that you should remember the sayings previously spoken by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.

2 Peter 3:1-4; 2:1, 2.

 6. (a) If we review “the sayings previously spoken by the holy prophets” regarding these “last days,” we will be considering prophecies given over a period of how many years? (b) Does the presence of “ridiculers” prove the prophecies to be wrong?

⁶ In order for us today to counteract the ridicule of the ridiculers whose arising was foretold for these “last days,” it is very urgent that we believers recall what Jehovah’s inspired prophets said, even though this was long before the appearing of these modern-time ridiculers, scoffers, mockers. All the way from the antediluvian prophet Enoch down through almost three thousand years to the postexilic Jewish prophet Malachi, Jehovah’s prophets who preceded Jesus Christ have foretold events and conditions due to mark these “last days.” (Genesis 5:18-24; Hebrews 11:5; Jude 14, 15; Malachi, chapter four) So it is really nothing unexpected that faith-destroying ridiculers should arise in these “last days” of this wicked system of things. Rather, their arising simply confirms the accuracy of the prophecies by fulfilling them.

 7. (a) Who is the “Lord and Savior” to whom Peter refers? (b) Through his apostles, what “commandment” did he give, and why considerately so?

⁷ According to the apostle Peter, another thing to be recalled at this late date in human history is the “commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles.” (2 Peter 3:2) Jesus Christ is that “Lord and Savior” to whom reference is here made. (2 Peter 3:18) Through his chosen apostles, that is, “the twelve apostles of the Lamb,” and also the apostle Paul, he gave a commandment for all his footstep followers that they should keep continually on the watch and beware of false prophets and false Messiahs or Christs. Since he left his disciples without the knowledge of the precise day and hour that he would come again for the execution of God’s judgments upon the unfaithful and the wicked, he was very considerate in commanding them to keep themselves ready and to stay on the watch. (Revelation 21:14; Matthew 24:36-44; 25:13)