2Peter 2:2 - Sheep Shearing 101

2. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.

Many will follow false prophets and teachers. Not many might, nor yet many may, but many will follow them. This is a prophecy. It is going to happen. It has always happened in all the ages from Peter until now - and in all the ages of Israel before the incarnation. The prophecy itself compels no one to behave like this. It merely recognizes the sinfulness of fallen human nature apart from the sanctifying grace of God.

Note that the ways of false teachers and prophets are called "destructive." Destructive to people’s souls. Yet there are those being led astray by heresies today who cannot see and will not acknowledge the danger. They can be told and admonished from scripture but they will say something like this, "Yes, I know that’s what it says, but I believe this..." It happens to me all the time. But they are blind! Deceived! On the road to destruction unless God gives them light. It is small foxes that steal the grapes. Deliberate self-blindness in a small and seemingly unimportant matter will inevitably lead to wider and deeper and greater error - and uncorrected and unrepented it will ultimately lead to perdition.

What do we see today? Just turn on the television set to any of the so-called "religion" channels. Listen to Paul Crouch of TBN, to Creflo Dollar, to Kenneth Copeland and to Benny Hinn - and an almost unlimited avalanche of lesser lights and wannabes. I say "listen," but I don’t recommend it unless you know your Bible, because their teachings are full of pernicious and sometimes subtle heresies and errors that will greatly trouble the immature. False teaching, false prophecies false practices and false spirituality abound. These are the very people of whom Peter warns us. Yet millions are entranced by their babblings. They are enthralled by their performances, their persona, their image, their celebrity, their thin veneer of spirituality.

As an example, you can tell Hinn devotees that he is a false prophet and back it up with videos, transcripts and other evidence but the person will either refuse to look at it or he will simply ignore it. The mind is made up. The heart is closed. The truth is irrelevant.

In the diabolical name of so-called "tolerance" we are constantly pressured to live and let live. "That’s their way of understanding or interpreting the Bible, and we have ours," people say. As if two statements of doctrine bearing the absolute opposite import could both be simultaneously true. That’s the influence of Hegel. They can’t. Some things are just plain wrong. Some things are error. Some things are falsehoods. Some things are lies. Some things are heresies. But do you hear the warning trump sounded in the church? Do you hear those being paid to look after the sheep, those clothed in the sheep’s garments, sounding the alarm? Or are they crying, "Peace, peace!" when there is no peace.

Are you alright, Jack? Do you even care? Are you afraid of confrontation? In the name of love have you caved in to falsehood by just tolerating it? That’s not Christian, but do you do it anyway? In the name of love do you love your brother and sister right through the very gates of hell by tolerating the deadly errors that are killing them? Some love that is! I sure hope nobody loves me that much!

Can you not say with the Lord, "I hate every false way." Or are you better than the God that saved you? God hates every false way. And He is angry with the wicked every day. If our Father is angry then what ought we to be, as His children? Is there not room for righteous anger in the saints?

Peter says that because of false teachers and false prophets the way of truth will be blasphemed. Christianity will be spoken evil of because of these people. And if Christianity is reviled then Christ is reviled. By tolerating such teachers and deceivers in our midst, by not exposing and deposing and debunking them, but rather by associating with them through a misplaced sense of love and tolerance, then we ourselves are as good as reviling Christ.

Now that’s tough talk. But Christianity isn’t a picnic. It isn’t only for little children to endlessly play ring-around-the-rosy in a fuzzy atmosphere of teary-eyed feelings while sucking at the breast. It is for the children of God Almighty to identify with Him in His purposes and His attitudes and, yes, His sufferings, because we are in His Son who did the very same thing. It is for the meat-fed mature people of God to stand for what they believe, by the grace and in the power of God - and for His unchanging truth.