II Peter 2 · The Lantern

Deliverance from False Prophets

But there were also false prophets among the people, as there will also be false teachers among you, who will stealthily bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

And every prophet that speaketh in the Spirit ye shall neither try nor judge; for every sin shall be forgiven, but this sin shall not be forgiven. But not every one that speaketh in the Spirit is a prophet; but only if he hold the ways of the Lord. Therefore from their ways shall the false prophet and the prophet be known.

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their obscene ways, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.

By false teachers the apostle means the like-minded followers of Nicolaus and Cerinthus, and by the name of prophecy, commonly attributed to both prophets and false teachers, he warns the faithful not to heed false prophets. What the difference is between the one and the other, Paul taught when he said that no one calls Jesus Lord "except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:3).

And many will follow after their sensuality, and through them the way of the truth will be blasphemed.

They revile the way of truth because they have turned orthodox doctrine into heresy, or because they have rejected the rule given to them at their baptism, or because they have abandoned the way of truth.

The heresy of the Nicolaitans had already appeared at that time. Peter says that it was evil in two ways. The Nicolaitans were wrong in their doctrine, and they were also wicked in their behavior. It reminds us of what was said about the Jews: "Because of you my name is blasphemed among the Gentiles."

And many will follow their debaucheries, etc. The way of truth will be blasphemed by heretics not only in those whom they draw out to associate with their heresy, but also in those whom by their most impure deeds and sacrifices, or the execrable mysteries they perform, they provoke to hatred of the Christian name, those who are unskilled thinking all Christians to be entangled…

And in covetousness, with fabricated words, they will exploit you; for whom the judgment of long ago is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber.

The destruction of these people comes from none other than the God of Israel, who is never idle or asleep.

Their judgment has not ceased long ago. When 'long ago' signifies a past time and 'has not ceased' is a word in the present tense, it seems to mean nothing else but that the judgment of the perdition of the impious, which has already long begun, continually torments them presently and will never cease with any end.

By the word "covetousness" he shows that they acquire gain in a shameful manner. For covetousness sometimes means injustice, and sometimes the baseness of acquisition in general. That is why the word "exploit" is fittingly used. To show that they are completely foreign to divine teaching, he says that they use flattering words.

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but delivered them to Tartarus in chains of gloom, being kept for judgment;

And then Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel looked down from heaven and saw much blood being shed upon the earth, and all lawlessness being wrought upon the earth. And they said one to another: 'The earth made without inhabitant cries the voice of their cryingst up to the gates of heaven.

When Christ came from heaven, he bound the leaders of the demons in hell. This is clear from the way in which he commanded the spirits, lest they be thrown into the abyss. For he bound some and ordered others to depart, as we can see from sayings like "Look, I have given you power over unclean spirits"; "Cast out demons," and so on.

Not without reason does the apostle begin with believers, who are more honorable, but he wishes to show that they are liable to greater condemnation for their sins. They have the advantage of being the first called to apostleship. Therefore, for going astray from the right path they will also be subject to greater condemnation.

and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, one of eight, a herald of righteousness, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;

and reducing the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, condemned them to destruction, having set them as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;

and rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the conduct of the lawless in sensuality —

for that righteous man, dwelling among them, was tormenting his righteous soul day after day by what he saw and heard of their lawless deeds —

then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of temptation, and to keep the unrighteous being punished for the day of judgment,

So, then, brethren, having received no small occasion to repent, while we have opportunity, let us turn to God who called us, while yet we have One to receive us. For if we renounce these indulgences and conquer the soul by not fulfilling its wicked desires, we shall be partakers of the mercy of Jesus.

The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, etc. He says the unjust are reserved for punishment on the day of judgment, not because they do not suffer torment for their merits even before the day of judgment, freed from the body, but because greater torments await them in judgment when, having received their body back, they will be punished, who are now tormente…

Piety avails for avoiding all evils. Whence blessed Peter says: "The Lord knows how to deliver the pious from temptation, but to reserve the impious for torment unto the day of judgment." The impious are those who do not acknowledge divine piety.

and especially those who walk after the flesh in the desire of defilement and despise authority. Bold and self-willed, they do not tremble to blaspheme glorious ones,

whereas angels, being greater in strength and power, do not bring a blaspheming judgment against them from the Lord.

Of this same thing in the Epistle of Peter: "As strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; but having a good conversation among the Gentiles, that while they detract from you as if from evildoers, yet, beholding your good works, they may magnify God."

Where angels, though greater in strength and power, do not bring a blasphemous judgment against themselves. When he says: Where, it signifies in that they despise dominion, that they are daring, that they are self-pleasing, that they create heresies, that is, sects, that they blaspheme.

Wishing to restrain them from such audacity, he says: whereas even angels, who surpass them in might and power, do not pronounce against them a reviling judgment before the Lord. The Apostle, as we have noted, says one and the same thing as the Apostle Jude; for he too, restraining those who are bold of tongue, persuades them by this very same example.

But these, like irrational animals born as creatures of instinct for capture and corruption, blaspheming in what they are ignorant of, will also be corrupted in their corruption,

The inspired psalmist said this when he sang: "Man, when honored, had no understanding. He is like the beasts that perish." Although human beings had laws, their morals were irrational, and they soon degenerated into animals whose only end was destruction.

But these, like irrational animals naturally, etc. Just as it is natural for irrational animals to often ignorantly fall into traps and destruction out of the need for food, so heretics, compared to foolish beasts, out of a desire to fulfill their own corruption, blaspheming the incorrupt and sound doctrine of the Catholic Church and life, bind themselves with the snares of ete…

Some explained this thus: they will perish in their own corruption, like irrational animals born naturally, that is, differing in no way from cattle that are born for destruction alone. "Like irrational animals, led by nature," that is, living by sensuality alone, and not by mind and rational life.

suffering wrong as the wage of wrongdoing. Counting carousing in the daytime a pleasure, they are spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while feasting with you,

having eyes full of an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unestablished souls, having a heart exercised in covetousness — children of a curse!

Leaving the straight way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam son of Bosor, who loved the wage of wrongdoing

but had a reproof of his own transgression: a mute beast of burden, speaking in a man’s voice, restrained the prophet’s madness.

These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been kept.

Peter calls these people dry springs—springs, because they have received knowledge of the Lord Christ, but dry, because they do not live in accordance with that knowledge.

They did not have the living word of the Spirit, the channel of delights which overflows to the glory of the nations. They were not clear-sighted like the saints. They were in some sense like clouds but more like "mists" covered in darkness and ignorance, for they were governed by an evil spirit.

Having inserted much into the middle of his discourse, including among other things the example of Balaam, the apostle again begins to speak about the impure Gnostics. He likens them to waterless springs, because they have lost the purity of preaching and the sweet water of life.

For speaking arrogant words of vanity, they entice by the desires of the flesh, by sensuality, those who are barely escaping from those living in error,

promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what anyone has been overcome, by this he has been enslaved.

For as the serpent beguiled Eve, by promising her what he had not himself, so also do these men, by pretending [to possess] superior knowledge, and [to be acquainted with] ineffable mysteries; and, by promising that admittance which they speak of as taking place within the Pleroma, plunge those that believe them into death, rendering them apostates from Him who made them.

These men promised people freedom from deception when in fact they were encouraging others to lapse back into it.

They themselves, he says, being slaves of the aforementioned impurity, which he rightly also called corruption, promise freedom to those they deceive. And as to why they promise freedom to others while themselves being slaves of sin, he brings forth a fine proof of this: whoever is overcome by any passion is also a slave to it. But this will be explained more fully further on.

For if, having escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

There has happened to them the thing of the true proverb: “A dog returning to its own vomit,” and, “A sow having washed, to rolling in the mire.”

There has appeared one, Noetus by name, and by birth a native of Smyrna. This person introduced a heresy from the tenets of Heraclitus. Now a certain man called Epigonus becomes his minister and pupil, and this person during his sojourn at Rome disseminated his godless opinion.

But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and a pig, having washed, to her rolling in the mud. For since a dog returns to its own vomit is more abominable.

He also adds a proverb confirming the same thing (Prov. 26:11). For even a dog returning to its own vomit becomes still more disgusting, just as a pig seeking to wash itself of filth, if it does so in filth itself, turns out even filthier than before.

II Peter2

Deliverance from False Prophets