The Collapse of Character - Part 1

Last Days - Understanding the Age We Are Living In

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.” 2 Timothy 3:1

Paul does not begin with speculation. He does not ease Timothy into the subject gently, nor does he frame his words as theory or possibility. He commands attention with certainty: “This know also.” What follows is not a suggestion, not a prediction to be debated, but a truth to be recognised. Timothy is instructed to know something—to grasp it firmly, to hold it with clarity, and to let it govern how he lives and leads.

The modern church has largely mishandled the phrase “last days.” Some sensationalise it, attaching it to dates, disasters, and dramatic headlines. Others dismiss it entirely, treating it as exaggerated language meant for a bygone generation. Paul does neither. He grounds the warning in reality. The danger of the last days is not mystery—it is familiarity. These are not days that shock us; they are days we learn to live in. And that is precisely why Paul speaks so plainly.

When Scripture speaks of the last days, it is not referring merely to the final moments before Christ’s return. The Bible defines the term clearly and consistently. On the day of Pentecost, Peter stood and declared, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel… in the last days” (Acts 2:16–17). He was not pointing forward centuries; he was explaining what was unfolding before their eyes. The writer of Hebrews says that God “hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:2), placing the beginning of the last days at the earthly ministry of Christ. John, writing late in the apostolic era, stated plainly, “It is the last time” (1 John 2:18).

Biblically defined, the last days are not a brief closing chapter of human history. They are the final era—the long stretch of time between Christ’s first coming and His second. And Scripture does not describe this era as one of moral advancement or spiritual enlightenment. It describes it as a time of decline, deception, and deterioration of character.

Jesus Himself warned that “because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12). Paul, writing to the Romans, described a society that knew God yet rejected Him, resulting in minds darkened and consciences seared (Romans 1:28–32). Isaiah long before declared God’s woe upon a people who would “call evil good, and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20). These are not isolated warnings. They are a unified biblical testimony.

The last days are marked not primarily by what happens in the sky, but by what happens in the human heart.

Charles Spurgeon once observed that societies rarely collapse suddenly; they erode gradually, morally, long before they fall politically. He warned that when truth is loosened and conviction softened, decay is already well advanced. Winston Churchill, speaking in a different arena but with similar clarity, lamented cultures that ignore warning signs until consequences are unavoidable. His words echo Paul’s urgency: decline is not sudden—it is tolerated, then normalised, then defended.

Our own age bears unmistakable marks of this pattern. The breakdown of the family is no longer controversial—it is measurable. Moral absolutes have been replaced with personal preference. Authority is not merely questioned but ridiculed. Gratitude has given way to entitlement. Holiness is viewed as oppressive, while indulgence is marketed as freedom. None of this should surprise the student of Scripture. Paul did not say these things might happen. He said they shall come.

Yet Paul’s concern is not the behaviour of the world alone. His warning is written to a pastor. To a believer. To the church. The danger is not that the world behaves like the world; it is that God’s people lose their ability to discern the times they are living in. When the last days are misunderstood, they are either feared irrationally or embraced uncritically.

The spiritual diagnosis beneath all of this is simple and sobering: God is no longer central. When God is displaced, self takes His place. When truth is rejected, feeling becomes law. When holiness is despised, pleasure is enthroned. The traits Paul will soon list are not random sins; they are the natural fruit of a God-forsaken mindset.

Jesus told His followers that when these things begin to come to pass, they were not to panic, but to “look up” (Luke 21:28). Awareness should not breed fear—it should sharpen faith. But awareness must come first. The believer who refuses to acknowledge the reality of the last days will be ill-equipped to live faithfully within them.

The greatest danger is not living in the last days.The greatest danger is becoming comfortable in them.

Paul begins broadly before he speaks specifically. He lays the foundation before exposing the fractures. The age must be understood before the behaviours can be confronted. Everything that follows in this passage flows from this opening truth.

The last days are not approaching.They are present.

And only those who know that will be prepared to stand.