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The Rise of False Prophets

¹ But in those days ^(C1)false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be ^(C2)false teachers ^(C3)among you, who will ^(C4)subtly introduce ^(C5)destructive heresies, even ^(C6)denying the ^(C7)Master who ^(C8)bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.² Many will follow their ^(C1)shameful ways, and because of them ^(C2)the way of truth will be ^(C3)maligned.³ And in their ^(C1)greed they will ^(C2)exploit you with ^(C3)false arguments and twisted doctrine. ^(C4)Their sentence of condemnation which God has decreed from a time long ago is not idle but is still in force, and their destruction and deepening misery is not asleep but is on its way.

^4 (F1)For if ^(C1)God did not even spare angels that sinned, but threw them into ^(F2)hell and ^(C2)sent them to pits of gloom to be kept there for judgment;⁵ and if He did not spare ^(C1)the ancient world, but protected ^(C2)Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought the judgment of a ^(C3)flood upon the world of the ungodly; ^(VR1)6 and if He ^(C1)condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an ^(C2)example to those who would ^(C3)live ungodly lives thereafter; ^(VR1)7 and if He ^(C1)rescued righteous ^(F1)Lot, who was tormented by the ^(C2)immoral conduct of ^(C3)unprincipled and ungodly men ^(VR1)8 (for that ^(C1)just man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by what he saw and heard of their lawless acts),⁹ then in light of the fact that all this is true, be sure that ^(C1)the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the ^(C2)day of judgment,

¹⁰ and especially ^(F1)those who ^(C1)indulge in the corrupt passions of the sin nature, and ^(C2)despise authority. Presumptuous and reckless, ^(C3)self-willed and arrogant creatures, despising the majesty of the Lord, they do not tremble when they ^(C2)revile angelic majesties,^11 (C1)whereas even angels who are superior in might and power do not bring a reviling (defaming) accusation against them before the Lord. ^(VR1)12 But ^(C1)these false teachers, like unreasoning animals, mere creatures of instinct, ^(C2)born to be captured and destroyed, reviling things they do not understand, will also perish in their own corruption in their destroying they will be destroyed,¹³ suffering wrong destined for punishment as the ^(C1)wages of doing wrong. They count it a delight to ^(C2)revel in the ^(C3)daytime living luxuriously. They are stains and blemishes on mankind, ^(C2)reveling in their ^(F1)deceptions even as they ^(C4)feast with you.¹⁴ They have eyes full of adultery, constantly looking for sin, ^(C1)enticing and luring away ^(C2)unstable souls. Having hearts trained in ^(C3)greed, they are ^(C4)children of a curse.¹⁵ Abandoning ^(C1)the straight road that is, the right way to live, they have gone astray; they have followed ^(C2)the way of the false teacher Balaam the son of Beor, who loved ^(C3)the reward of wickedness; ^(VR1)16 but he was rebuked for his own transgression: ^(C1)a mute donkey spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness. ^(VR1)

¹⁷ These false teachers are ^(C1)springs without water and mists driven by a tempest, ^(C2)for whom is reserved the gloom of black darkness.¹⁸ For uttering ^(C1)arrogant words of ^(C2)vanity pompous words disguised to sound scholarly or profound, but meaning nothing and containing no spiritual truth, they ^(C3)beguile and lure using lustful desires, by ^(C4)sensuality, those who barely ^(C5)escape from the ones who live in error.¹⁹ They promise them liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of depravity—for ^(C1)by whatever anyone is defeated and overcome, to that person, thing, philosophy, or concept he is continually enslaved.²⁰ For if, after they have ^(C1)escaped the pollutions of the world by personal ^(C2)knowledge of our ^(C3)Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again ^(C4)entangled in them and are overcome, ^(C5)their last condition has become worse for them than the first.^21 (C1)For it would have been better for them not to have personally known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to have turned back from ^(C2)the holy commandment verbally ^(C3)handed on to them.²² The thing spoken of in the true proverb has happened to them, "^(C1)THE DOG RETURNS TO HIS OWN VOMIT," and, "A sow is washed only to wallow again in the mire." ^(VR1)