“Bible characters” is the term people have applied to those who are named in the Bible as if they are characters in a novel. But truthfully, they are real people, although some folks would like us to believe that they are fantasies or allegorical figureheads for illustration purposes. It spins out this way to me: If Jesus talked of Noah and the flood, of Abraham and Lot, of Jonah being swallowed by a big fish, I tend to want to believe Him.

Otherwise, the entire thing ends up in a pile of trash, not worth the time of day. If Jesus lied about those things, He is not God in the flesh, and if He is not God, He can save no one. But thankfully, that’s not the way it is! “All the promises of God in [Christ] are YES and AMEN!” (2 Corinthians 1:20).

Demas was one of the apostle Paul’s followers. His reality is a great caution to anyone who has come to Christ with an intent to follow the Lord as a dedicated disciple. Demas is mentioned in three of Paul’s letters, two of them about A.D. 62, when Paul was first imprisoned in Rome. This is when he wrote letters to the Colossians and that short letter, Philemon.

There is no mention of when Demas came on the team, and when Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, about A.D. 67, he concluded with this statement, “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica” (2 Timothy 4:10). How would you like to have that epitaph on your tombstone?: “He loved this present world.”

Two questions pop out before us as we think of Demas. One, was he saved; two, did he choose to go astray? The first would almost have to be “yes,” to have travelled with Paul very long, and it had to have been at least eight to ten years. The second question is one we want to explore because his departure has implications that could reveal some basic truths of the Christian life that every disciple must learn and practice on a daily basis.

Of course Demas chose to depart from Paul, but it may not have been an abrupt, kneejerk decision. Why did he go to Thessalonica? Paul did not mention him in his letters to the Thessalonians, but then, those were written about A.D. 52-53, possibly long before Demas came on the scene.

Some have speculated that he may have been from Thessalonica and was returning to his home base, and it could be, then, that Demas heard the gospel when Paul was in that city in the early 50’s. Perhaps he had learned of their struggle with false doctrines and false teachers, and he was drawn to some of that teaching. Luke reports in Acts 17:11 that they, the Thessalonians, were not so quick to check out and accept the Word of God and Paul’s teaching as were the Bereans. Thus, Paul had to write two letters to the Thessalonians and none to the Bereans.

How a Downward Spiral Can Begin

At the beginning, in the Garden, the serpent whispered to Eve, “Did God really say that?” And the seed of doubt was sown in her mind with a subtle sureness that only a master deceiver could accomplish. Doubt in what God has said, whether it is a promise He has made, or a warning or command He has given, sets a turning point that the devil latches onto with the full support of the evilness of our own flesh fully committed.

Two Scriptures come to mind:

“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

This reminds me of the observation made by the late Lorne Sanny, former president of The Navigators, who said, “You never outgrow the need for the basics, such as overcoming temptation.”

The next passage speaks of the broad difference between certain choices:

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul” (Mark 8:36-37)?

I would add a clarification to that statement which would target it more directly to those who are saved and who are not losing their own soul: “Or, losing all that is valuable to the soul.” As 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 tells us, one can cheapen his redemption to the point of building only wood, straw and stubble on the foundation of Christ in his life and end up being saved “as though by fire.”

Another thing I recall Lorne Sanny saying was “Few end well.” And do we see that truth magnified around us!

In the business world there is a parable of a person who struggles up the ladder of success in the corporate arena, stepping on the necks of those in his pathway, only to find when he reaches the top that his ladder is leaning against the wrong wall! No doubt, somewhere in that time-frame comes the “mid-life crisis” that occurs so often. Then, finally, is the time for a reality check. The wisdom of Proverbs 3:5-6 rings out like a bell’s clanging:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”

In the parable of the sower of the seed in Mark 4, as he sows the seed, some falls on various kinds of bad soil and fails to produce. One such “bad soil” is described in this way:

“Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mark 4:18-19).

How many of us actually have a “thorn-infested” foundation in the Lord? It truly is a scary thing and should awaken in us a desire for a renewal of the fear of God abiding in us, as Proverbs 1:7 says:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Before I was saved there was a struggle within me that wanted Jesus to be in my life and bring the peace and confidence that I saw in the lives of that new family I had come to know. But nothing happened except that the heaviness got heavier and heavier.

I even told a pastor who shared the plan of salvation with me that I wanted to receive Christ, but I did not know what to pray and nothing happened. He gave me a small book by Charles Spurgeon titled  All of Grace. The next night I came to a verse of Scripture, Romans 5:6:

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”

That one word, “ungodly,” hammered at me until I realized that I was ungodly, and Christ had died for me on the cross. I did not know that I was a sinner! I was a “good boy” who tried to please Mom and not get into trouble, but that guilty “innocence” had begun to wear thin around the edges.

That peace that I had longed for came to me, but my life turned upside down. Family members told me I was “stupid” and friends ridiculed me. Even so, I was baptized and joined the church; after that life-changing experience had happened! I recount all of this for the reader to recognize, as I have, that becoming a Christian is not just being born in America of Christian parents, or being baptized and joining a church.

The words of Jesus are absolute and sure in John 3:3 that “You must be born again.” And that is the work of God when a person learns from the Word of God that he or she is a sinner against God, turns from that to God for salvation.

When Jesus asked His disciples, in Matthew 16, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Christ , the Son of the Living God.” Then Jesus spoke to this very answer, saying, “Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”

As Peter learned, and we have to learn, true spiritual life is a revelation and gift from God. We cannot obtain it as unrepentant sinners, for only then do we know about God and Jesus Christ, we do not know them.

It seems to be a growing problem in churches and in families all across the nation and the world, that young people grow up as youngsters in a Christian home not really knowing that truth, then graduate from high school and leave home for college or other ventures, shaking off their so-called “Christian behavior” to seek out the pleasures of the world. It is not unlike that dangerous decision of Demas, and in these cases, there is no true foundation in Christ.

God did not abandon me in those early days, but the struggle no doubt built in me a determination that otherwise would not have come about. He brought along people who helped me, kept me in the Word, memorizing scripture and seeking help.

Demas was a man of like passions as we find in ourselves; let’s not allow “the world to squeeze us into its own mold,” as J. B. Phillips paraphrases that part of Romans 12:2. Let’s not think we stand when we really cannot—on our own. Let’s keep renewing our minds in the Word of Truth.

It is something like when you have been in an auto accident and the offensive party avoids looking at you, as if that would make the confrontation go away. More likely, though, there is some awareness that something is wrong in the world, but there is no known answer to the problem, so hopefully, it will go away.

When I was an early teenager, unsaved and in spiritual darkness, a day came when someone had predicted the world would end. It was a dull, slick cloudy day, and I waited and wondered just how it was going to happen. I was not unaware of the existence of God, but I had no idea how to connect with Him, nor did I realize a need to do so.

I was rather frozen in the place of having no answers and not knowing what to do. Perhaps that is the mindset of much of the population today, that is, those who are at least somewhat aware that society is not normal and is increasingly going downhill.

Surveys by news teams on the street reveal that a majority of that segment of the population here in America, at least and quite likely in most of the world, the attitude is to “get it while the getting is good,” or in another vein, “get all you can, can all you get, and poison the rest!” that mindset has led to the loud “hurrah” for legalized pot smoking in some states, in my opinion.

The news media is totally obsessed with the buildup to the expected 2016 presidential election, while what is left of the time slots is forced to cover repeated murders of innocent people by deranged individuals with an avenging agenda or a desire for notoriety as a warrior for Islamic terrorism.

In America the hopeful goal of most upright, moral citizens who recognize that society is crumbling beneath us is a return to the constitutional foundation that was laid by our founding fathers. However, that is not to be because of two factors that are working in opposition to each other.

The New World Order proponents (which I have written of in several articles, most recently, the one titled, “Which New World Order Do You Prefer?” [1]) have been at their goal of a One World Government since the time of the Tower of Babel, reported in Genesis 11.

On the opposing side is the plan of God, the Sovereign Judge of the universe, who has an appointed time for the end of days, often referred to as the “Day of the Lord,” which starts the wrap up of human history as we know it. In other words, the inscription on our postage stamps, “USA Forever,” is not a proclamation from God.

Is this being not patriotic on my part? No, I call it being realistic in the light of Bible prophecy. God has an appointed time laid out when righteousness will confront evil in its rawest form, and the Sovereign Judge is not moved to action by the turn of circumstances. He makes the circumstances! This passage from Psalm 75:6-8 tells us much of God’s mindset:

“For exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south, but God is the Judge. He puts down one and exalts another. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is fully mixed, and He pours it out; surely its dregs shall all the wicked of the earth drain anddrink down.”

It is the cup of God’s wrath that contains the wine of His judgment. But lest one would say that this writing in the Psalms is not the way it works, take a look at this segment of Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 2:20-22:

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him.”

Do you recall the strange turn of events back in August, 2008, when Barack Obama met with Hillary Clinton secretly (or perhaps not so secretly) at her place in New York? The Clinton steamroller was about to forge ahead of Obama in a decisive manner at that point in the campaign, as I recall. The result of that meeting was that Clinton bowed out of the race entirely, and Obama was the nominee.

It appears that God had a timetable that was not that of the prevailing circumstances. God sets up one and puts down another, just as the Psalmist wrote. In the prophetical realm, in order to have a one world government, that seventh head of the Beast of Revelation, America could no longer be a sovereign nation . For the same reason, neither could any other nation retain its sovereignty, but destruction of America had to be first in line.

Therefore, Obama is elevated to the front runner, and his opponent, also selected by the string-pulling puppeteers behind the scenes, was not slated to win the presidency. This one, who vowed to “fundamentally transform America forever,” had been primed to do so, according to Henry Kissinger, shortly after his election.

No one, I submit, can honestly say that Obama has not lived up to his ambitions to destroy America. Cover up after cover up has attempted to keep the American citizenship in the dark, but compelling evidence is rampant that we are on the brink of gigantic changes in human history as we know it. Many signs now point to mid-September, 2015, as a possible focal point of transformation.

In previous articles I have looked at Luke 17:26 and following with particular interest in different aspects of the passage. The pertinent issue addressed there regarding the subject of this article is the clear unawareness of those people of Noah’s and Lot’s time that anything was about to happen that would turn their world upside down. The passage bears repeating because of its application to the topic at hand:

“And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Likewise, as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise, the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left.”

These are observations made by Jesus, who infuriated the Jews with His declaration in John 8:58, “Before Abraham was, I AM!” So Jesus was there and knew what was happening in Noah’s time and in Lot’s time, although the reports in Genesis 6 nor Genesis 19 give us these details. Apparently, then, this narrative in Luke 17 is for the generation which is present at the time when the coming of the Lord is near.

Those daily activities described in the Luke account have reflected the attitude of people for centuries, yet it is not required that we shut down life and find a place to wait out the ensuing circumstances. Jesus said for those who hear Him, “Watch, for you do not what hour your Lord may come.” The challenge to be aware of impending circumstances that indicate an approaching moment of reckoning has not been lacking. Paul admonished the Thessalonians in this manner:

“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:4-6).

There is much hopefulness about that there will be a great revival and turning back to the Lord along with many conversions before the coming of the Lord for His people, based on this Matthew 24:14 verse:

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

The only scriptural account of a great harvest of unsaved people being brought into the kingdom is told in Revelation 7:9-10, where, after the selection of the 144,000 specially ordained Jewish men are commissioned, John sees “a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

The elder present with John tells him that “these are those who have come out of the Great Tribulation.”

A falling away is the dismal report for the expectation of those days before the coming of the Lord in the Rapture. Paul tells Timothy, “In the last days evil men shall become worse and worse” (2 Timothy 3:13), and to the Thessalonians, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first…” (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

It is now the tenth year since hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the mayor’s awareness alert was replayed: “Leave the city; get out while you can!” After the deluge there were 1800 known deaths, and of the many who did leave the city, 110,000 have never gone back. It brings to mind that passage in Matthew 7:13-14:

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow isthe gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

So the rush to judgment and “let the good times roll” mentality has overcome repentance and turning to righteousness to find peace with God. It is a fearful thing that “a little leaven leavens the whole lump,” as Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 5:6). In Jeremiah’s day, the Lord said this: “You willseek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

Is it not past time for that action on the part of each one of us? Psalm 139:23-24 can be our cry of repentance:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties;and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Endnotes [1] (New World Order article)https://www.raptureready.com/featured/lawley/lawley92.html