2 Peter

Chapter 2

vs 1

Peter wasn't prophesying this - it's so common that he just used his commonsense. I also don't think he's suggesting there aren't any - there probably already was. No matter how swift their destruction though, it's not swift enough to undo damage. Thankfully, God can use that damage to grow the church.

vs 2

And what happens to those people? Are they still saved? Were they ever saved at all? Many who, Peter, many who?! Sufficed to say that heretics make us look bad.

vs 3

So this is what to look for - they make stuff up, and they exploit you. They are greedy. But we are assured that their destruction isn't sleeping. Almost like God gives them cancer when they start preaching heresy or something - but we know that's not true.

vs 4

Poor angels - this one verse casts a long shadow over the rest of the Bible, because it shows just how little we know about the spiritual world. When did this casting down occur? Does it still occur? When was the "fall of angels"? Questions that, although lots of people enjoy speculating on, the Bible doesn't tell us about.

vs 5

That was, lets face it, a lot of people to wipe out.

vs 6

Sodom and Gomorrah were an example of what was going to happen. Now you might understand where fire & brimstone preaching comes from - people are just using the example that God used.

vs 7-8

Peter is telling us something that isn't in the Genesis account regarding Lot's distress and torment, but we'll believe him. I think it's a fair assumption to make.

vs 9

So these are all just examples of why we can trust God to look after us and expect him to condemn heretics and punish them in the meantime. Of course, I'm still waiting for Spong to have a tragic accident...

That being said, Peter is merely saying that God knows how to do it - not that he must do it as a rule.

vs 10-11

The despising of authority I think is what Peter is going on about with the slandering angels thing. He says they are more powerful than us, so I'm assuming he's putting them over us authority-wise. So if these guys are willing to slander them, surely they would slander church leaders, apostles (sore point for Peter?) and quite possibly even stir up trouble for Christians amongst the Roman leadership.