The Day of the Lord
2 Peter 3.1-10
Simon Peter once again explains the reason for having written his two letters (chapter 1.12-13): he wanted to make it clear to the believers what they already had learned, "that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Saviour". These are the two sources of teaching for believers, the only true doctrine we must keep:
The words of the holy prophets. It is a reference to the Scriptures of the Old Testament (as in 1.19) and not to the teaching of the prophets of the Church (1 Corinthians 12.10,28; Ephesians 4.11), who came after the Lord and not before .
The instruction of the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: He himself wrote nothing down, but His apostles passed on His teaching, being reminded by the Holy Spirit of all He said (John 14.26). Paul also taught what he received from the Lord himself (chapter 3.15, 1 Corinthians 11.23, Galatians 1.12).
The Old Testament and the apostolic teaching are again united, showing that the Holy Scripture is the one and only revelation and authority from God and also that its teaching is permanent (Psalm 119).
We are told to remember, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days: - these are the days in which we now live, and they will continue on into the Great Tribulation period after the church is gone from the earth. "Scoffers" will be the apostates described just before this. They evidently will be members of churches, and many of them ministers and pastors, who will be following their own desires, not attempting to follow the Word of God. It is this type of person who attacks the truths of the Bible because a veil is over their hearts (2 Corinthians 3.14-16): their problem is heart trouble.
The Old Testament prophets wrote about the coming of Christ to the earth to establish His Kingdom. Notice that the Old Testament prophets did not write about the church, for this had not been revealed to them. It was the Lord Jesus Himself who first revealed that He would be coming for His own after He had prepared a place for them in Heaven (John 14.2-3). The New Testament apostles wrote about Christ's coming to take the church out of the world, when we will meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4.17); then, after the Great Tribulation, about His coming to the earth to establish His Kingdom.
The "Day of the Lord" mentioned here appears in many places in the Bible, also called the "Day of Wrath" among other names, and chronologically begins with the last period of the times of the Gentiles, the last of the seventy-sevens announced by Gabriel to Daniel in his vision (Daniel 9.27). It comes after what is now, the period of the seven churches according to John's vision (Revelation 1.19, 2, 3), the last being Laodicea (people rule), identified as being the present times, and is what must take place after this (Revelation 4.1). This is the Tribulation period during the second half of which there will be the Great Tribulation of the Jews.
"Where is the promise of his coming?" In other words, these scoffers will say something like this, "Some of you pre millennial folk have been saying for years that the Lord Jesus is going to come back and take the church out of the world, and then after a seven-year period of tribulation, He will come to the earth to establish His Kingdom. Well, where is He? Why hasn't He come?" They are going to scoff at it. The second coming of Christ will be denied, not only by the atheist, but it will also be denied by those who stand in the pulpit and profess to be believers.
Such false teachers clearly know the Scriptures concerning these events, but don't believe them. They say, "since the times of the apostles there have been no more miracles; everything goes on as usual, following the natural course; there are no more signs from God; Christ will not return!" This is a common attitude today, not only among unbelievers, but also in the religious world. The atheistic theory of evolution and modern liberal theology have no room for divine intervention, and the coming of the Lord is rejected or simply "spiritualised".
The apostle declares, however, that they deny the second coming of the Lord because they do not want it to be true - they deliberately forget, or ignore, radical events in the past:
a) That by the word of God the heavens existed long ago, and the earth came out of water and amidst water (Genesis 1.6-10).
b) That the world of that time was later covered again by water and destroyed (Genesis 6 and 7).
Just as the original world was kept by God's word until it was destroyed by the flood, the world in which we now live is being kept by God's word until it is destroyed by fire. His judgment and destruction will also come upon ungodly men.
We are told not to forget that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. In these few verses Peter covers the second coming, the millennium, the final judgment (Revelation 20), and the beginning of the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21.1).
The destruction of the earth and heavens still takes place during the Day of the Lord, which having started with the seven years of tribulation will continue through the one thousand years of the millennial Kingdom. When the Lord Jesus returns to the earth at the end of the Great Tribulation period and establishes His Kingdom here, He is going to renovate this earth, but that will not be a permanent renovation. Not until after the Millennium will the dissolution of the earth and the heavens occur, of which we read here. So even if the Rapture should take place tomorrow, it still would be a thousand and seven years before this destruction.
God is not impotent nor unwilling to execute his promise toward us. But He is long-suffering, He is patient, He is not rushing things. After all, He has eternity behind Him and eternity ahead of Him. He doesn't need to worry about time! To Him a thousand years is as one day and one day is as a thousand years. But the point is that the final judgment, the dissolution of the earth and the heavens, is coming and the beginning of events, the Rapture of the Church, is imminent.
In the meantime, He is giving men everywhere the opportunity to repent and turn to Himself. He loved the world and provided a Saviour, His own Son, to die in our place. The Lord Jesus will save anyone willing to receive the salvation He offers: nobody was "elected" by God to perish, for God does not will that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (see also Acts 17.30; Romans 11.32; 1 Timothy 2.4; Hebrews 2.9).
But the opportunity for salvation will not last for ever and then judgment will come. This is the reason we need to get the Word of God out. It is the only thing that can change hearts and lives: "Being born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever" (1 Peter 1.23). "God commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained" (Acts 17.31). You and I are living in a world which is moving toward judgment. Many will perish (verse 7), even though that is not God's desire.
The day of the Lord will come unexpectedly, suddenly, without notice, just as a thief in the night. The Lord Jesus had used this metaphor (Matthew 24.43; Luke 12.39) and Paul and John after him (1Thessalonians 5.2, Revelation 3.3; 16.15).
As we have seen, the day of the Lord is an extended period of time, at the end of which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, to make way for new heavens and the new earth. The Greek word used here for "noise" is the word used for the swish of an arrow, the rush of wings, the splash of water, the hiss of a serpent. "The elements shall melt with fervent heat": rather like the effect of the explosion of an atomic bomb. "And earth and the works in it shall be burnt up": we know now that matter is not eternal but it can be converted into energy, something they didn't know in those days. But God did, and Peter wrote it down.
R David Jones
1 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),
2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Saviour,
3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,
4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."
5 For this they wilfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,
6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.
7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.