The idea of “losing one’s salvation” is a shocking thought. Reading through 2 Peter, the shock sizzles immediately in the very first verse. The false teachers whom Peter later condemns in chapter 2 aren’t outsiders slipping in through cracks. They are insiders like Peter himself. He speaks to all his readers as those who have “obtained a faith of equal standing with ours” (2 Pet 1:1). Whoever “us” refers to—apostles or other believers—the point is clear. Peter is talking to p