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Tag: peter

2 Peter 2: Pernicious Preachers of a False Gospel
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you..

2 Peter 2:1a – King James Version

Accepting Apostolic Testimony OR Following False Prophets

After presenting his Apostolic testimony to wavering preachers, elders, and marginal followers of “The Way,” Simon Peter now alerts the church to dangerous heresies taught by some seeking to undermine the true Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Trustworthy Prophetic Word, reads the heading in this section of 2 Peter 1 of the Christian Standard Bible, also citing testimony from all the synoptic Gospels [Matthew, Mark & Luke].

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; where unto ye do well that ye take heed..

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

2 Peter 1:17-21 excerpt KJV

The Apostle now warns of pernicious perils of false prophets and false teaching of those who deny Apostolic testimony.

2 Peter 2:

There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you.
2 Peter 2:1a – Christian Standard Bible

Peter, Apostle of Jesus, provides familiar examples from the Jewish Bible (Old Testament):
- and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah v.5a
- and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes v.6a
- and if he rescued righteous Lot, v.7a
Compare yourself to Noah. Or compare yourself to Lot, Paul suggests, a righteous man living in Sodom surrounded by every wickedness conceived by evil men in charge of his community.

Are Sodom and Gomorrah not the cities of our home churches to whom Simon Peter writes once again?

And doesn’t our world reminiscingly resemble that near to destruction in the time of Noah?

Take heed that we have survived thus far only be saved from the final judgment of fire by Christ’s righteousness!

How do the Apostle’s examples from Genesis apply to us?

The believers to whom Peter writes live in Asian and Roman and new worldly cities not unlike Sodom — as do we in our towns and churches susceptible to every evil tolerated and encouraged by leaders of every gathering in our home community.

Destructive Doctrines
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HEADING from the New King James Version 
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WATCH OUT! warns the Apostle in his second epistle.

.. even as there will be false teachers among you, – v.1b – NKJV

You know these preachers and elders who CLAIM JESUS.

Some saints succumb to their subtle sweet tolerance. For their deceptive doctrine suggests Christ while discounting His lordship over our saved SELF’s still flourishing in the flesh of this life.

Pernicious Preachers of Their Own Doctrines

ψευδοδιδάσκαλος – pseudodidáskalos, psyoo-dod-id-as’-kal-os; from G5571 and G1320; a spurious teacher, i.e. propagator of erroneous Christian doctrine:—false teacher.

Lexicon :: Strong’s G5572 – pseudodidaskalos
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No, it isn't only the preacher in the pulpit who purveys false doctrine, though some succumb at times as the Apostle fears. 
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They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves.

– 2:1c CSB

.. who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them.

2 Peter 2:1c King James Version

And many shall follow their pernicious ways
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Time to define a key word Paul uses FIVE TIMES in his Second Epistle (translated in 2 Peter 2:2 KJV as "pernicious ways").  
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ἀπώλεια – apōleia –

The KJV translates Strong ‘s G684 in the following manner: perdition (8x), destruction (5x), waste (2x), damnable (1x), to die (with G1519) (1x), perish (with G1498) (with G1519) (1x), pernicious (1x).

The Apostle Peter chooses STRONG language to describe these sins against the Lord.

And in fact, Jesus had spoken the same to describe Judas Iscariot!

While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition;^G684 that the scripture might be fulfilled.

Gospel of John 17:12 KJV – the words of Jesus
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What must Peter — one of the Twelve — have thought when Judas took the cup the Lord shared at their last Passover meal? 
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The Lure of their Depravity

Common Era preachers may draw in the multitudes to gatherings of those seeking an advantage in the life of proclaiming Jesus.

(Judas, who minded their money, was like that.)

Peter continues in his second epistle warning the faithful:

And in their greed they will exploit you with false words, their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

2 Peter 2:3 LSB

The Apostle describes how to spot false teachers scemingly opposed to all Truth:
- Bold, arrogant people!
- They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones [2:10b LSB]
- go after the flesh in its corrupt lust
- and despise authority.
  - (even that of the Lord’s Apostles, Peter implies)
- Daring,
- self-willed,
- they do not tremble when they blaspheme [angels] glorious ones 2:10 LSB
  - (We’ll continue Peter’s mention of angels momentarily.)
They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting.

With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception.

2 Peter 2:18 LSB

The APOSTLE’S WARNING!

These people are springs without water, mists driven by a storm. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them.

For by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who are actually escaping from those who live in error.

2 Peter 17-18 CSB

Peter has already presented his powerful case of his authority as an Apostle of Jesus Christ — who IS the only Son of GOD the Father and One with the Holy Spirit.

Won’t you obey an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ?

“For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son,with whom I am well pleased,”

2 Peter 1:17 ESV

OR

Will you subtly slide back into the vomit of your former overindulgence in every sin of this world?

What the true proverb says has happened to them:

“The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

2 Peter 2:22 ESV

Like a dog that returns to his vomit
is a fool who repeats his folly.

Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?
There is more hope for a fool than for him.

Proverbs 26:11,12 ESV

GOD, Angels, Men, Apostles, creatures & authority
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FOLLOW PETER'S LOGIC: 
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- In the beginning, God [ĕlōhîm] created the heavens and the earth. – Genesis 1:1
- The apostle of Jesus Christ.. stands [in] the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: – 2 Peter 1:1
- Jesus is associated with righteousness, highlighting His sinless nature and the moral perfection that He imparts to believers.
  - sou r ce:
- 2 Peter 2:1 The term “Master” is used in the context of false teachers denying “the Master who bought them.” It underscores Jesus’ ownership and authority over believers, as well as the cost of redemption.
  - ibid.
  - Peter introduces himself as a servant [doulos] of Jesus
    
    2 Peter 1:1
  - and in his first epistle the Apostle instructs those chosen in Christ:
Servants [oiketēs, a domestic], be subject to your masters [despotēs – also translated as Lord or used for husband] with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust.

1 Peter 2:18 ESV

The Apostle Peter, as servant of the Lord and witness to God in the flesh embraces great responsibility for the faith of those chosen as elect saints in Jesus Christ.

Creation, its creatures and Angels

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

… The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

2 Peter 2:4,9 KJV

The Apostle connects evil men affecting the righteous like Noah and Lot within a lengthy tirade citing angels that sinned. Though we know little of the unseen messengers (evil or good), Peter reminds us of a comparison of Jesus to Adam, who was tempted into our fall by a most-powerful angel.
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Once again: 
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FOLLOW PETER’S LOGIC:
- God did not spare angels when they sinned – v.4
  - .. and his angels he charged with folly: – Job 4:18b KJV
- .. but cast them into hell..
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“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer,[lit. Day Star] son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations! 

For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
.. 
Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit. 
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Isaiah 14:12-13a,14 NKJV
- and committed them to pits of darkness, held for judgment…
- [2 Peter 2:4b NASB]
These cunning false teachers speaking against Apostolic Authority — granted through the same Holy Spirit of God by which the Prophets spoke — do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties [Doxa] – ‘they blaspheme the glorious ones’ – v.10

FALSE TEACHERS, who are no better than evil men who refused to listen to GOD’s Prophets speaking by the Holy Spirit and less powerful than angels, will also suffer the judgment of angels who turned against the Creator.

.. whereas angels, though greater in might and power,

do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.

2 Peter 11 ESV

Balaam, False Prophets and Pernicious Popes!

YES, we are still addressing the warning of the Apostle Peter in his second epistle to the 1st century church.
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If you have noted in 2 Peter 2 that I quoted Scripture including men the Apostle lists as negative examples, but I missed a false prophet mentioned only once, you would be right. 
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Peter’s full list (chronologically) includes:
- Angels – vs.4 & 11
- mankind, except Noah – v.5
- community of mankind in Sodom and Gomorrah, except Lot – v.6
- the Prophet Balaam – vs. 15-16
ALL these are WARNING SIGNS from the LAW of Moses — cited by the Apostle Peter, servant of God and JESUS Christ, sent by true direction of the Holy Spirit — to BELIEVERS in the first century churches AND those including a Lot from Common Era elect yet to be born into the body of Christ before the Day of Judgment.

I have nearly bogged down in the mire of Moses’ serious warning in the book of Numbers concerning Balaam.

Moses, Prophet and Lawgiver of Israel, sheds light enough on such men and women who cunningly lead communities of the faithful away from the Lord our God — from then nearer the Beginning until the Day of Jesus Christ.

What Popes, you may ask?

Which false prophets since Jesus, you may wonder?

AND what do these have to do with the Apostle’s example of Balaam in 2 Peter 2?

NEXT – We will examine the timeless application of Balaam to Peter’s prophesies of false teachers and HERESIES already evident to the Common Era church.

Talk of JESUS . com

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
November 25, 2025
2 Peter 1 – Know Christ’s Divine Nature
Does Christ wield divine authority in your life?

Second Epistle of Simeon Peter 1:

..seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the full knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

2 Peter 1:3-4 Legacy Standard Bible

Do you know God and Christ?

The Apostle Simeon Peter — Cephas , Simon Peter — wants you to know the Divine nature of God [theos] and Jesus Christ [Christos].

..to you in the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;

2 Peter 1:2b

And most essentially these of the Divine nature [physis] above all knowledge (or full knowledge), rather than partial knowledge [gnōsis] of man — even a righteous man or one with wisdom — corrupted [phthora] by our own sinful nature.

Note that by the unseen inspiration of the Holy Spirit in this scripture, the Apostle Peter in the opening of his second epistle had immediately claimed the authority of:

.. the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:

.. the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;

So to continue from when we introduced Peter in our introduction, the Apostle now writes to the church a second time so that all may be assured of their calling.

our mutually possessive God and Savior
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How we long to belong to someone whom we love!
 
A creature of fragile frame in God's image dare not approach the Almighty. 
--

Yet in JESUS, God touched man in a personal Way 
— in Christ a new covenantal relationship for which we yearn endlessly, 

forged in the love of God and our Lord.
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So Simon Peter, the Rock to whom Jesus looked to now build the church, assures believers and followers of The Way:

And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises.

These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises..

The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:4-5a,8 NLT

But those who fail..
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The restored Apostle who had denied Jesus three times before Christ's sacrifice on the Cross cautions those who claim Jesus, yet fail in repentance:
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But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.

2 Peter 1 9 NLT

Some in Adam have not seen the guarded gate of Eden reopened by Christ — God’s new election of saints called to return to the tree of life, mercifully clothed in righteousness through the perfect Sacrifice of our Savior and Lord.

Apostolic Faith Defined through Peter’s Second Epistle

The Apostle Peter — clearly in the Authority of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, here in his second epistle of Holy Scripture — commands discernment by the body of Christ – all pastors and every holy saint of the church called to grow in our faith.

You have no doubt noticed that I have briefly skipped the answer Simon Peter provides to HOW our sanctification grows our faith.

Peter’s progression in this list will help your personal discernment which the Apostle of Christ commands of those who love Jesus our Lord.

7 Affections of Sanctification

Growing Apostolic Faith Through Seeds of Holiness

Before we look at the list, let’s glance at some terms of faith considering the connection made by the Apostle Simon Peter.

Sanctification: Is Separation to the Service of God

Psa 4:3; 2Cr 6:17–

Torrey’s New Topical Textbook

IF Christians are sanctified to God through the Lord Christ Jesus, THEN, Peter tells us, those saints will grow in the same holiness, rejecting the sin of our former self.

The Apostle has already addressed sanctification. In fact, Simon Peter opens his first epistle to the saints with this bold greeting and claim in Christ:

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ..

1 Peter 1:2a KJV

Therefore the Apostle lists a general,

‘HOW TO ‘ grow or mature in your faith

for the saints of God.

And again,

By these he has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.

2 Peter 1:4 CSB

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness..

add to your faith virtue,
to virtue knowledge,
to knowledge self-control,
to self-control perseverance,
to perseverance godliness,
to godliness brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness
love.
2 Peter 1:5b-7 NKJV

No single translation of these few verses seems sufficient in conveying the full-depth of the Apostle’s advice. Therefore let us take a few moments to allow the cleansing of Peter’s description to open our blind eyes.

ADD these to your faith:

Adjectives of Affective Faith:
1. aretē
2. gnōsis
3. egkrateia
4. hypomonē
5. eusebeia
6. philadelphia
7. agapē
Peter describes how we may diligently apply our new desires in Christ to our faith. You may have even memorized one English translation of these descriptions from the Apostle’s directive; however you may find insight into the richness of Peter’s list from adjectives in other translations.
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Remember: these all translate from Peter's written Greek - common to all of the first century Roman Empire.
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Adjectives beginning with KJV:
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VIRTUE

moral excellence, goodness, worthiness

KNOWLEDGE

(insight, understanding)

TEMPERANCE

self-control,

PATIENCE

perseverance, patient endurance, steadfastness

GODLINESS

piety

BROTHERLY KINDNESS

brotherly affection, mutual affection, brotherly love

CHARITY

love, love for everyone, unselfish love, charity, love itself

source: BlueLetterBible.org – Bibles

Neither Useless nor Unfruitful

These affections are all good things. But more importantly to the Apostle’s evidence to ALL, all are Christian.

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

2 Peter 1:8*9 NIV

SO then, how must you act, justified sinner?

Wherefore, the rather, brethren, (KJV)

Peter leaves no doubt in the expected actions of believers.

The Apostle addresses the brothers (as is customary in leadership — who teach their wives with the authority and compassion of Christ and will raise their children in the authority of God and Christ and Scripture).

He opened his epistle leaving no question as to his apostolic authority in the Divine POWER of God — theios dynamis [v.3] — and Peter confirms Christ’s confirmation to we who are now elect in Him to become participants in Jesus’ Divine NATURE — theios physis [v.4].

(After all, IF we are no longer like the unsaved sinners who we once were, then our Christ-like fruit of the Spirit will show His hope of eternal life in us.)

Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.

For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 1:10-11 ESV

Divinity and Trinity

I would like to make a side-point concerning authority here which Simon Peter is about to address more fully as we proceed next time.

First (as I just mentioned from varied English translations), Paul addresses the men of the church as was done in Greek, Roman and Jewish culture. In AD first century culture men, women and deities interacted in an order of hierarchy. Some men over others, some women over others, children under the authority of their mother or a servant woman under her authority — even Greek and Roman deities held unseen authority over men and women in designated areas of their lives and creation.

As the Apostle has placed himself in this line of authority as both a doulos of DEITY — so Simon Peter also claims his delagated authority from ALMIGHTY GOD in the Person of GOD’s only Son Christ Jesus.

The APOSTLE claims this obedience not to him personally, but as the personal slave of God sent to the world with the Gospel.

The church cannot claim Christ while turning against GOD’s own commands.

Peter’s Apostolic Gospel applies to ALL men and to ALL women who claim to be Christians.

No claim of God while denying the written word of God in Scripture and instruction of an Apostle is true. Any christian claim of JESUS contrary to the Apostolic witness will not make a pastor, elder or bishop or any mortal man or woman a true Christian.

Even JESUS, the Son of God, submitted to the will of the Father in everything and He promises to send the Holy Spirit as a counselor to those elected to eternal life in the New Covenant.
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We cannot take time today to again address the Trinity.
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Am I numbered among God’s elect?

R.C. Sproul reminds readers that Peter’s first epistle was addressed to the elect and notes that his second epistle with this important teaching, ‘drips theology.’

So speaking of these affections we have just reviewed [2 Peter 1:5-7] Sproul writes:

Yet he wants believers to be even more diligent about something else. There is an even greater priority, and that is the doctrine of election—not in the abstract but in respect to your own person.

The most important question you need answered in your lifetime is this: am I numbered among the elect?

ibid. p.195

Consider the question in the mirror of God’s truth. Do YOU have the fruit of the Spirit shown in elected saints who turn to CHRIST?

Any who lack such humble witness of Jesus to which Peter points in this epistle may be heretics — ravenous wolves, clothed in some other gospel of an anti-Christ.

NEXT: The Will of a departing Apostle

Talk of JESUS . com

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
October 30, 2025
2 Peter – Introduction to a Second Apostolic Letter
We begin our SERIES from the Epistles of three Apostles with Simon Peter.

Peter – a Foundation of Apostolic Faith

Our best impressions of Simon Peter from the Gospels and the early ACTS of the Apostles cannot fully convey the heart of this ROCK whom JESUS had claimed for building His Church..

We tend to recall moments from back in the AD 30’s with Peter in Jerusalem.. Yet even then the Apostle was sent to surrounding towns with the Gospel.

33 Years – Journeys from Capernaum to Rome

C

Capernaum

Jesus had appeared to Peter and others as they fished near the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The Lord instructed Simon Peter and the Apostles to go into all the world with the Gospel — Good News that they had all seen and touched, and had heard and obeyed the Lord – the risen Christ JESUS.

Now it is Simon Peter who will build not one church in Jerusalem, Capernaum or even Rome, but a living Church throughout the world (of Rome) — connected by the love of Christ and the Holy Spirit into a fellowship of saints sanctified and separated to the faith of eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Peter’s gospel is an apostolic gospel; Simon Peter’s faith is a Christian faith

ACTS 9-12 Miraculous Missionary Acts of Peter

So now after Jesus’ ascension, the Apostle will sojourn between Capernaum, Jerusalem and other Jewish communities of Galilee, eventually meeting Jewish believers from every corner of the world who will come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Simon Peter, sought out as a criminal by leading Jews opposing their own Messiah, would eventually be brought to Rome. Christ’s leading Apostle would also eventually be crucified there, but not until an appointed time after many years proclaiming the Gospel.

Like Paul and other Apostles, Peter wrote epistles and instructions for many years to those he had encouraged in the churches throughout Asia.

2 Peter

The World into which the Apostles Preached
- ~ AD 30’s – AD 60’s
We cannot fully appreciate the magnitude of Jesus’ great commission with only the Gospel accounts or even all Scripture of the Old Testament.

This is due a historic extended silence of God during a post-exilic gap which includes the powerful reign of Alexander the Great (of Macedonia) prior to the dominance of Rome.

a ROMAN world

The Messiah of Israel was given into a Roman world, not a Judaic land.

This Jewish fisherman, Simon Peter of Capernaum on the Sea of Tiberius (so renamed by Rome), though not a Roman, lived a daily existence dependent on Rome, This same dependence had also Romanized the half-Jewish Herod’s, adopted into an all-inclusive culture of the Caesar’s.

Without stepping into the Jewish controversies into which Jesus sometimes ventured about the state of Abrahamic or Mosaic of Semitic faith, let’s just say that Simon Peter’s faith, both before meeting the Messiah and after Jesus’ resurrection until now, is not specifically tied to either the Jewish sects returned from Medo-Persia or those Jews left in a devastated Israel and Judah.

Simon Peter sought to preach the Gospel to his fellow Jews, many who were local proselytes. Rome frequently rejected Jews, often sent on their way at any sign of controversy in distant provinces.

The Apostle writes to churches in lands once dominated by Alexander. And thousands of Jews had remigrated into a European world from an ancient Asia, once dominated by the Babylonians, Medes and Persians. [See your Old Testament.]

Greek culture prevails long after the return of the Jews into a Herodian re-built Roman Jerusalem.

The Twelve Apostles (and I include Matthias) led by Simon Peter were all Jews. And the scattered Jews throughout a world now dominated by Rome wanted to hear from these Apostolic witnesses of the risen Son of David, the Messiah Jesus.

a Second Epistle of Simon Peter
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In case you missed the definition of Epistle, you may read it HERE from our introduction. 
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Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours:

2 Peter 1:1 NIV

Who is Peter writing to?

We’ll get back to that in the context of this second letter, but let’s take a quick glance at his first epistle for an introductory clue.

παρεπίδημος Aliens of the Diaspora

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

Anatolian peninsula

1 Peter 1:1-2a ESV

We can suppose that both epistles of Peter were sent to all of these churches on the Anatolian peninsula — all Roman provinces throughout modern-day Turkie.

some scholars date the Second Epistle of Peter in AD 64

These Jewish Christians, members of the Diaspora, are addressed here as pilgrims or sojourners… Jews expelled.. and living in a pagan environment.

1&2 Peter An Expositional Commentary, R.C. Sproul

Simon Peter: To the pilgrims

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To the pilgrims of the Dispersion..

1 Peter 1:1a New King James Version
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"But WAIT.." as the old late-night TV ad suggested.. 
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You probably have the WRONG PICTURE of PILGRIMS with an implanted prejudice of clashing cultures.

παρεπίδημος – parepidēmos

properly, “one who comes from a foreign country into a city or land to reside there by the side of the natives; hence, stranger; sojourning in a strange place, a foreigner“

Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee,

Genesis 26:3a KJV – Oath of the LORD to Isaac, son of Abraham in Garar, a location south of Gaza – Source BLB
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Alien, migrant, immigrant, foreigner — all have subtle prejudicial meaning.
 
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These Christians to whom the Apostle’s write are rejected by former friends, neighbors and in workplaces. This sect of Jews following the way of the Messiah [or Christos] were also deported along with their families from their homes and Hellenist hometowns.

Therefore Christ-followers must sojourn to distant towns throughout the world of Roman citizens and pagans, those who rejected Jews anyway for the intolerance of their ONE GOD.

Why do they want to hear from Simon Peter?

Place yourself into any of the varied cities or towns in the Roman provinces addressed by the Apostle in ~ AD 64.

RC. Sproul in his PREFACE to 1-2 Peter offers one of the best descriptions of the heart of the saints receiving Simon Peter’s letter in the context of their situation:

Imagine what it would be like to receive a letter from someone who was a personal friend of Jesus during his earthly ministry?
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Referring specifically to Peter, James and John, eyewitnesses to the glory of the transfigured Christ, Dr. Sproul continues:
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A letter from a man such as this is a treasure for the church. His letter, beyond the value of his own eyewitness testimony and his intimate friendship with Jesus carries with it the weight of the divine inspiration of God the Holy Spirit.

ibid. R.C, Sproul

Why does Peter write a SECOND Epistle to them?

Remembering our AD 1st century cultural setting of the Church, as we discovered in Paul’s missionary journeys, the people living here are Hellenists.

Hellenists worshiped the tree of knowledge — towering temples of their gods — where philosophers plucked the forbidden fruit of wisdom.

Roger@TalkofJesus.com

Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble

2 Peter 1:10 NKJV
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Again, quoting R.C. SPROUL from: BE ALL THE MORE DILIGENT TO MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE, concerning the recipiants of 1 Peter (likely the same churches): 
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The gnostics took a variety of religions and philosophies and thought to blend them to produce a new religion or philosophy… They targeted the early Christian community.. The only way the Gnostics could seduce Christians to believe their heresy was to undermine the authority of the Apostles.

ibid. p.6

Therefore,

Simon Peter, doulos and Apostle of Jesus Christ

2 Peter 1:1

writes an epistle —
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(Remember the one definition emphasizing its impact as a letter of written command?) —
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to encourage Elders ‘ (and those saints willingly obedient to their teaching [doctrine] and authority)

in the (precise and correct) KNOWLEDGE of God [epignōsis theos] and of Jesus our Lord..

NEXT .. 2 PETER 1:

His precious and magnificent promises

Partakers of the Divine Nature
October 18, 2025