IF JESUS IS COMING AGAIN,
WHY IS HE TAKING SO LONG?
2 PETER 3:1-10
Jerry Nelson
Have
you ever wondered if Jesus is actually coming again?
It has been nearly 2000 years since the
angels said, “Men
of Galilee…why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has
been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you
have seen him go into heaven.” Acts 1:11
Will
he?
I
know that “yes” is the evangelical knee-jerk response to that question but I
want us to think more carefully about the question and our answer.
Is
he truly coming again? What difference
does it make?
Does
your belief in the 2nd Coming of Jesus affect your life? How?
This
past weekend I sat and talked with a relative in his late 30s who believes that
Jesus already came a second time in A.D. 70 when the Temple in
Jerusalem was destroyed.
He’s a Christian who holds, what he and others call, a “consistent preterist” view of scripture.
It’s a doctrine that is becoming popular among some evangelicals.
He
believes that the 2nd Coming and the resurrection and
the final judgment all took place within 40 years of Christ’s ascension to
heaven – A.D. 70.
He believes those events happened in a spiritual way and we are not to expect them to happen in a literally physical way.
The result is that he does not look forward to the return of Jesus, he does not anticipate a physical resurrection from the dead and there is no day of judgment yet to come.
The
Apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 2:16-18 wrote,” Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in
it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene.
Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have wandered away from the truth.
They say that the
resurrection has already taken place, and they
destroy the faith of some.”
In my nephew I have seen no signs of the negative effects that the Apostle Paul refers to in such beliefs but I cannot help but wonder if that will be the fruit of his teaching.
The
Apostle Peter apparently encountered similar teachings in the churches to whom
he wrote in what we call 2 Peter.
In
the second chapter of the letter, Peter said, “…There will be false teachers among you.
They will secretly introduce destructive heresies…”
2 Peter 2:1
Under the guise of Christian freedom (2:19), they taught a
libertine philosophy that disregarded God’s call to holiness.
They apparently taught that appeals to sexual purity,
self-control, temperance and the like were legalistic and restrictive.
And apparently another related teaching of theirs was that Jesus
wasn’t actually coming again – the point being that the idea of a coming
judgment day was a myth.
You can easily see how the two ideas were related: If Jesus is not
coming again, if there is no judgment day coming, no accountability, then what
does it matter how we live?
Please
stand for the reading of God’s Word in 2 Peter 3:1-10.
“Dear
friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as
reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 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. First of all, you must understand that in the
last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.
They will say, "Where is this `coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers
died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." But
they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and
the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and
destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for
fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 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. The Lord is not slow in keeping his
promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting
anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord
will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements
will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid
bare.”
May God bless the reading and understanding of his Word.
From verse 4 we will see the question that is asked:
2 Peter 3:4
“They will say, "Where is this `coming' he promised?"
What is the question? "Is Jesus really coming again?"
I think there are two kinds of people asking this question:
The first kind is specifically mentioned in
the text.
This is
the person Peter calls a "scoffer" a "mocker", one who
speaks scornfully - "Where is this coming he promised?"
In this case, the tone of the question implies a cynical answer - he’s not coming!
But the second kind of person is more
important to Peter.
This is the person to whom Peter
is writing; the one who has fallen prey to the cynicism of the scoffers.
They are now questioning the coming
of Jesus.
They aren't cynical
but they now doubt.
I suspect that is true of some
of us from time to time.
Something
or a series of negative things happen in our lives and we grow discouraged.
With that comes the temptation to become
skeptical about God’s involvement in our lives.
That may yield to a cynicism; giving up on God and especially giving up on striving for holiness in life.
It doesn’t mean we run out to be as bad as we can be, but it does mean why try so hard to be Christian if it won’t matter after all?
The
question is, "Is Jesus coming again?"
“Is
there rhyme or reason to all that happens in life?”
The
"scoffers" have an answer to the question but before we look at their
answer let's see what evidence they draw on to support their answer?
They say in 2 Peter 2:4 "Ever since our fathers
died everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."
What's
the point they are making? That nothing ever changes!
In their case for at least two
thousand years and in our case over four thousand years life just seems to go
on.
Millions of people are born, live
and die and nothing changes.
That
evidence bothers me from time to time; does it bother you?
·
Peter
and Paul believed he was coming and he didn't.
·
In
A.D. 300 Augustine and Constantine believed he was coming; he didn't.
·
In
the 1300s John Wyclife and John Hus died for their belief in Jesus and his
coming again; he didn't come.
·
In
the 1700s John Wesley and George Whitefield preached that he is coming again;
he didn't.
·
In
the 1900s Charles Spurgeon and Dwight Moody believed he was coming again but he
didn't.
·
My
parents and my boyhood church taught that he was coming but he hasn't.
Do you ever wonder if he really will?
Some of those “preterits” I mentioned earlier, have
found a way around the issue – believe he has already come.
It
is to such doubt that Peter writes but first he shows the motives of
the scoffers.
Notice
the end of verse 3 where it says, they are “scoffing and following their own
evil desires."
They don't want to believe that
Jesus is coming again.
The whole idea of his coming
again raises the issue of moral accountability and they want to live as they
please.
Look
at the first words of verse 5 "They deliberately forget" and hold
this view in spite of the real evidence.
Why? So they don't have to think about the consequences of their
actions.
If they can convince themselves
there is no accounting to be made to God for how they live then there
are no standards.
We
live in an era when there has been an assault on the idea of the existence of
absolutes.
Everything is relative we are
told.
Many philosophers say there is
no God.
The common people say there is
a God but it makes little difference because he has nothing to say to us.
Therefore we are on our own to
decide what is best for us.
And even if some say the Bible
is the word of God they reject its authority when it runs counter to their
opinion or their circumstances.
As in
Peter's day they are following their own desires.
We can fall prey to that kind of
thinking and acting.
We become “functional atheists.”
We can repeat the creeds but we
live as if Jesus will never come again and we will never be held accountable
for our lives.
So
again, what evidence do the scoffers use to support their conclusion that Jesus
isn’t coming again?
2
Peter 3:4 “Ever
since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of
creation."
What
conclusions do they then draw?
Jesus isn't coming. The idea of a "second coming" is a
myth.
Then importantly, they conclude that there is
therefore no threat of judgment.
In
verses 5-7 Peter answers the same question: Is Jesus coming again?
This
time it is his response, not the scoffers.
What evidence does he use to support his
conclusions?
He says, the false teachers
gloss over two obvious events proving that things have not always
gone on as they have since the beginning of creation.
In verse 5 he reminds his
readers that God acted at the very beginning by creating the world.
2 Peter 3:5 “But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's
word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
In
a definite reference to the book of Genesis chapter one, Peter makes it clear
that the physical world did not always exist and that it was not somehow spontaneously
generated out of nothing.
The world is not the product of
eternal unbroken evolution.
In raising that issue I am not here arguing for the
particular processes God may have used in bringing the world into the form we
now know it, but I am presenting Peter's argument that God created this
world – v5 “by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water
and by water.”
The
Bible says that God spoke creation into existence.
Genesis 1:1,9,10 “In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth…And
God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry
ground appear.” And it was so. God
called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God
saw that it was good.”
To
the scoffers Peter says, "What do you mean, 'everything goes on, nothing
changes?' That is not true. God
has acted.
Is it important whether or not
we believe the world came to be by God’s hand or only by evolutionary
processes?
Over
the past couple of hundred years there has been again, as in Peter’s day, a
frontal assault on the idea of God’s involvement in our world.
Today, even Christians have
removed God from creation.
At best many seem to have a
“clock-works” God who wound things up initially millions of years ago and then
merely let it all play itself out.
I’m not arguing necessarily for
a “young earth,” a literal 24-hour day creation but I am more aware than ever
why some are so concerned about the creation-evolution debate.
At stake
is your understanding of the Providence of God.
As the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “God’s
providence is his completely holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing
every creature and every action.”
Do you
believe that or do you live as if God has withdrawn into his heaven only to
maybe appear from time to time or never?
It
is not too extreme to say that if you take God out of the beginning of time
(creation) you will eventually take him out of the end of time (2nd
coming and judgment).
That
is precisely what many, even those who call themselves Christians have done.
Listen to one theologian, “The (2nd
Coming) was an integral part of an existing framework which thought of the
world as created a few thousand years earlier and ending in at least a
comparable, if not a much shorter, period in the future. If we jettison this
framework, and jettison it we must today, does any place remain
for the (2nd Coming)?” (Ernest
Best, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 367)
“If we take what they (the scientists of our age) say of the End as
seriously as we now do of what they say about the Beginning then we have to
conclude that the End is something with which men will never have to reckon in
practical terms…and that it is as wrong to think of a real physical End which
God achieves in some public way as it is to think of a real physical Beginning.” (Ernest Best, 1 & 2
Thessalonians, 363)
This theologian follows some
scientists in taking God out of the beginning and ends up likewise taking God
out of the end.
For all practical purposes he
removes God from life.
And that is, I think, exactly
what Peter feared for his readers – that they would begin to doubt the
providence of God in human history and also doubt the providence of God in
their lives.
And in
doubting, they would eventually give up and just do whatever.
So I ask you, are the circumstances of your
life the product of mere chance or the produce of some unseen fate or are they
the product of the loving hand of God.
Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the
good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” That’s God’s providence.
I
could tell you awesome accounts of God’s intervention in people’s lives saving
them from crushing circumstances.
But you have the ability to rationalize away
all such accounts, see them as merely the result of chance.
You struggle with making God the actor in
positive things that happen in life because you then have to make him an actor
in the negative things that happen.
And because you can’t quite reconcile a good
and powerful God with some of the horrific things that have happened to you or
others, you tend to just leave God out of it and thus leave God out of life.
But
the Bible says in Nehemiah 9:6, God “you alone are the LORD.
You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the
earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to
everything.”
And in Matthew 10:30 “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your
Father. And even the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. So don’t be
afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
And
is he involved in our lives now?
Jesus said, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the
age.” Matthew
28:20
Acts 17:28 “For in him (God) we live and move and have our being.”
To
combat the cynicism of the false teachers, Peter also reminds his readers of another
great illustration of God’s invention in history and life.
God acted in an event that is well known in every
civilization the world over- the Flood.
2 Peter 3:6 “By these waters also the world of that time was
deluged and destroyed.
The
same people who play fast and loose with the Genesis account of creation
usually likewise discount the Genesis account of the flood saying it was
a story, a myth, a fable with a moral.
But you cannot so easily dismiss the flood
when you realize that Jesus believed in an historical figure named Noah who
lived through a literal flood:
Luke 17:26 Jesus said, “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so
also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
The author of Hebrews likewise believed in
the historical figure named Noah who lived through a flood as much as he
believed in Abraham, Jacob and Moses.
Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, when
warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.
The false teachers said,
“Everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation” but they are
clearly wrong.
No, Peter says, God is not an absent
landlord; he has acted in human history.
Now with the illustration of creation and the flood
in mind, Peter turns the discussion toward his real purpose:
Verse 7 “By the same word the present heavens and earth are
reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of ungodly
men.
The same “word” of God that
spoke the worlds into existence and brought the flood on the earth keeps the
skies above our heads and the earth beneath our feet reserved for
destruction by fire.
In Colossians 1 Paul writes that
God the Son holds all creation together.
By his sovereign will the world
keeps going until just the right time when he will end it all.
And
again looking at verse 7 Peter says that not only is the earth
waiting for fire but also there will be a judgment when all those who reject
the mercy of God in this life, will be sent to destruction.
And that word
"destruction" does not mean extinction but it means eternal
separation from God otherwise called "the lake of fire” in the Bible.
And
again to Peter’s main point: The right conclusion then is that as certainly as
God has intervened in the past so he will again in the future.
As
certainly as judgment fell on those unwilling to turn to God in the past so it
will fall on those who reject God now.
What is Peter's final conclusion then?
Yes, Jesus is coming again.
And when he comes he is bringing judgment with him.
I
want you to look at verse 10.
2 Peter 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The
heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and
the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
In
verse 7 Peter introduced the concept of the heavens and earth being burned and
the unrepentant being destroyed.
Here is verse 10 he gives a fuller
description of that event.
The phrases
"The day of the Lord" (verse 10) and the “day of judgment” (verse 7)
both refer to the time when Jesus comes again.
All the way through the Old and
New Testaments those phrases mean the times of God's interventions in judgment.
When
it says that the "day of the Lord will come like a thief"
it means the same as it does in I Thessalonians and Matthew - that his coming
will be sudden and surprising to the unexpectant - they will be caught off-guard.
And while we don't know in detail what the words (“disappeared with a roar” and “destroyed by fire”) describe, we do know that this language speaks of a destruction of the heavens and earth as we know them and of an awesome judgment of those who refuse to trust and follow Jesus.
Look with me please at the middle of verse 12 and 13 as well:
2 Peter 3:12-13 “That day will bring about
the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a
new earth, the
home of righteousness.”
Here in verse 12 as in verse
10 we see reference to the destruction of creation and then in verse 13 we see
the promise of a new heaven and a new earth - a home for the righteous.
Next
week I’ll go into this in more detail but let me give you an overview of
those events taking
place when Jesus comes again.
In this passage in 2 Peter, he
takes a number of related events that happen over an extended period of time
and compresses them into a brief description:
He says:
·
Jesus
is coming;
·
He
is coming in judgment;
·
Judgment
includes not only the eternal punishment of the unrepentant but also the
destruction of the heavens and earth as we know them;
·
And
last, he writes that a new heaven and earth will appear which the righteous
will call home.
In
these first 10 verses of chapter 3 Peter is strongly pointing out the certainty
of Christ’s return and equally the certainty of judgment on sin.
Don’t be fooled by those who say
God isn’t involved or God doesn’t care about what happens here and now.
And don’t deceive yourselves by thinking there is no
accountability for the way we live our lives.
Having
made the point that Jesus is coming again, Peter turns his attention to another
question.
The question is not actually stated in
your text but it is implied.
It is almost as if Peter
anticipates the questions of his readers.
"Yes,
Peter, I believe that God has intervened in human history and that he will do
so again when Jesus comes again, but 'Why is he taking so long?'"
"Doesn't
his delay just give more credibility to the argument of the scoffers? And doesn't his delay just feed the doubts
of the believers?"
To
those implied questions Peter gives two answers:
The first is in 2 Peter 3:8 “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.”
The
Lord's relationship to time is different than ours.
I don't think it will serve us
well to argue whether God is beyond or above time.
Certainly he is, in the sense
that he was not originally bound to time before he created it but he has chosen
to put himself into the time he created.
But
time from God's perspective is very different than from ours.
From the perspective of a
million miles an inch is quite insignificant.
Likewise from God's eternal
perspective a day or a thousand years are nearly the same.
Peter's first answer to the
question of "why is Jesus delaying" is that it is not a delay at all,
in the way we think of it.
God is just working out his
perfect salvation of us and it is all going just according to plan.
The timing
of Christ's first coming as an infant was perfect (“in the fullness of time”)
and so will be his second coming as king of kings.
It is easy to understand why many thought and still think that when the Bible says that Jesus is coming “soon” it must mean in their lifetime.
But when the NT writers spoke of the nearness of the end, or the 2nd coming happening soon, they were speaking to its certainty not necessarily its immediacy.
I think professor Doug Moo of the Wheaton Graduate
School is correct when he writes, “Imminence, defined biblically, means that
the return of Christ and the culmination of history are always impending. The
Parousia (2nd Coming of Jesus) is the next event in salvation
history.” (Moo, 2 Peter
and Jude, 194)
So when someone says Jesus is coming soon, you must be discerning as to whether they mean they know something even Jesus said he didn’t know – that is, when he would come again OR if they mean that Jesus’ return is absolutely certain and is the next major event in our salvation.
Peter's
second answer to the question of why is it taking Jesus so long
is in 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand
slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to
come to repentance.
The
Lord Jesus has not come yet, not because he has obstacles to
overcome before he can come; nothing is keeping him from coming except his
patience and mercy.
Look at 2 Peter 3:15: "bear
in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation..."
I wish to make a comment to
those of you who are students of theology:
If you read verse 9 and
immediately want to enter into an argument as to whether they do or do not
teach that God wants to save everyone or just the elect, you are
missing the point.
Whether this verse is speaking
of every human being or every one of “you” as the text says, the point is still
the same:
God's
timing on the 2nd coming of Jesus is due to his mercy.
He wants everyone who will come
(whether by free will alone or also by election) to have the necessary time to
come.
A 17th Century Pastor describes
it so well. I paraphrase:
God
works with each of us according to our personality and temperament.
Knowing
us, he works through time with commands and threats and promises and alluring
motivations.
He works in us with those tools,
by those means, over a long period of time and he sometimes combines them so as
to work in us the knowledge and responsiveness that leads us to conversion.
By the life giving power of his
Holy Spirit his patient and powerful love does at last overcome all opposition
to his grace and brings us to repentance and faith resulting in salvation. (Nisbet, 283)
The
reason Jesus has not come yet is not due to some failure on his
part but due to his mercy.
Please
notice the pronoun in verse 9: God is
patient toward YOU!
Peter
is addressing people attending the church, people reading his letter.
It is possible that some of the
people not only had doubts about the second coming of Jesus or had doubts about
the wisdom of his timing but it is possible that some of them still had
not turned away from their sin and turned to God in repentance and faith
- willing to follow Jesus as their saving-Lord.
Peter says it is for you that Jesus
waits to come.
Is it for YOU too?
Jesus
is coming. He is coming as Lord of
lords to judge the people of this earth.
We don't know precisely when he will come but we
know the timing will be perfect and the last opportunity for salvation will be
gone.
Yes, He is coming again. Have you responded to His mercy?
To the believer tempted to think
God is removed, uninvolved and unnoticing, I think Peter’s warning and
instruction are summarized in verses 11-13
2 Peter 3:11-13 “Since everything will be destroyed in this way,
what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as
you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring
about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the
heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven
and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
Other notes:
While I have not read the following book, according to the synopsis it
might be helpful:
C. Jonathin Seraiah, The End Of All Things. Paperback - 208 pages 1 edition (October 1, 1999) Canon Press; In the present work, C. Jonathin Seraiah ferrets out the leading flaws of pantelism (the so-called 'consistent preterism') and reinforces the accuracy of the orthodox understanding of eschatology-the future physical Second Advent of Christ, physical resurrection of just and unjust, and final judgment. The author shows that the leading Biblical texts that pantelists employ to buttress their position do not in fact support it, and that other texts flatly refute it. He observes, moreover, that pantelism is not a marginally flawed interpretation; rather, it subverts and restructures the Faith itself. It is essential reading for those interested in a Biblically grounded and historically informed eschatology.
Suggested Website articles:
http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/read/the_menace_of_radical_preterism
http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2006/04/two-dozen-or-so-orthodox-arguments.html
We all need to be often reminded of the
basics of the Christian faith so that they provide the context for us that we
so desperately need when the world around us, and our own sinful nature
deceives us.
This is not just mental but it starts there
and moves to our attitudes and conduct.
“Wholesome” (Philippians 1:10 “pure” and blameless)
“thinking” – the mind/heart where choices
are made – thus wholesome thinking – or thinking/choices that are pure –
Christ-like.
Peter wants his readers not to be overcome
by the scoffers but to think rightly, to think with understanding about what is
actually true so that it might affect their lives.
“My second letter” is not necessarily 1 Peter.
We would expect that these are not the only
two letters Peter ever wrote just as we know that Paul wrote other letters not
in the NT (“previous letter 1 Corinthians 5:9 and a letter to the Laodiceans
mentioned in Colossians 4:16).
“I want you to recall” two sources of information:
“Words spoken in the past by the holy
prophets”
Old Testament prophets very likely the same
as in 1:20-21 “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture
came about by the prophet's own interpretation. 21 For prophecy
never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were
carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
“And the command given our Lord and Savior through
your apostles.”
The Lord is the source and the apostles the
spokespersons.
The “command” (of 60 uses in the Bible, it
is always in reference to some demand or requirement – thus in context, a
reference to holy living.)
Here Peter is telling them to reject the
false teachers and pay attention to following and becoming like Jesus.
“Last days” – the days that
began with Christ’s first advent and will end with his second advent
The “scoffers” were not just mocking the 2nd coming
but just as importantly they were mocking the very idea of judgment.
If no 2nd coming, no judgment; if
no judgment then no accountability to God.
This was Peter’s concern expressed earlier:
1:16 We did not follow cleverly invented
stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
2:19 “They promise them freedom, while they
themselves are slaves of depravity--for a man is a slave to whatever has
mastered him.”
And others expressed the same concerns:
Acts 20:29-30 “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will
not spare the flock.
30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order
to draw away disciples after them.
1 Timothy 4:1 “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith
and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons
1 John 2:18 “Dear children, this is
the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now
many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
“Where is this coming” is not an innocent question of timing but an
insincere mockery of the very idea of Jesus’ coming again.
Malachi 2:17 You have wearied the LORD with your words. “How have we
wearied him?” you ask. By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them” or
“Where is the God of justice?”
Jeremiah 17:15 “They keep saying to me, “Where is the word of the LORD? Let it now be fulfilled!”
“They deliberately forget” is not naïve or ignorant but willfully
disregarding.
2 Peter 3:5-7 “But they deliberately forget
that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of
water and by water. By these waters also the world of
that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and
earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction
of ungodly men.
The English words “these waters” translate a word meaning simply
“which.” It is a translators interpretation whether “which” refers to the
waters just described or to the “word”
also just described and noted again in verse 7. Best guess is that “which” probably refers
to both the waters and “God’s word.”
Examples of those who deny
the 2nd coming as a literal or a future event:
2nd Coming not literal: “The
Parousia (2nd coming) was a integral part of an existing framework
which thought of the world as created a few thousand years earlier and ending
in at least a comparable, if not a much shorter, period in the future. If we
jettison this framework, as jettison it we must today, does any
place remain for the Parousia?” (Ernest
Best, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 367)
2nd coming not future: “’Preterist’ means past in
fulfillment, and ‘Futurist’ means future in fulfillment. Preterist basically
means the opposite of Futurist. Futurists believe most end-time prophecies
(especially the big three major ones – (2nd Coming), Resurrection,
and Judgment) are yet to be fulfilled. Preterists believe that most or all of
Bible Prophecy (especially the big three events) has already been fulfilled in
Christ and the on-going expansion of His Kingdom. Most Futurists do not really
believe Christ has been successful yet in fully establishing His kingdom.” From the International Preterist Association:
“Out of water and by water” is probably a literary device to emphasize
the role of water in creation because Peter is next going to refer to the
flood.
“Fire” in similar contexts in the Bible is clearly about judgment.
Isaiah 30:30
Isaiah 66:15-16
Nahum 1:6
Zephaniah 3:8
“Destruction” is not annihilation but eternal punishment as in
Matthew 25:41
Mark 9:43, 48
Revelation 14: 9-11
Isaiah 13:6 “Wail, for the day of the LORD is near; it will come like
destruction from the Almighty.
Ezekiel 30:3 “For the day is near, the day of the
LORD is near—a day of clouds, a
time of doom for the nations.
Malachi 4:5 ““See, I will send you the prophet
Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes.
1 Thessalonians 5:1-2 “Now,
brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2 for you know very well that the
day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night
2 Peter 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will
come like a thief.
DAY OF THE LORD. An eschatological term referring to the consummation of God’s kingdom
and triumph over his foes and deliverance of his people. It begins at the
Second Coming and will include the final judgment. It will remove class
distinction (Isa 2:12-21), abolish sins (2 Peter 3:11-13), and will be accompanied by
social calamities and physical cataclysms (Matt 24; Luke 21:7-33). It will include the millennial judgment (Rev 4:1-19:6) and culminate in the new heaven and the new earth (Isa 65:17; 66:22; Rev 21:1). New International
Bible Dictionary
Day of Judgment
Matthew 10:15 “I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on
the day of judgment than for that town
Matthew 12:36 “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment
for every careless word they have spoken.
1 John 4:17 “In this way, love is
made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world
we are like him.
2
Peter 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they
sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for
judgment;
Verse 9
The
controlling idea for the word “everyone” is the “you” of “he (God) is patient
with you”
The “you” is all who would believe – God’s elect.
2PE 3:10 But the day of
the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the
elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be
laid bare.
Like a thief is as the Lord and Paul said it – unexpectedly.
Matthew 24:43 But understand this: If the owner
of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would
have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into.
1 Thessalonians 5:2 for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief
in the night.
I think the “heavens” as in verses 5
and 7 refers to the celestial universe.
“Disappear with a roar” is an interpretation of a word that mean a shrill
noise, a whistling sound, or the crackling of a fire and in this context where
fire is discussed. Isaiah 34:4 “All the stars of the heavens
will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will
fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.
The “earth” is quite clearly this planet.
The “elements” is a reference to the basic building blocks of
matter known to the ancients as wind, water, fire and earth OR to the heavens –
the celestial planets and stars.
Either way, the physical universe (earth and heavens) will be destroyed,
burned, laid bare,
In context the NASB translation seems best – “will be burned up” not the
NIV “will be laid bare.” Although “laid bare” fits the idea of judgment – all
being revealed.