The Rise of False Prophets

2 But [in those days] false prophets arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will subtly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. ² Many will follow their shameful ways, and because of them the way of truth will be maligned. ³ And in their greed they will exploit you with false arguments and twisted doctrine. Their sentence [of condemnation which God has decreed] from a time long ago is not idle [but is still in force], and their destruction and deepening misery is not asleep [but is on its way].

¹⁵ Abandoning the straight road [that is, the right way to live], they have gone astray; they have followed the way of [the false teacher] Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the reward of wickedness;^{(A) 16} but he was rebuked for his own transgression: a mute donkey spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.^(B)

¹⁷ These [false teachers] are springs without water and mists driven by a tempest, for whom is reserved the gloom of black darkness. ¹⁸ For uttering arrogant words of vanity [pompous words disguised to sound scholarly or profound, but meaning nothing and containing no spiritual truth], they beguile and lure using lustful desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them liberty, when they themselves are the slaves of depravity—for by whatever anyone is defeated and overcome, to that [person, thing, philosophy, or concept] he is continually enslaved.