The II Timothy 3 Ekklesia
The II Timothy ekklesia is found in II Timothy 3:1-2, 5, 7-8 "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy....Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away....Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith."
The II Timothy ekklesia begins to exist after the falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3, and the leavening of the Gospel in Luke 13
"Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it?
19.It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.
20.And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
21.It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."
Luke 13:18-21
The word "till" indicates that this leavening happens over a period of time. The parable of the leaven is also found in Matthew 13: 33, though it is has not been fully understood to refer to the apostasy of the church.
II Thessalonians 2:3-4 says "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;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."
It is very interesting that II Thessalonians 2: 10-12 follows Paul's statement that there is to come a falling away, from αποστασια, apostasia, or apostasy in this chapter. II Thessalonians 2: 10-12 says "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Those in the apostasy do not have a love of the Truth.
The main point that Paul is making in II Thessalonians 2: 3-4 is that there is to come an apostasy of the ekklesia, translated as church. Church did not have the same meaning as ekklesia, and William Tyndale in his 1535 New Testament translated ekklesia consistently as congregation.
But for Acts 14: 13 and Acts 19: 37 Tyndale used churche, meaning a pagan place of worship. Tyndale broke with Catholic tradition and used congregation for ekklesia something which might have contributed to his being strangled at the stake by the Catholics. John Wyclife, of England, translated the first Bible into English in 1382, from Jerome's Latin Vulgate. Wyclife translated the Latin word ecclesiam as chirche, in the old English spelling. Although ekklesia was almost always used in the New Testament to indicate a local assembly, the Church came to be seen by some to have the same meaning as the Body of Christ.
And after the death of John Calvin, Theodore Beza in 1556 returned to the use of church to translate ekklesia - and the Geneva Bible followed him, using church instead of congregation. Beza returned to the Catholic Capital C Church translation of ekklesia as chirche
II Thessalonians 2: 3-4 is not mainly about a literal desecration of the temple of God by the man of sin, or a one man anti-Christ figure. Paul is talking about a metaphoric sitting in the temple of God, since Acts 7: 48 says the Most High does not dwell in temples made by human hands and Paul II Corinthians 3:16-17, and I Corinthians 6: 19 says believers are now the temple of God.. The man of sin is the spirit of anti-Christ (I John 4:3). The huge number of false prophets (Matthew 24: 11, II Peter 2: 1) can also be said to occupy the minds and hearts of those who claim to be believers.
The II Timothy church is said to have a form of godliness but it denies the power of God, it is always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, and it resists or opposes the truth.
Faith is the basis for coming to the knowledge of the truth, and for having a love of the truth.
We begin to come to the knowledge of the truth and to have a love of the truth by having faith that the Word of God is truth, and that Jesus Christ is, among other things, The Truth (John 14: 6).
Having faith that the word of God is truth is based upon the belief that the word of God is absolute truth and teaches absolute morality or righteousness.
"For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by
us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in
him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him
Amen, unto the glory of God by us." II Corinthians 1:19-20
In Jesus Christ there are no shades of grey, no double mindedness,
only absolutes. The dialectic
mind, on the other hand, operates on shades of grey and doublemindedness.
"But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven,
neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be
yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation." James 5: 12
But the dialectic mind does not believe in the absolute truth of the Word of God. It wants to argue
against that absolute truth, and tries to compromise it in some way - by a dialogue with those who are presenting the truth.
The dialectic mind starts from a position that there are no
absolute truths or absolute morals. It is a double minded mind, and
accepts yea and nay about doctrines taught in the scripture. Those who
use dialectic
arguments against the facts of scripture are always looking for
loopholes, shades
of grey, contradictions and verses where the meanings and implications
are not spelled out in great detail to hit at with their rejection of
the absolute.
Those who operate with the dialectic - which is now almost everyone in our culture -
try to justify themselves before men (Luke 16: 1).
The dialectic as an argument, a way of changing the absolute truth
that one's opponent holds to, historically has come out of a system of
thought which teaches that there is no God.. It comes out of Hegel
and Marx. But before Hegel and Marx it came out of the second beast of
Revelation 13: 11, who has two horns like a lamb but speaks as a
dragon, and from the dragon himself whose use of the dialectic was on
Eve in Genesis 3 to fix her obedience to the absolute authority of God over her.
In Genesis 3:3-4 Satan got Eve to dialogue with him, which was her big mistake.
"But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:"
Satan in Genesis 3: 4 demonstrates his dialectic mind when he argues with Eve that God the Father as the absolute authority did not say she would die if she ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree.
Then in the temptations of Christ by Satan in Matthew 4; the devil tried to lure Christ away from his absolute obedience to the Father, but Christ always answered with the absolute truth of scripture, "It is written." In Matthew 4: 4 Christ told the devil, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," and in Matthew 4: 7, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him." Matthew 4:10-11. Jesus was consistent in not dialoguing with the devil and his dialectic mind, but in always answering by the absolute truth of scripture Christ defeated the devil.
The Pharisees of Christ's time had the dialectic mind. In a number
of scriptures the Pharisees argued with the doctrines taught by Jesus Christ, who is fully
God. Because the Pharisees had a relationship of feelings toward
their position and
the doctrines they had been taught and were teaching to others, what Christ
was teaching threatened them. So, they argued against the Truth,
standing before them.
"If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the
Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation." John 11: 48
The dialogue between Christ and the Pharisees in John 8 is just
one example of their use of the dialectic to argue against Truth. God
could not speak doctrine into their group mind because they did not
have ears to hear it.
Paul as Saul had
been a Pharisee before his encounter with the risen
Christ on the road to Damascus. That encounter shook Saul
up so much that he became Paul an apostle of Christ. Now, after
Paul had been so transformed, Christ could now
speak truth into the new mind of Paul, which has been transformed by incorporating
some of the mind of Christ himself. But the other Pharisees did not
have ears to hear the truth, still having the dialectic mind and having a
feeling relationship with their false doctrines and their positions as leaders of
physical Israel.
The II Timothy ekklesia is found in II Timothy 3:1-2, 5, 7-8 "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy....Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away....Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith."
The II Timothy ekklesia begins to exist after the falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3, and the leavening of the Gospel in Luke 13
"Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it?
19.It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.
20.And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
21.It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."
Luke 13:18-21
The word "till" indicates that this leavening happens over a period of time. The parable of the leaven is also found in Matthew 13: 33, though it is has not been fully understood to refer to the apostasy of the church.
II Thessalonians 2:3-4 says "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;
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."
It is very interesting that II Thessalonians 2: 10-12 follows Paul's statement that there is to come a falling away, from αποστασια, apostasia, or apostasy in this chapter. II Thessalonians 2: 10-12 says "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
Those in the apostasy do not have a love of the Truth.
The main point that Paul is making in II Thessalonians 2: 3-4 is that there is to come an apostasy of the ekklesia, translated as church. Church did not have the same meaning as ekklesia, and William Tyndale in his 1535 New Testament translated ekklesia consistently as congregation.
But for Acts 14: 13 and Acts 19: 37 Tyndale used churche, meaning a pagan place of worship. Tyndale broke with Catholic tradition and used congregation for ekklesia something which might have contributed to his being strangled at the stake by the Catholics. John Wyclife, of England, translated the first Bible into English in 1382, from Jerome's Latin Vulgate. Wyclife translated the Latin word ecclesiam as chirche, in the old English spelling. Although ekklesia was almost always used in the New Testament to indicate a local assembly, the Church came to be seen by some to have the same meaning as the Body of Christ.
And after the death of John Calvin, Theodore Beza in 1556 returned to the use of church to translate ekklesia - and the Geneva Bible followed him, using church instead of congregation. Beza returned to the Catholic Capital C Church translation of ekklesia as chirche
II Thessalonians 2: 3-4 is not mainly about a literal desecration of the temple of God by the man of sin, or a one man anti-Christ figure. Paul is talking about a metaphoric sitting in the temple of God, since Acts 7: 48 says the Most High does not dwell in temples made by human hands and Paul II Corinthians 3:16-17, and I Corinthians 6: 19 says believers are now the temple of God.. The man of sin is the spirit of anti-Christ (I John 4:3). The huge number of false prophets (Matthew 24: 11, II Peter 2: 1) can also be said to occupy the minds and hearts of those who claim to be believers.
The II Timothy church is said to have a form of godliness but it denies the power of God, it is always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, and it resists or opposes the truth.
Faith is the basis for coming to the knowledge of the truth, and for having a love of the truth.
We begin to come to the knowledge of the truth and to have a love of the truth by having faith that the Word of God is truth, and that Jesus Christ is, among other things, The Truth (John 14: 6).
Having faith that the word of God is truth is based upon the belief that the word of God is absolute truth and teaches absolute morality or righteousness.
"For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by
us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in
him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him
Amen, unto the glory of God by us." II Corinthians 1:19-20
In Jesus Christ there are no shades of grey, no double mindedness,
only absolutes. The dialectic
mind, on the other hand, operates on shades of grey and doublemindedness.
"But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven,
neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be
yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation." James 5: 12
But the dialectic mind does not believe in the absolute truth of the Word of God. It wants to argue
against that absolute truth, and tries to compromise it in some way - by a dialogue with those who are presenting the truth.
The dialectic mind starts from a position that there are no
absolute truths or absolute morals. It is a double minded mind, and
accepts yea and nay about doctrines taught in the scripture. Those who
use dialectic
arguments against the facts of scripture are always looking for
loopholes, shades
of grey, contradictions and verses where the meanings and implications
are not spelled out in great detail to hit at with their rejection of
the absolute.
Those who operate with the dialectic - which is now almost everyone in our culture -
try to justify themselves before men (Luke 16: 1).
The dialectic as an argument, a way of changing the absolute truth
that one's opponent holds to, historically has come out of a system of
thought which teaches that there is no God.. It comes out of Hegel
and Marx. But before Hegel and Marx it came out of the second beast of
Revelation 13: 11, who has two horns like a lamb but speaks as a
dragon, and from the dragon himself whose use of the dialectic was on
Eve in Genesis 3 to fix her obedience to the absolute authority of God over her.
In Genesis 3:3-4 Satan got Eve to dialogue with him, which was her big mistake.
"But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:"
Satan in Genesis 3: 4 demonstrates his dialectic mind when he argues with Eve that God the Father as the absolute authority did not say she would die if she ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree.
Then in the temptations of Christ by Satan in Matthew 4; the devil tried to lure Christ away from his absolute obedience to the Father, but Christ always answered with the absolute truth of scripture, "It is written." In Matthew 4: 4 Christ told the devil, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," and in Matthew 4: 7, "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." "Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him." Matthew 4:10-11. Jesus was consistent in not dialoguing with the devil and his dialectic mind, but in always answering by the absolute truth of scripture Christ defeated the devil.
The Pharisees of Christ's time had the dialectic mind. In a number
of scriptures the Pharisees argued with the doctrines taught by Jesus Christ, who is fully
God. Because the Pharisees had a relationship of feelings toward
their position and
the doctrines they had been taught and were teaching to others, what Christ
was teaching threatened them. So, they argued against the Truth,
standing before them.
"If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the
Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation." John 11: 48
The dialogue between Christ and the Pharisees in John 8 is just
one example of their use of the dialectic to argue against Truth. God
could not speak doctrine into their group mind because they did not
have ears to hear it.
Paul as Saul had
been a Pharisee before his encounter with the risen
Christ on the road to Damascus. That encounter shook Saul
up so much that he became Paul an apostle of Christ. Now, after
Paul had been so transformed, Christ could now
speak truth into the new mind of Paul, which has been transformed by incorporating
some of the mind of Christ himself. But the other Pharisees did not
have ears to hear the truth, still having the dialectic mind and having a
feeling relationship with their false doctrines and their positions as leaders of
physical Israel.
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