Scriptures not only teach what is true about salvation, they give salvation itself

What will be the undoing of those who oppose the gospel? The answer is given in 2 Tim. 3:10ff:

10 You, however,… (that word however tells us that Paul is contrasting those who oppose the truth with Timothy… You, Timothy, unlike men who have opposed the truth and unlike those who have been disqualified regarding the faith…) have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings (by the way… these sacred writings for Timothy were primarily the OT… not exclusively, but primarily…. this was an eye-popping experience for me when I first understood this some years back. This a-ha moment was one of those key moments in which God was burning down what I thought I understood about interpreting Scripture)… from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

Here is Paul’s will and testament for Timothy as Paul prepares to move into the pages of history: Unlike the unbelieving fools who oppose the gospel, Timothy is to continue in what he has learned and firmly believed from the “sacred writings” and then teach (2 Tim. 3:16,17) and preach (2 Tim. 4:1ff) what he has learned and firmly believed to others.

Timothy will be able to do this because the "sacred writings" that form the substance of what he is to pass along to others flow from the very creative life-breath of God. All scripture is God-breathed. This mention of breath calls to mind the breath of God that breathed life into Adam. This is the same breath that breathed life into Christ in the tomb. This is the same breath that breathed life into the church at Pentecost. This life-breath is being applied to the scriptures here in 2 Timothy 3. Since the scriptures come from the very life giving breath of God, they have the ability to provide saving life. These scriptures not only teach what is true about salvation, they give salvation itself. There is an innate ability of the scriptures, because they flow from the life-breath of God, to provide life. And it is through the God-breathed scriptures that one is regenerated and comes to saving faith in Christ Jesus (a thought that Paul also develops in Romans 10.)

Because these sacred writings flow from the very creative life-breath of God they are profitable and accomplish the four things mentioned in verse 15, which can be summarized as doctrine (orthodoxy - the content of belief that is in accord with the scriptures) and behavior (orthopraxy - practice that is in accord with scriptures). Paul's assumption is that right practice is impossible without right doctrine, and both flow from the original, creative life-breath of God. -- crb, Chapel sermon, "Wise for Salvation"

"We long not for an earthly utopia in which the City of Man becomes the City of God"

“Will there be an Antichrist? Yes, there will. But we need to take note of Anthony Hoekema’s caution in this regard: ‘We conclude that the sign of the antichrist, like the other signs of the times, is present throughout the history of the church. We may even say that every age will provide its own particular form of antichristian activity. But we look for an intensification of this sign in the appearance of the antichrist whom Christ himself will destroy at his Second Coming.’ (Hoekema, The Bible and the Future, p. 162).

“Thus we must be very cautious, yet ever vigilant. Our focus should be upon the means by which God restrains the principle of lawlessness—the gospel—and we must not spend our energies upon useless speculation. Our hope as Christians lies not in our powers of prognostication but in the ultimate and final victory of the Lamb. As Geerhardus Vos reminds us, ‘[The prophecy of Antichrist] belongs among the many prophecies, whose best and final exegete will be the eschatological fulfillment, and in regard to which it behooves the saints to exercise a peculiar kind of eschatological patience. The idea of Antichrist in general and that of the apostasy in particular ought to warn us, although this may not have been the proximate purpose of Paul, not to take for granted an uninterrupted progress of the cause of Christ through all ages on toward the end.... The making all things right and new in the world depend not on gradual amelioration but on the final interposition of God.’ (The Pauline Eschatology, pp. 133-135)

“We long not for an earthly utopia in which the City of Man becomes the City of God. The harlot Babylon cannot be fumigated and remodeled. We do not long for an earthy millennium in which a fallen world is whitewashed for a time, with sinful human nature still present beneath the serene veneer. No, we long for the same thing Abraham did—a heavenly country and a heavenly city (Heb. 11:16). For as God promised Abraham, even now he is preparing this very thing for his people. This will become a glorious reality when Jesus Christ returns, not before.

“The New Testament never holds out the hope that Babylon (the City of Man) will become the New Jerusalem (the City of God). Vos is correct. The New Testament teaches that when the seventh trumpet sounds at the time our blessed Lord returns, then ‘the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever’ (Rev. 11:15). The dragon, the beast, the false prophet, and all who serve them will be cast into the lake of fire, no longer a threat to the peace and safety of the kingdom of God. As John says, ‘I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God’’ (Rev. 21:2—3). The great covenant promise has been finally realized—God will dwell in our midst—and no longer will there be any curse, no tears, no sadness, and no sorrow. Nor will there be any trace of the harlot Babylon.

“Instead of fearing and dreading the Antichrist and worrying about the latest events in the Middle East or whether the number 666 appears on a household product ID, we should be longing for the second coming of Jesus Christ.” -- Kim Riddlebarger, The Man of Sin, pp. 177,178

Hot tub religion: the law of supply and demand

Modern life strains us. We get stimulated till we are dizzy. Relationships are brittle; marriages break; families fly apart; business is a cutthroat rat race, and those not at the top feel themselves mere cogs in another’s machine. Automation and computer technology have made life faster and tenser, since we no longer have to do the time-consuming routine jobs over which our grandparents used to relax their minds. We have to run more quickly than any generation before us simply to stay where we are. No wonder, then, that when modem Western man turns to religion (if he does—most don’t), what he wants is total tickling relaxation, the sense of being at once soothed, supported, and effortlessly invigorated: in short, hot tub religion. He asks for it, and up folk jump to provide it. What hot tub religion illustrates most clearly is the law of demand and supply.

What, then, should we say of hot tub religion? Certainly a rhythm of life that includes relaxation is right; the fourth commandment shows that. Alternating hard labor with fun times is right too; all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and Jesus so often went to banquets, the fun times of the ancient world, that he got called a glutton and drunkard. Enjoying our bodies while we can, as opposed to despising them (which is Platonism at best, Manicheism at worst, and super-spiritual conceit either way), is part of the discipline of gratitude to our Creator. And uninhibited exuberances like clapping, dancing, shouting praise, and crying out in prayer can be approved, too, provided we do not thereby stumble others. Without these hot tub factors, as we may call them, our Christianity would be less godly and less lively for it would be less human. But if there were no more to our Christianity than hot tub factors—if, that is, we embraced a self-absorbed hedonism of relaxation and happy feelings, while dodging tough tasks, unpopular stances, and exhausting relationships—we should fall short of biblical God-centeredness and of the cross-bearing life to which Jesus calls us and advertise to the world nothing better than our own decadence. Please God, however, we shall not settle for that. -- J. I. Packer, Hot Tub Religion, pp. 62-64