In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he describes in very graphic terms what the times will be like in the last days, (2 Timothy 3:1-5). Without a doubt, that description resembles our times today. In the last days, people will be living for themselves and claiming to be “religious” or, since being religious is not all that popular, the phrase we hear today is “a person of faith.” Everyone is described as “a person of faith” in one way or another.
Recently, I talked to someone who was on a lifetime quest to find God in his own way. The Bible was not sufficient in his opinion because the God of the Bible is just too offensive and too exclusive for him. In other words, the God of the Bible is inadequate for what he needs and what he is looking for. He called it a spiritual quest that began 50 years ago. He finally settled on a mystic religion of sorts that defines itself in a way where everyone determines their own path to God.
“Everybody finds God in their own way,” he told me. “No religion and no faith is better than another.” The “only” problem with that is, that while God uses many different circumstances in our lives to bring us to a place where we realize we need Him, the only way to God is through Jesus Christ. “I am the way, the truth and life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” Jesus clearly explained in John chapter 14.
When someone or some organization decides to make God according to who they think He ought to be, then the god they’ve invented, while he may be appealing to them, in reality, is nothing more than an idol. It makes God exactly who you want Him to be. It defines God from the bottom up — from us up to God: instead of from God down to us. That’s what the pagans did in the Old and New Testaments. They made their idols in the perception of who they wanted their god to be, making their god favorable to their definition. Then they worshiped him according to their own random wants and desires and they gave him a personality they could live with.
It’s no different today. People want God to be someone who condones their sinful bent. They want God to be someone who accepts them on their terms, not on His. And so that is the god they create. That is the definition of putting self on the throne. The God of the Bible is pushed aside and the god they’ve created in their image then takes the throne of their life. They become their own god.
And then, for those who stand on the Scriptures and “who hold fast to the word of life,” (Phil. 2:16), and who approach people in “truth and love,” (Ephesians 4:15), the message of love is drowned out and is turned into a message of hate; and the truth is unbearable to them. And we are viewed as haters instead of lovers. And we are attacked — as is evident all around us. Teaching the truths of the Bible then borderlines on hate speech and is almost considered a crime against society.
So what does a Christian do in response to the pressure of the times in which we are living? The Apostle Paul answers that with two simple things to do. First, he says, remember my example and second, he says, trust the Scriptures to guide you, (2 Timothy 3:17).
— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. Kevin Cernek is senior pastor of Martintown Community Church.
