---
title: 2 Peter 1:4
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/2-peter-1-4/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/2-peter-1-4.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 2 Peter 1:4
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 2 Peter 1:4

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Through these He has given us His precious and magnificent promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Through these things he has granted us the precious and very grand promises, so that through these you may become sharers in divine nature, having escaped from the world's corruption produced by wrong desire."

## JW Usage

Applied exclusively to the 144,000 anointed, who in Watchtower teaching are the only ones born again, adopted as sons, and destined for heavenly life with immortal spirit bodies. The great crowd is not understood to share in this promise, which is one of the sharpest points of the two-tier system.

## Protestant Usage

Read Peter's opening and notice who he is writing to. Verse 1 addresses those who have obtained "a faith as precious as ours" — not a select class within the readership, but everyone holding the apostolic faith. Verse 4 then says these are the ones who become sharers in divine nature. There is no second tier anywhere in the letter, and none in the New Testament generally. Every believer is described as born again (1 Peter 1:3, addressed to scattered congregations), adopted (Romans 8:15-16, where the Spirit testifies that we are God's children), indwelt (Romans 8:9 — anyone without Christ's spirit does not belong to him), and part of one body. This is worth raising gently, because for most Witnesses it is personal rather than theoretical. They have been taught they are not of the anointed, and so do not partake at the Memorial when the emblems pass. Ask what Peter's promise here would mean if it were addressed to them. Then Romans 8:16 — the Spirit bears witness that we are children of God. Compare Revelation 20:4, Ezekiel 36:26.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [One Flock / Great Crowd in Heaven](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/one-flock.md) — John 10:16 / Revelation 7:9 [Eschatology]