2 Peter

Against False Prophets and Teachers

Just as there have been false prophets among the people, there will also be false teachers among you. They will create harmful sects and, by denying the Master who redeemed them, they will bring upon themselves sudden destruction.

Many will imitate their vices, and because of them, the path of truth will be discredited. 

They will use deceptive words to exploit you. But the judgment pronounced upon them long ago is not idle, and the destruction awaiting them is not asleep. 

In fact, God did not forgive the angels who sinned but cast them into Tartarus, where they are kept in darkness until the judgment. 

He did not forgive the old world when he flooded the wicked, but only protected Noah, a herald of righteousness, and seven others. 

God also condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to ashes as a warning to future wickedness. 

But he saved Lot, a good man, who was painfully affected by the unruly conduct of those wicked people. 

For Lot, a righteous man living among them, suffered day after day in his kind heart as he saw and heard their crimes, 

then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the wicked for punishment on the day of judgment. 

He will do this especially for those who follow their basic desires and disdain the Lord’s majesty.

Proud and bold, they are not afraid to insult fallen spirits,

while the angels, superior in strength and power, do not even dare to bring slanderous accusations before the Lord. 

But these people are like irrational animals, born to be caught and killed; after slandering what they do not understand, they will end up like animals 

and face the consequences of their wickedness. They take pleasure in indulging in depravity, even during the daytime; they deceive you even while they feast with you. 

With their eyes constantly searching for adultery, they never tire of sinning and seducing vulnerable souls. They are driven by greed. Accursed children! 

They have abandoned the right path and followed Balaam, son of Beor, who was driven by what he gained from his wrongdoing. 

But he was rebuked for his sin: his donkey started speaking with a human voice, stopping the prophet’s madness. 

These people are like waterless springs, clouds driven by a storm, rapidly moving into the deepest darkness.

 With boastful and empty words, they promote the lust and impurity of those who have just escaped the corruption of the world. 

They promise them freedom, but they are themselves bound by corruption, because people are enslaved by whatever controls them. 

For if they, after escaping the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, return to those vices and give in to them, their condition has become worse than before. 

It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn away from the sacred teachings they received. 

In their case, these proverbs are appropriate: ‘The dog returns to its own vomit,’ and: ‘A washed pig wallows again in the mud.’