The Deception of Modern 'Christian' Leaders

Almost 2,000 years ago, St Paul wrote to Timothy about the terrible times to come: “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:2-4). 

Paul’s vice-filled description appears to describe the 21st century Western world and many of its 'religious' leaders. 

The moral practices of Western Christians are essentially the same as those of non-Christians. As Protestant scholar Michael Horton laments: “Christians are as likely to embrace lifestyles every bit as hedonistic, materialistic, self-centered, and sexually immoral as the world in general.”
    
Paul continues his description of the Last Days by characterising the people as “holding the form of religion but denying the power of it.” The sinful people he’s talking about are 'Christians', describing them as having a “corrupt mind” and practicing a “counterfeit faith” (2 Tim. 3:8). They are deceived and are deceiving others.

St Peter also speaks of the end times in a similar manner in the third chapter of his second letter. He notes that the Last Days will be filled with “scoffers” and “lawless men” who “follow their own evil desires” rather than God’s righteous decrees. Sadly, these men masquerade as true believers and use Scripture to support their sin. Peter closes his letter by pointing out that some passages in the Bible, in particular, Paul’s letters, are “hard to understand” and subject to being misinterpreted. He encourages his readers not to get carried away by false teachers, “ignorant and unstable” people who take Scripture and “twist” it, “as they do other scriptures.” These evildoers will not be prepared, Peter warns, for the “day of the Lord,” which will come “like a thief in the night” and bring judgment on the earth. They twist Scripture “to their own destruction” (2 Pet. 3:1-18).

According to Paul, the way to avoid the fate of these men is to understand and use Scripture properly. Earlier in his letter, he had already admonished Timothy to be a workman who does not need to be ashamed before God, but who correctly handles the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15). Then, after describing the Last Days, Paul lays out a battle plan for Timothy by commanding him to “preach the word,” because “all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (3:16). As Timothy uses Scripture to “convince, rebuke, and exhort,” he will be attempting to counteract the evil done by false teachers, because “the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths” (4:3-4).

The problem today is that we have ostensibly 'religious people' - in all the Churches - using Scripture for nefarious ends. They are abandoning true doctrines and replacing them with allegedly scriptural teachings they are more comfortable with. Teachings that allow them to exhibit the sinful characteristics listed by Paul and Peter. 

What's the solution? Just how do we "understand and use Scripture properly"?