[God's] judgment is chiefly reserved for those who have indulged all the foulness of their lower natures, and have nothing but contempt for authority. These men are arrogant and presumptuous - they think nothing of scoffing at the glories of the unseen world. Yet even angels . . . do not bring insulting criticisms of such things before the Lord. But these men, with no more sense than the unreasoning brute beasts which are born to be caught and killed, scoff at things outside their own experience, and will most certainly be destroyed in their own corruption. Their wickedness has earned them an evil end and they will be paid in full.

   These are the men who delight in daylight self-indulgence; they are foul spots and blots, playing their tricks at your very dinner tables. Their eyes cannot look at a woman without lust, and they miss no opportunity for sin. They captivate the unstable ones, and their technique of getting what they want is, through long practice, highly developed. They are born under a curse, for they have abandoned the right road and wandered off to follow the old trail of Balaam, son of Beor, the man who had no objection to wickedness as long as he was paid for it. But he, you remember, was sharply reprimanded for his wickedness - by a donkey, of all things, speaking with a human voice to check the prophet's wicked infatuation!

   These men are like wells without a drop of water in them . . . and their fate will be the black night of utter darkness. With their high-sounding nonsense they use the sensual pull of the lower passions to attract those who were just on the point of cutting loose from their companions in evil. They promise them liberty. Liberty! - when they themselves are bound hand and foot to utter depravity. For a man is the slave of whatever masters him. If men have escaped from the world's contaminations through knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and then become entangled and defeated by them all over again, their last position is worse than their first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of goodness at all, than after knowing it to turn their backs on the sacred commandments given to them. For them, the old proverbs have come true about the "dog returning to his vomit," and "the sow that had been washed going back to wallow in the muck."

Taken from II Pt. 2, The Phillips Translation. For free Lifescope book, write to Box
1575, Carlsbad, NM 88221. Please send $1.00 for postage and handling.