The Last Days Of The Church XLVIII

 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”

The closer we get to the end, the less desirable sound doctrine and truth will become not for those of the world but for those within the household of faith. Those of the world were never ones to endure sound doctrine, to begin with, and the only noticeable consequence of those within the church no longer enduring it is that the world is rotting and falling apart at an accelerated rate. If salt loses its flavor, it also loses its ability to be a preservative. Once the church ceased opposing sin and decided that its best course of action was to go along to get along, the rate of putrefaction increased exponentially. What would have taken a decade to worm its way to normalcy from the fringes, now takes a month flat, and once that is accepted, we move on to the next thing at breakneck speed. Just look at what has been normalized within the last few years, and you’ll understand what I mean.

Anyone thinking of starting a ministry or building a large platform by preaching the truth hasn’t bothered to read the Bible and contextualize what the last days of the church will look like. It’s because the desire of their heart is a big name, a big church, or a big outreach rather than preaching the whole counsel of God that so many give in to compromise and begin to prune the truth in order for it to be less prickly, and more in tune with the flavor palate of this present generation.

For those still unaware, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Olive Garden is not authentic Italian food. Its food is designed for the American palate and has Italian-sounding names. If Italians ate bottomless breadsticks and dipping sauces with every meal, they’d need to tear down every ancient town and widen the streets so the people could get from one place to the other.

If you’ve ever been to Italy, eaten real Italian food, and likewise enjoyed the guilty pleasure of Olive Garden on occasion, you will likely have noticed that you feel different after sitting down for a meal in one versus the other. While real Italian food is light, and you get up from the table well-fed and satisfied, there’s no unwarranted bloating, heartburn, sauce-scented burps, or infrequent sweating. Take Olive Garden for a spin on a given evening, and you’ll think your gut turned into a lead balloon, and come the morning, you’d pay double what you paid for the meal only to go back in time and not have it at all.

Oddly enough, having enjoyed both the real and the inauthentic, a surprising number prefer the inauthentic over the real because it harmonizes with their flavor profile. This mirrors the rejection of sound doctrine in favor of teachings that align with personal desires. What do you mean the only ingredients in authentic spaghetti pomodoro are noodles, crushed tomatoes, garlic, and basil? What about the heavy cream and sticks of butter? It just doesn’t taste right without them.

This is what Paul meant when he said they would not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. It’s not that they didn’t know the truth. It’s that they preferred the lie. It’s not that they never encountered sound doctrine, but their desires overrode the need to submit to it, and so, they found alternatives to remain in the flesh while claiming to no longer be in it.

Who are the ‘they’ Paul is referring to? No one wants to answer that question because it would mean acknowledging the reality that many within the church are not members of the body, and many who claim to know Christ do not belong to Him and serve Him in name only.

The tragedy here is that these are people who will hear the truth and actively seek to turn their ears away from it and be turned aside to fables. It’s not that they never come in contact with the truth, hear sound doctrine, or sit under biblical teaching, but that they make the conscious choice to reject these things in lieu of fables and doctrine pleasing to the flesh.

False teachers are a byproduct of men’s itching ears, just as readily as they are nefarious agents of the enemy tasked with bringing in division and destructive heresy. If the devil would stop sending his minions into churches in order to wreak havoc, those with itching ears would seek them out because they cannot endure sound doctrine.

The law of supply and demand applies to the church as well, and as long as there will be those among us with itching ears, someone will come along to cater to them and supply them with aberrant teaching that is not tethered in the truth, in the gospel, or in Christ. They prefer the fables over the truth of scripture and so actively seek out those who would supply them.

If you want to anger a casual Christian, all you have to do is quote scripture. It’s not even anger. It’s more akin to rage, and not just any rage, but the blackout rage some people experience, wherein they are no longer in control of their actions or faculties, and when they snap out of their delirium, they can’t believe they were capable of such horrors. Since they can’t defend their positions biblically, the vitriol will likely be a personal attack, wholly unconnected to the topic at hand, because if you can’t debate your stance, you must deflect from it.

It’s not that there isn’t overwhelming evidence that they are wrong; they prefer it over the truth, and it’s a hill they’re willing to make their last stand on because the itching ears demand it.

It’s gotten bad, and it will get worse. You have supposed believers roaming about denying the Lordship of Christ, the inerrancy of scripture, the need for repentance, sanctification, and holiness, and they do it with such passion that one realizes they really believe what they are saying. Yes, men can genuinely believe a lie. There are religions in the world for which men disintegrate themselves, shed blood, and spill blood, and they, too, are lies. If what you believe is contrary to what Scripture says, authentic as your belief might be, it’s still a fable. That’s the barometer. That’s the acid test. That’s the standard: Scripture.

The Word of God is the source of sound doctrine, so when Paul tells us that men will not endure or otherwise reject sound doctrine, he is, in fact, telling us that men will reject Scripture in lieu of men’s ruminations and opinions.

It's not enough to know the truth. You must love the truth and submit to it. You must walk in truth and speak truth, knowing that there will be headwinds and opposition because the number of those who will not endure it and prefer fables instead will only grow and multiply.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Posted on 28 August 2024 | 10:42 am