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2 Timothy 3:1

by Don Costello  
10/08/2013 / Bible Studies

2 Timothy 3:1

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

a. This whole passage includes not only all of Chapter 3 but also includes 2 Timothy 4:1-4.

1. "This know also"

a. In this last letter to Timothy Paul focused on a few important matters. He encouraged him in chapter one, he exhorted him to live a pure holy life in chapter two. In chapter three he focused on the characteristics of the last days, some of which would appear during Timothy's life. In Paul's warning to Timothy, he is also warning us. In looking at church history in the last two thousand years, we can see remote pockets of these characteristics popping up. In these days though we can see every one of them taking root and blossoming into poisonous fruits that are corrupting and destroying lives, even in the church. This is what Paul was warning Timothy and us.

2. "that in the last days perilous times shall come."

a. last [2078 * eschatos] [Zodhiates: The extreme, most remote, spoken of place and time. In 2 Timothy 3:1, with a noun of time, as the last dayof the worldin the phrase "the last days.] [D.C.: Where we get the term eschatology the studies of the last days.]

1). The last days began with the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. They include not only the 2000 plus years of the church age, but also the Second Coming of Christ and the Millennial Reign of Christ. This can be seen in Peter's use of the term and also of Isaiah's use of the term "last days".

a). Acts 2:14-21 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:
The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

b). Isaiah 2:1-4 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

(1). The events that Isaiah writes about clearly take place during the Millennial Reign of Christ Jesus.

b. perilous [5467 * chalepos] [Bullinger: Heavy, difficult, hard to bear; connected with toil and suffering, dangerous] [Zodhiates: Violent, fierce. Used of demoniacs, wild, difficult]. [D.C: This word is used in only one other place in the N.T., In Matthew 8:28 when describing those possessed with demons. I believe that is very significant.]

1). Matthew 8:28 And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.

2). The Greek word for "fierce" is the same Greek word for "perilous". The following incidents that occurred in Miami Florida and New York City over the Memorial Day 2012 weekend are examples of "perilous" times.

3). Miami Police Shoot, Kill Man Eating Another Man's Face, updated 5/28/12, http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/05/26/miami-police-confrontation-men-leaves-1-dead-1-hurt/
MIAMI (CBSMiami) Miami police are still tight-lipped about the man they shot and killed on the MacArthur Causeway Saturday afternoon, but new details back claims they had no choice: the naked man they shot was trying to chew the face off another naked man, and refused to obey police orders to stop his grisly meal, which one source now claims included his victim's nose and eyeballs.
Surveillance video taken from security cameras at the nearby Miami Herald building show a police officer arrive on the scene, appear to be startled by the spectacle of two naked men lying on the street, and draw his service weapon. It appears that the officer shot one of the men, but it was difficult to tell in the video.
The bizarre shooting happened shortly after 2 p.m., when police responded to a 911 call about two naked men fighting on a bike path along the Causeway, which was packed with traffic on a busy holiday weekend.
Miami police have not confirmed the details of what happened next, but sources close to the investigation told CBS4 News that officers found one man gnawing on the face of another, in what one police source called the most gruesome thing he'd ever seen.
The fight was taking place at the causeway exit near the Miami Herald building, and amazed officers tried to stop it, ordering the man making a meal out of the other man to stop.
The head of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, Armando Aguilar, said drugs are at the root of the attack.
"We have seen, already, three or four cases that are exactly like this where some people have admitted taking LSD and it's no different than cocaine psychosis," Aguilar said.
In the cases Aguilar mentioned, he said the people have all taken their clothing off, been extremely violent with what seemed to be super-human strength, even using their jaws as weapons.
"Extremely strong, I took care of a 150 pound individual who you would have thought he was 250 pounds," Aguilar said. "It took six security officers to restrain the individual.
Emergency room Doctor Paul Adams agreed with Aguilar saying similar cases have showed up in the ER.
"We noticed an increase, probably after Ultra Fest," Dr. Adams said.
Adams said the new LSD is commonly called "bath salts." The drug, Adams said, can raise a persons body temperature to such a high degree that logic and the ability to feel pain are lost; then delirium sets in and that often leads to disaster.
"We've had several deaths," Dr. Adams said. "Earlier last year, we probably saw our first death from bath salts where people were running on the MacArthur Causeway, under the MacArthur Causeway being chased by the police and then all of the sudden just collapsing."
Aguilar, who heads the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, said he has spoken with the officer who responded. Aguilar said the officer saw what the man was doing, and ordered him to stop. He said the man growled at the officer, and then returned to his meal.
Aguilar said the man ate his victim's nose and eyeballs.
The officer then used his service weapon and shot the man, Aguilar said, but the gunshot had no effect. Other sources confirmed that the man refused to obey, and continued his attack. Aguilar said the officer had no choice but to keep shooting until the attacker was dead.
Investigators are sharing limited details about the confrontation, saying only that the two men were fighting and the officers felt they had no choice but to take deadly force.
"During this confrontation an officer did discharge his weapon striking one of the individuals, said Det. Willie Moreno, spokesperson for Miami Police.
But sources close to the investigation said that dry recitation of the facts apparently doesn't go far enough. They said the man still would not give in to police commands, so officers fired again.
"That individual has lost his life right now," Moreno said.
With the attacker dead, lying nude on the pavement, officers and paramedics were able to get to his victim and rush him to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Police sources say the man had virtually no face and was unrecognizable.
Police have shared no information about his identity or condition.
The surveillance video supplied to CBS4 by The Herald under a news sharing agreement is disturbing. At one point, whomever was controlling the cameras zoomed in to the two men lying nude and partially obscured by the MetroMover track. One man is motionless, but the other, presumably the man whose face was attacked, can be seen flailing his legs, possibly in pain.
The Herald used video editing tools to obscure portions of that man's body as he moved.
The video covers a time frame of about 8 minutes, but despite the shooting of the attacker and the obvious distress shown by the victim, paramedics are not seen attempting to rescue him.
Dr. Adams said when people use the bath salts, they are a major danger to police, medics, and hospital workers.
"They come in and have to be restrained both chemically and physically, and you're asking for someone to get hurt," Adams said.
The victim was eventually taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Once the bizarre confrontation came to an end, police were left with the task of figuring out what had happened. The investigation forced the closure of the causeway from Miami Beach to Miami, and also closed an exit to the causeway from I-95.
The investigation snarled traffic for hours and delayed thousands of motorists until ways could be found to get them off the causeway.
Police have had little official to say about the details, and have not released the name of the cannibalistic attacker.

4). The behavior in this news piece can only be described as fierce or perilous. The similarities in this very recent event and what is recorded in Scripture regarding demon possession bears repeating. The individual eating the man's face and the man being eaten were both naked. When the man was commanded by police to stop his attack he just turned and growled like an animal and returned to what he was doing.

5). Luke 8:26-33 And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.
And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.
When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.
(For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.)
And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.
And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.
And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them.
Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.

4). Police: Hackensack Man Stabbed Himself, Threw His Skin And Intestines At Officers, 5/29/2012, http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/05/29/police-hackensack-man-stabbed-himself-threw-his-skin-and-intestines-at-officers.
HACKENSACK, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) A man who stabbed himself and threw pieces of his skin and intestines at police officers trying to subdue him was hospitalized in critical condition on Monday, authorities said.
Officers encountered 43-year-old Wayne Carter on Sunday morning when they responded to reports of a man barricaded in a room in Hackensack and threatening to harm himself, Lt. John Heinemann said.
Two officers kicked in the door and saw Carter in a corner, holding a knife in his hand, police said. Carter, ignoring the officers' orders to drop the knife, stood up and stabbed himself in the abdomen, legs and neck, they said.
Carter yelled at the officers and took an aggressive stance, and the officers used pepper spray in a bid to subdue him, but it had no effect, Heinemann said
Police said that Carter then cut off pieces of his skin and intestines and threw them at the officers.
The officers decided to retreat and call in the Bergen County SWAT team, Heinemann said. Carter finally was restrained and was taken to a hospital just before midnight.
No charges have been filed because of the unusual nature of the case, Heinemann said. He said he believes that drug use or mental illness may have contributed to Carter's behavior, but that hasn't been confirmed.
Carter had been arrested in the past for aggravated assault and resisting arrest.
Sounds like a scene right out of a horror movie. Share your thoughts and comments on this shocking and disturbing story below
(TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2012 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

c. Dangerous, fierce, hard to bear, violent and perilous times do not come just because these are the "last days", they happen because what men will become. Men will become these things because they will by gradual disobedience open the door for demonic influences. It is a relatively slow progressive descent in the same way spiritual growth is a relatively slow progressive ascent. (There are exceptions to this in cases where drugs or alcohol are introduced where men or women do things under the influence of the drug or alcohol they would never do if not under its influence. In many of these cases the people don't even remember the behavior they exhibited when drunk or high). Men don't become William Gacy or Charles Manson overnight. Spiritual corruption is similar to spiritual growth in that it takes time, just as Saul didn't become the Apostle Paul overnight. Kenneth Hagin didn't become the great Apostle of faith overnight, it takes time to grow spiritually. Billy Graham did not develop into the man of God he is overnight, it took a lifetime. In that sense spiritual growth and spiritual corruption are similar in that they both take time. Let me state clearly I am not talking about the salvation experience of Romans 10:9, 10. When an individual gets born again they instantly become new creatures in Christ. Because they have repented of their sins and believed Jesus rose from the dead and declared Jesus their Lord, they are forgiven, cleansed, and set apart by God to live for Him, and they are on their way to heaven; that happens immediately, but they do not become spiritual giants overnight. Getting born again is instantaneous, while growing spiritually is a life process. What I am referring to here is the gradual corruption and descent of a culture.

d. Another couple of Biblical principles can be included in the reasoning.

1). Habakkuk 1:4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

2). Ecclesiastes 8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

My name is Don Costello. Ever since I received Christ in November of 1976 I have had a passion to study and know God's word.My wife Melissa and I have 5 children.

My e-mail address is [email protected]

I have a blog located at:
www.theophilus-loverofgodsword.blogspot.com/

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