2 Peter | Practical Teaching on Coming Conditions

Session 13 | What If Peter Wrote To Us?

My Premise Through This Study

• The instruction of 2 Timothy 2:15 applies to us, and that a student of the word who is rightly dividing the word of truth is, among other things, separating the prophetic program from the mystery program.

  • The prophetic program can be found in the Old Testament and the Gospels and concerns the salvation God will bring through the millennial Kingdom of God.

  • The mystery program was hidden until it was revealed to the Apostle Paul and then, through him, to anyone who would listen. The mystery program concerns salvation offered to individuals, regardless of status within Israel and wholly without any requirement of works.

    
    

• After the mystery program was revealed to Paul, a rift began to emerge between followers of the two programs. This rift was addressed and resolved by the meeting recorded in Acts 15. Part of the resolution was that Peter would take his prophetic program to the Jews and Paul would take his mystery program to the Gentiles. This is expressed in Galatians 2:7.

• overlap

• Both 1 and 2 Peter are from the Apostle Peter and are about this prophetic program, not the mystery program. Except when stated within the epistle, they apply only to the Jewish nation and its citizens when it is intact and able to make national religious decisions.

• Our study of these letters, then, provides us insight into requirements of the Jewish nation to receive its gospel as well as to the recognition of the overlap of programs. There are times when Paul's message to individuals is acknowledged, and individual Jews are encouraged in that message. The bulk of the material, however, pertains to Israel nationally.

  
  

  What If My Assumptions Are Wrong?

  
  …

• 1 Peter 1:2 -- Believers today are elect, and thus some form of Calvinism would be required.

• 1 Peter 1:5, 13 -- Our salvation is not yet revealed/unveiled.

• 1 Peter 1:9 -- Our full salvation depends on a successful trial of our faith. It should be noted that the word translated receiving is inherently a works-based word. It is not simply to receive but to receive back.

• 1 Peter 1:10 -- Our salvation was prophesied in the Old Testament prophets. This requires that Paul's testimony about the mystery being hidden (Col. 1:27) is either false, a misunderstanding on his part, or a misunderstanding on our part. See also 1 Peter 2:10.

• 1 Peter 1:15-16 -- We are, by implication, still responsible for at least part of the Law.

• 1 Peter 1:17 -- We should live in fear because of the coming judgment.

• 1 Peter 2:9 -- The church is a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation.

• 1 Peter 3:20 -- Baptism is part of salvation.

• 1 Peter 4:8 -- Charity (acts of Christian kindness) will cover at least some sins.

• “standard evangelical interpretation" it is not my interpretation. I believe that spiritual gifts were manifestations of the Spirit to the Jewish nation and her believers during the time she was being offered the Kingdom.

• 1 Peter 4:12 -- We should expect to go through the tribulation.

• 1 Peter 4:17 -- We will assume that God is going to judge the church.

• 1 Peter 4:18 -- We must believe that salvation is based on righteousness -vs- ungodliness.

• 2 Peter 1:10-11 -- We enter the Kingdom of God by diligence.

• 2 Peter 2:20-21 -- A person who knew Jesus Christ and then became entangled in worldliness would lose their salvation.

  
  

  Conclusion

• Each of the passages above, when applied to the Body of Christ in this dispensation of the grace of God, introduces confusion and conflict with various passages of scripture.

• Each of the passages above, when applied outside the dispensation of the grace of God, fit perfectly with the teachings of the Law and requirements of the Kingdom.

• When these letters are divided from the doctrine for the Christian life, the Christian avoids personal confusion and conflict.