…I am writing to you…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…
2 Peter 3
Peter ends his second letter to the dispersed Christians by writing of The Day of the Lord. This term is found throughout the Holy Bible and it refers to the final visitation of God to end the corrupted universe, that He originally created perfect, and to re-create a “New Heavens and a New Earth” in which all God’s Chosen people will exist eternally. Peter refers to a term, “the last days,” and many have believed this to be a period of time yet to occur. But, in fact, Jesus referred to His generation as being in the “last days.” There is no time frame by which the last days can be measured. The “Last Days” began when Jesus came as a baby and will have its end when Jesus returns again in Power and Judgment to rule and to reign over all creation. Before Peter writes of the new heavens and the new earth, he writes of 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.” Some have tried to interpret this as a universal salvation statement that all people will eventually be saved. Nothing could be further from the truth here. The “you” and the “any” Peter refers to are the Christians to whom he is writing and, not to all people. Then, Peter uses a strange analogy to describe the dimension of eternity in which believers will exist, “…with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Many have tried to explain this and have come up with some rather unique “solutions.” Simply understood, this analogy explains that, with God, who sits outside of space-time, and in which we exist now, there will be no “time” per se in eternity. Time will be no more as the old hymn says. To all who exist in God’s Presence, time will not exist. To the believer, in Heaven, it will seem to be the present forever. Peter assures his readers that, though the earth and heavens as we know them will be destroyed, new heavens and new earth will be made for us to inhabit for all eternity. And, Peter adds, only righteousness will dwell there! Peter closes his letter by referencing Paul as having written to some of them and encouraging the Christians to “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” I pray that Christians today will continue to grow the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Source: S C Ball October 4, 2023
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