1 Peter 3:14-22
Romans 5:10-14
2 Peter 2:4-5
Jude 6
1 Peter 3:22
Follower of Jesus Christ must learn to withstand persecution and to persevere in their faith.
Chuck Swindoll said it this way:
Find Hope to press on….
Hope to endure.…
Hope to stay focused….
Hope to see dreams fulfilled….
C.S. Lewis “The Abolition of Man”
“The difference between linguistic styles from age to age are of interest precisely because we carry our ‘world’ about within our language. Languages are subworlds, sharing similar deep structures to the universe in which they are native. Different languages vary in ‘tone and rhythm and the very ‘feel’ of every sentence.
A language has its own personality; implies an outlook, reveals a mental activity, and has a resonance, not quite the same as any other.”
Jason Baxter “How great books shaped a great mind”
“The uniqueness of language is due, in part, to the ‘world picture’ that serves as the habitat in which that language is born, develops, and adapts. The cosmos gets into the language, like rainwater seeps into the subterranean aquafers and regulates the height of the water table.
Because of this connection between language and world picture, not only should we expect language to change from age to age, but we should also expect that on this side of the Great Divide – the fundamental rupture in history that rendered modern society radically different from any other epoch in human history – the linguistic world we live in is peculiarly ill-suited to spiritual desire.”
Michael Heiser “The Unseen Realm”
“Peter uses typology in 1 Peter 3:14-22. Specifically, he assumes that the great flood in Genesis 6-8, especially the sons of God event in Genesis 6:1-4, typified or foreshadowed the gospel and the resurrection. For Peter, these events were commemorated during baptism.”
Michael Heiser “The Unseen Realm”
“The Greek behind the term ‘Tartarus’ is often translated ‘hell’ or ‘hades’ in English, but those renderings are a bit misleading. Tartarus of course has no literal geography. This is the language of the spiritual realm. Tartarus was part of the underworld (biblical Sheol), a place conceived as being inside the earth because, in ancient experience, that is where the dead go – they are buried. Broadly speaking, the underworld is not hell; it is the afterlife, the place or realm where the dead go. That ‘place’ has its own ‘geography.’
Some experience eternal life with God in the spiritual realm; others do not.
In the 1 Enoch story, the Watchers appealed their sentence and asked Enoch, the biblical prophet who never died (Genesis 5:21-24), to intercede with God for them (1 Enoch 6:4). God rejected their petition and Enoch had to return to the imprisoned Watchers and give them the bad news (1 Enoch 13:1-3; 14:4-5). The point to catch is that Enoch visits the spiritual world in the ’bad section of town’ where the offending Watchers are being held. As was the case with 2 Peter 2:4 and its mention of being imprisoned in Tartarus, this story from 1 Enoch was on Peter’s mind in 1 Peter 3. IT IS THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING WHAT HE SAYS.”
The word translated ‘appeal’ is the Greek word ‘eperotema’ which literally means ‘PLEDGE’
The word translated ‘conscience’ is the Greek word ‘suneidesis’ which does not refer to the inner voice of right and wrong in this text, but rather to ‘attentiveness to obligation’
Michael Heiser “The Unseen Realm”
“Baptism is not what produces salvation. It ‘saves’ in that it reflects a heart decision; a pledge of loyalty to the risen Savior. In effect, baptism in New Testament Theology is a loyalty oath, a public confession of who is on the Lord’s side in the cosmic war between good and evil. But in addition to that, it is also a reminder to the defeated fallen angels. Every baptism is a reiteration of their doom in the wake of the gospel and the kingdom of God. Early Christians understood the typology of this passage and its link back to the fallen angels of Genesis 6. Early baptismal formulas included a renunciation of Satan and his angels for this very reason. Baptism was – and still is – spiritual warfare.”
Jason Baxter “How great books shaped a great mind”
“The uniqueness of language is due, in part, to the ‘world picture’ that serves as the habitat in which that language is born, develops, and adapts. The cosmos gets into the language, like rainwater seeps into the subterranean aquafers and regulates the height of the water table. Because of this connection between language and world picture, not only should we expect language to change from age to age, but we should also expect that on this side of the Great Divide – the fundamental rupture in history that rendered modern society radically different from any other epoch in human history – the linguistic world we live in is peculiarly ill-suited to spiritual desire.”