Pilgrims in Christ – Part 35

What we can learn from the letters of Peter about practice of faith in Christ in times of uncertainty.

 

པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 2:1

གནའ་བོའི་ཡི་སི་ར་ཨེལ་པའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་ལུང་སྟོན་པ་རྫུན་མ་རྣམས་བྱུང་བ་ལྟར། ད་ལྟའང་ཁྱེད་ཚོའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་སློབ་དཔོན་རྫུན་མ་རྣམས་འབྱུང་ཡོང༌། ཁོ་ཚོས་གསང་བའི་སྒོ་ནས་ཁྱེད་ཚོའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་འཇིག་པ་སྐྱེད་པའི་ཆོས་ལོག་སྟོན་པར་འགྱུར་བ་མ་ཟད། ཁོ་ཚོ་བླུ་རིན་གྱིས་ཉོ་མཁན་གཙོ་བོ་ཡེ་ཤུ་ཡང་དང་ལེན་མི་བྱེད་པས་རང་ཉིད་མྱུར་དུ་འཇིག་པའི་རྒྱུ་རྐྱེན་དུ་འགྱུར།

 

2 Peter 2:1

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

 

Peter was warning against the existence and operations of false prophets and teachers within the congregations who were supposed to be followers of Christ.

Peter was not addressing pagan false prophets and teachers outside the disciples’ fellowship.

This has been a long standing problem since before the days of Jesus and will continue to be a problem till Jesus returns.

What made these false prophets and teachers problematic are the difficulties to tell the difference between truth and heresies for the sheep and some of these teachers and prophets may had been sincere disciples and preachers at one time and swayed.

Furthermore the expectations of people waiting for the Messiah and with any assumption “when the kingdom of God should appear” created the atmosphere where false leaderships can easily take control of the masses.

Interpretation and applications of scripture have been a highly debatable issue for a long time and that also explains the vast variations of Christian denominations and sub-groups adding to the confusions.

The more difficult and complicated to deal with are extremist groups which can lead the path to destruction and very damaging to believers faith. These extremist groups appears to have a common pattern of wanting to established their ideal of “the kingdom of God” here on earth and very often organized and operated by controlling manipulative leaderships coveting position of powers.

Peter was executed by Nero just about one or two years from the start of the Jewish-Roman wars led by extremist groups that went on from 66 AD to 135 AD.

Jesus also warned that during times of political and ethnic conflicts the tendency for false prophets to arise is high!

 

མད་ཐཱ། 24:3-13

3 ཡེ་ཤུ་སྐྱུར་རུ་ཤིང་གི་རི་སྟེང་དུ་བཞུགས་པའི་ཚེ། ཉེ་གནས་རྣམས་ཟུར་དུ་ཁོང་གི་མདུན་ལ་ཡོང་ནས་ཁོང་ལ་ “དོན་འདི་རྣམས་དུས་ནམ་ཞིག་ལ་འབྱུང་ཞིང༌། ཁྱེད་ཀྱིས་འབྱོན་པ་དང་དུས་ཀྱི་མཐའ་མའི་རྟགས་གང་ཡིན་པ་ང་ཚོར་གསུང་རོགས་” ཞེས་ཞུས།

4 ལན་དུ་ཡེ་ཤུས་དེ་རྣམས་ལ་ “མི་སུས་ཀྱང་ཁྱེད་ཚོ་མི་སླུ་བའི་ཕྱིར་དོགས་ཟོན་གྱིས་ཤིག

5 མི་མང་པོས་ངའི་མིང་ཐོག་ནས་ཡོང་སྟེ་ང་རང་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཟེར་ནས་མི་མང་པོར་མགོ་སྐོར་གཏོང་ངེས་ཡིན།

6 ཁྱེད་ཚོས་དམག་འཁྲུག་དང་དམག་འཁྲུག་སྐོར་གྱི་གཏམ་ཐོས་པའི་སྐབས་སུ་མ་འཇིགས་ཤིག དོན་འདི་ཚོ་འབྱུང་ངེས་ཀྱང་དེ་ནི་དུས་རབས་ཀྱི་མཐའ་མ་ད་དུང་མ་ཡིན།

7 རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་མི་རིགས་དང་མི་རིགས་འཁྲུག་ཅིང་རྒྱལ་ཁམས་དང་རྒྱལ་ཁམས་འཁྲུག་པ། ས་ཆ་ཁ་ཤས་ལ་མུ་གེ་དང་ས་ཡོམ་ཡང་འབྱུང་བར་འགྱུར།

8 འདི་ཚོ་ཐམས་ཅད་ནི་སྐྱེ་ཟུག་ཐོག་མ་དང་འདྲ་བ་ཡིན།

9 དེ་ནས་ཁོ་ཚོས་ཁྱེད་རྣམས་ལ་གནོད་འཚེ་བྱེད་པར་གཏད་ནས་གསོད་པར་འགྱུར། ངའི་མིང་གི་རྐྱེན་གྱིས་མི་རིགས་ཚང་མས་ཁྱེད་རྣམས་ལ་སྡང་བར་འགྱུར།

10 དེའི་ཚེ་མི་མང་པོ་དད་པ་ལོག་པར་གྱུར་ནས་གཅིག་གིས་གཅིག་ལ་རྒྱབ་གཏོད་བྱེད་ཅིང་སྡང་ཡོང༌།

11 ལུང་སྟོན་པ་རྫུན་མ་མང་པོ་ཞིག་འབྱུང་ཞིང་མི་མང་པོར་བསླུ་བྲིད་བྱེད་པར་འགྱུར།

12 བཀའ་ཁྲིམས་དང་འགལ་བ་འཕེལ་བས་མི་མང་ཆེ་བའི་བརྩེ་སེམས་ཉམས་པར་འགྱུར།

13 འོན་ཀྱང་ཚེའི་མཐའ་མཇུག་བར་དུ་བཟོད་པ་སྒོམ་པའི་མི་དེ་ལ་ཐར་པ་འཐོབ་ངེས་ཡིན།

 

Matthew 24:3-13

3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. 10 And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

 

For a long time since Moses received the laws and ordinances from God on Mount Sinai, proper interpretations and applications of God’s teachings have had been on the debate.

The writings of the Prophets especially those portions of prophetic scriptures that foretold of the coming Messiah and the establishment of the kingdom of God or known as Messianic Era are of great interest due to human desire to look into the future and assume if we can be at the right place at the right time doing the right thing perhaps one can be bettered assured of his/her salvation! As if there is a magic formula to salvation!

The message of Peter delivered during the time of the beginning of the Jewish-Roman wars, there were few if not many aspiring leaders who either assumed to be messiah themselves or being put forwarded by their followers.

If we think about it carefully it is shocking and horrifying why and how did the multitude of masses follow these fake messiahs? There seem no clear answers for it and apparently people just follow their own human desire for whatever will be helpful to them? And since the public masses prefer liberation from the Romans, the messages of these misleading false messiahs were appealing.

As according to people’s opinion “messiah” could be easily be understood as “savior” and those were the days when many of the Jewish folks expected complete political deliverance from Roman rule. And since Jewish society was fundamentally theocratic it was the platform where religious extremist could easily swayed people’s opinion.

That was why Peter warned of these false leaders

 

“who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction”

 

Peter made a particular point “even denying the Master” and we know from the time of Pentecost recorded in Acts 2 Peter had been confronted by his own folks who were also waiting for the messiah but not only refused to receive Jesus but enforced a ban on preaching Jesus among the disciples and apostles of Christ!

These groups of people who rejected Jesus as Messiah created their own variation of savior and redeemer and were led astray to eventual destruction when fake messiahs arise.

We today have the benefit of hindsight knowing how the Jewish-Roman wars brought about far-reaching devastating impact on the Jewish people not only for those residing in Jerusalem but even those living across the known Roman world.

We also know from historical records names of Jewish leaders at the time of Jewish-Roman wars who could be identified as extremist and nationalist and hailed as “messiahs” who thought to bring about political deliverance for Israel and the establishment of the kingdom of God here on earth but that did not happened as according to their plan.

The bloodshed and repercussions from the wars not only affected Jewish community world-wide but also disciples of Jesus who stayed cleared of such political religious ethnic chaos.

The fundamental issue at stake with regard to problems of false prophets and teachers are redemption and restoration of God’s chosen people.

 

Redemption and Restoration of God’s Chosen People

 

Therefore Peter identified these false leaders as “even denying the Master who bought them” means casting away one’s faith in Christ as our hope and anchor of redemption and restoration to God’s eternal life and blessing.

This is so important that believers and followers of Christ build a strong firm foundation in what we know and understand about our salvation in Christ.

Jesus preached against sins and called for repentance and to live in obedience to God’s teachings.

False prophets and teachers have the tendency to marginalize God’s condemnation for sins and thus neglect the needs for repentance.

False prophets and teachers have the tendency to emphasis special privileges and entitlements for their ideology of “God’s Chosen People” and reject scripture truths and teachings about trust and obedience to God.

In the days of Jesus those Pharisees and Sadducees who rejected Jesus’ call for repentance and taught their members not to follow Jesus, these are a type of false prophets and teachers. These Pharisees and Sadducees did have had their own ideas they were God’s chosen people and they did projected their expectations and emphasis of special privileges and entitlements, and they willfully rejected Jesus’ call for repentance!

For us who know our true salvation in Christ we must continue to build upon our foundation in Jesus, amen!

We must not depart from Jesus’ teachings about repentance, trust, and obedience to God’s truth revealed in scripture.

 

David Z