"IN THE LAST DAYS PEOPLE WILL . . "

IN THE LAST DAYS PEOPLE WILL …




Beth Moore does it again. Using one of my favorite verses, 2 Cor. 10:5, she emphasizes that we have divine power (are “mighty through God” according to the NKJV), to demolish strongholds. The weapons we are fighting with are not carnal, or natural, they are supernatural. Why do we need supernatural weapons? Because we fight a supernatural, other-worldly, evil, enemy. Our weapons are divinely powerful for this fight. We are Mighty Through God to tear down the strongholds of the enemy.


Again, in 2 Tim. 3:1-5, Beth cuts through the “prophecy-info fatigue” (my description), of the subject of the last days and presents 2 Tim. 3 in an entirely new light. “In the last days, people will …” “Other prophecies refer to natural disasters in the last days. This verse refers to people.” This verse defines the times as ‘terrible’ and will be a social phenomena rather than natural or environmental. We will fear people more than the natural disasters because of the condition of the people during this time.


“Seventeen characteristics fall between two profoundly purposeful bookends. ‘People will be lovers of themselves…rather than lovers of God.’ Bookends. Lovers of self means ‘friends of self;’ lovers of God means ‘friends of God.’


“It is the great war between the great I AM and the little ‘i am.’”


Have you noticed the frequency of the “i” in almost every item on the market? i-pod, i-pad, i-phone, i-touch, etc. etc. The little “i am” is everywhere it seems. What I wrote in yesterday’s blog about the real battle—between my glory and God’s glory—is evident in these verses.


Beth dissects the words found in 2 Tim. 3:1-5:


“Abusive—a word in Greek that especially emphasizes speech.” The growing phenomena of abusive speech. I know for a fact that abusive speech is a product of the baby-boomer generation because my Dad was constantly dismayed at the movies from the 60s on because they portrayed the military of the WWII years as using foul language, such as had become the norm in the 60s. He said they didn’t talk like that when he was in the war. Imagine, going through the horrors of WWII and not hearing that kind of abusive speech, at least not having every sentence peppered with the “f-bomb”. Yet today, it is a second language, you can’t escape it. You hear it wherever you go and it has become an acceptable norm. But it wasn’t always so. This phenemona began in the cultural revolution of the 1960s. I can attest to it; I was there.


“Without Love (Greek astorgoi)—hard-hearted toward kindred.” This phrase is referring to a specific type of love—that of love toward family; family love. This, according to the passage is something that will intensify as the return of Christ draws close. The abortion tragedy shows itself in this second generation since the Roe v Wade ruling. Children are subconsciously conditioned now to believe that their lives were worth very little if their parent could have opted to kill them before they were born. Life has lost its value because of the abortion tragedy. People feel less valued, so they value others less. This passage of scripture defines a lack of even the normal compassion linking families together.


“Unforgiving—irreconcilable … without treaty. To the degree that we are selfish and self-centered we will be unforgiving. The bigger we are to ourselves, the more unforgiving we will be.” I believe that if I could name one core stronghold that holds more Christians in bondage than any other thing it would be unforgiveness. In discipleship of Christian women, it is almost always necessary to work through the process of Godly forgiveness before any other issues can be dealt with and healed. Unforgiveness not only holds the unforgiving person in terrible bondage, it holds the unforgiven person in bondage. Until the ties that connect them are severed, both suffer in the “above-the-line” and in the “temporal” realm.


“Slanderous—diabolos—accusatory (see also Titus 2:3). When we slander people, we are doing the devil’s work”, for he is the accuser of the brethren. When we accuse and criticize others, we are co-workers with Satan himself. The same word is used in Titus 2:3 when referring to the older women teaching the younger women. They are not to be slanderous, which could also translate “she-devil.”


“Brutal—untamed. Translated from the Greek which implies animal life. Base, natural instincts, loveless sex, lack of manners, rude.


“Treacherous—traitors, ready to betray their friends. Selfish people are betrayers of friendships.” When they have got what they need from a friendship and their needs are no longer being met by you, they will leave you behind without any regret. Combine this with being “hard-hearted toward kindred” and you have the recipe for most of the break-ups of marriages. Add in “without treaty” and you can see why it has become so easy for the “treaty” or “covenant” of marriage vows to be so easily broken in today’s culture. It wasn’t always so. This is a “last days” phenomena, which also began in our culture during the 60s revolution.


“Conceited—swollen with self-importance” Beth paints this in descriptive language “A Big, Bloated ME.” When we are driven by “ME,” we are bloated, swollen.


“Interestingly, 11 out of 18 vices begin with something in Greek called an ‘alpha-privation,’ an ‘a’ at the beginning of a word corresponding with our English ‘un’” It is the “un” of everything we were designed by God to do and be. Unloving, unforgiving, un-humane, un-loyal, etc.


People will argue that these things have always been around, that nothing which we see happening today is any different than any other time period in history. Yet, speaking as one who was growing up in the 1950s and early 1960s, I can say with absolute certainty, that the world I live in today is not the same as the world I lived in then. I seemed to have been aware, even at the time when I was 17 years old in 1967, that something terribly wrong was happening. There was a sense for many of us that a cultural shift had taken place. All of the norms and more`s were changing before our eyes. I recall how slowly and progressively, young people who had never used the “F” word, were trying it out, embarrassed and awkward at first, but gradually it became a part of their vocabulary.


So, it seems that, as I have always believed, since the 1960s and specifically since the 1967 six-day war for Jerusalem (since Israel is God’s time-clock for prophetic happenings), the last of the “last days” may be upon us and if this is true, then this generation, this peculiar description of culture gone wrong listed in the 2 Tim. 3:1-5 passage, is evidence of this.


But, we are “Mighty through God” Write that on the tablet of your heart—it is the truth that will get you through these times.