J Brentner: THE MISTAKEN DIAGNOSES OF THE SCOFFERS

THE MISTAKEN DIAGNOSES OF THE SCOFFERS

Jonathan Brentner

In his second letter, the Apostle Peter warns us about people who fail to properly diagnose the moment in which they live. They see the same signs of the approaching Tribulation that we do, but interpret them far differently. Not only do they reject our diagnosis, but they also ridicule our hope.

. . . knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming?”  (2 Pet. 3:3-4a)

The apostle’s words accurately depict our day. The Rapture has become the object of scorn in many churches, even where it was once taught as a core belief. And of course, those outside of Christ give us much grief regarding our hope in Jesus’ imminent appearing, but that’s to be expected.

What lies behind the scoffing of our day? As the apostle explains, it stems from a wrong interpretation of the day in which we live. Unlike Lucy, our mockers fail to recognize the imminent danger of the rapidly approaching Tribulation period.

They misdiagnose our day by ignoring . . .

Before Peter warns his readers about the scoffers, he urges them to “remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles” (2 Pet. 3:2). The term he used for “predictions” in the original is rhema, which denotes words.

I find it more than a little coincidental that at the end of 2 Peter, the apostle equates the “letters” of Paul with Scripture (2 Peter 3:15-16). He is the one that provides us with the most details of the Lord’s appearing in passages such as 1 Corinthians 15:50-54, Philippians 3:20-21, and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:10. These passages, along with many others, form the basis for belief in the Rapture.

Though many of our critics deny the worldwide scope of the Genesis 6-8 flood, most simply “overlook” it as being an aspect of God’s character to judge sinful humanity. They see the same wickedness, lawlessness, deception, and bloody violence of our day, but fail to conclude that these things will bring God’s wrath. They either spiritualize the words of Revelation chapters 4-18, tell us they were a code for first century believers, or claim that the Lord fulfilled them in the distant past. They mistakenly ignore the biblical prophecies regarding God’s judgment of sin in the current realm.

The assertion that today is no different than any other time in history lies at the heart of their shocking miscalculation of the times in which they live.

This question remains a mystery to me: “Why is it that those who cannot see the signs of the rapidly approaching Tribulation period seem to be equally blind to the fact that the Lord must soon judge America and the world for its extreme wickedness?” The denial of the Rapture along with the nearness of God’s judgment on this world characterize many, if not most of those who ridicule our hope.

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