If we want to get a sense of the apostles’ urgency regarding gathering the Scriptures, we need only read their letters, especially their last ones, written at the end of their lives.
Where It Began
In Acts 21:20, we read that there were tens of thousands of Jews in Israel who recognized Jesus as the Messiah. The first followers of Christ were therefore primarily Jews. The apostles Peter and Jude addressed this people in their letters (1 Peter 1:1) and both foretold an impending judgment.
Peter knew he would soon die (2 Peter 1:14) and announced the judgment of Jerusalem. This came to pass in 70 AD, when the city was destroyed by the Romans during the Jewish War (66–70). The people revolted against the Romans, stirred up by false prophets who claimed they could establish the promised kingdom themselves. Peter explicitly warns against this deception in his second letter.
Peter warns of:
- false teachers who introduce destructive errors and lead many astray (2:1-2)
- denial of the Lord who bought them (2:1)
- debauchery and mockers who deny the coming of Christ (2:2; 3:3-4)
- believers who backslide from the path of righteousness (2:21-22)
- people within the church who participate in feasts as blemishes and disgraceful things (2:13)
- God’s judgment on the unrighteous, such as Noah and Sodom (2:5-6, 9)
Jude mentions the same warnings:
- fight for the faith (:3) because ungodly people are creeping in (:4)
- perverting God’s grace into debauchery and denial of Jesus Christ (:4)
- disgraceful feasts of love (:12)
- mockers who follow their own desires (:18)
- God’s previous judgments on Israel, Sodom, and Gomorrah (:5.7)
Conclusion
Christianity began among the Jewish people, to whom the Twelve addressed themselves (Matt. 10:6). Derailment would strike early among these first believers, as 2 Peter and Jude unequivocally foretell. The Epistle to the Hebrews also speaks of God’s judgment, announcing destruction by fire (Heb. 6:8; 10:27), as we also find in Peter and Jude.