1. The Church In The Last Days

2. There are a number of prophecies in the New Testament that predict what the church will be like in the last days. These descriptions of the church are strikingly similar to the current condition of the church.

3. 2 Thess. 2:3 - "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;" (KJV)

4. In other words, before Christ returns, there will be a "falling away" or an apostasy (the Greek word used here is apostasia).apostasia

5. 2 Tim 4:3-4 - "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

6. Most people today do not put up with sound doctrine. Many believe that the Bible has been corrupted over time and is no longer trustworthy. For those who do believe that the Bible is God's word, most do not live according to it. Today's churchgoers have surrounded themselves with preachers that tell them exactly what they want to hear.

7. Mat. 24:9-11 - "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people."

8. The Christian church has become divided, and hundreds or even thousands of denominations have been formed. Most of these denominations preach a gospel far different than the one presented in the Bible.

9. Mat. 24:37-39 – “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”

10. Many churches today believe that we are currently in one of the best church ages yet, however, in Mat. 24:37-39, Jesus compared the time of "the coming of the Son of Man" to the "days of Noah."

11. The Days of Noah Gen. 6:5-8 – “The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.

12. The Days of Noah So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them." But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.”

13. 2 Tim. 3:1-9 – “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 their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 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.

14. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth—men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.”

15. 2 Tim. 3:13 - "while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived."