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true seed is associated with `promise', the false seed will have their promises too. This is
brought out very pointedly by Peter in his epistles:
TRUE PROMISES
FALSE PROMISES
II Peter 1: 4
II Peter 2: 19, 20
"Whereby are given unto us exceeding
"While they promise them liberty, they
great and precious promises: that by
themselves are the servants of corruption
these ye might be partakers of the divine
. . . . . for if after they have escaped the
nature, having escaped the corruption that
pollutions . . . . . they are again entangled
is in the world through lust."
. . . . . the latter end is worse with them
than the beginning."
II Peter 2: 22
I Peter 2: 25
"But it is happened unto them according
"For ye were as sheep going astray; but
to the true proverb, The dog is turned to
are now returned unto the Shepherd and
his own vomit again; and the sow that
Bishop of your souls."
was washed to her wallowing in the
mire."
A sow that is washed is a sow still. A sheep that is astray is a sheep still. Nowhere
throughout the Scriptures is there the slightest hint that by washing a sow, it will at
some time, however distant, be turned into a sheep. We have here in these passages from
I & II Peter the two seeds associated with their two sets of promises.
(1) "Partakers of the divine nature." (2) "Wallowing in the mire" what extremes
are here! The reference to the `divine nature' follows that which tells of `divine power'
(II Pet. 1: 3, 4), and indicates one of the essential differences in the true and false
promises. There is no power for holiness or truth, life or peace, in the Devil's substitute.
Of the true seed it is written `having escaped', but for the false seed the `escape' is
illusory, for they become ensnared and their latter end is worse than at the beginning.
A word that will repay attention is that translated `pollutions' in II Pet. 2: 20; it is the
Greek word miasma. It occurs in the form miasmon in verse ten of the same chapter, and
neither word occurs again in the N.T. The word miasma is found in the LXX version of
Lev. 7: 8 "it is an abomination" and in Ezek. 33: 31, where the A.V. reads
`covetousness' the LXX reads `pollutions'. The context of the earlier use of the word in
II Pet. 2: is exceeding grave. The chapter opens with `false prophets' and `false
teachers' who privily brings in damnable heresies. With `feigned words' they make
merchandise of the people as of the truth, and are associated both in their sin and in their
condemnation with:
(1)
The angels that sinned.
(2)
The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
This false seed are likened to natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed,
who speak evil of things they understand not, and who shall `utterly perish in their own
corruption'. These are said to walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness (miasmon).
This is an unsavoury topic, but so is sin, and the more horrible the travesty of truth, the
more need to see the truth clearly. We have read many articles which sought to establish
that all, whether true or false seed, angels or demons, will ultimately be fully and