Danger exists whether or not we recognize it.  But the person who is vigilant against danger or the person who recognizes it early is less likely to fall prey to its harm.  In love and mercy, the Lord has warned us about the dangers that prevail in “the last days” so that we might be alert to recognize them and avert their affect in our lives and the lives of those we love.  As my eighth grade teacher was fond of saying, “A word to the wise is sufficient.”  The Lord gives us this word of warning that we might wisely recognize and avoid these perils, the eighth of which is described below.

            “Men shall be . . . unholy” (II Tim. 3:2).  In some ways, this may seem the least likely and most surprising category in all this list of perils.  After all, “holiness” seems to be both such a nebulous concept and so universally lacking that it might be made to apply to virtually any individual, group, race, nation, era, or millennium.  In other words, has there ever been a time before the last days when it would have been inappropriate to apply this term?

            That question can begin to be answered with a definition of the term.  The New Testament uses two different Greek words that are translated “unholy” in the KJV.  According to Thayer, the term used here means “impious” or “wicked.”  The “Synonym Glossary” of The Discovery Bible (NASV) adds this clarification:  the term unholy “describes the unholiness that results from the blatant and open disrespect of sacred things.”

            From that explanation, we can see that the unholiness against which Paul warns Timothy, while not peculiar to the last days is certainly characteristic of them.  Put another way, wherever this unholiness begins to proliferate peril exists.  And regardless of which direction we turn, we run into evidences of this kind of unholiness—an open and blatant disrespect of sacred things—in our society.  The name of God is blasphemed in the name of entertainment in all the media.  Those who espouse biblical views on the sacredness of life and the origins of the universe are frequently scorned.  The use of the Bible as a basis for a position on any social or governmental matter in society is often ridiculed.  A jury member who openly acknowledges the Bible to be the foundation of some verdict the jury reaches may cause a mistrial to be declared.  “God is dead.”  “We live in a post-Christian era.”  Statements such as these indicate an era of perilous unholiness.  The rise of secular humanism and “scientific” determinism are further evidences of the dangerous proliferation of unholiness.  Christianity and Christians frequently find themselves the objects of ridicule by popular comedians.

            It was not always thus in America.  Yet these and many other examples we could adduce are clear evidence that the characteristic of “unholiness” is prevalent in this nation today and add weight to the sense that we are in perilous times.  For when men do “not like to retain God in their knowledge” (Rom. 1:28), there is no internal inhibition on their rebellious activities, and sin and depravity reign.

            But we cannot leave this peril without calling attention to the unholiness that is becoming characteristic of much of the professing church and, sadly, some real churches too.  Worldly music, irreverent humor, and electronic extravanganzas of all kinds are replacing the preaching of the Word and the worship of the saints.  Such unholiness at the very heart of that which should be holy is a worse offense and the gravest of perils.  May we be delivered from all such.