The introduction to each episode of the Days of Our Lives shows an hour glass flipped over. The narrator of this soap opera follows with the words, “like sand through an hour glass, so are the days of our lives.” The assumption made here is that life on earth is limited. Eventually your time will expire, resulting in death. The only question is how close is the end? This fateful anticipation inspires cast members to live for the moment, without any care for tomorrow.
But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear], 2 Timothy 3:1.
The apostle Paul sheds light on the question above in a letter to a teenager. Apparently, this first century pastor experienced a series of hardship. Troubled by what he saw, his mentor Paul reached out to Timothy in the form of a two letters. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul unveils a list of events that will occur prior to the second coming of Jesus. These acts, behaviors and outcomes highlight the fact that many will fall away from God in the last days.
For people will be lovers of self [narcissistic, self-focused], lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, 3 [and they will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control [intemperate, immoral], brutal, haters of good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of [sensual] pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power [for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith]. Avoid such people and keep far away from them, 2 Timothy 3:2-5.
After hearing about what happened to students at Covington Catholic High School last weekend, it appears the checklist above is nearly complete. Students wearing Make American Great Again hats were unknowingly targeted by a group of protesters. This set up switched the facts of what happened, edited video to a couple of minutes to define a specific narrative and posted these on social media. Once a couple of posts went viral, these teenage victims became the instigators. Like chum in the water, cable news anchors, journalists and twitter followers created a feeding frenzy. If this dishonest hit piece isn’t a clear sign that the end is near, it’s a foreshadowing of future persecution that Christians and conservatives will face.
by Jay Mankus
ExpressYourself4Him 