Thursday, April 16, 2026

SECOND EPISTLE FROM PETER #3

 


 New Testament Bible Story

Chapter One-hundred-twenty-one:

2 Peter 3 - Christ's Coming

                       
                                  2 Epistle from Peter 

                                        Chapter 3



CHAPTER THREE

     Peter was writing this epistle in part to stir up their
remembrance. He wanted them to be mindful of the prophets of old
and the commandments of the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.
     Peter was inspired to tell them that in the LAST DAYS,
scoffers would come, who would want to just follow their own
lustful ways, certainly not want to live by the words of the
Bible, as Jesus taught we should (Mat.4:4). They would scoff at
the teaching of the second visible body return of Jesus to this
earth. They would look at past history and say all is going along
as ever before on the planet, people living and dying, people at
war with each other, famine, earthquakes, deceases of all kinds
... just the wheel turning as ever before right from the
beginning of life on earth.
     Peter says these people are WILLINGLY IGNORANT, they have
their head in the sand so to speak. They will not simply look
around and see the wonders of creation demand it all has a
creator. They want to be ignorant about Genesis chapter one, the
earth standing in water, then in and out of water, as God
directed in that beginning chapter of His Bible. Even with all
the evidence of modern science, the earth was at one time not
covered with water and then at some time in history it was
covered with water. There was a world at one time containing all
the "dinosaur" creatures, and then they all of a sudden
disappeared. Modern science admits this was so, but these
scoffers just do not want to see a being called "God" in any of
this.
     The earth today is kept in its function for us human beings
to inhabit, we have laws that science must admit are there, like
gravity, but the scoffers will still scoff at anything having to
do with an Almighty Being that made it all, and keeps it all in
place to enact His plan for mankind and the physical earth. This
planet will keep revolving and keep being inhabitable unto the
day of the Lord that will bring a universal fire in final
judgment, that will burn up all ungodly person and usher in a new
heaven and a new earth, as the last chapters of the book of
Revelation expound.
     Peter wanted his readers not to be ignorant of how the time
plan of all this, is working out. God is VERY PATIENT,
His time is not our time, a DAY to the Lord can be as a THOUSAND
years in human time, and a THOUSAND YEARS as a DAY to God. The
Almighty One is NOT on OUR time table. To us a thousand years is
a long time, to God it is but a day, and if the Lord wants to
make a short time to our thinking, into a long time, He can do so
(verses 1-8).

     Verse 8 has in times past been used to try and prove God is
working on a 7,000 years plan. That idea is not new, some, many
centuries go proclaimed this teaching. Bishop Usher tried to
prove that creations of Genesis one, was in 4004 B.C. If that
could be proved to be correct (which by the way cannot be
proved), then we are OVER the 6,000 years of man, and the 7th one
thousand years should have already come to earth, and Jesus
should already have returned.
     The words of verse 8, DO NOT prove such a 7,000 years plan
is what God is working on. All that verse teaches is that GOD'S
TIME OF DOING THINGS IS NOT OUR TIME! The Eternal can shorten or
lengthen the events of what He plans to work out on this earth
with human beings. Jesus gave parables that tell us the same
thing. If you read them carefully some people will be surprised
at the coming of Christ when He does come, and others will be
sleeping, thinking it is far away. Yes, certain prophetic events
must come to pass (if the nations of the world do not repent, and
there is no evidence they ever will on their own steam) before
Jesus returns to earth, but you see God the Father, can if He
wills, make certain events lengthen out before the next event of
prophecy is to manifest itself.

     Then will all that said, it still remains that God is NOT
SLACK, concerning His promises, as men count slackness, because
men look through human eyes, and forget about verse 8 that we
have just read ... time with God is not our time. God is PATIENT,
and that patience or LONGSUFFERING is often way too long for many
of us humans. How many have lived in this past 20th century
hoping to see the end of this age and the return of Jesus? Many
thousands I'm sure. How many in my generation (I'm recently, in
2007, aged 65; in September I reached what some call the golden
age - well I do get a few dollars of here and there for being
classified now as a "senior") want to live and see Jesus return
in power and glory. If my generation lives for another 20 to 40
years, maybe it will happen. But there is NO GUARANTEE that will
be the case. When I think of the last 40 years, it's hard to
imagine where they all went - went by quickly indeed, and the
older I get the quicker the years seem to go by.

     Now here's ONE BIG reason why God is L  O  N  G  S  U  F  F 
E  R  I  N  G to mankind is that He wants to give the benefit of
the doubt to then. Maybe if He gives His children a longer time
to work in spreading the Gospel, more will come to repentance and
to a saving faith. God can give some extra time, if it's His
desire, He is after all the Almighty, and all things are in His
hands. He can shorted the days or lengthen the days as He wills. 
     We do not tell God what to do and when to do it. It is HE
that will decided when all that is written in the prophets is to 
take place,  and it will be He who has the final word for the "go
ahead" for  Jesus to leave heaven and to return again to earth.
     God is LOVE. He does not want to see ANY person PERISH. He
wishes that ALL would come to REPENTANCE, He would like that, but
it does not mean ALL WILL repent. Desiring all to repent is not
the same as all people being willing to repent. Mankind was
created with FREE agency, God cannot and will not FORCE people to
repent, they must make that choice. God sets before mankind GOOD
and EVIL, He wants them to choose the good, but each individual
of mankind must decide for themselves which way they will choose
(see Duet.30:19). And each individual must remain FAITHFUL in
that choice TO THE END (see Ezekiel 18:21-32). (verse 9).

     Peter reminds us in verses 10-13 that the DAY OF THE LORD,
will come on the earth like a thief in the night - UNEXPECTEDLY -
most on earth will not be in the frame of mind to expect the Day
of God to come. Paul gave us a little more about the attitude of
mind that most will have at that time. He said that indeed the
Day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night. The world will
at that time be saying "Peace and safety" then SUDDEN destruction
will come! (see 1 Thes.5:1-6).
     The "Day of the Lord" is spoken about in many passages of
the Bible - Old and New Testaments. In the book of Revelation it
is called "...the GREAT DAY of His wrath..." (Rev.6:17). Before
that time period there is to come the GREAT TRIBULATION. In
Revelation 6 that is the 5th seal - the killing of many of the
saints of God. Jesus spoke about THE tribulation in Mat.24:21 - a
tribulation like no other in the entire history of mankind. Luke
records Jesus' words on this in Luke 21:20-24. It will be the
time when all that is written shall come to pass, and those in
Jerusalem better flee to the hills, for it will be a time of
anguish for the Jewish people once more. Jeremiah informs us that
it is "Jacob's trouble" (Jer.30:7). Now Jacob had 12 SONS - Judah
(the Jews) being only ONE of the twelve. The other sons finally
ended up travelling into Europe and have become most of the
nations of Western Europe, the British commonwealth and the
United States of America. The best Website to prove all that is:
www.britus.org

     In a nut shell then: The coming BEAST power of Revelation,
now rising in Europe, will conquer and control the WESTERN world,
it will have its particular strange "Christianity" - its Babylon
Mystery religion (which it already has) - all will have to
worship this "beast" and its form of Christianity, which is as
far as the east is from the west, in relation to God's true
religion of the Bible. The Lord's people and probably many in the
now fundamental Protestant denominations (who will see the true
correct religion of God, through the teaching and example of the
true Church of God) will not bow down to worship this Beast power
or its form of religion. Many will then be killed for holding to the
faith once delivered to the saints.
     After this has taken place, the Beast power will DECLARE
PEACE, those willing to worship the Beast system will, for a
short time, indeed HAVE PEACE, that is what Paul was referring to
in 1 Thes.5.  
     THEN will come the DAY OF THE LORD, or the Great Day of His
Wrath (Rev.6:17). Most on earth will not expect it. As a thief in
the night it will come on the earth.
     There will be HEAVENLY SIGNS (Jesus also and Joel the
prophet spoke about that - Mat.24:29; Joel 2:30-31). Peter put
them as "heavens pass away with great noise, the elements melt
with fervent heat, the earth burnt up....the heavens on fire ...
and elements shall melt with fervent heat." All that is then to
take place is recorded in the book of Revelation from chapter 7
to 20. Certainly nothing in mankind's history will be like the
events of the DAY OF THE LORD!
     I have covered in much detail the prophecy of these end time
events in MANY studies on this Website.

     But after and beyond all of that GREAT Tribulation and the
Day of the Lord, there is promised a new heaven and new earth, a
NEW AGE to COME, as the apostle Paul once termed it. All will not
be lost, the earth and some of mankind, will remain. Peter is
using a "general" statement in this passage of verses 10-13. Many
other passages in other prophetic books of the Bible, show not
all is lost or destroyed. Jesus did say (Mat.24 again) that if
the days were not shortened then all flesh would be obliterated
from planet earth, but the days will be shortened. Jesus will
come and usher in a new age, a new heaven and a new earth during
the 1,000 year period mentioned in Revelation 20, and as told by
the holy prophets of old in many passages such as Isaiah 11 and
Zechariah 14.

     Peter is NOT here in these verses talking about the passages
of Revelation 21 and 22. A new heaven and a new earth that will
come at the END of the 1,000 year period. Many have thought Peter
was referring to those passages of Revelation. There may be a
DUAL aspect of what Peter is stating here, but the main thought
is the prophetic DAY OF THE LORD, as in many other passages of
the Bible. Peter's context has been that many would scoff in the
last days concerning the teaching that Jesus Christ is to return
to earth again. He is telling his readers that God is patient,
God is not stack concerning that prophetic event of Christ coming
back to set up the Kingdom of God on earth. Then he proceeds to
relate how the Day of the Lord will come (as a thief - surprising
most) and the heavenly signs to announce it, then the restoration
- a new age, a new heaven and a new earth under Christ who has
indeed come as promised.

     If the you have not yet studied my in-depth study called
"Armageddon and the New Age" then I encourage you to do so. There
is so much that has been promised from God concerning the age to
come, the Kingdom of God on earth, that my study of it, is only
the tip of the iceberg. You can continue the study by reading all
the prophetic books of the Bible, and noting especially the
context where the phrase "day of the Lord" is used.

     As we look for all these things to come to pass, as we know
those promises are sure, then we are to be DILIGENT, having
peace, without spot, and blameless. We can only do all of that,
by being in a humble repentant attitude of mind, continually
wanting to serve God, obeying Him, living His WAY of life, living
by His every word, and just love Him with all our heart, mind,
and life (verse 14). John the Baptist's parents were counted as
"blameless" before God. Not because they were sinless, only ONE
has ever been sinless (Jesus Christ) - they were counted as
blameless because they did what I've just stated above and
because they had a humble repentant attitude of mind.

     Peter again states that the LONGSUFFERING of the Lord is
SALVATION. So if all things promised do not come to pass in our
life time, if Jesus does not return before we physically fall
asleep in death, then we need to remember that it may be that the
Lord is continuing to be longsuffering with the people on earth,
that MANY more might find salvation and be a part of the FIRST
resurrection.
     Peter mentions Paul taught the very same thing ... God is
longsuffering! He also points out to us that some of Paul's
writings are quite deep "theologically speaking" and may be hard
to understand at first. They who are unlearned and unstable (not
meaning a little mental, or psycho) but unlearned and unstable in
getting to know how to study the Scriptures, in a way that puts
them all together to obtain the results of the truth of the
matter on any particular Bible subject.
     Such persons end up TWISTING the Scriptures, come to the
WRONG understanding of things written in the Bible, and it all
leads in the end to their destruction, and if when God gives them
the light to see and obtain the truth, they still will not accept
it, then it will mean, sadly, their final destruction in the
second death, as told us in Revelation 20.

     I want you to notice what Peter is saying in context about
the writings of Paul, the epistles of Paul, these unlearned
people wrest Paul's writings as they do OTHER SCRIPTURES (verse
16)!!
     By the time Peter was writing this epistle, all true
Christians and ministers, HAD COME TO SEE THAT THE WRITINGS OF
PAUL WERE NOT JUST HIS IDEAS, HIS "THEOLOGY," BUT WERE ACCEPTED
AS **SCRIPTURE** - the New Testament was being INSPIRED to be
written, and the apostles KNEW what letters were INSPIRED. The
New Testament was BEING FORMED during the FIRST century A.D. The
idea that it was the Roman Catholic church that formulated the
cannon of New Testament Scripture in the 2nd to 4th century, is
totally blown to shreds by this verse here in the second epistle
of Peter.

     An old book (1984) but a book I recommend you read is "The
Original Bible Restored" by Ernest Martin. Maybe your local
Library will have it, or Internet Websites like Amazon.com or
Barnes and Noble.com carry it somewhere on their file selling
bookstores. Maybe one day I may upload the entire book to this
Website.

     Peter gives us all a warning in verse 17. We may know these
things he has written about, we may know them very well, maybe
we've studied them for years, but that does not mean we cannot
FALL AWAY from righteousness back into the error of the wicked,
or be LED ASTRAY by the errors of the wicked, or those
"unlearned" in the Scriptures. We are to be on guard all the time
that we do NOT FALL from our STEADFASTNESS! Paul also taught the
same, and so did Jesus, for He said, "Those that endure to the
END shall be saved."

     One way to make sure you endure in steadfastness is to GROW
IN GRACE AND KNOWLEDGE of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ...."
(verse 18).
     You need to love to love the truth of the matter. You need
to hunger and thirst after righteousness. You need to study the
Scriptures, read the Bible from cover to cover. You need to
meditate upon God's word, and PRAY to the Lord for guidance. Pray
to the Lord that you will not be one of the "unlearned" in the
Scriptures, and be led away by the errors of the wicked.
     And so we have done the full circle again, which brings us
back to making sure you GROW in grace and knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.

     To Him be GLORY both NOW and FOREVER. Amen!

                             ................

Written October 2007

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EZEKIEL MESSAGE FOR US TODAY #4

 

Ezekiel For Today

Chapters 9 to 18

               FOR WHY WILL YOU DIE, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?

                                                 Part 4

                                                   by
                                            Keith Hunt



     Over and over again in the pages of the Prophets of old, God
has stated WHY He must punish the whole peoples of the House of
Israel and the House of Judah, with a punishment like no other in
all recorded history - Jeremiah called it "Jacob's trouble"
(chap.30:7). Daniel talked about the same time of trouble, like
no other before or after. And it was at this time that the people
of God would be delivered (Dan.12). Dozens of passages teach that
the peoples of the 13 tribes of Israel are in a captivity to
their enemies at the time of the end. Jesus comes again, and one
thing He immediately does is bring forth the remnant of Israelite
people out from the lands they have been scattered in, to restore
them to the land of Promise - the land of Palestine. 
     The punishment was needed to bring them to deep and true
REPENTANCE. One passage in the writings of Jeremiah gives the
clear reason why the Eternal will have to lower the rod of
correction upon the Jewish people, and the people of the British
Commonwealth, USA, and nations of Northwest Europe. 

     "For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have
only done evil before me from their youth: for the children of
Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their
hands, says the Enteral....Because of the evil of the children of
Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to
provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their
priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem.  And they have turned unto me their
BACK, and not their face: though I TAUGHT THEM, RISING UP EARLY
AND TEACHING THEM( yes, God has always had His faithful true
ministers proclaiming His truths to the nations of Israel,
especially in the last days - Keith Hunt), YET THEY HAVE NOT
HARKENED TO RECEIVE INSTRUCTION...." (Jeremiah 32:30-33).

     We have come to chapter 9 in the book of Ezekiel, and the
Lord is now ready to start to act upon what He has promised,
punishment and death, if the nations of Israel will not turn to
Him in repentance.  But the Lord is merciful to those that are
after His own heart. Remember when the Almighty with two angels
came to destroy Sodom and Gomorah(Gen.18) and Abraham asked Him
about the innocent?  The Eternal would have mercy for the
innocent. You will remember Lot and some of his family were
spared death.
     This situation to befall Israel is not quite the same, for
they will be punished regardless of how many righteous are
within. But we now see in Ezekiel nine, that the Lord is still
looking out for the righteous who dwell in the nations of Israel.
These righteous "sigh and cry for all the ABOMINATIONS" being
committed (verse 4).  Please keep in mind that "the city"
(Jerusalem) and all that is to take place in her, is a TYPE of
all to come upon the whole 13 tribes of Israel and Judah. This we
have seen in previous studies.
     These righteous have a mark set upon them. They are marked
as God's people.  The indications are that they will be protected
from the death when it starts, as those under the blood were
protected from death when God brought Israel out of Egypt under
Moses (Ex.12). This would seem to be the logical conclusion from
the context of chapter nine. It could be that the righteous are
noted, God has them in His book of life, and that they will be a
part of the first resurrection, those who will rise to meet
Christ in the air, the clouds, and so ever be with Him.  
     The righteous marked here are so marked at the beginning, or
just before the start of the announcement to slay the young and
the old.  They are spared from death as Jacob's trouble begins.
These marked here are not to be confused with the 144 thousand
of Revelation 7. Those in Rev.7 are brought to conversion just
before the great day of the wrath of God, after the heavenly
signs and killing of true saints during the great tribulation(see
the 5th and 6th seals of Rev.6 with Mat.24). Revelation 7 is a
later time frame from this prophecy of Ezekiel 9.
     We certainly do have very plain words about the death to
come for a great many of the inhabitants of the nations of
Israel, immediately after the marking of those who cry and sigh
for the abominations being committed.

     "...Go you after him through the city, and SMITE: let not
your eye spare, neither have you pity: Slay utterly old and
young, both maids and little children, and women....and BEGIN at
my SANCTUARY....and they went forth and slew in the city. And
it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left,
that I fell upon my face and cried, and said, Ah Lord God! will
you destroy ALL THE RESIDUE OF ISRAEL in your pouring out of your
fury upon Jerusalem?
     Then said He unto me, The iniquity of the HOUSE OF ISRAEL
and JUDAH is EXCEEDING GREAT, and the land is full of blood, and
the city full of perverseness....And as for me also, mine eye
shall not spare, neither will I have PITY, BUT I WILL RECOMPENSE
THEIR WAY UPON THEIR HEAD...."

     Ezekiel is again lifted up by the Spirit and brought to the
Temple in Jerusalem, chapter 10:1.
     God here speaks to the princes of Israel. To the men who
give you advice and leadership. You receive BAD and
self-deceptive advice O nations and people of Israel.
They tell you to plan for the next century, way down the road,
for they tell you no evil will befall the might Western nations. 
You increase in crime overall (USA has declined in crime
recently, during the 90's, but Britain has greatly increased,
especially in violent crime. By the time God is going to punish,
crime will be out of sight in the nations of Israel).  The
Eternal says you have feared the sword of war, and indeed the
sword will come upon you. God will deliver you over to your
enemies and so execute judgment upon you. You shall fall by the
weapons of war, and when it happens the Almighty says you
will finally KNOW that He is the Eternal. He will so bring you to
humble repentance, for He says you have not walked after His
statutes, and His judgments, but have done the manner of the
heathen around you.
     After all this has taken place, yet the Lord will not cast
you away. He will see your repentance. He will hear your cries
for mercy, and He will forgive, and love you. He will answer you.

Oh, how wonderful and longsuffering is the Eternal. The day is
coming when you will be given a new heart and a new life. Will
you listen people of Israel and Judah to the good that your God
will yet perform towards you.

     "....Although I have cast them far off among the heathen,
and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will
I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they
shall come....I will even gather you from the people, and
assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered,
and I will GIVE YOU THE LAND OF ISRAEL. And they shall come
hither, and they shall take away....all the abominations...And
I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within
you; and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and
give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes,
and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they SHALL BE MY
PEOPLE AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD...." (Ezek.11:16-21).

     The Eternal had Ezekiel act out a literal removal of himself
and his "stuff" of captivity in chapter 12, to teach the lesson
to Israel that they would indeed be removed. Again the emphasis
is placed on Israel that they are a REBELLIOUS household of
people, with eyes to see but will not see, with ears to hear but
will not hear. God says He will leave A FEW IN NUMBER who shall
escape the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, to declare all
the abominations that they will then fully recognize, among the
nations where they shall come (verse16).
     There will be among you people and leaders who will laugh at
this warning, they will say the day of destruction for such great
and powerful nations as the British Commonwealth and the USA is
many many years away. But the Eternal says He is the Almighty,
and it WILL NOT BE PROLONGED, for He will say the word and it
shall come to pass (verse 25-28).

     Listen O nations of Israel, you have famous religious
preachers and prophets in your lands. But they teach and prophesy
"out of their own hearts."  They talk out of their own spirit,
and God says they have SEEN NOTHING! (chapter 13:1-3). They come
to you in the name of the Lord, but the Lord says He has NOT SENT
THEM! They have lulled you to sleep with a false grace and false
hope. They have built up a false wall that looks strong and right
but there is no true cement to hold the bricks, and the Eternal
will blow with His stormy wind upon it, until it and its builders
are smashed (verses 6-16).
     Ah, the Lord also speaks to the women that now lead in your
nations in various influential positions of power and leadership
- spiritually(many are now ordained ministers of religion) and
physically(positions of power and influence in governments from
local to federal). Because in the main they have strengthened the
hands of the wicked and have not led the people to turn from
their evil ways, God will in the coming punishment return to them
their reward of sin and evil, and will deliver the people from
their clutches of corruption (verses 17-23).

     We see in chapter 14 and verses one to eleven, a very
interesting principle of teaching. If the attitude of the bulk
of the people is that they do not really want truth or
righteousness, that they have closed their hearts and minds to
hungering after righteousness, if they have turned their minds
over to being deceived, and put whatever idols before their
minds(i.e. comfort, wealth, biblical laziness, overlooking sins,
corruptions, lies,  making the "church" into a social club) and
still come in an outward form to the religious leaders to
supposedly ask about the things of God,  then we learn one BIG
principle of truth here.  Under those circumstances, with that
attitude prevailing, GOD WILL DECEIVE THE VERY RELIGIOUS LEADERS
THE PEOPLE COME TO SEEK AFTER FOR GOD'S WAY.
     This shows that the grass roots PEOPLE of the churches are
just as MUCH RESPONSIBLE FOR DECEPTION AND WILL BE PUNISHED AS
MUCH AS THOSE THAT DECEIVE!
     The whole NT shows that religious deceivers WOULD COME, some
would be FROM WITHIN THE VERY CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST(i.e. Acts
20). The whole NT declares every Christian is personally
responsible for searching the Scriptures, proving all things,
loving the truth, and trying the spirits to see they are from
God. This must always be the case throughout any Christian's
life. Never going to sleep on this job. If they do, then they
are in the above attitude of mind, and what goes around will come
around, deception leads to deception. Those that are deceivable
will be deceived by those who are deceptive. AND GOD SAYS BOTH
ARE JUST AS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR DECEPTION - THEY SHALL BOTH
BEAR THE PUNISHMENT OF THEIR INIQUITY. YES, THE ETERNAL PULLS NO
PUNCHES, HE CALLS THIS MIND-SET - INIQUITY (verse 10).  
     We notice also here that the Lord will GIVE YOU YOUR DESIRE.

The one who WANTS to deceive, will be granted his wish, God will
allow him to do so. The one who has turned from seeking truth and
righteousness will also be led by God (for God will not step in
and prevent it) into the deception of the deceiver (verse 9). 
Yet, the ultimate free will to deceive or be deceived, is still
the responsibility of each individual. And they will personally
bear their punishment.

     The Lord goes on to show HOW PERSONAL this really is, in
verses 12 to 23.  When God does bring the promised destruction
upon your nations, only those who will see, acknowledge, and who
will be practicing righteousness will be spared from death.  No
one will be able to deliver anyone else, no one will be able to
save anyone who is not in the righteous mind-set. Some will
already be in a state of righteousness as we have seen in chapter
9. Some will come to deep repentance as all these four evils
come upon the lands of Israel (the sword, the famine, the beats,
the pestilence, verse 21).  A REMNANT will be spared.

     The first part of chapter 16 tells us in an analogy, how the
Almighty found and chose you peoples of Israel. 
     You mighty nations of Britain, USA, and Northwest Europe,
were not always powerful and great. Your beginnings as a people
goes back a very long way, and the Eternal says you were like a
helpless un-cared-for baby cast away in the field to die.  God
rescued you, washed, clothed, and fed you, until you increased
and became great in the world. 
     The Lord goes on to tell you how He was the one who built
you up, made you into a fine lady, even a beauty queen dressed in
the best clothes and jewelry and ointments available. He says you
then became "exceeding beautiful, and you did prosper into a
kingdom" (verse 13).
     Your fame throughout the world for your beauty and wealth
and perfectness was known by all (verse 14).

     BUT, the Eternal goes on to say, starting in verse 15, that
all this fame, fortune, wealth, beauty, greatness, was your
downfall, were the things that led you to play the HARLOT! You
have let your material wealth lead you to commit idolatry - you
are a people engrossed in pleasures and materialism, with the
rich ever getting richer and the poor ever getting poorer (verses
16-19).
     In turning your back on your God, in rejecting His ways, in
casting Him out of your schools and places of business, in
turning to the ways that seem right for man but which end in
death, you are destroying your children. You are raising a
generation that does not know, has never opened the pages of the
Bible, have never read one single word within its pages. You
have broken homes, children with one parent, or no parents, or
children with two mothers and no father, or two father and no
mother, as you accept the life style of the homosexuals and grant
them family status. You have children being raised on crime and
violence as they watch all your violent TV shows. You have
children being raised on your "sick-cons" during prime time
hours, which portray sexual immorality, fornication, adultery,
homosexuality, as the normal thing, and that which is clean and
straight and moral as something to be laughed at.  You have not
solved the "ghetto" problem, and with it today the problem of
hard drug use by an ever younger population of your children. 
You have an increase of children killing children. The violence
among teenage girls is shooting off the charts.  There is an
epidemic is teen cigarette smoking.
     Surely you are, with your children, sacrificing them to be
devoured (verse 20). And the Lord asks you if you think this is a
small matter. You are reaping what you are sowing. Through the
prophet Amos God speaks to you: "Hear the word of the Lord,
you children of Israel: for the Lord has a controversy with the
inhabitants of the land, because there is NO TRUTH, NOR MERCY,
NOR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD in the land. By swearing, and lying, and
killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out,
and BLOOD TOUCHES BLOOD....My people are DESTROYED for LACK of
KNOWLEDGE: because you have REJECTED knowledge, I will also
reject you....seeing you have FORGOTTEN THE LAW OF YOUR GOD, I
WILL ALSO FORGET YOUR CHILDREN....(Amos 4:1-6).

     The Eternal in this age, does not force anyone to learn and
to love His knowledge contained in His word. He does not at this
time force anyone to love and obey His laws, commandments,
statutes, and judgements. You people of Israel, in the main,
have chosen to REJECT the word and laws of the Almighty God, and
as He allows you this freedom, and as you then produce a
generation of children who do not know Him, who do not seek Him,
who do not want him in their lives, He then, not forcing them to
do differently, in human terms says to you, "I will forget your
children." God will keep hands off and allow you and your
children to reap the results of doing your own thing. So today
we have an epidemic of children bashing and killing children,
children killing themselves, children and youths on an ever
increasing drug binge, more and more children running away from
home and living on the streets, and as Isaiah wrote, "And my
people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by
his neighbor: the CHILD shall behave himself proudly against the
ancient...As for my people, CHILDREN are their oppressors...they
which LEAD you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your
paths" (Isa.3:5,12).

     Among all this whoredom, you have your "religion" - your
"churches" on every street corner. You have a form of religion,
an outward show of religion. You, the USA still print on your
dollar bills, "In God We Trust." You claim you are Christian
nations, yet as a prostitute you have sex with those who come to
you (verses 24-26) like the Egyptians. 
     You have gone to the Assyrian - the German nation - and the
rising mighty power of Europe, and played the harlot with them,
but still you could not be satisfied (verse 28).
     Then the Eternal says, you have not acted as a prostitute as
a prostitute acts and works. You have not taken gifts from your
lovers, but you have been like an adulterous wife, you have given
gifts to your lovers and you hire them to love you. In this you
are truly unlike any whore of prostitution. You defeated Germany
and Europe in the Second great World War of 1939 to 1945, and
then immediately started to re-build her and re-store her to
former glory and power. You have made your enemies into your
lovers, and you have given them presents for loving you.  Those
very lovers will come against you to execute God's judgement upon
you.  Your lovers will form A COMPANY of nations to fight and
destroy you. Listen to what your God tells you will come to
pass(if you will not repent):

     "Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord: thus says
the Eternal God; Because your filthiness was poured out, and your
nakedness discovered through your whoredoms with your lovers, and
with all the idols of your abominations, and by THE BLOOD OF YOUR
CHILDREN, which you did give unto them; Behold, therefore I will
gather all your LOVERS, with whom you have taken pleasure, and
all THEM THAT YOU HAVE LOVED, WITH all them that you HAVE HATED;
I will even GATHER THEM ABOUT AGAINST YOU, and will discover your
nakedness unto them, that they may see all your nakedness. And I
will judge you as a woman that breaks wedlock and shed blood are
judged; and I will GIVE YOU BLOOD IN FURY AND JEALOUSY.
     And I will also give you into their hand....they shall
strip you of your clothes, and shall take your fair jewels, and
leave you naked and bear. 
     They shall also bring up a COMPANY against you, and they
shall stone you with stones, and thrust you through with their
swords.....and execute JUDGMENT upon you....and I will cause you
to cease from playing the harlot...." (verses 35-41).

     In Ezekiel chapter 18 the Eternal shows that those who sin
and practice evil shall personally bear their punishment.
Everyone will have to personally give account for their own
actions. The son will not be punished because his father did
wrong. The Mother will not be punished because her daughter did
evil.  The soul that sins shall die, for his or her sins (verse
20).

     Once more the Lord cries out to you the people of the House
of Israel. He cries out for your people to REPENT! He shows you
that His way is JUST and EQUAL. He does not want to have to
bring all these prophecies upon your lands and your people.
They do not have to come to pass.  Will you not listen to what
your God proclaims to you?

     "But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he has
committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful
and right, he shall surely live, he SHALL NOT DIE. All his
transgressions that he has committed, shall not be mentioned
unto him: in his righteousness that he has done he SHALL LIVE. 
     HAVE I ANY PLEASURE AT ALL THAT THE WICKED SHOULD DIE? SAYS
THE LORD GOD: AND NOT THAT HE SHOULD RETURN FROM HIS WAYS, AND
LIVE?
     ....When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness,
and commits iniquity, and dies in them; for his iniquity that he
has done shall he die.  Again, when the wicked man turns away
from his wickedness that he has committed, and does that which is
lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. Because he
CONSIDERS, and TURNS AWAY from all his transgressions that he has
committed, he shall surely LIVE, he shall not die. 
     Yet says the house of Israel, The way of the Lord is not
equal. O house of Israel, are not my ways equal? are not your
ways un-equal?
     Therefore I will JUDGE you, O house of Israel, EVERY ONE
ACCORDING TO HIS WAYS, says the Lord God, REPENT and TURN
yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be
your ruin.
     Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby you have
transgressed; and MAKE YOU A NEW HEART AND A NEW SPIRIT:  FOR WHY
WILL YOU DIE O HOUSE OF ISRAEL? 
     For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, says
the Eternal God: WHEREFORE TURN YOURSELVES, AND LIVE YOU"
(Ezekiel 18:21-32).

     May there be some of you out there in the lands of Israel
who will not only listen to the words coming from your merciful
Everliving God, but may there be some of you who will act upon
those words. It is never too late to REPENT, TURN around, depart
from wickedness and do that which is righteousness, and to accept
Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.

                       

                    ....................

 To be continued


Written February 1998

Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

EZEKIEL IS FOR TODAY AND BEYOND #3

 

Ezekiel For Today

Chapters 5 to 8

WHY WILL YOU DIE, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?
                           
                                                 Part 3

                                                    by
                                             Keith Hunt


     
     Over and over again God shows through the prophets of the OT
that when the time comes to send the Messiah (Christ Jesus) back
to this earth in POWER and GLORY to establish the Kingdom of God
on earth, the peoples of the House of Israel and the House of
Judah (all 13 tribes of Jacob or Israel) have already gone into a
three and one half year captivity, a scattering abroad into the
land of their enemies, FROM WHICH they are DELIVERED by the
Messiah, and returned to the land of Promise, the Holy land of
Palestine, when they shall rest in peace, build the fallen
cities, cultivate the land with such bounty that the seed planter
and the reaper will overlap each other.
     We see this foretold in the book and prophecy of AMOS. Amos
was sent to the House of Israel in the main, to warn them that if
they did not REPENT and turn to worship the true God in spirit
and in truth, they would be punished with destruction and
captivity.  THIS IS A PROPHECY FOR YOU, O PEOPLE OF THE
CELTIC-ANGLO-SAXON NATIONS OF THE USA AND BRITISH COMMONWEALTH,
AS WELL AS NATIONS OF NORTH-WEST EUROPE. IT IS A PROPHECY FOR
THE END TIME, JUST BEFORE THE PLOWMAN OVERTAKES THE REAPER.

     The prophecy is set just before the Lord sends you into
captivity for ALL YOUR SINS. It takes us through the time of
"Jacob's trouble" (as it was called by Jeremiah), a time such as
NEVER BEFORE on this earth(see Jer.30; 31; 32; 33), and into the
restoration of Israel,  into the ABUNDANCE of the reign of the
Messiah on earth.

     "BEHOLD, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the SINFUL
kingdom(the people of Israel - that's most of you who are reading
these messages), and I will DESTROY IT(the Kingdom, the power,
the government) from OFF the face of the earth; SAVING I WILL NOT
UTTERLY DESTROY THE HOUSE OF JACOB, says the Lord(the prophet
said in chapter 5 that by the time it was all over only 10% of
you would remain alive to return under the Messiah's hand).
     For, lo, I WILL COMMAND, and I will SIFT the House of Israel
AMONG THE NATIONS, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, YET SHALL
NOT THE LEAST GRAIN FALL UPON THE EARTH. ALL THE SINNERS OF MY
PEOPLE SHALL DIE BY THE SWORD, which say, The evil shall not
overtake nor prevent us (Many reading this will laugh at it, they
will deny that the nations of North-west Europe, the British
Commonwealth and the USA are the literal peoples of the house of
Israel. Your leaders will deny it, your religious teachers will
deny it. They will say "this evil will not come upon us." God
says these and others are SINNERS, who will die by the sword. 90%
of you shall perish, by the sword and by the famine and by the
pestilence. Yet the 10% that remain shall be sifted through the
nations, but shall live and the book of Revelation says that
144,000 shall find repentance and the first resurrection at the
coming of the Messiah. The rest will live as human flesh and
blood and be restored to the promised land where they shall learn
the ways of the Lord and find rest and blessings beyond belief).

     In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David this is
fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up
his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old(a fulfilment
took place concerning this prophecy once in the days of the NT
church when the Gentiles were brought into the fold of God - see
Acts 15 - but a larger, end time fulfilment is yet ahead, when
after you have been restored to the Promised land, and are
the true light to the world that the Eternal chose you to be
among the nations - see Deut.4 - then the Gentiles from all
nations shall want to learn from you and from the Almighty God
that will be among you - see Isaiah 2; Micah 4).
     That they may posses the remnant of Edom, and of all the
heathen, which are called by my name, says the Lord that does
this. 
     Behold, the DAYS COME(they have never yet ever been, not
days like this that you are about to read) says the Lord, that
the PLOWMAN SHALL OVERTAKE THE REAPER, AND THE TREADER OF GRAPES
HIM THAT SOWS SEED; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and
all the hills shall melt.
     AND (NOTICE IT, AT THIS TIME AS WHEN THE ABOVE IS TO TAKE
PLACE) I WILL BRING AGAIN THE CAPTIVITY OF MY PEOPLE ISRAEL bring
once more FROM captivity as it was in the days of Moses when the
Eternal brought Israel from the land of their captivity in
Egypt, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them;
and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they
shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
     And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no
more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says
the Lord your God" (Amos 9:8-15).

     So, there is GOOD news and there is BAD news for you. Before
you experience the GOOD news YOU WILL HAVE TO LEARN SOME MIGHTY
BIG LESSONS!  YOU WILL HAVE TO COME TO LOATHE YOUR SINS, YOUR
WICKEDNESS, YOUR IDOLATRY, AND ALL YOUR PERVERSE WAYS WHEREIN YOU
HAVE REBELLED AGAINST YOUR GOD AND SAVIOR!!

     People of BRITAIN, head tribe of Israel, you who have such a
long glorious history. You who have seen the hand of the Lord
working with and for you so many times over the centuries. You
who were blessed with greatness above your brethren.  You have in
these last days, the last years of this 20th century, increased
in so much violent crime that a recent report now makes you as
your brother the United States, that for so long a time stood
alone in the western world where "blood touched blood."  But you
O people of Britain are now not far behind your brother. Daily
your streets and towns are being filled with violent crime of
every sort and evil.
     The Lord God calls you by name in His prophetic word. He
lays it open and squarely on your plate. He pulls no punches. He
gives it to you right between the eyes. He first tells Israel you
will be many days WITHOUT A KING, and without a PRINCE, the
throne of Israel will not be as it is today, it will not function
when in CAPTIVITY (Hosea 3:3-4). As before, the Eternal goes on
to say that after all this punishment you SHALL RETURN AND SEEK
the Lord, and even DAVID(who shall be resurrected at the return
of the Messiah - see Jer.30:9) and shall at last truly FEAR the
Lord Almighty and His goodness. In the LATTER DAYS - the end
time, this shall all come to pass (verse 5).
     
     But as for YOU O nations of Britain, the lands of Ephraim.
Here is what the Lord says, "EPHRAIM IS JOINT TO IDOLS: LET HIM
ALONE! Their drink is SOUR: THEY HAVE COMMITTED WHOREDOM
CONTINUALLY....O EPHRAIM, YOU COMMIT WHOREDOM, AND ISRAEL IS
DEFILED....EPHRAIM SHALL BE DESOLATE IN THE DAY OF REBUKE: 
AMONG THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL HAVE I MADE KNOW THAT WHICH SHALL
SURELY BE(THESE MESSAGES AND WHAT OTHERS WILL DO TO WARN YOU ARE
PART OF THIS PROPHECY)....Ephraim is OPPRESSED and broken in
JUDGMENT(you do not fear the Lord any more, only about 4% of you
attend "church" on a regular basis. You have rejected the
knowledge of the Lord and so He is going to reject you)....For
I will be unto Ephraim as a lion....I will TEAR AND GO AWAY...I
will go and return to my place, TILL THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR
OFFENCE, AND SEEK MY FACE:  in their AFFLICTION they WILL SEEK ME
EARLY(THE NEXT VERSES OF THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER show it will be in
the THIRD YEAR of captivity God will start to answer you - a day
for a year principle of Bible prophecy)" (sections from Hosea 4
and 5).

     Those that will lift up their voice like a TRUMPET AND WHO
SHOW the people their sins, do not have a pleasant task at times.
It brings me no pleasure to have to expound to you the words of
the Lord regarding this matter of WHAT IS GOING TO COME YOUR WAY
unless you as peoples will REPENT!
     Listen to the voice of the Lord:   "O Ephraim, what shall I
do unto you....I have SLAIN THEM WITH THE WORDS OF MY
MOUTH....FOR I DESIRE MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE; AND THE
KNOWLEDGE OF GOD MORE THAN BURNT OFFERINGS. But they like men
have transgressed the covenant: and have dealt treacherously
against me....And as troops wait for a man, so the COMPANY OF
PRIESTS MURDER IN THE WAY by consent: for they commit lewdness. 
I have seen a HORRIBLE THING in the house of Israel: there is the
WHOREDOM of Ephraim, Israel is defiled....." (Hosea 6:4-10).

     The Eternal has already SPOKEN IT!  It has gone forth out of
His mouth. DESTRUCTION is coming your way O nations of Israel. 
It is ONLY A MATTER OF TIME.  And that time is in the hands of
the Lord.  Even if you were NOT Israel, you would still die in
your sins because they are so heavy and so multiplied. All
nations with such wickedness have finally DESTROYED THEMSELVES.
So it was with the mighty Roman Empire, and so it shall be for
you. It is only a matter of time, and time is marching on!
     You will notice once more(God repeats it over and over again
through the prophets) what the Eternal says about your MINISTERS,
your PRIESTS, your leaders in religious worship.  They are as a
pack of hounds chacing the fox. As a troop of men waiting to
beset and plunder the traveller.  What they do SPIRITUALLY is as
MURDER!  So says the God of israel.  Their theology KILLS!  They
offer you LIBERTY but they themselves are the servants of
CORRUPTION!  They put no difference between that which is HOLY
and that which is UN-holy.  They have a FORM of religion, they
have sacrifice, but they have no KNOWLEDGE - true knowledge - of
the Lord God.  They come in the name of Jesus, but they lead MANY
astray.  They are BLIND and they lead
the blind, both they and their followers going into the ditch.
     You have been TOLD!  It is time to OPEN YOUR EYES, to search
the Scriptures DAILY (Acts 17), to HUNGER AND THIRST after
RIGHTEOUSNESS, to LOVE THE TRUTH, so some of you can escape from
the fouler and find the TRUTH THAT SHALL SET YOU FREE!

                    EZEKIEL SPEAKS AGAIN

     As nations you may be planning on sticking around for a
while, planning on raising your children, seeing them off to
College or University, looking forward to spending time
with your grandchildren. And as nations you will plan and make
sure you have a DEFENCE FORCE to protect your from the enemy
without.  You have Early Warning machines and computers incase an
enemy should want to strike. You have secret spies and
under-cover agents.  You have indeed MADE READY, and the trumpet
has been blown so can go to war if it is so determined by others
who would have your wealth and lands.  You are the "tops" in the
world for military might and power, well for now you are,
as I write these messages to you from Ezekiel, in the year of
1997/98. The future holds a different pattern of events that
will see your "lovers" in Europe, emerge as the number ONE super
power in trade and commerce and military might.  But for now, you
are prepared, at least you think you are prepared, BUT THE
ETERNAL SAYS DIFFERENTLY.

     "Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Also,
you son of man, thus says the Lord God unto the LAND OF ISRAEL;
An end, the end, is come upon the four corners of the land. Now
is the end come upon you, and I will send mine anger upon you,
and will JUDGE YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR WAYS, and will recompense
upon you all your ABOMINATIONS. And my eye will NOT SPARE you,
neither will I have pity....and you shall KNOW that I am the
Eternal....An end is come, THE end is come, it watches for
you; behold, it is come....Now will I SHORTLY pour out my fury
upon you, and accomplish my anger upon you....Behold the day,
behold, it is come....Violence is risen up into a rod of
WICKEDNESS....THEY HAVE BLOWN THE TRUMPET, EVEN TO MAKE ALL
READY; but none goes to the battle, for my wrath is upon all the
multitude thereof. The SWORD is WITHOUT, and the PESTILENCE and
the FAMINE within: he that is in the field shall die with the
sword; and he that is within the city, famine and pestilence
shall devour him. 
     BUT they that ESCAPE of them escape, and shall be on the
mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them MOURNING, every
one for his INIQUITY. All hands shall be feeble, and all knees
shall be weak as water....They shall cast their silver into
the streets, and their gold shall be REMOVED:  their silver and
their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the
wrath of the Lord....because it is the STUMBLINGBLOCK of their
INIQUITIES....And I will give it into the hands of the
strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil;
and they shall pollute it (Now you stop and think, ask yourself
this question: WHO, what people in this century could you
classify have been the wicked of the world, that have brought
more pain, suffering, and death on the world than any others? 
The Eternal will yet use those same  people  to bring you this
time to DEFEAT and to your knees in humble repentance)....
     Make a chain: for the land is FULL of BLOODY CRIME, and the
city(Jerusalem - the type here used to foretell what will come
upon the House of Israel, as we saw earlier) is full of violence.
Wherefore I will bring the WORST OF THE HEATHEN, and they shall
posses their houses: I will also make the POMP of the STRONG to
cease; and their holy places shall be defiled.  DESTRUCTION
COMES; AND THEY SHALL SEEK PEACE, AND THERE SHALL BE NONE!
     Mischief shall come upon mischief....then shall they SEEK
a VISION of the PROPHET; but the LAW shall perish from the
PRIEST, and COUNSEL from the ANCIENTS (Those who should KNOW the
Lord and the true ways of righteousness, health, and
safe-keeping, those ministers of yours who come in the name of
the Lord and who say "thus says the Lord" when He HAS NOT SPOKEN
TO THEM, they shall fail and fall. You shall then see them for
what they have always been - false prophets and false deceivers).
     The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with
desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be
troubled: I will do unto them AFTER THEIR WAY, and according to
their DESERT will I judge them; and they SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE
ETERNAL" (Various sections of Ezekiel chapter 7).

     Paul, the great apostle of the NT church, was inspired to
write that WHATSOEVER WE SLOW THAT SHALL WE REAP!   The mighty
Russian Empire stood strong and mighty after WW2, stood for a
while, forty years or so. But it sowed among its people that
which finally brought it to collapse and disintegration. It sowed
economical sins that now still hold its people in poverty and
misery.  
     You also, peoples of the English speaking nations and lands
of North-west Europe, are sowing the sins of rejecting the ways
and commandments of the Holy One, for the ways that seem right
unto a man, but which end in dead. You have chosen to cast the
Eternal and His Word out of the schools, by and large, out of the
court-rooms, by and large, out of your governments, both
nationally and locally, by and large.  In so doing it is only a
matter of time before you also crumble and disintegrate as a
people, ready to be taken over by the worst of the heathen, who
will show no mercy, as they kill and force those left of you to
serve them and the state religion of Babylon the Great, that they
will put around your neck. To be sure, they will think they do
God a service, they will think they are acting righteously for
their god whom they will believe is the true God. 
     It is at that time, when those left of you shall come to see
WHO is the real true God,  who are His real true servants, and
WHAT real REPENTANCE is all about!  But before that day arrives,
the Almighty has more to say against you and your religious
leaders and the false worship you extend towards Him.

     In chapter 8 we find Ezekiel in his house, with some of the
elders of Judah sitting around - he was still a captive by the
river of Chebar. He had not be allowed to go to the peoples of
Israel who were far from where he was a captive. More messages
from the Lord concerning the sins of Israel were to be given him.

     Ezekiel was lifted up in VISION and taken to the house of
God in the city of Jerusalem. Taken to the very center of what
was supposed to be the true pure religion of the true pure
Almighty Eternal God of the people of Judah. Taken to the Temple
or Tabernacle that King Solomon was allowed to build in honor of
the God of his father David. It was David, the man after God's
own heart that wanted to build the Temple, but he was not allowed
to undertake the task because he was a "blood man" but the Lord
did say his son would build it, and so it was.
     Notice verse SIX!  All that he saw in vision was to portray
the ABOMINATIONS that were within the HOUSE OF ISRAEL'S RELIGIOUS
WORSHIP TOWARDS THE ETERNAL!  In vision he even saw seventy men
of the house of Israel as if they were literally there acting out
the worship of religion and believing that this false worship
(which the context clearly shows it was) was acceptable to
the true God(verses 10,11).
     They were so deceived they actually thought(and no doubt
taught it to others of their flock who blindly followed them) IT
MADE NO DIFFERENCE! That God did not see, did not take into
account the false from the true.  They thought and they taught
that the Lord was not really concerned with those who worshipped
Him on the earth, that He had left them to decide and figure out
for themselves HOW TO WORSHIP HIM!  They said God was FAR AWAY,
with more important things on His mind than to be concerned with
telling people on earth HOW to worship Him. They were teaching
that the Eternal would ACCEPT EVERYONE, just as they were without
searching to know and to practice the righteous ways of the Lord
(verse 12).
     And this is precisely the state of YOUR religion in your
nations today O House of Israel.  You are being taught that
GRACE, the grace and mercy of God through the blood of Christ
Jesus frees us from all obligations to obey the laws and
commandments of God. You are being taught that you can live ANY
life-style you desire and it's okay with the Father in heaven.
Why you were "born" that way, the Lord made you that way, many
tell you.  You were "born" a homosexual or Lesbian, you were "born"----  
a child molester, or spouse abuser, or addicted to alcohol, or
gambling.  
You have churches that accept such people's styles of life
and do not teach them to REPENT AND CHANGE!   
You have hundreds and thousands of ministers up and down your lands that
claim they represent the true God but teach you He does not see,
that it does not matter to Him, that you take false pagan
traditions and customs from the darkness of the un-converted
world, and ADOPT and ADAPT them to try to worship the ONE who
says He will NOT ACCEPT such worship towards Him. For starters,
look up in your Encyclopedias the origin of HALLOWEEN!  Many
"church going" people and whole church congregations openly
participate in this day or evening of "fun."  Then after that
little bit of investigation, you may like to continue with
finding out the facts about Easter and Christmas, Valentines
Day, January the first celebrations, and yes even "Thanksgiving
Day."  
     Ah, and many of your leaders of religious matters work in
darkness, behind closed doors, to practice their habitual sins,
that seem to hold them in the grip of slavery.  We have seen a
number of them, well known evangelists, in the spotlight of your
public media to reach the masses, fall in disgraceful ignominy. 
And to the shame of themselves and yourselves, some of them have
refused to retire to the back seat of the church, as long as some
will continue to give them acclaim and adoration.  As shocking as
it is, some of those preachers claim they are above the law of
God, too important for the work of the Lord. They claim the
Eternal does not see (verse 12).

     The IMAGE of jealousy that stands in the door of your
churches(verse 3), could be today any NUMBER of things, that will
provoke the Lord to jealousy. I have mentioned a few above. 
     Certainly far too many of you give your allegiance to an
organization, be it locally or nationally, or to the church
building itself, or to the people in that building, so making
them your "social club" from which you cannot pull away no matter
how corrupt or false in doctrine they become.  That also is an
idol that will provoke the Supreme One to jealousy.

     Then in verse 14 we have the persons who "weep for Tammuz." 
What on earth is this all about?  Well it's quite a story, longer
than we have time for here to cover in detail,  but I will cover
some of it.   

     Before we go back to the very beginning of the entrance of
Tammuz on the earth and where he really came from, a little
information about his celebration is educational for us as it
pertains to the time of Ezekiel.

     The word Tammuz is the Syriac for Adonis.  Yes, the supposed
handsome mystic fellow all the women swoon over and cry about
with emotional butterflies in their stomach. He was, in the pagan
world, the paramour of Venus, the sex goddess. These women at
the Temple, instead of weeping over the SINS of the nation are
crying over the idol Tammuz. 
     He was said to have been killed by a wild boar, and then
permitted by the gods to spend half the year on the earth and
then the other half in the lower world. An annual feast was
celebrated to him in June at Byblos, when the Syrian women, in
wild grief, tore off their hair, and gave their persons over to
prostitution, consecrating the hire of their infamy to Venus;
next followed the days of rejoicing for his return to the earth -
the former feast being called  "the disappearance of Adonis," the
latter, "the finding of Adonis."  See on this the Bible
Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Vol.2.
  
     Now to the story of Tammuz as it was in the beginning.  For
this we must go back to NIMROD, mentioned in Genesis 10. He was a
MIGHTY ONE, a MIGHTY HUNTER,  and he was such it is written
BEFORE the Lord.  He established a KINGDOM, the first so
mentioned in the Bible. The JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA says: "he who
made all the people REBELLIOUS against God."  They have good
reason to say this.  The expression "a mighty one" has a hostile
meaning. The expression comes from the Hebrew word "gibor" which
means TYRANT; while the very name Nimrod means "let us rebel." 
The Hebrew word "before" as in "before the Lord" also carries a
hostile meaning - AGAINST!
     Nimrod was AGAINST the Lord, the one who taught and led the
people to REBEL against the Lord.  He was a priest of
DEVIL-worship. He was the priest-king of Babylon, his empire. 
Nimrod did die, for he was but human. The Babylonian religion
which he founded CONTINUED on and DEVELOPED further under the
leading of his WIFE.
     After Nimrod's death, his wife, Queen SEMIRAMIS, claimed
that he was now the SUN-god. And later, when this idolatrous
woman gave birth to an illegitimate son, she claimed that this
son, TAMMUZ by name, was Nimrod REBORN.  
     Now Satan knew the promise from the Lord that a "seed" would
come from woman, that was to be the SAVIOR of the world, who
would conquer sin, death, and Satan himself. Queen Semiramis, as
an instrument in the hands of Satan, claimed that HER son was
supernaturally conceived(immaculate conception) and that HE was
the PROMISED SEED, the "savior" of the world.  This Babylonian
religion went on to formulate that the MOTHER(Semiramis) was to
be worshipped as much as the child, if not more than the child in
certain respects. 
     The "golden calf" was a SYMBOL of Tammuz, son of the Sun-god
Nimrod.  This Nimrod-Sun-god was the Baal of the Scriptures, so
often mentioned as the false god that your fathers O house of
Israel worshipped time after time, until the True Lord had to
send them into captive punishment, for their idolatry and Sabbath
breaking.
     This system of false TRINITY worship(Nimrod-Sun-god, Mother
queen of heaven, and the child Tammuz) spread from Babylon to the
nations of the world.  We find evidence of this Babylonian
religion - in one form or anther - in all the false religions of
the earth and all nations upon it. As it spread, the names of
the three principle characters often CHANGED and other rites
added and expanded upon, but the basic form still remained in
tact.  It ALL started in BABYLON, under Nimrod, who was under the
influence of Satan.

     The whole system has many MYSTERIOUS parts to it, many
mysterious patterns, rites, forms, symbols, feasts, codes of
worship etc. In the book of Revelation it is called BABYLON
MYSTERY RELIGION. It is symbolized by a WOMAN, a fallen woman. 
One who is drunk on the BLOOD of the SAINTS of God, whose history
has been to persecute and kill the true children of the Almighty.

She rides a BEAST that does her bidding, a civil power that acts
on her behalf.  She is said to be a MOTHER, who had children born
from out of her. They are called HARLOTS, for they also have many
of her character traits and ways and practices.

     LISTEN ISRAEL!  Many of your past theological scholars of
the 16th to the 19th centuries KNEW WHO SHE WAS, AND BOLDLY
PROCLAIMED IT TO ALL WHO WOULD READ THEIR BIBLE COMMENTARIES,
which are still in print to this day and can still be purchased
through the your Bible Book stores.

     Tammuz was the false savior, being dressed up by Satan to
deceive the world as the true Savior. The women weeping for
Tammuz in this section of Ezekiel's message is to teach you that
there is a FALSE EMOTIONAL RELIGION in your lands. A people
that THINK they are worshipping the real SAVIOR of the world, but
are in truth only following in a physical emotional way the FALSE
savior of Satan. They may think they are worshipping Jesus
Christ, but in reality they serve and worship Tammuz, the son of
the Sun-god Nimrod, who taught the whole world to rebel against
the one and only true Eternal Lord of the universe.

     Now notice verses 15 and 16 of Ezekiel the 8th chapter.  If
all this was not enough, God says that an even GREATER
ABOMINATION is going on in the sanctuary of the House of the
Lord. TWENTY-FIVE men, representing the 25 courses or orders of
the priests, 1 Chr.24:18,19, with the high priest at their head,
which in turn represents the WHOLE priesthood of your lands.
These then are said to have their BACKS to the west and WORSHIP
THE SUN IN THE EAST! 
 
     Pretty clear!  God is telling you that your religious
leaders AS A WHOLE are nothing but a group of PAGAN SUN
WORSHIPPERS!  O, they may come to you in the "name of the Lord"
and say to you that "Jesus is the Christ" but as Jesus Himself
said, they would and they do DECEIVE MANY!  Read again Jesus'
prophecy in Matthew 24.

     What does the Eternal says to all this:

     "Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not
spare, neither will I have pity: and though they CRY unto me in
mine ears with a LOUD VOICE, yet will I NOT HEAR THEM" (verse
18).  

     IS THERE NO HOPE, FOR AT LEAST SOME?  WE SHALL SEE IF THERE
IS NEXT TIME AS WE CONTINUE WITH THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL.

          .................................

Written December 1997

Permission is given to Copy, E-mail, Publish and distribute all
articles and studies by Keith Hunt.

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SECOND EPISTLE FROM PETER #2

 


 New Testament Bible Story

Chapter One hundred-twenty:

False Teachers


                       The Second Epistle from Peter



CHAPTER TWO

     For many Christians today it is "just have love" and we'll
all get to heaven, you your way and me, my way. They might go on
to say, "It really does not matter about 'doctrine' - about what
is this truth or that truth, as long as we can all get along and
have love for everyone, that what will get us to heaven."

     Now, of course Christianity is showing kindness and love
towards all people. It is a religion of giving and serving
others. I do not know of a Christian "sect" that does not teach
helping and being nice and kind, doing good deeds, and indeed
showing love. But ... nevertheless, when you read the New
Testament, all of it, then it becomes clear that certain truths
of God's word ARE IMPORTANT, doctrine, or what you might call
"theology" DOES MATTER at times. Jesus warned in Matthew 24 that
MANY would come in His name, saying that Jesus was the Christ,
would teach "Christian dogma" BUT DECEIVE MANY! 
     Now, I somehow do not get the message from Jesus or the
apostles, that we are to think "deception" is to do with "loving
people" or "being nice and kind to people." There are lots of
kind and nice and loving people in the Islamic religion, maybe
you have a neighbor like that. I mean even agnostics and atheists
can be "nice" - "loving" - "serving" - people.
     The bottom line is that what Jesus was meaning was that MANY
would come teaching Him and Christianity, but would deceive
people in all kinds of wrong and incorrect "theology" of God the
Father and Jesus the Christ. Some of those people might be
deceived themselves, but as they say "You might be sincere, but
you can still be sincerely wrong." Then on the other hand, there
would come many who are NOT deceived, they know better, but for
money, fame, the praise of men, to get a following, and for other
not so sincere attitudes of the mind, go on teaching people
ERROR, and so do indeed deceive MANY about what is from God and
Christ.

     We have seen in some of the letters of the apostle Paul,
that he at times did not pull any punches, when talking about
such deceptive teachers and preachers, that had come within the
Church of God. 

     And now, in this letter of Peter's to his readers, we come
to a chapter that is plain and simple. Peter is going to tell it
like it is, a "I'll put it right into your face, and tell you
what I think of these false teachers that will be right within
Christianity, right there among the true people of God."
     Right off the bat, Peter says that there was always false
prophets among those who were under the banner of God, and so
there will be false teachers, now, among those who are under the
name of Christ - Christian. And notice, in this first verse of
chapter two, those false teachers will bring in, introduce,
heretical DOCTRINES! They will teach "theology" if you will, not
as it is in God's word, but FALSE ideas and false doctrines.
Hence they will as Jesus said, DECEIVE MANY!
     It will be so serious a matter, that Peter says they will
DENY the very one who died for them. How do you deny Jesus? Well
yes, you can deny Him, by wrong actions, words, and deeds,
towards other people - a hating your fellow man, but as I've
said, I know of no Christian sect that out and outright teaches
you to "hate" others and do them mental, emotional, and physical
harm. Now there have been and maybe still is, those Christian
sects that teach immortality is moral, an "evil is good and good
is evil" theology. But they are not the run of the mill
"Christianity" - they are the smaller "sects" and "cults."  Jesus
said that the many who would come in His name and deceive many,
would be so large and so popular, in the main stream of
Christianity, that IF it was possible, even the VERY ELECT would
be deceived! Yes, Jesus said, that, you can see it in Matthew 24.
Again I do not think Jesus was talking about some Christian sect
teaching you can and should kill people or have many wives, or
smoke pot, or get high on sniffing glue.

     The truth of the matter is that Jesus, and other writers of
the New Testament, when talking about "false" teachers, were
talking about their overall "theology" and that that false
theology would be deceiving the majority of people under the name
of "Christ" or "Christian." It would only be the very elect at
the time of the close of the age, that would not be deceived. In
another place Jesus said about His true followers: "Fear not
little flock," and the Greek means VERY LITTLE flock, "it is my
Father's pleasure to give you the Kingdom."

     This does not sound like to me that Jesus was talking about
and too, the ONE and A HALF ... BILLION  people on earth today
who put themselves under the name of "Christian."

     Well, it is time to see what Peter was inspired to write
about these false teachers. I will use the AMPLIFIED Bible.

"But also (in those days) there arose false prophets among the
people, just as there will be false teachers among yourselves,
who will subtly and stealthily introduce heretical doctrines
(destructive heresies) ... And MANY will follow their immoral
ways and lascivious doings; because of them the TRUE WAY will be
maligned and defamed" (verses 1-2).

COMMENT:

     The faith once delivered to the saints was ALREADY in
Peter's time, becoming corrupted. To his readers he said false
teachers would come among THEM! Just how much more corrupt would
it become 500 years from Peter's day, or a 1,000 years? How about
thinking 2,000 years after Peter. Do you really think that
today's popular "Christianity" is purer today than what Peter was
here writing about? No my friends, it just does work that way,
that is human nature does not work that way. As I've shown you,
Jesus said that before His return, deception would be so great
that IF it was possible even the elect would be deceived!

"And in their covetousness (lust, greed) they will exploit you
with false (cunning) arguments. 

COMMENT: 
     Many of these false teachers LIVE OFF the people who send
them money. And many of them live a pretty good physical life
style. They get so they cannot give it up, it becomes an
obsession with them. Notice their "theological" teachings or
arguments are CUNNING. It is all packaged up in spiritual
sounding words, and it is what the people who follow them WANT to
hear. The apostle Paul warned about that in his letter to Timothy
(see 2 Timothy 4:1-4), and told him that people would turn AWAY
their ears from the TRUTH, and would be turned to FABLES!
     If you are reading your Bible from cover to cover with
DILIGENCE, and if you are studying and searching the Scriptures
on this Website Bible Studies, you will come to know the MANY
FABLES out there in the majority Christianity of our time.

"From of old the sentence (of condemnation) for them has not been
idle; their destruction (eternal misery) has not been asleep. For
God did not even spare angels that sinned, but cast them down to
hell, delivered them to be kept there in pits of gloom till the
judgment and their doom" (verses 2-4).

COMMENT: 
     The KJV here has the better overall translation: "...spared
not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and
delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto
judgment." The Greek for "hell" here is "tartaroo" and means
place of restraint. There were angels that sinned, they followed
Lucifer in rebellion. The truth of that is contained in various
studies on this Website. After their rebellion they were cast
back to earth. Jesus once said He saw Satan as lightening falling
from heaven to earth. Those angels now became demons, and they
were cursed with chains of darkness, all that is now in them is
darkness. They are in restraint, God only always then to have
freedom to do their evil work to a LIMIT. Certain things they
cannot do, God put a leash on them, they can only go so far. And
they have not yet met their final judgment. Do you remember some
demons said to Jesus, "Have you come to torment us before the
time?" When sin and death is finally "put away" - when neither
will exist, just imagine the horror Satan and the demons will
experience. With their blackened minds they will have not one
single person to darken and deceive. And who knows what else God
the Father will put on them as their eternal judgment. It is
coming, God is not sleeping. What may seem a long time to us (two
thousand years from Jesus' first coming  and we still wait that
judgment) is but a blink of the eye to God.

"And He spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a
preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, when He
brought a flood upon the world of ungodly (people). (Gen.6-8; 1
Peter 3:20). And He condemned to ruin and extinction the cities
of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes (and thus) set them
forth as an example to those who would be ungodly; (Gen. 19:24).
And He rescued righteous Lot, greatly worn out and distressed by
the wanton ways of the ungodly and lawless - (Gen. 19:16,29). For
that just man, living (there) among them, tortured his righteous
soul every day with what he saw and heard of (their) unlawful and
wicked deeds - Now if (all these things are true, then be sure)
the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of temptations and
trials, and how to keep the ungodly under chastisement until the
day of judgment and doom. And particularly those who walk after
the flesh and indulge in the lust of polluting passion and scorn
and despise authority. Presumptuous (and) daring (self-willed and
self-loving creatures)! They scoff at and revile dignitaries
(glorious ones) without trembling (verses 5-10).

COMMENT: 
     Mighty strong words and very chilling. Being a false teacher
of God's word is no small matter. It is a serious matter indeed
to set yourself to represent and expound the word of God to
others. That is why James said, "Brethren, do not let many of you
become teachers, knowing that we shall receive the greater
judgement" (James 3:1). The examples of the wicked, the persons
in the wrong, during Noah's day and Lot's day, shows God will
eventually handout punishment. The false teachers, may not openly
scoff and revile the glorious ones of God and Christ and the
righteous angels, but in not teaching the truths of the word of
the Lord, and even, in whatever mild or hard manner they scoff at
those who do teach those truths, they have in effect scoffed and
reviled God the Father and Christ and the holy angels - the
glorious ones.

"Whereas (even) angels, though superior in might and power, do
not bring a defaming charge against them before the Lord" (verse
11).

COMMENT: 
     The angels leave it all in God's hands. They know when to
speak and when not to speak, and what to speak about, BUT ...

"But these (people)! Like unreasoning beasts, mere creatures of
instinct, born (only) to be captured and destroyed, RAILING AT
THINGS OF WHICH THEY ARE IGNORANT, they shall utterly perish in
their (own) CORRUPTION (in their destroying they shall surely be
destroyed), 

COMMENT: 
     It's like saying, "These fellows just do not know what they
are talking about." But sadly MANY of them KNOW BETTER, yet they
will not REPENT! They want the pay-check, they want the praise of
people, the crowds that follow them, and if they will not repent
of teaching false doctrines they will face destruction.

"Being destined to receive (punishment as) the reward of (their)
UNRIGHTEOUSNESS (suffering wrong as the hire for their
wrongdoing). They count it a delight to revel in the day time
(living luxuriously and delicately). They are blots and
blemishes, REVELLING in their DECEPTIONS and carousing together
(even) as they feast with you" (verse 12-13).

COMMENT: 
     Righteousness is defined by the Almighty as "His
commandments" - see Psalm 119:172. Many of these false teachers
do live a physically luxurious life style, many of them have
physical wealth above the average person, and because they have
so many that follow them, they think they deserve all the
physical riches they have. It's an attitude of saying something
like: "Well I've brought all these people to God and Christ
through my teaching and preaching, I deserve to live in physical
splendor. They are revelling in their deceptions, a kind of
"laughing all the way to the bank" we might say. They gather
together at "Theological seminars" for a week-end or maybe a
whole week, and live feasting, even among the very people of God
at times. This was already GOING ON in Peter's day! How much MORE
is it going on in the world today, nearly 2,000 years after Peter
wrote this?

"They have eyes full of harlotry, insatiable for sin. They
beguile and bait and lure away unstable souls. Their hearts are
trained in covertness (lust, greed), (they are) children of a
curse (exposed to curing)! FORSAKING the STRAIGHT road they have
gone astray; they have followed the way of Balaam (the son) of
Beor, who loved the reward of wickedness. (Num.22:5,7). (verse
14-15).
      
COMMENT: 
     It is hard to find the words to try and describe the full
impact and emotion of HOW and WHAT Peter was describing in his
thoughts about false teachers. His words really do speak VERY
PLAINLY and right in your face. These teachers are just simply
not on the RIGHT ROAD - they are off in left field. They may have
degrees from any number of "Theological schools" - they may be
dynamic speakers and preachers, but the fact is they are ON THE
WRONG ROAD - they are as Jesus once said about religious leaders
of His day, "Blind leaders of the blind, and both will fall into
the ditch."
     It is your individual duty to follow the example of the
Bereans in Acts 17. They SEARCHED THE SCRIPTURES DAILY, to see if
what Paul was preaching was according to the Scriptures.
     These false teachers, will they get away with it all, well
some for a time may, but the day will come when ....like
Balaam...

"But he was REBUKED for his own transgression when a dumb beast
of burden  spoke with human voice and checked the prophets
madness. (Num.22:21-31). (verse 16).

COMMENT: 
     Do you see the depth of it? Peter puts the theology of false
teachers in the same category as "MADNESS." To put it in other
terms, false teachers are INSANE!!
     You've had enough plain talk you may say, well Peter is not
yet finished! He is going to tell us that some of the false
teachers KNEW THE TRUTH at one time, BUT TURNED AWAY FROM IT!!

"These are springs without water and mists driven along before a
tempest, for whom is reserved forever the gloom of darkness. For
utterly loud boasts of folly, they beguile and lure with lustful
desires of the flesh those who are barely escaping from them who
are wrongdoers. They promise them LIBERTY, when they themselves
are the slaves of depravity and defilement - for by whatsoever
anyone is made inferior or worse or is overcome, to that (person
or thing) he is enslaved. For if after they have escaped the
pollutions of the world through (the full, personal) knowledge of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they AGAIN become ENTANGLED in
them and are overcome, their LAST CONDITION is worse (for them)
than the first. for never to have obtained a (full, personal)
knowledge of the way of righteousness would have been better for
them than, having obtained (such knowledge), to TURN BACK from
the HOLY COMMANDMENT which was (verbally) delivered to them"
(verses 17-21).

COMMENT: 
     A lot of the false teachers are indeed BOASTFUL and VAIN and
POMPOUS. Maybe you have known such teachers of the Christian
religion. They believe they have some "special connection" with
God, that all others do not have. They are often deceived by
their OWN mind. They also often promise people many desires of
the flesh, like being physically rich, healed from physical
ailments, success in the work-a-day world, a better reward in the
after-life, and even protection from all the plagues and wars to
come on earth before Jesus returns, in some "place of safety."
Does this all sound familiar to some of you?
     These false prophets and teachers promise LIBERTY - from all
kinds of things that people are caught in that trouble them, of
course they promise them liberty from having to OBEY God, or live
by His every word, or keep His commandments. One BIG liberty they
teach is that the 4th commandment can be ignored. If you are
wondering what THAT one is, then read Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy
5.
     The fact is, the bottom line is, these teachers are
themselves caught in spiritual depravity, delusion, and sin. If
you are in the life habit of breaking any of God's commandments,
then you are slaves to sin and law-breaking - you are defiled.
Look at God's TEN commandments. Is there any one of them you or
these false teachers are breaking as a way of life? If there is,
Peter is speaking directly to you and to them here in these
verses.
     I have known MANY in the last 40 years whom I thought had a
personal relationship with Christ, they really did know the basic
foundational doctrines of God, they seemed to be "spiritual" but
when an "organization" and "men" failed them, they were willing
to walk away from Christ and the Bible. They WENT BACK into the
world from which they came. Some of these people were very close
friends with me, and it is a shock to see them mentioned under
this passage of Peter's letter.
     It is more disturbing still as we look at the final verse of
this chapter.

"There has befallen them the thing spoken of in the true proverb,
The dog turns back to his own vomit, and, The sow is washed only
to wallow again in the mire." (Prov.26:11).

COMMENT: 
     In whatever ways it may be, God only knows, it would have
been better for these people to have NEVER KNOWN the way of
righteousness and salvation, the way into the Kingdom of God at
Jesus' return, into the first resurrection. They could at least
have been classified as BLINDED, never being called in this life
time, and be in the same boat as the millions, nay, BILLIONS that
will have salvation offered to them in the WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT
or SECOND resurrection talked about in Revelation 20.
     
     I can only hope and pray that all those people I have known
that have gone back into the world will one day REPENT AGAIN,
before Jesus comes back to earth. Then again Hebrews 10:26-31 is
there. I know God is merciful and very patient, I'm sure He can
have mercy upon them IF they will turn to Him again.

     This chapter in Peter's second epistle, together with Jesus'
rebuking of religious leaders in Matthew 23 and that of Jude in
his letter, are the THREE most detailed and long chastisements of
false teachers in the entire New Testament. They are most
sobering chapters to read. At times God has no choice but to CRY
ALOUD AND TELL IT AS IT IS!

                           ....................

Written October 2007
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Tuesday, April 14, 2026

SECOND EPISTLE FROM PETER #1

 


 New Testament Bible Story

Chapter One-hundred-nineteen:

Second Epistle from Peter

                        

                       Introduction and chapter one


INTRODUCTION

Taken from the NKJV "Personal Study Bible," Nelson Publishers,
1990,1995. 

     The second of two New Testament letters that bear the name
of Simon Peter. The two have little in common with each other, 2
Peter being briefer and written in a different style than I Peter.

AUTHOR AND DATE

     Some scholars have doubted that Peter was the author of 2
Peter. They usually point to differences in style, vocabulary,
and theology between 1 and 2 Peter, as well as to 2 Peter's
dependence on Jude. Some further maintain that Peter would never
have implied that Paul's writings were equal to "the rest of the
Scriptures" (3:15,16). 
     However, these arguments can be countered.

     One cannot deny that the Greek of I Peter is much more
polished than that of 2 Peter. But this difference could be
accounted for if Peter used a different secretary to write the
second epistle. Differences in vocabulary can also be explained
by the differing subject matter discussed in each letter.
     First Peter says that the coming of Christ is near, while 2
Peter explains why. He has not already come. This difference is
explained by the differing situations of the readers. The readers
of 1 Peter were facing persecution and needed to be encouraged to
believe that Christ could return at any time. When the second
letter was written, Peter had to explain the seeming delay of
Christ's return because false teachers had been telling his
readers that Christ was not going to come and, that there would
be no judgment.

     Second Peter 2:1-3:4 appears to quote word for word from
Jude 4-19. (For a discussion of this issue see Introduction to
Jude: Date). But Paul often quotes hymns, confessions or other
pieces of literature in his epistles. Why should Peter not do the
same? It is possible that Peter and Jude used a common source or
even that Jude copied Peter.
     It is entirely appropriate for Peter to imply that Paul's
writings had divine authority (see 3:15,16). The apostles wrote
with the consciousness that they had this authority. Their
writings were regularly read in church services along with the
Old Testament Scripture.
     The author of 2 Peter identifies himself as Peter in many
subtle ways throughout his work. It would have taken a very
skilled forger to imitate these unconscious footprints of the
apostle. A number of second-century books were falsely attributed
to Peter. When compared with the artificiality of these writings,
the genuineness of 2 Peter becomes apparent. Peter probably wrote
in the early sixties, not long before his death.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

     Second Peter 3:1 seems to imply that 2 Peter was written to
the same churches in Asia Minor to which 1 Peter had been
written. Certain people were teaching that salvation freed
Christians from the necessity of living a holy life. They twisted
Paul's doctrine of salvation by grace to support their position
(3:16). Since they believed it was all right to sin, they
naturally mocked at the idea of Christ's return in judgment. For
their own personal gain they lured people by promising them that
they could be Christians and still live immoral fives.
     Peter writes out of pastoral concern to counter these false
teachings and their influence on the lives of early Christians.
He is concerned that there be a check against this false teaching
and immoral living even after he is gone (see 1:12-15).

CONTENTS

     The contents of 2 Peter are fully in line with the apostle's
purpose. In chapter 1 he exhorts believers to grow in the life of
holiness. Chapter 2 attacks the false teachers' deceptive methods
and immoral life-style. In chapter 3 Peter challenges all who
deny that Christ will return to judge sin.

OUTLINE OF 2 PETER

1. Exhortation to spiritual growth  1:1-21   
     A. Introduction  1:1,2   
     B. Grow in holiness 1:3-11    
     C. Corrupt conduct judged  2:12-17
     D. Be certain of Christ's return  1:16-21    

2. Wanting against false teachers. 2:1-22    
     A. The false teachers  2:1-3  
     B. God condemns falsehood  2:4-11
     C. Corrupt conduct judged  2:12-17
     D. Deceptive methods  punished  2:18-22
     C. Remember the truth. 1:12-15     

3. Preparation for the last days   3:1-18
     A. Be certain of the judgment 3:1-9
     B. Be prepared for the judgment  3:10.18

     
     
CHAPTER ONE

     Peter begins his second epistle by saying he is not only a
servant (bond slave) of Jesus Christ, but also an "apostle" - one
who is sent, the word means. He was sent to those who had
obtained like PRECIOUS faith with us (probably meaning other
apostles or other Christians in different parts of the Roman
Empire). This precious faith came through the righteousness of
God and our Savior Jesus Christ. 
     He bids them grace multiplied through the KNOWLEDGE of God,
and Jesus our Lord.

     It was through the DIVINE POWER of God, who gives all things
pertaining to godliness, and through the knowledge of Him who has
called us to GLORY and VIRTUE.
     It is indeed the power of God's Spirit that works with our
mind to call us to His truths and knowledge, that we have
salvation, and it surely is GLORY and VIRTUE that we are 
to partake in.
     It is by all this that we are given EXCEEDINGLY GREAT AND
PRECIOUS PROMISES: to partake of the DIVINE NATURE of God, having
now escaped the corruption that is in the world (verses 1-4).

     Partaking of the DIVINE NATURE is FAR MORE than what people
ever think. As called Christians we are given the very SEED of
the NATURE of God the Father. We are BEGOTTEN AGAIN! But this
time begotten of God Himself. We are not just "adopted" children,
we are the very LITERAL children of the Father. What most
Christian people do not realize and are not taught by their
ministers, is that God the Father is REPRODUCING Himself through
mankind! Reproducing to have literal children BORN into His
family! We have seen the apostle Paul teach in Hebrews chapter
two, that Jesus is not ashamed to call US His BROTHERS!
     There is throughout the New Testament story, a Father and
Son relationship mentioned over and over again. Jesus is called
the FIRSTBORN from the dead, the firstborn from human to DIVINE.
     This GREAT MYSTERY (now Paul says is being revealed to us)
is what the angels desire to look into. They ponder it, they
marvel at it, that God the Father can take physical clay, dirt,
earth, and make man in His own image, then call them through the
power of His Spirit, and through the ONE great sin forgiving
sacrifice of Christ Jesus, and start the process, of making men
and women into His VERY LIKENESS. Yes ABOVE the likeness of
angels, above anything ever created by God, taking human kind and
making them eventually into the God kind. 
     God the Father will ALWAYS be the MOST HOLY ONE, the SUPREME
one. Jesus Christ will ALWAYS be our ELDER brother, next to the
Father, on His right hand, but under Christ there will be
thousands if not millions of brothers and sisters to Jesus, all
with the very DIVINE NATURE of God within them, fully perfect,
fully sinless, fully never even being able to be tempted by sin
any more. Oh, what GLORY indeed that shall be!!

     You need to KNOW what the heavenly Father teaches on this
matter in His holy word. You will find on this Website an in-
depth study called "A CHRISTIAN'S DESTINY."  Make sure you read
it, study it, meditate on it, come to see the GLORIOUS MYSTERY of
the GOSPEL that is NOW revealed to us in the pages of the Bible
and especially the New Testament.

     Knowing this wonderful truth of complete salvation - the
full end result of our salvation - we are to ADD to our faith, be
diligent in adding to our faith, "virtue (excellence, resolution,
Christian energy) and in exercising) virtue (develop) knowledge
(intelligence), And in (exercising) knowledge (develop) self-
control, and in (exercising) self-control (develop) steadfastness
(patience and endurance), and in (exercising) steadfastness
(develop) godliness (piety), and in (exercising) godliness
(develop) brotherly affection, and in (exercising) brotherly
affection (develop) Christian love" (Amplified Bible).

     Is it important that a Christian adds these attributes to
their basic faith? Can a saved Christian just sit back, relax,
put up their feet, and go through life cat-napping their time
away, until they are called home in death. Peter goes on to give
us the answer:

     "For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in
you, they will keep (you) from being idle or unfruitful unto the
(full personal) knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah,
the Anointed One). FOR whoever LACKS these qualities is BLIND,
(spiritually) SHORTSIGHTED, seeing only what is near to him, and
has become oblivious (to the fact) that he was cleansed from his
old sins. Because of this brethren, be all the more solicitous
and eager to make SURE (to RATIFY, to STRENGTHEN, to make
STEADFAST) your calling and election; for if you DO THIS, you
will NEVER STUMBLE or FALL. Thus there will be a richly and
abundantly provided for you entry into the eternal kingdom of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (Amplified Bible, capital words are
mine).

     If you are reading carefully you will see again the teaching
of the New Testament, that it IS possible to FALL AWAY from
Christian faith, there is no such teaching in the Bible as "once
saved always saved." A Christian must STICK WITH IT, but not only
stick with it, a Christian must be adding to their faith, and
here Peter lists what to add. 
     Jesus clearly taught during His ministry that "he that shall
endure to the end, the same shall be saved." 

     A forgiven Christian, through faith and grace, must live a
different life-style than their old way of sin, doing whatever
they wanted, when they wanted. They must be CONVERTED, turned up-
side-down, turned in-side-out, be willing to be led by the Holy
Spirit of God into walking the pathway of righteousness, walking
down the straight and narrow road of the will and mind attitude
of God. A Christian must as Paul said, "Let this MIND be IN you,
that was IN Christ Jesus (Philippians 2:5). And a Christian must
live and walk this holy pathway, living by every word of God (as
Jesus taught in Matthew 4:4) to the end of their life, until they
sleep in death.
     Peter said if we DO the things he listed we will make our
calling and election SURE (verses 5-11).

     Peter knew the people he was writing to, knew all that he
was saying was correct, but he told them he still needed to state
it again, to give emphasis once more to them of this basic
foundational truth of salvation. 

     He also knew that his time to put off this physical
tabernacle was near. He knew (from the situation and from the
Holy Spirit through Christ) his death was close at hand. 
     He was writing this all down, so even after his death,
Christians would still have this truth.
     He also told them that he and others like him, were not
teaching cunningly deceitful fables, but they had made known the
very POWER  and the COMING (because He lives) of the Lord Jesus
Christ, but were EYE-WITNESSES of His glorified majesty. 

     Yes, we have people who lived with, walked with, talked with
Jesus, after He was raised from the dead. We today can have a
faith that is SURE, founded upon SOLID facts. God is REAL, He
DOES exist, His Son Jesus Christ DID walk this earth, did die for
the sins of the world, was dead for three days and three nights,
was resurrected to GLORIFIED IMMORTAL LIFE! Did ascend to heaven
in the sight of some of His disciples, does live today at the
Father's right hand, and will COME again to establish the Kingdom
of God on earth for a 1,000 years, and will then turn it all over
to the Father, when the Father and the heavenly Jerusalem comes
to this earth for eternity. 

     Peter knew personally that Jesus did receive from God the
Father HONOR and GLORY, when a voice came from heaven saying,
"This IS MY BELOVED SON, in whom I am well pleased." 
     This voice from heaven, Peter says, he and James and John
HEARD when in the holy mount (Matthew 17). That was the time that
has been popularly called "The Transfiguration." 

     Not only that, Peter declares we have also a more sure word
of prophecy. More sure because that word is STILL WITH US, in the
pages of the Bible. The transfiguration is no longer seen, it was
for a one time only, for Peter, James and John, to see and record
for us as having seen, but PROPHECY .... that is for ALL TIME and
all ages. The prophets wrote about end time events, and their
writings are preserved still, for us to continually read, and as
we read we see the day approaching. We can see the events coming
to pass, taking shape, moving forward to the very end times of
the last 42 months, 1260 days, the times and time and half a
time, spoken about in the book of Revelation and Daniel.

     We are to take heed of prophecy, as like a light that shines
in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star (Jesus)
arises in our hearts, when we shall be raised from the dead or
changed in the blink of an eye (the wonderful 1 Corinthians,
chapter 15), and meet Jesus in the air, the clouds (1 Thess.4:13-
18), and proceed down to the Mount of Olives (prophet Zachariah,
chapter 14) to reign with Him for a thousand years (Revelation,
19 and 20).

     No prophecy Peter says is for PRIVATE interpretation. The
prophet spoke not by the imagination of men, but spoke as they
were inspired by the Holy Spirit (verses 12-21).

     To understand prophecy correctly, you must let the Bible
INTERPRET the Bible. Prophecy CAN be understood. The time has
come for God's prophets to be understood. The Lord still has the
function of "prophets" in His church (Ephesians 4:11-13).
Prophecy will only be understood by those who are humble and who
serve the Lord with fearful respect, who will live according to
His will, who will grow in grace and knowledge, who will be
corrected, who will love the Lord God with all their heart, mind,
and life. 
     On this Website you will find the answers to Bible prophecy.
You will know what to watch for in world events, and you will
know when it is near for the Lord Jesus to return.

                            ...................

Written May 2007
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