2 Timothy 3:5
2 Timothy 3:55having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!
JWs read as describing conditions intensified since 1914 — selfishness, moral decay, and "having an appearance of godliness but proving false to its power." The list of character failings is applied to "Christendom" and the world system, providing evidence that we are living in the last days that began in 1914 with Christ's invisible enthronement.
Second Timothy 3:5 says "from these turn away" — a present-tense imperative directed at Timothy personally. The instruction only makes sense if the people described already existed in Timothy's day; Paul cannot be telling Timothy to avoid people who will not exist for another 1,900 years. This is one of six New Testament passages that unanimously place the "last days" in the first century: (Peter at Pentecost: "this is what was spoken through Joel"), ("in these last days"), ("it is the last hour"), ("at the end of the times"), ("at the conclusion of the systems of things"), and ("the ends of the ages have arrived upon us"). The identical Greek phrase eschatais hemerais appears in both and , demolishing the claim they describe two different periods. The last days began with Christ, not in 1914.