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FAQ # 68
QUESTION 68 : But didn’t this
speak of backsliding, "For if after they have escaped the pollution
of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse
with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have
known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it to turn
from the holy commandment delivered unto them" (2 Peter 2:20-21)?
Let us read the entire chapter verse
by verse:
- But
there were false prophets
also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves
swift destruction.
- And
many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of
truth shall be evil spoken of.
- And
through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise
of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation
slumbereth not.
- For
if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell,
and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
- And
spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher
of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
- And
turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with
an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live
ungodly;
- And
delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
- (For
that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed
his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
- The Lord knoweth
how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust
unto the day of judgment to be punished:
- But
chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and
despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not
afraid to speak evil of dignities.
- Whereas
angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation
against them before the Lord.
- But
these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak
evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish
in their own corruption;
- And shall receive
the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime.
Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceiving
while they feast with you;
- Having
eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling
unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices;
cursed children:
- Which
have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way
of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
- But
was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice
forbade the madness of the prophet.
- These
are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to
whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
- For
when they speak great swelling [words] of vanity, they allure through
the lusts of the flesh, [through much] wantonness, those that were clean
escaped from them who live in error.
- While
they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption:
for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
- For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world
through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are
again entangled therein, and
overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
- For
it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,
than, after they have known [it], to turn from the holy commandment
delivered unto them.
- But
it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog [is]
turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing
in the mire.
Notice the very first
verse, which said these men were perpetual ‘false teachers;’ impossible
if one is born of God, because we possesses the spirit of truth. In other
words, the men in question weren’t even save in the first place, but rather
“deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ”
(2 Cor 11:13-14). Another characteristic that they weren’t born again
is that “they cannot cease from sinning” (2 Peter 2:4). As against 1 John
5:18, which tells us that one who is born again cannot continue sinning.
John further tells us
who these men in 2 Peter 2:20-21 were:
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had
been of us, they would [no doubt] have continued with us: but they went
out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us…if
ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth
righteousness is born of him” (1 John 2:19,29).
The phrase, “they were
not of us,” means they weren’t born again in the first place. The same
ones that “will say to me in that day, LORD, LORD, HAVE WE NOT PROPHESIED
IN THY NAME? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done
many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew
you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:15-23).
In the same book of 2 Peter 2, Peter shows us Noah and Lot, righteous
persons who hated the unrighteousness around them, they were saved from
destruction. This shows that a righteous person will always escape judgment.
And today, righteousness is only received by being born again. And by
receiving righteousness, one does and loves righteous deeds, as John told
us, “ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him” (1
John 2:29). Therefore, by being righteous or born again, one cannot “love
the wages of unrighteousness” (2 Peter 2:15) nor “receive the reward of
unrighteousness” (2 Peter 2:13). So then a true born again person cannot
be in the category “they were not of us” or the alleged ‘backsliders’
in your question.
Peter, in the same chapter
tells us that “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly [righteous] out of temptations, and to
reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (2 Peter 2:9), so a true born again believer cannot
“entangled therein, and [be] overcome.”
As the scripture says,
God knows how to “reserve the unjust” and do the same for saints, “deliver
the godly out of temptations!
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