Truth or Consequences

Truth or Consequences

Q: How do you stop a 4,000lbs car?

A: One well-placed nail in your driveway.

Just as it takes only one nail to stop a car, one well-placed heresy could stop a church. The Apostle Peter wrote his second letter to remind the believers to grow in their faith and knowledge of God so that they could be more aware of wrong teaching that was finding its way into the fellowship. The prophets and Jesus and the apostles warned that the reality of wrong doctrine has always been and will always be an issue for the Church.

2 Peter Chapter 2 communicates that true faith identifies false teaching. Throughout chapter 2 (vs. 1-3; 10-16, 17-19) Peter gives a clear description of what false teachers teach as well as how they behave. Peter sounds the alarm in that there will be a day of judgment for those who lead people astray. Whether it is wrong teaching about the authority of the Bible, the sinfulness of man and our need for a Savior, the death and resurrection of Christ and His deity, those who follow Christ and have faith in Him must be true to the Word and what God has said in every arena of life.

Peter sheds light and hope on a seemingly dire situation. Just as God protected Noah in a vile world and rescued Lot in a filthy city, God will sustain, protect and rescue those He has redeemed. (2 Peter 3:4-9) True faith is confident of God’s rescue.

God who did not spare the angels who sided with Satan or evil world in which Noah lived and did not gloss over the rampant sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. God will also judge those who deny Him. God knows how to rescue the godly. But, we must also remember that He is also holding the unrighteous for the Day of Judgment (2:9).

Faith that is in line with the Word of God is a true faith warns of wrath and the sober reality of a day of accountability.

How about you? Will you:

Learn the primary doctrines of the faith by studying Emmanuel’s Statement of Faith?

Be encouraged and read of God’s loving rescue of Noah (Genesis 6-9)

Ask yourself, “Will be a day of judgment and how do I prepare?”

9 for they themselves report what kind of reception we had from you: how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead —Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. 1 Thessalonians 1:9–10 (HCSB) 

Turn to God, flee from your idols, and put your hope in Christ.