A few interesting notes regarding the Book of 2Peter.

Do you strive to Elucidate* all of Holy Scripture?
or 
Do you  Elide** verses that do not agree with your beliefs?

  *Elucidate: To make clear and comprehensible.
**Elide: To ignore or to omit.

 2Peter 1:4, "Through which He has granted us the very great and precious 
 promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the Divine nature,
having escaped from the corruption of that lust which is in the world."

Elucidation:
This is a banner verse. Can anyone see it waving? The underlined words can only
mean exactly what they say. How can non-Catholics partake of the Divine nature 
when they call it a mere symbol? Well they are correct. For them it really is a mere symbol,
crackers and grape juice, since they have no valid priesthood that can transform bread
and wine into the Body and Blood, the Divine nature of Jesus Christ.
However, they have no right to say that it is only a symbol in the Church that Jesus Christ founded.
Read John chapter six. Elucidate every word, and you will see for yourself that a mere
symbol is never mentioned or even hinted at anywhere in the chapter.


2Peter 1:20, "...no prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation."

Elucidation:
This verse is really a gem. All of the tens of thousands of non-Catholic sects that call themselves
Christian, are guilty of eliding this verse. Each of their millions of members strive to be their own Pope.
They will take a verse completely out of context and try to make a case out of it,
simply because it appears to bolster their false teaching.
Think about it?
Ignoring this verse is the main reason why today we have tens of thousands of non-Catholic sects
who formed those splits in the Body of Christ over differences in individual Bible interpretations.
"Has Christ been divided up?" 1Corinthians 1:13
Wouldn't you agree that 2Peter 1:20 has been widely ignored by millions? 
Do you really think that GOD would have given us an infallible book without first giving us an infallible interpreter for it?
If not then please explain why 2Peter 1:20 is even in the Bible at all?


2Peter 1:21, "For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the 
holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost."

Elucidation:
I suppose that the first Protestant, Martin Luther, thought that he was inspired by the
Holy Ghost when he added to and deleted from Holy Scripture that had been intact for well
over a thousand years before he was even born. Were the Scriptures in error all that time?
Or did he do it by the "will of man"?
2Peter 1:21 does say "not by the will of man", does it not?
What does Haydock, one of the most respected Biblical commentaries have to say for this verse?
Haydock: Ver. 21. For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time. This is to shew that they are not to be
expounded by any one's private judgment, because every part of the holy Scriptures is delivered to us by the divine spirit of God,
wherewith the men were inspired who wrote them; therefore they are not to be interpreted but by the spirit of God, which he left,
and promised to his Church to guide her in all truth to the end of the world. Our adversaries may perhaps tell us, that we also
interpret prophecies and Scriptures; we do so; but we do it always with a submission to the judgment of the Church, they without it. (Witham)

 
 2Peter 2:1, RSV, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you,
who will secretly bring in destructive heresies ('sects of perdition' in the DRB, 'damnable heresies' in the KJ),
even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction."

Elucidation:
'Destructive heresies', 'sects of perdition', 'damnable heresies'???
If you are not familiar with the word 'perdition', please Google it or consult a dictionary. It is scary.
These are very strong words from Holy Scripture to say the least. Never should anyone elide them. 
Isn't dividing the Body of Christ into tens of thousands of pieces* destructive?
What ever happened to another verse, elided by those that split the Body of Christ, where He
prayed to the Father that they be one?
For those who are the authors of those divisions, do you think that they ever read the last
five words of 2Peter 2:1?

*There are over 40,000 individual sects that call themselves Christian at the time of this writing.
World Christian Encyclopedia, a Protestant publication.


2Peter 2:2, "And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled. 

Elucidation:
This is a very interesting verse. Did you know that the early followers of Jesus Christ were called
"The Way" before they were called Christian?
See these verses: Mk 1:3, 12:14, Lk 3:4,20:21, Jn 1:23,14:4-5,*14:6, Acts 9:2,16:17,18:25-26,*19:9,23,22:4,24:*14,22.
2Peter 2:2 also said "the way", and not "the ways", since there can be only one way of truth.
"The way of truth will be reviled" is certainly true even to this day what with all of the
never ending attacks against the only Church that Jesus Christ founded.

2Peter 2:12, "But these men, like irrational animals created by nature for capture and destruction,
deride what they do not understand, and will perish in their own corruption...".

Elucidation:
Here is a quote from Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) which fits perfectly with this verse:
"There are not more than 100 people in the world who truly hate the Catholic Church,
but there are millions who hate what they perceive to be the Catholic Church."
How many to this day "deride what they do not understand" about the Catholic Church?
They do so because of what they believe in what they are taught by false teachers, rather than
by going to the source, the Catholic Church, for the truth of what it teaches.
Read about how I got started in apologetics whereas to know what non-Catholics were taught,
I did not listen to them but went directly to their sources for the truth of what they were taught.
I obtained their own teaching materials, and saw for myself the misconceptions they had
regarding the Catholic Church.  

Here is what is said about 2Peter 2:12 from the Haydock Bible commentary:
Ver. 12. But these men, &c. These infamous heretics of whom he speaks, like brutes, void of reason, naturally
following the disorderly inclinations of their nature corrupted by sin, tend, or run headlong into the snares of the devil,
to their own destruction and perdition, blaspheming against the mysteries of religion, and against what they do not understand. (Witham)



2Peter 3:16, "In these epistles there are certain things difficult to understand,
which the unlearned and unstable distort, just as they do the rest of the Scriptures also,
to their own destruction."

Elucidation:
Again we see a verse that reverts back to:
2Peter 1:20, "...no prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation."
Essentially it is the same instruction but using different wording.
Why does a person repeat himself? It is to add emphasis to the lesson because of its importance.
If anyone sees himself or herself imbedded in this verse, please do not avoid the last four words.


Written by Bob Stanley
January 19, 2012


Galatians 4:16

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