Predictions of Apostasy: More Passages from the Pastoral Epistles

1 Timothy 6:3-5 – “If any man teaches a different doctrine, and consents not to sound words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is puffed up, knowing nothing, but doting about questionings and disputes of words, whereof comes envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, wranglings of men corrupted in mind and bereft of the truth, supposing that godliness is a way of gain.”

Sound words are those of our Lord Jesus Christ (including His ambassadors; cf. 2 Peter 3:2).  As already proposed, these words are the revealed message of Christ and His apostles to whom the Spirit was given.   Anything different was unsound and deserved the anathema of God (Galatians 1:6-9). 

Paul paints a portrait of the kind of man who would stoop to teaching unsound words as coming from God.  Rather than coming from God, his teaching is the imagination of human thought.  This explains the first two descriptions – (1) puffed up (2) knows nothing.  The one who lacks knowledge debates over words to no profit.  The arguments not only prove nothing, they produce envy, strife, railings, etc.  A third element of this portrait is their motivation – (3) gain.   

2 Timothy 2:14 – “Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them in the sight of the Lord, that they strive not about words, to no profit, to the subverting of them that hear.”

Like the previous passage, this one explains the effect of these unsound words that accomplish nothing but the subverting of them that hear. 

2 Timothy 2:16-18 – “But shun profane babblings: for they will proceed further in ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a gangrene: or whom is Hymenaeus an Philetus; men who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some.”

Adding to the description given of those who desire to be teachers, he describes these unsound words as “vain babbling.”  These are the words of arrogant men who lack knowledge.  The effect of their teaching is likened to gangrene.  It spreads havoc wherever its influence is felt and destroys the faith of others. 

The particular reference to the teaching that the resurrection was already past is uncertain.  It may mean that men had discredited the warnings of Paul (2 Thess. 2:1) concerning the falling away that must occur before the resurrection or simply abandoned the faith since they thought the resurrection had already come (cf. 1 Cor. 15:14-19).  The view of the resurrection and the end of the age was imminent (James 5:8, 1 Peter 4:7, Phil. 4:5, Rev. 1:3, 22:10).  To think it had already happened would certainly “trouble” brethren and “overthrow their faith.”   It is also likely, given the other descriptions to Timothy, that these men were so desperate for recognition and praise from others, that they would propagate this view to encourage people to leave the faith and follow them.   

2 Timothy 3:1-9 – “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,  unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,  treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.  For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,  always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.  Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.  But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.”

This description is well described as “difficult” (grievous) times. 

2 Timothy 4:1-4 – “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom:  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.  For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,  and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.  But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

In this passage and the one following it, we are reminded of three things that are needed today.  (1) We are responsible to be teachers of the truth of God, not enforcers.  (2) We are personally accountable to refuse our fellowship from those implacable headstrong babblers who put on a good show but have denied the power of God in their lives.  They do not need any more attention given to them.  “Turn away from them,” he writes. (3) The message of truth will be rejected in favor of the many false teachers that proclaim a pleasing message and stories that sooth while tolerating sin and error. 

But, not only is Timothy told to preach the Word in season and out of season, and pass the torch to other faithful men who would teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2), but he and Titus were to appoint shepherds whose primary work was teaching.  Of all the gifts listed in Ephesians 4:11-12, that includes apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, they all have this work of teaching in common.  Titus was left in Crete to “set in order things lacking and the appoint elders in every city” (Titus 1:5).  These men were able to exhort in “sound doctrine,” to convict others and refute error.

Titus 1:9-16 – Speaking of the elders, Paul writes, “…holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.  For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,  who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.  One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’  This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith,  not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.  To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled.  They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”

The false teachers, the ones teaching “unsound words,” needed to be silenced by men who are sound in the faith (Titus 1:11, cf. Rom. 3:19).   It’s amazing that in a culture where men who exercise the same kind of authority that Jesus condemns would imagine silencing these men by burning their books, canceling their lectures, or giving a edict from the pulpit that settles doctrine.   This would make one right by might and political maneuvering.    Too many men of power had no business opening their mouth to settle any issue of truth because their teaching has neither substance nor the support of the all-sufficient word of truth, the Scriptures.    We could compare the effect of Jesus’ teaching to explain what is meant by stopping mouths.   It is said of Him that “no one was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions (Matthew 22:46).  This silencing is not forcefully removing them or duck tapping their mouths shut, but through persuasion and skillful use of the word, they may convict and refute those who contradict God’s word.  (Titus 1:9).  If we could forever remove the political positions of men behind which they hide and still receive the approval of the church members, we could stop their mouths.  Sadly,  those seeking to silence the good work of truth-seekers and teachers are the ones who need silenced but are protected by their position of authority.  

Titus 3:9-11 – “but shun foolish questionings, and genealogies, and strifes, and fightings about law; for they are unprofitable and vain. A factious man after a first and second admonition refuse; knowing that such a one is perverted, and sinneth, being self-condemned.”

Paul warned Timothy and Titus, young evangelists, of a future apostasy similar to that given to the overseers in Ephesus (Acts 20:28-30).  We have the final words of a dying man who paints a dismal picture of a departure from the faith. It is believed that Paul wrote 2 Timothy in the late 60s.  The things about which Jesus predicted in Matthew 24 are about to happen.  Jesus forewarns disciples then living that men will claim they are the Messiah and mislead many people away. During the the “birth pains” of verses 6-7, disciples would experience persecution, hatred, and death.  Then he says,

 At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.  Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold.  But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.  This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Mat. 24:6-7). 

Associated with the end is the Lord’s coming in judgment on Jerusalem (Matthew 24:29-31). This answered the question asked in verse three, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age.”   Life was very confusing and it fits the time and description of the warnings in these last letters of Paul to his sons in the faith about unruly men and the havoc caused by their influence (cf. 2 Tim. 2:17).  One can only imagine the panic among some overseers to establish order and provide a stronger presence of stability in the face of so much confusion.  As Paul predicted, bishops arose who did not speak as the oracles of God, but spoke “perverse things to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:28).  The apparent purpose of the appointment of spiritual shepherds was to oversee the souls under their care and silence the errors of these false brethren by sound teaching.   There is no evidence of a church organization led by officials of a society.   The concept of the universal (Catholic) church being an organization to establish “orthodoxy” for all to follow had not yet occurred.    The shepherds of whom Paul is writing were not expected to form an organization of clergymen who dictated church doctrine and required the people to bow to them to receive a blessing or dispense with the “sacraments.”  These are terms built around concepts that are altogether foreign to the revealed Word.    You might find them in the tradition of the Catholic Church following the apostles, but then, that’s exactly what the Lord and Paul had predicted.   As men failed to “hold fast to the pattern of sound words” and developed their own, there was an obvious need to establish their order.