Pilgrims in Christ – Part 38
What we can learn from the letters of Peter about practice of faith in Christ in times of uncertainty.
པེ་ཏྲོ་གཉིས་པ། 3:4-7
4 ཁྱེད་ཚོར། ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་འབྱོན་པའི་ཞལ་ཆད་གང་དུ་ཡོད། མེས་པོ་འདས་པ་ནས་བཟུང་དོན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཇི་ལྟར་འཇིག་རྟེན་བཀོད་པ་ནས་གང་ཡོད་པ་དེ་ལྟར་ད་ལྟའང་མི་འགྱུར་བར་གནས་སོ་ཞེས་ཟེར་ཡོང༌།
5-6 དེ་ལྟར་ཟེར་ན་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ཡི་སྒོ་ནས་ནམ་མཁའ་གནའ་སྔ་མོ་ནས་ཡོད་པ་དང༌། ས་ཡང་ཆུ་ལས་བྱུང་ཞིང་ཆུ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་གནས་ཏེ། དེའི་སྒོ་ནས་གནའ་བོའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཆུ་ལོག་གིས་འཇིག་པ་ཡིན་པར་ཁོ་ཚོས་རྐང་བཙུགས་ཏེ་བརྗེད་པར་བྱེད།
7 ཡང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་བཞིན་ད་ལྟའི་གནམ་ས་མེ་ཡིས་སྲེག་ཆེད་བཞག་ཡོད། དེ་གཉིས་ཁྲིམས་གཅོད་པའི་ཉིན་མོ་དང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་མི་ཉན་པ་རྣམས་ལ་མེད་པ་བཟོ་བའི་བར་དུ་བཞག་ཡོད།
2 Peter 3:4-7
4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
Continuing on Peter’s message and warning against false prophets and teachers.
Apparently these misleading characters, false prophets and teachers as mentioned in scriptures, prioritized neglecting of God’s teachings and deliberate mockery of God’s judgement. The key danger these misleading characters posed to the churches and fellowship is the deception of believers missing out on their true redemption in Christ! Believers and disciples being cheated of their real salvation in Jesus Christ!
Peter addressed one of their opposing proclamations
“Where is the promise of his coming?”
4 ཁྱེད་ཚོར། ཡེ་ཤུ་མཱ་ཤི་ཀ་འབྱོན་པའི་ཞལ་ཆད་གང་དུ་ཡོད། མེས་པོ་འདས་པ་ནས་བཟུང་དོན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཇི་ལྟར་འཇིག་རྟེན་བཀོད་པ་ནས་གང་ཡོད་པ་དེ་ལྟར་ད་ལྟའང་མི་འགྱུར་བར་གནས་སོ་ཞེས་ཟེར་ཡོང༌།
These misleading characters were challenging the fulfillment of scripture that foretold of God’s promises for redemption and restoration especially with regards to the nation of Israel because they were told from the times of Moses to be prepared for the Messiah. And there was the high expectation during the times of Jesus that Israel will be delivered from the power of Rome. But where in scripture did God actually promised deliverance from Rome? There were no such promises!
Herewith we can observe a problem with these misleading characters – did they deliberately changed the interpretation of scripture to be based on human political-social agenda?
In previous post I mentioned Peter’s message was delivered at the time when Israel was at the verge of Jewish-Roman war. Situation on the ground were extremely tense and people were desperate for deliverance and freedom from hardship. And it was in such circumstances where religious leaderships could exploit people’s sentiments to start riots and warfare through deliberate wrongful interpretation of scriptures. A key problem with their misleading message is the neglect of God’s call for repentance and to be prepared to submit to the ultimate judgement of God. A difficult matter to deal with is “when” will God judge the evil and wicked?
Peter reminded faithful disciples about these misleading characters –
5-6 དེ་ལྟར་ཟེར་ན་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ཡི་སྒོ་ནས་ནམ་མཁའ་གནའ་སྔ་མོ་ནས་ཡོད་པ་དང༌། ས་ཡང་ཆུ་ལས་བྱུང་ཞིང་ཆུ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་གནས་ཏེ། དེའི་སྒོ་ནས་གནའ་བོའི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཆུ་ལོག་གིས་འཇིག་པ་ཡིན་པར་ཁོ་ཚོས་རྐང་བཙུགས་ཏེ་བརྗེད་པར་བྱེད།
5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished
Peter was referring to God’s ultimate power and authority to judge and His timing to judge.
Genesis record of creations by God made specific mention of day and night, Sun and Moon, seasons, multiplications of seeds, all these point to God’s established rule of sowing and reaping.
The Sun and the Moon were prepared by God to provide seasons and timing and for Man to work and rest. God’s law of sowing and reaping is not just for agricultural products but also for human behavior, therefore scripture teaches on God’s way of justice and God’s righteousness expected of Man. And scripture do warn of judgement when we fall short of God’s justice and righteousness.
We can understand how in the days of Noah the world was judged due to their acts of wickedness that goes against the justice of God. Those who willfully do wicked deeds continuously were sowing for themselves future judgement of God.
We know while Noah was preparing the Ark which took a long time was the grace period for calling the people to repentance and those who rejected perished without hope in the day of judgement.
God creation is more the just an expression of God’s power and wonder, but also of God’s power and authority to rule and judge mankind.
For our current generation more and more people who know the Bible could have become weary that since Christ resurrection it been about 2000 years and we are still waiting for Christ to return.
The current state of chaos, bloodshed and warfare worldwide, have caused more unease in people. But we need to pay attention to what Jesus Himself said about timing of judgement
མད་ཐཱ། 13:24-30
24 དཔེ་གཞན་ཞིག་ཁོ་ཚོར་བསྟན་ཏེ་ “དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་རྒྱལ་སྲིད་ནི་རང་གི་ཞིང་ཁར་ས་བོན་བཟང་པོ་འདེབས་མཁན་དང་འདྲ་བ་ཡིན།
25 འོན་ཀྱང་མི་རྣམས་གཉིད་ཁུག་དུས་ཁོའི་དགྲ་བོ་ཡོང་ནས་གྲོའི་ཁྲོད་དུ་རྩྭ་ངན་བཏབ་ནས་ཕར་སོང༌།
26 གྲོའི་མྱུ་གུ་ཐོན་ནས་འབྲས་བུ་སྨིན་སྐབས། རྩྭ་ངན་དེ་ཡང་མངོན།
27 ཞིང་བདག་གི་གཡོག་པོ་རྣམས་ཡོང་ནས་ཁོང་ལ། སྐུ་ཞབས་ལགས། ཁྱེད་ཀྱི་ཞིང་ཁར་ས་བོན་བཟང་པོ་མ་བཏབ་བམ། རྩྭ་ངན་འདི་ཚོ་གང་ནས་བྱུང་ཞེས་སྨྲས།
28 ལན་དུ་ཁོང་གིས་ཁོ་ཚོར་དགྲ་བོ་ཞིག་གིས་བྱས་པ་ཡིན་ཞེས་ཟེར། གཡོག་པོ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ཁོང་ལ། ང་ཚོ་ཕྱིན་ནས་རྩྭ་ངན་དགོག་པར་འདོད་དམ་ཞེས་སྨྲས།
29 བདག་པོས་དེ་ལྟར་མ་བྱེད་ཅིག གང་ཡིན་ཞེ་ན། གྲོ་དང་རྩྭ་ངན་གཉིས་ཀ་དགོག་ཉེན་ཡོད།
30 ལོག་ཏོག་མ་སྨིན་པའི་བར་དུ་དེ་གཉིས་མཉམ་དུ་སྐྱེ་རུ་ཆུག ཞིང་ཁ་རྔ་རན་པའི་དུས་སུ་ངས་རྔ་མཁན་རྣམས་ལ། སྔོན་ལ་རྩྭ་ངན་བསྒྲུགས་ནས་མེས་སྲེག་གཏོང་བའི་ཕྱིར་རྡོག་ཁྲེས་སུ་ཆིངས་ཤིག དེ་ནས་གྲོ་ངའི་བང་མཛོད་དུ་སྡུས་ཤིག་ཅེས་སྨྲ་བར་བྱ་” ཞེས་གསུངས།
ཡུངས་འབྲུའི་དཔེ།
Matthew 13:24-30
24 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Jesus Himself revealed to us our human timeline of sowing and reaping and of eventual God’s judgement.
Peter was warning against those who willfully disregard God’s timing for grace and for judgement.
In the days of Noah the world was judged by water and for our generation waiting for the return of Christ this world will be judged by fire.
7 ཡང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་བཞིན་ད་ལྟའི་གནམ་ས་མེ་ཡིས་སྲེག་ཆེད་བཞག་ཡོད། དེ་གཉིས་ཁྲིམས་གཅོད་པའི་ཉིན་མོ་དང་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ལ་མི་ཉན་པ་རྣམས་ལ་མེད་པ་བཟོ་བའི་བར་དུ་བཞག་ཡོད།
7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
This calls for patience and perseverance, to live in trust and obedience to God’s teachings, while we look forward to our resurrections with Jesus, amen.
Peter’s message is warning us not to neglect scripture truth that warns us of God’s judgement and to seek true redemption and salvation in Jesus Christ.
David Z
The Life of Yeshu 