Truth or Consequences

Truth or Consequences?

A name from the 1950’s that can touch each of us as we journey through the 40 days of Lent.  Are we seeking to live the truth of what the Incarnation of Christ was all about or do we just go with the flow that so many have adopted and reflect on what St. Paul spoke to Timothy about the falling away from faith?  

Paul’s admonition to Timothy was really a warning that is currently the position of apostasy in all of its explanations in 2026.  It is a deliberate turning away from or abandoning one’s faith in God, a “falling away” from the truth.  

Looking at Paul’s words to Timothy we see the very consequences of these attributes of evil that were apropos in the 1st century and now have the significance of modern descriptions that identify the apostasy of our youth and those who desire to emulate it as well.  

Some of the terms Paul warned Timothy about are found in his advice as a warning;  “But understand this: there will be terrifying times in the last days.  People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as they make a pretense of religion but deny its power.”  (2 Tim 3: 1 - 5).  (A theme I expressed in a recent article; “Are the signs of the evil predicted coming true?”) 

Could we have changed the attitude of man if any of us were present to Paul and could relate the future thousands of years before us in the moment of what has not changed?

It is as though time stood still and Paul is speaking to each one of us as our quest to Good Friday and the reality of the Incarnation is happening all over again.  Look at the complete disrespect towards parents, a complete disconnect from the Church that Christ was here to establish, a desire to make gods of our current idols; money, power, and a lust toward concupiscence that is affecting children who have not even reached the age of reasoning.

If St. Paul was here now; he would not believe his eyes that what he was admonishing Timothy about is happening right now; in our homes, our schools, the communities we live in, and the very higher education institutions that should teach a growing generation about righteousness.  It isn’t happening and the future of our posterity is in question. 

At one time, the season of Easter began with Lent and our attention was on our individual needs towards personal sin and the Passion of Christ that would have a positive affect on our souls.  Now, in addition to what still is important is the crisis that has infected the meaning of holiness and the tragic falling away of Christians for a new-age religion called Marxism.  It contains all the attributes that St. Paul listed 2,000 years ago and is still currently present in society.

Ralph B. Hathaway