Participants: Tom Shepherd & Deyvy Rodriguez
Series Code: PBOTB
Program Code: PBOTB00023B
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00:01 Welcome back to Books of the Book.
00:02 With us is Dr. Tom Shepherd. He is sharing from the book of 00:06 2 Peter. Dr. Shepherd you were saying about these philosophies 00:10 going on. Greek philosopher Epicurus saying that there 00:15 are gods but they do not judge, reward or punish. Were there any 00:21 other philosophies going on at that time. 00:23 Yeah. of course, there were many other different kinds of schools 00:26 of philosophy. We're kind of thinking of the ones that are 00:28 linked up with the false teachers; kind of have some kind 00:30 of parallel to the false teachers and the Epicureans 00:33 seemed to have that similar kind of philosophical view point. 00:38 The Jewish sect of the Sadducees also had similar characteristics 00:44 to the Epicureans and to these false teachers interestingly 00:48 enough. They believed that there is no fate, no fate exists. 00:52 There is no providence. God does not commit or even see evil. 00:57 They believed in radical free will, self-determination, and 01:01 that the soul does not live on after death. There are no 01:04 penalties or rewards in the underworld and there is no 01:08 resurrection, which, of course, they are known for in the Bible. 01:13 Now it is not to say that the false teachers in 2 Peter 3 are 01:18 Epicureans or that they are Sadducees either, but they seem 01:23 to be influenced by the same kind of milieu of ideas. 01:27 I mean we see this around us in our world. Post modernism is 01:33 pretty strong in our culture, gaining strength anyways. 01:37 And it subtly influences how people think of things. 01:41 There are numerous kinds of view points and philosophies out 01:45 there and some of these come into church life or into 01:47 people's minds and it's interesting you have this kind 01:50 of parallel patterns develop. 01:52 So how does Peter respond to some of these arguments that 01:56 these false teachers or philosophers are bringing into 02:00 the church? Well we better take a look here 02:01 at verses 5-7 because here's how Peter responds to them. 02:05 He says, "For they deliberately overlook... " This is 2 Peter 3 02:09 verse 5. "For they deliberately overlook this fact; that the 02:12 heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of 02:16 water and through water by the Word of God and that by means 02:20 of these the world that then existed was deluged with water 02:24 and perished. But by the same Word the heavens and earth that 02:28 now exist are stored up for fire being kept until the day of 02:32 judgment and destruction of the ungodly. " All right. So let's 02:37 just review the mockers' words, okay. They say where is the 02:41 promise of his coming, so they are thinking of eschatology; all 02:45 continues the same as it was from creation. That's what we 02:50 call protology. So eschatology and protology, proto - the first 02:54 things, back to the beginning. So they first talk about the end 02:58 and then they say the reason why we don't have to worry about 03:01 that is because everything has continued as it was from the 03:06 beginning. Peter's response: He first notes that they are 03:11 forgetters. They conveniently, deliberately forget, he says and 03:15 then he talks about creation. So he talks about protology 03:19 first and then he talks about the destruction of the world 03:24 by the flood and then he says the world is being preserved for 03:28 fire in the future. So he starts with protology and ends with 03:32 eschatology. So do you know what kind of pattern that would be 03:36 called? Um, what would that be called? 03:38 That would be called a chiasm. Okay. Because you have... they 03:41 talk about... the first thing they talk about is eschatology 03:44 then they talk about protology. Peter starts with protology and 03:49 then he talks about eschatology. So A, B, B, A. Typical Hebraic 03:53 way of thinking. You know how you kind of pattern your 03:56 thoughts. It's just interesting to see. You know in this 03:59 particular case it may not tell us a lot about the 04:02 interpretation, but it shows us their patterns of thinking. 04:06 The false teachers begin by talking about the end and then 04:10 with the beginning and Peter reverses it and talks about 04:13 creation and then talks about the end. So that brings us into 04:20 his exact ideas that he presents. 04:23 On creation and what does Peter teach on creation? 04:25 He starts off by saying that it happened long ago. All right now 04:32 that's not a specific term for me. 04:37 A long time ago can mean about any time. 04:41 I'm talking to a 10 year old and they say it happened a long time 04:46 ago. That might be five months ago. For a person my age well a 04:50 long time ago is a lot longer than five months and it just 04:54 depends on the context. Now in the particular context that 04:59 Peter is talking about these people referred 05:01 back to creation. 05:02 So his phraseology - A long time ago - doesn't necessarily mean 05:07 billions and billions of years as some people might want to 05:11 suggest, but back to creation. They went back to creation to 05:15 describe why they don't think Jesus is coming again. So he's 05:19 going to go back to creation to explain why he thinks Jesus is 05:24 coming again, all right. So the first thing is it was long ago. 05:28 The second thing that he says is that it was out of and 05:33 through water. This is a rather enigmatic phrase; it's a little 05:38 challenging that he says out of and through water. That doesn't 05:43 have exact parallels but actually back in the creation 05:46 story... We should go back and we should read Genesis 1 verses 05:50 1-8. We're going to have to move quickly but it's important to 05:54 read the text. Genesis 1 verses 1 through 8. 05:58 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 06:01 The earth was without form and void and the darkness was on the 06:05 face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the 06:09 face of the waters. Then God said, Let there be light and 06:13 there was light. And God saw the light that it was good and God 06:16 divided the light from darkness. God called the light day and the 06:20 darkness he called night. So the evening and the morning were the 06:24 first day. Then God said, Let there be a firmament in the 06:27 midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the 06:31 waters. Thus God made the firmament and divided the waters 06:35 which were under the firmament and the waters which were above 06:39 the firmament and it was so. And verse 8. 06:42 And called the firmament heaven. So the evening and the morning 06:48 were the second day. What we do notice here is there 06:51 is a lot of reference to water. You know the Spirit of God is 06:55 over the face of the water. God makes the dry land appear out of 06:58 the waters. The waters are separated. There's the water 07:02 above in our atmospheric heaven, there's the water in the oceans 07:06 below and there's just lots of reference to water. He doesn't 07:10 end there by talking about the use of water because it is with 07:15 water that God destroys the ancient world with the flood. 07:21 So water is like the agency of creation and the agency of 07:27 destruction of this world. And this brings Peter to his 07:33 description of the object of creation is the heavens and the 07:39 earth. It was made by God and the action he did was to create 07:45 it, he was the creator and what he made was the earth, the 07:49 heavens and the earth. This actually stands in some contrast 07:54 to ancient near east pictures of creation for the other peoples 08:00 around Israel. The stories of creation the gods had problems 08:05 with creation. They had difficulty separating water and 08:09 they decide that the want to make people so that the people 08:13 can work for them and provide food for them. It just has a 08:16 number of contrasts almost as though the creation story in 08:21 the book of Genesis is a critique of these wrong views 08:26 and points to the true creator God who made the world. 08:30 The emphasis that Peter gives is that the Word of God is what 08:35 makes the world and it is by the Word of God that the world is 08:39 destroyed. I mean he uses the agencies of water but it is the 08:44 Word of God, the powerful Word of God that's involved. 08:49 The object of creation is the earth, the means of creation is 08:53 the Word of God and the mode of creation is water. God is 08:57 sovereign over the entire world. He both made it, he controls it, 09:03 and he's able to destroy it. 09:05 So just as God's word brought the world into existence, God's 09:10 word will also destroy it. 09:12 Yes. So if we look back again at how Peter argues what's 09:17 interesting is that the false teachers argue from creation and 09:24 Peter also argues from creation. And their argument is creation 09:28 tells us and everything that's happened since then, creation 09:32 tells us that there's no second coming. This is just a foolish 09:35 idea that you have. Things are not going to change, they're 09:39 going to keep on going. And Peter says you know I'm glad 09:44 that you mentioned creation. Let's talk about that. So in 09:48 verses 5 and 6 they deliberately overlook this fact that the 09:52 heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water 09:55 and through water by the Word of God. They said ever since 09:59 creation but they didn't mention God. Peter mentions God; see 10:02 he's going to bring them to account. And he says, and by 10:05 that means that that world that then existed was deluged with 10:07 water and perished. So God intervened. He made the world; 10:11 not only did he make the world but he destroyed the world. 10:14 And so Peter says, you know what I agree with you. The past is a 10:19 predictor for the future. And you know you made a mistake 10:23 there when you talked about creation because you forgot that 10:26 God is the creator and God destroyed that world with a 10:29 flood. He used water to make it, he used water to destroy it and 10:34 now he's preserving it and next time he's not going to use 10:37 water. In fact, that's the promise at the time of the flood 10:41 that God would not again destroy the world with water. Remember 10:44 that's the whole idea of the rainbow in the sky. So Peter 10:48 says, now he is preserving it, verse 7. By that same word the 10:53 heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being 10:59 kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of the 11:02 ungodly. Just as God intervened in the past, he will intervene 11:07 once again in the future. The lesson they were supposed to 11:13 learn from creation was what we might call the lesson of water. 11:18 That is that God is the creator, God is the sovereign over the 11:23 universe and if the world goes the wrong way he will intervene 11:28 to set things right. He's the moral arbiter of the world. 11:33 Okay? So in his great love he created the world, but he is 11:37 also the impartial judge of all and he destroyed the ancient 11:42 world because of its wickedness. So that should lead us to fear 11:46 and to reverence him and that brings us to the lesson of fire. 11:51 God is preserving the present heavens and earth for the day of 11:55 judgment and destruction of the ungodly just as he destroyed the 11:58 ungodly in the past. And the false teachers indicated that 12:02 the past predicts the future. Okay says Peter, exactly right. 12:06 Exactly right. You just had the wrong idea about what the past 12:10 was like and so you have the wrong idea about what the future 12:14 is like. So it's very interesting. Peter meets the 12:17 teachers on their own ground. You know if you can show that a 12:21 person's own premise is mistaken you win the argument and that's 12:25 what he's done here. He's indicated that the false 12:27 teachers had a wrong perspective on creation. Their protology was 12:31 mistaken, thus their eschatology is mistaken. It's very important 12:36 for us to have the proper protology to understand creation 12:40 so that we can understand eschatology and where our world 12:44 is headed. Now why doesn't Peter end his 12:47 argument there? Ah! Because he has important 12:50 information to share with the Christians. They have questions 12:53 that have been raised by the false teachers that need to be 12:56 answered and so the good teacher that he is, good shepherd that 12:59 he is, loving his flock, he's going to give them more 13:03 information so that they will not be shaken by these false 13:07 teachers. Dr. Shepherd, once again, thank 13:09 you for joining us. Dr. Shepherd is with us in this Bible study 13:12 now in 2 Peter. We are about to conclude with this book of 13:16 2 Peter. Thank you for joining us. We will see you next time. 13:20 We hope that you have been blessed. Remember pick up the 13:22 Bible, ask the Lord for guidance as you read the scriptures. 13:25 May God bless you. |
Revised 2014-12-17