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The Rise of False Prophets

¹ But ^(C1)false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be ^(C2)false teachers ^(C3)among you, who will ^(C4)secretly introduce ^(C5)destructive heresies, even ^(C6)denying the ^(C7)Master who ^(C8)bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.² Many will follow their ^(C1)sensuality, and because of them ^(C2)the way of the truth will be ^(C3)maligned;³ and in their ^(C1)greed they will ^(C2)exploit you with ^(C3)false words; ^(C4)their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴ For ^(C1)if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and ^(C2)committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;⁵ and did not spare ^(C1)the ancient world, but preserved ^(C2)Noah, a ^(F1)preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a ^(C3)flood upon the world of the ungodly;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;⁷ and if He ^(C1)rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the ^(C2)sensual conduct of ^(C3)unprincipled men⁸ (for by what he saw and heard that ^(C1)righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds),^9 (C1)then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from ^(F1)temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the ^(C2)day of judgment,

¹⁰ and especially those who ^(F1)(C1)indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and ^(C2)despise authority. Daring, ^(C3)self-willed, they do not tremble when they ^(C2)revile angelic ^(F2)majesties,^11 (C1)whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.¹² But ^(C1)these, like unreasoning animals, ^(C2)born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in ^(F1)the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,¹³ suffering wrong as ^(C1)the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to ^(C2)revel in the ^(C3)daytime. They are stains and blemishes, ^(C2)reveling in their ^(F1)deceptions, as they ^(C4)carouse with you,¹⁴ having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, ^(C1)enticing ^(C2)unstable souls, having a heart trained in ^(C3)greed, ^(C4)accursed children;¹⁵ forsaking ^(C1)the right way, they have gone astray, having followed ^(C2)the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved ^(C3)the wages of unrighteousness;¹⁶ but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, ^(C1)for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.

¹⁷ These are ^(C1)springs without water and mists driven by a storm, ^(C2)for whom the ^(F1)black darkness has been reserved.¹⁸ For speaking out ^(C1)arrogant words of ^(C2)vanity they ^(C3)entice by fleshly desires, by ^(C4)sensuality, those who barely ^(C5)escape from the ones who live in error,¹⁹ promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for ^(C1)by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.²⁰ For if, after they have ^(C1)escaped the defilements of the world by ^(C2)the knowledge of the ^(C3)Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again ^(C4)entangled in them and are overcome, ^(C5)the last state has become worse for them than the first.^21 (C1)For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from ^(C2)the holy commandment ^(C3)handed on to them.^22 (F1)It has happened to them according to the true proverb, "^(C1)A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire."