No 2000 Year Delay

from Google Images 

In this series of studies I am looking at Matthew 16:27 and 28 and discovering their first century AD implications. Jesus claimed that, in the lifetimes of some of his listeners, he would return in the glory of his Father with the angels of heaven and reward every man according to his works. In other words Jesus predicted his return in that generation of people living in the first century AD. Moreover, when he did come, he would judge each man according to his works, i.e. the judgment would immediately take place at the time of Christ’s coming. Previously, I showed how Jesus was basing his predictions upon Isaiah 40, especially verses 1-10, which also identify the ministry of John the Baptist, who was prophesied to prepare the way for the Lord (Isaiah 40:1-5; Matthew 3:1-3).

 

Keeping the Promises God Made to Israel

from Google Images

Jesus made a claim in Matthew 16:27-28 that he would come in the glory of the Father with the angels of heaven and sit in judgment over mankind. However, he didn’t stop with that statement. He went on to say that he would come in the Father’s glory and some of the folks, listening to him on that day, would live to see that event. Wow! What a statement! Many Christians scholars are embarrassed by Jesus’ words in this scripture and attempt to modify the power of his statement by redefining the words to mean what **they** presume Jesus said. It is amazing to see how some folks will stretch sola scriptura so out of whack, that clear speech becomes unintelligible without informed explanations.

 

The Heavens Being on Fire?

from Google Images

In the ancient Jewish Temple, which was burned up and destroyed in 70 AD, there was a veil that hung between the Holy Place, which was the place where the priests ministered, and the Most Holy Place, which was understood to be the dwelling place of God or the place of his Presence. Josephus describes the Temple, its stones, its room, its furniture etc in his two great histories of the Jews. In his first work, Wars of the Jews, he described the temple that Herod built, and he tells us that the things found in the Temple, the altar of incense, the lampstand, and the table of shewbread, all had mystical or religious significance. Even the veil separating the two holy rooms of the building had a mystical significance—its colors, its embroidery, and its composition, all had a religious meaning.

 

The Heavens Pass Away, Burnt Up

from Google Images

Second Peter is a reminder of First Peter (2Peter 1:12-15; 3:1-2), so what we find in First Peter applies to the context of Second Peter and is worthy of mention in order to clarify difficult passages. Therefore, when Peter speaks of things like: “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2Peter 3:10), it would behoove us, rather than force Peter’s words into a modern day, scientific context, to place such an event into the context of what Peter claimed in his first epistle.

 

As a Thief in the Night

from Google Images

Peter describes the coming of the Day of the Lord as “a thief in the night” (2Peter 3:10)! However, the context of the sudden coming of that day would be in the light of the fact that Peter mentioned that he was merely reminding his readers of what he had already told them in his first epistle (2Peter 3:1). In other words, the Day of the Lord, which would come as a thief, would occur in Peter’s reader’s generation (1Peter 1:9-13), and they were living in what is known as the last days (1Peter 1:5), and those days would be complete “in a little while” (1Peter 1:6), because Jesus was at that time ready to judge the living and the dead (1Peter 4:5, 17), since the end of all things was at hand (1Peter 4:7), and the Kingdom of God was about to be revealed (1Peter 5:1).[1]

 

The Lord Does Not Delay his Promises

from Google Images

Peter spoke of scoffers who denied his claim that the Lord’s coming was near (2Peter 3:3-4). It seems that many folks today are all too willing to agree with the scoffers of Peter’s day, saying the Lord’s coming is yet in the future and this is nearly 2000 years since Peter’s day. So, those Christians who try to tell us that Jesus will soon appear in our day are really agreeing with the Peter’s scoffers who mocked at his preaching of an early arrival of Jesus. I have to wonder at the strange bedfellows that error breeds.

 

A Thousand Years, a Watch in the Night

from Google Images

I am presently considering Peter’s words at 2Peter 3:8, where Peter mentions that a day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. Lots of folks, all futurists with respect to the coming of the Lord, want to use Peter’s words to explain the long delay in Jesus coming, as perceived by them, due to their erroneous eschatology. By ignoring the specific timeframe Peter placed upon the coming of Christ in his first epistle (cf. 2Peter 3:1), they make grandiose eschatological claims for an end of the universe and the end of time. The problem is they have no Biblical support for their overactive imaginations, so, in an effort to seem Biblically sound they redefine God’s word to fit their failed eschatological system.

 

A Thousand Years Is AS a Day

from Google Images

I have heard 2Peter 3:8 argued by futurists that a day with the Lord is a thousand years, and a thousand years is a day. Therefore, the Day of the Lord is still at hand after two thousand years, because it has been only two days with the Lord. I know the person who said this meant well, and thought to defend the Lord’s tardiness from man’s point of view, but this is NOT what Peter said. Peter never said a thousand years is a day with the Lord. He said a thousand years is **AS** a day, and a day is **AS** a thousand years. That’s a simile, not to be taken literally. The use of the words like and as in such phrases make the phrase a figure of speech, such as “crazy like a fox” or ”sturdy as an oak”. It does not follow that people who are described this way are literal foxes or literal oaks or even having the literal strength of an oak. It is unbelievable how even educated people will try to use this phrase in 2Peter 3:8 literally.

 

Reserved for Fire

from Google Images

Jesus called the generation of Jews living during the days of his earthly ministry a generation of vipers (Matthew 23:33), and he told them to fill up the cup of their fathers who had killed the prophets of God (Matthew 23:29-32). Moreover, Jesus told the Jewish authorities there in Jerusalem that he would send to them wise men and scribes whom they would kill, beat and persecute from city to city, and in the process of the wickedness they would bring upon their own heads the bloodguilt for all the righteous who were ever slain and persecuted. They, that faithless generation to whom Jesus spoke, would be held accountable and judged for it all (Matthew 23:34-36).

 

Stored Up and Reserved for Judgment

from Google Images

I have been commenting on the meaning of Peter’s words in 2Peter 3:7 for the past several studies, and I intend to continue to do so in this one. Peter uses two words in order to support the idea that ‘heaven and earth’ refer to the Jewish or the Old Covenant age. Notice that he says “…the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (emphasis mine). I want to consider the words stored up and reserved in order to understand more accurately what Peter is telling us.

 

My Word Will Not Pass Away

from Google Images

In 2Peter 3:7 Peter tells his readers in the first century AD that “the heavens and the earth” were at that time held in store for the fiery judgment and destruction of ungodly men. Modern, futurist commentators of the Bible have repeatedly understand Peter’s words to mean the literal destruction of **our** heavens and earth. However, I have been demonstrating in a number of recent studies on 2Peter chapter 3 that such an understanding is completely false and illogical. Neither does such an interpretation take first century AD audience relevance into consideration. Rather, they presume to read a modern literal meaning onto the text, which is completely unwarranted.

 

Heaven and Earth Will Pass Away

from Google Images

In his second epistle Peter told his readers that he was reminding them of what he had already told them in his first epistle (2Peter 3:1). In other words, Peter’s second epistle is all about what he wrote in his first one. However, Peter’s first epistle was worded differently, and in it he used very simple and direct language. So, the reader simply isn’t impacted in the same way in 2Peter 3, as he was when he read 1Peter 1. 2Peter chapter three uses very picturesque and apocalyptic language, while 1Peter chapter one does not.

 

As in the Days of Noah

from Google Images

Peter mentions the days of Noah in 2Peter 2:3-6 and then again in 2Peter 3:5-7. In the latter, however, he doesn’t speak of Noah per se, but, instead, refers to the world that then was, meaning the world of the ungodly, that was judged and overflowed with water, but Peter first points to Noah in his first epistle, saying he and his family were saved out of that judgment (1Peter 3:20; cf. 2Peter 2:5). The days immediately preceding the Genesis Flood are likened by Jesus to the days immediately preceding his Second Coming (Matthew 24:37), but most folks, today, believe this time is yet future, because, as it pertains to the Flood and the coming of Jesus, no one knew the day or the hour (Matthew 24:36). How accurate is this understanding?

 

The End of the World

from Google Images

Peter told his readers in 2Peter 3:1 that he was reminding them of what he had already told them in his first epistle. It seems the scoffers (2Peter 3:3) had arisen and were mocking Peter’s claims that the end was near. That is, Jesus was manifest in the last days (1Peter 1:20) and was then at the time of Peter’s writing ready to be revealed from heaven in what he termed “a little while” (1Peter 1:5-7). Moreover, Peter claimed that it was revealed to the prophets of old that they didn’t minister to their own day but, rather, to the days of those who lived in the first century AD (1Peter 1:10-12). In other words the end of all things was at hand (1Peter 4:7), and Christ was, at the time of Peter’s writing, ready to judge the living and the dead (1Peter 4:5, 17). So the end of the world was at that time coming upon the folks who lived in the first century AD.

 

The End of All Things Is at Hand

from Google Images

When we speak of the end of the world, according to what we see in 2Peter 3, what do we mean? What did Peter mean? If Peter meant something different from what we see in the text, which point of view should we retain—ours or Peter’s? Lots of folks seem to believe Peter was wrong to believe the end of the time/space continuum was about to arrive in the first century AD. I could go along with that, with this qualifier—Peter really wasn’t speaking of the end of time or the universe. This came to be a later assumption of the text, and such a thing is not found anywhere in the Bible. In other words, belief that time would come to an end and the universe would be destroyed is a modern assumption not supported in the scriptures.