False Teachers and Their Influence

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The Christian Race and False Prophets

2nd Peter 2.2-9
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January 31st 2016

Alright we left off with 2nd Peter 2:1 where Peter said:

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.”

We discussed that. Now something to note before we continue on.

Peter, in the first chapter, exhorted them to proceed and advance in what we might call “the Christian race,” and he now comes to remove or at least address some of the things that will hinder them in the challenge. And so we read last week that he said that just as there were false prophets among the ancients there would be false teachers among them – and his warning is, “don’t be seduced by them.”

In verses 1-3 he describes these seducers. Then in verse 3-6 he assures his reader that they will be punished and then in verses 7-9 he discusses Lot endured filthy men and then in the rest of the chapter describes the seducers more specifically.

We mentioned at the start of our study that there are tremendous similarities between the contents of Jude and 2nd Peter so I’m not going to cover that again. So after saying that these false teachers will bring in damnable heresies he says that they will face swift destruction.

The word for destruction there – apolea – can mean physical or spiritual and it also means “loss or ruin” but does not mean utter destruction as annihilationist’s often maintain. In my estimation, an in the spirit of what some would call false teaching, I am of the opinion that “afterlife destruction” is both administered mercifully, that it is commensurate to the crime, and that it is purposeful in eradicating anything and everything that cannot abide in the presence of God. But that is another conversation. Peter continues at verse 2 and says:

2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

The Influence of False Teachers

Alright back to verse 2 where Peter says:

2nd Peter 2:2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

It’s of interest that a large number of manuscripts read “lascivious” here instead of pernicious. In the end it seem that these teachers embodies carnality and sexual licentiousness and Peter is saying that many will follow them in these behaviors. We will see this description supported in some subsequent verses. In the end the overall description of these false teachers is they not only teach false doctrine they lead others into lives of sexual deviances and licentiousness. Even a cursory study of religious cults proves this true as almost all of them, once they have put their hand to the plow of denying Jesus etc. fall into widespread licentious sexual deviance.

The Way of Truth Reviled

We then read a cumbersome line in the King James:

“By reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.”

Other translations say it this way:

(RSV) And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled.

(WNT) And in their immoral ways they will have many eager disciples, through whom religion will be brought into disrepute.

(TCNT) There will be many, too, who will follow their licentious courses, and cause the Way of the Truth to be maligned.

In other words, many people will follow after these false teachers and their ways and…

The War Between Truth and Falsehood

As a result, the true Faith of Christ will be tarnished. Of course, Peter is speaking of a time when their world was falling apart and was about to come to a horrific end. What I find fascinating then and what continues to remain fascinating today is the war that exists between truth and error, light and dark, good and evil, living and deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God.. It’s just so intriguing that amidst the saving truths of Jesus and the Gospel and its teachings of selflessness, God allows—even uses—opposing forces to sway and persuade people to darkness, self, pride, and sinMissing the mark of faith and love—no punishment, just lost growth or peace.. There are some unfathomable principles undergirding this fact and somehow they relate to liberty, choice, and free-will.

I think we can safely say this because when we look into the heavens, we discover that an angel who was in the presence of God was permitted to rebel against him and his ways. And when we look to the Garden of Eden, we are able to see that this same angel was permitted to tempt the first man and woman to choose to rebel against God as well. And it seems this freedom was present even among believers in Peter’s day and continues to be present in our day as well. It makes us wonder if choice will continue after this life. For many, such a thought is terrifying because they want to be free from all temptation. And we very well may be. But I have to wonder.

The Heart of False Teachers

Anyway, Peter continues and gets to the heart of what drove the false teachers of his day, saying (at verse 3):

3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

We have three key Greek words here that really set the stage for what Peter says here: And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.

Pleonexia means GREEDY, FRAUDULENT AVARICE. Plastos means FABRICATED, ARTIFICIAL, FICTITIOUS. And Emporee-oma-hee means a TRAVELING PEDDLER, A TRADE OF BUYING AND SELLING, MERCHANDIZING. And from all of this, we get a pretty good idea of the motive of the false teacher. “Driven by greed they fabricate fictions and peddle them to all who will actually purchase them.” The way the King James puts it is “they make merchandise out of those who follow them.” (MKJV) “And through covetousness they will use you for gain with well-turned words;” “By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; (NKJV) (RSV) “And in their greed they will exploit you with false words;” (WNT) “Thirsting for riches, they will trade on you with their canting talk.” (BBE) “And in their desire for profit they will come to you with words of deceit, like traders doing business in souls.”

Last week I said that I have been accused of being a heretic and I expressed wonder and fear before God that maybe this charge is true. But I can conversely say that I don’t believe (I don’t believe) that I can be bought. In other words, I will teach what I believe is true no matter what the cost or price—even if I stand alone. From these descriptions, it seems that these false teachers not only share messages that lead others away, they are able to use them to make money, to the point that those who follow them almost become products that the false teacher merchandises for his own profit. Example of this is everywhere—I can’t help but think of Scientology as a prime example.

Motivation of False Teachers

In saying this Peter brings us to another prime motivator for false teachers—money. So we have sex and we have money. When I was in the school of ministry they warned all of us of the three G’s to being in ministry. Can you guess them?

Girls
Gold
and??
Glory

(pride, fame, power, attitudes of thinking oneself superior and the like.)

The three G’s—death blows to the pastor teacher—death blows to all followers and seekers of God:

Sex
Money
Power

The interesting thing about this is how present such things are in life. But when it comes to pastor/teachers there is the added hypocrisy of their presence. This hypocrisy makes them all the more devious and therefore all the more necessary to guise as being of God, which again makes the crimes all the more banal.

Speaking of the false teachers of his day, Peter adds:

3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now

Peter's Teaching on Judgment

The idea seems to be that justice had been long attentive to their movements and that it was on its way to destroy them. And then in the next six verses Peter justifies his having said this, and provides us with several examples of how God heaped His judgment upon others. The examples he uses where God’s judgement fell on others are:

1st, the angels that sinned
2nd, those in the world of Noah
3rd, Sodom and Gomorrah (as compared to Lot who God saved).

So in verse three, Peter seems to personify judgment and regarding false teachers says: “It’s headed their way,” adding his first example of angels and says:

4 For . . . if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

So this is the first proof that the false teachers would be punished – God punished the rebellious angels.

Contextual Teaching

Now I think it is very important to remember that Peter is talking to believers here and he appears to be talking about Christian teachers who either had or would apostatize by becoming false teachers, who would fall to some semblance of the three G’s. I believe we can clearly say this is Peter’s audience because of what he will say at verses 18-22. Now just jump ahead with me to these verses (which are part of this contextual teaching).

Here Peter says, speaking of these false teachers:

18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

The Error of Irrevocable Salvation

On this teaching alone, from Peter the apostle, I am personally convinced that there is an egregious error today that allows, even indirectly helps to promote and encourage believers to returning to the vomit of their former bondage and this is the idea that once a person has been saved that they cannot walk away from the gift given.

The failure of this teaching is supported here in a number of ways: First, that angels (who were actually in the presence of God) could and had the freedom to walk, That Adam and Eve without sin or knowledge of sin could choose to rebel, And that these false teachers that Peter is addressing had known the way of righteousness and like dogs returned again to their vomit.”

To teach believers that it is impossible to walk from the grace God has extended them is the equivalent of teaching teenage drivers who are granted a license to drive that they will never get in an accident, or telling a class of students the first day of calculus class that all of them will get A’s on their final even if they never study. It’s a recipe for disaster! It’s like encouraging someone to get out on a tightrope between two skyscrapers and promising them that even though they have never been on a tightrope before that they would not fall.

In any case, Peter proceeds to the prove that these fallen false teachers would be punished and He appeals to the case of the angels that had revolted. Not that these angels former ranks, dignity, nor holiness saved them from being thrust down to hell and Peter seems to be saying that if God punished them this severely, then false teachers could not hope to escape a similar judgment. Obviously Peter seems to be referring to the “angelic revolt in heaven” which is an event referred to in Jude 1:6 and also in other places in scripture.

Why the angels revolted we have not even the slightest biblical information. If you want answers to this mystery the LDS have an

Understanding the Rebellion of Angels

The narrative around the rebellion of angels in religious texts provides a lens into human behavior and the concept of choice. If angels revolted against God and faced punishment, it gives us grounds to reflect on similar aspects concerning humanity. A pivotal question arises here: “Did God create the angels to revolt against Him?” This is akin to asking, “Did God create certain men to rebel against Him?”

While some may consider the response controversial, the perspective shared here is a decisive "never." God did not create angels to rebel against Him any more than He created humans for the same purpose. This reflection inevitably leads to another question: “What caused the angels to revolt?” The suggestion here is that the influences are akin to those that swayed Adam and Eve—the reality of choice enacted upon by selfishness, pride, or error.

The Consequence of Rebellion

The focal point in Peter’s writings is the outcome of such rebellion: “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” The concept of hell here refers to “Tartarus,” unique to this scripture but prevalent in ancient Greek mythology. Tartarus, described by Plato as a realm where souls receive judgments after death, reflects a blending of Greek myth and Hebrew teachings.

This verse underscores a crucial argument: “If God punished the angels who revolted against Him, it is fair to believe that He will punish false teachers who once professed the faith too.” The imagery of fallen angels bound in darkness awaiting judgment is scriptural, yet it demands further exploration in separate studies.

Noah's Example and the Punishment of the Wicked

Furthermore, Peter uses another example to illustrate God’s action against wickedness:

5 “And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.”

Here, the reference is to a time before the flood, emphasizing that God, in reaction to wickedness, did not shy away from punishing those guilty. Context, as stressed in Peter’s message, is pivotal. His words served as a stark warning to the people of that time, laying out the consequences for false teachers and those not aligned with Christ at His coming.

Therefore, while Peter and others spoke of the end being near in their time, the applicability of these passages to our era requires careful consideration. Recalling that Hebrews references God declaring a final shaking of heaven and earth, the focus remains on distinguishing what remains unshakable. Understanding these passages in their historical context prevents a misapplication to our current era.

The Importance of Faith and Love

In this day and age, the text is often treated irresponsibly. That being said, we do have to ask: Since God has always been just and has certainly not spared those deserving punishment from receiving it, has this changed with Christ having overcome all things on our behalf? I don’t think so. But my opinion takes some justification.

The argument by some is that since Jesus has overcome all things by and through His death and resurrection, and since everything of the Old economy has been shaken so only that which remains cannot be shaken, then all judgment is done, all punishment is over, and He has had total victory. Built into this idea is the thought that since the destruction of Jerusalem, all people have been utterly redeemed and with justice done on their behalf, there is no afterlife punishment. Admittedly, we do have to ask ourselves: “If Jesus paid for all death and sin for all, why would God not spare everyone by and through the victory of His Son?”

We have to remember that the Son gave commandments. His message was not without expectations, and His Kingdom was never described as open to all. Instead, it was open to those who believed in God and on His Son AND those who loved them. Then, if people loved them, they would follow His commandments – which was to love others. So it appears (at least to me) that where all the sins of commission have certainly been taken care of, there are sins of omission that loom over the heads of all – and those who fail to believe and who fail to love will not be spared. That is what His Kingdom is all about – faith and love. People are not barred from it for the sins they've committed (they’ve been erased) but for acts they refused to commit – acts of faith and love.

God's Past Judgments

The question remains, if God did not spare the rebellious angels, nor wicked people of Noah’s day nor the wicked of Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins of commission, what remains for those guilty of omitting faith and love from their lives? I would first suggest that we are kidding ourselves if we disregard just and merciful treatment after this life.

But since committed sins are paid in full, it seems to me that instead of God not sparing His punishment and wrath, He will not spare His love and blessings on those who believed and trusted and loved. Get it? To the angels and people in Noah’s day, and those of Sodom and Gomorrah, and last of all, those who rejected Christ in Jerusalem, they were not spared from punishment – literal physical punishment. But since Christ has had the victory over all sin and death, it appears to me that NOW God will not spare his glory and light and blessings of his Kingdom on those who chose to believe and love.

And in this, we might suggest that the punishment – even the hell, if you will – that falls upon all people is failing to have God unsparingly receive them into His Kingdom. And I have the suspicion that this is somehow meted out both through the type of resurrection all people experience at death AND then the places in heaven their resurrected bodies will allow them to be. Just some thoughts – and admittedly thoughts that are speculative but, nevertheless, based on the scant information we have through scripture.

Peter's Account of the Flood

So to the angels, he cast them down to the lowest darkest regions of hades (in chains of darkness). And to the rebellious in Noah’s day, he wiped them out by a deluge, sweeping the wicked away with impunity and proving that the wicked would perish.

Notice, however, how Peter puts it. He says:

5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.

I think Peter mentions Noah as the eighth person (meaning the only ones saved were Noah and seven other people) to show that where the abundance were lost, there were a few who were saved. Peter also calls Noah, “a preacher of righteousness.” What was Noah preaching? Prepare – the end is coming. I am building a boat. Repent and join me and my family. Enter into the Ark, where the inside and out are covered in pitch (the Hebrew word for atonement) and be saved from the deluge to come.

Why did the majority perish? They failed to

False Teachers and Consequences

Peter has been discussing false teachers. He is telling the believers of that day, hang on, the deluge from on high is coming. Trust me. His message was really no different than Noah’s. Likewise, the message to all people today is no different. Believe in Him today, follow Him and His commands to love, and you will escape the afterlife casting out, the afterlife deluge, you will abide in the afterlife fires which burned Sodom and Gomorrah to the ground.

And he gives us another example at verse 6 and says:

6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

A third example to demonstrate to them how God has punished the wicked like the false unbelieving teachers of his day. The word translated "turning into ashes," (tefroo) doesn’t occur anywhere else in the New Testament. It comes from tefra which means ashes. And here Peter gives a destruction by fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Interestingly, all of these elements Peter mentions will be present in the coming destruction of Jerusalem – The temple will be cast down along with all the unbelieving Jews and apostates, they would experience floods of armies, blood and they would experience fire that would take the elements of their former age and turn them to ashes. I am convinced that the faithless and unloving will somehow spiritually experience, through the resurrected bodies they receive after this life, all the same things.

The Example of Sodom and Gomorrah

Regarding Sodom and Gomorrah Peter says that God, turning them to ashes “condemned them with an overthrow making them an example of those who live ungodly.” In other words, the fact of their being overthrown God showed that they were to be condemned or that he disapproved their conduct. We have a tendency to continue to use these examples from the Old and New Testament to prove God’s anger and disapproval of nations, neighborhoods, and individuals but I would suggest the application is inconsistent with Jesus victory and God’s appeasement thereby. I think it is very easy to use the unfortunate disasters and diseases of this world as evidence of God’s wrath but if sin was still making Him angry and out for vengeance I think we would be witnessing more consistency on His part to wipe it out.

In any case, like Peter did with the flood and God saving Noah the eighth person Peter again gives us the exception from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah adding:

7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

Lot is used here (and called just) because amidst all the morass of immorality Lot kept himself apart from the sway. Apparently, this was no party for the man because Peter says that he was, “Vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.” Bottom line the corruption of Sodom and Gomorrah was out in the open and utterly shameless and he was wearied or burdened by it. As followers of God it is a heavy burden to walk amidst open corruption – make you sick – and this is what Lot experienced and from the Greek it is more like he was “tormented.”

Historical Examples of Deliverance

So here, Peter is facing some similar situations to that of angels falling from heaven, wicked masses preparing themselves to be drown, and fire falling from heaven upon them. The false teachers of his day are removing people from the faith and into a place where they will not be protected from the flood and flames. But Peter points out that there has historically been a small percentage that God does spare – Noah and seven others, Lot and his two daughters – and apparently, the faithful bride of Christ who will be lifted out of the coming destruction by none other than her Groom.

Finally, I am convinced, that just like few were saved in the flood, few in the destruction of Sodom, few in the destruction of Jerusalem that Jesus words of strait is the gate and narrow is the way and few be there that find it continues to hold true relative to those who exit this world today. That statistically speaking, very very few will discover themselves the recipients of God’s unsparing light and love. For me, this position is supported firmly by our text.

Q and A Greek