THE SECOND EPISTLE GENERAL OF PETER
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
If there were any real doubts entertained by the Church of God, concerning the authenticity of this divine record of God's Holy Word, the several parts of its own internal evidence, must have carried every objection before it For the grand testimony, after all, to the truth of God is, God's own testimony, in divine teaching. For this comes home to the heart. God speaketh in the word, and by the word. And when the Lord's word is accompanied by the Lord's power, and the heart is made to receive the truth, in the love of it, here is the threefold witness, by which, as the Scripture saith, every word is established.
This Epistle of the Apostle Peter, like the former, is not addressed to any one in particular, but to the church in general, and therefore called, the General Epistle. It is to them that have obtained like precious faith with the writer; consequently, the regenerated church. The Reader should note this in every Epistle.
There are some very blessed and precious points of doctrine, beside the more general, which are insisted upon somewhat more largely in these Chapter s. And very blessed they have proved, and must prove, to the people of God, who base read, and are taught by the Holy Ghost the gracious knowledge and enjoyment of them.
The time, in which it was written, is generally supposed to have been about two years after the former; not above three or four years before the overthrow of Jerusalem; and but little more than a year before the Apostle suffered in martyrdom let us enter upon its perusal in prayer, and this will encourage us to hope that 'we shall close it in praise.'