Introduction
If you went camping, and the park ranger informed you that grizzlies had been seen in the area, it would be the height of folly to set up camp with no consideration for the potential danger that might be in the brush at the edge of your campsite. In like manner, Peter closes his final testament, exhorting saints of his day to virtuous vigilance.
The Text
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye 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: […]
2 Peter 3:1ff
Summary of the Text
Peter emphasizes that this epistle is doubling down on the same encouragement we can find in his first epistle, and that what you find there is in harmony with both the teaching of the holy prophets of old and the apostles of the Lord Jesus (vv1-2, Cf. 1 Pt. 5:8-11). Jesus had warned his disciples that such false teachers would infiltrate the church (Mk. 13:21-23). These last days false teachers are called “scoffers”, and the core of their scoffing is in regards to Jesus promised coming (parousia); they claim the fathers had died, but everything was continuing as normal, like it had since creation (vv3-4, Cf. Mk 13:26). The fathers referred to here are the early Christian fathers, like James the son of Zebedee (died A.D. 44, Acts 12:2), James, Jesus’ brother, (stoned by the Jews in A.D. 62), the first martyr, Stephen, and several other of disciples who had either been martyred or already fallen asleep in Christ.
Peter highlights the great irony of the ignorance of these scoffers. Their argument that everything was going on as normal as it had since creation (v4), ignores that creation itself is a proof of God’s sovereign and intervening word (v5), and the flood of Noah’s day was a profound recreation of the world (v6). The heavens and earth, of Peter’s time, by the same sovereign and intervening word of God, were reserved for the fire of judgement upon ungodly men (v7).
The fact of the Lord’s tarrying was not a problem for Peter, for the Lord isn’t time-bound (v8). Jesus was not breaking His end of the deal. Rather, His patience was a sign of His long-suffering mercy allowing for the repentance of the elect (v9). When the day of the Lord would come, it would come as a thief in the night, and that world would––poof—go away (v10).
Peter then asks a most pertinent question. If the Lord Jesus is about to come and burn up the elements of the Old Covenant temple, then how should these saints live (vv11-12)? They should live in hope for the new heavens and new earth which would be inaugurated by His coming in judgement (v13). Looking forward in hope to the day of His coming was to be accompanied by diligence in holiness (v14). The false teachers were like unclean beasts (2:12), but the church was to be like a spotless sacrificial animal (v14b). Christ’s patient tarrying is salvation, and Peter appeals to Paul’s teaching (vv15-16, perhaps 1 Thes. 1:1-10). Unlearned men were also twisting Paul’s teachings on these matters, which is what ungodly men do to all of Scripture (v16b). Peter has warned them before the events took place, so that they would not be swept off their feet in the flood of judgement by wandering off in unbelieving debauchery (v17). Rather, they, as we too must do, were to grow in grace (v18). For unto our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ belongs glory both then, and now, and forevermore (v18b).
When Were the Last Days?
There are three basic positions when it comes to such eschatological passages as we find in this text. The futurist locates the fulfillment of Christ’s promise in the future. The idealist takes such passages a bit more allegorically, and simply moralizes the content. The preterist locates the fulfillment of this passage as taking place in the first century. This passage has application to the final judgement, but it isn’t explicitly referring to it here.
This passage poses a real dilemma for futurists. After all, what was the central jab of the mockers? They scoffed at Jesus promise to vindicate His prophetic claims before this generation passed away (Cf. Mk. 13). As the fathers of this new Israel were beginning to fall asleep, Jesus’ prophetic claims grew suspect. But Peter’s reply is to remind them of Moses’ words about what seems like a long passage of time for us, is a blink of the eye to the Lord (Ps. 90:4). Peter quotes this, not to push back the events of Jesus’ prophecy into the distant future, but to insist that Jesus’ promised coming was at the doorstep. Peter’s reply is not that the mockers misunderstood that Jesus meant that “this generation” means every generation until the end of time. Rather, Peter insists that Jesus’ tarrying was for the sake of some of these very same mockers. He was tarrying for them, giving space for them to repent. But the cataclysmic events Jesus had promised, really were looming.
Under New Management
The language about the heavens and their elements burning up has led many to think that this is describing the end of space and time. But we should remember our OT imagery. The tabernacle/temple imagery was angelic and heavenly. It was the lone place where heaven touched earth. The tabernacle was also like the covenant rainbow come to earth.
Peter is emphatic here. The judgement fire of Christ was imminent. It was about to consume the heavens and the angelically mediated arrangement of the Old Creation. The world was under new management. The temple’s destruction is not a melancholy little footnote of history. It stands as the absolute vindication that the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ, and now He shall reign until all His enemies are under foot. Peter says that by this imminent fiery judgement, the heavens and its elements would melt with fervent heat while the earth (and its works) would be discovered. The fire of judgement would be the means of revealing the presence of God with His covenant people, and it would like gold in the furnace lay bare the dross.
Peter says this to comfort the Christians as they awaited this salvation. How much more should it be a comfort to you for whom these vindicating events have taken place? The reality is that Christ is King of the world. Christ is King of the kings of the nations. The rule of the earth has been taken from angels and given unto man. That man is Jesus of Nazareth. You are living under the watchful eye of Jesus Your Lord and Savior. History is not governed by congress, UN Conventions, secret societies, or the grinding gears of Darwinian time and chance.
The unbelieving Jews of Peter’s day thought that although God could intervene in history, He would never do away with the Temple and its furniture. Surely He wouldn’t do that! But in the coming of Jesus there is now a true and everlasting temple, with Christ as the living cornerstone constructed from living stones made of redeemed sinners. There is a final sacrifice for sin and it is the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world. The prophesied baptism of fire came, and those Pentecostal tongues of fire are evidence that the Old Creation is over. It is always Christmas and never winter.
Grow in Grace
An objection to this preterist view is that it will lead to lackadaisical living. The answer to that objection, is that this is the exact opposite of Peter’s admonition. He closes by telling them to grow in grace. Just like he began with an admonition to add manly vigor to their faith. Like sap flowing from the vine into the branches, the life of Christ is to invade your whole life.
Two final things should be noted. The fact that what Peter is contending for here has now happened, does not remove the urgency of it or the applicability of it. It is a common failure of God’s people to think that God wouldn’t ever turn over our tables. God wouldn’t overthrow our country. God wouldn’t despise our holy sacraments, would he? Since Christ holds the scepter of the world it should not be lost on us that presumptuous religiosity should have no place in our midst. The Reformed need a fresh Spirit born reformation of vigorous piety. The Pentecostals need to rediscover the potent Word of Christ. The evangelicals need to be born again. The Christian Nationalists need for find Christ. The Calvinists need to recover the missionary zeal which marked Calvin’s Geneva. The Lutherans need a fresh infusion of Luther’s moxie. The Presbyterians need to honor their fathers by throwing the wicked Jezebel of egalitarianism, and effeminate sentimentalism out of the window. We should stop hiding behind confessional standards and maybe start living by them. The salt should be salty again.
Jesus has promised, by His Spirit, to continually renew and revive and preserve His church. That brings us to you. The New Creation has been inaugurated. Jesus is King of the World now. This means that He sees you. He sees your sorrows. He sees your trials. He sees your sufferings. He also sees your browser history. He sees your bitter anger at your husband or wife. He sees the resentful memes you post in that based group chat. He sees the good, the bad, and the ugly. This is both a guard against sin and temptation, and comfort in affliction. Christ will come at the last day to reward the righteous and punish the hypocrites. Thus, we return to where we started. Be vigilant, not out of paranoid doomsday fear. But because you have been united to the divine life of God, through Christ, and you are now a member of the body of Christ.
COMMUNION MEDITATION
You come to a prophetic table. This is eschatological bread. This is last days wine. In partaking of this feast, the church heralds the death of Christ for sinners. The Old World of sacrificing clean animals to cleanse from sin is over. The Old World of paganism, haunted by the demons, compelled you to offer your fellow man as an offering to scapegoat your guilt onto another. In the Old World you might have to pass your own child through the fires to appease capricious gods who, it was imagined, would send rain on thirsty lands if their thirst for infant blood was satisfied. But all that Old World is now over.
By Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and then His vindication in the destruction of the temple, we now live in the early dawn of Christ’s everlasting day. This New World isn’t yet as it shall be. For there are still some enemies on the run from the wrath of the Lamb. But by the preaching of this good news, by the covenant signs of water and bread and wine, by the strong rod of His authoritative Word, through His body the Church, Christ is subduing all things to the reality of His once for all death for sin.
That is what we proclaim in this feast: the Lord’s death until He comes. We proclaim that man no longer lives in the shadowy Old World. We live in the Years of our Lord. We live under the reign of He who can search all men’s hearts, and before Whom all is laid bare. When we eat we proclaim that Jesus, the God-man, died and rose again. This means that this world can never be the same. Here is an end times feast, heralding the Old World’s end while holding forth the hope of the Resurrection of all things in Christ.
So, come in faith and welcome to Jesus Christ…
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