The Apostle Paul was speaking about how Christians would look at doctrine prior to the return of Jesus for his church.

“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, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2nd Timothy 4:3-4). What Paul is saying, obviously is that biblical doctrine will not be looked upon favorably.

What about it?

What about Biblical doctrine?

Doctrine is a particular principle taught or advocated a body or system of teaching relating to a particular subject.

What is sound doctrine?

Very simply it is the teachings of God, which includes his instructions, his precepts, his commandments, and in short, it is every word that he says from Genesis to Revelation.

“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God” (St. Luke 4:4).

The Apostle Paul, in speaking of the coming of our Lord, said, “Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first” (2nd Thessalonians 2:3). In other words they will be falling away from sound doctrine.

So what will be left, Apostasy—a form of Christianity that is a mere shell of what the Bible teaches?

It will accommodate the lusts of the flesh under the guise of godliness.

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12).

Satan’s great strategy in the seduction of mankind is to undermine, pervert, distort, corrupt and deny the scriptures by any and every means he can. The end product of his mission will be an apostate religion and the church in which it authors will worship and follow the Antichrist, the man of sin.

God continually declared to the Israelites that if they obeyed him they would be blessed and if they walked in disobedience they would suffer the devastating consequences for there sin. Israel’s wilderness experience in Exodus and through the cycles of rebellion and repentances in the book of Judges testify to the fact of God being true to His word and his warnings.

Idolatry was the dominant issue the children of Israel were commanded not to make graven images or gods of silver of gold (Exodus 20:3-4).

We urgently need a biblical understanding of what idolatry comprises, Old Testament examples and the admonitions against it are given by God.

Why is idolatry so critical?

The Bible defines idols as false gods (Psalms 96:5). Idolatry involves materialism and experimentalism, totally oriented toward the flesh. Sure most evangelicals know all this, but what many don’t seem to understand today is the nature of idolatry and how it subverts our worship of the true-living God.

The worship that God desired from the Israelites was his people whom he set apart to receive His Messiah. God has chosen to reveal himself to humanity through wards, not images. In like manner, worship must be through His word according to his ward. He selected words because they are best suited to convey precisely what he wants mankind to know and to do.

The message of the Bible, however, is not about aesthetic gratification but about our redemption, it’s not about our feelings but his truth.

Astonishingly, the evangelical church is progressively sliding into idolatry as it turns from the word of God to visual imagery, and so called Preachers that would rather please men then to preach God’s word as God has written it.

There is only one place the New Testament church started that is in the second chapter of the book of Acts, as the Apostle Peter preached that message, “and with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying save yourselves from this untoward generation” (Acts 2:40).

We serve a merciful God who can rescue a soul out of the darkest of circumstances, but who will not support by his grace man’s religious ways and means in their attempts to try and serve him, “God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (St. John 4:24).

Jesus said “If you love me, keep my commandments” (St. John 14:15).