The rise and fall of false teachers

Introduction

Peter has spent all of chapter 1 preparing his readers positively for the onslaught of false prophets and false teachers in the last days. He has done this by reminding them of the truth, reminding them of virtue, urging them to follow his example in continuing to remind one another, and showing them where they are to find their authority when he has departed.

In light of Peter’s fast-approaching death, his desire is to prepare the church to face heretics by training them up in the truth.

Peter’s aim in our text tonight is to provide a sober warning to his readers regarding false teaching, but also to provide them with hope for the future. Yes, false teachers will arise, but in the end we can take heart as we look to God’s acts of old to remind and encourage us of the certainty of deliverance and destruction - deliverance for the Godly and destruction for the false teachers.

With that in mind, let’s read 2 Peter 2:1-10.

The Rise of False Prophets

Peter begins his treatment of false teachers by appealing to history. He says that false prophets arose among the people. Let’s look at this phrase:

What is meant by the people?

Peter means the people of Israel. This is an appeal to the national history of Israel, and Peter frames their experience as a type and foreshadow of our experience.

What are some examples in the Old Testament of false prophets arising among the people?

We see many examples of this throughout the Old Testament.

Moses first warns of these intrusions in Deuteronomy 13:1-3

Deuteronomy 13:1–3 LSB

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us walk after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for Yahweh your God is testing you to find out if you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

We see them in a memorable way in the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18:19-22

1 Kings 18:19–22 LSB

“So now then send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.” So Ahab sent a message among all the sons of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you be limping between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people did not answer him a word. Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of Yahweh, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men.

Jeremiah’s book of prophecy is filled with example after example of false prophets both coming in from the outside and rising up from among the people of Israel.

Peter therefore appeals to the typology of the Old Testament to warn us about false teachers in our own age.

He makes a chronological lesser-to-greater argument that if the Old Covenant people of God experienced the intrusions of false teachers, how much more ought we to expect the intrusions of false teachers in our own day.

Let’s continue in the text.

What do the false teachers do?

Peter lists three things: they introduce destructive heresies, they deny the Master who bought them, and they bring swift destruction upon themselves.

So let’s work through these items.

What is a heresy?

I would define a heresy as a deviant teaching that is clearly distinct from the teaching delivered by Christ, the apostles, and the prophets. For me, this definition leans back into the end of chapter 1 where Peter establishes his own inspired authority and the inspired authority of all Scripture. Anything that deviates from the plain teaching of the Scripture should therefore be considered a heresy.

What makes heresies destructive?

I believe heresies are destructive in three ways:

Doxologically destructive. We worship a God that we know, and right worship of God is predicated on right knowledge of him. So the implication is, if your teaching about God is wrong, you don’t really know God rightly, and if you don’t know God rightly, you’re not worshipping Him rightly. When you embrace false teaching, you begin worshipping a false god. Rather than worshipping the God of the Bible, you are worshipping a god of your own imagination.

Ethically destructive. The doxological destruction leads to ethical destruction. Worshiping the wrong God, whether you created it out of wood and stone with your hands or out of ideas and thoughts in your mind, is a violation of the first commandment, you shall have no other Gods before me. Once that commandment unravels, the rest unravel with it. We will see this more closely in the verses to come, but false teaching always leads to unethical and immoral behavior. We see it play out before our very eyes constantly. We’ll look at that more in-depth in a minute.

Ecclesially destructive. This part of the destructive power of false teaching is perhaps closest to the heart of Peter and the other Biblical writers. False teaching destroys church unity. In fact the Greek root from which we get the word heresy also forms the root of words translated tear apart or take away. False teaching divides churches. This is so interesting to me as I observe the theological landscape of our world today. Many people and indeed entire factions of professing Christians cry loudly that “doctrine divides.” That couldn’t be further from the truth. Peter is clear here: sound doctrine in the full and true knowledge of Jesus Christ is the great unifying factor for the church. Sound doctrine and faithful Bible teaching is what brings the true church together. It will never tear the true church apart.

What is interesting is that Peter includes this little additional phrase here: “denying the Master who bought them.” Over the course of history, the most popular and widely dispersed heresies have been what we call Christological heresies, or false teaching about Jesus Christ. Peter seeks to gird us up so that we might defend ourselves from these falsehoods, both by increasing in knowledge as we saw in chapter 1 and now by explicitly warning us of the intent of these false teachers.

The ultimate outcome then is that they bring swift destruction themselves. The King James translates this word destruction damnation, and I like that because it carries, I think, a stronger sense of the gravity of false teaching. False teachers will be sent to everlasting destruction in hell. That much is abundantly clear from Peter’s three uses of the word in rapid succession here in this text, twice in verse 1 and again in verse 3.

It’s worth our time at this point to pause and reflect for a moment on the sober reality of the importance of our doctrine. Do the things we believe and confess and teach find their source fully in God’s revelation? Have our convictions been weighed on the scale of Scripture? Have our positions been refined in the fire of divine truth? These things are of critical and eternal importance for Peter.

He now moves on in verse 2, having addressed in verse 1 the reality of false prophets and what they do to themselves, to the effect false teachers have on others.

Peter tells us that many will follow their sensuality. That’s interesting. He doesn’t say many will follow their false teaching. He doesn’t even say that many will follow their example.

This word sensuality is interesting in the New Testament. It’s not a super common word, and it’s always translated sensuality, and it’s almost always connected with sexual immorality. Some people have essentially equivocated the two and said they mean the same thing. However, Peter’s use of the term here connected with false teaching demonstrates that the meaning is broader than simply a synonym with sexual immorality.

I believe the sense of the word simply means extravagant, outlandish behavior bordering on the absurd. In keeping with the English translation of the word, sensuality is the pursuit of that which stimulates the senses, for the sake of the stimulation. This would place things like drugs and alcohol in this category, along with sexual immorality, and anything that might make someone “feel good.”

So what is the connection between false teaching and sensuality? It’s essentially this: the most basic reason that false teaching exists is to justify and validate immoral lifestyles. You can be certain that where false teaching is found, there also you will find rampant moral corruption. The reverse is true as well - when you find rampant moral corruption, you can be sure that false teaching is not far behind.

Peter makes clear here that the reason that false teachers gain popularity, at least in part, is because their false teaching allows people to abandon Biblical ethics. The logic goes something like this: if the Bible isn’t actually the full authority for teaching and doctrine, why should it be the authority for my life?

And so this false teaching, which leads to sensual and licentious behavior, results in the way of truth being maligned or blasphemed. In other words, false teachers give Christianity a bad name.

We see this all the time. Unbelievers look at the excesses and foolishness of such false teachers as Kenneth Copeland or Joel Osteen, and they laugh. They determine that whatever these guys are preaching or selling or both is a hoax, and their way is not the way of truth but the way of error. And so they disregard Christianity, or worse openly mock it because of the double-minded exploitation committed by theological frauds.

What is interesting here is that Peter offers no solutions or pastoral guidance. He simply declares that these things will come to pass. They will occur. False prophets will arise. The way of the truth will be maligned. We’ll get into some of the implications of that in a minute, but for right now I think it’s important to reflect on the fact that false teaching, licentious behavior, and mockery are all part and parcel of the Christian life. These attacks are leveled against the church by the world and the flesh and the devil, and what’s more, they’re a guaranteed part of life as a Christian. Jesus promises that these trials and persecutions would come. Peter’s counsel therefore is not flight, but fight. If the church is to withstand false teachers who attack her with false teaching and licentiousness, we must be disciplined in sound doctrine and virtue. We must have conviction in thought and conviction in deed.

Verse 3 introduces a third mark of false teachers. Not only do they introduce destructive heresies, and cultivate a following of licentious people, they also exploit the church with false words.

Now this pierces right to the heart of much of the false teaching we see today. Faith healers will frisk unsuspecting people of thousands of dollars with a promise that if they just have enough faith and give enough money to the ministry, they will be healed. Prosperity preachers declare to ignorant people that simply giving ten or a hundred or a thousand more dollars to the ministry will result in great financial blessing to them.

Peter tells us here that their greed leads to exploitation.

What are false teachers greedy for?

A few things.

Money. Money is the easy one. False teachers look at the innate brokenness of humanity, the sin that surrounds us and dwells within us, and sees it as an opportunity for a quick buck. Someone in the midst of trial, looking for hope, is an easy target for a shyster. It’s like approaching a starving child and telling them that you can give them as much food as they want. Being starving, and also a child, they say yes, absolutely, whatever you have to eat, I want. So you hand them a case of Mountain Dews and a tub of ice cream and a plate of nachos, and then afterward you tell them that they’re sinning if they don’t give you $100 to “bless the next person.”

Power. This is another one that’s obvious. False teachers have a greed for power. They love the influence they have over people. They crave it. You can see it in their eyes. I believe one of the most sinister false teachers in the world today is a guy by the name of Steven Furtick. He’s sinister because he’s a great orator and he’s a lot of fun to watch and listen to, and because he comes from a theological upbringing that is largely very sound. But the moment you get past the cool clothes and the quick wit, and you look into his eyes while he’s pontificating on-stage, and you can tell: he loves the power he has over these people. As they sit in their comfy, reclining theater seats, eating up every word that comes from his crooked mouth, he’s drinking up the power. Drinking up the influence. I would contrast someone like Furtick with Billy Graham. Billy Graham filled stadiums more regularly and much larger than any false teacher. Billy Graham had a seat at the table with presidents and world leaders. Yet when you look at him, when you listen to him, when you watch him preach, you can sense that he’s not there to gain power or influence. He’s there to proclaim Christ and Him crucified. Billy Graham is a great counter example of someone who had power and influence, yet was not greedy for it.

And so because of their greed, the false teachers exploit you with false words. This word exploit is interesting, it is actually used outside the Bible in business terminology, and has to do with making a transaction. What false teachers are doing therefore is, as Tom Schreiner says, hawking defective spiritual goods for their own financial advantage.

It would seem that, based on Peter’s argument so far, that the false teachers are specifically teaching against the second coming of Christ and the judgment to come. That plays out in the fact that these false teachers assume they can live however they want because Jesus isn’t coming back and there will be no final judgment.

Peter counters that with this double declaration in verse 3 that their judgment is not idle and their damnation is not asleep. The wording is strange here, but I believe Peter may be making a mocking pun on these false teachers. They were teaching that Christ was asleep and idle, and he would not judge them for their false teaching, for their sensuality, and for their greedy exploitation. Peter says quite the opposite: Christ’s judgement is very much awake, alive, and active, and it will come upon these false teachers.

How does Peter prove this? He goes to the Old Testament, and there demonstrates the following three truths:

False teachers are categorically identical to demons, the ancient world in the time of Noah, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Because of this categorical sameness, false teachers will be judged in the same way as these groups.

In the midst of that judgement, God will preserve the godly ones like He preserved Noah and Lot.

Let’s look closely at these Old Testament proofs.

First, God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them into the pit and delivered them to chains of darkness. This is the devil and his demons, those fallen angels who were cast out of heaven for their rebellion. Their punishment is that they have been chained in darkness, awaiting the day when they will be finally cast into hell for eternity.

Second, God did not spare the ancient world in the days of Noah. Someone read Genesis 6:1-8 for me.

Genesis 6:1–8 LSB

Now it happened, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were good in appearance; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then Yahweh said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever because he indeed is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then Yahweh saw that the evil of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And Yahweh regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And Yahweh said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh.

Third, God condemned Sodom and Gomorrah. Someone read Genesis 19:24-29

Genesis 19:24–29 LSB

And Yahweh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Yahweh out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. Then his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. Now Abraham arose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before Yahweh; and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the valley, and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. Thus it happened, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.

False teachers are, according to Peter, categorically identical to the objects of God’s wrath and judgment in these stories. Perhaps no two Old Testament narratives paint the picture of God's judgment in such stark terms as the flood and Sodom and Gomorrah, and certainly these are the two most well-known examples of God’s wrath and judgment in the Old Testament. It is sobering then, that Peter would include false teachers in these same categories, and even more sobering that he would ground his certainty in their future judgement in these ancient realities. What God did to the world in the time of Noah and what He did to Sodom and Gomorrah in the time of lot, He will do to false teachers in eternity.

So Peter’s word to his readers in his day, and his word to us is this: look back upon GOd’s works in history, and take heart, for these examples show us that God knows full well how to deal with evil, and will certainly bring about the punishment of false teachers. Even when they are not being punished presently, Peter’s assurance is that they will reap judgement upon themselves in eternity. He preserves them for judgment, and preserves judgment for them. Tom Schreiner explains why we should take heart as we look at these realities:

1, 2 Peter, Jude 2. The Certain Judgment of the Ungodly and the Preservation of the Godly (2:4–10a)

The angels, the flood generation, and Sodom and Gomorrah were not judged immediately. They pursued their sin for some time before the fateful day of judgment. Hence, Peter’s readers were not to be discouraged or wonder if God is faithful simply because the false teachers were prospering. God was granting them time to repent before the end arrives (3:9). For those who do not repent, the eschatological judgment is certain.

The Rescue of the Godly