Let’s pretend that Peter was writing to a church that was experiencing, or beginning to experience, revival. Souls were being been saved – adults – some of whom professed earlier to have been believers. The waters of the Sea of Galilee, or some other lake or river, were being stirred with baptisms. Several men had been ordained to help with those baptisms, because there were so many. The people of the congregation were inviting friends and neighbors to partake of the Lord’s ongoing blessings. They were all yearning to see the Lord’s blessings continuing and reaching new heights. Amidst the agony of Holy Spirit conviction there was joy, and people were thrilled to have the opportunity to share their testimonies of God’s grace. They were joining the choir, ready to sing the Lord’s praises. They were going out door-to-door, talking to, and inviting, strangers to come see the Saviour. In the services, there were tears of joy, tears of concern and tears of release. Everyone was excited to see what the Lord was going to do next. Would it be young people surrendering to the ministry? Would it be people moving to their city to be a part of the revival? Would it be the necessity to start new churches to handle the growing evangelical outreach? Would they have the same testimony as the church in Thessalonica – “From you sounded out the Word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad…”
Peter may have been writing to a church experiencing these blessings, but despite his joy, he was concerned. He knew – he was sure – “There SHALL be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them…” Peter says that these false prophets shall “bring upon themselves swift destruction” – verse 1. But history teaches us that sometimes that “swift destruction” doesn’t come swiftly enough. Sometimes those false prophets, can sink their evil tentacles into a reviving church. Not only can they suck the revival right out, but they can eventually kill the revived congregation. What happened to the church in Ephesus, the church in Antioch, the church in Rome. Did any of those churches experience revival? Oh, yes they did.
In 1968, when I was a member of the First Baptist Church of Fort Collins, Colorado, the pastor of a church in nearby Thornton came to minister to us for a few days. That visiting preacher’s current website declares that his Mountain State Baptist Church was, at the time, the “fastest growing church in the western part of America.” I deny that extravagant claim, but his church was growing, and the man was a charismatic preacher. He was charismatic in more ways than one. Eventually, he stripped that Thornton church of nearly every dime it had and moved to El Cajon, California. He became the pastor the Harvest Temple Church, and again, according to his website, it became “one of the greatest churches in the southern part of California.” To make a long, dark, story short, that man joined the Ken Hagan, Paul Crouch, Joel Osteen, Kenneth Copeland crowd, preaching his own form of the false and poisonous “Prosperity gospel.” He has written dozens of books which he claims teach “Biblical Economics,” selling tens/millions of copies. His deliberate and brazen twisting of scriptures, makes my stomach turn as badly as if I was riding one of those extreme roller coasters at Silverwood Theme Park. I debated about using his name tonight, but it simplifies some of my later points by telling you that I’m referring to John Avanzini. If that name means nothing to you, I am delighted. You don’t need to know anything more than what I am going to share with you this evening.
With someone like John Avanzini in mind, let’s look at the remainder of II Peter 2.
Verse 17 – “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.” Visualize a church in the midst of a great spiritual revival. With or without an invitation, a dynamic speaker presents himself to the congregation, and initially appears to be preaching the same soul-saving, spirit-stirring message which had been preached earlier. But after a few weeks this man adds a tiny addendum: “If God has blessed your SOUL, remember He can bless your BODY as well, and even your WALLET. If you aren’t feeling stronger and more healthy, then you aren’t as surrendered to Christ as you should be. If you aren’t being blessed financially, CAN you really be SURE that the Lord has saved your soul?” It sounds so logical; it sounds so promising. But it is SO unbiblical. Look at that cloud. It is so promising. There is rain in that cloud. It is dark and pregnant with moisture. But then it passes over with nothing but more drying wind and dozens of fire-starting lightning strikes. That is a picture of the “Name it and Claim it,” “Prosperity Gospel” crowd. “To whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.”
“For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.” One of the things we heard over and over again in the testimonies of this past week, was the person’s eventual surrender as a sinner to Christ. Yes, in some of them there had been a yearning for peace or for joy; for deliverance from a horrible sin. But in the end, the Holy Spirit brought the sinner to the point of forsaking even those desires. The true gospel presents Christ, the Saviour, in such a way that the lust of the flesh isn’t involved. Salvation isn’t about making us feel good, even though that is sometimes a result. Salvation isn’t about any fleshly emotion or fleshly benefit. There is no licentiousness or wantonness; there is no bait to allure self-seeking sinners to the Saviour. But the false gospelist feeding on lost souls, often draws away even those who “were clean escaped” from the self-satisfying sins he is encouraging in his semi-biblical or un-biblical ministry. The sinner who comes to Christ looking for prosperity won’t find that kind of Christ to be the Saviour.
“While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” Avanzini and his Trinity Broadcasting friends promise several kinds of “liberty,” including financial “freedom.” For example, Avanzini says that, despite several obvious scriptures, Jesus was extremely wealthy. When Jesus said that foxes have holes and birds have nests, but He had no place to lay His head… Avanzini says that Christ had no place “in SAMARIA on that particular preaching trip,” because His advance team failed to get Him a suite in the Hilton, so He was going home to his mansion in Galilee. Absolute foolishness and prevarication. And where does John Avanzini live today? In a mansion outside of Fort Worth. Avanzini, and those false prophets like him, feast on the corruption they preach to their followers. The successful preachers of their group have been overcome by their own message; they are in the bondage of their books, theories and lies. And their converts are, or become, people of the same secular, sinful nature.
“For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.” I don’t claim to know the heart of John Avanzini. But in 1968, he was the pastor of a growing Baptist church in north Denver. I am going to assume that he knew the true gospel well enough to, at the very least, preach it. I am going to say that from time to time he told sinners to repent and to trust Christ. I am of the opinion that comparing him to Christ’s disciples, he was more like Judas than John or Peter. I can’t tell you that I remember any of his messages when he visited Fort Collins, but I’m going to assume that like the ministry of Judas Iscariot, there were no offensive doctrines preached that week. Having apparently “escaped the pollutions of the world through (an intellectual) knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” he was, with the other eleven disciples, sharing the news which was actually good. Oh, how horrible is the end going to be for men like Judas and him.
“For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy COMMANDMENT delivered unto them.” What is the “way of righteousness?” What is the gospel? It can be summarized with one word – “the Lord Jesus Christ.” The gospel isn’t about physical health. It is about eternal life in Christ. It doesn’t contain an addendum relating to earthly prosperity. It is about the Kingdom of Heaven. And the gospel doesn’t contain a paragraph about membership in, or supporting, a pure Baptist church. When these false prophets stand before the awesome white throne of God the Judge – these who once preached the truth, like Judas… these who knew the way of righteousness, will wish they had never been born. Oh, and by the way, there is a commandment element to the gospel, as Peter says. The gospel preacher may say it kindly, but the message is still – “repent and believe the gospel.” When the Jews demanded of Peter, “Men and brethren what should we do.” His answer was essentially a command – “repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” There is a holy commandment in the preaching of the gospel, but it has nothing to do with sending a check to some internet preacher.
“But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” Has there ever been a child who didn’t envy another child for his fancy bike, or his ball glove or some toy? Perhaps there have been a few, but not many. Some adults lust for the wealth of the rich and famous, not to the point of theft – just an unhealthy longing. If I was asked to guess, I would say that early in his career John Avanzini dreamed about having more money than he had when he was pastoring the Mountain State Baptist Church. And early in his “career” – I won’t call it a “ministry” – early in his “career” he got a taste for the good life. So it drove him from his first church, down Interstate 70, to wealthy Southern California, where there were plenty of professing Christians who were just as lustful for the things of the world as he was. And then he learned how to fleece those sheep, promising to them what HE actually wanted for himself. In other words, eventually the dog returned to his own vomit, and the pig who had been washed for the 4H competition, returned to the mud hole when she got home.
The Biblical statement is often quoted and taught: “by their fruits ye shall know them.” I trust that mature saints will be able to see Christ in the lives of our new believers. And on the other hand, looking at the lives of these false prophets, it isn’t too hard to discern their true condition. But I’m afraid we haven’t seen anything yet, and neither have those Balaams and Judases. When the judgment of God strips those people of their facade, all creation will see them to be the dogs and swine that they are. And at that point “it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.”
Summarizing what Peter is telling us in this chapter – “Beware of revival pirates.”