2 PETER 2


1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

There is therefore a complete answer to those who ask how we are to distinguish between the false prophets and the true. We know them because all their words have come to pass in the dispersion and affliction of Israel, and in the evolution of Gentile power in the earth (Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome and her subdivisions).

We know them in another way which would be conclusive if there were no other. The Scriptures of the prophets that have been preserved are those only of the true, although the nation that preserved them was their destroyers. There is no trace of the false prophets preserved except in the condemnations of them that occur in the true. And these Scriptures so preserved have received the direct attestation of the resurrected Jesus as the word of the living God.

The Christadelphian, June 1898



4 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 duration of the earth's revolutions round the sun previous to the work of the first day is not revealed; but the evidences produced by the strata of our globe show that the period was long continued. There are indeed hints, casually dropped in the Scriptures, which would seem to indicate, that our planet was inhabited by a race of beings anterior to the formation of man.

The apostle Peter, speaking of the "false teachers" that would arise among Christians "by reason of whom the way of truth would be evil spoken of," illustrates the certainty of their "damnation" by citing three cases in point; namely, that of certain angels; that of the antediluvian world; and that of Sodom and Gomorrha. Now the earth, we know, was the place of judgment to the contemporaries of Noah and Lot, and seeing that these three are warnings to inhabitants of earth, it is probable, that they are all related to things pertaining to our globe in the order of their enumeration -- first, judgment upon its pre-Adameral inhabitants; secondly, upon the antediluvian world, which succeeded them; and thirdly, upon Sodom after the flood.

Peter says, that "the Angels," or pre-Adameral inhabitants of the Earth, "sinned;" and Jude, in speaking of the same subject, reveals to us the nature of their transgression. He says, verse 6, "the angels maintained not their original state, but forsook their own habitation." From which it would appear, that they had the ability to leave their dwelling if they pleased; secondly, that they were sometimes employed as messengers to other parts of the universe; this their name (aggeloV, aggelos, one sent) implies: thirdly, that they were forbidden to leave their habitation without special command to do so; and fourthly, that they violated this injunction and left it.

Having transgressed the divine law, God would not forgive them; "but casting them down," or driving them back, "He committed them to everlasting chains of intense darkness to be reserved for judgment" (2 Peter 2:4). Hence, it is clear, when they were driven back to their habitation, some further catastrophy befell them by which their committal to darkness was effected. This probably consisted in the total wreck of their abode, and their entire submergence, with all the mammoths of their estate, under the waters of an overwhelming flood, reduced to this extremity, the earth became "without form and empty; and darkness overspread the deep waters" (Genesis 1:1).

Its mountains, hills, valleys, plains, seas, rivers, and fountains of waters, which gave diversity of "form" to the surface of our globe, all disappeared; and it became "void," or empty, no living creatures, angels, quadrupeds, birds, or fishes, being found any more upon it.

Fragments, however, of the wreck of this pre-Adameral world have been brought to light by geological research, to the records of which we refer the reader, for a detailed account of its discoveries, with this remark, that its organic remains, coal fields, and strata, belong to the ages before the formation of man, rather than to the era of the creation, or the Noachic flood. This view of the matter will remove a host of difficulties, which have hitherto disturbed the harmony between the conclusions of geologists and the Mosaic account of the physical constitution of our globe.

Elpis Israel 1.2.



5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

Noah's efforts, as a preacher of righteousness, though unsuccessful as regards others, were continuous and faithful to the end, and secured for him, as Paul says,

"this testimony, that he pleased God."

Along with that certainty of failure, therefore, came the resolution to undertake the effort, as a matter of duty to God, without any reference to consequence at all.

My days and my ways Ch 10



How many converts

"Well, did'nt Noah preach a hundred and twenty years, and not make a convert in all that time?"

This incident well illustrates the notion prevalent among sectaries, who imagine that "no good" is done unless men, women, or children are dipped in water, or brought to join the church," as the result of "a big meeting!"

Such a consequence of preaching is styled "the progress of the gospel," which is supposed to have made astonishing advance if a few tens, under the excitement of the hour, can be persuaded that they have "got religion," or religion has got them, which is probably the same thing in the vocabulary of Ashdod!

These fervid specimens of "piety" labour to subdue the moral wilderness upon a principle of instantaneity, that is, of hewing down the trees, grubbing up the land, burning the logs, sowing, reaping, and harvesting all at once.

A farmer who would piously or seriously expect to accomplish this would be esteemed a fool; yet such is the expectation of those who affect to judge of the good we do by the results that immediately follow.

They exercise their reason so little upon spiritual things that they do not discern that there must be in the cultivation and improvement of the human mind as well as in that of the soil, "a time for all things;" a time to plough, a time to sow, a time to grow, and a time to reap what is sown.

Society must be prepared for the casting in among them of the incorruptible seed or word of the kingdom. It is the nature of this seed to vegetate to perfection only in honest and good hearts; and even when it falls into these, it must have time to grow that the increase may be of God.

A congregation of a thousand may not contain an honest and good heart in all the multitude; yet it may contain many way side, stony, and thorny-hearted hearers. You might sow the word of the kingdom among such as these forever, and no good could by possibility result: but sow tares, and, the soil being well adapted to their growth, they would in a night spring up luxuriantly.

The production of such a crop would be styled "doing good," the progress of the gospel and so forth, by the tare sowers themselves; while they could only be regarded as the work of an enemy by those who understand the truth.

This is the difference between our doings and the deeds of our opponents. We sow the word of the kingdom in declaring the testimony of God, and reasoning with the people concerning it.

Having done this, we exhort them to search the prophets and apostles to see if the things presented be not as we have declared them. If we can get them to do this in earnest, we have no anxiety for the result. The increase will come, in some cases sooner, in others, later; and when it comes it will be God's increase, and not ours.

The process, we grant, is slow and undazzling; but it is sure, and the fruit is worth gathering when matured.

Conviction does not usually blaze upon the human mind like a flash of lightning; it steals upon us, as it were, like a thief in the night. By keeping the mind upon the truth, it is at length taken captive by it.

You cannot take man's intellect and heart by storm. It is hardened by the tempest, but is melted by the genial influences of the truth.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Aug 1851



6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:

The duration of the earth's revolutions round the sun previous to the work of the first day is not revealed; but the evidences produced by the strata of our globe show that the period was long continued. There are indeed hints, casually dropped in the Scriptures, which would seem to indicate, that our planet was inhabited by a race of beings anterior to the formation of man.

The apostle Peter, speaking of the "false teachers" that would arise among Christians "by reason of whom the way of truth would be evil spoken of," illustrates the certainty of their "damnation" by citing three cases in point; namely, that of certain angels; that of the antediluvian world; and that of Sodom and Gomorrha. Now the earth, we know, was the place of judgment to the contemporaries of Noah and Lot, and seeing that these three are warnings to inhabitants of earth, it is probable, that they are all related to things pertaining to our globe in the order of their enumeration -- first, judgment upon its pre-Adameral inhabitants; secondly, upon the antediluvian world, which succeeded them; and thirdly, upon Sodom after the flood.

Peter says, that "the Angels," or pre-Adameral inhabitants of the Earth, "sinned;" and Jude, in speaking of the same subject, reveals to us the nature of their transgression. He says, verse 6, "the angels maintained not their original state, but forsook their own habitation." From which it would appear, that they had the ability to leave their dwelling if they pleased; secondly, that they were sometimes employed as messengers to other parts of the universe; this their name (aggeloV, aggelos, one sent) implies: thirdly, that they were forbidden to leave their habitation without special command to do so; and fourthly, that they violated this injunction and left it.

Having transgressed the divine law, God would not forgive them; "but casting them down," or driving them back, "He committed them to everlasting chains of intense darkness to be reserved for judgment" (2 Peter 2:4). Hence, it is clear, when they were driven back to their habitation, some further catastrophy befel them by which their committal to darkness was effected. This probably consisted in the total wreck of their abode, and their entire submergence, with all the mammoths of their estate, under the waters of an overwhelming flood, reduced to this extremity, the earth became "without form and empty; and darkness overspread the deep waters" (Genesis 1:1).

Its mountains, hills, valleys, plains, seas, rivers, and fountains of waters, which gave diversity of "form" to the surface of our globe, all disappeared; and it became "void," or empty, no living creatures, angels, quadrupeds, birds, or fishes, being found any more upon it.

Fragments, however, of the wreck of this pre-Adameral world have been brought to light by geological research, to the records of which we refer the reader, for a detailed account of its discoveries, with this remark, that its organic remains, coal fields, and strata, belong to the ages before the formation of man, rather than to the era of the creation, or the Noachic flood. This view of the matter will remove a host of difficulties, which have hitherto disturbed the harmony between the conclusions of geologists and the Mosaic account of the physical constitution of our globe.

Elpis Israel 1.2.



21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

It would be better for individuals not to hear the gospel, than to hear, believe, and then refuse or neglect to obey it, or be baptized.

If a man is determined on returning to the world the way is clear, God will not hinder him. God is ever willing to extend His help to the godly inclined, but not to the froward.


"If any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him" (Heb. 10:38).

 

Backsliders prove themselves unworthy of divine favour. A man's estimate of the riches in store must be low indeed for him to be willing to sacrifice them for present gratification. It is not strange that Christ should say,

 

"No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62).

 

Are any of us wavering as to whether we shall go on or fall back? If so, let us soberly ask ourselves—Supposing we do turn back, shall we escape the sorrows, vexations, and troubles of present existence—shall we avoid death?


Let us dally not, but return to our first love. Life is uncertain; the judgment is sure.

 

"We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ" (Rom. 14:10).

 

What will our fleeting, delusive pleasures avail us then? While the opportunity offers let us weigh the advantages arising from fidelity to God—


"fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore."

 

If our way seems rough, let us recall the bitter work of Christ for us. If we seek God's help and strive to be faithful, we shall never fail.