1 But 1falseprophetsalsoaroseamong the people, just as there will also be 2falseteachers3among you, who will 4secretlyintroduce5destructiveheresies, even6denying the 7Master who 8bought them, bringingswiftdestruction upon themselves.
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Many will follow their 9sensuality, and because of them 10the way of the truth will be 11maligned;
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and in their 12greed they will 13exploit you with 14falsewords; 15their judgment from longago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
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For 16ifGod did not spareangels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and 17committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;
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and did not spare18the ancientworld, but preserved19Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with sevenothers, when He brought a 20flood upon the world of the ungodly;
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and if He 21condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an 22example to those who would23liveungodly lives thereafter;
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and if He 24rescuedrighteousLot, oppressed by the 25sensualconduct of 26unprincipledmen
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(for by what he saw and heard that 27righteousman, while livingamong them, felt his righteoussoultormenteddayafterday by their lawlessdeeds ),
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28then the Lordknowshow to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the 29day of judgment,
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and especiallythose who 30indulge the flesh in its corruptdesires and 31despiseauthority. Daring, 32self-willed, they do not tremble when they 33revile angelic majesties,
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34whereasangels who are greater in might and power do not bring a revilingjudgmentagainst them before the Lord.
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But 35these, likeunreasoninganimals, 36born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, revilingwhere* they havenoknowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed,
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suffering wrong as 37the wages of doingwrong. They count it a pleasure to 38revel in the 39daytime. They are stains and blemishes, 40reveling in their deceptions, as they 41carouse with you,
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havingeyesfull of adultery that nevercease from sin, 42enticing43unstablesouls, having a hearttrained in 44greed, 45accursedchildren;
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forsaking46the rightway, they have goneastray, having followed47the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, wholoved48the wages of unrighteousness;
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but he received a rebuke for his owntransgression, 49for a mutedonkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.
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These are 50springswithoutwater and mistsdriven by a storm, 51for whom the blackdarkness has been reserved.
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For speaking out 52arrogant words of 53vanity they 54entice by fleshlydesires, by 55sensuality, those who barely56escape from the ones who live in error,
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promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for 57by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.
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For if, after they have 58escaped the defilements of the world by 59the knowledge of the 60Lord and SaviorJesusChrist, they are again61entangled in them and are overcome, 62the last state has becomeworse for them than the first.
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63For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turnaway from 64the holycommandment65handed on to them.
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It has happened to them according to the trueproverb, "66A DOGRETURNS TO ITS OWNVOMIT," and, "A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire."