The apostle Paul, in addressing the young evangelist, Timothy, spoke of what he might be facing as he confronted an unbelieving, and oftentimes hostile, world, declared, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come” (2 Timothy 3:1).
As far as Paul was concerned, he was living in the “last days.” In fact, Acts 2:17 and Hebrews 1:2 clearly identify this period of time between apostolic times and the return of Christ as such. Every generation since should be aware of the lateness of the hour. Paul seemed to indicate that he was living in expectancy of the Lord’s return when he wrote the Thessalonian believers concerning Christ’s coming, saying, “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them , in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall ever be with the Lord.” He counted himself among the “we” who would yet be “alive at His coming.” And so should we. As believers in Christ, we should not be Looking for the undertaker, but for the Upper-taker. We should be as James, who portrayed Christ as always ready to come, saying, “…behold, the judge standeth before the door” (James 5:9b).
To some degree, there have always been “perilous times,” but some have been more perilous than others. The Scriptures seem to indicate an increase in perils, both in intensity and frequency, as in Matthew 2.4:8: “These are the beginning of sorrows” (“travail” [AS], literally “birth pangs” [cf. Romans 8:22]. In the context of the “perilous times” Paul warns that “evil men and seducers shall become worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Tim. 3:13), With the increase of evils we can expect an increase of perils. Synonyms of “peril” are hazard, insecure, and jeopardy (Roget’s Thesaurus). We are hearing another word, which is akin to a peril, and that is a “crisis”. Crises are “turning point, climax and zero hour.” . All of this is happening as we see a decline in biblical standards in not only our nation, but worldwide. In a conference, then-president Obama is quoted as saying in a keynote speech on “A New America,” “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation. At least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Hindu nation and a nation of unbelievers.” In other words, we have become a pagan nation, much as Israel compromised her faith in God with the idolatry of their religious neighbors. As a result, Israel and Judah suffered many crises, and finally being conquered and its people being driven into captivity.
As Christians, we dare not surrender our values that are based upon Scripture to compromise with the world. It was largely a pagan world that the early church faced. In the darkness of that world, Paul admonished believers, “That ye be blameless and harmless, children of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse , among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life…” (Philippians 2:15-16a). It is the light of Christ versus the darkness of the world. Paul admonished the Roman Christians to go to battle, not with the armaments of the world, but as he declared: “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light” (Rom. 13:11-12). It is not enough for us to simply wait for the Lord’s coming, but work that we might awaken others to the light of the gospel. Until the Lord comes, we are laboring still to “teach all nations” (Matt. 28:18-20; Mark16:15-16). Compromising with the world’s standards will bring no one to Christ and the salvation He offers. Compromise with a Taliban will save none, nor will a compromise with the world. Let’s learn from the crises.
–Ron Bartanen is a retired preacher, living in Milton, FL