when doctrine is absent or greatly reduced in society.

And when you combine the lack of doctrine with a rapidly growing and rapidly moving society, then that leaves little room for reaction or recovery or even figuring out that things are not going well.  The dive into apostasy just keeps getting deeper and deeper.  And that unfortunately is where society is heading.

John has already told us in Revelation, that these things must be.  And even though we might not want to see the world fall apart, unfortunately society is going to do that to itself through negative volition toward truth.

Our dispensation has already been through the dark ages, inquisitions, world wars, plagues, famines and more, and not many have figured out the reasons for those difficulties.  Even advances in technology and such have not helped in this regard.

By the time the Rapture occurs, whenever that is going to be, the entire world, not just a country or two, will have crossed over the line of massive world government or at least the pattern for it, which will make the anti-christs takeover virtually uncomplicated.

In order to get to that point, the world has to get from where we are today, to deeper into apostasy, and all that is required is time and a negative attitude toward truth.  Wickedness will do the rest.

And as for the perilous times phrase, it should be self evident that negative volition produces dangers beyond imagination, and the peril will be in the future repercussions of the collective decisions of todays and tomorrows society.

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Daily Bible Study Links – Thurs. 9-29-2011


Daily Bible Study Links – Thurs. 9-29-2011
Today’s Daily Bible Study:  


Today’s Study

Thursday – Daily Bible Study – 2 Timothy 3:1 –  What are the difficult times and when and why 


Prior studies of the past week:
Wednesday – Daily Bible Study – 2 Timothy 2:26 – Explain the difference between spiritual sobriety and spiritual drunkenness   
Tuesday – Daily Bible Study – 2 Timothy 2:25 –  What is true meekness, what is it not 
Monday – Daily Bible Study – Isaiah 2:2 –  Why can’t most folks explain this verse  
Sunday – Daily Bible Study – Psalm 12:7 –  Why do most folks miss out on this opportunity  
Saturday – Daily Bible Study – Psalm 12:6 –  Which opinion is superior, and why 
Friday – Daily Bible Study – 2 Timothy 2:24 –  What is the correct Christian behavior 


Daily Bible Study E-Books
(For your e-book reader or computer)

Parables of Christ

Revelation  /  Psalms / 1 Timothy / 1 Peter
Isaiah / Jude




Important links:
Main Daily Bible Study web site:  http://www.DailyBibleStudy.Org  
Daily Bible Study Library:  http://www.dailybiblestudy.org/library.html
Daily Bible Study News on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/jneelyranch 
How to prepare for your daily study:  http://www.dailybiblestudy.org/how-to-prepare.html
Two Year Bible Reading Plan:  http://www.dailybiblestudy.org/biblestudy/two_year 

Blog and Feed Subscription Links:  http://www.neelyranch.com/contactus.html

Daily Bible Study is written by John Neely:  http://www.NeelyRanch.Com



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