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Christian life. “Give diligence,” he pleaded, “to make your calling and
election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an
entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting
kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Precious assurance!
Glorious is the hope before the believer as he advances by faith toward
the heights of Christian perfection!
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“I will not be negligent,” the apostle continued, “to put you always
in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be estab-
lished in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this
tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; knowing
that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus
Christ hath showed me. Moreover I will endeavor that ye may be able
after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.”
The apostle was well qualified to speak of the purposes of God
concerning the human race; for during the earthly ministry of Christ
he had seen and heard much that pertained to the kingdom of God.
“We have not followed cunningly devised fables,” he reminded the
believers, “when we made known unto you the power and coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He
received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such
a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we
heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount.”
Yet convincing as was this evidence of the certainty of the be-
lievers’ hope, there was another still more convincing in the witness
of prophecy, through which the faith of all might be confirmed and
securely anchored. “We have also,” Peter declared, “a more sure word
of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise
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in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is
of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by
the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by
the Holy Ghost.”
While exalting the “sure word of prophecy” as a safe guide in
times of peril, the apostle solemnly warned the church against the
torch of false prophecy, which would be uplifted by “false teachers,”
who would privily bring in “damnable heresies, even denying the
Lord.” These false teachers, arising in the church and accounted true