15/12/19 – 2
Peter 2:12-17
2
Peter 2:12 – But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and
destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly
perish in their own corruption;
Jude 1:10 – But these speak evil of those
things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in
those things they corrupt themselves.
natural – physikos (inborn; agreeable to nature; governed by
instincts of nature) We get “physical” from this word.
brute – alogos (destitute of reason; contrary to reason; absurd;
illogical) From the negative of logos. That is, they lack any ability to
debate or discuss issues rationally.
beasts – zoon (a living being;
an animal; brute; beast) Like animals in the zoo!
made – gennao (fathered; born; begotten) “generation” and
“regeneration” are derived from this word! Does this make these false teachers
calvinist??
destroyed – phthora (corruption; destruction; perishing; subject
to corruption or perishing; moral corruption or decay; eternal misery in hell)
speak evil of – blasphemeo
understand not – agnoeo (to be ignorant; not know; not understand;
err; sin through mistake) From the negative of noieo
– to perceive with the mind; to understand; to think upon; ponder; consider –
(which in turn is derived from nous – the mind; intellect;
reason/reasoning) We get “agnostic” from the same root word; one who doesn’t
know!
utterly perish – katphtheiro (be corrupted; be corrupted in mind; be
destroyed; perish)
corruption – same as
“destroyed” above. That is, they will be corrupted in their own corruption.
But these, as animals, destitute of reason
and governed by instincts of nature, born for the purpose of being taken
(captured) and condemned to eternal misery in hell, blaspheme things of which
they are ignorant; they shall utterly perish in their own (autos =
self) corruption.
Cambridge says Literally, as
irrational merely natural animals born for capture and destruction, speaking evil (or railing) in the things in
which they are ignorant; they shall be corrupted in and by their corruption.
This is what the Bible says about false
teachers in the church. They are animals, following base instincts, illogical
and bereft of reason, only fit for being captured like the animals they are and
destroyed as vermin; they blaspheme things that they know nothing about (that
is, they are ignoramuses); therefore they will be destroyed in (corrupted with)
the corruption they have made (that is, they have sown corruption and they will
reap the same in themselves – Galatians 6:8).
2
Peter 2:13 – And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, [as] they
that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots [they are] and
blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings
while they feast with you;
the reward – misthos (dues paid for work; wages; hire; reward;
rewards and punishments; rewards bestowed by God for our endeavours)
pleasure – hedone (pleasure; desires for pleasure) We get
“hedonism” from this word. Piper wrote “Meditations of a Christian Hedonist”
which focuses upon a goal of being happy as a Christian. Such views are, in fact,
very similar to the health & wealth gospel which teaches that Christians
can only suffer pain, bad health and financial problems as the result of sin in
their lives, and that it is the right of all Christians to be both healthy and
rich as long as they don’t sin.
thefreedictionary.com describes hedonism as (a) Pursuit
of or devotion to pleasure, especially to the pleasures of the senses. (b) Philosophy
The ethical doctrine holding that only what is pleasant or has pleasant
consequences is intrinsically good. (c) Psychology The doctrine holding
that behavior is motivated by the desire for pleasure
and the avoidance of pain. (d) Indulgences in sensual pleasures.
I fail to see how hedonism can effectively
relate to Christian beliefs.
riot – tryphe (softness; effeminate; luxurious living;
carousing) Thus riotous living is actually a glut of indulgence.
in the day time – probably really
means to live like this while they have today. The same term is used in the
following.
Hebrews 3:13 – But exhort one another daily,
while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened
through the deceitfulness of sin.
That is, eat drink and be merry for tomorrow
we die!
spots and
blemishes – base gluttonous men who are a disgrace to society
sporting themselves – entryphao (live in luxury; revel in; take delight
in) Taken from tryphe (riot) above.
sporting
themselves with their own deceivings – revelling in the deceptions they commit.
That is, they get a real kick out of knowing that they are deceiving others. To
them, sport is to watch the pain and suffering others experience. (Such people
would enjoy animals and people being slaughtered at the Colosseum with the
excuse that this was sport!) The more they can deceive others, the greater
their enjoyment (“pleasures” or hedonism above). They literally enjoy life at
the expense of others, and they do this while putting on the charade of being
one of those whom they are deceiving. The feast was a form of church
fellowship, a time of showing the agape love they had one for another. “feasting
with” is syneuocheo
which is a synthesis word describing “many together as one entity”. That is,
there are many feasting together as one, and these false teachers are feasting
at the table as one of the group; they are not
outsiders.
Matthew Poole says: They sport themselves while they so finely deceive you, pretending love in their feasting with you, when they do it only to gratify their appetites; or sporting themselves, and making merry, with what they have cheated you of.
It may have
referred to the feast of communion which was turned into a glutton-fest at
Corinth.
1 Corinthians 11:19-22 – 19For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are
approved may be made manifest among you. 20When ye come together
therefore into one place, [this] is not to eat the Lord’s supper. 21For
in eating every one taketh before [other] his own supper: and one is
hungry, and another is drunken. 22What? have ye not houses to eat
and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not?
What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise [you] not.
Such people, while
trying to look like the Christians they are among, instead use their fellowship
to destroy them. Literally they are tares among the wheat.
2
Peter 2:14 – Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from
sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have
exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:
eyes – ophthalmos
(could be literally what they
look at but also could mean metaphorically the eyes of the mind, that is, their
thought life) We get ophthalmology from this word.
adultery – literally an adulteress; of those who relapse into idolatry; play the harlot)
beguiling – to catch with a bait; metaphorically
to beguile by blandishments; allure; entice; deceive. They entice their victims
by using bait (on a hook?) like a fisherman. Peter was a fisherman; he uses the
same term for “allure” in 2 Peter 2:18. This word is only used 3 times
in the NT. It is used for “enticed” in James 1:14.
unstable souls – wavering double-minded
people who cannot think for themselves (James 1:6). James 1:8 –
A double minded
man [is] unstable in all his ways.
Unstable souls are those who do not have a firm
grounding in the Bible. Today they would be the immature Christians who want to
be better Christians but don’t want to do the hard work of learning for
themselves. Such people are drawn to those “mentors” who promise short cuts to
growing as a Christian, yet may be false teachers as described in this passage.
an heart they have exercised with covetous
practices – they have
trained their hearts in covetousness. See 2 Peter 2:3 (And through covetousness shall they with feigned words
make merchandise of you) where
these false teachers use carefully sculpted words for their own covetous gain.
There is nothing noble about such false teachers; they are in it for what they
can get out of it. They pretend to be loving and caring people, yet it is all a
sham; they only want what your destruction can give them. It may have been to
do with financial gain (most false teachers today are rich beyond measure).
Barnes says Skilled in the arts which covetous men adopt in order to
cheat others out of their property. A leading purpose which influenced these
men was to obtain money. One of the most certain ways for dishonest men to do
this is to make use of the religious principle; to corrupt and control the
conscience; to make others believe that they are eminently holy, or that they
are the special favorites of heaven; and when they
can do this, they have the purses of others at command.
Of
course their gain here
might have been more spiritual, such as dragging others down to their level. As
the saying goes, misery begets misery. And misery loves company. Miserable
people need to bring as many people down with them as possible. They feed off
the misery of others to keep their own misery alive.
Peter declares that
such people are cursed children, or rather, children of the curse. They are so
full of crude godless thinking that it is impossible for them to stop sinning.
They are driven like ones who are addicted to sin. Or they cannot be made to
cease from sin because they are so rebellious.
2
Peter 2:15-16 – 15Which have forsaken
the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam [the son] of
Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16But
was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the
madness of the prophet.
Jude 1:11 – Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and
ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the
gainsaying of Core.
They have turned
away (departed) from the right (upright; true; sincere) way. As a consequence they have gone astray (departed from the truth;
have departed into error and sin).
following – this word is used only 3 times in the NT,
all in 2 Peter: 1;16; 2:2; and again here.
Instead of
following the right way, they have followed (yielded to; imitated; complied
with) the false way of Balaam (see Numbers Ch.22). God says of Balaam that behold, I went out to
withstand thee, because [thy] way is perverse before me (Numbers 22:32).
the wages of
unrighteousness – the
reward of unrighteousness (Vs 13 above). Balaam was offered “the rewards of
divination” to carry out his task of cursing God’s people.
And
the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of
divination in their hand; and they came unto Balaam (Numbers 22:7)
It is clear that
Balaam was enticed to curse God’s people through no other than the payment
offered for doing so. He was a prophet available for hire, a mercenary! He was
bought with sufficient rewards as were these false teachers in 2 Peter 2 with
their covetousness. Such people always have something to gain; they never do it
through the goodness of their hearts or for noble reasons such as actually
believing in what they do. If they truly believed in what they did, then they
would never use carefully sculpted words (“feigned words” of 2 Peter 2:3)
to say one thing but mean something quite different.
However, Balaam was
rebuked for his iniquity (by a donkey, no less). It took a donkey to reveal
Balaam as a fool! And likewise it takes those whom the
false teachers call fools to rebuke them for their iniquity. It takes such
“fools” to clearly demonstrate the madness (insanity) of the false teachers (1 Corinthians 1:27).
2
Peter 2:17 – These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with
a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
Jude 1:12-13 – 12These are spots in your feasts
of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds [they
are] without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the
roots; 13Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame;
wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
These false teachers are dry wells, wells from which no
life can ever be drawn. Jesus said But whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I
shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. (John 4:14). And
Christians should also be channels for the spread of the living water that
Jesus spoke about. But these false teachers are dried up wells; no-one will
ever survive if they rely upon these dry wells. They are the promise of life,
yet are unable to deliver on any of their promises of life; they may only
deliver death and destruction to those who try to drink from them.
clouds that are carried with a tempest – it may
mean clouds of mist blown about where all gets moist but no water actually
falls on the ground. Jude may clarify this though: clouds [they are] without
water, carried about of winds (Jude 1:12) Like the
wells that promise so much but deliver nothing, these are like clouds that
promise much rain yet go past leaving a parched land behind them. As the saying
goes, these false teachers are all froth and bubble; no substance at all. They
are hot-air balloons: there’s nothing inside to back up the promise. They are
like politicians: promise heaven yet can only deliver hell. Jude also says that
they are not only like trees without fruit, the trees themselves are twice dead
having been plucked up by the roots. Not only do they have no fruit, but they can
never grow fruit because they themselves are deader than dead!
the mist of darkness – or probably the blackness of darkness;
literally the darkness of night darkness. That is, the blackness of the darkness of
night is reserved for such false teachers forever. They may gain a bit to
satisfy their covetousness for a moment, but the consequences of their
deceptions will last for eternity.
These false teachers seek out unstable souls, those who
do not have a firm foundation in the Bible, such as those that prey upon weaker
people because they aren’t as able to fight back.
2 Timothy 3:1-7 – 1This know also, that in the last
days perilous times shall come. 2For men shall be lovers of their
own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, 3Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false
accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4Traitors,
heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than
lovers of God; 5Having a form of godliness, but denying the power
thereof: from such turn away. 6For of this sort are they which creep
into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7Ever learning, and never able to
come to the knowledge of the truth.
These false teachers rarely (if ever) prey upon those
with a good foundation in the scriptures. Instead they prey upon “unstable
souls” or “silly women” or similar gullible people who would believe anyone who
said, “Believe me! Trust me!” If these false teachers see anyone with an ounce
of biblical sense and some desire to test all things, to check what was said
against biblical truth, then they would certainly stay clear of such people.
They have no desire to lose an argument; they have no desire to do anything that
might show them up for what they are: devoid of truth, deceiving liars, having
an addictive desire to sin, greedy for ill-gotten gain, animals without any
ability to reason, talking evil (blaspheming) of things which they know nothing
about, dry wells and empty clouds, children of the curse.
So now let’s put this all into context for today. Peter
had false teachers in his day, and there were false teachers among Israel and
the Jews of the OT. There are false teachers today. In fact, there have always
been false teachers. As long as there is truth, there will be those that oppose
it, until the day when everlasting righteousness as per Daniel 9:24 is ushered in. Today there are so many false
teachers, though, that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find those
who are not false teachers. It used to be that at least we could find good
teachers in fundamentalist churches, but even that’s becoming a rarity today.
As long as there’s wheat there’ll also be tares, and it’s clear that tares will
be found in all areas of the church. That includes those on-the-ball biblical
churches, for satan is most keen to place his tares where they are most needed.
Why place them in apostate churches that teach that all suffering, sickness and
disease is due to sin, or in churches where the greater the spiritual
manifestation the better the Christian you are, or in churches that win
popularity in the world, for they are led by tares who make the church conform
to the world. No, the place where satan wants his best tares are where the
wheat still knows something of what the Bible really says.
One of the biggest threats to biblical truth today is
calvinism. No, I don’t mean that they are clever or anything like that, because
the bulk of calvinists believe what they do as a result of not being
knowledgeable enough about the Bible. According to Peter they are ignorant
fools. Most calvinists have trusted the false calvinist teachers who have no
desire to lose an argument; they have no desire to do anything that might show
them up for what they are: devoid of truth, deceiving liars, having an
addictive desire to sin, greedy for ill-gotten gain, animals without any
ability to reason, talking evil (blaspheming) of things which they know nothing
about, dry wells and empty clouds, children of the curse. You see, those who
teach calvinism are teaching damnable heresies (2 Peter 2:1) and are
correctly labelled as false teachers as described in 2 Peter 2.
Calvinists are quite practised at sounding intellectual
when they aren’t. They use what I term intellectual waffle or obfuscations to
confuse the issue and to disguise their ignorance. Let’s look at an example of
this in “Does
Calvinism Make God the Author of Evil?” by Phil Johnson. The answer to this question should
really be yes or no. But Johnson says that it depends upon the sense in which
you see this. “But
isn't it still the case that God's decree ultimately causes
"whatsoever comes to pass"?
Well,
yes, in one sense. But there is more than one sense of the word cause.” And he
quotes Aristotle (Greek philosopher) who said that there were 4 categories of
cause. Therefore, he says, “God is the final cause; not the efficient cause of
evil.” And then he uses the Westminster Confession to establish the actual
cause of it all. There you go, folks; Aristotle and the Westminster Confession
have proven now that God was not the proper cause of evil. “Clearly, historic Calvinism
has always recognized the necessary distinction between differing kinds of
"causes."” In other words, he uses calvinism to establish the
truth of calvinism! He also quotes both Calvin and Luther to support his
debate, but they are not exactly independent and unbiased either, are they? “Is this indeed the common
teaching of classic Calvinism? The Westminster Confession of Faith teaches the
very same view I have defended here: …… That's what Calvin himself taught, and
that's what authentic Calvinism has always stressed.”
Well, what would you expect? Calvinism to deny calvinism?
Naturally the Westminster Confession and Calvin will defend calvinism. But does
the Bible defend calvinism; that’s the real test! And calvinist teachers are
false teachers because the one source that will not defend their doctrines is
the Bible itself. It’s like using a bank robber to defend man’s right to steal!
And who is going to argue with Johnson with all his obfuscations? What’s he
actually talking about?? Who can understand enough of his gobbledegook to be
able to oppose him? And if anyone does oppose, he’ll no doubt say that they
just aren’t intellectual enough!
One more comment today…. If anyone says that the free will
gospel is heresy, then such a person cannot be a Christian, for how can a
Christian deny the free will gospel without destroying the only basis for his
belief that he is saved: his testimony? I personally declare the calvinist
gospel to be heresy knowing that if it were biblical, then I’d be lost. But the
calvinist gospel isn’t biblical! If someone says he’s a Christian but denies the
free will gospel, then what’s his testimony? This is the problem of the
calvinist who can never have a real testimony of salvation while he is alive.
Only his works can declare his faith, and if those works fail, then he never
had faith in the first place. If a Christian were to deny the free will gospel,
then he has either lost his salvation, or he was never saved in the first
place. Denying the free will gospel is the same as denying the God who died to
present the free will gospel to all mankind. Choose ye this day whom you will
serve!
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