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2nd Peter 1.19
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January 10th 2016
Alright so we talked all about Peter’s words encouraging his reader to
“give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
And he continues at verse 12 saying:
2nd Peter 1:12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
15 Moreover I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17 For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
And back to verse 12.
When we started in our study of II Peter we noted that one of the things Peter was intent on doing was reminding his reader of things that he had instructed them in before (or in a prior epistle). He speaks to this aim in our verse for today and says:
2nd Peter 1:12 Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
I light of everything he has been directing his reader to do – especially when we consider the dire circumstances they are facing – Peter now admits that he too is going to be diligent (by not being negligent) . . .
“to put you always in remembrance of these things” (which he has talked about).
And hence we have the purpose of his epistle.
Then he adds, “though ye know them having been established in the truth.”
Reminders are important for all of us – it’s probably one of the main reasons mature Christians gather and study the word it so easy to forget some really important principles.
I would guess that most of what teaching accomplishes in the body is that of reminding. So important is reminding that Peter says (verse 13)
13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;
“In fact as long as I’m alive I hope to be able to continually stir you up by putting you in remembrance of important things.
(he adds)
14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
I’m about to die – I’m going to put off this tabernacle – this body – but as long as I am in it I will stir you up to remembrance of things.
The addition of the line, “even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me” is to some critics “too on the nose” and suggests and smacks of an author who is trying to put himself off as Peter.
But we might remember the graphic and detailed prophecy that Jesus gave Peter about his death.
It’s found in John 21. We remember, right? Jesus showed up on the beach where Peter and the others were fishing. After asking Peter if he loved him three times and then telling him to feed his sheep, Jesus added:
John 21:18 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.
19 This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, “Follow me,”
. . . which relative to the context I believe Jesus was telling Peter to follow Him in walking to his own death.
Cynicism aside from the critics this sort of prophesy from Jesus would certainly be weighty and on the mind of Peter – throughout all of his life no doubt so I don’t find it at all out of the ordinary for him to have referred to it here.
He must have known by the signs of the times that things were getting heavy and his time for the prophetic utterances to be fulfilled.
So he says, “knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle,” knowing that I must die as the Lord described, which according to the description of the way he would die
“the stretching forth of his hands and the being carried where he didn’t want to go” that it would be a death tied to crucifixion.
Today, as reported in Foxes book of Martyrs, it has become tradition that Peter was crucified upside down.
It was Eusebius in his writings, Ecclesiastical History (325AD) who said all of the apostles were martyred by John.
Most of the early church fathers agreed that Peter was killed in Rome in 64 AD by crucifixion.
That would match the words John has Jesus say about Peter’s future death.
The earliest report of Peter’s martyrdom shows up in the writing of Clement of Rome in a letter to the Corinthians (about 90AD) where he clearly states that Peter was executed – but neither crucifixion nor upside down crucifixion is directly mentioned.
Ignatius, in 110 AD wrote in a letter to the Romans that Peter was Bishop of Rome and Ireneus of Lyon affirms his living there. So it seems like he experienced death in Rome.
In 195 AD Tertullian said that Peter had a passion like that of the Lord and added that Paul was crowned with the death of the Baptist (meaning he was beheaded).
Dionysus of Corinth supports this in a letter he wrote about 200AD.
So when Eusibius reported the death of Peter by crucifixion he was only echoing what tradition had been for some 250 years – that’s a long time.
In all probability Peter was executed in Rome. And most probably by crucifixion (as the Lord intimated). But whether it was upside down is questionable.
Apparently this little addition is written in an apocryphal book called the Acts of Peter but it is not mentioned by Ireneus, or Clement, or Tertullian or Eusebius so it really is speculative. Peter continues and says:
15 Moreover I will endeavor that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
The moreover seems to relate to the writing that Peter is doing here. He has preached and he has taught them orally, but he adds . . .
“Moreover . . .I will endeavor that ye may be able (after my decease) to have these things always in remembrance.
Why they would be able to read them, and therefore never forget them, always having them in remembrance.
But as I was studying these passages in the Greek I took note of a word used here.
Ex- hodos
With “ex” meaning “out” and
“hodos” being “a path, journey, road, route, way or progress,” so
“out-path”
“way out”
“out journey”
When Peter says in the King James that “ye may be able after my decease,” the Greek is, “after my ex-hodos” after my out journey from this tabernacle of flesh.
I got to talking about this final out journey with Cassidy the other day. She was perplexed over why the soul of a person had to leave from a body when the body gets so damaged that it cannot sustain physical life.
It was a unique question. What is the relationship to the soul of a person to the function of its material tabernacle.
We concluded that the soul is not dependent upon the physical body for existence; that since being given life by the breadth of God, the human soul of each individual is eternal.
However but once the soul’s fleshly tablernacle is no longer capable of sustaining or housing the mind, will and emotion of a person, it breaks down and that soul takes its path or journey out of the broken material home and moves on to another permanent residence – one spiritual instead of carnal and material – and this is resurrection.
Exiting, departure, exodus is a major theme in scripture, an intrinsic part in growth, maturity, and therefore necessary to bearing fruit.
The Book of Genesis begins with the first man making an unfortunate but mandatory “out-journey” from the presence of God (and into the fallen world) and the rest of the books narrative revolves around God implementing all the necessary events to bring us back . . . through a journey out from the world in which we live – and back into His presence – which apparently culminates in our final exodus from the mortal body and into the presence of the eternities – whether this includes an eternity with God or not seems predicated or at least related to the exits and exoduses we make while here in the flesh.
The Book of Exodus typifies this journey for all of us through the type of the Nation of Israel exiting the bondage of Egypt and learning to walk by faith and trust in the living God as He lead them not only through the wilderness (which to me is a type for our individual redemption and salvation) and then into the promised land (which is not a picture of heaven but a type for entering into personal spiritual warfare and sanctification (due to the battles they faced once entering therein).
All of these themes are echoed in other stories where biblical characters must first decide to exit from a former place and to enter into another place designed by God.
Noah from dry land to being covered in pitch and shut up by the Lord in an ark.
Joseph out from his family and into Egypt.
Moses from the warm home of his Hebrew parents as a babe into the arms of an Egyptian life . . . then from Egypt to the Wilderness, then back, then out again!
David in and out of King Saul’s life, in and out of living on the lamb (no pun intended) in and out of His flesh.
The Christian walk is no different with all of us experiencing the constant challenge of “taking off and putting on,” “entering into and exiting out of,” “gripping and then letting go – with faith being the only source of stability along the way.
Christian Existentialist Soren Kierkegaard describes something called the “leap of faith” which Kierkegaard never coined. Instead he emphasized a “leap to faith.”
Big difference.
And I would suggest that what he was suggesting is that amidst everything that tends to show itself as a reason to hold back from leaping to a life of faith, the only way to really experience God is to exit from all the securities we surround ourselves with and leap out to faith.
In some ways this is the consummate and continual form of exodus. And the process does not ever seem to end in the life of the Christian.
I honestly do not believe God ever wants us to arrive or reach a static destination in our Christian faith while here.
It’s almost like there is a towering castle on a hill called Christ and the Holy Spirit is drawing all to move in – to bring all they have and all they are and step in through the tall towering from doors.
On the outside this towering castle looks majestic and immovable – and so it is. But once we enter in through the front doors the rest of our life is spend climbing to higher and higher and higher floors, all presenting us with new vistas, new insights, and then new invitations to exit . . . and to then climb to another room above us.
The Kierkegaard illustration might be seen then in the following manner.
Suppose before we were believers we stood on the edge of a crumbly cliff which rose ten thousand feet above a desert floor below.
Looking out we are constantly offered a means to escape our treacherous footing of the cliff – for there is a trapeze which swings out toward us, pauses in the air, then recedes into down and then up into the clouds.
Standing on terra firma we have certainty and no risk. But the ground is shaken and the fall unrecoverable if taken.
The first question is are we willing to take the Kierkegaardian leap TO faith? The thing about this leap is the handle of the trapeze does not extend all the way out to where we stand.
It is short of our reach – and those who choose to escape the cliff must leap to the handle of faith.
That handle is far enough from our stance on the cliff that all who seek to grasp it will be air-born – ten thousand feet about the desert floor – before being able to grip the handle extended them by God.
All who are His must be willing to leap to faith – whether they realize it or not.
And all who do experience what it’s like to leave the stability of terra firma and tapped into the vine swing on God toward a new destination.
To make an exodus from a former security and fly toward another unseen destination – weather it be practical, or theological, or spiritual, or material – the Christian walk (or swing) is either constantly moving forward, or it is moving backward over the same ground because we were unwilling to let go.
You see, after propelling through space, God takes us up to another place of decision.
It’s a place of having to let go – again – and the purpose is to let go in order to move forward – again to an unknown destination.
Some people stand on the cliff and never let go of their place on the cliff.
Some make a leap to faith and grip the first trapeze handle, but spend the rest of their Christian walk swinging back and forth over the exact same scenery below them.
Some swing to another handle, and allow themselves to be taken further and further from the cliff of the Fallen world, but most – most – growing tired of letting go, somewhere along the way, decide to not move along to other places God extends to them.
This is how exiting is a major theme of the mature Christian walk – and few be there that will allow it.
So Peter is getting ready to make the final exodus.
And his desire is to leave a permanent record of his reminders so that they might be pursued once he exited this world.
In reference to leaving a written reminder for his audience that will bring to their remembrance all the things Peter thinks they need to recall he now adds a radically important passage relative to eschatology and says:
16 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
Looking at the Greek translation of this passage Peter says:
For
We haven’t tapped into sophizdos “sophistries (written as cunningly devised fables) “muthos” (myths) WHEN WE MADE KNOWN UNTO YOU THE POWER (dunamis) AND COMING (paro-seeah) of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In other words fictions and myths that have been invented by men which rest on no solid foundation are not part of Peter’s or the other apostles narrative and teachings relative to the coming (paro-seeah) of Jesus.
The doctrines which they had been taught about the coming of the Savior were not, like many of the opinions of the Greeks, defended by weak and sophistical reasoning, but were based on solid evidence — evidence furnished by the personal observation of competent witnesses.
So while it’s true that the apostolic teachings of the gospel were not based on fables and myths but Peter is specifically talking to them about the second coming of Christ, referred to in scripture through the Greek term
“paro-see-ah.”
A word that come from the present participle of pair emee.
It means “being near,” an “advent,” and often means “return” “coming,” “presence.”
Now many people believe that Peter was talking about Jesus incarnation here when He says that
“we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”
And reading this passage in the English it is easy to believe this is what Peter was talking about. That their witness of Him was not based on fables and myths but that they were eye-witnesses – first-hand witnesses – of His majesty.
It really makes best sense to read and understand Peter’s words in this way – that he was speaking of being a witness of Christ power and coming to earth in the flesh (and the majesty that came with His presence) of which they were first hand witnesses, and that the message they have sent out in the world is not based on fables or myths.
But there is another way to read this. When Peter says:
“we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”
Peter could be referencing statements respecting the coming of the Savior in his first epistle, (1st Peter 1:5 and 4:13) and also the other apostles as this topic was frequently mentioned by them in their letters.
However the phrase, “the power and coming,” refer to the same thing and the meaning seems to be “his powerful coming,” or “his coming in power.”
Because of this the “advent” (or second coming of Jesus) is commonly represented as connected with the exhibition of power.
For instance in Matthew 24:30 we read, speaking of His second coming:
“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
In fact the terms dunamis (power) and parouseea are used seven times in the New Testament together and all but one of them refer to the second coming and the exception is speaking of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
So we have one heck of a tricky verse here.
Contextually Peter has been speaking of Jesus Second Coming – even as recently as two verses earlier.
The word choice Parouseea and dunamis (used together) are most often used to describe Jesus second coming, but the WAY Peter has written this verse there does appear to be the option that he was talking about Jesus first arrival to earth – His incarnation.
However, the term power is not ever used in relation to His first advent or birth but is always associated with his second.
Weighing it all out in our minds I personally believe that Peter is speaking of Jesus Second Advent here. Having said this it does not make explaining what he means when he writes:
“we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”
In light of the next two verses (17-18), which say:
“For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.”
I think we can be pretty sure that Peter, in verse 16, when he said:
“we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”
Was talking about witnessing Jesus glory and power which they witnessed on the Mount of Transfiguration.
So having said all of this I would suggest that verse 16 has to be understood in terms of two sections:
In the first section Peter is talking about Jesus not being a fable or myth, and so he says:
“we have not followed cunningly devised fables, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”
And the other section speaks of when they (the apostles) “made known to them the power and coming of Jesus at any time.”
The first section, consisting of the first and last lines, were Peter reiterating that Jesus is no myth – they saw His glory and heard God validate Him as His Son in whom He was well pleased.
The second section refers to the messages and warnings of His eminent return being valid – as they are witnesses of Him.
Just to re-emphasize and in another way:
What does the fact that Peter (and others) witnessed the glory of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration have to do with the fact that Jesus was coming with power?
Well first, he could attest from a first-hand witness that Jesus was full of glory and power.
Second, he heard God say this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. If God was well pleased with His Son then the Son was reliable and as a reliable being who promised to return with power this could be trusted.
And third the transfiguration was perhaps a foreshadowing of what would actually return at the Second Coming – the Son of Man not as broken flesh but in glory.
Finally, in direct relation to the Mount of Transfiguration experience Jesus said in Matthew 16:28:
“There be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.”
And from there took Peter James and John with Him to the Mount.
For these reasons I think this is how Peter ties the fact that he witnessed Jesus “magnificence” at the Mount of Transfiguration with Him coming with power in the second advent.
Then speaking of that Mount experience, Peter continues and says:
17 For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
(and 18)
18 And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
Peter then adds another support for
To wit, Peter, and James, and John.
19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:
I’m not going to go deeply into the debate over this passage but the bottom line issue is
Some think that when Peter says “a more sure word,” did not intend to make any comparison between the miracle of the transfiguration and prophecy, but that he meant to say merely that the word of prophecy was very sure and could certainly be relied on.
I tend to see it this way.
As a FYI Luther skips the whole comparison issue and translates the passage as:
“We have a firm prophetic word.”
I suggest that what Peter is saying, in context of His Second Coming that there are also prophecies (more sure words of prophecy that pertain to the coming of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament.
In some ways this can be interpreted as Peter saying that his words and those of the apostles warning of the Second Advent are good but that there is an even better source for them to consider – what Peter calls the “more sure word of prophesy” which means the prophesies of the Old Testament.
I’m not saying we SHOULD interpret his words this way but if Peter is making a comparison between the things he and the other apostles have said about the advent then he does refer to the Old Testament prophesies as the “more sure word.”
Interesting to say the least. And there have been a number of opinions on the matter as said.
Another thought is that Peter is comparing the fables and myths he mentions in verse 16 with the Old Testament prophesies and this is why he refers to its contents as “the more sure word of prophecy.”
If any comparisons are being made then we all have to admit that the prophecies of the OT were the surest form of proof that He was going to return with power.
In all probability no comparison was intended and Peter was merely saying that there is even “mo-better” evidence respecting the second advent of the Messiah which demanded attention.
That this information was really vital is obvious as Peter adds:
“Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed.”
They are worthy of study and of close and careful investigation. Why?
Remember their situation. The end of material religion was coming their way. Christ foretold of all that would happen and it was happening. Great darkness surrounded the faithful.
Peter is writing and telling them that he is about to die, but he wants to put them in remembrance of everything he has taught them even beyond the grave.
He reiterates that he is not proffering them fables and myths but was a witness of the glory and power of the Lord Jesus who was coming back to save His bride.
And not only this, you all have the more sure word of prophesy to look into, and you would do well to do it. Because, (he adds) it acts as
“As unto a light that shineth in a dark place,” which is what they were in. The future – even where we place our next step – is unknown when we are in the dark.
As a lamp to their feet, the prophesies will illuminate the future – consult them, he says. “That which is unknown or unseen will become visible.”
Old Testament references to the second advent of the Messiah can be seen in Job, Daniel, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and the minor prophets.
“Consider what they have to say,” Peter tells them, (again, as a reminder) because it will act as “a light that shines in a dark place to you,” and then adds:
“until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.”
Which we will cover next week.
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