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Hello Welcome to
Books of the Book.
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My name is Deyvy Rodriguez and
I am very pleased that you're
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with us to study these very
important books of the Bible
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and today we are studying
the books of 1 and 2 Peter.
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But actually today we are ahead
of 1 Peter. We're starting in
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2 Peter and we are at
chapter 3. And with us is
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Dr. Tom Shepherd. He is a
professor at Andrews University.
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He teaches New Testament
interpretation at the Seminary
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there. Dr.
Shepherd welcome. Thank you.
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Today we are picking up
at chapter 3. Is that right?
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That's correct. And
what are we talking about?
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Chapter 3 is Peter's answer
to the false teachers and he's
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going to particularly focus on
the subject of eschatology which
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means last days, last day
events so that's where the whole
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chapter is going to revolve
around that topic. I'd like to
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take a couple moments just
to review Peter's eschatology in
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the two books of 1 and 2 Peter.
Eschatology plays an important
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part in both of these precious
little gems of 1 and 2 Peter.
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In 1 Peter he introduces
the idea of eschatology in
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connection with conversion and
with the persecution that the
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Christians are facing. We saw
that in 1 Peter chapter 1. The
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terms Peter uses to describe
Christ's return are quite
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superlative. It is an
inheritance that he talks about
that cannot perish,
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cannot be defiled, cannot
fade away. It's such a beautiful
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presentation. God is keeping
the inheritance safely for us in
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heaven; that's what he says in
chapter 1 verse 4. The return of
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Christ is the goal of our faith
and carries us through the time
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of persecution in this dark
world. As we said before, God
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has solved our past, he has
settled our future and so we are
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able to face the present
persecution. Okay? Um, the
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return of Christ is the motive
force for our pursuit of purity.
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He talks about the revelation of
Jesus Christ and how we are to
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have a pure life. It is assured
by the resurrection of Christ
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that is referred to in Chapter 1
and again in Chapter 3 and it is
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coming soon and he refers
to that in Chapter 1:4 and 5.
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It will include just judgment on
evil and honor for those who do
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the will of God. It is fairly
obvious that in 1 Peter the
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second coming of Jesus
is positive motivation for
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faithfulness and a warning
to the world of coming judgment.
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In 2 Peter the focus revolves
around responding to the false
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teachers that question
the second coming. They have a
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mistaken view as we are going to
see; a mistaken view of the past
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It's interesting you know how
Peter deals with things in the
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past and now things in the
future. They see a uniform,
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these false teachers, see a
uniform type of history behind
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them and they think that that
portends that the future also
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will be quite uniform. Peter
responds by correcting their
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view of the past. He said,
No, God intervened in the past.
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He was both the creator of the
world and the destroyer of the
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world with the flood in the days
of Noah. And this event of the
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past where God intervened
portends what is going to happen
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in the future. God is going
to destroy the wicked world and
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he's going to redeem those who
have trusted in Christ and he
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also takes time to explain the
delay, the seeming delay, with
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reference to the mercy of God
and he reasserts the certainty
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of the second coming of Jesus.
He indicates that this return of
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Christ calls for a
holy and focused life.
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So what are some of these
false teachings then that these
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teachers are teaching?
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All right the false teachers are
teaching... Let's turn and read
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our passage. We're reading
today 2 Peter 3 verses 1-7.
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Beloved I now write to you the
second epistle in both of which
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I stir up your pure minds by
way of reminder that you may be
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mindful of the words which
were spoken before by the holy
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prophets and of the commandment
of us, the apostles of the Lord
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and Savior. Knowing this first
that scoffers will come in the
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last days walking according to
their own lusts and saying where
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is the promise of his coming,
for since the fathers fell
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asleep all things continue as
they were from the beginning of
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creation. For this they
willfully forget that by the
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word of God the heavens were of
old and the earth standing out
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of water and in the water
by which the world then that
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existed perished being flooded
with water. But the heavens and
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the earth which are now
preserved by the same word are
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reserved for fire unto the
day of judgment and perdition of
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ungodly men. All
right. So here he comes to
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attack these false teachers
directly now. It's interesting,
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he starts the chapter by saying
this is the second letter so
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there has to be a first if this
is the second letter. And he
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refers back to this reminder,
the idea of remembering, that we
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talked about in chapter 1 where
he knows that he is going to die
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and he wants to leave a
testament, a message for people
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to observe and to listen to
and we're going to find out all
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through this kind of passage
that the idea of remembering is
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very important, forgetting
and remembering. So we come into
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verse 3 and we actually meet
the statements of these false
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teachers. Let me first read what
they said. You read it and we
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notice in verse 3, Knowing this
that first of all scoffers will
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come in the last days with
scoffing following their own
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sinful desires. They will
say where is the promise of his
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coming. For ever since the
fathers fell asleep all things
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are continuing as they were
from the beginning of creation.
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The first thing we notice about
these people is their method of
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approach and their method
of approach is mockery. What is
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mockery. How
would you describe it?
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Making fun of. Making
fun. Okay. Sure. It is
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holding up an idea to ridicule.
Who would be so foolish as to
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believe that idea? Right?
And mockery is not really an
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intellectual argument. It's
based on intimidation, making
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something look silly and foolish
so people won't accept it.
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So actually mockery typically
covers up a weak argument and
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discourages investigation. Their
argument that they're going to
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present is based on the
idea that the second coming is
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delayed. They say where is the
promise of his coming? And it's
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a sarcastic kind of a question.
And then they support this idea
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with a concept... they
talk about the fathers who fell
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asleep and all continues as
it was from creation. So we've
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got to unpack this argument just
a little bit. The first think we
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notice is that Peter is a
person who has no problem with
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investigation. He just doesn't
say don't believe those false
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teachers. Don't look at their
books. Don't talk about it. Just
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you know stop. That would
be intimidation itself you see.
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But he doesn't simply give
commands. He says well let's
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look at their ideas. And
he takes them seriously and he
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quotes them. I don't know if
they would have quoted Peter but
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he quotes them. Then he takes
and deconstructs their argument
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and shows where it's weaknesses
are. But the first thing we
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notice is that they start
with mockery. It's a very poor
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teaching technique. A good
teacher doesn't use mockery.
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He doesn't try to intimidate
his students or her students,
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doesn't put them down so that
they feel like they can't ask
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questions. Because good
questions are the keys, the
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golden opportunities
for teaching, for education.
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I always try to encourage
students to speak up in class
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and to respond to what I'm
saying, tell me if I'm making a
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mistake and then we can have
a good discussion and then you
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have good learning taking place.
Now scholars who look at 2 Peter
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and think that it is written
later like in the second century
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instead of being written by the
apostle Peter, they look at the
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words that are referred to here
of the false teachers that ever
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since the fathers fell asleep
everything continues as it was
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from creation. And they say
Ah-ha. You see the fathers they
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say, the fathers is the first
generation of Christians and
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these people have moved off
the scene, they've died, and now
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this is the second and third
generation of Christians. These
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are people who are later.
Well there are two problems, two
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problems with that position. The
first is that the term fathers
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in early Christian literature
is typically a reference back to
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Old Testament believers, back to
the Old Testament. Second, the
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next phrase that Peter states
in their argument, ever since
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the fathers fell asleep
all continues as it was from
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creation refers all the way back
to creation. So it would be a
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little odd going all the way
back to creation and then saying
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Oh and these people that just
died recently. It's more likely
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they're looking back, back
to the Old Testament, ever since
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the father fell asleep, that
long chain of people going all
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the way back to creation.
Everything just continues the
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same as it was from the days of
creation. Well they argue for a
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certain sense of continuity.
Things continue as... Sort of a
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teaching of uniformitarianism.
Now this is not the
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uniformitarianism that comes
centuries and centuries later
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that is linked up with
evolutionary theory that you
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have this gradual development
and that the world's geological
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column has uniformly been laid
down and if you know that it's
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lain down one inch a year and
you know something that's 100
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feet you can figure out how long
it's taken for that to lay down.
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That's the concept of
uniformitarianism. But these
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teachers have something that
kind of echoes that; it kind of
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goes along with that kind
of idea because they talk about
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everything going back to the
creation and that there hasn't
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been this change. So the past
is a predictor of the future.
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There's not been this change and
so in the future, you know, this
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coming that they've promised is
just a fake idea. So they have a
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very interesting kind of way of
teaching this. There are three
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main characteristics to
their teaching: Eschatological
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skepticism, they don't believe
that Jesus is coming back. They
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have a sort of common sense
rationalism; they argue in terms
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of the ages have all been the
same so it's going to be like
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that off into the future. And
then, of course, as we saw in
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Chapter 2 they have this concept
of moral freedom that they
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promise people even though they
themselves are slaves to passion
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So, that's the kind of thing
that Peter is going to present
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before us. Now
weren't there philosophies
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of the day that
argued like this?
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There were and it's rather
interesting. There were two
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groups that seemed to have more
particular linkage to the false
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teachers in 2 Peter. These are
the philosophies of Epicureanism
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and the Jewish sect of the
Sadducees. The Epicureans were
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founded by a man named Epicurus,
of course, and he lived from
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341 to 270 B.C. So long before
the first century A.D. but he
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had followers who still believed
what he had to teach. Epicurus
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taught that the purpose of
life was simple pleasures, the
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absence of pain. These were more
the pleasures of the mind than
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the pleasures of the body that
he taught. He believed, this is
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very important, that the gods
do not judge, they do not reward
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and they do not punish and
there is no providence. The gods
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live far away from the world.
And there's no life after death.
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There's no judgment and there's
no postmortem retribution.
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So they really kind of almost
atheistic, not atheistic, they
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believed in the gods but not
their involvement in life right
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now. So we are just at time for
a break so we'll come back after
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just a few minutes and talk some
more about these philosophies.
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