And we are back
with Books of the Book
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Dr. Tom Shepherd is with
us. He is helping us with the
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the interpretation of 2 Peter.
Dr. Shepherd, verse 19, and we
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are in chapter 1 mentions the
day star or morning star here.
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Why don't we
just read that verse.
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And so we have the prophetic
word confirmed which you do well
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to heed as a light that shines
in a dark place until the day
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dawns and the morning
star rises in your hearts.
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Okay. Now if you notice,
first of all he talks about the
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scriptures being a lamp shining
in a dark place. We said that
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the scriptures were confirmed,
the scriptures are sure and he
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goes on to express that by
saying it's like a light, you
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know. When I go out on my
morning walk it's usually dark
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and I take with me a
little flashing light, I wear a
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reflective vest, I have a
flashlight and I turn that on.
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It's a shining light, a bright
shining light, that helps me to
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be able to see my way. The
scriptures are exactly like
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that. The Old Testament tells us
they are a lamp to our feet, a
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light to our path. So what is
this day star rising? Well the
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term day star or morning star
was the term that is used to
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refer to the planet Venus. The
planet Venus is always close to
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either the sunrise or the
sunset, so when you see it in
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the morning sky you know that
the day is about to dawn, is
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about to rise, the sun is about
to come up. And so the second
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coming of Jesus, the
transfiguration points forward
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almost like the planet Venus,
points forward to the coming of
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Christ which is the rising of
the sun. You know, that's when
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everything will be complete and
closed off and we'll have the
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return of our gracious Lord. But
the day star is said to rise in
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your heart. And so some people
say it's just like, you know,
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Jesus is coming in your heart.
Well it is in your heart in the
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sense that that belief in
the second coming of Jesus must
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reside in our hearts for us to
be ready to come when he comes.
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So in a sense it's both. It's
both in our hearts but it's the
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actual event that is coming. If
it's not in our hearts when he
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comes back we'll be
deeply disappointed.
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And up until verse 19 things
seem to be complete but Peter
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doesn't stop there. He adds an
additional two verses. Of course
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we know that he didn't have
the chapters but there are two
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verses remaining in
chapter 1. Why does he do that?
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Well let's read the verses
and then we'll kind of get a
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perspective on
exactly what was involved.
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Knowing this first, that no
prophecy of scripture is of any
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private interpretation for
prophecy never came by the will
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of man, but holy men of God
spoke as they were moved by the
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Holy Spirit. Okay, very good.
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He includes this here because
he's building a wall against the
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false teachers. The false
teachers have been attacking him
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They have been attacking the
belief in the second coming and
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they've probably been
misinterpreting the scriptures,
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twisting them to fit their
own perspectives you see. And so
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Peter has to walk his members
back through the real truths
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about the Bible so they won't be
misled by these false teachers.
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So he adds these two last
verses of chapter 1 in order to
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do that to talk about a
secure understanding of the holy
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scriptures that we
have in the Bible before us.
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So interpretation of the
prophecies is confirming that it
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doesn't come from the will of
man but from God. Now speaking
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of interpretation, you're
a professor of New Testament
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interpretation and what does
Peter mean by interpretation?
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Yeah. Now his interpretation,
the meaning of the word for what
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he uses here is probably a
little different from, and I'll
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explain why, from the meaning of
the title that I have, Professor
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of New Testament Interpretation.
First of all, Peter is likely
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saying that this word
interpretation is referring to
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something that the prophets
wrote, all right, not just
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taking their writings and
explaining their writings.
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I'm a professor of New Testament
interpretation and what I help
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do is exactly what we're doing
in the program. It's to explain
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the scriptures. The fancy term
for that is exegesis, to bring
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out the meaning that's in the
text. What Peter uses this term
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interpretation to refer to
is probably in the ancient text
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like in the book of Daniel.
Daniel will have a vision, he
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has a dream or he has a vision
and then an angel comes and the
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angel explains the vision to
him. You'll see this in things
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like Daniel chapter 7, Daniel
chapter 8, Daniel chapter 9.
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The angel will come and say
understand what the vision means
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okay. What Peter is referring to
here is that the prophet doesn't
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make these things up himself,
the interpretation of the dream,
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the angel comes and shows
him all right. It's not private
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interpretation, it's not just
the prophet himself saying, Oh
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I had this dream and here's what
it means. I'll show you what it
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means. Rather it is God both
showing the dream, the vision,
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and also explaining the vision.
So as I said, he's building a
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barrier against the false
teachers. The false teachers
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maybe want to take the vision
and explain it with their own
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interpretation, their own way of
saying it. And he says, Now wait
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He says there is the dream or
the vision that God gave him and
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there's the interpretation. God
gave that too; gave it through
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the angel. So if
it's not the prophets own
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interpretive stamp on prophecy
then whose stamp of authority
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is it? Aw! And
that is what brings us
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to verses 20 and 21. And we have
to look a these carefully. If we
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read these again, it says,
Knowing this first of all that
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no prophecy of scripture
comes from someone's own
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interpretation for no prophecy
was ever produced by the will
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of man, but men spoke from God
as they were carried along by
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the Holy Spirit. Now we have
a graphic here that illustrates
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with maybe a little more literal
kind of translation what verse
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20 and 21 look like and we'll
see here that the structure of
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the end of verse 20 and the
beginning of verse 21, you'll
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notice we're going to have a
chiastic structure. We have to
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put it onto two slides to put
it together, but you'll notice
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there's an A because every
prophecy of scripture and then
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we have the word is not, the not
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emphasized, is not of it's own
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interpretation, that's the B
part, then we go onto the second
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part for NOT by the human will
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was the prophecy carried
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formerly. So the structure
of the passage in a chiastic
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structure illustrates for us the
idea that it's not human nature
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that brings this. At the center
of this negation of human input
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into the expression of
interpretation of scripture
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is at the heart of this chiastic
structure, this ABBA structure.
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So the human action of the
prophet is not, is not, at the
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heart of explaining the
visions that God has given.
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So the prophets were inspired by
the Holy Spirit, is that right?
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How did the Holy Spirit
inspire the prophets anyway?
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You know this is a wonderful
passage. It's one of the key
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passages that theologians turn
to explain how the Bible was
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given and how God inspired
the prophets. Now the word
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inspiration, inspiration
(breathes in) exhalation
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(breathes out). Inspiration
is breathing in and the Apostle
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Paul tells us that all scripture
is inspired, it is God-breathed.
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It's like God (blows) blows into
the prophet. Now how does this
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work? We have another visual
that helps us to recognize how
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the structure of verse 21 goes.
It says, For it's not by human
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will, we saw that before, was
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the prophecy carried, actually
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the word in Greek is carried,
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pharo, the prophecy carried
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formerly, but by the Holy Spirit
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carried, people spoke from God.
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Somebody says that is a
very strange translation,
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Dr. Shepherd. Yes. We've made it
kind of literal here so you can
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see the structures. It's not
chiastic this time, it's ABAB.
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Now look at the A part. The
A part is not by human will and
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the other A part is but by the
Holy Spirit. And the B part is
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prophecy is carried formerly
and the B part below is carried,
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people were carried, they spoke
from God. Okay now we kind of
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have to unpack this a little
bit so that we can understand
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exactly what we're
trying to say by this.
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The Holy Spirit carrying
the people. My version says that
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they were moved by the Holy
Spirit. How were they carried or
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moved? How were
they carried or how
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were they moved? And why does he
use the word carry. Actually it
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is very interesting. If you go
through the whole passage we've
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been studying, verses 16-21, he
uses this word carry four times,
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and if you don't read Greek you
could miss it because it gets
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translated different ways
sometimes. We study Greek's
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intimacy with the word of God
like we said before. So in verse
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17 we have this word. It says,
For when he received glory and
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honor from God when such a
voice was CARRIED to him by
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the Excellent Glory, This is
my beloved son in whom I am well
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pleased. The voice was carried,
the voice was brought, okay, the
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voice came. In verse 18 it says,
We heard this voice CARRIED from
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heaven when we were with him
in the holy mountain. All right.
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Two things stand out in the way
that Peter uses this verb both
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here and at the last part. First
the action is always something
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done by God and secondly,
most often it's some kind of
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revelation from God
that is being stressed, okay.
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What is the role of
the people in this case?
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Aw, so God is revealing things.
We have two terms we speak of,
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revelation and inspiration.
Revelation is him showing.
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Inspiration is now how he
enables the prophet to be able
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to explain things to other
people and he is carrying them.
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That's the inspiration, he
is carrying them. Now what do we
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mean by that. Well, it's very
interesting when you read this
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very last verse, No prophecy was
ever produced by the will of man
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but men spoke from God. Who did
the speaking? The men. Where did
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the message come from? God.
And they were carried along by
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the Holy Spirit. That is the
Holy Spirit enabled them to be
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able to share the powerful
revelation that God gave them.
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If they had just trusted in
themselves and how to put this
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out, you know, they would
be unable to put it into human
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words. But God carries
them along. God gives them the
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thoughts and he helps them
to understand. It's their words,
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men spoke, but they spoke
from God. Their own personal
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qualities were linked together
very similar we might say in the
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same way that Jesus became a
human being. He was the divine
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God but he became a human being,
the incarnation. He was linking
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together the human and divine.
So in the Bible we have the
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linking together of the
human and the divine but it is
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completely trustworthy, the
trustworthy expression of the
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will of God so that we can
understand his will for us today
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and this is how Peter builds
things up to counter the false
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teachers. He lays stones in each
place to stop these false ideas
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that they're presenting. As we
continue we're going to see him
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unmask these evil people and
show just where their ideas are
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leading and then he's going to
give instruction so the people
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can see exactly how the message
of God leads and keeps them in
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that holy Christian character
that will keep them ready for
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the Lord Jesus when
he's going to return.
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Well Dr. Shepherd, I'm looking
forward to that study. I also
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hope that our viewers
are looking forward to this
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continuing study of 2 Peter.
God is still speaking to us
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through his Holy Spirit in the
scriptures. Pick up a Bible, ask
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prayerfully the Lord to give you
this Holy Spirit so that he can
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be able to share with you the
thought, the message, that God
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wants to give you. He is
speaking to us each and every
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day of our lives. God bless
you friends. We'll see you next
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time. We hope that you
continue joining us in this very
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important, interesting
Bible study of 1 and 2 Peter.
00:13:19.28\00:13:22.23
Till next time God bless you.
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