How God removes the dross from the church
2 Peter 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
In the previous chapter we see the word of God, in this chapter we see the contrast with the false prophets. A contrast will help us to see things even clearer and sharper. A lot of people worry about the FreeMasons and their plans and their designs. But they are false teachers. The first thing we see is they bring in their teachings "privily". This is a big contrast, the word of the Lord is spoken in the light, we preach from the street corner, there is nothing hidden. The false teachers are teaching "privily", it is in the dark, secret, hidden, with threats to those who hear not to tell anyone. False teachers are wolves in sheep's clothing. When you discover that a teacher pretends to be one person to the crowd but is a very different person in reality then you know, they are a false teacher. Also they "privily shall bring in", that is one word in the Greek, it means they are crafty, sneaky, they use the tricks employed in marketing, they are using the same craftiness as spin doctors. This word is unique to 2 Peter. Every book in the New Testament has a few unique words that they are the only ones that use, these words reveal the special burden for this book. Peter's burden in this book is to expose this craftiness of the false teachers. Witchcraft is called "the craft" because it also employs this craftiness. A heresy is a school of thought. Not all schools of thought are "damnable". What makes their school of thought damnable is that it even denies the Lord that bought them. They don't do this openly, brazenly, in the light. No it is secret, they will say very nice things about Jesus Christ, but there will be a "Jesus plus something else" requirement for salvation. That is one way they bring in the damnable heresy. What FreeMasons do is different, they require all their members to believe in God without identifying God's name. As a result a Christian could be taken in assuming that they are all believers in Jesus Christ. The secrecy, and oaths to secrecy should tip you off that this is not a Christian organization. Eventually as you move up in the ranks of FreeMasons they discover that the "God" they believe in is Satan, not Jesus. What is interesting is how swift the destruction will come on these ones. Cult leaders are usually exposed within ten or twenty years. As for FreeMasons they are like the mafia. Most mafiosos have a short life expectancy, very few of them make it to retirement. Even if they aren't arrested and imprisoned the mafia will be killed by other mafiosos.
2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
This is a big tell tale sign of a false teacher, they have pernicious ways. There is a broad way that leads to destruction, that word Jesus used for destruction is this word being used for pernicious ways. Think about the FreeMasons, there is this threat hanging over everyone based on the oaths they made to secrecy. People understand in that organization that if you were to go against them you end up dead. Likewise with the Mafia, they understand that the Mafia will kill people to keep everyone in line. False teachers have pernicious ways, they must employ the threat of destruction. Maybe they don't kill you but they will destroy you. They can destroy your reputation, they can destroy you financially, etc. Any organization that employs this fear of being destroyed to keep the members in line is being run by a false teacher.
3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.
The problem with all those points is that you have to get deep enough into the organization to discover they have oaths of secrecy, that the teacher is a hypocrite, that there is this threat of destruction hanging over everyone. However, false teachers always operate through covetousness in order to make merchandise of you. A key principle to FreeMasons is that they must help fellow members advance their career if possible. That is the motive, that is the draw. Why do people join gangs like the Mafia? To make money. The gold chains, the fancy cars, that is the appeal. A very useful rule of thumb is that a false teacher pretending to be a Christian will be rich. He may live in a mansion, drive luxury cars, have a private airplane, etc. He will sell books and tapes. You can have a Christian who is not teaching accurately like Apollos, but if he is not making merchandise of you he is not a false teacher. He is simply ignorant or misinformed. My rule of thumb is that if a church is flush with cash, they have it all, big congregation, big ministry, great facility, then I avoid them. The way I see it either they are false teachers or if not, then whatever they share from the word I'll hear about. Now the leader of an organization like this will have a fabricated story, they have a made up story designed to portray him as "the apostle". This way he tells the story and you think "wow, he is the man of God with the special anointing". That is the goal of this story.
You may wonder if this guy is a false teacher deceiving so many why doesn't God judge him right now? God's judgment isn't slumbering, He knows what is going on, and He is using this false teacher. They appeal to people's lusts. Think of these false teachers as magnets to attract all the impurities in the Body of Christ into one place where it can be removed and judged. The church is supposed to be pure silver, these false teachers are attracting all the dross into one place.
