Fr. Mike Schmitz

And I will see to it that after my departure, you may be able at any time to recall these things.

Eyewitnesses of Christ's glory.

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

For when he received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.

We heard this voice born from heaven for we were with him on the holy mountain and we have the prophetic word made more sure.

You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

First of all, you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Chapter two, false prophets and their punishment.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.

and many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them, the way of truth will be reviled.

And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words.

From of old, their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been asleep.

For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned,

but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment.

If he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.

If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly.

And if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked.

For by what the righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds.

Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Bold and willful, they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a reviling judgment upon them before the Lord.