2nd Peter 3:15-16, “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”
I don't just expose false prophets and feel content doing so. My heart aches,
sincerely aches, feeling sadness for the false teachers whom I expose, knowing
what they will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire, having been deceived.
I was working on my website tonight. I stopped to prepare something to eat. I thanked the Lord for the ministry which He has entrusted to me, and then (as I often do), I rejoiced that I am labouring “lawfully.” 2nd Timothy 2:5, “And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.” This Bible verse simply means that God has rules for serving Him, and those rules are THE WORD OF GOD. The biggest rule is that you have to preach the Gospel correctly, or else all is in vain, because you're not even saved. Most religious leaders and workers are NOT striving lawfully according to the Scriptures. They add human effort to the Gospel and corrupt the plan of salvation.
As I pondered this thought, I felt sad because so many people don't understand the Bible, and they are damning themselves, as our text passage of Scripture warns. Regarding the Holy Spirit inspired writings of Paul, we read in 2nd Peter 3:15-16, “As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” The apostle Peter readily admitted that he had a hard time understanding Paul's writings.
Please note that Peter didn't call for a “new” translation of the Bible that was “EASIER” to understand; but rather, Peter accepted the reality that he needed to be very careful not to misinterpret the Word of God, but study it. Peter said that those men who are “unlearned and unstable wrest” (i.e., wrestle, twist, to make it fit their own thinking) the Scriptures, to their own damnation.
I immediately thought about Dan Corner at EvangelisticOutreach.org, who errantly teaches works salvation. Mr. Corner states:
“Persist in doing good so God will give you eternal life (Rom. 2:7).”
I think about Dan Corner from time-to-time, and my heart breaks, because he is woefully ignorant of the Scriptures. Mr. Corner is not saved. I say that with kindness and sadness. The hardest thing in the world is to convince a man that he has been wrong all along. Our human pride makes it virtually impossible to admit that we were WRONG! Once a person starts down a wrong path, it is very difficult to convince them otherwise. It was famous author Mark Twain who said, “It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.”
Dan Corner misunderstands Romans chapter two. Roman 2:7 and 13, “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life ...For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Mr. Corner takes this passage out of context, failing to cross-reference Scripture-with-Scripture. Kindly, if he simply read Romans 3:20, he would see plainly that “works” (i.e., doers of the law) have no part in salvation. Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” As you read earlier in the quote I shared with you from Mr. Corner's website, he has a false Calvinistic view of salvation, requiring people to keep the law to be saved. My friend, we are not saved by good works, so how could we ever be lost by bad works? Salvation has NOTHING to do with works.
I am continually amazed at the trickery which Satan employs to deceive men. The most effective form of deception is the “HALF-TRUTH,” because the half of the deception that is true can be defended with incontestable logic. We see this type of deception often by false prophets (such as Seventh-day Adventists) who claim that eternal life is a “free gift,” but it requires changing your behavior to obtain it. This is exactly what proponents of the Lordship Salvation heresy also teach. The Devil knows that the best place to hide a LIE is between two TRUTHS. Jehovah's Witnesses also utilize this double-speak, forked-tongue, type of religious dogma.
Revelation 20:2 identifies Satan as “the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil.” The Devil came to Eve in the form of a serpent to trick her. Satan told Eve a HALF-TRUTH in the Garden of Eden. It was true that when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit that they would become “as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5); but the lie was that “Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). Adam and Eve died spiritually the moment they sinned, which brought physical death later on; and for those who reject the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the second death in the Lake of Fire for all eternity (Revelation 20:6). Eve sincerely thought that she would become omnipotent like God, equal in every way, which was the very sin of Lucifer in Heaven before he was ousted and cast down to earth. As Eve learned, and every person who has ever been deceived by sin, the Devil is a big liar!
A critically important rule, the most important rule in fact, is to NEVER interpret a particular passage of Scripture without comparing it with the whole of Scripture. When a suggested interpretation is in agreement with all the other Scriptures in the Bible, then you have found the correct interpretation. This is the only way to accurately interpret the Word of God.
I feel sorry for Dan Corner, because he is self-deceived. On his website he sells Dr. John MacArthur's books. Mr. MacArthur is one of the worst false prophets in the world—who denies that Jesus' blood is on the Mercy Seat in Heaven, teaches that there's no such thing as a childhood conversion, teaches Jesus' only died for Christians, and teaches that it is difficult to be saved because you must follow Christ in discipleship to be saved.
The main truth that I wanted to get across in this article is that the apostle Peter did NOT suggest writing an easier to comprehend Bible version. No, rather, when Peter didn't understand what he read (and he clearly had a hard time understanding some of Paul's writings), he left it alone. Peter knew that he needed to buckle down and study the Word of God further. Peter may not have known exactly what Paul was saying; but he was certain WHAT PAUL DID NOT WRITE!!!
Peter said that Paul wrote “WITH THE WISDOM GIVEN UNTO HIM,” which refers to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. God didn't give His words to Paul, and then Paul penned them in his own personal style. No, God created the man to fit His Word. Paul's mind, heart and hand were moved by the Holy Spirit of God. Call it “mechanical dictation” if you want, but God gave us word-for-word exactly what He meant for us to have. 2nd Peter 3:15-16, “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”
Today's plethora of Bible-butchers, who flippantly change the Words of God to meet U.S. copyright law requirements to sell their new Bible PERversion, are woefully ignorant and unlearned. All of the new Bibles completely change the plan of salvation. I thank God for tried and proven King James Bible, which has been preserved since 1611 through the minefield of intellectual fraud over the past 150 years. Unholy hands have contaminated the Word of God. The churches are confused and have lost their authority, which is the omnipotent Word of God.
We discover the Living Word (Jesus Christ) through the Written Word; so if Satan has corrupted the Written Word, then how can people have a proper relationship with the Living Word? That's why Satan has crept into theological institutions to corrupt the Words of God, to divide and conquer the churches. This was the diabolical plot of occultists like Alice Bailey from the very beginning.
So let us all learn from the apostle Peter's wisdom not to tamper with the Words of God. Peter admitted that he had difficulty understanding certain passages which the Lord had given through the Apostle Paul. It's OK to admit that we don't know everything. Some people are so proud that they feel they must always give an answer, so they speculate with false confidence concerning things which they don't understand at all. Peter said in the Greek, “This ole boy Paul is teaching stuff that's way over my head!” But Peter knew that the things he heard some men teaching certainly wasn't accurate, because their teachings contradicted the rest of the Bible. Peter realized that he still had much Bible study to do, and so do we if we're to correctly interpret the Scriptures.
The Lord never commanded us to “read” the Bible, but He did command us to “SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES” (John 5:39). We learn in Psalms 1:2 that David “MEDITATED” in God's Word day and night. 2nd Timothy 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” John 15:7, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Certainly, we must first “read” the Bible to abide, study or meditate therein. 1st Timothy 4:13, “Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.” Notice the emphasis on DOCTRINE. Today's churches are out of whack, giving people entertainment (which is what they want), instead of the doctrine that they desperately need.
If one of Christ's very apostles durst not rewrite the Bible to satisfy his own selfish desires, or cater to the laziness of an untoward generation that won't study, or fill the wallets of greedy people with the never-ending flood of “new” and “better” Bible versions, then who are we to do so? I say, leave the Bible alone! That's what Peter did! If the Bible was hard for Peter to grasp at first, then it will also be hard for you and me to grasp 2,000 years later. Thankfully, we have wonderful Bible commentaries available online, which are beautiful; but BEWARE, many of them are corrupted, authored by Calvinists and Protestants who believed in infant baptism, sacraments and that Christ's blood never made it to the heavenly Mercy Seat.
LEAVE THE BIBLE ALONE! Peter had enough spiritual discernment not to mess with the Word of God, and we would be wise to take heed and follow Peter's example. Thank God for the trustworthy King James Bible!!!
