Dr Paul Allen

Holy Virtue (Photo credit: Lawrence OP ) “For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short–sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.” 2 PETER 1:9 If you don’t practice spiritual virtues now, you’ll forget their significance later. Physical nearsightedness and mental amnesia both are unwanted conditions. Nearsightedness (myopia) causes people’s eyes to focus the parallel rays of light in front of the retina. They can clearly see things right in front of them, but the farther out they look, the more out of focus objects become. Amnesia, of course, is memory loss. Sometimes it’s selective, but usually it’s total—everything prior to a certain time or incident. It often causes people to forget their name, their family, and everything about their identity and background. Those two impairments should be even less welcome on the spiritual level. Professed believers who are unfruitful become spiritually nearsighted. They focus on temporal fads and passing ea...

The Transfiguration Lodovico Carracci 1594 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The main body of Peter 's second epistle begins with Peter's replies to several objections to his eschatological doctrine (1:16–21). The first objection apparently raised by the false teachers is that Peter's eschatological teaching concerning the coming of Christ and of judgment is merely a myth (vv. 16–18). Peter assures his readers that the apostles did not follow cleverly devised myths, but were eyewitnesses of Christ's majesty. At the Transfiguration of Jesus , they were even witnesses to a foretaste of the glory to be revealed at the Second Advent (vv. 17–18). Peter also argues that the eschatological doctrine of the apostles is based on the writings of the Old Testament prophets (v. 19), men who spoke the very word of God (vv. 20–21). Peter introduces the main topic of his letter in 2:1–3a, explaining, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false...