WHAT 2 PETER TEACHES ABOUT FALSE TEACHERS
by
Jim Bomkamp
1.
VS
2:1: False teachers existed in Old
Testament times, and they likewise will come into the church and exist among us
2.
VS
2:1: False teachers are very subtle, as
they (at least at first)‘secretly’ introduce destructive heresies among the
church
3.
VS
2:1: Heresies introduced by false
teachers are ‘destructive’ in that they cause people to go to hell who believe
them
4.
VS
2:1: False teachers in the church
‘deny’ the Lord who bought them (just as Peter himself once did)
5.
VS
2:1: False teachers in the church are
awaiting a ‘swift destruction’ of themselves from the Lord
6.
VS
2:2: False teachers tend to get ‘many’
to follow them
7.
VS
2:2: False teachers not only teach
false doctrine, but they also tend to live in ‘sensuality’ (sexual immorality
suggested) and this causes the church to be maligned by the world
8.
VS
2:3: False teachers have a motive of
‘greed’
9.
VS
2:3: False teachers will be judged in
God’s timing, for their ‘their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their
destruction is not asleep’
10. VS 2:4: God’s locking fallen angels in Tartarus in
chains of darkness is a type picturing how that God will likewise judge those
who commit wickedness
11. VS 2:5: God’s destroying by the flood the entire
world except for Noah’s family is a type picturing how that God likewise judge
those who harden their hearts against Him
12. VS 2:6: God’s destroying the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah by fire and brimstone is a type picturing how that God will likewise
judge all who give themselves over to living ungodly lives
13. VS 2:9: The Lord ‘knows how to keep the unrighteous
under punishment for the day of judgment’
14. VS 2:10: Rather than exercize self-control (death to
self), false teachers ‘indulge the flesh in its
corrupt desires’
15. VS 2:10: The false teachers do not allow themselves
to have any accountability, nor submit to any in authority over them, but
rather ‘despise authority’
16. VS 2:10: When the false teachers ought to be fearing
God’s chastisement and judgment of them, they instead are ‘daring’ (arrogant
and boastful about their wicked deeds)
17. VS 2:10: The false teachers in Peter’s day: ‘do not tremble when they revile angelic
majesties’ (denounce the character of
angels, whether God’s or fallen angels)
18. VS 2:12: The false teachers act ‘like unreasoning
animals, born as creatures of instinct’ (not able to think for themselves or
able to be reasoned with)
19. VS 2:12: As animals which
cannot be tamed, the false teachers in the church are only good to be ‘captured
and killed’
20. VS 2:12: The opinions of the
false teachers are based upon ignorance not knowledge as they revile the
character of angels
21. VS 2:12: The false teachers
will be destroyed along with the fallen angels (thrown into the Lake of Fire of
Rev. 20)
22. VS 2:13: The false teachers ‘suffer wrong as the
wages for doing wrong’ as they reap the very consequences and fruit of their
actions
23. VS 2:13: Whereas normally
people tend to do their sinful activities at night and not in plain sight due
to shame, the false teachers ‘revel in the daytime’ openly proclaiming their
deceptions
24. VS 2:13: Peter describes the interaction of the false
teachers as being a “carousal” with God’s people, showing its unholy nature
25. VS 2:14: The false teachers have eyes full of
adultery, as they are always looking for that which is adulterous in their
relationship with God (it could mean sexual immorality)
26. VS 2:14: The false teachers
‘never cease from sin’, it is a continuous state
27. VS 2:14: The false teachers entice ‘unstable souls’
who are either new in their faith or sitting on the fence regarding their
relationship with Christ
28. VS 2:14: The false teachers have ‘a heart trained in
greed’
29. VS 2:14: The false teachers are ‘accursed children’
destined from all eternity for hell
30. VS 2:15: The false teachers are following the way of
Balaam, who loved the wages of unrighteousness
31. VS 2:17: The false teachers are ‘springs without
water’, unable to refresh the thirsty soul with God’s living water
32. VS 2:17: The false teachers are like the storm clouds
that appear on the horizon during a drought only to be blown away before they
can refresh the earth with water
33. VS 2:17: The ‘black darkness’ of hell is ‘reserved’
for the false teachers in the church
34. VS 2:18: The false teachers speak out ‘arrogant words
of vanity’ (useless stuff) in their teaching
35. VS 2:18: The false teachers entice people by
manipulating their fleshly desires and inspiring sensuality
36. VS 2:18: The false teachers entice those who barely
escape from the ones who are living in error
37. VS 2:19: The false teachers promise freedom for their
followers, but they are enslaved to sin themselves
38. VS 2:20-21: It is better for a person never to have
tried to follow Christ than to turn back from Him
39. VS 2:22: The false teachers are like the dog which
returns to eat its own vomit
40. VS 2:22: The false teachers are like the pig which
after being washed up ends up eventually going back and wallowing in the mud