2 Timothy 4– “In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
There is an interesting image here. In Marks Gospel the last day is described as a time when Jesus will send his angels to the four corners of the earth and they will stack up, pile up, or heap together all of Gods elect from the four corners of the earth. Paul warned Timothy that in the latter days people will heap up, gather together, accumulate for themselves all kinds of preachers and teachers who will scratch their ears. There are preachers of all kinds and sorts. There are political preachers, philosophical preachers, self-help gurus, all kinds of preachers and teachers who are heaped up among our people constantly relaying information to which the Sunday sermon is just one more added piece to the pile. We as modern-day pastors and preachers cannot say that we weren’t warned. If we pay attention to our history, and those who’ve gone before us, from Jesus to Paul back to the prophets, to those closer to us in age and the same warning has been applied. The warning continues to be proclaimed; there will come a day when “the Word” will just be one among many words. There will come a day when preaching, will just be one of many sounds among preachers. There will come a day when our faith will be one of many faiths, and our people will have menus to choose from.
