01/20/2026
Quote from the audio/video message, "Fierce Times Are Coming."
This is taken from 2 Timothy 3:1-5, which I will read.
“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”
So Paul says there, in this translation, “In the last days perilous times will come.” Now the Greek word that’s translated “perilous” only occurs in one other place in the New Testament which is in Matthew 8:28, which describes an encounter of Jesus with two demonized men. I will just read that one verse. Matthew 8:28.
“When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demonized men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way.”
That’s the other place where that word is used. It’s translated “fierce.” I feel that fierce much better represents what God is saying than “perilous.” The NIV translates it “terrible.” So we are headed for times which will be fierce and terrible. We had better face up to the fact because it’s a remarkable fact that in that passage Paul starts by saying to Timothy, “Know this...” I don’t recall any other passage in the writings of Paul where he laid so much emphasis on the fact that what he was saying was absolutely certain. “You can be absolutely sure of this, Timothy, in the last days fierce times will come.”