When you see this in the most powerful rulers of the world, then know that the end has come.
These are perilous times and we were warned ahead of time about these.
2 Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
Notice that our job is not to correct these ones, it is to turn away from these ones. To have a form of godliness while denying the power thereof is explained to us in Genesis 3. It is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that will make you like God, but not by actually having the life of God. The tree of life is what gives us the power of godliness. It is the life of God within us. What the tree of the knowledge of good and evil does is give us a cloak, a mask, that looks like God. The day you eat of that tree you die. That means the day you want to have a form of godliness apart from the life of God, that is death. Jesus Christ is the water of life, how do you have plants apart from the water of life? That would be those plastic plants people have. It looks like a plant, it has a form of a plant, but they have denied the power of having a real living plant and instead have a piece of plastic.
So while this is a list of all the things that you will become if you take that route, the opposite of this is what the life of God is. God is the creator, He loves His creation. Instead of being a "lover of self" He is a lover of the whole world. Without God you will covet the things God created, if you have the creator you will love Him, rather than coveting the things He has created. Boasters, are like name droppers. I know so and so, my daddy is so and so, I made this and that, etc. If you have God and are a child of God then your daddy is God. There is no need to be a boaster, it would be stupid to talk about how you have this or that thing, as a child of God you own the entire universe, your Dad created the entire universe, and He is the one who is raising you up and training you. The flip side of this is that it should drain all pride away. You would never blaspheme, that would be to curse yourself. Your dad is your mentor, He is your coach, your trainer, the one leading you, guiding you and training you. Once you know this you would not be disobedient to Him, you might hesitate to obey, but you would learn that never ends well. This in turn would cause you to be truly thankful because God is telling you to do something, you never would have done it except for the fact He told you to do it, you obeyed and as a result it turned out for blessing. The path that God is leading us on is the narrow way that leads to life and that few find. That way that leads to live also leads to holiness. Everything in the world is common, those who are in Christ are uncommon in a godly way, that is what holiness is. It means you are separated wholly unto God. Now all of those things is what all of us were not in the world and the contrast is what we become in Jesus Christ. However, deeper down is the seed of being a psychopath. If you reject God from an early age you are taking a wide road that leads to destruction and as you travel that road you will become a psychopath without natural affection. You will also be a truce breaker. A truce is an agreement to cease hostilities. It can be the first step to making peace. But a psychopath uses this as a deceitful tool to gain the upper hand. You will also be a false accuser. This is not the same as accusing someone falsely, which is also bad, but indicates it could be an error. The police do this all the time when questioning a suspect. But that is done in a room in secret. A false accuser is knowingly lying about someone to damage that person for their own personal gain, and they do it publicly. This word "incontinent" is only used here, in this one place in the New Testament, it is one of the words unique to this book and gives you the unique agenda of 2 Timothy 3. According to Vine's it means "powerless, impotent in a moral sense. Unrestrained. Think of the tele evangelists found with prostitutes or found cheating on taxes. Think of the prosperity gospel preachers. Someone who lives this lifestyle while at the same time possessing "a form of godliness" is becoming one with Lucifer who can disguise himself as an angel of light. The Holy Spirit is the "restrainer" and all those who are filled with the Holy Spirit are restrained by Him. Then the opposite of fierce is gentle. It is a remarkable combination of having a backbone and standing up to sin while at the same time being gentle towards others. But then it goes to the next level with "despisers of good". Recently many have been stunned by how "good is evil and evil is good". The people arguing for boys in the girl's locker room were the "good" ones and those who stood against that were "evil bigots" who were bullies. Each of these words is like one step closer to destruction. Then they are full blown traitors gone over to the other side. Now this is not referring to just anyone, but to those having a form of godliness that we are to turn away from. These are people claiming to be Christians, who could be preachers and pastors. We have had false teachers and false prophets for the entire church age, but here it becomes a populist movement. A movement that is traitorous to the church and Jesus Christ. That means they must claim to be Christians while secretly having already sold out to betray the Lord. This is like Judas having already agreed to betray Jesus within 24 hours of him actually doing it. So when you see this, for example the President of the US reading the Bible on TV to the nation while at the same time working with those who are pushing a one world religion which will make evangelical Christians criminals, then you know the day is upon us. This word literally means "falling forward" and it is a metaphor for being rash and reckless. Obviously a President who quotes the bible or reads the Bible is not an indication that the day of the Lord is upon us. But if he is also rash and reckless, that combination should be a warning. Then the "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God" is a very weird expression. Could you still be a lover of God at this point? The answer is sort of. Suppose a president were rash, and a traitor. But he still is jealous of God because everyone loves God and not him. Perhaps he wants to be like Jesus who can heal the sick and raise the dead. Now we have moved from false prophet to false messiah. We would call this megalomania. Now when you see this in the most powerful rulers of the world, then know that the end has come.
