False Pastors of the Synagogue of Satan

2 Peter 2:1-3
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, October 14, 2018
Copyright © 2018, P. G. Mathew
Language [Japanese]

In 2 Peter 2:1–3, the apostle Peter is warning us about false pastors of the synagogue of Satan. The phrase “synagogue of Satan” appears in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9.

The majority of Christian ministers are not called and sent by Christ. Jesus is the head of the true church, which he builds by his true pastors. True pastors are sent from God. They are gifts of the ascended Christ and appointed by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 2:17; Eph. 4:11; Acts 20:28). They alone preach the infallible and inerrant word of God, which is the primary means of God’s grace, as Peter made clear in 2 Peter 1:19-21.

False ministers and false priests are not born again. Therefore, they cannot preach the true gospel—the gospel we find in the Holy Scriptures.[1] They preach a different Jesus, a different gospel, and a different spirit. They preach their own ideas, their own words (2 Pet. 2:3), which are, in truth, the words of the devil. Paul writes, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve” (2 Cor. 11:13–15).

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says that 2 Peter 2 is one of the most terrible chapters of the Bible.[2] At the time he wrote it, Peter was about to be crucified and leave the church forever. So he was warning the church about false ministers infiltrating God’s church to destroy it, if possible.

The devil is the enemy of God’s holy church. The whole world is under his control. Only the true church, consisting of regenerate people, will resist the devil by exercising church discipline by excommunicating the wicked. If a church refuses to exercise discipline, the wicked will take control of that church, and true believers will have to leave. Either God’s people must leave, or the wicked people will leave, as we read in 1 John 2:19: “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.”

In Christ’s holy church, the rebellious are put out when necessary. They are then welcomed by synagogues of Satan, where the word of God is not preached. But our authority is the word of God alone. Isaiah says, “When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony![3] If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn” (Isa. 8:19–20). Such false pastors are not born again.

False Prophets in Israel

Peter begins this passage, “But there were also false prophets among the people” (v. 1). In Lamentations 2:14 we read, “The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin.” In this church we expose sin by the preaching of the word so that our sins may be covered by the blood of Christ. But this verse tells us, “They did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading.”

We read about such false prophets throughout the Old Testament. For example:

Jeremiah 23:11: “‘Both prophet and priest are godless; even in my temple I find their wickedness,’ declares the Lord.”
Jeremiah 23:14: “And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: They commit adultery and live a lie.”
Jeremiah 23:21: “I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.” These are false ministers.
Ezekiel 22:28: “Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says’—when the Lord has not spoken.’”

False Ministers in the Church

After speaking about the false prophets of the Old Testament, Peter warns, “There will be false teachers among you” (v. 1). In 2 Peter 2:1–3, the apostle uses five verbs in future tenses in the Greek. The Holy Spirit is warning us through Peter what will happen to Christ’s church in the future. If a church fails to be vigilant by being led by the Holy Spirit and God’s holy word, that church will fail.

The elders must govern the church by the word and the Spirit, and they must do so in unity. False ministers can come from inside the church as well as from outside. Peter warns in Acts 20:28–31: “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.”

I have been here for many years, warning you. John writes, “Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist” (2 John 7).

Destructive Heresies

Peter’s first warning is that these false ministers will “secretively introduce destructive heresies” (v. 1). “Destructive heresies” means teachings that negate the gospel and eternally destroy both the false pastors and their followers. Paul also warns about such false teachings: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal. 1:8–9).

These false ministers, coming from both outside and inside the church, do not stand up and announce, “Friends, I want you to know I am a false pastor. I teach heresies and false doctrines. I do not believe in Jesus Christ. I believe Jesus Christ was a sinner like us. He tried to live a good life, but he died like everyone else. I don’t believe in miracles. I don’t believe in hell or heaven. I don’t believe in sin or in the Ten Commandments. I believe in making a lot of money and living a good life, as the rich man of Luke 16 lived. Yes, Paul says, ‘People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs’ (1 Tim. 6:9-10). But I don’t believe in the Bible. I pick and choose verses that make me feel good. I don’t believe in regeneration, repentance, or faith. I believe that all religions are of equal value. I believe in science. I believe in global warming and cooling. I believe in climate change. I believe in abortion. I believe in feminism.”

False ministers act secretly; they do not say all these things openly. In fact, they will declare, “I believe all people are born good and are getting better.” So these false ministers secretly introduce devilish teachings that destroy people. These false teachers oppose the apostolic doctrines and promote every form of evil. We find warnings about them throughout the New Testament:

1 Timothy 4:1–2: “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.”
2 Timothy 3:1–5: “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”
2 Timothy 4:3–4: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
Jude 4: “For certain men [false ministers] whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”
1 Timothy 5:15: “Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.”

False Teachers

These false teachers deny Jesus Christ, “the sovereign Lord who bought them” (v. 1). These false priests and pastors even deny the heart of the gospel, Jesus Christ, the God/man and his atoning sacrifice, his resurrection, his ascension, his session, and his coming again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Such people will confess Jesus as Lord but then they deny him as Lord by their doctrine and ethics. They and their large number of followers live antinomian lives and refuse to believe that Jesus has received all authority in heaven and on earth. So they refuse to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. They obey the devil, not the Lord Jesus.

Elsewhere in this epistle Peter says the false teachers “promise . . . freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him” (2 Pet. 2:19). They obey the devil, not the Lord Jesus. Everyone obeys someone, either Jesus or the devil.

Jesus also warned us about false priests and false pastors. He said, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves” (Matt. 7:15). He also said, “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matt. 7:22–23).

Many churches are synagogues of Satan, pastored by false pastors. Jesus said, “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time” (Matt. 24:24–25).

These false priests and pastors, and their huge number of followers, will be destroyed by Christ and sent to eternal hell in due time. They will be in hell, in fire, in torment, in agony forever.

Large Following

Peter says, “Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute” (v. 2). False pastors generally have large followings. So these pastors will have huge churches, which consist of unregenerate believers characterized by the first three soils of the parable of Jesus (Luke 8:1–15). They are fruitless false believers who love to sin. They are non-elect and unregenerate. They are sons of disobedience (see Greek text of Eph. 2:2), not sons of obedience (see Greek text of 1 Pet. 1:14).

True believers will obey God. John writes, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did” (1 John 2:3–6).

False priests and false pastors refuse to preach the infallible word of God because they are unregenerate children of disobedience, that is, children of the devil (John 8:44). So they preach a false gospel which promotes the works of the flesh, such as those Paul lists in Galatians 5: “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19–21).

False pastors preach to entertain and please people. Peter says, “These teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up” (v. 3). They tell stories. They take polls to find out what excites people. They are into rock and roll. (PGM) They never preach about sin and repentance. They never say that Jesus is Lord and we are his bondslaves, or about holy living. They speak about faith, but when they do so, they are speaking about assensus (mental assent), not fides est fiducia (faith as trust in Jesus). They say, “Jesus is Lord,” but they never will say, “Jesus is my Lord.” Notice the subtle difference.

By not saying, “Jesus is my Lord,” they are also not saying, “I am his obedient slave.” These false pastors promote easy believism. In reality, they are saying, “Believe in Jesus and sin all you want.” Many people like to go to churches that preach such messages. The gospel they preach is “We sin; God forgives.” Their goal is to have a big church and make a lot of money. So they preach what is pleasing to people. In essence, they are saying, “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more. So sin more that grace and forgiveness may increase.” And people are going to such churches by the thousands.[4]

They refuse to preach Romans 6:4: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” They do not preach Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” They do not preach Philippians 2:12–13: “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to do his good pleasure.”

They Blaspheme the Gospel

These pastors blaspheme the gospel by their teaching and their lives. Peter writes, “Many will follow after their immorality.” The word is aselgeia, “debauchery.” Many people like it. Peter continues, “and cause the gospel to be blasphemed” (v. 2, author’s translation).

We are called to live holy lives. Peter writes, “[God] rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men” (2 Pet. 2:7). He also says, “For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry” (1 Pet. 4:3). Calvin said, “Scarcely one in ten of those who enlist under Christ [church members] keep the purity of their faith to the very end.”[5] And I say it is scarcely one in a hundred.

Such people blaspheme the gospel. Only eight people were saved when God destroyed the ancient world by a flood. The easy believism of modern big churches will not save anyone. A fake gospel produces fake faith and false hope in fake believers. God told Adam and Eve, “The day you eat thereof, of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die.” Simply put, “Eat and die,” which is what happened. But the devil said, “The day you eat thereof, you will not surely die.” This is the gospel of false ministers of big churches. In other words, the devil says, “Eat and live,” when God said, “Eat and die.” He always negates God’s word.

The sinful life of a Christian causes the gospel of Jesus and the way of truth to be blasphemed. The holy life of a true Christian causes the gospel to be made attractive. So Peter admonishes, “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us” (1 Pet. 2:12). Jesus himself said, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16). Our holy lives matter. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). Holy living brings glory to Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life.

At the end of this epistle, Peter exhorts, “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. . . . So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him” (2 Pet. 3: 11–12, 14).

Greedy Pastors

Peter says, “In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up” (v. 3). Greedy pastors worship money and what money can buy. These self-appointed priests and pastors are unregenerate. Their father is the devil. They are liars, and they preach a different Jesus, a different gospel, and a different spirit. They have a filthy lifestyle, characterized by debauchery (aselgeia).

Such people are greedy. They worship money. They hate the Bible and therefore hate the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. They have only one goal: to make a lot of money. They preach about health, wealth, power, and fame. They practice immorality. Their heroes are Achan, Balaam, Simon Magus, Judas, Demas, Ananias and Sapphira, all of whom served money rather than God. But consider the following:

Achan stole God’s money. God killed him and his family, and burned their bodies (Josh. 7).
Balaam counseled Israel to sin for money, and he was killed. He was a false prophet (Num. 25; 31:8, 16).
Simon Magus tried to buy the Holy Spirit from Peter to sell retail and make a huge profit. Peter told him, literally, to go hell with his money (Acts 8:20).
Judas was a son of perdition (John 17:12). He was a thief. As keeper of the moneybag for Jesus, he used to steal. He made thirty pieces of silver by betraying Jesus. Later, though, he was guilt-ridden. He threw away all his money and hanged himself. Judas and those like him were described by the prophet Micah: “Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon the Lord and say, ‘Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us’” (Micah 3:11). Greedy Judas went to hell. All people of the world who refuse to trust Jesus but worship money will join Judas in hell, especially false priests and false pastors who exploit, cheat, and pick the pockets of God’s people by telling stories they have made up.
Demas became fed up with suffering with Paul for the gospel. So he left Paul and the gospel to make money in Thessalonica (2 Tim. 4:10a).
Ananias and Sapphira stole God’s money and God killed them, in the church (Acts 5).

Synagogues of Satan

Many big churches are synagogues of Satan. They lack the true marks of a holy church, which Christ builds.

Preaching of the word—the inspired, infallible, and inerrant word of God.
True administration of the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
Discipline to put out wicked who refuse to repent (1 Cor. 5:4–5).

In the synagogues of Satan, they preach Isaiah 5:20: Good is bad and bad is good. They teach evolutionary hypothesis and pseudo-science. They teach that no miracles are possible, that new ideas are always better, that popular ideas are always good, and that belief in Jesus is okay as long as one’s faith is mental assent, not trusting in the Christ of the Bible for eternal life.

Pastors of synagogues of Satan practice debauchery and licentiousness. They preach man’s philosophy. Isaiah spoke of such people: “But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment” (Isa. 50:1).

In synagogues of Satan, the false pastors refuse to preach the word. They have their own word, which they made up (2 Pet. 2:3). In synagogues of Satan, the preacher and people worship Satan. Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Paul writes of such people, “What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?” (Rom. 9:22). The vast majority of the people in modern churches are objects of wrath prepared for destruction. Elsewhere Paul says, “Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things” (Phil. 3:19). Paul ends his letter to the Corinthians, “If anyone does not love the Lord—a curse be on him. Come, O Lord!” (1 Cor. 16:22). Jude writes, “In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire” for not preaching the gospel (Jude 7).

Conclusion

There is no escape from hell to heaven or from heaven to hell after our death. Maybe some of us will die today, or maybe next month, or maybe next year. But we are all going to die, unless God comes.

There is no escape from hell to heaven, or from heaven to hell after death. Only now are we able to cross from hell to heaven, from eternal death to eternal life, by faith in Jesus Christ.

To the thief who believed, Jesus said, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” This moment you are able to cross over from death to life, from hell to paradise. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24).

Now is the accepted time. Now you are here. Now you are hearing the word of God. Paul writes, “As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, ‘In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.’ I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:1–2). Jude says, “Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life” (Jude 21).

The feet of the elect will be guided by the Holy Spirit to Christ’s holy church to hear the gospel, to believe in Jesus, the only Savior, and confess him as Lord and be saved forever. Paul writes, “What if [God] did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory?” (Rom. 9:23). May God help all of us to make sure that we are objects of mercy being prepared for glory.

[1] See also Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 1, “Of the Holy Scripture.”

[2] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Expository Sermons on Second Peter (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1983), 123.

[3] The Bible, in other words.

[4] For examples, visit the following: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/19/best-paid-pastors_n_1214043.html, https://www.forbes.com/sites/mfonobongnsehe/2011/06/07/the-five-richest-pastors-in-nigeria/, https://www.forbes.com/sites/andersonantunes/2013/01/17/the-richest-pastors-in-brazil/

[5] John Calvin, Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews and The First and Second Epistles of St. Peter, edited by David W. Torrance and Thomas F. Torrance, translated by William B. Johnston (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 346.