PT-8 “Introduction to 2 Peter”

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/14/2025 10:01 PM

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus: PT-8 “Introduction to 2 Peter”

Five days ago on my SD on 2 Peter I began to look at “Petrine Authority Disputed” which speaks of how those who could well be titled as apostates were saying that 2 Peter was not really written by the Apostle Peter, and in this rather long section with different sub-points in it John MacArthur defends the truth that Peter really did write this letter that we find in our New Testament.  I have stated that God is and always was in control of what was written in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments and that reason is good enough for me to know that 2 Peter is a part of the New Testament.  Now I will continue to quote from this sub-point “Petrine Authority Disputed.”

            “The alleged historical difficulties raised by critics do not prove that 2 Peter could not have been written during Peter’s lifetime.  The reference to Paul’s letters (3:15-16) need not be forced to mean everything Paul wrote; it merely speaks of those epistles Peter was aware of when he wrote 2 Peter.  Nothing in the text speaks of the collection of Paul’s inspired letters or implies that either Peter or his readers were familiar with all of them.  That Paul’s letters were already circulating among the churches during his own lifetime is clear from Colossians 4:16.

            “Nor is it an anachronism, as some chare, for Peter to refer to Paul’s inspired letters as Scripture (3:16).  The apostles knew that what they wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (John 14:26) was Scripture on a par with the Old Testament.  Paul repeatedly claimed to be writing the very words of God.  In 1 Corinthians 2:13 he declared, ‘which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words,’ while in 14:37 he added, ‘If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment.’  He commended the Thessalonians because ‘when [they] heard from [him], [they] accepted it not as the word of men, but for what is really is, the word of God’ (1 Thess. 2:13; cf. 2 Cor. 13:3; 1 Peter 4:11).

            “Neither does the evidence support the claim that the false teachers in view in 2 Peter were second-century Gnostics.  The element of their heretical teaching were common to the first century, while the characteristic teachings of the second-century Gnosticism (e. g., cosmological dualism, an evil demiurge who created the evil physical world, salvation through secret knowledge) are absent from 2 Peter.  Charles Bibb writes,

Every feature in the description of the false teachers and mockers is to be found in the apostolic age.  If they had ‘eyes full of adultery,’ there were those at Corinth who defended incest.  If the ‘blasphemed dignities,’ there were those who spoke evil of St. Paul.  They profaned the Agape [the love feast or communion service], so did the Corinthians.  They mocked at the Parousia [the return of Christ], and some of the Corinthians denied that there was any resurrection. (A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude, The international Critical Commentary [Edinburgh, T & T. Clark, 1902], 239)

Nor does 2 Peter discuss the key issues of the second century (e. g., the role of bishops in church government, fully-developed Gnosticism, and Montanism).  The failure to mention specific second-century issues is especially noticeable in 3:8, ‘But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.’ One of the major beliefs of the second century was chiliasm, and early form of premillennialism. If 2 Peter was written in the second century, it is unlikely that its author would have failed to mention chiliasm in connection with 3:8.

            “The author had already called himself an apostle (1:1), so the reference to ‘your apostles’ (3:2) could not mean he was excluding himself from their number.  Since the apostles were given by God to the church from their number.  Since the apostles were given by God to the church (cf. 1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 2:20; 4:11-12), it was fitting for Peter to describe them (himself included) as ‘your apostles.’ The ‘fathers’ in view in 2 Peter 3:4 were not the first generation of Christians, but the Old Testament patriarchs.  Both the context (the flood; vv. 5-6) and the usage of the phrase ‘the fathers’ support that interpretation.  In the New Testament (John 6:58; 7:22; Acts 13:32; Rom. 9:5; 11:28; 15:8; Heb. 1:1) and in the writings of the apostolic fathers, that phrase refers not to the first generation of Christians, but to the Old Testament patriarchs.

            “Nor is it necessary that the mention of Peter’s impending death (1:14) derives from John 21:18.  Obviously, Peter was there when Jesus made that prediction, and he heard it with his own ears.”

9/14/2025 10:36 PM