Month: August 2022

Problem: Peter writes, “[We are] looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2 Pet. 3:12). Open theists argue that God’s knowledge of the future is uncertain, because future events are contingent on human agency—specifically the agency of the Church. For instance, Greg Boyd writes, “So too, it is not clear how Scripture could encourage us to speed up the time of the Lord’s return by how we live if the exact time of his return was eternally set in stone (2 Peter 3:11-12).”[1]

Continue reading →

Problem: Peter writes, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). This passage seems to deny Calvinism, because it claims that God desires “all” people to come to Christ. However, Calvinist James Montgomery Boice writes,

2 Peter 3:9 is not talking about the salvation of all men and women, but only of the elect. The issue is the delay of Christ’s return, and Peter is explaining that God has delayed it, not out of indifference to us and what we may be suffering, but because he wants to bring to repentance all whom he has determined in advance will be gathered in.[1]
Does this passage describe the desire of God to save the elect, or all people?
Continue reading →

Problem: Some critics of the Bible believe that Peter was using ancient Greek philosophy to describe the existence of the world (Thales of Miletus).[1] Is this the case?
Continue reading →

Problem: Peter affirms in this passage that God cast the fallen angels “down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment” (cf. Jude 6). However, it is evident from the NT that demons roam freely over the earth, oppressing and even possessing people (cf. Matt. 12:22; 17:14–17; Acts 16:16–18; Rev. 16:14).
Continue reading →

Problem: Some authoritarian churches use this as a proof text for how individual Christians cannot interpret the Bible on their own (“…no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation…”). Therefore, the average Christian needs someone (e.g. a spiritual leader/clergy/other sacred writing/authoritative translation) to teach them.
Continue reading →

CLAIM: Peter writes, “Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 1:1). Does this support Christ’s deity?
Continue reading →

Problem: The style of writing in 1 Peter is different than 2 Peter. Also the tone used in the first epistle is different than that of the second epistle. How can evangelicals claim that Peter wrote this epistle?
Continue reading →