PT-3 "Difficult Times" (2 Timothy 3:1)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/01/2025 9:09 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                            Focus: PT-4 “Difficult Times”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  2 Timothy 3:1

 

            Message of the verses:  “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.”

 

            I begin by writing about the words realize this, which translates a Greek present tense, which, as often noted before that this carries the ideas of constancy and continuity.  Now as long as Timothy was given breath and energy to serve the Lord and the Lord’s people, he was to heed Paul’s warning.  Remember that Paul writes this to Timothy because he was wavering in his ministry, as it was a tough place to minister that he was in, (Ephesus), and so Paul writes to encourage him to continue the fight, to continue to serve the Lord using the gifts that he had been given through the Holy Spirit when Paul laid hands on him in the very early part of his ministry.

 

            Now I want to write about the phrase last days, and MacArthur writes that this can have several meanings.  “In his prophecies about ‘the later days,’ Daniel referred to the entire sweep of history from the time of King Nebuchadnezzar of ancient Babylon to the time when ‘the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed’ (see Dan. 2:28-45).  In Isaiah’s prophecy, the phrase refers to the time just prior to and including Christ’s second coming when ‘the mountains of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it’ (Isa. 2:2; cf. Micah 4:1).”

 

            We continue quoting from MacArthur’s commentary on this subject of the last days.  “The writer of Hebrews declared that ‘God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world’ (Heb. 1:1-2, emphasis added; cf. James 5:3).”  “Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!”   “It seems clear that these last days, which began with the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, are the ones about which Paul is speaking here.  Explaining the miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, Peter made clear that ‘this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel:  ‘And it shall be in the last days, ‘God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind’’ (Acts 2:16-17; cf. Joel 2:28, emphasis added).  The Messiah, Jesus Christ, initiated these last day, the continuation of which was attested by the descent of His Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the birth of the church.”

 

            I have been also studying the first epistle of John and he warned his readers in the early church that ‘it is the last hour,’ which, in this context, is the equivalent of the last days.  “And just as you heard that antichrist I is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour (1 John 2:18).  We are still living in the Messianic time between Christ’s first and second comings, all of which may properly be called the last days.

 

            MacArthur now writes “In those days, Paul says, difficult times will come.  Chelepos (difficult) carries the ideas of perilous or grievous, as some English versions translate the word.  In Matthew 8:28, referring to the Gadarene demoniacs, it is translated ‘violent’ (NASB).  The famous Greek writer Plutarch used the term to describe an ugly, infected, and dangerous wound.

 

            “Times dos not translate chronos, which, as one would guess, indicates chronological time, but rather kairos, which refers to periods of time, to seasons, epochs, or eras.  The plural times may indicate that epochs of varying degrees of danger and difficulty the church would experience throughout its history.  As Paul makes clear a few verses later, these perilous times will come more and more frequent and intense, whereas the intervening periods of relative tranquility will become less frequent and peaceful, as the return of Christ nears.”

 

            All one has to do is look around the world we are living in to see that “tranquility”  has no pretty much died out and for that I hope that the Lord Jesus Christ will soon come to take His Church to heaven with Him in what is called “The Rapture of the Church.”

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Looking around at the different wars that are going on I can truly say that to me they picture the events that will actually be what the Bible calls the Tribulation Period, a period that will last for seven years, the first three and a half will be relatively quiet, but the last three and a half years will be the worst time for ever to be living on this earth, and the Lord says  that if He does not cut them short that no life would be left on planet earth.  However just when things are getting their worst the Lord will return to planet earth, stop the war of Armageddon and redo the earth separate the evil (goats) from the good (sheep) and then the last 1000 years of history will begin with the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on His Throne in Jerusalem.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To remember in the troubles that my wife is going through, and me right along side of her, that the Lord is in control.

 

4/1/2025 9:49 AM