"But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment 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 pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day with their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery and that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; forsaking the right way they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but he received a rebuke for his own transgression; for a dumb donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet. These are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, 'A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT,' and, 'A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.'"Peter describes the same type of person that Paul had described in 1 Timothy 4:1-3. Notice:
- In verse 15, he "forsakes" (relinquishes) the right way.
- In verse 20, after escaping the defilements of the world by knowledge (epignosis, επιγνωσις, which means "full discernment") of the Lord and Saviour, he reverts back to those defilements.
The first line of evidence is found in 2 Peter 2:20 where Peter says, "the last state has become worse for them than the first." Verse 21 defines the two states to which verse 20 refers: the first state is "not to have known the way of righteousness;" the second state is "having known it, to turn away." If we understand this statement to be referring to saved people, then that sets Peter up in the position of stating that these people were better off before they were saved—obviously an absurdity. For that reason alone, this passage cannot be referring to saved people. It could never be correctly stated that a Christian was better off before they were saved. The Arminianist view of this passage believes that the people described were saved and then lost their salvation, in which case they certainly would be worse off (but not worse off than they were before they knew the gospel—only worse off than they were before they "lost" their salvation). But that is not what this passage actually says. The passage says that they are worse off than before they knew the gospel. The idea is that these individuals were far better off before they turned away from the truth, because up until that point they could have yielded themselves and have been saved. But now they have determined to reject the truth, and in so doing they have rendered themselves with no recourse—since there is no other means of salvation than faith in Christ. If a person rejects the truth with full knowledge of what he/she is doing, what hope is there? Such an individual had understood the truth of the gospel fully, and with sufficient knowledge has refused it.
The second line of evidence is found in verse 22. What does the proverb of "a dog returns to its own vomit" mean? A dog returns to its vomit because that is a dog's nature. Why does a pig "wallowing in the mire"? Because wallowing in the mire is consistent with the pig's nature. You can bathe a pig, but that does not change the pig's nature. A pig having had a bath is still just a pig. We should not be surprised when it returns to the mud. This proverb simply illustrates the difference between reformation and transformation. An apostate turns away from the faith because he/she was never transformed through person faith in the truth, even though they may have experienced a measure of personal reformation (behavioural modification) for a period of time. (Personal reformation may involve both attitudes and actions—soul and body—but does not originate from a renewed spirit as does transformation.) When such a one departs from the faith and denies the Saviour, they are simply doing what is in accordance with their untransformed nature. They may have appeared to be a saved person, from what could be detected externally, but in reality their nature was never changed. Eventually, some of them overtly return to their old ways (they apostatize, cf. Luke 11:24-28), while others covertly remain as "hidden reefs" within the local church (Jude 12).
The third line of evidence that this passage is describing apostasy involved the apostate's destiny. Verse 1 says that apostates will be "destroyed" (apoleia, απωλεια, which means "to destroy utterly"—a total and final destruction). This is the same term that is translated "perish" in John 3:16. There, the ones perishing are set in bold contrast to the saved. In Matthew 15:24, apoleia is translated "lost." The idea is that to be "lost" indicates a future of eternal destruction in hell. In 2 Peter 2:9, Peter indicates that these individuals will be kept under punishment "for the day of judgment." In 2:17, Peter says, "the black darkness has been reserved" for apostates. This phrase, composed of six Greek words, is repeated in only one other location in the entire New Testament—Jude 13. A comparison of Jude 5-13 clearly establishes that Jude was speaking in reference to the same people that Peter had in mind—apostates. Note that Jude adds the word "forever" in the phrase. Doubtless, this is an eternal judgment. Thus, we see that apostates, as described in this passage, are lost and there is no indication that they were ever saved.
Borrowed and revised from Sam A. Smith's The Biblical Doctrine of Apostasy.