This is the era, predicted by Paul, wherein believers and feigned believers alike "will not tolerate sound teaching" (2 Timothy 4:3). The word I'm focusing on today is the word "tolerate" (Gr. anechomai), which was also translated in the Concordant Version, "bear with."
SOUND teaching is teaching that has stood the test of time, thus making it feel old. Some folks can't bear with (anechomai) antiquity for long (it feels boring and stagnant to them), and thus will "heap up teachers in accord with their own desires, and will be turned aside to myths" (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Myths are new and exciting and can be crafted to suit one's tastes. Myths are malleable. But as such, they do NOT stand the test of time and thus, over time, are exposed. But by the time the myths are exposed (it may take years), they have taken hold upon the hearts of those holding them. (Myths cater to the emotions.) By this time, not even facts will dislodge a myth from those deriving comfort from them.
God causes myths to be blown up by competent teachers who would be considered boring and old fashioned were it not for the fact that exposing myths during an era of myths is stressful, depressing, and at times anxiety-producing. Fortunately for the modern learner, teachers afflicted with these maladies, being already quirky, generally become funny—when they're not crying, that
is. Add alcohol to the mix, and this all becomes quite entertaining.
