Friday, October 16 –
It’s the end of the workweek and we continue reading in
Peter’s second letter. Today, our reading is in 2 Peter 2:1 – 24. Please read
the passage first, and then please come back that we might look at it again.
There are sections of Scripture that are fascinating to read, but a nightmare
to teach! This is one of them. Peter, having encouraged them to plant their
feet firmly in the truth, now begins to speak to them about counterfeit
so-called teachers, who are heretics. Heresies emerged in the early church as
false teachings, and have never gone away even to today. Modern heresies like
Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism and Christian Science all use biblical words but
they have a much different definition than orthodox Christianity. Peter, having
told them to believe the truth of Scripture as God revealed it to the Prophets,
now deals with those who peddle the word of God as false prophets.
“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as
there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive
heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves
swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them
the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you
with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their
destruction is not asleep” (2:1-3).
Notice, they are “false teachers…bringing in destructive
heresies”. In the first century, heresy was a common word in the Greek
language to mean “groups or sects” within another group. For example, in Acts
24:5, a charge is brought against Paul for being “a ringleader of the sect
of the Nazarenes”. The word “sect” is the Greek word for “heresy”. The New
Testament writers borrow that word to describe teaching and teachers that
deviate from Apostolic teaching. In general, they do so by denying the truths
the Creeds formulated to define the essentials of faith. I add disagreements by
Christians over non-essentials do not constitute heresy. We embrace the saying “unity
in essentials, in non-essentials liberty, but in all things charity”.[1] In
a play on words, Peter says, “they deny the Master who bought them….and in
their greed they will exploit you.” Though they could be “bought by
Christ”, they are driven by greed. Are these wayward Christians? No, since they
have denied Christ as their Lord. How do we recognize heresy today? We need to
understand the essential doctrines of our faith. The Creeds are foundational,
but we can go beyond that with study and good teaching.
Now Peter borrows some Old Testament examples of God’s
judgment against heretics. In a series of characters well known to Jewish
believers, Peter recalls their rebellion and the consequences that followed. He
does this through a series of “If…” statements (2:4-7), with a culminating “then...”
(2:9) statement at the end. First, he
deals with the fallen angels who rebelled against God and were put into hell.
“…If God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast
them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until
the judgment” (2:4)
The word he uses for hell is “tartarus” – a word
untypical in the New Testament. The word comes from the Greeks who believed in
a place of torment so bad it was beyond hell. If there is a New Testament word
close to “tartarus”, it would the “abyss” (Rev. 20:3) – a place
within hell. What did they do to deserve this? There is much speculation, and a
hint comes from a well-known (in Peter’s day) book called 1st Enoch – a
non-Canonical book. Among the things Enoch writes is that fallen angels sought
out humans to have sex with them, producing a wicked race (think demonic). It
is because of this hideous sin of trying to destroy the human race that God
confined them to this place that it might never happen again.
Peter, next, connects their judgment with Noah, when he
writes, “if God did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah”
(2:5). Then he adds the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as another example of hideous
rebellion (2:6), yet God still preserved his own – the example being Lot - even
though the rebellion of the rest was judged so severely (2:7-8).
In spite of the danger of heresy and the rebellion of those
against God, Peter assures them that God is able to keep them through it all
(2:9). God’s judgment is against all that is evil, living in rebellion to the
truth of God’s word, and unwilling to repent. God is “just” in separating out
those who are his own from those who are not – remember the tares and wheat!
Peter takes one last shot at the false teachers, describing
them as indulging in desires that are corrupt, and unwilling to be under the
accountability of the authorities of the church. Most of all, they have no
understanding of their own self-deception, and, therefore, also await their own
destruction. He paints a rather ugly picture of their ways:
“…those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and
despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the
glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not
pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like
irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed,
blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in
their destruction, suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count
it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in
their deceptions, while they feast with you. They have eyes full of adultery,
insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in
greed. Accursed children!” (2:10-14).
We’ve spent much time in the last few months recognizing the
many threats that came against the early church. There were threats from
without – chiefly, the Romans who oppressed and persecuted them; but the larger
threats were the “cancers” within – the heresies that sought to undermine the
Gospel. Heretics don’t put up billboards with advertisements that say “We are
heretical”. They use the same language, but have a different dictionary! Peter
has one final example that serves a warning – Balaam, who in all appearances,
looked and acted as a godly man.
“Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They
have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from
wrongdoing, but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey
spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness” (2:15-16).
The Old Testament story of Balaam is in Numbers 22 – 24. It
is a sad story of someone who seemed to be legitimate, but in the end, proved
to be false. He loved money and sold Israel out to the highest bidder. False
prophets whether in churches, on TV, radio, selling books, holding conferences
abound. They appear to say all the right things, but money is what controls
them, and power is what feeds their lust for more. Balaam, false prophets,
charlatans have this in common:
“These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm.
For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. For, speaking loud
boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are
barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but
they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to
that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the
world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again
entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than
the first” (2:17-20).
At one time, all heretics had a knowledge of God, and an
understanding of the way of Salvation, by grace through faith, in Jesus Christ.
Yet, they set it aside to create their own new way, because it gave them
authority and money. Joseph Smith did it in claiming new revelation to create
Mormonism. Charles Taz Russell did it in a new revelation to create Jehovah's
Witnesses. Mary Baker Eddy did it in her brand of new revelation to create
Christian Science – which we might observe is neither Christian nor Science!
They are, as Jesus said, “tares among the wheat” …what do we do? Jesus
said in his parable “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at
harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in
bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:28-30).
It is why Peter reminds us at the end, “the last state has become worse for
them than the first”.
He ends this with a not-so-pretty-picture to think about. “What
the true proverb says has happened to them: ‘The dog returns to its own vomit,
and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.’” (2:22).
We who have had dogs, or seen pigs, know that it is in their
nature to actually do these things. We shake our head in unbelief and say “yuck”,
but it’s their nature, not their minds driving their choices. So also, it is
the way of heretics. They know but refuse to submit to the truth, preferring
their own way. They find some following and fairly soon justify their work as
“look what God is doing here”! They are, in fact, “dry
springs…mists…empty…boastful…corrupt…enslaving”, and most of all lost.
R. C. Lucas says it correctly:
“This probably means that although it will sound attractive,
closer examination will reveal a gap between (on the one hand) what these
people claim publicly for their relationship with God, and (on the other) their
private self-indulgence. A non-judgmental ethic and an open-ended theology will
be on offer to immature Christians, who do not know enough to refuse it and cannot
see the selfishness masquerading as spirituality. It is sharply contemporary.”[2]
Peace
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