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Godlessness in the Last Days (v. 1-9)
In the last days people will have all kinds of terrible qualities. Avoid these people, for they are the type who will sneak into your house and steal weak women. They are also always learning but never able to arrive at the truth because their minds are corrupted regarding faith. But don't worry, they will not get far as their folly is plain to all.
So much wrong on a single page. First, there is the same problem with a huge list of things, I will discuss that in a moment.
In regard to stealing women, I'm assuming this isn't meant as literal, because if it was avoiding them wouldn't do anything. If they were literally sneaking into your house and kidnapping your women over their shoulder simply avoiding them would help nothing. Therefore, I assume we are talking about someone talking them out of their faith or something along those lines. If that is correct, avoiding them and not letting their "lies" enter your house would be effective. If I'm correct, this is anti-intellectual as it doesn't allow opposing viewpoints, and it is anti-women as it paints them as weak. Always learning but never able to arrive at the truth is definitely anti-intellectual.
This is a very minor point, but if their folly is plain to all, then why are we talking about it? This seems like one of those times where you claim something is obvious so that people won't feel comfortable going against it. When I was teaching proofs, I could always tell when a student didn't really understand something, they would claim it is obvious. If they actually did understand, they would give a proper reason.
Oh yeah, this also starts with the phrase "in the last days". I would think this means that Paul thinks the last days are right around the corner, but I suppose it could also just mean that some time in the future all of these things will come to pass right before the end. This kind of language is used when preachers want to rail against people for certain actions, claiming it is a sign of the end times. I never notice them saying they were wrong once the end times don't come. For example, people will often claim that rampant homosexuality is a sign that the end times are coming. When the end times don't come, they never conclude that they were wrong and perhaps homosexuality is okay as it seems they should.
Interestingly enough, David Guzik seems to agree with me that last days most appropriately refers to the time right before Jesus returns. He points out that Jesus rebuked the leaders of his time for not realizing the significance of their day (I guess that Jesus was there) and he says that Jesus would probably rebuke current day Christians for not recognizing the significance of their time, that Jesus is soon to return. I wonder if he realizes that throughout history, Christians have been incorrectly claiming the end times are right around the corner.
v 2-5 "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."
As usual, these lists are a bunch of things that are supposed to be bad, some things on the list are really negative, and some are intended to get worse by association. Let's start by looking at things that are not really bad (unless taken to extreme, but few things aren't bad in the extreme). Lovers of self, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure. To me these things are not wrong at all, I love myself, money and pleasure, it doesn't mean that I am a bad person because of those things, they often motivate me to do good.
Proud and disobedient to their parents also stand out to me as things that can be bad, but in the right context are fine. If you work very hard and achieve something, isn't it good to take pride in a job well done? If your child wins a skill based contest (I don't know, say a spelling bee) isn't it a good thing to be a proud parent? There are times when pride is good. Also, disobedience to your parents is generally bad, but there are times when it is appropriate. If they are abusive, or if they are just wrong about something.
unholy, not loving God, denying the power of God are all just self-defensive positions from the perspective of the religion. The rest seem actually bad to me.
All Scripture Is Breathed Out by God (v. 10-17)
You have followed my teachings, persecutions and sufferings, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
This is not even talking about people who are preaching, this is just people who want to be godly. Perhaps this is so people who are not being persecuted must be trying to be too comfortable and will be motivated to go preach and be persecuted. Essentially, being comfortable and happy is a negative here.
Continue with what you have learned and firmly believe.
This is just bad advice, we all believe things that are not true, we need to be open to changing our minds.
All scripture is breathed out by God.
Then why does it contradict itself so much?
For the overview post (If you think I should add or remove stuff from this list please let me know, I think it would make good conversation)
Good:
Nothing! I reread the chapter looking for something to put in the good section, but there is just nothing. If I really wanted to be generous, I could extract the few things from the giant list of bad things which are actually bad, but any goodness extracted is tainted by the simple fact that I had to extract them.
Bad:
3:2-5 Another list, grouping bad things with not so bad things
"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."
3:6 anti-women
"For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions"
3:7 anti-intellectual
"always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth."
3:12 Christians will be persecuted
"Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted"
3:14 Keep believing what you already believe
"But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it"
3:16 All scripture is breathed out by God (clearly false)
"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness"
I remember a page that had a long list of end time prophecies that listed the ones that failed as well as ones that are still supposed to happen. I couldn't find it, but I did find this page. It doesn't list all the verses that seem to point to the end times coming before Paul and his followers dying, but was interesting none the less. I might need to go through my bible and add a few notes.
ReplyDeleteA few other things in this chapter.. (I think all of these notes originally came from the SAB, so take them with a pinch of salt)
In verse 12, it says, Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Didn't we read that the Christian yoke is easy? Also, proverbs says more or less than if God likes you, so will everyone else. It just seems to contradictary.
Lastly, is all scripture inspired? The first two seem to say otherwise, but the last two are thrown in in a "even these!?" context.
That's funny, I didn't remember that verse from matthew at all, but it does pretty explicitly say that it will be easy.
ReplyDeleteWTF is up with that judges verse? This book is totally not appropriate for children.