This is a tough issue. There are false teachers out there, preying on the Church. How do we know who they are? How do we know if what we hear from the pulpit is truth or not?

Here is the video link:

False Teachers and False Prophets

The audio links to Spotify and iTunes is to the right.

Here is the transcript I worked from in today’s podcast:

Chapter 2

In truth, where Peter spoke to persecutions from without in his first letter, in this, his second letter, he is detailing trials from within the Church, brought on by false teachers and prophets.

2:1-3 False Prophets and False Teachers

1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 

Prophets speak on God’s behalf i.e. “Thus says the Lord…” whereas a teacher tells us what God means. A false prophet, therefore pretends to represent God, and a false teacher pretends to teach truth.

v.1 asserts that Christ “bought” the false teachers, but this does not necessarily mean that they were saved. Salvation in the NT sense does not occur until the benefits of Christ’s work are applied to the individual by the regeneration of the Spirit and belief in the truth. In other words, Christ crucified is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world (1Jn 2:2), yet is only really applicable to  those who bow their knee to Him. “Sufficient for all, efficient for some” is, I believe the saying. Or – the wrath of God is on all sinners until the work of the Cross is applied specifically to those who believe.

2 Many will follow their depraved conduct (i.e., “vices,” “sexual debaucheries”) and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 

“The way” was a common early name for the Christian faith. Such ungodly conduct brings reproach on the name of God or Christ, because it is viewed as Christ giving His permission for such behaviour. It is also important to understand that the Christian faith is “the way of truth”—the “way” of life that responds to and is determined by the “truth.” 

True doctrine must result in true living.

3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. 

Christian teachers have the right to financial support (cf. 1Co 9:1-14; Gal 6:6; 1Ti 5:17-18), but their motivation in the ministry should not be mercenary. For false teachers, however, religion will be commercialized; they will “exploit” people. They will say whatever they need to say to put your money in their pockets..

Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

In the light of the commercialism of religious cults today, Peter’s warning is clear enough. But the popularity and prosperity of the errorists will certainly come to an end. Their judgment and doom have been announced long ago (cf. Ps 1:5-6).

How can we be certain these false prophets and false teachers will be punished?

2:4-9 God Saves and God Punishes

4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,[a] putting them in chains of darkness[b] to be held for judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; 6 if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— 9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. 

2:10-22 The Truth about these false prophets and teachers

10 This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh[c] and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to heap abuse on celestial beings; 11 yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not heap abuse on such beings when bringing judgment on them from[d] the Lord. 12 But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish. 13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.[e] 14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! 15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, [f] who loved the wages of wickedness. 16 But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—an animal without speech—who spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. 

There is no real substance. Just as mists promise but do not deliver rain, just as you come upon a spring where you expect find water only to find it dry, these self-proclaimed teachers and prophets offer no real sustenance in their teachings and proclamations.

Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 For they mouth empty, boastful words (“springs without water”) and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error (new believers) . 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” 

20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 

Verse 20 mentions the possibility of reverting to the old paganism after having “escaped the corruptions of the world” through knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Is it possible, then, for Christians to lose their salvation? Many would answer affirmatively on the basis of this and similar texts (e.g., Heb 6:4-6; 10:26). But this verse asserts only that false teachers who have for a time escaped from worldly corruption through knowing Christ and then turn away from the light of the Christian faith are worse off than they were before knowing Christ. It uses no terminology affirming that they were Christians in reality (e.g., “children of God,” “born again,” “regenerate,” “redeemed”). The NT makes a distinction between those who are in the churches and those who are regenerate (cf. 2Co 13:5; 2Ti 2:18-19; 1Jn 3:7-8; 2:19). So when Peter says, “They are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning,” the reference is to a lost apostate.

Also – a final clue to these people is found in verses 21 and 22, below.

21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,”[g] and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”

Both dogs and pigs were considered vile by the Jews. Jesus also used the designations “dogs” and “pigs” in speaking of those opposed to God and his Word (cf. Mt 7:6). So the false teachers are unclean and return to the pagan corruption. The “dog [that] returns to its vomit” or the sow that “is washed” portrays the person who has a religious profession or outward change without a regenerating inner change that affects his or her nature. Such persons soon revert to their true nature.

Blessings!

Paige