Peter's Second Letter
1Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus the Messiah, to those who have gained the same precious faith as ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus the Messiah:
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and Jesus our Master!
Since everything that has to do with his divine power, life, and reverence have been given to us by the knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and moral excellence, through him the precious, great promises were given to us, that through these things you could be sharers of the divine nature, because you have fled from the decay that is in the desires of the world. For this very reason, apply all diligence to supplement your faith with moral excellence, your moral excellence with knowledge, your knowledge with self-control, your self-control with persistence, your persistence with reverence, your reverence with kindness, and your kindness with love. Because when you possess these qualities (and they are increasing), they cause you to be neither useless or fruitless in the knowledge of our Master Jesus the Messiah. Whoever lacks these qualities is nearsighted to the point of blindness because he has forgotten that he has received cleansing from his former sins. So all the more, brothers, be diligent to make a confirmation of your calling and election, because by doing these things you will never trip up. In this way the entrance to the eternal kingdom of our Master and Savior, Jesus the Messiah, will be richly supplied to you.
So I always intend to remind you of these things, although you know and are strengthened by the present truth. But I thought it right, that while I am still in this tent, to stimulate you to remembrance, because I know that I will be putting away my tent soon, just like our Master Jesus the Messiah showed me. But I will be diligent every time to ensure that you remember these things after my departure. For we did not make known to you the power and coming of our Master Jesus the Messiah by following cunning myths, but rather as witnesses of that majesty. When he received honor and glory from God, a voice came to him by this majestic glory: "This is my dear son; I am very pleased with him!" And we--we heard this voice from heaven come down to him while we were on that holy mountain! We also have the confirmation of the prophetic message, which you would be doing well to hold like a lamp, shining [it] in a dark place until the morning dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
However, understand this first: no prophecy of Scripture ever came because a man wanted it to; on the other hand, men spoke from God as they were brought along by the Holy Spirit. 2However, false prophets also appeared among the people, just like there will be false teachers among you, too. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, and by denying the master who redeemed them, they will seduce themselves into a quick destruction. Many will follow them in their revelry. Because of them, the truth will be slandered, and they will sell you into selfish desire by invented messages. Judgment became useless to them a long time ago, and their destruction does not sleep. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but rather hurled them into the dark pit of Tartarus, and handed them over to be kept until the judgment--and if he did not spare the ancient world, but rather guarded [only] Noah's [family of] eight, the preacher of righteousness, by bringing a flood upon that ungodly world--and if he condemned the conduct of Sodom and Gomorrah by reducing those cities to ashes, making an example of their ungodliness (yet he rescued righteous Lot, who was tormented by their lawbreaking actions in their selfish conduct when he saw and heard it. That righteous man lived with them day after day and tormented his soul with their lawbreaking actions.)--the Master knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and keep the unrighteous until Judgment Day for punishment.
This is especially true of those who follow the body in its desires, who go into destruction thinking little of ruling authority. Daring to be stubborn, they slander them by not fearing the divine ones. And the angels, with strength and power greater than theirs, do not [dare to] bring a slanderous condemnation from the Master against them! These people are like silly animals born in nature for defeat and destruction, in which they blaspheme what they do not know; in their destruction they too will be destroyed by receiving ill treatment because of their unrighteousness. They pursue pleasure for a day of comfort. They are stains and disgraces who take comfort in feasting on you with their fraud. They have eyes that are full of adultery and insatiable sins, baiting weak souls, having a heart trained in greed--those cursed children! They abandon the divine way and are deceived, so they follow in the path of Balaam, Beor's son, who loved the repayment of unrighteousness and received shame for his lawbreaking deeds: the speechless donkey cried out and prevented the prophet's madness! Those [false teachers] are fountains without water, and clouds driven by storms. The gloom of darkness has kept them imprisoned, for they are speaking a huge amount of worthlessness. They deceive those who flee weakly with socially-unacceptable bodily desires, and turn them back into deceit. They promise them freedom, but they are slaves belonging to destruction. Whenever someone yields himself to something, he is enslaved by it. Because if they flee the destruction of the world with the knowledge of our Master and Savior, Jesus the Messiah, and afterward entangle themselves in it and yield to it, the last situation has become worse than the first! It would have been better for them not to have learned the way of righteousness, than to turn from the holy command passed on to them after learning [about it]. The proverb is confirmed as true in their example: "The dog returns to his vomit, and the washed pig [returns] to rolling in the mud."
3Already I have written you this second letter. In these [letters] I arouse your memory of the pure understanding, so you may remember the messages previously spoken by the holy prophets and the command of your apostles [who were sent] from the Master and Savior. Understand this above all: mockers will go into the last day mocking, following their desires and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? From the time our forefathers died, everything continues like [it did] from the beginning of creation." For they voluntarily forget this: the ancient heavens and earth were brought together by the word of God, from water and through water (through which the world of that time was destroyed by water when the Flood!"). The present heavens and earth are stored up by the same word, and are kept for fire in the day of the judgment and destruction of irreverent men! Do not forget this, dear loved ones, because one day to the Master is like 1000 years, and 1000 years are like one day. The Master is not lazy about his promise, like some men consider it laziness. Rather he is patient with us. He does not want anyone to be destroyed--he wants all men to return to repentance! The day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day, the heavens will disappear with a rushing noise, the elements will dissolve with heat, and the earth and all of the things done on it will be laid bare. Since all of this will be destroyed in this way, what kind of person must you be with holy conduct and reverence? You are waiting for and earnestly desire the coming of the day of the Master, through which the heavens will dissolve in fire and the elements will melt with heat. We are waiting for "a new heaven and a new earth," according to his promise, and [only] righteousness will dwell in them!
So, dear loved ones, since you are waiting for them, earnestly desire to be found by him in peace, without stain or shame, and consider the patience of our Master as salvation, just like our dear brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, as he speaks about these things in all of his letters. In those letters there are some things that are difficult to understand. The unlearned and weak ones twist those things (just like they do the rest of the Scriptures) unto their own destruction.
So you, dear loved ones, since you know this beforehand, guard yourselves, so that you are not led away into this criminal deception. That way you will not fall from your own strength. On the other hand, grow in the grace and knowledge of our Master and Savior, Jesus the Messiah--to him be glory, both now and until the eternal day! Amen.
