Chapter 3 – One God Translation

2 Peter

   3 Dear friends, this is now the second letter I am writing to you, and in both of them I stimulate your sincere minds by reminding you: 2 remember the words prophesied by the holy prophets as well as the lord and savior’s command through your Apostles.
    3 Above all, know this: in the last days blatant mockers will come, following their own sinful lusts 4 and saying, “Where is his promised coming?[1502] For ever since the patriarchs fell asleep in death, everything continues just as it has from the beginning of creation.” 5 But this is what they willfully ignore: that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by God’s word. 6 And by being flooded with water, the world at that time was destroyed. 7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of godless people. [1503]
    8 But do not ignore this one thing, my dear friends: that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. [1504] 9 The Lord is not slow to keep His promise, as some think of slowness, but He is patient with you, because He does not want anyone to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
    10 But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that Day the heavens will pass away[1505] with a terrific noise, the heavenly bodies will melt in intense fire, and the earth and everything done on it will be laid bare. [1506] 11 Since all these things are to melt in this way, what sort of people should you be in holy and godly living, 12 as you look out for and hasten the coming of the Day of God? That Day will cause the burning heavens to be dissolved, and the heavenly bodies to melt with intense fire. 13 But, according to His promise, we are expectantly waiting for new heavens and a new earth, where uprightness will live. [1507]
    14 So then, dear friends, in view of the fact that you are expecting these things, be diligent to be found spotless and blameless before Him, and at peace. 15 Count the patience of our lord as salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote to you, according to the wisdom given to him. 16 In all of his letters he speaks of these things. In those letters there are some things which are difficult to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they also twist the rest of the Scriptures.[1508] 17 So you, my dear friends, since you have been told in advance, beware that you are not led astray by the error of these wicked men and fall from your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and savior Jesus Messiah. To him be glory both now and in the future age-long day.[1509] Amen.

2 Peter

[1502]

That is “Second Coming,” Parousia.

[1503]

Peter states that the first ordering of the world for Adam (kosmos, the world as made for man) in Gen. 1 was replaced by a different order, “heavens and earth,” at the flood. There will be a future “new [renewed] heavens and earth” at the return of Jesus (Isa. 65:17; 66:22; 51:16). “Heaven and earth” does not mean, as popularly, the whole vast universe, but rather the ordered world as seen by man, and in which man dwells, more like the concept of “society,” the “theater” made for man. Gen. 1 describes the ordered world of sky and land or earth as Adam experienced it. Peter here equates “heaven and earth” with the society or “world that then was.” He contrasts that past society with the society after the flood and still existing now. Peter gives us vital commentary on Gen. 1. Genesis is about the created world made for man. The birds fly in the sky (heaven) and the sun is placed in the sky (heaven). The whole system was built with water above and below. It was later deluged and changed by water (Gen. 7:11). It is wrong to make the innocent text in Gen. 1 deal with issues of the origin of the ultimate Universe in which God dwells. The sun is millions of miles away, we know, but in the simple Bible cosmogony it is in the firmament, where (literally “on the face of,” Gen. 1:20) also the birds fly! In Mt. 24:34-35 this present system (genea) is defined as “heaven and earth,” meaning the present world system, not the entire universe.

[1504]

Giving a basis for the idea that God allows a 7,000 year period with the millennium as the last 1000 years.

[1505]

This would not mean the destruction of the whole universe. The earth will be renewed and is the promised inheritance of the faithful. Peter means by “heavens and earth” not the universe but our earth and sky, atmosphere. According to Peter that pre-flood “heavens and earth” was deluged (v. 5-6). This demonstrates Peter’s meaning of “heavens and earth” (exactly, too, as Gen. 1, which is usually misunderstood). The “world that then was” came to an end at the flood, through water. The present “heavens and earth,” i.e. society, will be replaced by the new Creation at the return of Jesus (see Mt. 19:28; Isa. 65:17ff; 66:22). Thus for Peter, history is seen in three distinct blocks.

[1506]

Planet earth will not be destroyed. If it were, the promise made to the faithful of all the ages could not be fulfilled. Abraham has been promised the earth as his inheritance and Jesus assured the meek that they will inherit the earth (Mt. 5:5; Ps. 37). There will occur a great depopulation of the world, with “few people left” (Isa 24:6). A mortal population surviving will provide the renewed society of the future (Heb. 2:5). The notion that there will be no human beings left on earth after Jesus’ return is a complete falsehood, rendering vast amounts of prophecy of the coming Kingdom age pointless.

[1507]

The renewed society of the future will be characterized by international disarmament: The nations will converge on Jerusalem to learn how to live uprightly and they will beat their swords into plowshares, their tanks into tractors (see Isa. 2:1-4). Isa. 65:17-25 gives us an extended description of the renewal to begin at the Second Coming of Jesus. There will be mortals ruled over by the then immortalized saints (Rev. 2:26-27, etc). See also Isa. 19:19-25 and many passages in the prophets which describe the future Kingdom on a renewed earth.

[1508]

It is important to note that Paul’s writings are here reckoned as Holy Scripture. Jesus had defined the limits of the OT canon in Luke 24:44: The Law, the Prophets and the Psalms (Psalms being the leading book of the third section of Hebrew Scripture, i.e. the Writings).

[1509]

Probably a reference to the millennium as the first stage of the future Kingdom of God. Peter had earlier spoken of a day as equal to 1000 years in God’s plan. The Greek speaks of “the day which is an age,” “the age-long day.”