SPELLING EDITED Cc-14. WHAT DOES 1 PETER 2:8 TRULY MEAN? Here is 1 Peter 2:8 from the King James Version of the Bible. I have emphasized the phrase “THEY were APPOINTED” and “BEING DISOBEDIENT” in order to show how some Christians INTERPRET this verse to try and support what they come to believe.
1 Peter 2:8 from the King James Version of the Bible.
“And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, BEING DISOBEDIENT: whereunto also THEY were APPOINTED.”
So then, when you emphasize these two phrases it makes it SEEM like there can be no other possible interpretation of this verse. And when you read this verse with a presupposed belief in a church doctrine, then it seems almost impossible for this verse to mean anything else than what your church denominational doctrine dogmatically demands that it MUST mean. Therefore, Calvinist Christians along with Reformed Theology Christians use 1 Peter 2:8 to try and support their belief that God chose ONLY certain people to be saved. And according to their interpretation of the scriptures, if you are not one of those so-called chosen people to be saved before the foundation of the world, then it is impossible for you to be saved.
So then, this study in God’s word is to learn the TRUE meaning of this verse by taking a CLOSER look at this verse in its context. You see my dear brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, almost every verse in the Bible can have more than just one single interpretation. Even some of the verses that SEEM like a statement of fact with absolutely no interpretation needed can sometimes have another interpretation that may have been overlooked. So what I would like to do is for you, the reader and seeker of the truth, is to have three tables. I use the word table as an analogy for laying all your “cards on the table”. This is an expression that is used to be upfront and honest with God, yourself, and others. So, what I mean by this is to put all the verses that you use to support what you believe on ONE table. A table could be a literal table or a file draws or a column on a piece of paper having three columns. Simply list all these verses that support what you believe in one column. Then on ANOTHER table or column, I want you to place all the verses used by others that SEEM to contradict what you believe and teach. The third table or column will be empty or blank for the moment when you first begin with an honest and open-minded examination of what you have come to believe. The third table will be used to hold all the verses that can NO LONGER be used as ironclad positively undeniable proof to YOU that seem to support what you have come to believe and teach to be Biblical. Now, instead of trying to explain away what OTHERS believe and teach, we are going to be open and honest with ourselves to seek ONLY what the Bible, itself teaches. And in order to do this, it may be necessary to revisit the verses that we use to support our OWN church denominational teaching.
And in this case, since 1 Peter 2:8 is used to try to prove PREDESTINATION in the way that Reformed Theology Christians teach, then I want all my Reformed or Calvinist brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ to do your best to NOT read INTO 1 Peter 2:8, your own predetermine belief.
Let us read 1 Peter 2:8 in the immediate close context, which is just a few verses before and after the verse in question. The verse in question is the verse you desire to know the true meaning according to what the rest of the Bible teaches us IN SIMPLICITY. If the gospel is not taught in simplicity then it may very well be ANOTHER gospel that the Apostles of Jesus Christ did NOT teach.
First, please read 2 Corinthians 11:3,4.
“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the SIMPLICITY that is IN Christ. 4. For if he that comes preaching ANOTHER Jesus, (That did NOT die on the cross for the sins of the WHOLE world) whom WE have NOT preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or ANOTHER gospel, (Where God predestined certain specific people to be lost and there is nothing that they can do to be saved) which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him.”
Let us now read the immediate CONTEXT of 1 Peter 2:8 by reading 1 Peter 2:1-10.
1 Peter 2:1-10.
“Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, (An evil speaking is anything that CONTRADICTS what God has spoken in his word. One of the meanings of the word “guile” is clever but sometimes dishonest speech that can deceive a person. And this includes the person doing the speaking, seeing that they may not have intentionally meant to deceive anyone. In other words, let us lay aside any preconceived belief that we may have taught and simply read the scriptures as a new born-again believer in Jesus) 2. As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that you may grow thereby: 3. If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 4. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, (So then, the subject of this passage of scripture is Jesus, the Messiah, who is being compared to a LIVING STONE or the CHIEF CORNERSTONE that the builders rejected) 5. You also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 6. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that BELIEVES on him shall not be confounded. 7. Unto you, therefore, WHICH BELIEVE (Then the Messiah, the HEAD over you) he is precious: (That is ONE CHOICE and the choice that God desires all of mankind to make) BUT unto them which be disobedient, (Or the OTHER CHOICE where other people CHOOSE to be disobedient to the WORD OF God, to NOT believe the GOSPEL of Jesus Christ, then to THEM) the stone which the builders disallowed, (That is precious to us who BELIEVE) the same is made the head of the corner, (BUT to those who have CHOSEN NOT to BELIEVE the word of TRUTH, then the GOSPEL of Jesus Christ has become) 8. And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the WORD, being disobedient (To the WORD of TRUTH, the true GOSPEL of Jesus Christ, the gospel of SALVATION to WHOSOEVER BELIEVES): whereunto ALSO they were APPOINTED. (Peter is preaching to the GENTILES right now. The Gospel was preached to the Jews FIRST but many of them STUMBLED at the WORD, the scriptures and thus they did NOT BELIEVE) 9. But YOU (speaking of the gospel being sent to the GENTILES) are a chosen generation, (Or are chosen for an AGE, speaking of the age of the church, or the age of the gospel being focused upon the Gentiles) a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: (To provoke the children of Israel to jealousy in the last days) 10. Which in time past were NOT a people, but are NOW (You are CHOSEN to BE) the people of God: (By BELIEVING in the CHIEF CORNERSTONE) which had not obtained mercy, but NOW have obtained mercy.”
In other words, God has NOW extended salvation to be given to ALL of mankind and NOT just to the children of Israel as it was at the FIRST. BUT the SAME rules apply to BOTH the Jews AND the Gentiles and those TWO rules are as follows.
RULE #1.
ONLY those who CHOOSE to BELIEVE that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, who died on the cross for their sins and continue to BELIEVE and obey the teachings of Jesus unto the END, shall be saved.
RULE #2.
ALL those who are disobedient to the WORD by their own CHOOSING to NOT BELIEVE that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, who died on the cross for their sins shall REMAIN condemned to the second death in their sins BECAUSE they have continued unto the END to NOT BELIEVE.
Please consider the verses where God will turn once again a SECOND TIME to his chosen people Israel that have REJECTED their Messiah in order to recover a REMNANT of Israel to be saved alive to go into the Millennium in their MORTAL bodies to be taught of the Lord, the Messiah, Jesus.
Please read Isaiah 11:10-12.
“ And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. 11. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand AGAIN the SECOND TIME to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
Then in Isaiah 57: 14 we learn that the STUMBLINGBLOCK shall be taken OUT of the WAY. In other words, the blindness in PART that is upon the chosen people of Israel during the age of the gospel being sent to the GENTILES to provoke Israel to jealousy so that they will BELIEVE will be removed entirely at the coming of Jesus.
Please read Isaiah 57:14.
“And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people”.
So then, the INTENT of God was always to save WHOSOEVER BELIEVE in his Son, Jesus, as the atonement for their sins. It was God’s plan all along to cut off ALL the branches of the natural Olive tree under the OLD Covenant in order to show his MERCY to the entire world.
Please read John 3:16-18 where Jesus is basically saying that if we do NOT BELIEVE that he is the Christ, the Son of the living God, then we shall REMAIN in our sins being condemned already to the second death BECAUSE we have NOT BELIEVED.
John 3:16-18.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, THAT (Or so that) WHOSOEVER BELIEVES in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17. For (Or BECAUSE) God sent NOT his Son into the world to CONDEMN the world; but that the world through him MIGHT be saved. 18. He (Of WHOSOEVER of ANY person in the whole world) that BELIEVES on him is NOT condemned: (That is ONE CHOICE and the CHOICE that God DESIRES that we make) BUT he that believes NOT is condemned already, BECAUSE he has NOT BELIEVED in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
And that is the SECOND CHOICE that God does NOT DESIRE that ANY person make because it is God’s WILL and desire that ALL men be saved according to the SIMPLICITY of the gospel found in 2 Peter 3:9 and 1 Timothy 2:4. Now, if you have read the study called “WHAT DOES JOHN 10:26 TRULY MEAN?, then you will understand that the TRUE meaning of John 10:26 agree with all the verses that clearly teach us that we are not condemned to perish BECAUSE we BELIEVE the true gospel of Jesus Christ. So then, the INTERPRETATION that we just read in this study ALSO agrees with the correct meaning of John 10:26. In other words, both of these studies of the correct interpretation of the scriptures AGREE PERFECTLY with John 3:16-18. So now you have a CHOICE to make. You can either take John 10:26 AND 2 Peter 2:8 OFF your table of the verses that you use to try and support your belief in Calvinism or Reformed Theology. In other words, you can CHOOSE to place both John 10:26 and 2 Peter 2:8 on table number three as the verses that you can NO LONG USE to try and prove that Calvinism is the only sound Biblical option. Or you can CHOOSE to continue to try and explain away John 3:16-18 by redefining words to fit your INTERPRETATIONS of the scriptures. But that would require you to have your own FREE WILL to make either of these TWO CHOICES. Please consider the OTHER side of this highly controversial subject. You see, all you need to do is to PLUG IN your theology of ONLY the ELECT being saves into John 3:1-18 and see if it COMPUTES logically in your mind. Here is how a NON-Calvinist Christians see your interpretation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ being INTENDED ONLY for the ELECT.
Calvinistic translation of John 3:16-18.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever of the ELECT CHOSEN BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD TO BE SAVE WHO BELIEVE in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the ELECT OF THE world; but that the ELECT OF THE world through him MIGHT be saved. 18. He OF WHOSOEVER OF THE ELECT CHOSEN BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD that BELIEVES on him is not condemned: BUT he OF WHOSOEVER OF THE ELECT CHOSEN BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD that BELIEVES NOT is condemned already, BECAUSE he OF WHOSOEVER OF THE ELECT CHOSEN BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD has NOT BELIEVED in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
Now according to Calvinism, it is IMPOSSIBLE for one of the ELECT to NOT BELIEVE. And according to Calvinism, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is INTENDED for ONLY the ELECT seeing that ONLY the ELECT can possibly BELIEVE. So by redefining the word “WHOSOEVER” to mean “ONLY the ELECT” does NOT COMPUTE. You see, when that Calvinistic meaning of “ONLY the ELECT” is plugged into John 3:16-18 where Jesus is clearly teaching us IN SIMPLICITY that we have TWO CHOICES from which to choose of our own free will. We can either CHOOSE to BELIEVE. Or we can CHOOSE to NOT believe. And our eternal life depends on which CHOICE that WE make of our own free will.
Thanks for reading and may God bless you richly as you CONTINUE to seek the TRUTH of the WHOLE word of Almighty God. Your very eternal life depends upon what CHOICES that you make. So choose wisely according to the SOUND BIBLICAL teaching of the scriptures.
Your brother in our Lord Jesus Christ, Brother Mark.
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The NEXT VERSE we will study is Acts 16:14 in the study called “WHATS DOES ACTS 16:14 TRULY MEAN?”
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