Scriptural Defense Against Apostasy

This chapter opens with a famous prophecy of the character of the times that will precede the Second Coming of Christ. During those times, actually beginning in the days of the apostles, there would be an alarming and appalling departure from the faith of the Gospel. The subverters of the truth would invent a substitute systems of ethics and conduct and would cloak it in the mantle of Christian respectability. But Paul's point is that any such system that departs from Scripture is the product of Hell. Almost overlooked near the end of the chapter is the reference to the fact that Timothy had been ordained to the ministry by laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Thus, it is certain that the government of the church in the apostolic period was presbyterian. The message is clear. When the congregations of Christ's church submit themselves to the proper government of the church, they have a far greater opportunity to defend against the incursions of apostasy.