One of the things we will have to endure are the taunts of those who ridicule us because we say that Jesus will return and we say that there will then will be a final judgement.

 

The denial of this foundational truth is an earmark of the false teachers and false prophets Peter writes about in this letter.

Here is the video link:

2 Peter 3:1-9

The audio links to Spotify and iTunes are to the right.

Here is the transcript used in the production of today’s podcast:

Chapter 3

3:1-2  

  1Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. 

Since there is a 1 Peter, the assumption is that this (2 Peter) is a follow-up letter. It might be, it might not be. We just don’t know for certain. But that doesn’t matter. I have discovered through my nearly 70 years of existence that the simplest answer is often the right one. I am choosing to believe this is indeed a followup letter to 1 Peter.

I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 

Every act begins in our thoughts. Every sin is first imagined, then acted upon. Every virtuous deed begins in our thoughts and is then acted upon. The battle for our lives begins in the imagination and thought. 

Paul echos this in Romans 12:2

2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

In order to understand God’s will, our mind must be filled with God’s thoughts…contained in God’s Word(s). Peter says as much in verse 2, below.

2 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.

The “command” is a way of referring to the moral demands of the Christian faith and primarily to the command of love i.e. “Love God, love your neighbor”. The words “holy prophets” could refer to the prophets of the Torah, or the prophets in the NT church. If the latter is the case, then these prophecies and commands were given to the early Christians by the NT prophets and apostles (cf. Eph 2:20).

3:3-7 Scoffers and the Last Days

3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 

Peter next states a primary thing to be remembered from the prophetic and apostolic deposit (OT and NT): the appearance of scoffers in the last days, who deny biblical truths and live in an ungodly way (cf. Da 7:25; 11:36-39; Mt 24:3-5, 11, 23-26; 1Ti 4:1ff.; 2Ti 3:1-7; Jude 17-18). The “last days” are the days that come between the first coming of the Messiah and his second coming. The “scoffers” are the false teachers of ch. 2 who deny a future eschatology, and who are living as described in chapter 2 – no moral restraints.

4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 

 Mocking the faith of Christians, they say in essence, “You say He will punish us when He comes… but where is He? Nothing has changed since the creation.”

5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

What is of interest, is that these scoffers use language to reflect a knowledge of Judaism’s Creation story in Genesis, and the word “ancestors” is literally, “our fathers”. These scoffers seem to me to be at least quasi-religious minded folk who pick and choose what they want to use in their arguments and deliberately (v5) ignore the rest. These aren’t people who are ignorant of the truth, they deliberately (i.e. as an act of their will) do not consider all of it.  They “cherry-pick” what they want to use to support their choice of lifestyle and their actions. In fact, that is what Peter points out about their argument against Jesus’ return in the next few verses.

3:8-9 God lives outside of time

8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

God lives outside of time. We humanoids are prisoners of time on this mud ball we call Earth. Picture this – you are an author of an epic novel. There are heroes, villains, loves lost, loves gained.  Villains rise up, to be defeated by heroes in the nick of time. There is mystery, intrigue, victory and loss. When you hold this finished book in your hands, everything in that book – every chapter, every page – is “now” to you. But the actors in the story you crafted have to live this story a page at a time, not knowing what the next page brings.

That is the context of what Peter says here in verses 8 and 9. Their use of the argument of “He hasn’t done it yet…” is a silly argument by someone who does not know or understand God in the slightest. God is the Author of our story. As the Author of our story , Peter reminds us that our story is totally dependent on HIS ideas on how the story is to proceed. So what if we have to wait a thousand years to see the end of the story? Maybe the end is today, maybe it is a thousand years from now. And the fact that apparently God is taking His time to render the final judgement is proof of His MERCY, not His laziness.

In His Grip,

Paige