PETER TO THE DISPERSION (2)

Chapter 1
1 Simeon Peter, a slave and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are chancing upon an equally precious faith with us, in the righteousness of our God, and the Saviour, Jesus Christ:
2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the recognition of God and of Jesus Christ, our Lord!
3 So has all of His divine power, that tends to life and devoutness, been presented to us through the recognition of Him Who calls us to His own glory and virtue;
4 through which have been presented to us the precious and greatest promises, that through these you may become participants of the divine nature, fleeing from the corruption which is in the world by lust.
5 Now for this same thing also, employing all diligence, in your faith supply virtue, yet in virtue knowledge,
6 yet in knowledge self-control, yet in self-control endurance, yet in endurance devoutness,
7 yet in devoutness brotherly fondness, yet in brotherly fondness love.
8 For your possessing these and increasing is constituting you not idle nor yet unfruitful in the recognition of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
9 For he in whom these are not present is blind, closing his eyes, getting oblivious of the cleansing from the penalties of his sins of old.
10 Wherefore, rather, brethren, endeavor through ideal acts to confirm your calling and choice; for, doing these things you should under no circumstances be tripping at any time.
11 For thus will be richly supplied to you the entrance into the eonian kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
12 Wherefore I shall ever be about to be reminding you concerning these things, even though you are aware of, and have been established in, the present truth.
13 Now I am deeming it just, for as much time as I am in this tabernacle, to be rousing you by a reminder,
14 being aware that my tabernacle is to be put off swiftly according as our Lord, Jesus Christ, also makes evident to me.
15 Yet I shall endeavor to have you, after my exodus, to make mention of these things, ever and anon, also.
16 For not by following wisely made myths do we make known to you the power and presence of our Lord, Jesus Christ, but by becoming spectators of His magnificence.
17 For He got from God, the Father, the honor and glory of the voice, being carried to Him in such a way by the Glory Magnifical: "This is My Son, the Beloved, in Whom I delight!"
18 And this voice we hear being carried out of heaven, being together with Him in the holy mountain.
19 And we are having the prophetic word more confirmed, which you, doing ideally, are heeding (as to a lamp appearing in a dingy place, till the day should be breaking and the morning star should be rising) in your hearts,
20 knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture at all is becoming its own explanation.
21 For not by the will of man was prophecy carried on at any time, but, being carried on by holy spirit, holy men of God speak.

Chapter 2
1 Yet there came to be false prophets also among the people, as among you also there will be false teachers who will be smuggling in destructive sects, even disowning the Owner Who buys them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will be following out their wantonness, because of whom the glory of the truth will be calumniated,
3 and in greed, with suave words, they will traffic in you, whose judgment of old is not idling, and their destruction is not nodding.
4 For if God spares not sinning messengers, but thrusting them into the gloomy caverns of Tartarus, gives them up to be kept for chastening judging;
5 and spares not the ancient world, but guards Noah, an eighth, a herald of righteousness, bringing a deluge on the world of the irreverent;
6 and condemns the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, reducing them to cinders by an overthrow, having placed them as an example for those about to be irreverent:
7 and rescues the just man, Lot, harried by the behavior of the dissolute in their wantonness
8 (for the just man dwelling among them, in observing and hearing from day to day, tormented his just soul by their lawless acts),
9 the Lord is acquainted with the rescue of the devout out of trial, yet is keeping the unjust for chastening in the day of judging,
10 yet specially those going after the flesh in defiling lust and despising lordship. Audacious, given to self-gratification, they are not trembling when calumniating glories,
11 where messengers, being greater in strength and power, are not bringing against them a calumniating judging before the Lord.
12 Now these, as irrational animals, born naturally for capture and corruption, calumniating that in which they are ignorant in their corruption, also shall be corrupted,
13 being requited with the wages of injustice. Deeming gratification by day a luxury, they are spots and flaws, luxuriating in their love feasts, carousing together with you,
14 having the distended eyes of an adulteress, and that do not stop from sin, luring unstable souls, having a heart exercised by greed, children of a curse.
15 Leaving the straight path, they were led astray, following out the path of Balaam of Beor, who loves the wages of injustice,
16 yet was exposed for his own outlawry. A voiceless yoke-beast, uttering with a human voice, forbids the insanity of the prophet.
17 These are waterless springs, and mists driven by a storm, for whom the gloom of darkness has been kept.
18 For, uttering pompous vanity, they are luring by the lusts of the flesh, in wantonness, those who are scarcely fleeing from those who are behaving with deception;
19 promising them freedom, they are inherently slaves of corruption; for by whom anyone is discomfited, to this one he has been enslaved also.
20 For if, while fleeing from the defilements of the world by the recognition of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, yet, being again involved in these, they are being discomfited, their last state has become worse than the first.
21 For it were better for them not to have recognized the way of righteousness, than, recognizing it, to go back to what was behind, from the holy precept given over to them.
22 Now that in the true proverb has befallen them: "A cur turning to its own vomit," and "A bathed sow to her wallowing in the mire."

Chapter 3
1 This is already, beloved, the second epistle I am writing to you in which I am rousing your sincere comprehension by a reminder
2 to remind you of the declarations which have been declared before by the holy prophets, and of the precept of your apostles of the Lord and Saviour,
3 knowing this first, that in the last days scoffers will be coming with scoffing, going according to their own desires
4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His presence? For since the fathers were put to repose, all is continuing thus from the beginning of creation."
5 For they want to be oblivious of this, that there were heavens of old, and an earth cohering out of water and through water, by the word of God;
6 through which the then world, being deluged by water, perished.
7 Yet the heavens now, and the earth, by the same word, are stored with fire, being kept for the day of the judging and destruction of irreverent men.
8 Now of this one thing you are not to be oblivious, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not tardy as to the promise, as some are deeming tardiness, but is patient because of you, not intending any to perish, but all to make room for repentance.
10 Now the day of the Lord will be arriving as a thief, in which the heavens shall be passing by with a booming noise, yet the elements shall be dissolved by combustion, and the earth and the works in it shall be found.
11 At these all, then, dissolving, to what manner of men must you belong in holy behavior and devoutness,
12 hoping for and hurrying the presence of God's day, because of which the heavens, being on fire, will be dissolved, and the elements decompose by combustion!
13 Yet we, according to His promises, are hoping for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness is dwelling.
14 Wherefore, beloved, hoping for these things, endeavor to be found by Him in peace, unspotted and flawless.
15 And be deeming the patience of our Lord salvation, according as our beloved brother Paul also writes to you, according to the wisdom given to him,
16 as also in all the epistles, speaking in them concerning these things, in which are some things hard to apprehend, which the unlearned and unstable are twisting, as the rest of the scriptures also, to their own destruction.
17 You, then, beloved, knowing this before, be on your guard lest, being led away with the deception of the dissolute, you should be falling from your own steadfastness.
18 Yet be growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now, as well as for the day of the eon. Amen!

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