“Bold, arrogant people! They are not afraid to slander the glorious ones; however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord. But these people, like irrational animals—creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed—slander what they do not understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed. They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done.”
Peter is harsh in his condemnation of the false teachers. He calls them bold and arrogant. Jude, the half-brother of Jesus, has very similar words in his letter. “In the same way these people—relying on their dreams—defile their flesh, reject authority, and slander glorious ones. Yet when Michael the archangel was disputing with the devil in an argument about Moses’s body, he did not dare utter a slanderous condemnation against him but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” But these people blaspheme anything they do not understand. And what they do understand by instinct—like irrational animals—by these things they are destroyed” (vs. 8-10). Both Peter and Jude use the phrase “slander the glorious ones” and compare the false teachers to “irrational animals.” They also both refer to angels not bringing up a slanderous charge- with Jude going into more detail.
These false teachers are called bold and arrogant because they were scoffing about Christ’s return as we will read in Chapter 3. They were also bringing sexual sin into the church. We will read about this in the rest of this chapter. These teachers were “not afraid to slander the glorious ones…” What do Peter and Jude mean by this? We know they are referring to angels because of the verses that follow. Which angels are they referring to? Douglas Moo writes this in his commentary. “…Most also agree that evil angels are meant, since Peter contrasts these ‘glorious ones’ reviled by the false teachers with the ‘angels’ in verse 11 (which, since Peter commends their activity, must be good angels). Why is it wrong for the false teachers to slander these evil angels? Presumably because, though fallen, they still bear the impress of their ‘glorious’ origin.”
Peter uses the example of the angels. He says, “however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring up a slanderous charge against them before the Lord.” Here again, just as in earlier this chapter, Peter is likely referring to a story from I Enoch, where the good angels, rather than intervening as they heard the cries of the humans as they were being harmed by the evil angels, went directly to the Lord. Jude tells a similar story from I Enoch where Michael the Archangel, when disputing with the devil over Moses’s body, did not dare offer a slanderous condemnation against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” These false teachers were doing what even angels would not dare to do!
Peter goes on. “But these people, like irrational animals- creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed- slander what they do not understand and in their destruction they too will be destroyed.” Wow. These are harsh words indeed! Kenneth Gangel writes this. “The false teachers of the first century were like brute beasts. They operated from instinct, which was locked into their sin nature, rather than rational choice. Creatures of instinct translates the one Greek word physika, ‘belonging to nature.’ They followed their natural desires. Like animals in a jungle, their only value is in being caught and destroyed (cf. Jude 10). This harsh language from Peter is an indication of how serious he considered these heresies to be.”
Today we have many heresies in the church, and there are many that involve angels. While the heresies from the early church are different than those today, it is important to have a correct understanding of what the Bible teaches. There are many New Age teachings on angels and many false understandings about them. I will give two examples of false beliefs in the church today.
Beni Johnson was the senior pastor with her husband Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding, California before she passed away from cancer in 2022. She had some very interesting teachings on angels. She wrote in a blog post that there were angels who had fallen asleep. She wrote, “I think that they have been bored for a long time and are ready to be put to work.” One story that she writes about is one of her students from Wales that attended the Bethel Supernatural School of Ministry. Johnson recounts the student standing across the street from the chapel in Wales where a revival had happened a century earlier. The student claims God told her to yell “Wakey wakey!” Beni writes this. “Nothing happened for about 5 minutes so (the student) turned around to cross the road to go over to a shop. As she turned around, she felt the ground begin to shake and heard this huge yawn. She looked back at the chapel, and a huge angel stepped out. All she could see were his feet because he was that large. She asked him who he was, and he turned to her and said, ‘I am the angel from the 1904 revival and you just woke me up.’ She asked him, ‘Why have you been asleep?” The angel answered and said, ‘Because no one has been calling for revival anymore.’” You can find Beni tell variations of this story on YouTube. Another encounter that Beni has with angels is on a prayer trip with a group of students to Arizona. She writes that as she was driving over the Tehachapi pass and into the Mojave Desert, she began to feel angels. On an aside, I have driven this road many, many times and I have never gotten this feeling. She writes, “The closer we got, the stronger the impression felt. I could see them everywhere! Whenever there are angels present, I get very animated and excited.” She continues her story about moving on to a small town, seeing the name of the hotel which reminded her of the story I shared earlier, and how they stopped. They blew their shofar, rang the bell, yelled “wakey wakey!” and then got back into their RV, laughing hysterically, knowing they had woken angels.
This is so bizarre to me. In her mind, heaven had collided with earth. In reality, she was slandering angels. Can you imagine what would have happened if an angel had actually appeared in either of these stories? When I look at verses of angelic visitations in the New Testament, I see phrases such as “do not be afraid,” “they were terrified,” and “staring at him in awe.” Not once are angels pictured as sleeping giants, and nowhere are they treated lightly or jokingly. This is a good example of humans being bold and arrogant and thinking that they are greater in might and power than angels.
One more example before I finish. I won’t spend a lot of time here because I’ve already written an entire blog post on it which you can read here: Deliverance Ministries – Abundant Joy. There is a group of ministers who call themselves the “demon slayers.” They spend almost all their time doing deliverance with little time on the gospel. Their method of deliverance looks little like what we see in the New Testament. It doesn’t look like the example Jude gives of Michael saying to the devil- “the Lord rebuke you!” Instead, they tell their followers that they may need multiple deliverances. They make the people dependent on them, rather than God.
Remember, all the false teachers that have been, and all the false teachers that are still to come, have their destruction coming. Peter warns, “They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done.” Jesus says this. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!” (Matthew 7:21-23).
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 