One of my all time favorite film franchises is Star Wars, especially the original 3. For those of you sensitive to such things, I'm not sorry, they've been out for over 30 years, if you were not interested in them enough to know by now, here's a plot point anyway. Luke Skywalker, the original trilogy's main protagonist, finds out that the villain, Darth Vader, is his father, after being told by his mentor, Obi Wan Kenobi, that Vader had betrayed and murdered his father. Luke felt betrayed, and Obi Wan explained that when he turned to evil, the good man that was his father was destroyed, so it was true, from a certain point of view, and that the truths we cling to often depend upon our points of view. I hate that answer, Truth is truth, whether or not we accept it. Vader was Luke's Father, and very much alive, albeit by cybernetics. Obi Wan lied. The truth was kept from him because his mentors, Obi Wan and Yoda, deemed that he was not ready for the burden of the truth. It devastated Luke when he found out...from the wrong source. And so the "point of view argument" has more holes in it than Swiss cheese. We cannot change the truth by believing something is true from our perspective. All of humanity, save Jesus Christ when He was among us, has the wrong point of view. we look at things from the perspective of our limited and finite scope. God sees all things, and understands that He does and says what He does to prevent us from hurting ourselves. And, in spite of knowing we'd rebel, had the understanding, and the ETERNAL perspective to understand that we would all need saving. We cannot trust our own judgment. We need a new heart, and a clean heart, one that only God, through His Son, Jesus Christ can provide in Grace through faith, by becoming the ultimate sacrifice. In rising again, He became the first fruit, He became the payment of our sin, and He provided us with the Holy Spirit that we might become more like Him. Trust God, not ourself. Watch how He handles things, and test by viewing all things through His word, and so test His will. God's truth and His word should shape our perspective, not the other way around.
2 Peter 2 English Standard Version (ESV)
False Prophets and Teachers
2 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell[a] and committed them to chains[b] of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;[c] 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials,[d]and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge[e] in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.
Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions,[f] while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery,[g] insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet's madness.
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves[h] of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
Footnotes:
a. 2 Peter 2:4 Greek Tartarus
b. 2 Peter 2:4 Some manuscripts pits
c. 2 Peter 2:6 Some manuscripts an example to those who were to be ungodly
d. 2 Peter 2:9 Or temptations2 Peter 2:10 Greek who go after the flesh
e. 2 Peter 2:13 Some manuscripts love feasts
f. 2 Peter 2:14 Or eyes full of an adulteress
g. 2 Peter 2:19 For the contextual rendering of the Greek word doulos, see Preface
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