Dr. Dan Hayden •

Have you noticed how lifelike artificial plants and fruit are now being made? Recently we bought a decorative piece that was a basket of fruit. It looked so real, you wanted to reach down and take a piece. But it wasn’t real fruit – it was plastic. Sure did look real, though.

It may look like the real thing, but it’s not. That’s what the Apostle Paul says about many Christians in the last days. In 2 Timothy 3, after describing the moral decline that will occur in the last days, he says in verse 5, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”

Now, isn’t that scary? Like a plastic plant that looks so real, there will be people who look like Christians, but they’re not. They will only have a form of godliness.

The word, “form” is a Greek word that refers to the outward appearance of something. The word is morphōsin, and it comes from the word morphé, which refers to shape, or form.

Perhaps you have heard of “morphing,” – where Hollywood changes the form of something into something else (like turning a tiger into a car, or a man into a monster). It is outward shape or form that is being referred to here.

 

So, what will it be like in the last days? Well, there will be a lot of religious people who only have the outward appearance of godliness. But the inward reality will be missing. It’s like figures in a wax museum. They look real, but there’s no heart, and lungs, and arteries, and veins. There’s no inner reality.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:22-23, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out demons? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

So, do you really know Christ as your Savior, or do you just have a form of godliness?

Say – When was the last time that you did a reality check?