It must not be forgotten moreover that the word `hypocrite' meant `one who plays a part on a stage, a player, an

`So hupekrithesan tragodoi means `tragedies were performed'. Of course, in time the idea of playing a part,

feigning, dissembling, took on a sinister meaning, and the word hypocrite emerged. It should further be

remembered that in the Greek plays the actor spoke through a mask, impersonating the character he was

supposed to represent. It must further be understood, that in course of time, `good men' who died were promoted

to the rank of demons or mediators, and `demons and heroes differed but in more or less antiquity: the more

ancient heroes being called demons, and the younger demons, heroes' (Mede).

The prevalence of `saint-worship' in the Romish Church is one of the more modern ways in which demon

mediation has usurped the place of Christ; but Spiritism is another, for the words `speaking lies in hypocrisy' could

mean `speaking lies in a mask, as an impersonator or play actor'.

The enlightened believer is neither likely to be deceived by the claims of some that dead `saints' act as mediators,

nor to be ensnared by the Spiritists at their seances; but the Devil can pose as an angel of light and his ministers as

ministers of righteousness. He can lead on to a false humility by giving undue prominence to an honoured minister

of the Word, to a Church position, to anything and everything good in itself, so long as it comes between the

believer and his Lord. In each and every case the remedy is `to hold the Head', to remember in the calling we have

received that `Christ is all, and in all'. We must not dwell unduly upon this opening phase of the apostasy that is to

come, for the words `latter times' can well refer to those times that followed close upon the end of the apostolic age.

The seeds were then sown that will bear their evil fruit in the perilous times with which the present dispensation

ends and in the Mystery of Iniquity which will be manifested after the hope of the Church of the One Body has been

There are warnings that belong to the close of the present dispensation that are found in the second epistle to

Timothy. These have a bearing upon the time now present, and to these we must give heed.

The apostasy of 1 Timothy 4 started early in the history of Christendom, but the prophetic warning of 2 Timothy

3 refers to `the last days', the extreme verge, the days immediately before the end of the present dispensation and

possibly to the days in which we live, or which are imminent. The one characteristic of these days here revealed, is

that they are `perilous', a word we have examined in the fourth article of this series and one which is used of men

possessed of `devils' or demons, and who were in consequence `exceeding fierce'. The `last days' therefore will be

`perilous' indeed. In the preparatory and incipient stages of this great and terrible apostasy, the bait was cleverly

hidden beneath seductions to abstinence and self-denial; now, as the end approaches, this disguise is thrown away

and the hideous character of the hidden plague is made manifest. Now `self' is prominent, and instead of a false

humility, we have such words as `boasters, proud ... heady, highminded'. Where first Timothy tells us that the

doctrine of demons leads to `forbidding to marry', the present passage reveals that men will be `incontinent' and

`without natural affection'. Where the early departure was marked by a specious sanctity, in the last days no such

pretence will be made, they will be `unholy'.

The most marked characteristic of this departure however, is its relation to `love'. The word philos (love)

appears at the beginning and the close of this long and terrible list.

Men shall be Philautos (lovers of their own selves);

Philarguria (lovers of money);

Philedonos (lovers of pleasures); rather than

Philotheos (lovers of God).

The warning against `the love of money' as a root of all evil, is sounded in 1 Timothy 6:10 which, by coveting,

some `have erred from the faith'. In the parallel passage in Colossians, the apostle warns against `a vain deceitful

philosophy' (Col. 2:8), which introduces many features that are similar to those given in 1 Timothy 3. The epistles

to Timothy and Titus are not without the corrective to this false and selfish love, as the following series of seven