2 Peter 2:12

But these, as creatures without reason, born mere animals to be taken and destroyed, railing in matters whereof they are ignorant, shall in their destroying surely be destroyed,

Railing in matters whereof they are ignorant ... Paine applied these words to railers against the New Testament, thus:

The characteristic of modern "liberal" critical teachers which amazes one most is their absolute confidence in their own conclusions, based upon evidence however trivial, and involving tremendously important departures from tenets maintained for centuries by the historic church.[43]

The contrast between the mere animals and the reprobate teachers is this:

Animals cannot help themselves; it is their nature to rush after what will prove their ruin; but the false teachers voluntarily seek their own destruction against nature.[44]

Evil men, through fraud, violence, lust and deceit establish the very type of social climate which inevitably encompasses their own destruction as well as that of their victims.

[43] Stephen W. Paine, op. cit., p. 996.

[44] Alfred Plummer, op. cit., p. 454.