TEXT: 2 TIMOTHY 4: 1- 5 1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing and his kingdom;

2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

5 But watch thou in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. (KJV)

Today I would like to deliver a message entitled “FABLES.”

Let’s look at the text.

1 “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing and his kingdom.”

Christ will “judge the quick and dead.” We should know He will judge according to the Word of the Bible. We should also know that those who pervert the Word that is the only standard and bring fables into the Church commit grave sin.

Therefore, Paul wrote, “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing and his kingdom.”

We should return to the right way in repentance to quit sticking to the false teachings forever which cannot be presented to the Lord.

2 “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

It is the will of the Lord to preach the Word. We should continue to preach the Word of truth straight, not to be deceivers or communicators of fables such as the false partial rapture or pre-tribulation rapture theory and so on.

It is written, “Be instant in season, out of season.” I do not know if it is the time fit for warning of the errors of partial rapture and pre-tribulation theories and speaking the right theory of the Lord second coming. Conversely, as so many errors permeate deep into the Church, possibly it may be now the time of difficulty or of hardship to speak them. But, the Lord charges us to speak what we have to speak, not to pay attention to such thing as being in season or out of season.

And, it is also written, “reprove, rebuke, exhort.” We know that the service of the Word includes it also to reprove those who walk in the wrong way or follow the false teachings. It is the will of God to reprove and rebuke these errors.

3 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.”

Why do such convenient and selfish teachings to Christians as pre-tribulation rapture or partial rapture theory spread over the Church so much? But the reason is written here clearly. For, these teachings are itching ears.

Christ said to take heed and prepare for the end time. And, many books such as Daniel, Revelation and others said sufferings of the God’s people, Christians, on the day. This is the sound teaching. But such teachings as pre-tribulation rapture and partial rapture theories reject it flatly. Yet, though they are such teachings, they are convenient to those Christians who do not want sufferings, regardless of their being in conformity with or in contradictory to the Word.

For they say Christians will not be on the earth at the time of tribulation. Many Christians may think that they do not want to have tribulation for Christ sake in their hearts regardless of their words. And the clever serpent aimed at that.

4 “And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

But, we must understand that these teachings of pre-tribulation rapture and partial rapture theories are just fables to us.

Let’s think of fables. For example, in case we go to Europe or other foreign countries, it costs money and time if we really go there. Maybe we have to pay two hundred or three hundred thousand yen for the expense. And, though the senior people make sour faces, we have to take leaves of the company to secure days for that, otherwise we cannot actually go there. This is quite common in the adult society.

But it may be not so in the children society. They may say such as, “If they open the door of ‘Doraemon’s Dokodemo Door,’ they can go to Europe, America or anywhere.”

We, adults, however, know that such a thing of “Dokodemo Door” does not actually exist, though we dream of it. Such a fable is out of choice of adults.

If we do not have money or time to go to Europe, such an idea of “Dokodemo Door” may be good but it is still a story in fantasy world.

When they are thinking like, “The end time will be somehow very hard, and so there is any way for us to escape from it,” such idea as pre-tribulation theory saying another secret coming of Christ before that might come to them at that time. This teaching looks good, but it is only a fable not based on the Bible to the end. This is not far from the fable of “Dokodemo Door.”

According to the homepage “The Horn,” this teaching began with the vision seen by medium Margaret Macdonald around 1830 and was earnestly introduced into the Church by J. N. Derby and others. Therefore, this teaching does not have its foundation on the Bible but on visions of angels or devils.

If we read the Bible as it is, such good teaching will not come out. For, the proof is that this teaching did not appear in the Church until ninth century. Nobody read the Bible in such a way for one thousand and some hundred years. If we read the Bible normally, such teaching will never come out. And, it was nineteenth century when it was not that new way of reading the Bible suddenly came out but they changed the way of reading according to the vision. The vision certainly came first.

They quoted by force some passages fit for this good teaching and made them consistent with it.

This is similar to that the Catholic people continue to do worship of Mary that seems to have no ground in the Bible deceived by her vision. The vision of Mary often appears even now. But it is the work of devils.

One of the strategies of Satan may be to bring in visions often, when he likes to force the God’s people to accept unbiblical teachings. But, conversely, it should be known that such teaching that can be supported and maintained only by visions for approval is basically doubtful. The Bible says about such an angel that brings in visions as below.

GALATIANS 1: 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (KJV)

It is written, “And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” So, we should know that this is the teaching that turn away from the truth of the Bible that says, “Christians will suffer for the sake of the Lord and so be prepared for the end time.”

5 “But watch thou in all things, endure affliction, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”

But it is the will of the Lord to stand firm on the Word and to make full proof of our ministry even in such days. We should know it is His will that we endure affliction by those who join the lies and do the work of an evangelist.

Let’s do the will of the Lord in the end time.

End.