Hello and welcome
to Books of the Book.
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My name is Deyvy Rodriguez and
I'm very happy that you're with
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us to join us in this
Bible study. Dr. Shepherd,
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Tom Shepherd, is with us
from Andrews University. He's a
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Professor of New Testament
interpretation and he is here
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with us to help us study
on the books of 1 and 2 Peter.
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Right now we are on the first
chapter of the book of 2 Peter
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again and we're starting off
in verse 16. Dr. Shepherd, why
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does Peter begin with a
disclaimer in this verse?
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This verse, in verse 16, he says
"For we did not follow cleverly
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devised myths when we made known
to you the power and coming of
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our Lord Jesus Christ, but
we were eye witnesses of his
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majesty. " It's always
interesting when somebody starts
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with a disclaimer. If you came
home and you said, You know I
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wasn't driving fast down main
street this evening. Everybody
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knows there's some kind of story
that you have to tell. Because
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maybe you met somebody with
a red light on his car and he
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thought that you were driving
fast down main street and you
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might even have a little
souvenir to show for that.
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So the disclaimer points to
something behind it, some story
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behind it. So when Peter says
we weren't following cunningly
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devised myths, well then
obviously there was somebody who
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said they were following these
cunningly devised myths and
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that's exactly what our whole
passage is about and the whole
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book is about because Peter
is fighting with false teachers.
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What are these false teachers
doing? They're trying to
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undermine the authority of
the apostles. And how do they do
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that? They say, Aw these people
you know, they are just making
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things up. They made up
these stories and came to these
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conclusions. You
can't trust those people.
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They're untrustworthy. So he
has to defend his apostleship.
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He has to defend his
ability to teach the people.
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So he's really saying, Hey we're
not the ones listening to these
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cunning tales or stories. The
others are the ones that have
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come up with that.
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Yeah. I suppose that you could
say that different people are
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arguing in terms of who's
the false one here and the false
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teachers that Peter has
pinpointed in these chapters are
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saying that he's the
false prophet, that he's the one
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that you shouldn't trust.
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What topic is Peter talking
about here in verse 16. He says
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and the power and coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, it
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seems he's talking about the
second coming because we know
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that Jesus is
coming in power and glory.
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Yeah, you just read this and
you'd think automatically that
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he was talking about the second
coming. We know that the second
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coming is a topic that he will
delve into in Chapter 3 and so
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we get that feeling. But
then he says, But we were eye
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witnesses of his majesty. So
it seems like it can't be the
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second coming that he's talking
about because of course we
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haven't been eye witnesses of
Jesus' second coming yet. So we
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keep reading and we read
verse 17. We're actually reading
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2 Peter 1 verses 16-21 as our
topic or passage for this time.
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In verse 17 he says, For when
he received honor and glory from
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God the Father and the voice was
born to him by the majestic Lord
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This is my beloved Son with whom
I am well pleased. Verse 18, We
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ourselves heard this very voice
born from heaven for we were
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with him on the holy mountain.
So what does that make you think
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of? The transfiguration?
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Yes. Because
Peter was as a witness
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he saw this
transfiguration of Jesus.
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Yeah. This is before Jesus goes
to Jerusalem and he takes three
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of his disciples, Peter, James
and John, and they go up on a
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mountain alone. The other nine
are left down below and they go
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up on the mountain. This is
reported in Matthew, Mark and
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Luke. If you're interested,
sometime you can look. We don't
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have time to go into all this.
We have so many things to cover
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in this particular presentation
today. But he goes to Matthew 16
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is where it's found, Mark
chapter 9 and Luke chapter 9.
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All three of these have the
story of Jesus going up on the
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mountain. He mentions in each
of these presentations in the
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Gospels three are mentioned in
each: There's someone standing
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there seeing this and people
experiencing it. Jesus says,
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there are some standing
here, before he goes up on the
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mountain he says this there,
some standing here. He also says
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They won't taste death, some
standing here who will not taste
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death till they see the kingdom
of God coming in power or coming
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in glory. Okay. So the three
things that are there: some are
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standing here, they won't taste
death until they see the kingdom
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of God. Now each of the gospels
adds particular little extra
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information. Matthew says the
Son of Man, Marks refers to the
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coming in power and Luke simply
says the kingdom of God. So it's
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interesting that he says
till they see the kingdom of God
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and one of them says kingdom of
God coming in power. That makes
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you think of his second coming.
But the very next story that is
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referred to is
the transfiguration.
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Right. When we look at all of
this and we look at what Peter
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says, the way best to
explain all this is that the
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transfiguration in some way
prefigures the second coming of
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Jesus. The transfiguration in
some way prefigures the second
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coming of Jesus. So Peter is
stressing the veracity of his
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past experience of the
transfiguration to affirm trust
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in what he will say about the
future second coming of Jesus.
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So he talks about the past; we
were eye witnesses there, and he
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emphasizes that he was eye
witness and there are two things
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that they tend to focus
on, the visual aspects of the
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transfiguration and the auditory
aspects of the transfiguration,
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what they saw
and what they heard.
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And they cannot deny
that because they saw it.
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Yeah. The personal experience
when you have an experience and
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you go someplace and you say,
And I was there and I saw it
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myself. I heard with my own ears
what he said. That becomes a
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very powerful testimony. So
Peter is countering the attacks
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of these false teachers who
are going to attack the second
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coming of Jesus and what does he
use to do so? He uses this whole
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presentation about the
transfiguration as an eye
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witness account of that
experience supporting his
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apostleship. Okay.
Verse 17 says, For he
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received from God the Father
honor and glory when such a
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voice came to him from the
Excellent Glory, This is my
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beloved Son in
whom I am well pleased.
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What does this verse present?
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Well, this is that presentation
of the transfiguration of Jesus
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and we've said it before that
there is something going on here
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that we would call a theophany,
the appearance of God, when God
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appears and it has pretty much
those characteristics that we've
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already referred to
before. I'll mention them again.
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Five characteristics of a
theophany: The divine glory
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appears, of course on
the mountain Jesus is in this
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wonderful glory. Human fear, and
of course that's very obvious
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too; they're shaking in their
boots and they all kneel down
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kind of. They're all worried
like this is the end of their
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lived. The command, Don't
be afraid; interestingly that
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doesn't show up in this
story so much, don't be afraid.
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A revelation from God. Of course
here's the revelation where it
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said, This is my beloved Son in
whom I am well pleased, listen
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to him. And then the human
response to the revelation and
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the response to the revelation,
the disciples are wondering
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about it. They start
asking Jesus questions about it.
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What does this mean? And
he gives them more instruction
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about how they're supposed to
keep quiet about that. But that
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is a typical theophany, a
typical revelation of God and
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confirming to them
that Jesus is the Messiah.
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Verse 19: And so we have the
prophetic word confirmed which
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you do well to heed as a light
that shines in a dark place
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until the day dawns and
the morning star rises in your
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hearts. In this verse is the
prophetic word or the word of
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prophecy more
sure or made more sure?
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Yeah. Now if you look at
this passage in the King James
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Version it'll say, And we have
the more sure word of prophecy.
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And my version, which is the New
King James, says the prophetic
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word confirmed.
Yeah. Here's the English
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Standard Version which
interestingly goes with the King
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James. And we have something
more sure, the prophetic word
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to which you will do well to pay
attention as to a lamp shining
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in a dark place until the
day dawns and the morning star
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rises in your heart. So we have
two different ways that this has
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been translated by the different
people. Is it the more sure word
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of prophecy, that is, something
more sure than the personal
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experience of the
transfiguration or
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is it that the transfiguration
now makes the prophetic word
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more sure; we have the prophetic
word confirmed, okay, is the way
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the New King James puts it.
This is actually an interesting
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question of Greek translation
and it's a little bit
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complicated. It has to do
with the use of an adjective.
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The adjective is more sure.
There are two different ways you
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can use adjectives in Greek and
it's a little complicated with
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the word and where's the word
the and where does the adjective
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stand and all kinds of things
like that but if anybody's
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interested in looking into this
in more detail it has to do with
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what's called the predicate
position or the attributive
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position of the adjective and
the attributive position of the
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adjective you would translate
as the more sure word. Okay.
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If it's in the predicate
position you would have it
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translated as the prophetic word
made more sure. Well it's quite
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clear actually in Greek
that this adjective is in the
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predicate position. So your
translation in the King James
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there, the New King James, it
says we have the prophetic word
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confirmed or we have the
prophetic word made more sure
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as some translations may
put it. That's probably the more
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accurate way to translate this.
Well that immediately gets some
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people concerned because
they say, Wait a minute. Are you
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saying then that the personal
testimony of the personal
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experience is more important
that the scriptures? Won't that
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take you down a very bad road
if you think in those kind of
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ways that the prophetic word
is not as good as the personal
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testimony or the personal
experience. Well the answer
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I give to that is: To start off
with, how does Peter describe
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the prophecies? How does
he describe the word of God.
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He says we have the prophetic
word made more sure. Now think
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about that adjective as one word
in Greek, but more sure. What
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does that mean, more sure?
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It almost implies that at one
point it wasn't so sure but now
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it's more. It was
sure before, but now it's
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more sure. It's better.
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Better, yeah. It's made better
than it was, okay. So Peter
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is not saying that the prophetic
word is unreliable; it's the
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sure word of prophecy. But
there's something that makes
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that word of prophecy more sure
for my personal life and that's
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when I have a personal
experience of that word of
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prophecy. Peter went
through the experience of the
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transfiguration and that
confirmed, as your translation
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says, that confirmed to him what
the scriptures had already said
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long ago. But when he read it,
it didn't have the same power,
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but when he went through the
personal experience suddenly it
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came alive and had much greater
meaning to him. As I said before
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on one of these programs about
the experience my wife and I
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went through in 1997 and we
found that the promises of the
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Bible were a wonderful support
to us in that time of trouble.
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Well promises start to make more
meaning to you when you find
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them sure and true because you
went through an experience like
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that. Well, Dr.
Shepherd, indeed I
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believe also that it is my
personal experience with the
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Lord Jesus Christ that will make
the scriptures more powerful
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to me. We'll continue with
the study of 2 Peter after this
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short break.
00:13:59.34\00:14:00.71