What will society be like as the Roman Empire of old revises itself into its final stage? I'm Dr. Fred, you're listening to another episode of Study, Grow, Know. Welcome to Study, Grow, Know, where we discuss theology, prophecy, and current political issues from a conservative biblical perspective. Here's your host, Dr. Fred DeRuvo. Paul's second letter to Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 5, we read the following words. He's talking to Timothy and he says, 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." Those are strong words from Paul. They tell us about what life will become in society. toward the end, prior to the return, the physical return of Jesus Christ to this earth. Now the above text that I just read highlights the fact that people will be far different from what we were created to be. It's not until we begin to focus on each phrase or section of the text that I just read that we begin to comprehend exactly what society will look like. And we also need to address what might have brought this attitude about, what created it. And it becomes clear that multiculturalism, which is born of political correctness, has done that. Political correctness, I believe, has been a scourge on society because it has destroyed traditional beliefs, biblical values, and replaced them through something we might call emotional virtue, replaced them with a false narrative. We see this all over the place. Paul first warns his readers that difficult or terrible times will come, and then he describes what that will look like, how it will be evidenced in people. Now notice, Paul is defining the times based on how people will act and react. The entire paragraph that I read is about what people will be like during the last days and that will create terrible times for society. And we're getting there rapidly. Paul tells us that men will be, first of all, lovers of themselves. Now, if we take even a quick look at society today, we will see that people are falling in love with themselves. It's their needs above all others. They place their own wants, their own needs, above the wants or needs of others and of society. Paul is simply saying that, above all things, people will become thoroughly selfish, thoroughly self-centered. They won't care about their actions and how those actions affect others as long as they get what they want. Now, I'm sure all of us can think of examples that we're aware of, maybe even in our own life, certainly in the lives of others, that have actually happened in which someone else did something so uncaring, so selfish, that it literally boggled our minds. We think, how could someone do that to another individual? We don't understand that type of callousness because it's not in us. or we don't think it's in us, yet it appears to control the other person. It leaves us almost speechless because of the sheer audacity of the other person's actions. I mean, how could a person treat someone else, another human being, with such disdain, we ask? It's nothing less than a cold, hard-hearted callousness, and that is created by a tremendous sense of narcissism, self-love. It's the motivating factor for most of society and it is certainly becoming the norm in today's society. As Paul next tells people, his listeners, his readers, and Timothy particularly, that in the end times people will be lovers of money. That's simply another form of selfishness. It's another way of saying, I need to meet my own demands. What's important to me is for me to have money, wealth, riches, power. People will want money and the things that come from being able to have a lot of money and they won't care how they get it either. Over the past few months, more and more politicians have been caught red-handed with their hands in the cookie jar, so to speak, and they take what doesn't belong to them. They've been involved with illegal activities and thought they could get away with it. But it's not just politicians. We almost expect that from politicians. But it's not just them. People who attend and or work at churches have been caught as well. Recently, not long ago, an associate pastor at a church in Texas was caught having stolen over $250,000 from the church coffers over a period of two years. He's now seeking forgiveness, and one can assume maybe he really wants forgiveness, but certainly part of it, he doesn't want to go to jail. What's going on with people? Selfishness, narcissism. The problem with that word, selfishness, is that it really doesn't fully explain itself. It doesn't sound that evil. We think of the selfishness of children as something that they'll grow out of. The problem is that selfishness is where it all started with Adam and Eve. They decided that their understanding of the situation was far better than God's understanding. And because Eve wanted the forbidden fruit, she found an excuse to take it, justifying herself for her actions. But her actions were not justified. Selfishness is the root of sin. It's where it all starts. It's the I want, the I will. those kinds of things. And this is what people are becoming. Not just a few here and there, but society at large. They're throwing consciences out the window and simply doing whatever they want because it pleases them. Consequences don't seem to matter to these people. Hurting others does not matter. Getting wealthy by stealing or stepping on people doesn't matter as long as the goal of getting wealthy is met. Now the next three words that Paul talks about is a point that he's making and he says that people will become boastful, arrogant, and revilers. Today people brag about everything. Ferguson, not long ago when the riots happened, There were several people who were just looking at all the rioting and the looting and they said, we deserve this. We're owed this. No, they weren't. But they had gotten to a point where their selfishness, their self-centeredness, their narcissism, cause them to think that whatever they could steal, whatever they could destroy is something that they had earned somehow. It leads, that attitude leads to an attitude of arrogance. And that leads to becoming someone who reviles truth and God's holy things. In other words, these people have become so self-important that they see themselves as little gods. And isn't this what the New Age teaches anyway? Yes, it does. And more and more people are buying that idea because of what? Because it serves self. It serves self. Now, Paul talks about something else that will motivate people in the last days. He says that people will become disobedient to parents, ungrateful, and unholy. Well, look around, it's all around us. The government gives out freebies, what are called entitlements, which is a misleading term, because for someone to have entitlements, it implies that they're owed something. Nobody's owed anything. But the government gives out those freebies to people, and those people begin to think that they are owed those things, as in reparations for slavery is just one example. It is an attitude born of selfishness. Look at this, the next list. Let's go over the next list of adjectives used by Paul to describe people during the end times. He says, he uses these terms, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious, malicious gossips, pardon me, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. That's quite a list. Too many people love nothing but themselves today. They do not want to get along with others. In fact, they enjoy being at odds, being malicious. It serves self for them to castigate others because it puts them down. These people hate anything that does not serve their purposes. They're very brutal. They have no self-control. Certainly, they have no pity. They're treacherous, reckless, conceited, and they live for their own pleasure. And this amazes me. In spite of everything that happened in the world today, people live still for pleasure. Though Rome burns, people dance the night away. As long as they're occupied, catering to self, it seems like most people don't care. It's like the party that Belshazzar threw for his people. They partied while Darius the Mede was just outside the walls of the city of Babylon with his troops. And Belshazzar thought nothing of it because he firmly believed that Babylon was impenetrable. He was wrong. And he was killed that very night. is all recorded for us in Daniel chapter 5. Please take the time to read it. He was so concerned and enamored with self and he thought that nothing could harm him, nothing could destroy Babylon that night, nothing. He was the man and yet Darius came in quite unexpectedly, and Belshazzar was killed. This is the epitome of self-centeredness that makes people crave the limelight, or causes them to do things that puff themselves up so that others will give them the type of adulation they so desperately want. It's a trap that ultimately causes the person to serve Satan, because that's the very thing that caused his fall, pride. Paul gives his direction at the end of verse 5. He says, simply avoid such men as these. The point is that while we can and should pray for them, we should give them a wide berth. There's nothing that we can say that will bring them down from their self-centered lofty height. They have placed themselves on a pedestal and there they remain. If we get too close, there's a good chance that we'll get burned by them. So Paul essentially says, leave them alone. Don't bother with them. Steer clear. It's very good advice and something that we obviously need to heed. Rather than get down to their level, stay where we are. Pray for them and look for opportunities to witness to those who are in their open to the gospel of Christ. And with the onset of multiculturalism, as I mentioned previously, selfishness, self-centeredness, narcissism has grown by leaps and bounds. Why is that? It's because of the fact that multiculturalism singles out specific cultures and winds up elevating them. And while some cultures are elevated, others the white culture are denigrated. And this has been tragically happening not only in America but in many countries throughout the world. It has produced the worst kind of fruit in which people are more loyal to quote-unquote their own than to the rest of humanity. Multiculturalism in itself has successfully pitted one race against another and it shows no sign of slowing down or reversing. In many cases it's ratcheting up It's amping up. In many cases, the race that is pushed to the bottom, as I said, is the white race. As white liberals voice their concerns about what took place against blacks generations ago, these whites, while literally demonizing themselves, puff up blacks. The result is that whites are increasingly seen as the problem today, and the angst that many in minority communities feel is then directed toward whites. That's not what you would think about as being true multiculturalism, where cultures and ethnicities come together in peace and harmony and work things out and see one another as equals. That's not what today's multiculturalism is all about. It's a bad thing because it is based on political correctness, something I've discussed in detail in two other books I wrote. They're called Falling Away and Caught in the Grip of Political Correctness, both available at Amazon. And I won't take the time to rehash what's discussed in those books, except to say that the basis for political correctness is decision making that is based solely on emotional virtue, how a person feels, not absolute truth. Well, we'll be back again. I really do appreciate you taking the time to join me today, and I hope you are gaining something from this study in Rome Rising. We'll be back again, and until then, I pray that the Lord opens your eyes to show you how, how much He loves you. You've been listening to Study, Grow, Know with Dr. Fred DeRuvo. Please join us each week for new broadcasts that deal with theology, prophecy, and political issues from a biblical, conservative perspective.