The Commentary | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 16, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 44.

The Commentary.

SECOND EPISTLE OF PETER.

2 PETER 2:1-10. (Lesson 6, Sabbath, Dec. 1.)

1. WHAT obstacles hindered the progress of truth "in old time"? "But there were false prophets also among the people." 2 Peter 2:1, first clause.

2. What did Peter say there should still be among the people? "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." Same verse.

3. What does he say of the character and work of these false teachers? Same verse.

4. Is it necessary that these false teachers who deny the Lord should be avowed disbelievers in him? "They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." Titus 1:16.

5. What does Christ say will be the fate of such? "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matt. 7:22, 23.

6. How much following will such ones have? "And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." 2 Peter 2:2.

7. What will be the result to the truth? Same verse.

8. What principle is it that leads these men to cover their licentiousness with the garb of religion? "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." Verse 3.

9. When such ones flourish the most, what may we know concerning the time of retribution? Verses 1 and 3, last part of each.

10. What three great events of the past assure us that God will not allow them to go unpunished? "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; 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; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked." "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." Verses 4-7, 9.

11. When will there be a parallel to the wickedness of men in the days of Noah and Lot? "And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." Luke 17:26-30.

12. In what did the great sin of the people in those times consist? "That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose." "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." "And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth." Gen. 6:2, 5, 12. "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Jude 7.

13. What does Peter say of these last-day false professors? "But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government." 2 Peter 2:10, first part.

14. To what time are all the wicked reserved for punishment? "And delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." "And to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." Verses 4 and 9, last part of each.

15. What was the character of those who escaped the judgments that have been brought upon the earth in the past? "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." "And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.)" Verses 5, 7, 8.

16. What encouragement can the righteous find in the account of past judgments? "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation." Verse 9, first part.

NOTES.

IN 2 Peter 2:4-9 three events of the past are brought to view as evidences that God will surely punish the wicked, and deliver the godly out of temptation. First, "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell;" second, he "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;" and third, he turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, "making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly," but delivered just Lot. Now, says Peter, if God did these three things, he knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. The fact that God has done these things in the past (and that he has, all the wicked may know if they will) is sure evidence that God will finally punish all the wicked, and will thereby deliver the godly out of temptation.

AND here it may be noticed that the punishment of the wicked is necessary to the complete redemption of the righteous. The loyal angels could not have been delivered from temptation if God had not cast out from among them the angels that kept not their first estate. Jude 6. Lot's righteous soul was vexed from day to day by the filthy acts of the Sodomites, and the same must have been the case with Noah, when every imagination of the thoughts of the hearts of men was only evil continually. God destroyed the wicked race, preserving Noah alive. So, when wickedness abounds over the whole earth, and men totally reject God's Spirit, the safety of God's loyal people, no less than outraged law, demands the destruction of the wicked.