Chapter
2
It
has been necessary in the first chapter to emphasise what is the most important
thing in life. Now we move on to the second chapter where we have a change of
pace. Peter heard our Lord Jesus Christ condemn the Pharisees, the false
teachers. He also was strong in His condemnation of any form of reversionism
and self-righteousness. He said that the Pharisees were whitewashed tombstones;
they had beauty on the outside and were full of dead men’s bones. Now Peter
heard all of these things; he heard the condemnation of those who are
classified by himself as the devil’s disciples. He realised that the principle
of false teachers or the devil’s disciples would exist throughout the Church
Age and that in every generation of the Church Age there would be those who
would be reversionistic, and therefore impressed with the false teachers. And
so in his dying moments Peter was led by the Holy Spirit to warn the Church on
this great subject. We have a whole chapter on the devil’s disciples, on the
people who impress the reversionistic believer.
There
will be no reversionistic believer in context. Instead we have the
reversionistic unbeliever. However, the principle goes both ways. When a
believer is in reversionism he practices reverse process reversionism, he
enters into some form of superficiality known as celebrityship, and he
therefore becomes impressed with false teaching.
By
way of introduction to this chapter a few things about the devil’s strategy,
the devil’s work. Since the devil is using human beings and since many of these
human beings are the great false teachers of the Church Age it is probably
imperative to understand something of the nature of these people. The devil
himself as a person is described in great detail in Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel
28:11-19. In both of those passages the devil is said to be the most
attractive, the most beautiful personality of all time. The “anointed cherub”
means the messianic cherub, and as the messianic cherub he personally was, as
it were, the accompanying angel to the Lord Jesus Christ. But pride changed it.
Something in his thinking completely reversed it and he was so taken with
himself that he decided that he could be God and replace God. As a result he
started a revolt in which he took a great portion of the angelic creatures with
him, a revolt in which eventually all angels made a decision one way or another
for or against God. And the end of it all was that the Lord Jesus Christ and
God the Father held a great convocation of angels in which there was a trial,
both of Satan and of all the fallen angels. At the end of this trial Satan and
the fallen angels were condemned to the eternal lake of fire. Of course Satan
appealed and as a result of his appeal we have the creation of man. And the
angelic conflict will be continued until the end of time when the sentence will
be carried out.
Now
during the course of this angelic conflict man started out as the ruler of this
world. He lost that sovereignty through sin, through negative volition toward
God’s prohibition. And since that time Satan has been and continues to be the
ruler of this world — John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11. And as such Satan is
responsible for all kinds of doctrines and principles which seek to counterfeit
the laws of establishment, counterfeit the various principles of doctrine,
including salvation. So that Satan is constantly trying to bring order out of
the chaos of this world and he is using all of his genius and personality to do
this.
The
Bible describes from time to time the various ways and manners and means in
which the ruler of this world seeks to gain his own ends. So far he has never
succeeded in bringing together all the people of the world under his direct
obedience. There is always someone who responds to the gospel and then responds
to Bible doctrine, and as a result of this Satan is never quite able to pull it
off. He has used many systems and many principles but so far, although he is
the ruler of this world, he has never been able to conquer this world. But he
continues to make the believer his number one target as he seeks to gain
control of his own kingdom. He does this by, first of all, accusing believers
at every opportunity. The answer to this is found in 1 John 2:1,2 where Jesus
Christ acts as our defence attorney. We have Him constantly retained on our
behalf, as it were, to defend us in the angelic convocations where accusation
is brought forth. So there are many portions of the Word of God which teach
this principle, many portions which emphasise the accusation of believers. All
of us are under accusation. But every time our name comes into court the Lord
Jesus Christ always has the perfect defence. The sins that he mentions have
been judged and, as it were, you are under the blood of Christ, you are under
the judgement of the cross. These sins were judged in another court and
therefore in this angelic court they are thrown out.
So
we have the accusation of believers, and in this accusation Satan seeks to
neutralise our effectiveness in the grace plan of God. We have to add something
to that: he has to get some co-operation from us without our realising it.
Therefore it has been, since the very beginning of revelation and doctrine, the
strategy of Satan to encourage believers to ignore Bible doctrine, to reject
the Word of God, to reject its rightful place. Not only does he seek to
neutralise Bible doctrine but he sets up a substitute, a counterfeit doctrine,
the doctrine of demons. It is, therefore, the objective of the devil where you
are concerned to first of all neutralise in your soul and in your life any
relationship with the Word of God. For Satan knows that he is defeated to the
extent that you take in any portion of doctrine. If you have positive volition
for two days at a time it is bad news for Satan! In addition to that he works
on you in heaven. That is why he is called Satan and the devil. Both words
connote accuser. Devil really means enemy and accuser; Satan means accusing
lawyer. He actually goes to court and he spends a lot of time giving the facts
of your personal sins.
The
only other area where the devil can really frustrate you is in the area of the
will of God. Obviously God has a will for your life, He has a purpose for your
life and He has a plan. The will of God includes every moment of your life. So
obviously the devil must do something to frustrate the will of God being worked
out in your life — to frustrate operation grace.
The
will of God is generally defined in three areas: The operational will of God:
to be doing what He wants you to do; the geographical will of God: to be where
He wants you to be; the mental will of God: to think what He wants you to think
[divine viewpoint versus human viewpoint]. In all of these areas Satan
understands the categorical breakdown and therefore in the areas he seeks to
frustrate the will of God in your life.
There
is one special area where the devil can separate the soul of the believer from
the plan of God. There is a place where the devil has found it possible to
short-circuit everything that God wants to give you and everything that God has
planned for you. And that has to do with worry in the soul. Worry is the one
thing whereby you separate yourself from the divine operating assets, even if
you possess them in your soul. Worry, of course, is the antithesis of the
faith-rest technique. Satan also knows that you have a special area of worry, a
special area of anxiety. There are certain areas of worry, once they are
developed, where we are separated from every asset we have in the soul. One
ounce of worry cuts you off from the assets you are carrying in your soul. You
are carrying Bible doctrine, you carry promises in your soul, they are yours.
But the devil knows how to cut you off from them.
Then
there is another little trick that Satan uses. It is called focus. Everyone has
a tendency to concentrate on something at some time. A person who never
concentrates on anything at any time is obviously not sane. You cannot think
clearly and logically and well unless you have the ability to concentrate.
Satan’s objective is to get you to concentrate on the wrong things. This is
called eyes on self. Self-pity is a classic illustration. Self-pity is more
than just a failure on your part, it is a part of the overall Satanic plan to
separate you from the assets of grace. When you feel sorry for yourself you
have fallen into the Satanic trap.
Another
is an area which is quite subtle, especially for believers when they begin to
get discernment. There is under the laws of divine establishment the function
of the believer in this life in relationship to his nation — patriotism and so
on, military service, even becoming a public servant, working in the government
in some way. However, in these areas you immediately become enmeshed in the
whole cosmic system. The laws of establishment and the function of the laws of
establishment keeps the believer pure in the function of the life of a nation.
This is why a believer often becomes a statesman instead of a politician. Men
who have Bible doctrine and have enough Bible doctrine to understand the laws
of establishment, and who keep their thinking pure in the field of
establishment, emphasising always the freedom and getting away from the welfare
trap. These people avoid Satan’s strategy, part of which is the idea of getting
involved in temporal solutions where spiritual solutions are the answer.
For
example, if you are a believer with Bible doctrine you should hate and despise
communism. You should recognise communism for what it is — a monster which is
seeking to destroy us. But there comes a point when the question is asked: What
can we do? Here is where the problem arises. How do you avoid getting involved
in some Satanic trap at the point of solution? Is there a temporal solution to
communism? The answer is, No. Communism is basically a Satanic system and since
it is involved in Satan’s thinking and in Satan’s plan as a spiritual force it
must be met with a spiritual force. Temporal solutions never stop spiritual
forces. The answer is found in Bible doctrine. Oh, there comes a time when, as
it were, the cards are on the table and there comes a time to fight communism.
Then you have a temporal solution: kill all the communists you can,
professionally, in a military sense, and resist them to the point of death.
Satan
knows that many believers are ignorant of Bible doctrine and he realises that
it is very easy for people to accept a veneer instead of Bible doctrine.
Therefore he has set up a number of counterfeit systems. Counterfeit systems
only fool the immature believer. They always have whitewash, they always sound
appealing and great, but they are not.
Satan’s
counterfeit systems
1.
A counterfeit gospel — 2 Corinthians 11:3,4.
2.
There are counterfeit ministers — 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.
3.
A counterfeit communion table — 1 Corinthians 10:19-21.
4.
A counterfeit system of spirituality — Galatians 3:2,3.
5.
A counterfeit righteousness — Matthew 19:16-28.
6.
A counterfeit modus operandi — Matthew 23.
7.
A counterfeit system of power — 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10.
8.
A counterfeit system of gods — 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4.
In
our context we have the devil’s disciples, false teachers who represent Satan
and who are a part of this system.
1.
In the field of idolatry, of which there is still a great deal today. History
will never be free of idolatry — the devil’s communion table. Idolatry is
advanced by false teachers — Habakkuk 2:18,19.
2.
False teachers, or the devil’s disciples, always come as the best dressed
people as far as personalities
are concerned. They are only pleasing personalities and attractive personalities. Their insidious teaching
is not obvious from the facade of their sweetness and sincerity — Matthew 7:15;
Romans 16:18.
3.
The area of courting believers away from doctrine — Galatians 4:17,18.
4.
The devil’s disciples appeal to the ego; they stimulate the approbation lust of
their victims — 2 Corinthians 10:12.
5.
The devil’s disciples operate in an evangelistic way throughout the entire
Satanic kingdom of the earth — 1 John 4:1.
In
our passage we are going to learn many things about the devil’s disciples.
There are three paragraphs in 2 Peter chapter 2. The first paragraph is the
exposure of false teachers —verses 1-3a; secondly, the judgement of the devil’s
disciples —verses 3b-9; thirdly, the characteristics of the devil’s disciples
—verses 10-22.
In
the first verse we are going to see that the devil’s disciples denied the Lord
that bought them. This is the whole principle of a doctrine so important to our
understanding —unlimited atonement. “False prophets” is an Old Testament word
for the devil’s disciples; “false teachers” is a New Testament word for the
devil’s disciples. We have people being deceived by them. We are going to find
all kinds of people in this context who are going to be deceived by them. Unbelievers
are deceived; even believers are deceived. We even have one case of where a
believer was not deceived — Noah. Lot was deceived by them and Lot as a
believer was destroyed by them. At the end of this chapter we see how
unbelievers lose their common sense, how unbelievers have a state of
reversionism that brings them directly under Satan and in direct opposition to
God’s great plan on this earth.
Second Peter chapter two is one of
the great passages in the Word of God on unbeliever reversionism. However, some
of the illustrations are taken with regarded to believers. For example, one or
two well-known reversionists are found in this passage. In verse 7 we have Lot,
a very famous reversionist in the days of Abraham. We also have one of the great
believers of all time in verse 5 — Noah. And while we do have occasionally
believers used as an illustration the false teachers in this passage are
unbelievers. At the end of the chapter we have unbelievers in reversionism. In
chapter two verse 1 we have unbeliever false teachers; in the last verse — 22 —
we have the illustration of their effect upon unbelievers who enter into
reversionism. So reversionism of the unbeliever is the general subject but
because of the use of believers in the illustrations we definitely have an
application to us who have accepted Jesus Christ as saviour.
This
passage is designed to explain many otherwise unexplainable things in the world
today. For example, why does a generation suddenly become weird? Why do
politicians make stupid and incomprehensible decisions? The passage deals with
reversionism but it deals with reversionism from the standpoint of an
unbeliever who starts out with common sense, discernment, norms and standards
which are compatible with the laws of divine establishment, and winds up
putting this person in the place of a pig eating slop, or a dog devouring his
own vomit. It takes certain ingredients to do that even though this is the
devil’s world. But the soul has certain freedom safeguards to protect individuals
and groups of individuals becoming weirdoes.
Verse
1 — “But” sets up a contrast with the great men of God in Old Testament times
who communicated doctrine. These men communicated verbally but they also
communicated in written form the Old Testament canon. In verses 20-21 of the
previous chapter we have the mechanics for the formation of the Old Testament
canon. But then, in the Old Testament times, and now, in the Church Age, we
have the antithesis of a true prophet, a true communicator of the Word. We have
the false prophet, referring to the Old testament type, and we have the false
teacher, referring to the Church Age.
“there
were” — aorist middle indicative of ginomai. Ginomai indicates
that these things came into existence. “There were” would be e)imi, but we do not
have e)imi here, therefore it can’t be translated
“there were” .It should be translated, “There came into existence” .The aorist
tense here means that this occurs periodically in history. It reaches a
concentration point in certain eras of history. The middle voice is reflexive.
Each false teacher had to be developed through a Satanic training course. Each
false teacher or false prophet rejected truth. He rejected the gospel when he
heard it; he built scar tissue on the left bank of his soul and he built scar
tissue on the right bank of his soul by a frantic search for happiness on the
one hand or by that house of cards, self-righteousness, on the other. He had a
blackout of the soul; the vacuum in his soul opened up and through mataiothj came Satanic
doctrine. He became an effective communicator of false concepts, and when false
concepts become the premise of any group of people, whether by logical or
illogical means, the conclusions are also false.
It
is inevitable that a false premise produces a false conclusion. Therefore it is
inevitable that society and people within a society destroy themselves by their
thinking. For example, no matter how you slice it you cannot look at the boils
on the epidermis of society today without recognising the fact that we are in
for something very serious. People do not realise that they are going
collectively “nuts.” Reversionism is very subtle and when people become
involved in reversionism they are not aware of their condition. So this passage
portrays it very beautifully.
However,
reversionism must have leadership in the field of communication. In the ancient
world it was spoken communication; today we have other sources of communication
as well. There is always a voice persuasively presenting something that is
false which becomes the premise for the function of society. And once this
premise is established it is inevitable that conclusions reached logically or
illogically, by inference or deduction, will also be false. Then you have
created a bomb.
The
middle voice is reflexive. Each false teacher must develop under a Satanic
training course. The indicative mood is the reality of false teachers in Old
Testament times — “There came into existence false prophets” .These were
Satan’s disciples in the past. Notice: they are communicators, they are sent to
be among the people [a reference here to Israel in the last dispensation] and
this becomes then the ground work for an analogy between false prophets of the
Jewish Age and false teachers of the Church Age. The analogy is completed by
using a simple word for analogy, o(j,
followed by a change of verb — “as there shall be,” the future active
indicative of e)imi.
When Peter wrote this he switched from ginomai to e)imi and he put it in the future tense to show
that the trend which was begun in the Old Testament will continue throughout
all history. The future tense is what we call a gnomic future. This is used to
develop a statement of fact or performance which may be rightfully expected
under the conditions outlined by the context. And if you have a false teacher,
and if the false teacher is persuasive as Satan’s disciples are, then it is
inevitable that there will be converts to the system.
“among
you” — believers of the Church Age can expect the presence of false teachers.
The relative pronoun refers to the false teachers in the Church Age.
“who
privily” — this does not line up with the Greek. It is the future active
indicative of pareisagw —
to infiltrate or bring in secretly. A)gw means
to lead or to bring; e)ij is
a directional preposition; par
is the preposition of immediate source which also connotes “by the side of.” To
lead into by the side of means a subtle insidious infiltration, and in their
persuasive language for which they gain a hearing. Throughout history public
speaking has been the greatest system for influencing people at the moment,
just as the written page has a more prolonged influence. Here is the type of
thing that you have to recognise: the devil’s disciples do not look or act in
the sense of being evil and they are therefore not easily identified. They are
sweetness and light, they are persuasive, they are eloquent and attractive, all
of which are absolutely necessary. Satan picks his communicators well and they
always have an appeal that includes a solution, a panacea, and it always
follows the principle of that greatest lie in history: the greatest good for
the greatest number. That is a lie; it is an attack upon your freedom. Or that
you must surrender your freedoms to us so that we can benefit others. Are you
going to be selfish and just have this freedom all to yourself? This is a
Satanic lie. So one way or another, very persuasively, these things become a
premise. You don’t get the whole package at once, you get it a little bit at a
time. You do not see the end, you only are attracted by what you hear at the
beginning.
“damnable”
— genitive singular of a)poleia,
and it means destructive. It means that they not only destroy society but it
applies to unbelievers as individuals — their freedom is affected — and it
applies to believers as individuals. It also applies to believers spiritually,
they are often led astray. Destructive, then, refers to both individual and
collective concepts.
“heresies”
— a(iresij. This
really means factions or discords, but also it means heresies in the sense of a
principle or doctrine which is in contention with the truth. This is the
meaning here. Destructive deviations from doctrine is the principle here.
These
false teachers had to have a start. How did Satan recruit them? What was the
one thing that was absolutely necessary before they could become false
teachers? It is found in the present middle participle a)rneomai, translated
“denying.” Satan recruits those who specifically reject Jesus Christ. His
recruiting program which precedes his training program: the individuals
involved must renounce Jesus Christ. The present tense means they not only
denied the first time they heard about Christ and the gospel but they persisted
in the denial at any time. And a)rneomai not
only means to renounce but it means to have antagonism in renunciation.
Therefore that is why it sometimes comes to mean to contradict. The middle
voice means they did it on their own. The participle indicates that from such
people who do it this way, Satan recruits. He doesn’t recruit everyone but he
does recruit talented people.
How
do you correct something like this? When society creates its own bomb it
destroys itself. Can it be corrected? The answer is, Yes it can. But here again
we have to watch the solution because the solution is a spiritual one. You have
to reverse the whole trend. And the answer in reversing the trend is
regeneration followed by the function of GAP.
“Lord”
— not what we would expect here. It is not kurioj here. The word is despothj, which means absolute Lord. Despothj is used to
indicate that these people had a clear shot at salvation, they understood the
issue completely. If kurioj had
been used it would mean that they did not necessarily have a clear
understanding but despothj means
that there was no question about their understanding of the gospel. They knew
what they were rejecting. Satan, who is recruiting, must take people whose scar
tissue is definite and will continue, and in
a)rneomai you
have a present middle participle which implies not only the denial but the
resultant scar tissue. And it keeps accumulating because there never will be a
time but what these false teachers are always antagonistic to the Lord. Despothj looks at the Lord
from the standpoint of His absolute existence in hypostatic union, and they
have a clear understanding of this and they reject it. Therefore despothj is used instead
of curio.
The absolute Lord has the absolute criterion and despothj indicates that anything that comes from
the Lord must be absolute truth. That is the concept, they reject absolutes.
This tells us immediately something about false teachers. False teachers will
never accept anything that smacks of absolutes. Everything is relative to them
and they dabble in relatives so that they can be inconsistent under Satan’s
leadership and still be appealing. You see, the only way you can ever have
consistency in life is to anchor on absolutes. Bible doctrine is anchoring on
absolutes.
“denying
the Lord that bought them” — When Christ went to the cross He bore the sins of
every one of these false teachers. He died for everyone. “Bought” is the aorist
active participle of a)gorazw. A)gora is the market place, and when you add the
a)zw on
to a)gora it
just simply means to go to the market place and purchase something. That was
the original use of the word. A)gorazw means
to buy or to purchase then. It is also one of the words used in redemption. And
you can translate this: “the Lord having purchased them” or “having redeemed
them.” The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main
verb. Pareisagw is
the main verb and long before these people introduced false doctrine publicly
in an insidious and subtle manner Jesus Christ died for them. “Them” is the
accusative plural pronoun used here for false teachers. And again this is the
doctrine of unlimited atonement. We have the same concept in 1 John 2:2. “and
bring upon themselves.” This is the fairness and the justice of God. Even
though Jesus Christ died for their sins, when they reject the love of God at
the cross the alternative is that God cannot say in eternity to forget this
lake of fire. His love must be met at the cross; “swift” — taxinoj, which means swift,
speedy or impending. All are true here.
“destruction”
— accusative of a)poleia.
Here it refers to what they teach. They bring upon themselves a)poleia while they have
been teaching a)poleia.
But remember that they are not going to hell because they teach false doctrine,
they are going to hell because they reject Christ as saviour.
Second
Peter chapter two is one of the great passages in the Word of God on unbeliever
reversionism. However, some of the illustrations are taken with regarded to
believers. For example, one or two well-known reversionists are found in this
passage. In verse 7 we have Lot, a very famous reversionist in the days of
Abraham. We also have one of the great believers of all time in verse 5 — Noah.
And while we do have occasionally believers used as an illustration the false
teachers in this passage are unbelievers. At the end of the chapter we have
unbelievers in reversionism. In chapter two verse 1 we have unbeliever false
teachers; in the last verse — 22 — we have the illustration of their effect
upon unbelievers who enter into reversionism. So reversionism of the unbeliever
is the general subject but because of the use of believers in the illustrations
we definitely have an application to us who have accepted Jesus Christ as
saviour.
This
passage is designed to explain many otherwise unexplainable things in the world
today. For example, why does a generation suddenly become weird? Why do
politicians make stupid and incomprehensible decisions? The passage deals with
reversionism but it deals with reversionism from the standpoint of an
unbeliever who starts out with common sense, discernment, norms and standards
which are compatible with the laws of divine establishment, and winds up
putting this person in the place of a pig eating slop, or a dog devouring his
own vomit. It takes certain ingredients to do that even though this is the
devil’s world. But the soul has certain freedom safeguards to protect
individuals and groups of individuals becoming weirdos.
Verse
1 — “But” sets up a contrast with the great men of God in Old Testament times
who communicated doctrine. These men communicated verbally but they also
communicated in written form the Old Testament canon. In verses 20-21 of the
previous chapter we have the mechanics for the formation of the Old Testament
canon. But then, in the Old Testament times, and now, in the Church Age, we
have the antithesis of a true prophet, a true communicator of the Word. We have
the false prophet, referring to the Old testament type, and we have the false
teacher, referring to the Church Age.
“there
were” — aorist middle indicative of ginomai. Ginomai
indicates that these things came into existence. “There were” would be e)imi, but we do not have e)imi here, therefore it can’t be translated
“there were.” It should be translated, “There came into existence.” The aorist
tense here means that this occurs periodically in history. It reaches a
concentration point in certain eras of history. The middle voice is reflexive.
Each false teacher had to be developed through a Satanic training course. Each
false teacher or false prophet rejected truth. He rejected the gospel when he
heard it; he built scar tissue on the left bank of his soul and he built scar
tissue on the right bank of his soul by a frantic search for happiness on the
one hand or by that house of cards, self-righteousness, on the other. He had a
blackout of the soul; the vacuum in his soul opened up and through mataiothj came Satanic
doctrine. He became an effective communicator of false concepts, and when false
concepts become the premise of any group of people, whether by logical or
illogical means, the conclusions are also false.
It
is inevitable that a false premise produces a false conclusion. Therefore it is
inevitable that society and people within a society destroy themselves by their
thinking. For example, no matter how you slice it you cannot look at the boils
on the epidermis of society today without recognising the fact that we are in
for something very serious. People do not realise that they are going
collectively “nuts” .Reversionism is very subtle and when people become
involved in reversionism they are not aware of their condition. So this passage
portrays it very beautifully.
However,
reversionism must have leadership in the field of communication. In the ancient
world it was spoken communication; today we have other sources of communication
as well. There is always a voice persuasively presenting something that is
false which becomes the premise for the function of society. And once this
premise is established it is inevitable that conclusions reached logically or
illogically, by inference or deduction, will also be false. Then you have
created a bomb.
The
middle voice is reflexive. Each false teacher must develop under a Satanic
training course. The indicative mood is the reality of false teachers in Old
Testament times — “There came into existence false prophets.” These were
Satan’s disciples in the past. Notice: they are communicators, they are sent to
be among the people [a reference here to Israel in the last dispensation] and
this becomes then the ground work for an analogy between false prophets of the
Jewish Age and false teachers of the Church Age. The analogy is completed by
using a simple word for analogy, o(j,
followed by a change of verb — “as there shall be,” the future active
indicative of e)imi.
When Peter wrote this he switched from ginomai to e)imi and he put it in the future tense to show that
the trend which was begun in the Old Testament will continue throughout all
history. The future tense is what we call a gnomic future. This is used to
develop a statement of fact or performance which may be rightfully expected
under the conditions outlined by the context. And if you have a false teacher,
and if the false teacher is persuasive as Satan’s disciples are, then it is
inevitable that there will be converts to the system.
“among
you” — believers of the Church Age can expect the presence of false teachers.
The relative pronoun refers to the false teachers in the Church Age.
“who
privily” — this does not line up with the Greek. It is the future active
indicative of pareisagw
— to infiltrate or bring in secretly. A)go means to lead or to bring; e)ij is a directional
preposition; par
is the preposition of immediate source which also connotes “by the side of.” To
lead into by the side of means a subtle insidious infiltration, and in their
persuasive language for which they gain a hearing. Throughout history public
speaking has been the greatest system for influencing people at the moment,
just as the written page has a more prolonged influence. Here is the type of
thing that you have to recognise: the devil’s disciples do not look or act in
the sense of being evil and they are therefore not easily identified. They are
sweetness and light, they are persuasive, they are eloquent and attractive —
all of which are absolutely necessary. Satan picks his communicators well and
they always have an appeal that includes a solution, a panacea, and it always
follows the principle of that greatest lie in history: the greatest good for
the greatest number. That is a lie; it is an attack upon your freedom. Or that
you must surrender your freedoms to us so that we can benefit others. Are you
going to be selfish and just have this freedom all to yourself? This is a Satanic
lie. So one way or another, very persuasively, these things become a premise.
You don’t get the whole package at once, you get it a little bit at a time. You
do not see the end, you only are attracted by what you hear at the beginning.
“damnable”
— genitive singular of a)poleia,
and it means destructive. It means that they not only destroy society but it
applies to unbelievers as individuals — their freedom is affected — and it
applies to believers as individuals. It also applies to believers spiritually,
they are often led astray. Destructive, then, refers to both individual and
collective concepts.
“heresies”
— a(ireseij.
This really means factions or discords, but also it means heresies in the sense
of a principle or doctrine which is in contention with the truth. This is the
meaning here. Destructive deviations from doctrine is the principle here.
These
false teachers had to have a start. How did Satan recruit them? What was the
one thing that was absolutely necessary before they could become false
teachers? It is found in the present middle participle a)rneomai, translated
“denying.” Satan recruits those who specifically reject Jesus Christ. His
recruiting program which precedes his training program: the individuals
involved must renounce Jesus Christ. The present tense means they not only
denied the first time they heard about Christ and the gospel but they persisted
in the denial at any time. And a)rneomai
not only means to renounce but it means to have antagonism in renunciation.
Therefore that is why it sometimes comes to mean to contradict. The middle
voice means they did it on their own. The participle indicates that from such
people who do it this way, Satan recruits. He doesn’t recruit everyone but he
does recruit talented people.
How
do you correct something like this? When society creates its own bomb it
destroys itself. Can it be corrected? The answer is, Yes it can. But here again
we have to watch the solution because the solution is a spiritual one. You have
to reverse the whole trend. And the answer in reversing the trend is
regeneration followed by the function of GAP.
“Lord”
— not what we would expect here. It is not kurioj here. The word is despothj, which means absolute Lord. Despothj is used to indicate
that these people had a clear shot at salvation, they understood the issue
completely. If kurioj
had been used it would mean that they did not necessarily have a clear
understanding but despothj
means that there was no question about their understanding of the gospel. They
knew what they were rejecting. Satan, who is recruiting, must take people whose
scar tissue is definite and will continue, and in a)rneomai
you have a present middle participle which implies not only the denial but the
resultant scar tissue. And it keeps accumulating because there never will be a
time but what these false teachers are always antagonistic to the Lord. Despothj looks at the Lord
from the standpoint of His absolute existence in hypostatic union, and they
have a clear understanding of this and they reject it. Therefore despothj is used instead of kurioj. The absolute Lord
has the absolute criterion and despothj
indicates that anything that comes from the Lord must be absolute truth. That
is the concept, they reject absolutes. This tells us immediately something
about false teachers. False teachers will never accept anything that smacks of
absolutes. Everything is relative to them and they dabble in relatives so that
they can be inconsistent under Satan’s leadership and still be appealing. You
see, the only way you can ever have consistency in life is to anchor on
absolutes. Bible doctrine is anchoring on absolutes.
“denying
the Lord that bought them” — When Christ went to the cross He bore the sins of
every one of these false teachers. He died for everyone. “Bought” is the aorist
active participle of a)gorazw.
A)gora is the market place, and when you add the
azw
on to a)gora
it just simply means to go to the market place and purchase something. That was
the original use of the word. A)gorazw means to buy or to
purchase then. It is also one of the words used in redemption. And you can
translate this: “the Lord having purchased them” or “having redeemed them.” The
action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. Pareisagw is the main verb and
long before these people introduced false doctrine publicly in an insidious and
subtle manner Jesus Christ died for them. “Them” is the accusative plural
pronoun used here for false teachers. And again this is the doctrine of unlimited
atonement. We have the same concept in 1 John 2:2.
“and
bring upon themselves.” This is the fairness and the justice of God. Even
though Jesus Christ died for their sins, when they reject the love of God at
the cross the alternative is that God cannot say in eternity to forget this
lake of fire. His love must be met at the cross.
“swift”
— taxinoj,
which means swift, speedy or impending. All are true here.
“destruction”
— accusative of a)poleia.
Here it refers to what they teach. They bring upon themselves a)poleia while they have been
teaching a)poleia.
But remember that they are not going to hell because they teach false doctrine,
they are going to hell because they reject Christ as saviour.
In
verse 2 we notice the converts of the false teachers. While the Bible
emphasises reversionism among believers the passage here actually deals with
the unbeliever in reversionism. When a believer goes into reversionism he has
followed a process. Over a period of time he has functioned under GAP. The thing that
distinguished the mature from the immature believer is the use of e)pignwsij in the
construction of the ECS,
for this is the objective of the Christian life. Once the ECS is achieved there is
also one of the greatest dangers in phase two, the danger that the believer
will begin to neglect the doctrine by which the complex has been constructed.
He will become indifferent, or assuming that he has arrived he will phase out the
daily concept of GAP.
There is no antagonism toward doctrine at first, merely indifference. Then from
this indifference there starts the process of reversionism.
There is one thing against which no
unbeliever can stand against. When mataioths opens up
Satanic concepts begin to come through the vacuum. That is the beginning of the
end. He may reject these things at first but sooner or later “the dog will
return to his vomit.” Reversionism in a believer is the destruction of the ECS. The unbeliever never
has an ECS,
he has a house in his soul called establishment and the destruction of the
house in his soul is reversionism. These days we have a whole generation of
young people who are in reversionism.
False
teachers have converts just as those who teach the gospel have converts. So we
begin in verse 2. “Many”
are the converts of false teachers. These are the victims who will be described
in great detail beginning in verse 18 and going through verse 22. What we have
here is the principle that unbelievers are converts to the reversionistic
system. And this explains so much of the trouble we have in the world in any
generation. The Greek word is polloi,
and it refers to those in any generation those who have responded to false
teaching, those who have been converts to reversionism.
“shall
follow” — a future active indicative of e)cakoluqew, which means to follow after, to
imitate, to obey. It really means here to follow the authority of those who are
communicators of the Satanic system called in 1 Timothy 4:1 doctrines of
demons. Followers of the Satanic system. This is a verb of discipleship. False
teachers make disciples of unbelievers who go negative toward the gospel.
“pernicious”
— a)selgeia,
the Greek word for the phallic cult. It is generally translated licentious. The
phallic cult is inevitably related to any kind of devil worship. As a result of
being converts they follow an authority and they move into the function of the
phallic cult.
“by
reason of whom” — should be “because of whom.” We have dia plus the
accusative which means “because of.” “Whom” is a relative pronoun in the
accusative case referring to the false teachers.
“the
way of truth” — this has two meanings. A)lhqeia refers to any form of doctrine. First of
all it means doctrine pertaining to the gospel. The way of truth specifically
here is redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, imputation, justification,
doctrines pertaining to salvation. The way of truth is everything in the field
of soteriology and Christology and hamartiology which relates to the correct
and accurate presentation of the gospel. But the way of truth, therefore, also
refers to any form of Bible doctrine for a)leqeia is Bible doctrine categorically stored
and communicated. So Bible doctrine is the way of truth or whether it is phase
two or phase three doctrine …
“shall
be evil spoken of” — the future passive indicative of blasqemew, which means to
slander or malign. So the way of truth is maligned by false teachers. Bible
doctrine is always maligned by false teachers and when Peter put this in the
future tense he was warning that this would be true of the entire Church Age.
The passive voice means that the truth will never be communicated without
having its enemies.
Verse
3 — Their motive and mechanics. “through” is e)n plus the locative — “in the sphere
of” ."covetousness” — the Greek
word is a technical word pleonecia,
which is not really covetousness. It is a frantic search for happiness. False
teachers are the blind leading the blind. They themselves are involved in a
frantic search for happiness which is building scar tissue on their souls. And
as the blind are leading the blind they lead you into a frantic search for
happiness so that you too will have scar tissue on the right bank of the soul.
“In the sphere of a frantic search for happiness.” This is their modus
operandi.
“shall
they with feigned words.” The word for feigned is plastoj,
where we get the word “plastic.” It means moulded words, fashioned words. In
other words they have a vocabulary to impress and deceive. They are trying to
put you into their mould of false concepts and they squeeze you into their
moulds by the use of moulded words, words designed to intrigue and to
stimulate. In other words, these people have excellent vocabularies and they
challenge your thinking and lead you into this mould. So, in effect, every
false teacher is a Judas goat leading you into a mould.
“make
merchandise of you” — the future middle indicative of e)mporeuomai. This word is a
business term used for a travelling salesman making a great profit. He moves to
one place and makes a quick killing, moves somewhere else and makes a quick
killing. It is used for a travelling salesman whose product is not good enough
to stand setting up a regular system of distribution in one place. So to make a
profit he has to go and do a lot of hard selling, sell his product, unload
quick and get out of town before they find out it isn’t everything he said it
was. That is what e)mporeuomai means.
There are words for legitimate salesmanship, this is for illegitimate
salesmanship.
Verses 3b-9 — the judgement of false
teachers.
Verse
3 — “whose,” the relative pronoun refers to the false teachers who are
reversionistic unbelievers.
“judgement”
means a judicial sentence. The Greek word is krima. Krima refers
to a judicial sentence which was passed in eternity past based upon the
righteousness and the justice of God which never changes.
“now
of a long time” is a compound adverb, e)kpalai. It actually means
from of old or for a long time, or a long time ago. A long time ago means that
this judgement was passed in eternity past. God knew all the facts billions of
years ago.
“lingereth
not” — a)rgew means
to be unemployed primarily. It also means to be inoperative and, therefore:
“whose judicial sentence from eternity past is not inoperative.” In other
words, they are definitely going to be judged.
“their
damnation” — literally, “their destruction.” A)poleia means destruction and refers to the last
judgement in which all false teachers will be included.
“slumbereth
not” — the present active indicative of nustazw which means to sink into sleep or to
slumber into inactivity. Nustazw indicates
once again that the great white throne does not slumber into inactivity but is
waiting for these false teachers. The negative with nustazw means it is there, it is just a matter of
time. History must run its course before this judgement is completed.
That
brings us in verse 4 to one of the longest protasis in all of the scripture —
verses 4-8. The apodasis is verse 9. Verse 4-9 is one sentence in which we have
a series of clauses to compare this judgement to various things which have
occurred historically. The protasis begins with a description of the judgement
of fallen angels. This judgement of verse 3b is now compared to the judgement
of fallen angels.
“If”
introduces a first class condition. The protasis runs through four verses and
in each one of these we have a comparison to the judgement just mentioned. The
last judgement just mentioned is not inoperative. It was a reality in eternity
past and will be fulfilled in eternity future and it is compared in its
certainty to four judgements: a. The judgement of the fallen angels, verse 4;
b. The judgement of the flood, verse 5; c. The judgement of Sodom, verse 6; d.
The judgement of Lot.
“If” — if and it is true. This is an
historical incident to illustrate the certainty of divine judgement. It always
looks as though God is never going to judge the false teacher because he goes
right on with his false teaching, and therefore it becomes discouraging to
believers to see false teachers apparently going on and on and on. But God is
going to judge them. Hell is forever and they are going to have eternal
judgement as unbelievers.
“God”
— o( qeoj,
which is “the God,” a reference to God the Father who has never made a mistake
and has done an awful lot of judging.
“spared
not the angels that sinned.” As the author of the divine plan God the Father
holds the prerogative of judging those who reject grace. And this He will do
until He hands over one part of judgement to the Son at the great white throne,
the last judgement. His judgement is based upon the fact that He is righteous,
just, sovereign, and that He is omniscient, He knows all of the facts.
“spared
not” — aorist middle indicative of feidomai. Feidomai means to be thrifty, or to be tender, or
to spare. Here it means to spare. The aorist tense is a timeless aorist which
goes with the fact that God fulfilled these judgements in eternity past. They
were certain then because He had the facts then.
Now it is really the middle voice that calls
our attention to a lot of things here. Feidomai is in the middle voice. In the active
voice in the Greek the subject produces the action. In the passive voice the
antithesis is true: the subject receives the action. Now we have the middle
voice, the voice of agency, in which the subject participates in the results of
the action, or the subject acts with a view to participating in the outcome.
The active voice emphasises the action but the middle voice stresses the agent,
it relates the action more intimately to the subject. And there are basically
four types of middle voice: the direct middle voice which is reflexive; the
indirect middle which emphasises the agent producing the action; there is the
intensive middle which is comparable to the piel stem in the Hebrew; there is
the permissive middle in which the agent voluntarily yields himself to the
results of the action in his own interest, hence the subject is benefited by
the action of the verb.
God
is the subject of feidomai.
This is aorist middle indicative — God producing the action. God did not spare
the angels who infiltrated the human race — middle voice. So first of all it is
a direct middle, it is reflexive. God Himself did the judging of those angels
and therefore protected the human race and perpetuated the angelic conflict.
The indirect middle emphasises the agent producing the action and the emphasis
here is on God who produces the action of judgment by sparing not these angels.
These angels are already incarcerated. This is also an intensive middle in that
God in sparing not the angels provided a judgement which was so intense that
certain fallen angels have been out of the picture since Genesis 6. So we have
the direct, indirect and the intensive middle all applying to feidomai. The subject participates in the results
of the action and the result is the fact that certain angels now reside in Tartarus.
Genesis 6: Satan had to come up with a plan to cut off the promise of Genesis
3:15. The “seed of the woman” is Jesus Christ. Seed has to do with being the
last Adam. Of the woman indicates the manner in which Jesus Christ would become
true humanity, made lower than angels. In other words, the virgin birth. The
seed of the woman is Christ coming into the world — virgin birth. So one thing
that must be stopped: if Jesus Christ comes into the world as a man, made lower
than angels, and eventually becomes superior to angels, then Satan’s back is
broken. Man, the first Adam, started this mess in the fall; the last Adam,
Christ, gets us out of the mess. In between Satan is the ruler of this world
and he came up with a great plan to frustrate the incarnation. If he could
simply send in a demon army at a time when there was a maximum number of women
and a minimum number of men, and these demons by copulating with these women
could actually produce super creatures who were one half angelic and one half
human, once all of the human race was infiltrated with angelic part angel and
part human, that would wipe out forever any possibility of Christ coming into
the world as true humanity. Had this attack succeeded there would be no
salvation and the angelic conflict would have been won by Satan. And since man
was created to resolve the angelic conflict God had to take vigorous steps of
judgement, not only to stop this thing but to see that it never happened again.
It was these creatures who were half human, half angelic who were destroyed in
the flood. So the flood is a part of that judgement. And there was only one
surviving family from the flood — Noah and his family. Between Adam and Noah
there was no infiltration of angels, it was true humanity all the way. This was
the only line by which Christ could come into the world. So Christ was
descended from Adam through Noah, and Abraham and the Jews could not come into
existence even until this matter had been cleared up. And while demons today
can indwell unbelievers and can teach believers who are in reversionism there
is no more sexual infiltration into the human race. That was cut out as of
Genesis 6.
Genesis
6:2 — “the sons of God.” In the Hebrew we have bene ha elohim. This particular phrase is only used for angels, it
is never used for human beings in the Hebrew. You find in Daniel sons of God but it is not this same
phrase. This Hebrew phrase is used four times in the scripture and it never
refers to anything but angels — Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Genesis 6:2. It never
refers to human beings. All fallen angels today fall into two categories. Tartarus
is the place of the fallen angels of Genesis 6. But on the earth we still have
a great host of fallen angels functioning under Satan, called demons.
Verse
4 continued: “that sinned” — an aorist active participle of hamartanw. Hamartanw refers to the infiltration. They crossed
the line of something that was forbidden. If God had not judged these angels
that sinned the entire human race would have been corrupted so that the
incarnation would have been frustrated and impossible.
“down
to hell” — an aorist active participle of the verb tartarow, which is a reference to Tartarus. He
didn’t “cast them down to hell,” He incarcerated them in Tartarus. This is the
manner in which He executed feidomai.
Again we have the principle of the certainty of judgement.
“he
delivered them into chains of darkness.” The word “delivered” is the aorist
active indicative of paradidomi.
If God has the power to judge these angels and remove them from the scene at a
certain point after grace has been extended beyond grace, then God will do the
same thing with false teachers.
“darkness”
is really not darkness at all. It refers here to pits of gloom — zofoj.
“to
be reserved” — the present passive participle of terew means to be guarded. Passive voice: they
received guarding, they are always held there.
“unto
judgment” — e)ij
plus krima, for judgement, with reference to judgement.
That judgement is Matthew 25:41 where this segment of fallen angels will also
be brought before God and cast into the lake of fire forever.
No
we have our first illustration: the certainty of the judgement of these fallen
angels guarantees the certainty of the judgement of apostate teachers in the
human race, the apostate teachers for whom Christ died in verse 1.
Verse 5 — the certainty of the
judgement of the apostates is based upon this historical incident. The flood
really occurred and apostate teachers of verse one will really be judged.
“And spared not” is an aorist middle
indicative of the verb fiedemai. It is correctly translated
“to be spared.” The aorist tense is culminative. From the standpoint of the
writer the flood was a completed action. We have the middle voice in which the
subject participates in the results of the action, or the subject acts with a
view toward participating in the outcome. The active voice emphasises the
action of the verb; the middle voice stresses the agent of the verb. The middle
voice relates the action more intimately, then, to the subject. There are four
different types of middle voice: the directive middle, which is reflexive; the
indirect middle, which emphasises the agent producing the action; the intensive
middle, which is like the piel stem in the Hebrew; the permissive middle in
which the agent or the subject voluntarily yields himself to the results of the
action in his own interest, therefore the subject becomes benefited by the
action of the verb. This is a direct or reflexive middle here. God Himself
executed the judgement of the flood and the certainty of the judgement of the
flood illustrates two factors which are given in verse nine. The Lord knows how
to deliver the godly; he also knows how to punish. The historical fact of the
flood is a demonstration of His ability to do both. he was able to deliver
those who were believers and He punished and judged those who were unbelievers
on the earth. The indicative mood is the reality of the judgement of the
antediluvian civilisation. This judgement parallels the judgement of fallen
angels in that it also removes the super race of half-angelic and half man.
This corruption of the human race would have eventually destroyed the human race
and made the incarnation impossible.
“And spared not the old world.” The
old world refers to the old civilisation, the antediluvian civilisation which
existed before the flood and went from the creation of man until the flood. The
post-diluvian civilisation began with the new beginning after the flood and it
terminates with the second advent when the Millennial civilisation will begin.
We have a conjunction which sets up
a contrast between the judgement of the unbelievers and the Nephalim and the preservation
of the eight believers. The word “saved” does not mean eternal salvation. The
aorist active indicative of fulassw means to preserve and guard.
The aorist tense indicates that up to the flood every day Noah and his family
had to be protected from the super race who were highly violent. Then they were
preserved through the flood, and after the flood they were preserved. That is
the concept of the constative aorist of fulassw. The active voice: the preservation depended entirely on who and what
God was and nothing else — grace. The indicative mood is the reality of this
preservation.
“Noah the eighth” is the Greek way
of saying what we would say in the English, “Noah plus seven.” It means eight
people.
“preacher” is an incorrect
translation. The Greek word is khruc which is a herald, a public
messenger, a communicator. Noah was a communicator, a teacher of Bible
doctrine. Khruc is used in the sense that he
taught groups of people. A herald makes an announcement to a group of people.
So he taught in the same sense that a pastor-teacher communicates. He was a
public communicator of “righteousness.” Righteousness here refers to imputed
righteousness after the pattern of Genesis 15:6. The principle in Noah’s
communication, this intensified communication of doctrine, is that principle
which is found so frequently in the Word of God: Grace always precedes
judgement. There is always a grace period and during that grace period there is
one characteristic that is more important than anything else. Wherever you find
in the Bible this principle of grace preceding judgement there is always one
thing that happens first: an intensification of Bible teaching — always. In
this intensification of Bible teaching there is always an intense and powerful
delineation of the divine viewpoint before the judgement hits. Along with this
intensified evangelism and teaching there is also a reaction to it. Take, for
example, the Tribulation. It is a period of grace before judgement. The great
judgement occurs at the second advent though there are national and
international catastrophes prior to that. But in this period you have the
greatest concentration of evangelism in history. In a period of seven years the
world will be evangelised four times and in each case there will be a declaration
of Bible doctrine, gospel type. There will be reaction to this. The reaction is
described in 2 Thessalonians chapter two as “strong delusion.” Out of this
reaction and a few who are snatched as brands from the burning you have
eventually the terrible judgement of the baptism of fire occurring at the
second advent of Jesus Christ. That is the principle.
Wherever you find false teachers, as
we find in 2 Peter 2:1, these false teachers occur as a reaction. They have
reacted against the truth to the maximum by teaching that which is false. This
is the strong reaction that comes in the face of a concentration of the
teaching of the truth.
“bringing in the flood” is the
aorist active participle of e)pagw. This is the case of where
the action of the aorist participle precedes one main verb and is coterminous
with the other. It precedes the action of “preserve.” The flood was brought in
to judge the unbeliever, the apostate. The judgement of all apostasy occurred
through the flood. So the word “preserve,” the aorist active indicative of fulassw, indicates that the flood came first and as a
result the believers were spared. The principle of action of the aorist
participle preceding the main verb here is that they were preserved — “having
brought the flood he preserved” the believers. The Lord delivers through great disaster. More frequently
than not the Lord will deliver you through, not from. So we have “having
brought in the flood,” disaster. The flood found Noah and the seven in the
place where God wanted them to be. They would experience the flood in a place
of safety. God must in grace preserve the devil’s world so that the angelic
conflict continues. The super race was removed from the devil’s world, and the
super race were the devil’s adherents. A new human race would start and from
that human race the devil would get other adherents. The angelic conflict would
continue and the issue of race would still be an issue because those who came
into the world would still be born into the devil’s kingdom and would have the
option of being born again by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
“the world of the ungodly” — a
genitive of description from a)sebhj. The world of the ungodly
describes all of the people who were left, the super race and unbelievers in
the human race. The new civilisation would begin with believers only but their
progeny would be born into the devil’s kingdom.
Verse 6 — a comparison of false
teachers with another famous historical judgement, the judgement of Sodom. The
Dead Sea is a memorial today to this very famous historical judgement which
occurred in antiquity. Where the Dead Sea is today was once one of the most
beautiful valley in the ancient world.
“And turning the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrha into ashes.” Turning into ashes is an aorist active participle from tefrow which means to reduce to ashes. This is the concept
of a great conflagration, great fire, which destroys everything and all that is
left is ashes. The action of the aorist participle is now coterminous with the
main verb. The main verb comes next — “condemned.” This is an aorist active
indicative of katakrinw
which means
to judge according to norms and standards, and it means to condemn. He
condemned the cities by turning them into ashes. There are two aorist tenses here.
The first is a culminative aorist. By turning the whole plain into ashes God
left a monument for divine judgement. So we have a culminative aorist followed
by a culminative aorist. The action of turning this beautiful plain into ashes
the condemnation is terminated. Both occurred simultaneously.
“With an overthrow” is the
instrumental case of katastrofh
which means
destruction, catastrophe. The word “making” is a perfect active participle of tiqemi which means to appoint. It is in the perfect tense
which means a permanent appointment. The word for example, u(podiegma means a copy or a pattern. With the perfect
participle it means a permanent pattern — “having appointed them a permanent
pattern to those about to be ungodly.” The word a)sebew means to be ungodly. With it we have a verb in the present participle,
mellw which means to be about to
be. In other words, the participle which precedes mellw indicates
that from that time of that judgement for the rest of human history, that
judgement is a monument and a pattern as to what those who are outside of the
plan of God can expect periodically in the devil’s world so that the angelic
conflict will continue and so that grace will always be an issue. There is a
principle here: God Himself, to perpetuate the angelic conflict to the cross,
to the resurrection, ascension and session, and to the second advent, from His
perfect character practices capital punishment. God set up a principle —
capital punishment. In order for the human race to survive and be benefited
segments of the human race from time to time must be wiped out, removed from
the earth. This is a dictum from God’s perfect character. And when human law
fails to recognise the principle of capital punishment and properly apply it
the result is anarchy and a phenomenal rise in crime.
Translation: “And having reduced to
ashes the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, he condemned them by means of
destruction, having appointed them permanently a pattern to those about to be
ungodly.”
In other words, the principle will
always exist: God will take the life of certain individuals or groups who in
any way frustrate the grace issue in life. And how do you frustrate the grace
issue? Example: When you murder someone else you deprive them permanently of
their freedom on this earth, and if enough people get homicidal in their
tendencies then a maximum number of people lose their freedom and grace is
never an issue without the existence of freedom. That is why one of the
commandments with regard to human freedom is “Thou shalt not commit homicide
[murder].” By so doing a person’s freedom is permanently interfered with.
Verse 7 — “And delivered just Lot.”
The word “delivered” is the aorist active indicative from r(uomai. R(uomai is used here instead of fulassw because fulassw meant they were inside the
ark during the time of the flood. So they were delivered through the flood. But
Lot and his two daughters were delivered out from, so that is r(uomai. A different verb is used because God chooses in
grace to deliver in different ways. He can deliver through the disaster or He
can deliver out from the disaster. Both options are open under God’s plan of
grace. In this case Lot was delivered out from. By the way, r(uomai means to drag or to rescue. He had to drag Lot out
of town!
Notice he is called “just Lot” .The
word “just” is in the accusative of dikaioj and means justified by
grace. He delivered a grace product. Lot didn’t deserve the deliverance because
he was in reversionism. He was born again and in the plan of God.
“Vexed” — he wasn’t vexed! This is
the present passive participle kataponew
which means
overpowered. He was in reversionism. The present tense: he kept on being
overpowered. Passive voice: he received this overpowering influence from the
evil of Sodom. He was reversionistic. He was overpowered “with the filthy
conversation.” The Greek has two prepositional phrases here, and it isn’t
“filthy conversation.” The first prepositional phrase is u(po plus the genitive of a)qesmoj which means lawlessness or no restraint. The a means no and qesmoj means restraint. U(po
means under the authority of. So he lived in an antiestablishment place under
the authority of lawlessness. He lived under lawlessness. He lived under
antiestablishment and when a person deliberately moves into an area of
antiestablishment it will rub off on him in reversionism. Lot became friendly
with the people and he could not be friendly with these people and still
maintain his spiritual life. Therefore Lot practised reverse process
reversionism.
The second prepositional phrase is e)n plus the instrumental of a)selgeia — “by lasciviousness.” Translation: “And dragged
out justified Lot, overpowered under lawlessness by means of lasciviousness of
behaviour pattern.”
Lot was a reversionistic believer
when he was delivered. He was delivered from
the disaster and when he was delivered he was in reversionism. That is grace.
Noah, a supergrace believer, went through
the disaster and was delivered.
Verse
8 — We are talking about a reversionist by the name of Lot and in verse 7 we
read, “And dragged out of danger justified Lot, overpowered under the authority
of lawlessness in the sphere of lasciviousness of behaviour pattern.” God
delivered Lot by grace out of the disaster. (Noah who was equipped for the
disaster of the flood was delivered in
the disaster) Lot should have separated himself from Sodom, as a mature
believer he would have done so. But as a reversionistic believer he was living
among the people of Sodom. Lot enjoyed fellowship with the people of Sodom. We
have to remember that the people of Sodom were homosexuals and that means that
their personalities were of such a nature that he just enjoyed social life with
them. Yet they were degenerate and totally anti- establishment. Lot was not a
homosexual but he enjoyed the company of the people of Sodom and he tolerated
them. And that sort of thing rubs off. Obviously Lot could not concentrate on
doctrine and he could not, therefore, concentrate on the divine viewpoint. So
he concentrated on personalities and personality rapport replaces Bible
doctrine.
“For
that righteous man” — righteous is dikaioj and
it refers to imputed righteousness on the basis of God’s justice. When Peter
speaks of Lot under the ministry of the Spirit he emphasises Lot’s imputed
righteousness and not his scintillating personality.
“that
righteous man” refers to the fact hat we are talking about a saved, born again
believer.
“dwelling
among them” — present active participle of e)gkatoikew. Katoikew means to dwell
permanently, or to be at home. E)g is
part of the preposition e)n,
and it means to be at home among. Carnal Lot was at home among the Sodomites.
This means rapport with the homosexuals.
Principle: A reversionistic believer has
rapport with the wrong people because of his concentration on personality
rather than doctrine.
“in
seeing and hearing” — he was socially unfaithful to God. Lot enjoyed the
company of these people even though he apparently never got into it. The word
“seeing” is a noun and the word “hearing” is a noun and both of them are
instrumental singulars. The first one is the instrumental of blemma. Blemma means the act of seeing. “Hearing” is a)koh, which is the act of
hearing. The two words should be translated “by the act of seeing and the act
of hearing.”
Translation:
“For the righteous one [Lot] being at home among them [the people of Sodom] by
the act of seeing and by the act of hearing constantly tortured his righteous
soul by means of their lawless deeds.”
“vexed
his righteous soul” — the word “vexed” is the imperfect active indicative of basanizw, and basanizw means to
torture, not “vex his soul.” He tortured his own soul. When you associate with
the wrong crowd you torture your own soul.
“his
righteous soul” — dikaioj indicates
that he is saved, and once more we have dikaioj for imputed righteousness. This refers to
his saved soul, not to human righteousness.
“from
day to day” is literally, day in and day out.
“with
their unlawful deeds” — this is the instrumental a)nomoij e)rgoij which means “because of their lawless
production.”
Principle:
The believer in reversionism associating with the wrong crowd is a tortured
soul but he does it to himself. Of his own free will he ends up in this
situation.
Verse
9 — “The Lord knoweth.” Kurioj here
is one of those rare cases where this word for deity is used for God the
Father. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality
rather than to the definition of the noun. So kurioj minus the definite article refers to
deity. Deity knows [knoweth] and o)ida is
used here for omniscience, inherent knowledge.
“how
to deliver the godly [the believer] out of testing.” To deliver is a present
middle infinitive of r(uomai. R(uomai means to drag
someone out of danger, to rescue someone from danger or disaster. And even
though Lot is a reversionistic believer God the Father inherently understands
how to deliver him. Lot doesn’t deserve it, it is a matter of grace. We have a
middle voice, the subject participates in the results of the action. And God
the Father is the subject and He himself acted on behalf of Lot and preserved
Lot from the disaster. So we have: Deity knows inherently how to rescue the
godly. The godly is a technical word for any believer. Lot was delivered on the
basis of the character of God.
“out
of temptations” — e)k
plus the ablative singular and it should be: “out from calamity.” The word for
temptations here, peirasmoj, has a very
interesting meaning here. Peirasmoj means
testing or trial, putting someone on trial to see if they have it. And God put
Sodom on trial and they didn’t have it. This was the 5th cycle of discipline.
God tests a nation to see if the number of believers with an ECS is high enough to
preserve the nation. Peirasmoj is
translated here “calamity” because God tested and found no one with an ECS and destroyed under
the 5th cycle of discipline principle. Therefore translated: “Deity knows
inherently how to rescue the believer out from disaster [or calamity].”
“reserve”
is the present active infinity of terew which
means to keep, to preserve or guard. It means to guard something that belongs
to you. God the Son died on the cross for their sins, they say No to the cross
— unbelievers — and he preserves them to the last judgement. So He knows how to
reserve the “unjust.” Unjust is in contrast to godly; unjust means unbelievers,
not people whose lives are personally unjust.
“the
day of judgement” — Revelation 20:12-15; “to be punished” — present passive
participle of kolazw. Kolazw
means to receive painful punishment. Under the passive voice it means to
receive painful punishment.
Now
all of this so far was designed to bring us back to the false teachers. The
false teachers are devastating. They themselves are the recipients of judgement
and those who adhere to them. Those who are positive to false teaching are
judged. They are judged in time, they are judged in eternity.
Verse
10-22, the description of these false teachers.
Verse 10 — Here
is the judgement and destruction of a national entity under false teaching. The
word “chiefly” is an adverb, malista, which means
“especially.”
“them
that walk” — present active participle of poreuomai.
Poreuomai means
to go from place to place. It often has the connotation of instability.
“after”
is incorrect. O)pisw
means behind the “flesh” — sarc,
for the old sin nature. Literally, “behind the flesh.”
Translation:
“Especially ones going from one place to another after the flesh.” In other
words, they are moving in a direction that appeals to their old sin nature.
This is a reference to the unbeliever. The believer walks according to the flesh. The word “after” is often used but it is kata. We have the
preposition for the believer — kata;
we have an adverb for the unbeliever — o)pisw. Kata means
according to the norm or standard; o)pisw
means behind.
“in”
— e)n plus
the locative, “in the sphere of.”
“the
lust” — e)piqumia refers
to the lust pattern of the old sin nature. This is the disintegration of a
nation. In this context we have two concepts in mind. First of all, the
disintegration of a nation and, secondly, the judgement of unbelievers at the
last judgement. We have just covered judgement of the unbeliever at the last
judgement in verse 9. Now we go back and cover the concept: Sodom fell and was
destroyed under the principle of the 5th cycle of discipline. What are the
ingredients that destroy a national entity? You get unstable people following
the flesh, e.g. hippies and gypsies. “In the lust” — approbation lust, power
lust, materialism lust, lasciviousness.
“uncleanness”
— miasmoj, means polluted,
defiled, corrupted. And what do these
people do?
“despise
government” — present active participle of katafronew. Phronew means
to think; kata
means down. To think down here means to despise, to scorn, it also means to
disregard. The word for government is kuriothj.
It is derived from kurioj and it means
constituted authority, not just government but any type of authority. The
Sodomites rejected authority. When you have a generation of young people who
reject authority they destroy themselves. They reject the authority of academic
discipline, they reject the authority of freedom, they reject the authority of
principles designed to protect privacy and property, the woman rejects the
authority of her right man, they reject the authority of parents, they reject
the authority of law, they reject the military. So it is the whole concept of
authority and therefore they become presumptuous.
“Presumptuous”
— tolmhthj, which means to have
effrontery, brazen in a bad sense.
“self-willed”
— means self-gratification. The Greek word is a)uqadeij —
a)utoj,
self; a)deomai, to
gratify. “they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities” — this is a part of
antiestablishment.
“are
not afraid” is a present active indicative of tremw, which means to fear or to tremble.
“to
speak evil” is blasfhmew which
means to malign.
“dignities”
— doca,
glories. The word is used for both angels and human beings. It also refers to
duly constituted authority, glories in the sense of something that is set up as
a bona fide principle of authority in a nation.
So
they are motivated by lust pattern from the old sin nature, they despise duly
constituted authority, they are arrogant, full of self-confidence, they are
indulgent to the point of self-gratification, they malign those who have
authority and , in the case of Peter’s day, even those who are angels. They
have no respect for authority in any form.
One
of the great characteristics of the false teacher has always been
antiestablishment. False teachers are completely and totally opposed to
everything from the principles of freedom to military service. And yet in the
area of establishment we have those freedoms which are absolutely and vitally
necessary for capacity and function in life. Even the unbeliever benefits to
the maximum from establishment. He benefits from the standpoint of freedom,
from the standpoint of capacity for life, but the false teacher is always
antagonistic to it. He is always knocking some area of establishment and substituting
for it brotherly love, hearts and flowers, the concept of gypsy life which they
call freedom, internationalism, antiwar. And when these gypsies begin to run
every facet of the country then serious trouble develops and the nation
disintegrates — the attack upon the military, the attack upon human freedom,
the lack of manners, the lack of poise, all add up to national disintegration.
Verse
11 — the angelic convocation. The first word “Whereas” is an adverb, o(pou, which is an unusual
way to start a sentence. It is a connective link. It means here “In which place” and it is actually a reference to
angels in heaven assembled for a convocation.
“are”
— present active indicative of e)imi,
the absolute status quo verb.
“greater
in power and might.” “Greater” is a comparative adjective and brings up once
again the concept of doctrine, the superiority of angels over human beings. a.
Angels are superior to mankind through creation — Hebrews 2:7,9; b. Christ, in
the incarnation, became a human being and was made lower than angels — Hebrews
2:9,16; c. By death , resurrection, ascension and session the humanity of
Christ becomes superior to angels — Hebrews 1:4-8, 13; 2:14; d. Every believer
is in union with Jesus Christ — Ephesians 1:6; 2 Cor. 5:17; 1 Cor. 1:2; e.
Therefore, every believer is positionally superior to angels as of the point of
regeneration, and every believer has a servant angel — Hebrews 1:14; f. Through
ultimate sanctification — the resurrection body — the believer will be
physically superior to angels for all eternity; g. In the meantime the only
advantage that the believer on this earth in a body of corruption can have over
angels is through the completion of the ECS,
the entrance into spiritual maturity.
“in
power” is the instrumental of i)sxuj. I)sxuj is one of the words for power. Kratoj is ruling
power, authority, dunamij is
inherent power, e)nergew is
operational power, and i)sxuj is
endowed power. This is the inherent power of angels which is greater than the
inherent power of members of the human race.
“might”
is the word dunamij,
which connotes the inherent power manifest in ability. When isxuj is followed by dunamij then one
becomes the result of the other. The angels have an endowed power greater than
man and therefore they have greater ability than mankind. And yet with their
endowed power and their superior ability over mankind, “they dare not bring.”
“they
bring not” is a present active indicative of ferw plus the negative. Ferw means to bear
or to carry. They dare not carry to heaven and bring to God railing
accusations.
“railing
accusation” — blasfhmoj,
maligning, krisij,
the act of judging. Even though they are greater in endowed power and ability
they do not carry maligning judgement against false teachers. False teachers
may malign dignities — glories, angels — but, even though angels are greater
they do not carry into heaven accusation against false teachers.
“before
the Lord” — para,
the preposition of immediate source; it also means “beside.” It indicates an
angelic convocation as they are standing in the presence of the Lord, beside
the Lord. The only person who brings any accusation in heaven from the angels
in convocation is Satan, and he accuses believers before the throne of God —
Revelation 12:9,10; Job 1:6,11; Zechariah 3:1,2. 8
Verses
12-14 — we change the subject. We move into the concept of the modus operandi
of these false teachers. False teachers occupy the pulpits of the world today —
among fundamentalists as well as the denominations. All of the people in cults
are false teachers. All of the false teachers are described under two
categories which are based upon the trends of the old sin nature: the trend
toward asceticism and the trend toward lasciviousness. These are general
characteristics that belong to all false teachers in every generation of the
Church Age.
Verse
12 — “But these.” The conjunction is adversative, it indicates a contrast
between elect angels who cannot malign and false teachers who habitually malign
the elect angels. “These” refers to the false teachers of verse 1.
“as”
introduces an analogy. The next word describes one of the first characteristics
of them. They are called “natural brute beasts.” Two words here. First of all
the nominative plural of a)logoj,
an adjective — “a” is negative, logoj means word or thought. And it means
without reason. False teachers do not have reason or common sense, or the
ability to relate life to the establishment. And they are often destroyed
themselves. They are not “brutes,” they are a)logoj, they are stupid. They are not “beasts,”
zwon,
they are animals. It should be translated: But these false teachers, like
animals, without common sense.”
“made”
is not correct. We have the perfect passive participle of genaw,
and it means “having been born.” All false teachers were born. The perfect
tense means that they have been born with the result that, with their birth and
their growth and their development into adulthood, they have contributed and
added to the misery of this world. The participle indicates the permanence of
the detrimental function of their false teaching.
“to
be taken and destroyed.” We have the word fusikoj, which means instinct, the instinct of
an animal, but it doesn’t mean an animal.
Translation
so far: “But these false teachers, like animals without common sense, having
been born creatures of instinct.” In other words, false teachers from birth
until the first time they get up and utter their blasphemies, have been
antiestablishment, opposed to the establishment. Their sin nature has not been
controlled by law and order, by the inculcation of freedom and patriotism, or
by the great principles of God’s plan of grace taught under the principle of
Bible doctrine.
“to
be taken” is a noun, not a verb. The noun is a(losij and it means to be removed. Animals must
be removed if they are dangerous. Instinctively they strike out and therefore
they must be removed from the scene; “and destroyed” — literally, for capture
and destruction. And this means capture by law, destruction by the function of
law. They need to be removed from society. The second noun here is fqora, which means
destruction because of corruption. By speaking these false teachers pass their
corruption on to others.
“speak
evil” — present active participle of the verb blasfhmew, which means to malign. They malign the
things that they do not understand.
“that
they understand not” — e)n o)ij,
in which. And then we have “they do not understand” which is a present
participle of a)gnoew. They
malign the things of which they have no understanding; “and shall be destroyed
in their own destruction.” These people ultimately lead a nation to the 5th
cycle of discipline and they are destroyed in their own destruction.
“and
shall utterly perish” is the future passive indicative of fqeirw. This means that when
the nation goes down they are always destroyed with it. Illustration: the false
teachers in Jeremiah’s day.
“their
own corruption” — fqora,
their false teaching destroys them as they destroy the people they reach with
it. Always, when a nation goes down it is preceded by false teachers.
Verse 13 — a
principle of human good.
“And”
is not found in the original.
“shall
receive” — the present passive participle of a)dikew. It means to be deprived of credit, or
wages. All false teachers have a system of human good and their objective is to
get everyone operating under this system of human good. Human good destroys a
nation.
“reward
of unrighteousness” — a reference to human good.
The
doctrine of human good
1.
Human good is dead to God’s plan. Therefore it is called dead works — Hebrews
6:1.
2.
Human good is not acceptable to God at any time — Isaiah 64:6.
3.
Therefore, human good has no place in the plan of God — 2 Timothy 1:9.
4.
Distinction should be made between human good and morality — Romans 13:4,5.
Morality is a part of the laws of establishment. It is necessary for the
perpetuation and function of the human race under the angelic conflict. Human
good is not a part of establishment.
5.
Human good will not save mankind — Titus 3:5.
6.
The believer’s human good is revealed and destroyed at the judgement seat of
Christ — 1 Corinthians 3:11-16.
7.
Human good is the basis for the unbeliever’s indictment at the last judgement —
Revelation 20:12-15.
8.
Human good can only produce human boasting — Ephesians 2:9.
In
the middle of verse 13 we have the social life of the false teacher. He relates
it to hooking his victims and gathering them into his false teaching. Just the
antithesis of God’s order the false teacher uses his life to attract people to
his message, whereas it is the objective of true communication to use Bible
doctrine to attract people to the only life, the grace life provided through
Jesus Christ. Where the communication of doctrine is concerned it is doctrine
that attracts to the life and the principles of grace of the Lord, whereas the
opposite is true when it comes to the false teacher. In other words, Satan
always uses the life, and emphasis on the life, of the false teacher. With
doctrine it is the message, not the life, that counts.
Verse
13b — “they that count” is the present active participle of e(geomai means to regard
as an objective of pleasure. E(geomai means
to have an opinion, regard, to think, to hold an opinion.
“pleasure
to riot in the day time” is literally, “luxurious living in the day time of
leisure.” The word for luxurious living is trufh, which means revelling, indulgence. In other
words, it means total lack of self-discipline. The word for pleasure, h(donh, means sensual pleasure,
gratification of any kind, the antithesis of self-discipline. In addition to
that we have the attitude of the Word of God toward these false teachers, they
are called “spots.”
“Spots”
— the nominative plural of spiloj,
which means stains. It means spots or stains on the escutcheon of the laws of
divine establishment.
“blemishes”
— also in the nominative plural, momoj,
means a disgrace to establishment. A momoj
is some kind of a spot which disfigures the skin. The two words (spots and
blemishes) together are used as an idiom for city scum in Rome, the lowest
order of urban dwellers. Since the Punic wars Rome had been bothered with its
scum and had never really solved the problem. The false teachers are compared
to the scum of the city, they are active in heavily populated areas and
therefore it is a very apt analogy.
“sporting
themselves” — present active participle of e)ntrufaw, which means to carouse. Entrufaw means to revel or to
carouse. The use in the daytime again indicates no self-discipline, no job, no
work, no purpose, no motive in life, except to peddle false doctrine.
“Constantly revelling in” is a better translation than sporting themselves.
“their
own deceivings” — dative of disadvantage in the plural form a)path. A)path
means that what they teach is attractive, and the way they teach it, because
they are attractive people. But it is deceit, antagonistic to Bible doctrine.
“they
feast” — not correct. This is where the recipients of false teaching come in.
They feast, but it is a present passive participle — suneuoxeomai, which means to be
entertained lavishly. They received lavish entertainment. False teachers are
stimulated by false doctrine they communicate, and they receive lavish
entertainment from people who admire their lives and accept their teaching. But
remember, they accept their teaching on the basis of their lives and they are
socially attractive. That is the principle of this half of the verse. Being
socially attractive they are given a wide hearing.
Now
these false teachers are very attractive. They are well thought of. Their lives
are held up as something great and that indicates a general trend toward
apostasy and negative volition toward doctrine. They live in a time of
antiestablishment.
Translation
of verse 13 — “Being deprived of credit, the wages of unrighteousness, they
regard as pleasure revellings in the daytime. Moral blots and a disgrace to
society, constantly being stimulated by their own deceivings while being
lavishly entertained by you.” Peter is writing to those who are believers who
have also been drawn in.
Verse
14 — In addition to their social attractiveness they live totally outside of
the establishment.
“Having”
is a present active participle of e)xw. “Having eyes full of adultery.” This does not
mean that they commit adultery, it means that they are lascivious in their
mental attitude, in their souls. The word for adultery here, moixaloj, is teamed up with
the word “eyes.” “Eyes” is used for the soul, the perception of the soul. Moixaloj is adultery,
but when you team it up with “eyes full,” then you have a soul function. They
are socially very scintillating. This is not the overt practice of adultery,
this is a mental attitude which helps to make the one involved attractive and
acceptable. This also is a part of the antiestablishment, and having eyes full
of adultery is a soul condition to indicate that false teachers are
antiestablishment. The practice of adultery is not involved here but the
principle of adultery in the soul. They are completely selfish and
non-disciplined people.
“that
cannot cease from sin” is not correct. There is no verb here. It says, “they
cannot be restrained from sin.” And the word “cannot be restrained” is a)katapostoj, a noun. It is
literally, “non-restrainable from sin.” That is, false teachers are living
totally outside of the laws of divine establishment. They are not only
anti-grace, anti-doctrine, anti-gospel, but the way you can spot them easily is
they are antiestablishment. “Sin” here doesn’t refer to any particular type of
sin, it refers to the whole principle of establishment.
“beguiling”
— present active participle of deleazw. Deleazw means to trap,
to allure, to entice, to delude. And whom do they trap, entice, allure and
delude?
“unstable”
— the feminine accusative plural of a)steriktoj, which indicates the
person who responds to this type of living — an unstable, frustrated person. A)steriktoj not only means
unstable, but it means frustrated instability and it is in the feminine gender,
and it indicates all of the accoutrements of instability. The accoutrements of
instability, the rejection of the gospel in the case of unbelievers, the
rejection of Bible doctrine in the case of believers; they have gone negative
toward doctrine.
“heart”
here refers to the right lobe — kardia.
They could not be trapped unless they had something false in the right lobe. Kardia is used for the
mentality of the soul and it has inside of it a frame of reference, a memory
centre, a vocabulary category area, norms and standards (which we call
conscience) and it has a launching pad. Because of going negative toward the
establishment the unbeliever’s right lobe has norms and standards that are
ready for this type of thing.
“they
have exercised” — perfect passive participle of gumnazw. This word means to train in exercise.
But they, because of their right lobe, they’re ready for this kind of life,
they are ready for false doctrine, they are looking for it. Why? Perfect tense
— their right lobe has been exercised and trained for it. The exercise here is
simply a series of reflexes ready for trouble.
“with
covetous practices” — the word covetousness is pleonecia, the frantic search for happiness.
Covetous practices having a frantic search for happiness. In other words. they
have exercised their soul to a series of conditioned reflexes which are
designed for pleonecia —
a frantic search for happiness. Therefore they become …
“cursed
children” — katara means
execrated children. Execrated children are reversionistic. Children of reversionism,
children of the curse.
Literally,
“Having eyes full of adulteresses [not adulterers] and cannot be restrained
from sin, enticing unstable souls: the heart having been exercise, having a
frantic search for happiness; children of reversionism.”
Verse
17 — “These,” o(utoi,
a demonstrative pronoun in the nominative plural referring to false teachers. “are” — present active
indicative of e)imi,
there are no exceptions. False teachers always fall into this category.
“wells
without water” — used to describe the false teacher from the standpoint of
Bible doctrine. Without water means without doctrine. Water is used in the
Bible for salvation — Isaiah 55:1; it is also used for the Holy Spirit — John
7:38,39; in Ephesians 5:26 water is always used for Bible doctrine. False
teachers are minus salvation, minus the Holy Spirit and minus Bible doctrine.
Minus Bible doctrine is the primary thrust of this passage.
“clouds”
— the nominative plural of o(mixlh,
which refers to false teachers in their instability. The word o(mixlh also means fog,
and false teachers are like a fog, they are confusing, you lose your
perspective, lose the landmark.
“that
are carried along” — Literally, driven along. It is the present passive
participle of e)launw.
Here is the instability of these false teachers, they are clouds being driven
along. And to be driven along means that clouds have no anchor. In other words,
they never stay in the same place.
“with”
— the preposition u(po,
which connotes authority. They reject authority, they are under the authority
of punishment and catastrophe and disaster.
“tempest”
— is the squall line, and we have the word lailapoj. You can see a squall line from a
distance but once you are in the midst of it you can see nothing. They victims
of the false teachings will first of all reject it, they see the squall line
from afar, but having rejected the gospel they will walk right into it. Hence
they will be in the storm, they will be confused and the whole perspective of
life is destroyed. That is the concept here.
“to
whom” is a relative pronoun referring to the false teachers. False teachers in
this context are unbelievers. They draw in believers but they themselves are
unbelievers.
“the
mists” — thick darkness, zofoj.
Thick darkness refers to the content of their right lobe.
“of
darkness” — skotoj.
Both zofoj and
skotoj are
words for darkness. Skotoj is
the darkness in their soul that caused them to say No to the gospel. Zofoj is the darkness
that came in as a result of saying No. Darkness accumulates more darkness, it
adds to darkness. And the big safety valve, the presentation of the gospel,
when rejected inevitably results in catastrophe to the group who reject it.
“is
reserved” — perfect passive participle of terew, which means to guard. Has been guarded,
literally.
“forever”
is not found in the original.
The message of the false teachers: Verse 18
— “When they speak” is the present active participle of fqeggomai,
which means to speak bombastically. Here is where we have to go back and pick
up verse 15.
Verse
15 — “Which” is not found in the original. “Have forsaken the right way.” These
are the false teachers again. Kataleipw means
to abandon or desert. These false teachers have abandoned the right way, they
have abandoned the truth.
“are
gone astray” — aorist passive indicative of planaw, they have been deceived. The passive voice
means that they have received going astray or being deceived by error.
“following”
— e)cakolouqew,
which means to follow after or to imitate. They imitated the way of Balaam.
They way of Balaam is reversionism.
“who”
— relative pronoun refers to Balaam; “loved,” aorist active indicative of a)gapaw, his mental attitude,
his conditioned reflexes of the soul.
“the
wages of unrighteousness” — i.e. the fantastic fee which king Balaak offered to
Balaam.
Verse
16 — “But he was rebuked for his iniquity.” The word “rebuke” is a combination
of the aorist active indicative of e)xw
— he had and held. Then we have the object of the verb, the accusative singular
of e)legcij,
which means accusation or condemnation. Here it means accusation. He had
condemnation for his iniquity, or literally, for his own private transgression.
“the
dumb ass” — describing Balaam’s ass of Numbers 22:28; “dumb” — a)fonoj, a is negative, fonoj
is voice.
“speaking”
— the aorist active participle of fqeggomai,
the same word we find in verse 18, meaning to speak bombastically, or with a
preachers swing. The ass actually “preached” to Balaam.
“he
forbad the madness of the prophet” — aorist active infinitive of koluw. But the interesting
word is the word “madness” — parafronia,
which means psychosis. A reversionist comes to the place of psychosis.
Verse
18 again. When a person becomes a reversionist and a false teacher he is
exactly like Balaam’s ass. He speaks bombastically. Why? If Balaam was
psychotic, and it says he was, and the ass spoke in a certain style, why did he
speak that way? It is the only way you can reach a psycho. And the people who
follow false teaching: the only way you can reach them because they are
psychotic and go for a certain style — fqeggomai. Balaam’s ass had an audience of one, a
prophet, and the prophet was psycho. How are you going to reach this psycho? — fqeggomai.
There
is a direct parallel between the ass speaking in verse 16 and the false teacher
communicating false doctrine to believer and unbeliever in reversionism.
Reversionists respond to not normal communication, abnormal communication — fqeggomai, bombastic. The only
way that Balaam could have responded, but didn’t, was through fqeggomai — bombastic
eloquence.
“great
swelling words” — always good literary language, never the vulgar Koinh words of any
language. It is always the eloquent nebulous language which is abstruse but
effective — the accusative plural from the adjective u(perogkoj. U(per,
over and above; agkoj means
to be over-swollen, overweight, and it means words with long syllables.
“of
vanity” — mataiothj,
the vacuum whereby Satanic doctrine attacks the right lobe. These are the words
of the false teachers.
“they
allure” — present active indicative of deleazw. They attract, they trap “through the
lusts of the flesh” — e)n plus
the instrumental, “by means of the lusts of the flesh.”
“wantonness”
— lasciviousness. And just as lasciviousness appeals to the old sin nature, so
these great swelling words titillate the soul as fornication stimulates the
body. That is what Peter is saying.
“those
that were clean escaped” — Those that are scarcely escaping [from them]. At one
time these people were free.
“who
live in error” — Literally, who live in the sphere of error; “who live” is not
the ordinary word for living, like zaw. This is a present
middle participle of a)nastrefw, which means to have a behaviour pattern. e)n plus
the locative of planh,
means that they have in the sphere of error rejected Bible doctrine which is
their only anchor, or as unbelievers they have rejected the gospel which could
have been the beginning of their anchor, or they have rejected establishment.
Translation:
“When speaking with multi-syllabled words of mataiotehj, they beguile through the lusts of the
flesh, by means of lasciviousness, those that are scarcely escaping from them,
having a pattern of life in the sphere of error.” The error is rejection of
establishment, rejection of the gospel, rejection of Bible doctrine.
Verse
19 — the enslavement of false teachers. The false teachers set up a system of
slavery.
“While
they promise them liberty” — the present middle participle of e)paggellw. E)paggellw means to announce or
to promise. Here it means both. They announce freedom and they promise.
“liberty”
— e)leuqeria,
the most enticing type of freedom. However, it is a freedom with
responsibility. They do not mention responsibility. Why?
“for
they themselves” referring to the false teachers, “are.” It is not “are” but
the present active participle of u(parchw which
is their permanent status.
“servants”
— not servants but slaves of fqora,
which means the old sin nature with emphasis on its “corruption” .This passage
refers to slaves to the lust pattern.
Now
we have the principle of slavery. Slavery is more than someone being shackled
or having no volition of his own. Basically slavery begins in the soul with no
volition and ends up with shackles.
“for
whom” — o(j,
a relative pronoun in the instrumental case. “For by whom,” literally.
“
man” — not in the original. Tij —
“anyone.” Generally in a principle it is a general phrase meaning “anyone.” The
principle first of all applies to false teachers in slavery as a result of
reversionism. All unbelieving false teachers have gone through the process —
negative volition toward the gospel, and the tearing down of the laws of
establishment, so that this person practices, as an unbeliever, reverse process
reversionism in the areas open to the unbeliever. If the false teacher is in
slavery, obviously whatever he communicates will lead those who respond to him
into slavery.
“for
of whom a man is overcome” — for by whom anyone has been defeated, literally;
“by the same he is brought into bondage” — literally. They promise all of these
wonderful things that look very attractive. They are the servants of the old
sin nature. We have the perfect passive indicative of h(ttaomai — to be
defeated. In this case, the perfect, it means “has been defeated.” In other
words, when an unbeliever goes negative toward the gospel he has been defeated.
The perfect tense brings out the permanent results. He will wind up in
reversionism. If a believer or an unbeliever goes negative toward the laws of
divine establishment he has been defeated and will suffer the consequences of
reversionism in that area. When a believer rejects Bible doctrine he has been
defeated. A believer has not been defeated on his failure to witness, on his failure
to pray, on his failure to hustle in the local church, a believer is defeated
when he rejects Bible doctrine. The issue of the Christian life is Bible
doctrine and your attitude toward it, not works.
“of
the same” — instrumental of tij again;
“he is brought into bondage” — perfect passive indicative of doulow, which means to be
brought into slavery. We have two perfect tenses here. The perfect tense of e(ttaomai and the perfect
tense of doulow both
indicate the permanent results which accrue.
In
effect, from this principle comes the pattern of enslavement to false teaching
— verses 20-22.
Verse
20 — We are going to see stages of slavery and entanglement with false
teachers.
a. They are exposure to false teaching and
rejection of it, exposure to false teaching and going negative toward it. Why?
Because the person involved, as an unbeliever for example, has two things going
for him: a sense of humour and common sense, either one of which will act as a
safety valve. He has in his conscience the laws of divine establishment and
have been since early youth; common sense. b. The same person at some other
time is exposed to the truth of the gospel and he goes negative toward the
gospel. He rejects the gospel even though he has it in e)pignwsij in his right lobe. As
a result of going negative toward the gospel he destroys the laws of divine
establishment in his right lobe, he destroys the common sense discernment
factor, and he wipes out his sense of humour to where it is not a safeguard. As
a result he goes back and hears the same teaching, and this time goes positive
because he is an unbeliever now in reversionism.
“if
after they have escaped” — the aorist active participle of a)pofeugw. The verb is used
both here and in verse 18. In verse 18 it was a present active participle
indicating the first exposure to false teaching, and escaping. A)pofeugw is to say No to false
doctrine, to say No on the basis of the laws of divine establishment, common
sense, discernment, and even a sense of humour. But in verse 20 we have the
aorist active participle, and this indicates resistance to false teaching through
these things. This is a serious resistance to it because of that which is
comparable to the ECS.
“the
pollutions of the world” or the defilement of the cosmos. The word pollutions
is the accusative plural of miasma.
“through”
— e)n plus
the instrumental of e)pignwsij.
By means of e)pignwsij —
“knowledge” .
“of
the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” — remember that in the presentation of the
gospel whatever is true that is given by the witness or by the evangelist or by
the communicator, the Holy Spirit has to act as a human spirit to give reality
to what is taught — the doctrine of common grace.
“again”
— palin.
This means an exposure to false teaching again, after the process of emotional
revolt. You see the exposure — present participle followed by the aorist
participle — is a full exposure saying No on the basis of the laws of divine
establishment, common sense, discernment, sense of humour. But now we have e)pignosij gospel, and
saying No to that destroys this information in the right lobe. At this point we
have palin —
between stages two and three, scar tissue has accumulated, blackout of the
soul, emotional revolt of the soul, reversionism. So palin introduces the same
believer hearing the same information, and this time he is entangled.
“entangled”
— the aorist passive participle of e)mplekw. E)mplekw means to weave something into a tangle,
and therefore to entangle or to become involved.
“therein”
— the instrumental word is tutoij,
from o(utoj.
It should be translated “by these.”
“and
overcome” — the word overcome is the present passive indicative of hettaomai, which means to be
defeated. His defeat is bondage.
Note
the pattern of defeat or enslavement: a. Exposure to false doctrine, rejection
of the same from the stability of the soul; b. Exposure to the gospel in e)pignwsij form, and its
rejection; c. The e)pignwsij
gospel rejection resulting in moving into the stages of reversionism; d. Going
back and being exposed to the same things and now saying Yes.
“the latter end” is ta e)sxata. It refers to the
third stage or the unbeliever accepting false doctrine which he has previously
rejected. He does so because as an unbeliever he has something comparable to
the ECS
— laws of establishment, etc. — and this has been torn down through negative
volition toward the gospel. So the latter end refers to the dog returning to
his vomit or the sow returning to her wallowing.
“is”
— perfect active indicative of ginomai should be “has
become.” Permanent results to the individual and the nation. We used to have a
good citizen here; now we have a confused person.
“worse”
— the nominative plural neuter of an irregular imperative called xeiron. It is derived from kakoj which means
evil. The unbeliever minus false doctrine with the laws of establishment has a
chance, and so does his community and his nation. But the unbeliever with false
doctrine, having gone through the process of reversionism, becomes a source of
danger to his nation. This is what happened in Jeremiah’s generation in Judah.
“than the
beginning” or “than the first” — the genitive plural of prwtoj. Prwtoj
was step one. In step one he said No to the false teaching. Step two: he went
into reversionism through a series of Noes to e)pignwsij gospel. Step three: he said Yes to the
same false teaching.
Translation:
“For if having escaped the defilement of the cosmos by means of epignosij [gospel knowledge] of
the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, again having become involved by this [false
doctrine] they are defeated, the latter end has become worse than the first.”
The
word “defeated” is a very excellent one because a defeated people in the
spiritual realm — false teaching excepted — become a defeated people in every
realm. Establishment protects a nation. Rejection of establishment by the
people of that nation makes them a defeated people, and a defeated people are
defeated sooner or later by another nation — and that is the 5th cycle of
discipline.
Verse
21 — “For it had been,” imperfect active indicative of e)imi, translated like a
perfect tense except that e)imi does
not have a perfect tense. This is a legitimate translation here because of the
illustration.
“better”
is a comparative of a)gaqoj;
“for them” is dative of indirect object and the dative of disadvantage. It is a
reference to the victims of false teaching who at first had common sense,
establishment principles, good judgement, a sense of humour, all of which they
have now lost in reversionism. So their latter end is worse than the first.
They went from freedom from false teaching to slavery to false teaching.
“not
to have known” — perfect active infinitive of e)piginwskw. This means to have fully known, it
means e)pignosij gospel.
The perfect tense indicates that the ministry of the Holy Spirit acting as a
human spirit made the gospel clear to them and they rejected it, which is how
scar tissue began and how reversionism began. The active voice: they did come
to a complete understanding of the gospel.
“the
way of righteousness” is a reference to salvation with emphasis on imputed
righteousness as per John 16:8 and 10. Remember that the Holy Spirit convinces
of sin, righteousness and judgement. However, sin is unbelief, rejection of
Christ. That is the only sin of which the Holy Spirit convinces. Next is
righteousness, and this has to do with imputed righteousness. You cannot live
in the presence of God forever or have a relationship with God unless you are
as good as He is, and He imputes His own righteousness at the point of
salvation. And judgement has to do with the judgement of Satan and all
unbelievers. So it is the second one here, mentioned in John 16:8,10, which is
the basis of making the gospel e)pignwsij
to the individual involved in this passage. The way of imputed righteousness in
this passage is salvation.
“after
they have known” is an aorist active participle of e)piginwskw. The aorist active participle here is to
show that they thoroughly understood before they turned away.
“to
turn from” — an aorist active infinitive of u(postrefw, a culminative aorist. It is a complete
and total decision, a complete and total negative.
“the
holy commandment” — is to believe in Jesus Christ, as per 1 John 3:23.
“delivered
unto them” — literally, having been delivered to them — aorist passive
participle of paradidomi. Paradidomi means to deliver, it also means to
betray. The holy commandment was delivered to them through witnessing, through
evangelism.
Translation:
“It would have kept on being better for them not to have fully known the way of
righteousness, than, having fully known to turn away from the holy commandment
having been delivered to them for their advantage.”
Verse
22 — the illustration. “But it is happened unto them.” The word “happened” is
the perfect active indicative of sumbainw —
it has happened. Perfect tense: it has happened in the past with the result
that it keeps on happening all the time in history.
“unto
them” — dative of disadvantage refers to negative volition toward false
teaching, followed by negative volition toward e)pignwsij gospel, followed by positive volition
toward false teaching.
“according
to the true proverb” a paraphrased quotation from Proverbs 26:11.
“the
dog” — kuwn,
referring to the Gentile unbeliever who follows the pattern of verse 20. He is
negative toward false doctrine, he is negative toward e)pignosij gospel. This
causes reversionism in the unbeliever that makes him positive toward false
doctrine.
“is
turned to” — aorist active participle, “having returned to,” literally. U(postrefw, which means to
return.
Points: a. The initial act of vomiting is rejection
of false doctrine.
b. The return to the vomit is
the acceptance of false doctrine.
c. The difference is the
condition of the unbeliever’s soul.
d. When false doctrine was
rejected the soul was stabilised.
e. But when false doctrine was
accepted the soul was in reversionism.
f. In this illustration the vomit is
analogous to false doctrine.
“and
the sow” — u(j;
“washed” — aorist passive participle of luw — having been washed. This is a
culminative aorist, the washing has been completed. Here is the unbeliever
again having rejected false doctrine because of stability of soul, because of
the laws of divine establishment, because of conservatism in her right lobe.
“to
her wallowing” — preposition e)ij plus
the accusative of kulisma. E)ij is a directional
preposition, she goes right back to kulisma —
to get in the mud.
“mire”
— genitive of borboroj,
which means not just mud but sewage, garbage, etc. This is the same principle
as with the dog. The same principle applies to the believer who rejects Bible
doctrine. The rejection causes the believer to accept false doctrine because he
develops scar tissue which opens up the vacuum of the soul, into which comes
false doctrine.