"Day Of Remembrance"

"Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained 'like precious Faith' with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and Peace be multiplied unto you through the 'Knowledge of God', and of Jesus our Lord." (2 Peter 1:1 & 2) I find it a little interesting that Peter starts this epistle off by using his given name; whereas, in 1 Peter, he starts off by saying Peter. The reason that I think this is rather interesting, is because of the reason for writing this epistle. If you remember, when Jesus first meet Peter, He called him Simon, and then when He asked Peter, "Do you love me?", He also called him Simon. There is a great possibility that Peter was writing this second letter from Rome; which is where he had written the first letter from six years earlier. It also is possible, that his first visit to Rome was to accompany Mark to go be with Paul; and then his next visit six years later, was to claim the body of Paul after his beheading. At the end of this second letter, Peter states, "To remember the writings of Paul", and I believe he did so because Paul had gone to be with the Lord. But the main reason for writing this epistle, was to address the many false and deceptive teaching were were being spread; as well as those who were trying to stir up trouble within the church. It is not uncommon for there to be false and misleading teachings within the church to spread, once a leader of the church has been taken out of the way; and such was the case when Paul was put to death. Besides these things, Peter was coming towards the end of his time here also, and would soon be crucified upon a cross; and I think he could sense this day coming; you can read it in his tone and in his manner of speaking, that he was making this a farewell address to the church. It is very important for us, who are believers in Christ, to have a remembrance of our True Conversion to the Faith. To remember how it was that we were converted from the darkness into the Light; and that it was not by anything which we had done, but that it was totally by the Grace of God. "This second epistle, beloved I now write unto you; in both I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His Coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." (2 Peter 3:1-4)