Today at CrossHope Chapel we took a cross-reference jump from 2 Thessalonians 2:5 to 2 Timothy 3:1-5 and read this: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people” (ESV).

If you remember we saw that the interesting thing about this last days description was that these were the characteristics of those that in the words of the King James says, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”

This is a last days description of those who are marked by a religious persona, religious vocation, and an outward affiliation with the church who purport a fake godliness to others.

I’m taking you back to this passage through this blog post because I just read an article by a church leader who argues against traditional Biblical beliefs and attempts to explain why conservative evangelicals need to abandon a literal interpretation of the Bible.

Shortly after reading that article I was sent a link to a similar article by a different church leader arguing the same points.

It occurred to me that these two writers, like thousands of others who are swinging their allegiances to the cultural winds of sin, could care less what the Bible says. To them, the Bible says whatever they think it should say.

Like the picture of the monkey’s covering their eyes and ears these fake Christian leaders don’t want to hear the convicting word of the Spirit of God and they don’t want to see the truth as it is in Scripture.

Isaiah gave a warning about these fake teachers when he said, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).

The days of sharing texts, reasoning theology, and seeking truth may be gone. The hour may be here where we must stand solely on faith in God’s word and not reliance on our reasoning. Like Jesus before Pilate, brevity and faith may be our only immovable stance.

Why do we believe what we believe? Because the Bible convicts us to believe no other way.