You must open your Bible at the passage indicated and follow this article with the Scripture before you if you would get any real help. Space forbids quotations of any length from the passage so, as you read, refer to the Scripture and THINK.
If consequently fresh light begins to break in upon you, do not lightly turn from it, but lifting up your heart in thanksgiving to God, pursue your searching of the Word on the point. It may open up to you a fruitful held of truth and you can resume your reading of the article on another occasion.
THE transfiguration of the Lord Jesus was not only a special and particular confirmation of the reality of His coming kingdom, but it also in a general way was a confirmation of the whole prophetic testimony of the Old Testament. This is what the opening words of verse 19 state, “and we have the prophetic word made surer” (N.Tr.). This is not difficult to understand if we search the Old Testament and observe how all its glowing predictions center in the Messiah’s Kingdom on earth, so that to establish the reality of His glorious coming Kingdom, was to establish the whole prophetic witness of the Old Testament.
These early Jewish Christians were perhaps somewhat inclined to ignore Old Testament prophecy, as though it were superseded by the developments as to the sufferings of Christ, so unexpected by them. The Apostle Peter here assures them of its value and importance for it is as “a light [or, lamp] that shineth in a dark place.” The word in the original translated “dark” is one which means “squalid” or “filthy.” This world with all its clever inventions and elegant splendor is only a squalid place in God’s estimation, as also in the estimation of every Christian who is taught of Him. The only real light shed in the squalor is that which comes from the lamp of prophecy. Men indulge in vain imaginings as to the “millennium” which they will evolve from the present filth. Such imaginings are just a Will-o-the-wisp. The lamp of prophecy brings us into the light of God’s purpose and God’s coming work of both judgment and salvation, and it enables us to see the squalor of the world that is, as well as the glory of the world to come.
We are to take heed to the light of the prophetic lamp “until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.” “The day” is of course Christ’s day—the day of His glory—then the lamp will be no longer needed. Before the Jay dawns however the day star arises, and before it actually arises, it is to arise in our hearts.
The “day” or “morning” star is an allusion to Christ coming for His own, who wait for Him, before He appears publicly to the world as “the Sun of righteousness.” As the day star He is distinctively the Christian’s hope, and when the day star arises in a believer’s heart, that believer is in the joyful expectation of the coming of his heavenly Saviour. We are to take heed then to the word of prophecy until the day of Christ’s glory dawns, and until we are led thereby into the full enjoyment of our proper Christian hope, for New Testament prophecy has brought into view that which was never mentioned in the Old Testament. To put the matter into other words, the end of prophecy is twofold: —First, to shed its beams in the darkness until the day of Christ’s glory actually arrives. Second, to conduct the believer’s heart meanwhile into the full realization and enjoyment of his proper hope.
As a matter of fact many Christians fight shy of prophecy altogether because, they say, it has become a mere battleground of rival schools of interpretation amongst true Christians, and too often, a kind of hunting ground to the leaders of false religious systems, wherein they pursue their heretical notions. There is all too much truth in this, but the remedy is not to ignore prophecy but rather to take heed to it well, paying all attention to the first rule for its proper use as given in verse 20.
“No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation” or, more literally, “of its own interpretation.” This does not mean as the Romanists pretend that no private person has any right to concern themselves as to what Scripture means, but only to trustfully accept what the Romish “church,” as represented by Pope or council, declares its meaning to be. It is rather a warning against treating each individual prophetic utterance as though it were by itself, a kind of self-contained saying to be interpreted apart from the mass of prophetic teaching. All prophecy is connected and inter-related and to be understood only in connection with the whole. It was never uttered by the will of man but by inspiration of the Spirit of God. He used different men in different ages, but His one mind pervades it all. Each individual prophetic utterance will only therefore be properly understood and interpreted as it is seen in relation to the whole, of which it forms a part.
If an artist in furniture designed an exceptionally fine wardrobe and entrusted the work in twelve sections to twelve different joiners, anybody who endeavored to “interpret” any one of the resulted pieces of joinery by itself would surely reach some strange conclusions. No reliable or satisfactory interpretation would be found until it was seen as related to the whole design.
Thus it is with every prophecy of the Scripture, and here is found the reason of the many opinions and even heresies which we have to deplore.
Notice how inspiration is spoken of in verse 21. “Holy men of God” spake and wrote “moved by” or “borne along by” the Holy Ghost. They put their pens to paper under His power, hence He is the real Author of what they thus wrote.
Yet everything of God, and therefore good, is counterfeited by Satanic power, consequently chapter 2 begins with a warning. When in old time the Holy Ghost was moving holy men to give us utterances from God the great adversary moved and brought in among the people false prophets. We have many examples of this in the Scripture. In the days of Ahab things had reached such a pass that Elijah could say, “I, even I only remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men” (1 Kings 18:2222Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. (1 Kings 18:22)), and even after the destruction of the prophets of Baal there were about four hundred prophets luring Ahab to his death against one prophet, Micaiah, the son of Imlah, who told him the truth; and all these prophets spoke not in the name of Baal but said, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper; for the LORD shall deliver it unto the king’s hand” (1 Kings 22:1212And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper: for the Lord shall deliver it into the king's hand. (1 Kings 22:12)), Now once again God was giving prophetic testimony by inspired utterances through the apostle and others, and the adversary was preparing to repeat his tactics. Peter therefore warned these early Christians that they must be on their guard against false teachers who would bring in privily “damnable” or “destructive” heresies. Satan is never more dangerous than when he works privily or by stealth; when instead of delivering a frontal attack, boldly denying truth, he creeps in on the flank, making merchandise of the people of God with feigned words, as verse 3 puts it. Indeed the very word translated “privily shall bring in” means literally “shall lead in sideways.”
The flank attack invariably succeeds in much larger measure than the frontal attack. Illustrations of this are common. Many years ago, a bold, direct attack on the Deity of Christ was launched, and a Unitarian body was formed. It remains to this day a comparatively insignificant movement. Of more recent years unitarian doctrine has been brought sideways into professedly orthodox denominations and the plague has spread like wildfire.
Be on your guard then against these false teachers. They will have a wholly pleasing exterior and their words will be “feigned” or “well-turned”—cleverly adapted to throw the simple believer off his, guard. They will tell you how they believe in “the divinity of Christ”— but then of course they hold every man to be more or less divine. They accept the truth of “the atonement”— as long as you permit them to print it, “atonement.” They can juggle marvelously with the word “eternal” and show you that it merely means “age-long” when it stands in connection with punishment. And so on.
They go even to the length of “denying the Lord that bought them.” He bought them for by His death He bought the whole of the world for the sake of the treasure hid therein (see, Matt. 13:4444Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. (Matthew 13:44)). It does not say that He redeemed them, for redemption applies only to the true believer. Revealing thus their true character they bring upon themselves swift destruction—which means, not that destruction will reach them in a very short time, but that when it comes it will fall upon them swiftly for their guilt admits of no question, and no lengthy judgment process will be necessary to establish it. Their judgment will not slumber. Yet alas! many will follow them, as we see; and the effect of their heresies is not merely the ruin of themselves and of their dupes but the bringing of the way of God into disrepute so that it is blasphemed. This is ever Satan’s way. In his blind hatred he may desire to ruin souls, but he even more ardently desires to discredit God and His truth.
God, however, is more than equal to dealing with the situation thus created. He is perfectly able to disentangle all the confusion, as verse 4 to 10 tell us. Read those seven verses, and notice that not one full stop comes until the last word of verse 10 is completed. They are one tremendous sentence. “if God spared not the angels ... and spared not the old world ... and... condemned with an overthrow [the cities] ... and delivered just Lot... the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly ... and to reserve the unjust... to be pushed.” A most consoling fact this for the believer, however fearful it may be for the ungodly.
The “god” created mentally by “modern theology” who being too weak or too indifferent, spares everybody and everything, that thereby he may show himself to be “love,” is no more the God of the New Testament than he is of the Old. The God of the New Testament is the God of the Old as this Scripture emphasizes. When of old the angels sinned He did not spare them, but holds them in chains reserved for judgment. When the antediluvian world had filled up the cup of its iniquity God did not spare them though He saved a little remnant of eight souls in the ark. Later He overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah yet He delivered righteous Lot. So it shall be again. He will deliver the godly and reserve the unjust to judgment, and this specially when they are marked by licentiousness and the despising of authority.
However much destructive heresies are brought in, and consequently people are deceived and the way of truth blasphemed, the Lord will know how to disentangle His people and judge the ungodly. We usually find it impossible even to discern, and much less can we disentangle. Who of us, reading only the story of Lot as unfolded in Genesis could discern with any certainty what was his true state before God? He shared Abraham’s path for a while, but did he at all share in Abraham’s faith? His subsequent history did not look like it, so who of us could tell? Our Scripture however, sets all questions at rest. He is pronounced to have been a righteous man, though sadly enmeshed by the world and living a life of continual vexation in consequence. God knew him and delivered him by angelic hands.
What a voice this has for us. How pitiful for us if we get so entangled that, though true believers, it would not be possible for our fellows to decide that we were such except God Himself made a pronouncement on the point. It is intended on the contrary that we stand out from the world clear and distinct as epistles of Christ, “known and read of all men” (2 Cor 3:2, 32Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: 3Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. (2 Corinthians 3:2‑3)). This will be profitable for us in the day that is coming. It will deliver us too at the present time from much of that vexation of soul, that mental torment, that Lot suffered. The worldly believer is well-nigh the most miserable of all men.
F. B. HOLE.