Firstly, the last times will be marked by departure. Some shall depart from the faith. The Greek word that gives us the word depart is aphistemi. This word carries the idea of a falling away. It means to desist and remove. Apostasy is an accurate description we can ascribe to those who fall away. This is not in reference to losing Christ but in never obtaining Him in the first place. Therefore the world will run away from the direction of God, as will many professing Christians. What grace there is to be found in the word some, for some is not all! The very children of God will cling to Christ to the very end and there will always be those who are unashamed at His name!
The last times secondly will be marked by deception. They will depart because of seducing spirits. These are the Devil's invisible armies who whisper lies and deception into the ears of many. They teach to man doctrines of devils. So sad is it that many pulpits of the world today have the Devil's preachers in them. They appear as angels of light, just as Satan appeared to Eve in the garden. The devil never tempted Eve to fall down but to fall up. She was told if she would eat she would be as God knowing right from wrong. Little success would Satan have had if he had told the truth. Never would she have eaten if the Devil had told her that this would ruin the human race, bring death to her family, and cause a life of misery and pain. Alas, through deception many will be turned to teachings that are foreign to the Word of God. A man may only be measured by God's Word. To test his root, merely observe his fruit. Does he faithfully hold the Son of God and the Bible correctly?.
Thirdly, the last times will be marked by dramatization. People will speak lies in hypocrisy. The Greek word for hypocrisy is the word hupokrisis. It is the word that arrives at our English word actor. The idea was of actors in the theatre. As the play would progress the actors in Bible days would hold up masks like a masquerade depicting happy, sad, or another expression. They would act the part even in costume. Just as an actor playing a navy seal is not a real navy seal, so is a hypocrite an actor and not a real Christian. When the hypocrite is on stage he preforms. It is when no one watches that separates him from that which is genuine. This does not mean that any Christian is without error or sinful desires. It does mean that without audience he desires to please Christ. That is the Spirit of Christ crying Abba Father in them. The Christian life is not marked by perfection but by direction. The last days will be marked by dramatization, people acting as if they are from God.
Fourthly, the last days will be marked by depravity. People will posses a conscience that's seared, just as flesh is burned by a hot iron. That which is seared becomes scar tissue and has little feeling. The inward guide of the conscience (which recognizes right and wrong) is built inside of every person. In the last days it will be violated so often that it loses its ability to feel. To be clear, the conscience cannot always be trusted even when strong and healthy. The conscience is not the Holy Spirit, and therefore it will mold itself around whatever is taught, whether it be of God or man. Only a conscience can be trusted as it is formed and shaped around God's perfect Word. Even so, in all of this, the worst conscience is at least a working conscience! Imagine a world where people are so over-exposed to violence, pornography, rape, murder, and the like that they lose their ability to feel badly about it. We are heading there today in America. We are over-exposed to terrible things and some of them are widely accepted as normal and tolerable. This is surely a mark of the last days: depravity from a seared conscience will fill the earth.
