Saturday, August 05, 2006

Tough Texts - #3

II Peter 2:1 - But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A tough text indeed. How can someone who has been bought by the master then deny that master? I found the John Gill commentary to be very helpful in explaining how we should see this verse. Gill's material is online and free and can be found at several locations, crosswalk.com, I think, is one of them. Here is a quick explanation rooted in Gill's response. We know that those who a bought by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross have an eternal redeemption (Heb 9:12-14) and will not experience the swift destruction mentioned in 2 Peter 2:1. We must identify the word master and the word bought. The word master is a word used not for Jesus Christ in his atoning work, but for God the Father, who is indeed, master of all things. He owns all things. They are his. Yes, the pagan, the false prophet, everyone and everything belongs to him. As for the word bought, he has in a way, purchased all these things by the fact that he has spent his divine energies in their creation and they exist as his possessions to do with what he wills. He is the potter that owns the clay that he will shape and form into whatever he wills (shades of Romans 9, here)! And the false prophet will reject him, who is his master, his purchaser of existence and he will be swept away in swift destruction. That is the way I see this verse. We certainly can't think that the work of Jesus on the cross would fail!

Jordan Thomas said...

Paul,

Although we don't normally allow anonymous commenters on SC, we decided to let yours slide because of its insightful material. Give yourself up ye Gillian sage!

Jordan Thomas said...

PQ. Yet another published comment by an anonymous author. I like your interaction with the text and with Paul. With such thought provoking material, why hide your identity? Come forth initialed one. (Your blogger identity doesn't do the trick as it renders you only as "PQ" also?).