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“Scoffers at the Lord’s Return”
In 2 Peter 3:3, in the context of writing about Christ’s second coming and the destruction of the earth, Peter reminds his readers, “scoffers will come in the last days”. Who are these scoffers? What are they scoffing about? Will we meet any of them? How do we avoid becoming scoffers ourselves? Let’s take a closer look at Peter’s words in this chapter.
The Last Days
Peter had previously referred to “last times” in 1 Peter 1:20-21, where he said of Christ, “He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” This would seem to indicate that Jesus lived in the period of time referred to as the “last times” or “last days”.
On the Day of Pentecost, Peter quoted the prophet Joel in reference to the events taking place, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17). This would seem to indicate that the apostles lived and were preaching in this period of time that Joel called “the last days”. The Hebrew writer likewise said that God, “has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:2).
The Last Days as presented in the Bible text seem to refer to the period of time from Christ’s first coming to His second coming, the “Age of the Messiah” as many have called it. We can expect to see the kinds of scoffers today that Peter talks about in 2 Peter 3 because we are living in this period of time!
The Scoffer’s Creed
The scoffers will come, “walking according to their own lusts’” (2 Peter 3:3). Many will refuse to believe the second coming, and even mock those who do, because of the changes such a belief would demand of their lives. Walking according to their own lusts means that they have determined how they want to live their lives, and they refuse to accept a teaching that would disturb their course. Maybe we know those today who would conveniently ignore the clear evidence of Christ for the same reasons.
The scoffers will say, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). Peter says these scoffers base their lack of faith in God on the fact that it has been such a long time since God made His promise, and nothing has yet come of it. In Peter’s time, this was only a matter of a few years, but in our time it has been almost 2,000 years since Jesus ascended into heaven! We cannot think of God as we think of human beings. We may have been fooled or lied to by our neighbors, our coworkers, or even our friends, but God has always spoken against such behavior and against human wisdom as a whole. His wisdom and His word comes from above, and it is always to be trusted!
Peter then says of the scoffers, “For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water” (2 Peter 3:5-6). The scoffers conveniently and willfully forget what God has done in times past. In Creation, God spoke the world into existence (Gen. 1:3,6,9,11). He didn’t make mistakes or experience trial and error in Creating the world, He simply spoke and these things came to be. The scoffer willfully forgets that the flood in Noah’s time also happened by the word of God!
“But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7). The Hebrew writer likewise says that Jesus, “uphold[s] all things by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3). Let’s realize that the same word which caused the world to be in existence, and the same word that destroyed the world in the time of Noah, is the same word that has promised destruction on this physical earth we live in! It is not our place to know when this will happen (Acts 1:7), but we must accept God’s word as sure and true!
The Longsuffering Lord
Peter urges his readers, “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” (2 Peter 3:8) We often fail to remember things that we have little understanding or experience of, and so Peter issues the command to “do not forget this one thing”. Especially in a culture where time is considered more valuable than perhaps ever before, it is hard for us to wrap our minds around the fact that God is not bound by time as we are!
The Psalmist agrees, “For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past” (Psalm 90:4). While I don’t believe that we should think of this as a literal mathematical equation (1,000 years on earth = 1 day in heaven), I do believe it teaches us that time is not binding upon God the way it is upon us. God does not seem to feel the pressure of a deadline, nor the boredom or anxiousness of waiting long days or even years.
This characteristic of God is manifest in His dealings throughout time. The Hebrew writer reminds us concerning Abraham that, “By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:9-10). Abraham did these things though he never witnessed in his lifetime the complete fulfillment of God’s promise that, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3), as God fulfilled it in Christ some 2,000 years after it the promise was made! Why is it so hard to accept that God would wait that long, or even much longer, to fulfill His promise to send His Son back to this earth?
Peter goes on to remind us, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9) God has not forgotten the promise He has made of Christ’s return, and He is not late in fulfilling that promise. God does not delay out of any insufficiency in His own power or work, but perhaps to give opportunity to some who may still come to repentance!
Today and every day on which the Lord has not yet come, we must examine ourselves to see if we are ready for the day the Lord will return. Let’s not scoff as some do, nor willfully forget what God has done in the past, but rather let’s remember the promises God has made and fulfilled, and His awesome power throughout the ages, and let’s prepare ourselves for the second coming of His Son!
