LETTERS THAT BURN
2nd Peter
Part 17
“Faith’s Consummation – Continues”
Last time we ended talking about the Lord’s long-suffering, “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth.”
Now as Peter’s final letter comes a close, he’s going to talk about the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is the day of God’s judgment. It is overwhelming in its scope, and dreadful in its execution. First, Peter pinpoints the time of it:
2 Pet 3:10a “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night,”
Isaiah is the first to use the phrase “day of the Lord” (Is. 2:12). It occurs twenty times in the OT. Ezekiel, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Zephaniah, and Malachi all mention it. It occurs four more times in the NT—twice by Paul, once by Peter, and once by John.
The awful event Peter is about to describe and that John also describes in the Revelation give way to another “day”—the Day of God. The Day of God is when a brand new heaven and new earth are created (Rev. 21:1-8). On that Day, the Lord Jesus will deliver up the kingdom to God, “that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:26-28).
Peter uses the expressions “the day of the Lord” (vs.10) and “the day of God” (vs 12) to pinpoint the time of the fearful judgment that he describes, because this judgment closes the Day of the Lord and begins the Day of God.
The Day of the Lord marks the end of Jesus’ millennial reign on earth and ushers in the eternal state—the day of God.
That’s the time of it. Next Peter describes the totality of it:
3:10b “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.”
It is amazing to think that an uneducated fisherman over 2,000 years ago accurately describes the nuclear age in verse 10!
Take the word “elements”—the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” This word in the original language meant “the components into which matter is divided.” Literally, the particles that make up matter.
In today’s language this word would be used to describe “atoms.” So according to Peter (and the Holy Spirit that moved on him to write this), when God judges the world on the Day of the Lord, the very building blocks of matter will melt.
This is astonishing, because that is exactly what happens with a nuclear blast.
For instance, on July 16, 1945 at 5:20 in the morning, the first atomic bomb was exploded in the arid wilderness of New Mexico.
An enormous tower had been built of ten-inch rails, weighing ninety pounds per foot. When the bomb exploded, the tower was vaporized, and its debris was tossed seven miles into the sky.
Where the tower had stood there was a hole sixty feet deep and five thousand feet wide. For eighteen thousand feet in all directions, the ground was boiled, fused, or melted into glass!
Peter said, “The elements will melt with a fervent heat.”
Peter’s use of the words “fervent heat” to describe the untying of the atom and the resulting rushing, fiery destruction that follows it, is nothing short of mind-boggling.
He also predicts by the Spirit that “the heavens will pass away with a great noise.” The expression “great noise” is from a word referring to the whizzing of an arrow rushing to its target. There will be the whizzing, rushing sound of roaring flames.
Peter closes out his solemn description in verse 11:
3:11 “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
The word “dissolved” is from the Greek word luo, meaning “to loose, break up, destroy, or melt.” It conveys the thought of freeing something that has been bound.
The Bible is literally telling us that at the end of the millennial age, the elemental particles of matter, that we call atoms, will be untied, released. Their energies, up to now imprisoned or held in check by Christ Himself, will be set free.
Peter then asks—in light of these things, what manner of people ought we to be?
He answers—holy and godly. And furthermore, those who are…
3:12 “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?”
Knowing that the world will one day come to a catastrophic end, we Christians above all others should seek to live holy lives with our eye of faith turned upward, looking for the return of Christ.
Peter reinforces his point by again repeating how the world will end—melting with a fervent heat!
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Next, he turns to the Christians hope:
3:13 “Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
This points to the end of the Millennial reign of Christ, at the close of the Day of the Lord. The Bible teaches that, toward the close of the millennium, increasing numbers of people will render only “feigned obedience” to the Lord upon His throne, as He rules the world from Jerusalem.
John writes, “When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth” (Rev. 20:7).
The release of Satan for a brief season will reveal whose hearts are truly with Christ and whose aren’t. At the close of this season of testing, Satan will be hurled forever into the lake of fire, and God will detonate the entire universe, as Peter says. The Day of the Lord will come to an end and the day of God will commence.
Following this unimaginable event, a “new heaven and new earth” will descend “out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Rev. 21:2).
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Now that Peter has described the enormity of what is coming, he turns to exhorting the saints:
3:14 “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
The new heaven and earth to come are beautiful, glorious, and totally absent war or conflict of any kind. But the world they lived in now was Nero’s world—a bad, sad, nightmarish world of persecution and danger.
So Peter says, “Be diligent” to live “without spot.” Don’t become defiled by the filth of the world. And “blameless,” which means to avoid anything that would bring adverse criticism. Don’t suffer criticism for doing something wrong that places you in a bad light.
3:15a “and consider that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation”
We are to interpret God’s silence regarding the brazen sins of men as His patience, not willing that any should perish. We’re not to assume He’s not there, or that He doesn’t judge sin. He is there and He does judge. His patience is amazing!
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Next, Peter says something super important about Paul’s writings:
3:15b-16 “as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”
Here we have an amazing statement from Peter that Paul’s writings were “scripture.” They were and are as much a part of the God-breathed Bible as all the rest. Peter recognized that some of the Apostles, including Paul, had been chosen to add to the volume of the great book, the Holy Bible, with NT writings every bit as inspired as the OT!
He also adds that some of Paul’s writings are “hard to understand.” Paul’s teachings on marriage, the church as Christ’s body, the liberated Christian conscience, Israel, spiritual gifts, the rapture of the church, and so forth…were utterly novel and unique and sometimes difficult to grasp.
Peter takes note that “untaught and unstable people twist (Paul’s writings) to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.”
The word “twist” means to strain or torture. It is to pervert the Word of God. Our own generation is filled with this kind of “tortured” teaching.
Men and women routinely stand to teach a Bible they clearly have never truly studied. They twist and torture the meaning to communicate what they want it to say, not what it was intended to say. They redo and remake Scripture to their own liking.
The Person of Christ is routinely marginalized or transformed into a Jesus we don’t recognize. His work on earth is misrepresented. His teachings are recklessly misinterpreted and intentionally miscommunicated. All the cults pervert the Person of Christ. They all twist and torture the road to salvation with false concepts. They present “another gospel” and “another Jesus.”
The ONLY antidote to the flood of false, weak, and watered down teaching of today is to sit under sound teaching, and to learn how to interpret the Bible for yourself.
One of my own rules for listening to a teaching is to know my Bible well enough that I can compare what I’m hearing to what I see in the Word.
Very often I will hear or read something and I say, “I don’t see what you’re saying anywhere in the Bible. Your teaching and what my Bible says don’t line up.”
But you have to be VERY FAMILIAR with your Bible to do that!
Peter says they twist the Scriptures, literally, to their own destruction.
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As Peter’s last chapter winds to a close, he admonishes Christians to beware—the devil is on the prowl, the dangers of false teaching are real, so Peter exhorts them:
3:17 “You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked;”
As we say, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. This next to the last verse contains the primary reason for both of Peter’s letters, the reason he constantly reminded them of certain truths—that they would not be led away by false teaching.
Interestingly, the phrase “led away” means “carried away,” like a kidnapped child is carried away by its captor. Don’t allow false teachers to kidnap you from your steadfastness in Christ! When someone comes along with some fancy, “new interpretation” of Scripture, Peter says “DON’T GO!”
Remember: If it’s NEW it’s not TRUE, and if its TRUE, it’s not NEW.
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Peter closes with the best advice ever:
3:18 “but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Our focus and aim should be to grow in grace. We should grow in His saving grace, His sovereign grace, His sustaining grace, and His sufficient grace. Grace, grace, and more grace has been poured out on every child of God!
And we’re to grow in the knowledge of our Lord. The Greek word “gnosis” is used here, which means knowledge acquired by learning, effort, and experience over time.
Let’s stand together and read the closing words together:
“To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen!”