The Christ in Prophecy Journal

Traveling Down the Rapture Road in 2 Peter (Part 4)

2 Peter Rapture Road Series
MP3: Traveling Down the Rapture Road in 2 Peter, Lesson 2
Hosts: Nathan Jones & Vic Batista

Continue traveling down the Rapture Road with Nathan Jones and Vic Batista in this verse-by-verse study of the incredibly prophetic book of 2 Peter! You can start at the beginning with Part 1 or listen in to The Truth Will Set You Free podcast (above).

Bunch of Babies

Vic Batista: Oftentimes, when people think about Bible prophecy they turn their thoughts to the books of Revelation and Daniel, but rarely do they consider the small books, such as 2 Peter.

Nathan Jones: I find that when some people wish to sit down and read a book of the Bible they will pull up Numbers or Deuteronomy, but soon after they get to reading they’ll conclude, “Ah, no, this will take too long.” So, they’ll go looking for some of the more bite-sized books. I think that’s what gets people to wander over 1 and 2 Peter because they are such short books. Well, they may indeed be small, but they are packed with a ton of theology. You have to chew your way verse-by-verse through these little books. You’ll receive quite the spiritual meal by reading these smaller books found in the Old and New Testament.

Vic Batista: We chose for this study 2 Peter because it really ties into a lot of prophecies found in Zechariah, Revelation, and Daniel. The ending of 2 Peter, in particular, pulls a lot of concepts together and allows the reader to really capture biblical prophecy in a nutshell.

Let’s briefly recap some of the concepts we’ve learned so far from 2 Peter 1.

Nathan Jones: The letters written by the Apostle Peter and other Apostles are called epistles. Their intended audience was a particular church or churches or a particular person. Peter’s letter must have traveled to quite a number of churches. When these churches accepted the letter as inspired by the Holy Spirit they would canonize the letter and add them as books to the Bible. We then can know that the message in the letter came from God.

Peter starts this second letter of his by talking about precious faith and the righteousness Christians receive through our God and Savior. This whole first chapter is basically about Christian living. He talks about how to live separately from the world and not be corrupted by our own lusts. Peter teaches us how to grow in our faith.

Second Peter 1:5-7 contains one of the best passages:

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.”

If you have all of those virtues in your Christian life then you will become a mature Christian.

Vic Batista: I love this passage because Peter provides a growth ladder. You add to this, then add to that, and then add to that… The Christian life needs to always be growing, right?

Nathan Jones: It does indeed. It is sad to see people who have accepted Christ as their Savior, but they’ve remained spiritual babies for the rest of their lives. We were never meant to stay babies. We are meant to grow and mature. And, to do that involves of course Bible study, and going to Church, and being with Christian friends, and praying, and adding each of these virtues that Peter talks about to our lives. We work at getting good at growing in these virtues, maturing in them, and becoming more Christ-like. Isn’t that what all Christians should be attaining? To become little Christs, or Christ-like?

Vic Batista: Yes, indeed. There’s nothing worse than a stale Christian just warming a pew.

Vic Batista: There's nothing worse than a stale Christian just warming a pew. Click To Tweet

Nathan Jones: You’ll hear pastors nickname these folks the Frozen Chosen. It’s like they’re frozen in time. On the flip side, sometimes their walk is all about getting an emotional high and not about reading the Bible as a mental and spiritual discipline. What a shame! We see this trend in a lot of churches now where the congregation is spiritually a mile wide but only an inch deep. They are not wanting to go any deeper in their faith and relationship with Christ.

I think we all know that we cannot just stay spiritual babies. We need to grow. We need to flourish in the Lord. And, we do so by adding each of these different virtues, which also happen to be characteristics of Christ, that we should emulate.

In the fifth part of our faith journey down the Rapture Road through the book of 2 Peter, we’ll see what tragically happens when we lack these virtues.

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Dr. Nathan E. Jones

As the Internet Evangelist at Lamb & Lion Ministries, Nathan reaches out to the over 4.5 billion people accessible over the Internet with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He also co-hosts the ministry's television program Christ in Prophecy and podcast The Truth Will Set You Free.

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