Where is the Promise?

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”  For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. 2 Peter 3:1-7

Peter verified his own authorship of this “second letter,” which indicates that it was delivered to the same area churches as the first letter had been. So they were getting repetition; a refresher course in the important truths that Peter so wanted them to remember after his departure. The DRILL! God’s Word remains true and faithful, and scoffers will become more and more negative toward God’s Word as time goes on. “The holy prophets” were the Old Testament prophets who warned of God’s wrath on those who disobeyed. The scoffers then ignored the warnings and were swept away in the deluge, which all of humanity knows actually happened. There is plenty of scientific evidence of that event. “Your apostles” were the New Testament apostles to the Church, who taught the Word of God and uttered similar warnings about the coming judgment of fire.

The scoffers love to doubt and ridicule those warnings, saying “yeah, yeah, we’ve been hearing that for generations. Nothing has ever really changed.” They are “deliberately overlooking,” actually ignoring the fact of the great flood, which happened just as God had told Noah it would. Every dispensation of humanity ends with a great cataclysmic event. Before the cataclysm there is a long period of grace, allowing all humanity the opportunity to be saved. The other thing the scoffers deliberately ignore is their own mortality. Flood or no flood, fire or no fire, each of us will meet our final destiny in a relatively few short years. It is best to take seriously the predictions of God’s Word, in view of the certain fulfillment of all the prophecies of the past.

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 2 Peter 3:8-10

We humans have a limited perspective, because of our confinement to time. God doesn’t live in time, though, and with Him a day is the same as 1,000 years. He has provided grace for all His creatures, and is willing to allow us time to comprehend and receive that grace. He doesn’t want us to fail. He wants us to succeed. He wants us to believe His Son. He wants us to repent. He wants to save us. The only hindrance to our salvation is our own volition. Free will is capable of choosing for or against God’s plan. Those who choose against, for whatever reason, are on their own against the righteousness of God and there is no contest. Their relative righteousness can’t measure up to perfection, and their negative volition rejects the perfect righteousness He wants to give them. There is no more sacrifice for sin. Jesus paid it all, but the scoffers want to bring their own damaged goods and be offended that those goods are inferior.

God gave Noah 120 years to prepare his family and to warn the world about the judgment that was coming. Then when the time arrived, God called up all the creatures He wanted to preserve and secured them in the ark. That was a week before the first drop of rain. And the rains came and the world was wiped clean of the evil…fresh to begin again. Next time, the purification will be by fire and it will come suddenly; not without warning, but mankind will be in such a self-delusional stupor they’ll be taken by surprise. “The Day of the Lord” is the time of judgment which will expose and destroy everything in existence, making way for the renewal of the universe which will be clean and pure for the eternal abode of the saints.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. 2 Peter 3:11-13

Knowing these prophecies of universal destruction, what attitude should we have toward the world? This world is saturated with evil, and the simple truth is we humans will not make it better. We can only hope to make our own lives better, by living our testimony for Jesus Christ and continuing in His Word. We believers cannot exist here without our has-mat suits of God’s armor and our Holy Spirit life support systems. In that new heaven and new earth, we can move about freely, unencumbered by the curse of sin.

Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. 2 Peter 3:14-18

In encouraging the Church to pursue purity, Peter reminded them that “our beloved brother Paul” had also written about this judgment to come, and that those who distort or reject Paul’s teaching are just too negative and obtuse to comprehend Paul or the other Scriptures. Don’t let your stability be shaken by such errors, brethren, but “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” He is our secure salvation forever. This statement by Peter confirms the inspiration of Paul’s writings and reaffirms that our only security is in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, Whose glory is eternal.