In this enlightening episode of Through the Bible, host Steve Schwetz and Dr. J. Vernon McGee take us through the introduction to the New Testament book of 2 Peter. With insights into the Petrine authorship and the challenges it faces, the episode opens our eyes to the importance of personal faith and the historical background of this often-debated epistle. Listen as Dr. McGee eloquently explains the power of Scripture and how it equips believers against the coming apostasy. As we journey through this study, we also hear impactful listener testimonies that showcase the transformative power of engaging with God’s
The foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith.
SPEAKER 02 :
Welcome to Through the Bible. I’m your host, Steve Schwetz. And in this study, our Bible teacher, Dr. J. Verna McGee, is going to give us an introduction to the New Testament book of 2 Peter, which is where we are now in our five-year journey through the whole Word of God. It’s a great study, one that emphasizes the value of studying God’s Word and knowing it intimately yourself. You’re going to love it. But before we get started, Greg and I have a few of our recent letters that we want to share with you.
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It’s really one of our favorite things to do is just sit together in the studio and read letters and marvel that God continues to use his word so powerfully in people’s lives. And so, Steve, you want to start with this first one?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, this first one’s from Rick, who says, Sweeter as the days go by, I’m going on 70 now and have been riding the Bible bus since 1995. This program has been my seminary, and I find it has well equipped me to grapple with the world system and the sin that so easily besets me. Brother McGee has explained things in the Bible in a friendly, accessible style that has lifted my soul time and again. What a wonderful gifting he had. I call his style the meat and potatoes gospel. From time to time, I am called upon to fill in for our regular Bible teacher at church, and I am respected for the wonderful knowledge I have accumulated over the years, thanks largely to this teaching and, of course, the precious Holy Spirit. It might take a while for you guys to lay all of those crowns at the Master’s feet. You got my heartfelt thanks.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow, and Rick, we want to pass our heartfelt thanks to you for sharing your story. I love that, the meat and potatoes gospel.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah.
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I just keep hearing these cool new things about Dr. McGee. Now, Margie was on Facebook and shared this on our Facebook page. One of the fun things about Dr. McGee is that in each introduction, he says, it’s one of the greatest books of the Bible. Yep. For all my trips on the Bible bus, I have to agree with him. They are all the greatest.
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Yeah.
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Margie, I like that. I often laugh about that too. He says, this is the greatest book in the Bible. So are the other 65.
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Here’s another one from Susan in Florida says this. I’m so excited about today’s teaching. It was right for me. I’ve been making excuses and this message hit me right between the eyes. I’m so grateful. Bless you guys for being faithful to get out the word of God. I tell people I’ve been walking with Jesus for so long, but in truth, I have been making excuses for sin. Now I have been found out. No more excuses. No more blaming God. I want to find His mercy, and I have confessed my sins to Him.
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Now, if you have been encouraged by these three testimonies from Rick and Margie and Susan, then there’s something missing, and that’s your testimony, because we need to hear it. I know it encourages us, and I think I’m pretty sure it encourages the many people that listen. We all need to encourage each other, so please share your story with us. It’s easy, right, Steve? There’s a lot of ways to do it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Visit ttb.org, and you can also, on our app, in the feedback section, put in a testimony. You can also write a letter. We love those stamped envelopes that still come in. You can write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. And we would just love to hear how the Word of God has impacted your life and what you’ve been learning recently. Those are two things that we really appreciate.
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And tomorrow we can get an early start. Tomorrow begins Letter Month, something Dr. McGee put in place early on.
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Yeah.
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And Letter Month means tell your story month.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. Yeah. And that’s the month of May. So don’t wait. Be one of those early ones to write in today. That’s right. Okay. Greg, why don’t you pray for us as we begin?
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Father, our hearts are full of joy as we hear from brothers and sisters here and around the world about how your word and your son are making a difference in their lives. We pray that as we continue to study the word, that you would drive your love and your truth deeper into our hearts. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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Here’s Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our first study in 2 Peter on Through the Bible.
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Now, friends, as we come here to 2 Peter, I trust that you will follow the text. Now, the Petrine authorship of this book has been challenged more than the authorship of any other book in the New Testament. Dr. Moorhead wrote years ago the second epistle of Peter, comes to us with less historical support of its genuineness than any other book of the New Testament. Now, may I say to you that this is an area that I have spent very little time in in this study of five years. That is on what is known as introduction, on the authorship and that which is critical concerning these different books of the Bible. And I feel like since 2 Peter is as Dr. Moorhead has said, It comes to us with less historical support of its genuineness than any other book in the New Testament. Now, it has caused a great many, even in our day, that say they’re conservative. I don’t think they are, but they reject 2 Peter’s belonging in the canon of Scripture. Now, I would ordinarily just pass over this because… To me, it’s part of the Word of God, and I think there’s an abundance of evidence, both internal and external. But let’s face facts today, and I know there will be some that will say, well, the problem with McGee is that he just doesn’t know any of the introduction of this book of 2 Peter, and so he just plunges into the study. All right, let me go back and bring you up to date on some of the history that’s back of 2 Peter. It was a long time in being accepted by the church in the canon of Scripture. It was accepted at Laodicea. In 372 at the council that met there. And then again at Carthage in 397. This is the first time that the church had taken really this kind of a stand. Now, Jerome had accepted it for the Vulgate. And it’s not in some of the manuscripts. For instance, the Peshitta Syriac version, that is not an acceptable one at all. And there are other things about that version that I’m sure we’d all reject. And that, to me, would be perfectly meaningless since it wasn’t in there. Now, Eusebius… One of the early church fathers, he placed it among the disputed books. Origen accepted it. Clement of Alexandria accepted it. And he wrote a commentary on it. And it is quoted in the Apocalypse of Peter, which, of course, is not accepted. The Epistle of Jude apparently draws from 2 Peter. Jude was well acquainted with it. And there are allusions and also quotations from 2 Peter in some of the early church writers, Aristides, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Ignatius, and Clement of Rome. Now, you will find also that Martin Luther accepted it as genuine. Calvin actually doubted it but did not reject it. And Erasmus did reject it. Now, that gives you something of the history of the background. But the reason that it has been rejected is, to my judgment, a very fallacious reason. And because of that, I want to say that there is a great deal of internal evidence, especially there are certain autobiographical sections here that to me are absolutely conclusive that Simon Peter wrote this epistle. We’ll see them as we come to it. Now, the question has been sometimes raised, why is 2 Peter so different from 1 Peter? Well, I could ask the same question about why is Romans so different from 2 Timothy? Are 2 Timothy so different from Romans? And yet the same writer wrote both. Paul is the writer. And the explanation, of course, is the subject. And frankly, 2 Peter is very much like 2 Timothy in this. Both of them are the swan song of the two great apostles. This epistle we’re going to look at is the swan song of Simon Peter. And then 2 Timothy was the swan song, as we’ve already seen, of the apostle Paul. Now, there is a very striking similarity between those two. Both epistles put up a warning sign along the pilgrim pathway the church is traveling to identify the awful apostasy that was on the way at that time. And now you and I are living in the day when that apostasy has arrived. I think just the first delegation has arrived, but it’s coming in with all of its might. What was just a little cloud the size of a man’s hand in the days of Peter and Paul, today it is a hurricane that envelops the sky and it produces a storm like a tornado. And certainly the proportions are the proportions of a hurricane. Now, Peter warns of heresy among teachers. Paul warns of heresy among the laity. And both Peter and Paul speak in a joyful manner of their approaching death, both of them. Paul says he knew the time of his departure had come. He had finished his course. He had been on a racetrack of life. Now he’s leaving you. And he had fought a good fight. And he had kept the faith. And a crown of righteousness is laid up for him. And you’re going to find here in Peter that he has a triumphant note at that particular time. Now, both apostles, and this is important, anchor the church. In days of apostasy, how will the church be able to stand the storm of the apostasy? They anchor the church on the Scriptures, on the Word of God, as the only defense against the coming storm. And no wonder the enemy has attacked 2 Peter, because this is one of the finest shields that’s given to ward off the darts of the wicked one as he’s shooting at us. And in 2 Peter, as we had in 2 Timothy, The apostasy is approaching. The storm is coming. Now, how are you going to prepare to meet it? How will you prepare to meet it? Well, there’s only one way, and that’s through knowledge. Not only through faith in Christ, not only to believe in him, but to know Christ. This is life eternal, the Lord Jesus said. This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. And it means that we are to know him and not know about him. I read in the paper the other day where there’s an American preacher in Europe who’s trying to start what he calls a Christian church without using the name of God and Christ. And that, to my judgment, is the most ridiculous thing that any man could possibly do. Now, if he wants to start some kind of an organization, let him go ahead and do it. But you can’t start anything that is Christian without Christ. To attempt to do that would be just like making a peach pie without peaches, or like driving a car without any gasoline in the tank. It means that if you’re a Christian, you must know Christ. And that means not to know about him, but to know him. And there is a great difference there. The great subject of this epistle is going to be actually the apostasy, but also the thing that will be our defense, and that’s knowledge. Now, how does that knowledge come to us? Where is this knowledge? How is it attainable? Well, the only way is through the word of God. He’s going to talk about the more sure word of prophecy that we have today. Now, you see, the Christian life, friends, is really more than just birth. It’s a growth. It’s a development. We are to grow, and to me, the key of this entire epistle is the last verse of the epistle. But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to him be glory both now and forever. Amen. Now, this is the reason that in my ministry for 40 years, I always made the statement that I am not an obstetrician. I’m a pediatrician. Now, an obstetrician brings the little baby into the world. Well, those of you who listen to this program know that we’ve already shared hundreds of letters of people who’ve been converted through listening to the Word of God. But actually, I began this radio ministry to teach the Word of God to help believers to grow up. That is, to take the little baby Christians and enable them to grow. And I said that I’m not an obstetrician of bringing to birth, but I’m a pediatrician. I’m to birth the little babies. I am to give them milk and then try to give them a porterhouse steak every now and then. But that is the area that Peter’s dwelling in. And my friend, you will not be able in these days of apostasy to live for God. unless you have a knowledge of the Word of God. Now, I’m going to talk a great deal about that as we get down into the epistle. But I consider this the theme, and I get at the theme through the basis of the words which Peter uses here as contrasted to his first epistle. Now, he does give us certain characteristic words that he used. One is precious. That great big rugged fisherman talked about things that are precious. That’s a woman’s word. And we find it again in this epistle. And we also find the word faith. And it occurs twice here in the first chapter. But again, let me come back to it. The characteristic word is knowledge. It occurs 16 times with cognate words that go with it, of course. The epitome of the epistle is expressed in that injunction that is in the final verse. This man, Simon Peter, went off the air saying this, grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, this is really what Gnosticism was all about. That group attempted to say they had some little esoteric knowledge that no one else had. That’s always been characteristic of these secret orders. You know, you learn something, you get on the inside and find out something you couldn’t find out any other way. Well, Peter’s going to say, as Paul has said, that real knowledge is to know Jesus Christ. And that is the thing that is important. Now, let me say a word here about the divisions of this little epistle. And I have it divided up more than I did the first epistle of Peter. Why? Because there are tremendous subjects here. In fact, I’ve cut this epistle up like a railroad restaurant pie. Now, let’s look at the outline, and I’ll give it briefly, and then we’ll get our foot in the door for the day. You have in the first 14 verses of the first chapter, addition of Christian graces gives us assurance. From verses 15 to 21 in the first chapter, the authority of the scriptures attested by fulfilled prophecy. Then in chapter 2, apostasy brought in by false teachers. Then in the first four verses of the third chapter, attitude toward the return of the Lord, a test of apostates. And then the fifth division is the agenda of God for the world. And that’s where you have three worlds in one. That’s chapter 3, verse 5 through 13. And then verses 14 through 18, admonition to believers. Now, this is a very wonderful epistle that we’ve come to now. And back to chapter 1 at verse 1, we have here now the full knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord is the foundation on which Christian character and strength is built. Now, are we ready to begin? And I begin here with verse 1. Simon Peter… a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. And when I run across that little word precious in this very first verse here, and he used it so many times, and he’s about the only one that uses it in the Bible, why I say, why this is just like being able to recognize the handwriting. Of the Apostle Paul, this is like an identification card. When you open your account at the bank, they have you sign their card, the signature card. And when you write a check, they compare that with the signature. Well, this is just like having Simon Peter’s signature when you have precious here. But we got a great deal more evidence than this. Now, let me go back up. When he began his first epistle, he just says, Peter. Now, he says here, Simon Peter. Now, Simon was his name. That was the name given to him when he was born. But Peter is the name our Lord Jesus gave to him. And so he puts them both together here. The man of weakness and the man of strength. The rock man and the wishy-washy man. He was both of them. But I tell you, when you come to this epistle and to the first epistle, and he wrote this second one shortly after he wrote the first, why, you can be sure of one thing, he’s a rock man now. And here’s a man that’s going to be crucified for Christ. And I’m not in a position, therefore, to criticize him. Simon Peter, he calls himself a servant, a bond slave. He didn’t take some exalted position in the church. He says, I’m a bond slave and I’m an apostle. That’s his authority. But he’s just one of them, just an apostle, not the apostle, but an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now, here is something that is quite wonderful that we have in this verse here. And I’m not going really to have time today to develop this as I would like very much to be able to do. What he’s saying here is something that I consider quite wonderful. He says here, “…to them that have obtained like precious faith with us.” And when he says faith, I think he means the faith, the body of truth that we call the gospel today. And he says, you’ve received it, and it’s up to you what you do with it. May I say to you that those that hold what I call a hyper-Calvinistic viewpoint that begin to say here that you have to be chosen before you can be saved. And he has to give you the faith to believe. And I’ll go along with part of that. But I also want to make it very clear. that the reason that men don’t come to Christ, it’s made very clear to us in the Word of God why they don’t come to Christ. I don’t think I’m going to have a chance to develop that today, but I’d like for you to see it. He speaks in 2 Corinthians, the third chapter, and this is very important, verses 15 and 16. He says, “…but even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their hearts.” Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. When it shall turn to the Lord, what’s it? Well, what was he talking about? What the modifier would be the heart. When the heart will turn. Now, the reason that men are not saved today is not because of their mind. That’s not it. It’s because of their heart. There’s sin in their life and they don’t want to believe. Don’t tell me today that you’ve been elected to be lost. It’s not his will that any should perish. My friend, if you’re lost, it’s because there’s sin in your heart and you don’t want to come to Christ because that would mean giving up your sin. They’ve obtained like precious faith with us. How? Through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. And the righteousness is that which is made over to us when we trust Christ as Savior. You see, He not only subtracted our sins, He added to us His righteousness. We are not just criminals that have been turned loose and forgiven. We now have been given a standing before God, and that standing is in Christ. accepted in the beloved. We leave all fire today. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.
SPEAKER 02 :
Are you accepted in the beloved? It’s your choice. Learn more by clicking on How Can I Know God in our app or at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can send you a few pieces in the mail. now we’re just getting started in our study of second peter but if you really want to make the most out of it you want to grab our free bible companion oh my friend you’re missing out if you don’t have this you’ll find it in our app or over at t t b dot org in it it’s really a great synopsis of doctor mcgee’s teaching as well as prompts to both listen to doctor mcgee’s message and read the scripture for yourself and i love it because it’s a great resource to reflect and do as a group study And if you prefer to have it in print, we got you covered there, too. 1 and 2 Peter are available in a combined paperback edition. Now, you can order your copy at ttb.org or call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. We’ve even got special pricing for Bible study groups. That’s ttb.org or 1-800-65-BIBLE. Now, once you’ve got yours, let us know that you’re using them, especially for small group studies. They’re perfect for that. Our study of 2 Peter continues next time. I’ll be here on the Bible bus, saving you a seat.
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Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left the crimson stain, he washed it white as snow.
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Today’s study is always available, free to stream or download, thanks to the generous and faithful investments from your fellow Bible bus travelers. Just go to ttb.org or download our app to listen again anytime. As always, we’d love to know what’s God teaching you.
