A few months ago one of my children asked me, “Daddy, I heard someone say recently that the Bible teaches that the world is going to get worse before Jesus returns. Is that true?”
More recently, a close friend who was struggling through a heavy season of trial confided in me that she was overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness. As we spoke at length about her hopelessness, it became clear to me that much of it was due to teachings she had received suggesting that the world must inevitably spiral into darkness before the return of Christ. This perspective left her feeling defeated–as if there was little hope for the situation she was facing.
About twenty-five years ago when I was in high school and started paying attention at church and reading the Bible for the first time, I was taught that in the end times things would grow darker and that the light of Christ would grow very dim in our world.
It is my observation that this expectation of growing darkness and the defeat (or lack of influence) of the Christian gospel and church is a prominent characteristic of Christian culture throughout our land.
Where did this teaching come from? Is it true? How shall we live if it is true? How shall we live if it is not true?
“…In the Last Days There Will Come Times of Difficulty.”
In 2 Timothy 3, Paul speaks about the last days. Paul was an apostle, pastor, mentor, and friend to young Timothy, who was fighting the good fight of faith in the city of Ephesus. 2 Timothy is Paul’s second letter to Timothy that we have in the scriptures. In 2 Timothy 3:1, Paul writes:
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
This sounds really, really bad.
It is. It is really, really bad. So how should we understand these words from Paul to Timothy? What should we think about this passage today?
Context is Everything - What Led Up to This?
What comes before this message of great difficulty in the end times? The words that precede this passage shed much light on the meaning of Paul’s words in 3:1-5. In the previous chapter Paul told Timothy to share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2:3). He spoke about his own chains and suffering as a criminal in the Roman Empire (2:9).
In the second half of chapter two, Paul told Timothy about those who would oppose him and his teaching. There would be many opponents who would swerve from the truth and lead people into ungodliness, upsetting the faith of some. Paul told Timothy how to correct his opponents so that they would escape the snare of the devil and no longer be held captive by the devil to do his will.
This sounds like a very difficult time (3:1), does it not?
So What Does Paul Mean?
Paul begins Chapter 3 with the words, “But understand this…” These words about the end times have a direct connection to the present situation and time described in Chapter 2. Paul wanted Timothy to understand that in the last days there would be times of difficulty.
What did the words “last days” mean to Paul and Timothy?
Paul’s portrayal in the following four verses of wickedness in these last days certainly describes the days we live in now. What we often fail to recognize is that they also describe the days that Paul and Timothy lived in.
Paul and Timothy were in the midst of these last days. The wickedness described in 3:2-5 is a clear description of the opponents whom Timothy was to correct and who had caused Paul so much suffering. We also see that these last days were a present situation for Paul and Timothy when Paul commands Timothy to avoid these types of people (3:5). The tense of the Greek verb translated “avoid” in verse 5 is present tense. The wicked people described were in Ephesus with Timothy.
We must guard against the error of seeing a phrase such as the “last days” in the Bible and automatically assuming its meaning through our current cultural and historical situation while neglecting the cultural and historical situation that these words were originally written in.
Context is key. We must let the scriptures interpret the scriptures.
More Context - What Follows This Description of the Last Days?
Those who teach that society and culture will continually deteriorate as the second coming of Christ approaches often cite 2 Timothy 3:13 as further support for their interpretation of the last days mentioned in verse 1. Verse 13 says, “…evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
Nothing in Paul’s letter indicates that this is a description of a time in the distant future. Timothy and the original readers in the churches of Ephesus and the surrounding region would have every reason to think that Paul was writing about a contemporary situation.
2 Timothy 3:13 warns of the internal progression of wickedness in the people referenced earlier in Chapters 2 and 3. These deceivers start by deceiving others, but they eventually fall victim to their own delusions.
Paul Says the Imposters Fail
The context offers additional support to this interpretation of the meaning of the “last days”.
In verse 9 Paul says the wicked people he is describing will be unsuccessful in their mission to deceive and harm others. They “will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all…”
If one interprets the words “…evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived,” from Verse 13 to mean that our world will grow darker as the centuries progress, then how do they interpret the promise of failure that Paul speaks about so clearly in Verse 9?
Conclusion - How Shall We Then Live?
This passage that many godly and well meaning Bible teachers use to teach that the world will grow darker as the return of Christ approaches are not about days that are yet to come but are about a contemporary situation in Ephesus that Timothy was facing.
So how shall we live in light of this teaching? We must not give into discouragement or a defeatist mentality as we consider the mission of Christ in the world today. We must know that God’s kingdom is advancing (Matt. 6:10). We must know that of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end (Isaiah 9:7). We must know that Jesus has bound the strong man (Luke 11:21-23). We must know that Satan is like a roaring lion and that he is not one (1 Peter 5:8). We must know that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:18) and that God leads His people in triumphal procession, using us to spread the knowledge of him everywhere (2 Cor. 2:14).
So if the “last days” were a contemporary situation for Paul and Timothy that took place two thousand years ago, what were they the last days of? I hope to answer this question in a future post.