<p>2:2 <em>And many shall follow their destructive ways, by reason of whom the way of the truth shall be blasphemed</em>- This has to be connected with the Lord's teaching that &quot;many&quot; (Gk. the majority) would fall away just before His coming (Mt. 24:12); Peter is perhaps picking this up, and shewing that this will be due to following false teachers. &quot;Destructive ways&quot; is literally 'the ways of condemnation'. The heresies they taught were likewise those of condemnation (:1); and their condemnation was therefore near (:3 s.w.). There is a great power in ideas; believing the wrong ones leads to destruction / condemnation.</p><p>False prophets bring forth bad fruit; the nature of the teaching therefore affects the nature of the fruit (Mt. 7:16). False teaching which isn&rsquo;t the same as genuine intellectual failure therefore elicits a bad way of life (&quot;their destructive ways&quot;); and the false prophets of the latter days will result in iniquity abounding (Mt. 24:11). This is why teaching does matter. Without faith- which comes from holding <em>the</em> Faith- it is impossible to please God. True righteousness is the fruit of the Spirit; the result of the word of the Gospel working within us, the result of the Spirit of Christ which God has sent forth into the hearts of His people. Many outside of the Faith appear to in fact be far more righteous than most of us, in terms of 'good works'. But these good works are an outcome of their natural personality type; this is how they <em>are</em>. But God has sent His Son to the sick who need a doctor, to those imprisoned by their own thinking, to the tragically blind. Through the power of the basic Gospel, we have the power to change.</p><p>Any student of the New Testament epistles cannot fail to notice these repeated warnings against false teachers. Peter reminded his readers of &quot;the words... spoken by the holy prophets New Testament ones? and the apostles... knowing this first i.e. most importantly, that there shall come false teachers and mass apostasy in the last days&quot; 2 Pet.2:3. Unless we say that &quot;the last days&quot; is a phrase which has no reference to our own times, we have to accept that there will be major false teaching and apostasy within the brotherhood just before Christ's return.&nbsp;</p>