The World and the Word

                                                    The Wheat and the Chaff

In II Peter 2:1-22, the Apostle Peter identifies and describes apostate Christians. The Apostle describes how a person becomes an apostate Christian. Every human possesses a righteous soul and spirit given to them by God, but also a totally evil and spiritually dead nature injected into their beings by the Devil. The apostate becomes drawn to repentance and faith in Christ by the Holy Spirit when he hears the gospel. But his evil nature gets the best of him and causes him to completely reject Christ. His rejection becomes so final that he actually allows his evil nature to take complete control of his life to the extent that he begins to secretly hate Christ and His sacrifice. Judas Iscariot was the first apostate. Nevertheless, as a secret agent of the Devil, the apostate remains in Christianity, often as a false leader, so that he can corrupt the Church with false doctrine. Many apostates have introduced false doctrines and false versions of the Bible into Christianity. The only true Bible in English is the King James Bible translated directly from the Received Text. Matthew 12:31-32; II Peter 2:1-3; Psalm 12:6-7.

In verse 4, the Apostle Peter identifies the apostates as being equal to fallen angels which are totally evil. In verse 12, the Apostle describes them as "natural brute beasts" who "shall utterly perish in their own corruption." In other words, God will consign their totally evil, spiritual deaths to the lake of fire, not their living souls and spirits that He created. Romans 11:29. In verse 14, Peter identifies the apostates as "cursed children." Since God never cursed the living souls and spirits of Adam and Eve, and He promised that they and all their descendants would live in His sight forever, then the Apostle's phrase "cursed children" can only refer to the totally evil nature of the apostates. Genesis 3:14-21; Luke 20:38.

Based upon Christ's descent into Hell typified by the Old Testament burnt offering sacrifices, in the end of the world God will use His consuming fire, which is His wrath against evil, to dissolve the beings of every human consigned within the regions of the dead, resurrect their repentant living souls and spirits that He created and loves, and consign their evil, spiritual deaths to the eternal lake of fire. Leviticus 5:10; Genesis 8:20-21; I Corinthians 3:11-15; Revelation 5:11-14; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 20:11-15; Revelation 21:1-5; Psalm 107:10-14. In many ways, the apostates are far more evil than even those who commit horrible crimes against their fellow humans because they direct their crimes toward God Himself, but even these mostly evil humans have done some good works in their lives given to them by God which proves that they still retain very small living souls and spirits that God will resurrect and recreate in the end of the world. Ecclesiastes 9:1; Luke 20:38; Revelation 20:5. But God's higher form of salvation which is by His grace and His lower form of salvation which is by His recreation cannot happen without repentance and faith in the Lamb of God who will cleanse every repentant sinner and reconcile them all to God. Jesus described salvation by grace in John 3:1-21. God will bring all living humans confined within the regions of death to repentance and faith through a great worship service as recorded in Revelation 5:11-14. Colossians 1:15-20; Isaiah 45:21-24; Luke 3:6; I Timothy 4:10.

Jesus taught in Matthew 10:41-42 that "whosoever" does good works will receive positive rewards; that is, blessings that he can enjoy. The "whosoever" of verse 42 means essentially the same as the "whosoever" of John 3:16. These verses can only mean that God must resurrect and recreate every living human confined within the regions of death so that He can give them rewards for their good works. Revelation 22:11-12; Revelation 4:11; Psalm 50:23.