The Bible says:
“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
— 2 Timothy 3: 1-5
We’re told “in the last days perilous times shall come.” The reason for this peril is society will be filled with people who are full of self-love and yet ardent religionists. And then follows a long list of vices belonging to a person who’s in love with himself.
These people are obviously lost, but still have a “form of godliness.” They have religion, but are lost because they’ve rejected or denied God’s saving and transforming grace.
These people are in the church, but not of the church because they’re of the world. These have a Christless Christianity.
Because they only have an imaginary Christ they only have an imaginary salvation. And their “Christianity” is an abomination to God.
(Proverbs 15: 8, 9, 26) But they don’t really have Christianity. All they have is “Churchianity.”
This text proves that our churches are full of lost people of the worst kind. It’s why I wrote an article titled “The Church is Going to Hell.”
The true church, the Bride and Body of Christ will never go to Hell. But because there are so many in the local church that are not of the true church, one could say the church is going to Hell.
In their day, which was the latter half of the 19th Century, theologians C.H. Spurgeon and D.L. Moody believed only 25 percent of the church members actually were saved. There are probably fewer than 25 percent today who are saved.
These religious-butlost people are the ones who make our days “perilous.” The word “perilous” means days that are hard to bear because they’re full of danger and involve risk. These religious- but-lost church members are part of the problem.
Outwardly, these people seem religious, but by their ungodly behavior they show they’re living a lie.
“They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him.”
— Titus 1: 16
They love the pleasures of sin rather than God whom they pretend to worship. The reason there’s so much show business in the church these days is these lost church members must have a venue to act like a Christian.
Anthropologist Paul Hiebert warned “it’s a fearful portrayal of an apostate Christendom, a new paganism masquerading under the name of Christianity.”
These unsaintly “saints” who are “saved” and on their way to Hell, are the great tragedy of Christianity.
James H. Cagle is a Ray City resident who pastored several churches for a total of 11 years. Email him at pastorjameshcagle@ yahoo.com
