The Danger of Self-Love in the End-Times

Tracing History

Humanism as the outgrowth of the renaissance/ enlightenment period in which human ingenuity and man’s own potential became the hope of society.

Postmodernism emerged as somewhat of a reaction against modern claims to absolute truths. The emphasis is placed upon the individuals right to decide what is true or what is moral for himself.

This right to decide has been taken out of the hand of God and put into the hand of Man

Theonomous, herteronomous, autonomous cultures

Where I think we are at now: full blown narcissism: obsession with oneself- I am my own God.

The influence of the protestant reformation: The beginnings of thought and language that presents Christian faith and experience as more personal than corporate. “a personal relationship with God.”

Paul’s description of Narcissistic culture in the end times 2 Tim 3:1-7 “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.”

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:”

Dangerous, violent, turbulent, troublesome times in the last days

Google searches for “how to love yourself” will yield results ranging from “make a list of every nice thing someone says about you,” to “caress yourself in front of a mirror.’

Movies like “50 shades of grey” which broke the record of president’s day weekend earnings when it hit theatres, and “game of thrones” which is regularly acknowledged to be the “world’s most popular show” have become so popular by taking sex (something meant to be a giving of oneself to another) and knit it to a lust for power and dominance.

We must understand the rest of what comes after this as the outworking of the love of self:

These verses seem trivial at first glance which evidence of the deep problem: namely that we are mostly unaware of the ways in which everything that’s listed here is brought to it’s full measure of destructiveness when it flows from the love of self.

disobedient to parents: seems like an odd thing to throw in here until we realize that its speaking of a wholesale shift of authority to individual persons: “wait for a kid to choose which gender they wish to identify as.”

In a framework in which the individual sees himself as the ultimate means to his own pleasure, success and fulfillment, he can’t truly be thankful anything.

Lovers of Money, boasters, haughty:

woven all throughout this list is the lust for power that helps fuel this disastrous mixture.

Think about how powerful you felt the last time you gossiped:

slanderers (devils), blasphemers

We’re looking at a society which constantly accuses God (blasphemers) and accuses others (slanderers).

proud

Narcissism, or self obsession, that is actually bolstered in response to insecurity is a ripe place for the lust for power. We live in a profoundly insecure culture, yet a profoundly self-obsessed culture. (Francis Chan selfies)

Pride will exaggerate your failures just like it will exaggerate your successes. That idea should liberate, but it should also sober us to the depth of the actual problem

Psalm 2 is the easiest picture of narcissistic society in the end times. Leaders of nations begin to conspire together to stop Jesus from coming back to reign as King from Jerusalem and they figure the best way to do it is to wipe out Israel so that He can’t fulfill the way that He promised to reign. They’re so hungry for power and so filled with narcissism that it actually makes God laugh. Isa 40 calls the nations grasshoppers. It would be like grasshoppers holding meetings in your back yard about how to overthrow you.

My concern is related to how much this self-obsession is at work in the Church

“ having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (2 Ti 3:5).

Examples: Narcissistic preaching, prayerlessness...

Think about how many of us gather our sense of success from being liked, affirmed, and noticed… and before you just dismiss how powerful the need to be liked is, examine your heart.