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flesh and expose himself to Satan's activities (as Hymenaeus and Philetus). Even here it
is under the Lord's control and the enemy's domination can be snapped by a change of
mind (repentance) which the Lord can give to those who realize and acknowledge their
sinfulness and foolishness.
Chapter 3: opens with a preview of the last days of this dispensation and it does not
make pleasant reading:
". . . . . men will love nothing but money and self; they will be arrogant, boastful and
abusive, . . . . . they will be implacable in their hatreds, scandalmongers, intemperate and
fierce, strangers to all goodness, traitors, adventurers, swollen with self-importance.
They will be men who put pleasure in the place of God, men who preserve the outward
form of religion but are a standing denial of its reality" (II Tim. 3: 1-5, N.E.B.).
While Timothy lived to see the beginning of this terrible state of affairs, the Apostle
concentrates on the end of this Gentile age with all its godlessness and corruption.
Wherever this is dealt with in the Scriptures, whether in prophecy, symbol or doctrine;
whether in the Gospels (and specially note the Lord's discourse concerning the end of the
age in Matt. 24:) or in the epistles, the picture is as black as it can be. In fact Christ
depicts a time of world trouble whose climax has never been equaled in the past or ever
will be in the future (Matt. 24: 20, 21). It is a time when humanity can annihilate itself
and would do so unless God steps in (verse 22). This He will do and cut short these
terrible days by the personal coming to the earth of the Lord Jesus Christ in power and
great glory (verses 29 and 30). Only by God's personal intervention in this way can
world deliverance be accomplished and Satan's domination and kingdom be destroyed.
There is certainly no room in the Scriptures for the deceptive idea that the world will get
better and better and man will eventually bring in the millennium of peace and plenty!
And it is now a fact that the annihilation of the human race is a possibility which is an
ominous sign of the times.
No.8.
3: 6 17.
pp. 161 - 166
The last days of this age in which we live, described by Paul in the opening verses of
II Tim. 3:, are terrible indeed. They have always existed in some measure of course, but
here they are world-wide and describe a time of darkest paganism and utter apostasy in
the world of religion where men will turn away their ears from the truth of God to myths
(4: 4). They are indeed `perilous times' (3: 1). Chalepos, `perilous', could be rendered
`menacing'. The only other place of its occurrence in the N.T. is Matt. 8: 28
describing the condition of demon-possessed men.
Rom. 1: 28-32 gives a similar description of the pagan world in the Apostle's day. In
the terrible list of vices we note the recurrence of the word `love'; (1) lovers of their own