Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. (2 Peter 3:1-2)
Peter wrote this letter, his final one, around 65 AD. He was probably in Rome at the time, since he was crucified in 68, though he may have still been in Babylon, where he’d written letter number one five years earlier.
His purpose in writing was three-fold: to stimulate spiritual growth among Christians, to combat the false teaching that was coming into the Church, and to emphasize the certainty of the Lord’s return. We’ll focus on this third purpose, which Peter addressed in chapter 3.
First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:3-4)
Peter’s first burden was to warn us about the false teaching that would come to be known as Religious Uniformitarianism. This view holds that God does not periodically intervene in the affairs of man but is content just to observe us as we experience a linear series of events over an extended period of time. Its proponents sometimes describe God as “the Great Watchmaker” Who constructed His universe like a master craftsman assembles a precision timepiece. Having “wound it up” and set it in motion, He’s now engaged in watching it run, apart from any subsequent involvement by Him. Galaxies, worlds and civilizations appear as if by chance as bits and pieces randomly come together to form them, and as species evolve into higher life forms. And as the enormous amount of time that’s passed demonstrates, we really shouldn’t expect anything more from Him. (An offshoot of this, called process theology, actually teaches that God is learning as He goes and is just as curious to see how everything will work out as we are.) As Peter implied, the emergence of this false teaching would in fact be a sign that the last days are upon us.
But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:5-7)
These false teachers will have made conscious decisions to ignore three indisputable facts;
1) The Earth didn’t come into being by chance. It was created.
2) The One Who created it does periodically intervene in the affairs of man, at one time bringing a judgment so great that the entire world was destroyed.
3) And what’s more, He’s promised to do it again, because man didn’t learn from the first one.
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