The New Testament was written t0, for and about God’s church, called “the Church of God” 12 times in the New Testament and “the Churches of Christ” once.  The Gospels reveal the history of the Word (Jesus of Nazareth–Jn. 1:1-4,14) as He prepared a small group of men to lead what would become “the Body of Christ” which came into being on the Day of Pentecost 31 A.D. in an upper room in Jerusalem. The book called Acts (of the apostles) describes the ministerial activities of the original 12 apostles as they took God’s Truth to the scattered House of Israel and the Jews of the Middle East. Later would rise to Scriptural prominence Saul of Tarsus who would take the Lord’s gospel to the Gentiles.

The epistles written by the apostles were letters to the churches which contained both encouragements and warnings to the groups that had been established throughout the Middle East by those who had heard the Gospel preached by the apostles, believed it and embraced it as their road map to eventual salvation upon the return of Jesus Christ. This series focuses on one of the warnings the apostles sent out concerning the last of the last days of the final era of man’s history, the era in which we are now living. Students of the Holy Scriptures notice that reading the Gospels and the apostles’ epistles is like reading a current newspaper or watching the evening news.

The subject of this series is “scoffers.” For many years I pondered the meaning of the focal passage. Scoffers have been around since the days of Noah. So exactly who was the Apostle Peter referring to when he warned the church about scoffers in her midst during the latter days? Hadn’t they been there all along? Wasn’t it they whom the apostles battled 2000 years ago?

As He so often does, God revealed the true meaning of Peter’s words so quickly and clearly that I wondered why I had not understood them earlier. Periodically I have to remind myself that there is a time for everything. Over the past five years or so I have come to understand things that I had been wondering about for decades. Now let us enter into this warning from God concerning “scoffers” whom He said would rise up in the latter days and attempt to lead God’s true saints astray. History reveals that they have been very successful. Scoffers are church leaders and lay people who have not allowed God to abide in their hearts (minds) in the form of the Holy Spirit. Having only their own minds to work with, they are low hanging fruit for the wiley Satan. Like Adam and Eve they have heard his “voice” and, because it sounded right, assumed that it was the voice of God. These people are warned by the Lord in Proverbs 14:12: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but that way leads to destruction.” As I have proved many times, the doctrines and customs of the Institutional Church fall into this category. One of those doctrines concerns churchman’s ability to obey God. Having been told that, due to Adam’s sin infusion into the spiritual dna of his descendants, man has no choice but to sin. Sin, we are told, is normal, and for that reason Jesus died so that we could sin and get away with it. God, we are assured, does not ask the impossible of us. This is true. The question involves what is possible and what is not. Our eternity depends on the answer to that question.

In 2 Peter 3 the apostle is writing to “those who have obtained like faith with us (apostles).” These were they who had to make their “call and election (by God) sure” (vss 1,10) by refusing to stumble (sin), thereby assuring themselves that they would have “an entrance … into eternal life in the Kingdom (not heaven) of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” This extremely important information is what Peter called “the present truth” (vs 12). Nothing has changed.

In the lead-up to the above statement Peter had warned (and warns) the saints about ignoring the Word of God and looking within themselves and consulting other people when searching for spiritual truth and guidance. Some in the church had been doing this and were being led astray by Satan’s people. In today’s world, the vast majority within professing Christendom look to man for spiritual truth as God’s Truth becomes less and less relevant in their lives. AND THEY ADMIT THIS. Addressing this issue, Peter wrote: “no prophecy (statement) of Scripture is of any private (personal) interpretation, for the prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke (and wrote) as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (which spoke God’s Words to their minds). It is through God’s Holy Spirit that He speaks to man and man speaks to Him. Scripturally, hearing God’s spiritual “voice” is called “revelation.”  However, Satan can counterfeit God’s voice. For this reason all revelation must be checked against God’s Word. God never speaks outside of His Word–the Holy Bible. To make the comparison we must know His Word. To know It we must study It (2 Tim. 3:15). Then we must believe It and apply It to our everyday lives (2 Tim. 3:16). L.J.