{"id":6620,"date":"2015-07-01T02:25:59","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T02:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6620"},"modified":"2015-07-01T02:25:59","modified_gmt":"2015-07-01T02:25:59","slug":"impostors-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6620","title":{"rendered":"Impostors"},"content":{"rendered":"

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, <\/span>unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, <\/span>treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, <\/span>holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.<\/span> <\/em>2 Timothy 3:1-5<\/p>\n

Paul began this part\u00a0of his letter\u00a0by delineating the traits that would characterize the people living in the last days.\u00a0While it is true that\u00a0every<\/em>\u00a0generation\u00a0since Christ\u00a0has\u00a0exhibited\u00a0some<\/em> of these\u00a0ungodly traits in\u00a0their allotted time in history, this section of Scripture is reads like a laundry list of the prevailing attitudes and behaviors or our own time.<\/p>\n

Verse 13 goes on to say, \u201cBut evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Take a closer look at\u00a0the word \u201cimpostors\u201d in this verse.\u00a0First, consider the definition of impostor\u2014one\u00a0who \u201cassumes [a] false identity or title for the purpose of deception\u201d (MerriamWebster.com). To assume an identity or title that is not your own is lying<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Next, impostors are grouped in verse 13 with evil men. Since lying violates the Word of God, it\u2019s not hard to understand why the Scripture places impostors alongside evil men as those to beware of in the last days.<\/p>\n

The verse continues to reveal that impostors will proceed from bad to worse<\/em>. A lying individual\u00a0who supposes that he won\u2019t get caught in his\u00a0falsehood will likely continue<\/em> to lie. In fact, the lies will become more and more far-fetched\u00a0because this individual counts on never getting caught or facing consequences. And since lying violates the Word of God, obviously telling a lie is bad<\/em>. However, as this person continues in his deception and his lies snowball, he gets worse<\/em>. Impostors\u2014unless they repent\u2014will\u00a0proceed from bad to worse<\/em>, just like the Bible says.<\/p>\n

Last of all, verse 13 tells us how impostors spend time. They are busy deceiving and being deceived<\/em> on an ongoing basis. When a person invests in deception, he will eventually believe his own lies.\u00a0Because of this,\u00a0deceivers become very deceived. In other words,\u00a0impostors don\u2019t live in reality. And if those in leadership posts throughout the nation are involved in any part of the deception cycle, their grasp of reality is, at best, faulty, and those\u00a0under their authority will likely suffer\u00a0because of\u00a0it. Hence, the need to pray.<\/p>\n

This scenario spelled out in 2 Timothy 3 has caused many in the Body of Christ great concern. If the evil men and impostors among us are going to proceed from bad to worse, then what hope is there for us to even dream<\/em> that our prayers will be answered?<\/p>\n

In the next couple of days, I want to share with\u00a0you some \u201cinside facts\u201d I discovered in 2 Timothy 3 that have given\u00a0me great encouragement and resolve. It is my desire that you, also, will find comfort and be fueled to continue in effective prayer for our nation despite<\/em> what you may see with your eyes.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned!<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[177,178,173,172,176],"class_list":["post-6620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-praying-for-america","tag-deceiving-and-being-deceived","tag-evil-men-and-impostors","tag-in-the-last-days-difficult-times-will-come","tag-praying-for-america","tag-proceed-from-bad-to-worse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6620"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6642,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6620\/revisions\/6642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}