1. II Peter 1:10. Is it possible to think you are “elected”, but not really be?

Sounds like it to me. Peter tells his people not to take anything for granted. Many in the church have been counseled wrongly about salvation. Perhaps no repentance was suggested. Nothing of the Holy Spirit. People grow up in a congregation thinking all is well, but they have never sought the Lord with the whole heart, and therefore have never found Him to be real and personal. They can cause much trouble in a church.

He addresses these folks as brothers, but still warns them that they must all individually be certain about the election of God.

2. II Peter 1:19. What is the “prophetic” word? How confirmed?

The prophetic word is the word of the prophets, essentially the entire Old Testament. This record they had all along. Now, Peter says, we have a word from the mouth of God Himself over His Son Jesus [at the transfiguration]. In Peter’s mind, that Voice of God makes the Scriptures even more sure, if it were possible. Pay attention to the Scriptures, says Peter.

3. II Peter 1:20. What is “private interpretation”?

Men are not allowed to make the Scriptures mean whatever they desire. (Much of this is still going on in our day!) Why? He goes on to say that the Scriptures are the work of the Holy Spirit. Men didn’t originate them, so men cannot mangle their meaning.

Nevertheless, it is “men” to whom the Scriptures have been given. What is the way to be sure that an interpretation is of God? This is not a light question, as so many interpretations abound.

My own sense of what Peter means (and I hope this does not sound like a “private interpretation”!) is that we must look at what is being said. Exactly. Read the words. Let them speak for themselves. This, with prayers to the Holy Spirit, will eventually get us all on the same page.

So much of Scripture interpretation has been tested over the years, and passed on to us. We must stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us, to see what they said. None of these men claim infallible interpretation skills. But many have bathed themselves in prayer and received wisdom about what the Bible means.

Practice in the Scripture also helps. Daily, constantly, comparing Scripture with Scripture, reading the men of God, praying, seeking, bringing to godly brothers the difficulties that arise. This matter is not something that any one person must solve by himself, though it may start in the place of prayer. Involve the church, for God is always speaking to the church.

What we need will be there if we seek with all our heart.

4. II Peter 2:5. The “eighth”?

I must yield here to the scholarship that works on texts like these. The KJV rendering of the Greek here (“eighth”) is accurate, but not helpful to our understanding. Barnes’ notes refers the reader to a Dr. Bloomfield, who cites a Greek idiom here, one used by Herodotus and Thucydides and others. He says that the word can be translated, by virtue of common usage of the idiom, as “one of eight.” That is, Noah and seven others were saved, and none else. Most updated translations discovered this and included it in the text.

5. II Peter 2:4-22. Which came first, Peter’s letter or Jude’s?

I ask this because Jude verses 5-13 are nearly identical to this passage in Peter. One borrowed from the other.

Macarthur puts the argument for Peter in this way:

• Peter anticipated the coming of false teachers. Jude was seeing it happen.
• Jude quotes 2 Peter 3:3 and acknowledges that it is from an apostle.
• The “canonicity” of Jude was questioned early on. Should it be included in the list of Bible books? If Peter had quoted Jude, which he never does, there would be no such questions.

6. II Peter 2:17. How have “blackness of darkness” and a Lake of Fire at the same time?

My understanding, and it is limited, based on Revelation 21:11, is that there will come a time when the heavens and earth that we know will be released from the orb of the new heavens and earth. The planet we live on now, possibly, will be sent to wander the dark universe of the present creation. Hell is situated, many believe, inside this planet. A blazing inferno of punishment sent into outer darkness.

I speculate. Here’s one where you can stand on my shoulders and find things I could not find?

7. II Peter 3:5. Explain “earth standing out of water and in the water”?

Genesis 1:2. “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters…” Then 1:9. “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear…”

No need for fanciful theories about this one. Peter was just showing his knowledge of the book of Genesis.

8. II Peter 3:10. The dissolving of earth and a new earth. Is that not after the Millennium, at the coming of Jesus?

This statement of Peter has been a “puzzlement” to me for a long time! It sounds like he is saying that a new heavens and a new earth is the first thing on the agenda of the Lord when He returns. But we know that there is a 1,000 -year reign of Christ on this present earth before that annihilation occurs.

Could it be that when Peter speaks of the “day of the Lord” He is speaking of the Millennial Day, not the day of Jesus’ return? It is true that at the end of that 1,000 years, heaven and earth will pass away.

His Master spoke in terms like these also when he spoke of the resurrection of life and the resurrection of damnation (John 5) as though they were back to back, when, again, they are 1,000 years apart.