Dear trust in the name:
Do you believe these verses:
1 Timothy 2:3-4
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:3-4)
Of course I see where you are coming from here. After all, if God desires all men to be saved (and He does), why does He choose not to give them a heart to obey Him? According to Deuteronomy 5:29, God desires that men would have a heart in them that they would fear Him and always keep all His commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever:
29 Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever! (Deuteronomy 5:29)
And yet, even so, the Lord chose
not to give some of them such a heart:
4 Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day. (Deuteronomy 29:4)
So, even though God does desire all men to be saved, he nevertheless chooses only to save a few of them (Matthew 7:13-14; Romans 9:27-28, 11:8-10). How could this be? It is so that His purpose according to election might stand (Romans 9:11). God longs for everyone to be saved, but He chooses not to save them even so, because His purpose supercedes His desire.
If this seems difficult to grasp, do not be surprised: for His ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). Indeed, His ways are past finding out (Romans 11:33)! Therefore, we should in fact
expect that we will be unable to understand many of the mysteries of God. Our obligation then is simply to trust Him, not our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5)
8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! (Romans 11:33)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; (Proverbs 3:5)
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
See above.
2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. (1 John 2:2)
Jesus died for everyone, including false teachers:
1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. (2 Peter 2:1)
?
2 Peter 2:12 doesn't say that no false teacher will ever repent under any circumstances.
Sure it does.
12 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, (2 Peter 2:12)
"These," that is, false teachers, are "made to be ... destroyed ... and will utterly perish in their own corruption." See, I didn't even have to give you an "interpretation." I simply quoted the verse to you. So, if they were made to be destroyed, and will utterly perish, that means that they will never repent. Simple.
Moreover, the Bible tells us that false teachers were "long ago marked out for this condemnation" (Jude 4). If God marked them for condemnation long ago, there's no way they are going to repent.
4 For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 4)
St. Peter was a false teacher. He taught circumcision was necessary for Christians. St. Paul withstood him to the face about circumcision. St. Peter repented. Therefore, your supposition that no false teacher will ever repent under any circumstances is false!
The problem is that you have an incorrect understanding of what a false teacher is. Simply because a teacher teaches something that is false doesn't automatically make them a false teacher. False teaching is sin, and everyone sins (Ecclesiastes 7:20). So, some false teaching is inevitable, even from those who are not actually false teachers.
The distinction between a false teacher and a Christian teacher is found in 1 John 3 and 2 John 9:
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. (1 John 3:7)
10 In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)
So, even though we all sin, false teachers
practice sin: in other words, they teach falsely on a regular basis, without repentance. Similarly, a godly teacher may teach something false, but when he becomes aware of his error he will repent of it and embrace the scriptural truth.
In other words, a godly teacher will, on the whole, abide
in the doctrine of Christ, whereas a false teacher will not:
9 Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. (2 John 9)
So, bringing this back to Peter, as you pointed out, Peter repented of his false teaching when he came to be aware of it. This is what identifies him as a godly teacher.
Remember, Paul wrote to the Galatians, warning them that they were turning away "to a different gospel" (Galatians 1:6) for the same reason: they were falsely teaching the necessity of circumcision for Gentiles. Paul didn't declare them apostate. Rather, he warned them that they were heading down the wrong path, and if they
continued in their error, without repentance, they would have turned away from Christ and be accursed.
