2 Peter, 2:1-9

Alright. 2 Peter 2, 1-9. Everybody got the handout? Everybody have what they need there? Alright. We have a first paragraph there. What's next? Peter is put in the foundation of truth, and Gene established the first part of that, and we last week addressed the last part of the chapter. Here, 2 Peter is going to turn a corner, and it's a corner that begins to be, I would say, a major theme throughout almost the rest of the book. And he's established a foundation of truth not only in the first book that he wrote. This wasn't a, gee, the first one didn't work, and so let's try again. He's building on it. The first book, 1 Peter, was to lay out and establish some truths with the people that he wrote to. And then he mentions at the beginning of chapter 3 and 2 Peter, this is the second letter I've written to you, okay? So he's laying a further structure there for them to understand.

And he addresses here something he really hardly touched on before, and that is the danger, great danger, from false teachers. And the false teachers are not only a hazard to the Christians, but also to those who don't believe. Why is that a problem? Why is it a problem for those who don't believe, for there to be false teachers? Or is it a problem?

False information. Alright, what does that do? Besides, it gets the turn off or something. Pardon? Draw them away from Christ. In other words, there's a danger both ways. For the unbeliever, they may not be getting the straight truth about what is the place where you're going to spend your eternal destiny and what difference does it make now. And they may get the wrong info. For the believers, what's the problem? What's the hazard of false teachers? No growth. What's that? Get them confused. Yes. Deceived. Yep. Yep. So we're getting the picture here.

The false teachers aren't just some kind of a minor problem that, okay, we'll just kind of wink at it and let her fly. No. A serious problem for everybody. The unbeliever and the believer alike. A serious problem. So he's bringing this thing up. It's going to be the theme with some verse to verse exceptions here and there, but the main theme of the whole rest of the book, and where he deviates from focusing on false teachers, it is to underscore the truth.

Now, something else we call a Deja vu, 2 Peter and Jude. Why would we say such a thing as that? Ah, they are warning about the same things, and one of the things we want to point out, you have it as a supplement. You've got a supplement that looks like this, and it's in color in your handout, or should be. In color in your handout, similarities between 2 Peter and Jude. And this is a substantially modified chart from one that's been put in the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. It's substantially because the columns are all reordered and the words are all in different Bible translations, so it's somewhat recognizable. But the bottom line is, there are a number of areas of similarity between 2 Peter and Jude. And let's see, second page of your handout looks like this, where We have some of the lines where they're just shown in parallel and that way you can see where they're quite similar or in some cases they've used a synonym or rephrased it or some cases even a longer definition of the same thing. One of the things we point out here is that people will try to speculate, well then 2 Peter copied from Jude. And some people will say, well Jude copied from 2 Peter.

But guess what? Are there other options? What might be some other possibilities? The Lord inspired them the same way? Yeah. What are other possibilities? If they knew each other. If they knew each other, which they probably did, they were like-minded. Like-minded, and that would be somewhat in line with what Marilyn just said, that the Holy Spirit inspired both, like-minded.

Let's ask another question. Did each of them have contact with the Lord? Might it be that the Lord said words like this and they each just drew from it in slightly different ways from something that the Lord said but wasn't recorded? Except for here. Could be as well, too. So all those are possibilities.

The fact that there are similarities doesn't discount the inspiration, as Marilyn's pointed out. It doesn't discount that, as Nancy pointed out, there's commonality because there's a common problem. What else? Is it possible that in fact the similarities kind of underscore the inspiration? Yeah, is it possible that the similarities underscore the inspiration? Marilyn's point. Yes, very well could be. In fact, if you have a similar message, well, that's because there's a similar inspiration behind it, a common author behind the authors. Yeah.

Yeah, it repeats something. Isn't that something that we find in scripture, something is repeated for emphasis? We're going to see that in the Galatians passage this morning. You repeat it with slight rewording for emphasis. Good point, Jack. Glad you saw that. Let's take one more thing before we dig in.

This passage contains some issues, I put it this way, over which many bottles of ink have been spent, or you could say spilt. Our approach will be to focus on what we believe here to be the present, excuse me, the correct interpretation, and I'll rely on supplemental papers to go into all the descriptions as to why and details, okay? And so we'll deal with it that way. We won't take the time to discuss any of these things in detail because we've got the supplements.

If you have questions beyond that, Go ahead and see me and we'll talk about it outside of a class context. Some of the details would be so time-consuming that I don't want to go into it in class, but I'd love to talk with you later about it. If you want to talk for hours, that's fine too. Okay, 2 Peter 2, 1-3.

Alright, but false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers. Interesting distinction. Among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing a swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality. Because of them, the way of the truth will be maligned. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. Wow.

Now, he makes a distinction here between false prophets and false teachers. Isn't that interesting? False prophets are pointed out in the Law of Moses chapters 13 and 18 of Deuteronomy. And another time those may be well worth your looking at. It gave warning to the Jews about what is the character of false prophets, what is their character, and how will you know them, and what do you do? So those two chapters give that direction. But, and it's interesting, the warning of false prophets continues into the Gospels, which is something for us to note.

The threat to the church, with one exception, 1 John 4.1, is always called false teachers, and this makes the distinction. Isn't that interesting?

It's not apparently a categorical statement, but it's like the broad characterization of them is not false prophets, but false teachers. The Greek there is almost, in our own language, self-explanatory. Pseudo-prophetes, false prophets. Peter didn't say that there might be false teachers.

What did he say? There will be. Count on it. This is one of those promises that people are a little bit reluctant to count on, but count on it. Peter describes their program. He doesn't spend a lot of words, but he does so with potency. He does it this way. They will introduce heresies that are spiritually destructive in a manner that is secretive. Got that? They will introduce heresies that are spiritually destructive in a manner that is secretive. What do we mean by that?

False teachers are not likely to do this. They're not likely to wear t-shirts that are in yellow and orange and red and things like that with pictures of a wolf in sheep's clothing that say, beware, I'm a false teacher. Unlikely that that's going to happen. OK, let's look at the top of the second page there. In the polemic selective that Randy and I talked jointly some years ago, We represented the range of teaching in Christendom by this diagram. We had this three circles.

The outside circle was Christendom as in what it appears or claims to be, or claims to be Christian, from those on the outside of biblical belief. Those who are not Christians, biblically, but look at Christianity from the outside, they may get a mistaken impression about what's biblical. They may get a mistaken impression about what God sees as Christianity. And that's the outside circle. The next inside circle describes Christians who hold to a biblical and therefore saving gospel message, but differing from biblical faith in other matters or in varying degrees. A gospel that saves, but other teachings that aren't quite on target.

And then finally, the inner circle there is biblical Christian faith as defined by the 66 books of the Old and New Testament in teaching and practice both as to salvation and to all other matters. That is the core of completely biblical faith. Saving gospel, a growing gospel. A gospel that, if believed, saves you. A gospel that, if believed, is God's manner of growing you.

Now, even denying the master who bought them, Agraxo. How many of you have seen something of this order? Tulip. TULIP is the acronym that is used for the hardline Calvinists, I will call them, those who believe, and we've got this, total depravity, unconditional election, in other words, you're elected sovereignly by God, and that's the only reason you're saved, and all the rest of your believing and having faith and being regenerated, it is all a result of God having elected you, and that's it.

And then the limited atonement, Christ died only for the elect. He didn't die for those. So you can't come up to just anybody on the street and say, Christ died for you, because you don't know that, if this is true. You can say, well, Christ might have died for you, but unless you're of the elect, I can't tell.

Irresistible grace. God's grace is irresistibly thrust into your life and you will be saved and that's it. But only if you're among the elect. And the last one, the perseverance of the saints. Those who are truly elect and truly saved will persevere.

Now, that's the story. This L in the tulip, this limited atonement, is tough to reconcile with this passage. And here's why. It says that Christ has paid the price, agorazo, paid the price to redeem even these false teachers who are headed to hell. How about that?

1 John 2.2 He paid the price, propitiated God, satisfied God for the sins of the whole world. Peter used the same word for bought here for the unsaved false teachers that Paul used for the believers in Corinth. He wrote to them in chapter 6 and again in chapter 7, for you have been bought, agorazo, with a price, therefore glorify God in your body.

All right. Thoughts, questions, ponderings. Yes. Yes. Right over that. No, it's interesting. There's so many things. Right. But when it comes, there's no note on that one. Yeah. No, no. Yeah. It just skips right. Yeah. The way it's handled is is what Tom pointed out. Either one, you just read over it. Don't talk about it. One or two.

You change the meaning, for example, that first John to to. that he paid the price to propitiate God, to satisfy God, not only for us, but for the sins of the whole world. Well, the whole world is obviously only those that he elected. Those that he didn't elect are not included in that phrase, whole world. So they insert the meaning and override the text in order to come up with something that satisfies their understanding.

Yes? The biblical statement is Christ died for the whole world to satisfy God with regard to sins for the whole world. All have the price paid. Those who believe are the ones who are redeemed and forgiven and saved. So there's the distinction. It is sufficient for all, efficient and effective for those who believe.

So that's the dividing line and what happens is they change that dividing line by saying that the whole world only is limited to those who are elect. Christ died, as they would say, only for those who were elected. This particular verse is hard to reconcile with that. Okay.

Bringing swift destruction upon themselves, many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. Here from the last part of verse 1 here to the end of verse 3, Peter makes clear the destruction and judgment awaits the false teachers and also gives means, motives, and consequences. Got that? Means, motives, and consequences of their actions. Let's look at that.

They have them on the bullets. Many will follow their sensuality. There's the means. That's how they're going to carry it out. Their sensuality is going to call the shots. How does it feel? It's a governing factor. What's the statement that came out in the generation that Nancy and I grew up in? If it feels good, do it. How it feels calls the shots. Right, wrong, what God has in mind, none of that matters. It's how it feels. It can't be wrong if it feels so right, is the song.

Because of them, the way of the truth will be maligned. Here's the consequence. For whom? For the church body and for the gospel. There's the consequence, and now the motive. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. They'll exploit you with what words? False ones. They don't care true or false, but in terms of getting their end accomplished, the means and motive is spelled out here. In their greed they will exploit you with false words. They don't care true or false. It's the end to them that matters. Okay, top of page three.

Peter's words in verse 3, their judgment from long ago sets the stage for the next passage. 2 Peter 2, 4 and 5, and here's where we get into one of these interpretive things. If God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, the preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. Now this makes reference to events that took place as described in Genesis chapter 6 through 8. And these are the first of the examples of judgment that God has carried out in the past. What's the logic that Peter's trying to use here?

These false teachers thinking Hey, I'm not going to have any consequences for this, you know, this is all just great, you know. And what's Peter saying? What's his message? Why is he trying to bring up, these are old stories, why bring up the past? We're not going to get away. Yeah, he says, look, here's the pattern, this has been happening a while, you know what happens? Here's the consequence. They think that they have different consequences, they're somehow immune. What he is pointing out, uh-uh. The pattern as to what happens here has been set long ago, and let me just give you some quick examples.

And here's something else. Sodom and Gomorrah is sometime about four millennia ago, right? How close was it in Peter's time? It was only about two millennia prior to Peter's time, so a lot of the evidence may be a little more fresh and a little easier to point to. Now, here's the deal.

There are several views about what took place there in Genesis 6-8, who were the sons of God and these Nephilim and what happened. I'll just state quickly and we've got to summarize at the bottom of the page there in the footnote. One, some think it refers to the sons of the godly line of Seth and the daughters of men, who were the Canaanites. Number two, it refers to despots, powerful dynastic rulers. And number three, in keeping with the use of the sons of God and Job, the term refers to fallen angels who made with the daughters of men. I'm going to go with the understanding of number three. that this is an instance of fallen angels.

What I'll have and make available here is a supplemental handout. We've made this available in a couple of prior classes, but if you want to avail yourself of that, feel free to do so. It's a 14-pager, so it's not lean on explanation, but feel free to take that if you think that's going to be helpful to you.

The thing that we'll go through here with is the sense that the sons of God in Genesis 6 were fallen angelic creatures who took on male bodies, cohabiting with the daughters of men, and producing offspring by them. Now, though there are fallen angels in the form of demons, those who are loose upon the earth until the time of the end. This is where we saw Christ encountering demons and the apostles encountering demons. fallen angelic creatures who are loose upon the earth, there are also those who are imprisoned. And why do we say that?

We have from Luke 8.31 and several passages in Revelation, the abyss. It's the abyssos in those other passages and here it's Tartarus. Let's take a look at, you have a handout that looks like this. It's a supplement. and it's a chart that in the past I've described as a wiring diagram for the space shuttle. It's a little complicated, but the point that I want to make is this, that, see here is the abyss or Tartarus for Satan and his angels, and shown several different passages there where it's used in that way.

Those creatures, are held, these are the spirits in prison, who are held there, and that's why they're there and not roaming the earth like the rest of the demons. The rest of the demons know that there's going to be a time when their time is up. These are held until the end time as well, but they're not loose except for one five-month period of time in the book of Revelation, where the abyssos, the abyss, is opened up so that those creatures are allowed to take on a scorpion-like form and to torture the unbelievers for five months. Only the unbelievers. And that's their only freedom from the time of the days of Noah until the time they're cast into the lake of fire. Does that sound like a wonderful prospect? Not so good, right?

So anyway, that's how I view this here. And that also seems to have good confirmation in the second Peter passage and also in the book of Jude. Okay. And that, by the way, is also available on the internet. I've got a web page that's shown there and you can look that up if you like. Let's look to page four.

And if he condemned, this is 2 Peter 6, and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter, and if he rescued righteous lot oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men, for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment." So here's Peter, and he's shifting from the time of Noah's day to a time shortly thereafter. Still, this is ancient times, but shortly thereafter.

Now, one of the things that's in common with these is sexual perversion. A use of sexuality that's outside of what God designed, intended, and revealed. In both cases, it's a sexual perversion. A lot is given as one is a righteous man, which, think of how he stumbled. But anyway, in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, the perversion was homosexuality. So rampant among the men of Sodom that they lustered after the angelic beings who were embodied as men. Here is a cross-being sexuality just like in the days of Noah.

Isn't it interesting? In one case, it was angelic beings with human beings. In this case, it's human beings desiring angelic beings. Isn't that interesting? Very odd. In both cases, it's a sexual perversion. Now, they even refused, in Genesis 19, their daughters of Lot. Now these two passages, this is verses 4 and 5 and 6 through 9, give two examples of God's judgment against sexual perversion and unprincipled sexuality from the early chapters of Genesis.

Peter, we happen to have indication, was a married man. In one place in Capernaum, here's Peter and his mother-in-law was restored. So he was a married man. He wasn't saying we need to be absolutely asexual, but he was talking about perversion here. Peter would make this kind of statement because it might appear to some that the unprincipled and unrighteous and perverted are having a great time. Party hardy, right? But their position is not enviable. That's what Peter is trying to paint before them. Not an enviable position.

And in Peter's day to our own, men and women of this kind are teaching and were and are among us. One of his points, do you see there in that passage? Among them, among us is his issue. The reality is there will be people out in the world doing all kinds of crazy things. And that's the way it's going to be because that's the world. His concern, his great concern are those who come among us and try to perpetrate and example and spread that rot from the inside to the rest of the church body.

That's his concern. Right? That's where you have false teaching. Not just false teaching out there, false teaching in here. That's where he's highly concerned. Now, why is that a problem? Jack's laughing at me. Jack thinks it's funny I ask the question. Why is it a problem?

The church is a ground and pillar of the truth. This is obviously immensely untrue, what the false teachers are trying to spread, not only in teaching, but in practice. And by the way, that's a key thing to connect up. Peter isn't just talking about some hypothetical false teaching. Teaching always leaks its way into practice, and practice leaks its way into teaching.

Right? Okay, any other thoughts there? Okay. Now, as in Peter's day to our own, men and women of this kind of teaching were and are among us. Look at what Paul says in this small chiasm. Here's one in Acts chapter 20, recorded by Dr. Luke. Here is Dr. Luke recording the last message of Paul to the elders of the church at Ephesus.

And look how he puts it here in Acts 20.27-32. The first part of the chiasm. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Next part. Be on guard for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which you purchased with His own blood. Verse 29. Two references. Two.

I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in off in the distance. No, among you, not sparing the flock, and not only that, from among your own selves. By the way, what does that mean? From among whose own selves? Not just the believers, the elders. He's emphatic here. How about that? From among your own selves men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.

Therefore, be on the alert, remembering that day and night for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. See the pattern? The whole purpose of God, be on guard, among you, from among you, be on the alert, the word of His grace. Start, the whole purpose of God. Finish, the word of His grace. That's how you're going to be on guard and be on the alert.

The great danger is the among you part. That's why Peter isn't just talking about the world's nasty and watch out for them. Yeah, they are. Nancy's asking the question, is this part of the apostasy? The reality is, he was talking about false teachers in his own time. In this context, right? Peter was warning about false teachers in his own time. And what does Paul warn Timothy about?

They'll proceed from bad to better. No. Bad to worse. And a key point. This thing isn't going to get better. The reason to be on the alert, the reason to be on guard, the reason to start with God's word, the reason to end with God's word, is because they're going to get worse.

Yeah? Ah, okay. Yeah, Steve's asking the question, does this mean we go around looking at everybody and ask, is that a wolf? Are you a wolf? Are we there ready to shoot at them? A couple of thoughts, I'm glad you asked that one. A couple of thoughts. One is, do we have a measure to measure truth by? What is that? We've got the Word. So that's one thing. It is not something where we have to go on some sort of wild-eyed alert, figuring out who we're going to hang.

Because we have been given God's Word. Furthermore, we have the Holy Spirit who not only inspired God's Word, but is within us as well to lead us to the truth. There's one other thing too, and we're going to see this at the last chapter of Galatians. Galatians chapter 6, the first few verses. That the aim, the first thing is to restore someone. It is not, ah, there's someone who I think, I see a couple of wolf hairs. You know? Bang! Ha! There he's gone.

No. The ultimate end is worth seeking to restore. That's priority one. We're looking for restoration. That's our aim. Not, do I see a wolf here? I think I'm going to shoot first and ask questions later. Hey, you know, I can think back over the years, things I've said, I think, boy, I wish there was an undo icon I could click, you know? Yeah, yeah.

And so sometimes it's just a matter of, hey, this needs to be set straight, you know? And a person who is truly of the faith in responding to the Lord will be thankful for that correction. And so this is a good thing. But it is a matter, you know, Paul sets it out there, and he's pretty intense about it, because it's something he's quite concerned.

Notice that we've underscored here, Peter didn't say there might be, but there will be. But on the other hand, how do you deal with them when you start to look at things? Not everybody who steps over the line doctrinally is a wolf. Not everybody who steps over the line doctrinally is in some radical error to which they're committed. There may be someone who missteps and in the end will be very grateful for the restoration. There's a fellow whose house both Nancy and I have been to years ago. His name is Lambert Dolphin. His website is on the net and you can look it up. Lambert Dolphin went through an instance.

He had been a believer. I thought it was pretty clear. In fact, one night when I was over there, he interrupted a meeting we were having at his house at least two times, if not three, to introduce us to people who had come to the Lord. They'd come to him, and he gave them the gospel, and they'd come to the Lord, and he introduced, and he says, well, I just want to interrupt your meeting for a bit. This is a new believer here.

But Lambert fell into a sin that eventually did come to a place of announcing it before the whole church, and by the way, with tears. And two years later, they had a welcome home party for Lambert. And I've talked to them since. They had a welcome home party because Lambert realized he was wrong.

But one of the things he said at the welcoming home party, he says, the way the church dealt with this all the way along, up to even the point of announcing it before the church and praying for me, was a huge part in my eventually coming to be restored. And to my knowledge, he's from that welcome home party to this day. Follows the Lord and loves the Lord. And so it's a key thing.

We're aiming for restoration, not to shoot anybody that has two wolf hairs on them. It is indeed a matter of looking at what are we aiming for here. Paul and Peter will describe extremes so that we know what it looks like, but it doesn't mean that the first step is shoot and then ask questions later. Yeah, good point, and thank you for bringing that up. That's a real key thing.

We're going to be looking more at this false teacher issue and understanding, and Peter doesn't go into it here, but there are other places that Scripture does, understanding what's the goal of dealing with those who overstep the bounds, either in practice or in their teaching. What are we trying to do? We're trying to put the whole body whole. as a whole, on a path of living and teaching and learning the truth. And the goal is not a whole bunch of dead sheep, because they have a couple of wolf hairs on them.

Let's take a look at a couple of more slides here. This is the supplemental handout on the Sons of God I put over on the table, and you can feel free to grab that if you'd like. Sodom and Gomorrah. It's one written of in Genesis 13 through 19. 13, 18, and 19 particularly.

What contrasts with the present observation is that it was well watered everywhere. That's very interesting because here's the site. Does it look well watered everywhere? Something has changed radically about that whole area. This is a view east along the southern wall of the destroyed city of Sodom, southeast of the Dead Sea in the modern Jordan. It's identified by the Associates for Biblical Research. They have a magazine that they've put out since the mid-70s. I've subscribed to it most of that time, and it's called Bible and Spade. That's quarterly.

This area is now arid and lacking in vegetation. Watt chose it because at the time it was less vegetation. Isn't that interesting? Great contrast. Here are the areas that are identified by Dr. Bryant G. Wood, and I got permission from him to use this.

So now you have, it's the south end of the Dead Sea. There's a kind of a dry, salty valley. By the way, this is well, well below sea level. So now here's the excavation at Numera, which he's identified as Gamora in 1977. What they do is they'll typically go down and square excavations down and leave a wall between so they can get the layers analyzed and see where they are.

Look at this one. Can you identify it? Here are skeletons in the debris and here are burn material that is there right in the midst of it. Here's a drawing of it. So they've gone and recorded where the burn materials and the skeletons are in this depth here. And dark areas in the lower portion of the sketch are ash and bones.

So very interesting. What has been excavated is consistent with, then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. Here you had a place that, and when they went in, you know, food supplies, Cooked just like everything else. And not just bodies that have been buried, but bodies that died right in place. That's what they found. And he overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. Obviously nothing is growing on the ground now.

But it was a lush place, that's why Lot picked it. Abraham said, Take whatever you want. I like that. That looks good. Well, it doesn't look so good now. Here is the cities of the Eastern Plain. This is a geological cut here. And it says, Now Abraham, in Genesis 19, 27, 28, saw and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace. Here's also another thing. There's a major fault line that cuts through here and then cuts out just north of Haifa. in Israel, and that's part of the reason for the Dead Sea being there in the first place, and also this action that we see at the time of Sodom and Gomorrah's destruction. Okay, thoughts? Other questions? You brought up some good points and questions. Other thoughts? Just looking at this passage here.

Yes. Ah, yes, despotess. It's funny, the master who bought them. We have from despot, we have a negative connotation to that word. It is, it does, it did not have that significance in its original use. It simply meant someone who had a position of authority over. And so it is an equivalent to what's typically translated Lord or Master, kurios. But as it's developed over time, we've taken that same word and adapted it, adopted it, and had, we use it in our language, despot, with a negative connotation. It did not have that connotation initially. There isn't any negative meaning by the use of that term. Thanks. Any other thoughts or questions or ponderings? Exasperations?

I thought that we followed angels if angels couldn't procreate. Here's the deal. The fallen angels were not to procreate. God made angels and God made human beings and there was nothing from anything that we know of the creation of either one that there was any intention to reproduce or interact along those lines. Well, it's interesting that Genesis 6 passage It indicates angelic beings crossing the line over into humans, and in the Sodom and Gomorrah, it's human beings wanting to cross the line over into angels. Of course, in that case, it was of ignorance that it was another kind of flesh, but even then, homosexuality by itself was a perversion. They were not to. As a matter of fact, that's why the scripture lays out, those who did not keep they're assigned a boat, the place where they were to remain.

Jesus talks when he's answering the question about It's one of the Sadducees put to him, you know, this one brother, you know, his brother died and so he married this wife and this one and this one, you know, which one is he married to in heaven? And Jesus answers, they're like the angels of heaven. But notice, they're the angels of heaven, which is a phrase consistently used for those who did not fall and disobey the Lord. So that's a distinction.

Those in the heavenly realm do not do so, and they don't cross the line. The fallen angels, who are not the angels of heaven, that's a different thing. And the division appears to be from the Genesis passage, from 2 Peter, from Jude, and from the other passage that speak of why are these angels in the abyss? Those are the ones who cross the line. and didn't stay in their particular angelic domain, but crossed the line over into human beings.

Those are the ones, from the indications we have multiple places in scripture, who crossed the line and are held in what is now called the abyss or the abyssos, and will remain there, except for we mentioned that five-month period of time, until they're thrown into the lake of fire at the end of the time of this earth.

Yeah. It's just funny how God would create them to be able to. Here's the interesting thing. Angelic beings have the ability to appear as human beings, and even, what does Paul say, even the fallen angels have the ability to appear as angels of light. So there's an ability to appear in other forms. What does Hebrews talk about, but entertaining angels unaware of it. Why? Because they appear in the human form.

Genesis, among other Old Testament books, has a number of different instances where it describes that angelic appearance in human form. This is, for example, in Sodom and Gomorrah. The men of Sodom didn't say, oh, angels. They said, ah, other men, visitors. And so those angels certainly did appear in human form, and as a matter of fact, to the point that the men of Sodom thought, well those are just other men. So yeah, there's definitely an ability to appear as a human being.

That's abundantly clear in both the Old and New Testament. But the crossing over so as to have that as a sexual basis with human beings was apparently something that could be done, but was not to be done. They went out of bounds in terms of what God designed. Yes? Yeah, and I've heard similar accounts of people just showing up inexplicably, that there doesn't seem to be any other explanation.

Nancy and I, even Carson City, we were in a place close to where that kind of account took place, and we weren't there at the time, but we saw the site and it had to do with a house being preserved from a fire. by believers praying. And so, you know, yeah, it may well be. I think the thing is, while Scripture doesn't say this is going to happen to you now, I don't see any reason biblically why it could not be. And so it may well be. I'm not sure we'll have the mind to ask questions about things like that, but it may well be that that would be the sort of thing we'd say, I'd like to get that confirmed, or was that really how it happened? And it could very well be. And the Hebrews passage that makes reference to that certainly seems to imply that it could be. So yeah, a possibility. Other thoughts? Ponderings? That's it. We're done. Okay. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word, for the amazing, astounding insights that we have because of what you have intentionally revealed for our benefit because you love us. We thank you for Peter's words here, even at a time when he's recognizing that these are his last days. He lays truth out before these believers so that they would be preserved from the error and the danger and the hazard of these false teachers. We thank you for laying out the truth before us because you love us. In Jesus' name, Amen.