2 Peter 1:20-2:9Beloved, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. 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 sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgement; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, 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, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgement.
Mark 13:9-13The Lord said to his disciples, “Be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them. And the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations. And when they bring you to trial and deliver you over, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Today’s readings bring us hope
that no matter what trials and tribulations we will face, the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and that the one who endures to the end will be saved.
This is a theme we’ve already covered a few times, and so I’ll only focus
on these words of St. Peter: No prophecy
of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. The teachings of the
Church are not the musings of philosophers or manmade ideas, but are truths revealed
to us by the Holy Spirit. When the Church gathered to produce statements of
faith like the Nicene Creed, they were not coming up with something new, but
were expressing what right believing Christians had always held, in response to
false teachers who will secretly bring in
destructive heresies. Many of the great heresies throughout history were
the result of people reading the Scripture according to their own interpretation, relying on their own
fallible human wisdom rather than the Tradition of the Church, which is guided
by the Holy Spirit. If we apply the words of the Lord, “you will recognise them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:20), we see that
the fruits of the rejection of Holy Tradition as the interpreter of Scripture have
been the creation of over 30,000 different denominations who all claim to
believe in the same Bible – in other words, it has been the antithesis of the
Lord’s prayer “that they may all be one”
(John 17:21). Every time another person (mis)understands a particular verse in
the Bible a little differently, a new church or sect is born. St. Peter’s
warning was certainly not without cause! In today’s Gospel, Christ promises to
the persecuted saints that it is not you
who speak, but the Holy Spirit. What one notices about the writings of
Church Fathers, from Apostolic times to present day, is the harmony of their
message, and their singleness of mind – quite the opposite of the disagreement
and discord brought about by private interpretation – a sure testimony to the
fact that their words were not the product of their own reasoning, but were of
the Holy Spirit. Let us therefore remain faithful to the words of Scripture,
and take care to understand them in accordance with the Holy Tradition of which
they are a part, lest we are led astray by false
teachers who bring upon themselves
swift destruction.
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