In Reply to: no it is not (included the orginal greek, to wipe away your doubts) posted by lydia on November 08, 2002 at 10:43:02:
the greek was clearly limited to eternal damnation, (which it is not, either by strongs or your cit.), still, it does not specifically name a specific individual. even if it did, you are not an apostle. and even if you were, it doesn't prove this verse is directly applicable to d.b. Personally, i believe his christology was relatively orthodox, so the specific false teaching referred to here"even denying the Lord that bought them.." was not his chief downfall. (tho the behavior described in much of the chapter fits.)
my point, that you did not address as far as i can tell, is that this passage does not say every false teacher is doomed to eternal damnation. do you believe luther was saved? calvin? did they not teach some falsehoods? how about st francis who's teachings on mary and the pope are dubious? yes, d.b. was a false teacher. but as i said, this exists on a continuum, and the judging of those gradations are from our human vantage point subjective. 2pt2 does not say d.b. is in hell. that is a subjective reading of the text. if you are wrong about what it teaches will you go to hell? or i?
lydia, i still see no where in scripture we are counselled to pursue this exercise. i believe there is much about eternity that is left vague ..but we know enough about God to simply trust him on it. why do we need to go beyond what it clearly teaches to make categorical statements about subjective judgments?