In this week’s Blog, we continue our discussion about Christians being the temple of God, and the supporting Scripture.

In II Thessalonians 2:4 Paul used the Greek word naos for temple, not hieron. He used the Greek word for the human body not the Greek word used for the temple building. He is discussing Christianity and the falling away in the Last Days; therefore, we can conclude this prophecy is referring to the human body. This verse is a good definition of humanism, the religion of the new-age movement. It has swept through our country in recent years and has been one of the major causes for the rapid deterioration of our country’s moral values. It is why many Christians have fallen into deception and are no longer committed to biblical standards.

Humanism is to set ourselves up in the temple of God (naos—the human body) and decide right and wrong ourselves, as though we were God. We don’t proclaim by our words to take the place of God, but our actions state otherwise. Verse four prophesies this anti-Christ spirit will be the cause of the apostasia—the falling away. This humanistic teaching has become the philosophy that is now taught in most of our public schools and is used to establish the standards by which the majority of American people live. Abraham Lincoln’s statement that, “The philosophy of the classroom today will be the philosophy of the government tomorrow” has come true. This is one of the great deceptions Satan has pulled off in our society.

Paul was given spiritual insight to see the results of this falling away and referred to it as terrible times. Naming some of the worldly characteristics that would be common in Christians during our day he said in II Timothy 3:1-5, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy (immoral), without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”

I don’t think Paul is saying all of these characteristics will be found in every Christian, but some will be found in many of those who say they are Christians. In verse four of II Thessalonians chapter two, Paul gave us the major cause why these characteristics have become so common. It is because by our actions, we set ourselves up in the temple of God (our body) proclaiming to be God when we begin to decide what is right and wrong. In truth that is taking the place of God. Many in our society consider this to be our right. This is a spirit of anti-Christ and the teachings of the religion of humanism. God’s inspired Word, the Bible, is the only truth Christians are to follow and live by.

Jesus gave us another key prophetic warning about this same issue of how Satan will attack Christians in these Last Days. He stated, in Luke 17:26-30, “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.”

Jesus makes it clear He is talking about the time near His second coming. He makes a profound statement in this prophecy. Not one thing He mentions is within itself a sin. They are the everyday affairs of life: eating, buying, selling, marrying, planting, building and so forth. In the Old Testament, we are told there was a lot of evil in the days of Noah and Lot. And we know there is a lot of evil today. Read any newspaper or listen to any newscast!

Why doesn’t Jesus say one word about this evil? What is He warning us about? The fact that Jesus did not make many predictions about the conditions before His second coming causes me to believe our understanding this prophecy is extremely important.

Jesus is telling us that in the days of Noah and Lot the everyday affairs of life, like buying, selling and so forth, became so important to people it caused them to lose their commitment to place God first and live by His values. Serving God was not their primary focus. He is warning us this same temptation is going to exist in our day.

In our next Blog we will look at the power our society has through the use of highly developed advertising, new products, beautiful malls, and more!

Be sure to visit the FREE DOWNLOADS page to find several other books and booklets written by Bob Fraley. The FREE DOWNLOADS page contains complete .pdf files that you may read and download absolutely FREE! Go to: http://www.bobfraleychristianlifeoutreach.com and click on the “FREE DOWNLOADS” button!

Tags: abusive, anti-Christ spirit, apostasia, boastful, conceited, deception, disobedient, evil, hieron, humanistic teaching, II Thessalonians, II Timothy, naos, proud, rash, sexual immorality, slanderous, spiritual insight, temple of God, temptation, treacherous, unforgiving, ungrateful