From what we understand from historical records, Peter wrote this letter, which by all indication, was 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.
The principal design of this chapter is to demonstrate, in opposition to the objections of scoffers,
- that the Lord Jesus will return again to this world;
- that the world will be destroyed by fire, and
- that there will be a new heaven and a new earth; and to show what effect this should have on the minds of Christians.
From studying God's Word, we know that this present world will be destroyed. Looking forward to that great cataclysm we fix our hope not on anything in this material universe but on the new heaven and earth God that will create. Our vision of the future, and values shaped by the expectation of Christ's return, motivate us to live "holy and godly lives."
I believe that we can see that Peter gives a three-fold purpose in writing:
- 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.
Here is what Peter says in chapter 3.
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? [2 Peter 3:1-12]
In the first four verses, Peter talks about our attitude toward the return of the Lord, and a test of apostates.
This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. [2Pet. 3:1]
Simon Peter makes it clear that he is the writer of both epistles. "I stir up your pure minds" -- "pure" is not the best translation. Our minds are not pure minds, and the word Peter uses means "sincere" rather than pure. He is addressing genuine believers.
He is saying, "I want to stir up your sincere minds by way of remembrance." This is not something new he is going to talk to them about; he just wants to stir up their memories.
Now what is it that he wants them to remember?
That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour. [2Pet. 3:2]
"The holy prophets" are the Old Testament writers. "And of the commandment of us the apostles." Notice that Simon Peter doesn't put himself in a position of being above the other apostles; he is just one of the boys. Before he finishes this epistle, he will refer to something Paul had written, which means he includes Paul as an apostle also. He is saying that the things he is going to remind them of had been written about by the other apostles and also had been the subject of the Old Testament prophets.
Now notice the subject -- Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts. [2Pet. 3:3]
This was something they were to know first of all. In the last days, I believe, are the days in which you and I live, and they will continue on into the Great Tribulation period after the rapture of the Church.
"Scoffers" will be the apostates whom he described so vividly back in chapter two. These scoffers evidently will be members of churches, and many of them pastors, who will be "walking after their own lusts," their own desires, not attempting to follow the Word of God. You see, it is this type of person who attacks the truths of the Bible. If a man is willing to forsake his sins and is willing to receive Christ, God will make His Word real to him.
Paul, writing in 2 Corinthians 3, said that a veil is over their minds; but if their hearts will turn to God, the veil will be removed. Their problem is not intellectual; their problem is heart trouble.
So now these "scoffers" put forward a false argument saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. [2Pet. 3:4]
In other words, they will say something like this, "Some of you premillennial folk have been saying for years that the Lord Jesus is going to come back and take the church out of the world, and then after a seven-year period of tribulation, He will come to the earth to establish His Kingdom. Well, where is He? Why hasn't He come?" They are going to scoff at it. The second coming of Christ will be denied -- not only by the atheist standing out yonder on a soap box, but it will also be denied by those who stand in the pulpits of the churches and profess to be believers.
Now what did the Old Testament prophets write about? They wrote about the coming of Christ to the earth to establish His Kingdom. What did the New Testament apostles write about? They wrote about Christ's coming to take the church out of the world and then, after the Great Tribulation, about His coming to the earth to establish His Kingdom. Notice that the Old Testament prophets did not write about the church -- not one of them did. They wrote only about His coming to earth to establish His Kingdom.
It was the Lord Jesus Himself who first revealed that He would be coming for His own. He said, as recorded in John, "...I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself..." (John 14:2-3). The place He was going to prepare was not down here. It was not on the other side of the Mount of Olives -- if you doubt that, go look at it; it is a desolate place. Our Lord went back to heaven, and that is where He is preparing a place for us. And He promised to come back for us. In 1Thessalonians 4:17, we are told that we will meet Him in the air.
Let me repeat: The prophecy in the Old Testament of Christ's coming was to establish His Kingdom upon the earth; the prophecy in the New Testament of His coming was first to take His church out of the world and then to come to establish His Kingdom upon the earth.
"For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." This is the "proof" which the scoffers will offer, and, by the way, it is the most prevalent argument given in our day. "The fathers" would refer all the way back to father Adam.
The scoffers adopt the doctrine of laissez faire or let's continue with the status quo. Nothing unusual has happened in the past. Things have just progressed along. Man has evolved, and things have come along gently and nicely in the past. Peter is going to say, "That's where you are absolutely wrong. If you think nothing has happened in the past, let me tell you about it!"
Now Peter is going to talk about three worlds in one. That is not something strange to us. Older folk will remember using two-in-one shoe polish. Then there was a sewing machine company that put out three-in-one oil. Well, you and I live in a three-in-one world.
We have been hearing a great deal about one world, and certainly the world is moving toward the day when a world dictator will take over. I don't think there is any question about that in the minds of thoughtful men. Great thinkers of this century have taken the position that we have come to a crisis and to the end of man on the earth.
So Peter starts off talking about three worlds. Here in verses 5 and 6, he talks about the world that was.
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. [2Pet. 3:5-6]
There are two ideas concerning this passage.
The first is that there was a judgment in the pre-Adamic world, before man was put here. We have a suggestion of what took place in Isaiah 14:12-14
- "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High."
Satan's desire was never to be unlike God. He wanted to take God's place. And there are a great many human beings who want to be little gods down here. Any man who is working on his own salvation, whose theory is that he is good enough for heaven, ignores the fact that he is dealing with the holy God. He does not seem to realize that man is a sinner, that man is lost, and that God has provided a way of redemption for him. The Lord Jesus said, "...no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Remember that it was the God-man who said that! Now, if you think you can go to the Father on your own, what you are saying is this: "Move over, God. I'm coming up to sit beside you because I am a god also." That, you see, was Satan's desire, and it occasioned a judgment which evidently took out of heaven a great company of angels who had joined forces with Satan, Lucifer, son of the morning.
The second possibility is that Peter is speaking about the water judgment that took place in Noah's day. Many outstanding Bible teachers hold to the idea that this refers to the Flood of Noah's day.
I personally hold to this suggestion here.
The antediluvian civilization was destroyed with a flood, and there is abundant evidence for this. The great shaft which was put down at the site of ancient Ur of the Chaldees shows that there were several civilizations destroyed. In the excavation, the archaeologists came to a great deal of sand and silt with quite a bit of sediment which was deposited there by a flood. Then beneath all this, they found the remains of a very high civilization. Personally, I believe that Peter refers directly to the Flood of Noah's day, and surely this earth bears abundant evidence of such a flood.
Now, whether Peter was referring to the pre-Adamic judgment or to the judgment in Noah's day is a matter of conjecture. It makes no difference at all which view you hold as to when the world was "overflowed with water, [and] perished." The important thing is that it did occur at some point in the past. There is abundant evidence that some great cataclysm did take place and that all things have not continued as they were from the beginning of the creation.
Now Peter comes to the world that is. This is the world you and I are living in, now.
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men [2Pet. 3:7].
This says that this earth has been stored up for fire. This is a very interesting expression, by the way, and it not only means stored up for fire but also stored up with fire (that could easily be the translation of it). The suggestion is that there are resident forces present in the world which could destroy it. It is not that God is going to rain fire down from heaven but that this earth carries its own judgment. How well we know this today! You and I are living on a powder keg -- or, more literally, on an atom bomb. There will never be another flood to destroy the world. That judgment is past; water destroyed the world that was. Now the world that is is reserved for another judgment, the judgment of fire. In other words, this present order of things in this world is temporary. It is moving toward another judgment, and Peter will give us more details in verse 10.
"Kept in store" is the same Greek word that the Lord Jesus used when He told of the man who was laying up treasure. Well, God had been laying up this secret of how He made this universe, and it seems that man has broken into God's secret treasure house. It seems that man has opened a veritable Pandora's box. There are many people, today, who are saying that we are living in "perilous" times; but I want to go back a few years to some who have said what they thought.
- Dr. Urey from the University of Chicago, who worked on the atomic bomb, began an article several years ago in Collier's magazine by saying, "I am a frightened man, and I want to frighten you."
- Winston Churchill said, "Time is short."
- Mr. Luce, the owner of Life, Time, and Fortune magazines, addressed a group of missionaries who were the first to return to their fields after World War II. Speaking in San Francisco, he made the statement that when he was a boy, the son of a Presbyterian missionary in China, he and his father often discussed the premillennial coming of Christ, and he thought that all missionaries who believed in that teaching were inclined to be fanatical. And then Mr. Luce said, "I wonder if there wasn't something to that position after all."
- Dr. Charles Beard, the American historian, says, "All over the world the thinkers and searchers who scan the horizon of the future are attempting to assess the values of civilization and speculating about its destiny."
- Dr. William Yogt, in the Road to Civilization, said, "The handwriting on the wall of five continents now tells us that the Day of Judgment is at hand."
- Dr. Raymond B. Fosdick, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, said, "To many ears comes the sound of the tramp of doom. Time is short."
- H. G. Wells declared before he died, "This world is at the end of its tether. The end of everything we call life is close at hand."
- General Douglas MacArthur said, "We have had our last chance."
- Former President Dwight Eisenhower said, "Without a moral regeneration throughout the world there is no hope for us as we are going to disappear one day in the dust of an Atomic Explosion."
- And Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, ex-president of Columbia University, said, "The end cannot be far distant."
If men from all walks of life are speaking in this manner, certainly you and I, who have believed the Bible and who have had through all these years such a clear statement concerning the judgment that is coming upon this world and the way in which it is to be destroyed, should be alert. Do not misunderstand me, I do not know what will be God's method for the destruction of this world. I am merely saying that man at last has found out that this passage in 2 Peter makes good sense. This is a way that is not only logical but is scientific by which God can destroy this universe.
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day [2Pet. 3:8].
Now it is obvious that the destruction of the earth and heavens will take place during the Day of the Lord, which is an extended period of time including the seven years of tribulation and the one thousand years of the millennial Kingdom. When the Lord Jesus returns to the earth at the end of the Great Tribulation period and establishes His Kingdom here, He is going to renovate this earth -- but that will not be a permanent renovation. Not until after the Tribulation and after the Millennium will the dissolution of the earth and the heavens (of which Peter speaks) occur. So you see, even if the Rapture should take place tomorrow, it still would be a thousand and seven years before this destruction.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance [2Pet. 3:9].
God is long-suffering; He is patient; He is not rushing things. After all, He has eternity behind Him and eternity ahead of Him. He doesn't need to worry about time! To Him a thousand years is as one day and one day is as a thousand years. But the point is that the final judgment, the dissolution of the earth and the heavens, is coming. In the meantime, He is giving men everywhere a further opportunity to repent and turn to Himself. This is the reason you and I need to get the Word of God out. It is the only thing that can change hearts and lives. It is by the Word of God that folk are born again -- as Peter said in his first epistle, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1Pet. 1:23).
It is not God's will that you should perish. Maybe, the reasons that you are reading this article is simply because God does not want you to come into judgment; He wants you to pass from death unto life. And you can do that -- you can turn to Him and receive the wonderful salvation that He has for you.
Do you know that you cannot keep God from loving you? You can reject His love, but you cannot keep Him from loving you. Neither can you keep it from raining, but you can raise an umbrella to keep the rain from falling on you. Also, you can raise the umbrella of indifference or the umbrella of sin or the umbrella of rebellion so that you won't experience God's love, but you cannot keep Him from loving you.
You can slap God in the face; you can turn your back on Him; you can blaspheme Him, but you cannot keep Him from wanting to save you. You cannot keep Him from loving you, for He provided a Savior, His own Son, to die in your place. The Lord Jesus will save you if you will receive the salvation He offers. But, things are not going to continue as they are now. You and I are living in a world which is moving toward judgment.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up [2Pet. 3:10].
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." There is some argument as to whether this takes place at the coming of Christ to establish His Kingdom or at the end of the millennial Kingdom. I am convinced that the Day of the Lord is an extended period of time which opens with the Tribulation, followed by the thousand-year reign of Christ, the brief rebellion led by Satan, and the judgment of the Great White Throne. Then, as we find in the Book of Revelation, the new heavens and the new earth come into view.
"As a thief in the night," the same expression which Paul uses in 1Thessalonians 5:2, indicates that it will begin unexpectedly.
"In the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise." The Greek word used here for "noise" is rhoizedon. It is the word used for the swish of an arrow, the rush of wings, the splash of water, the hiss of a serpent.
"And the elements shall melt with fervent heat." You see, matter is not eternal as was once believed; you can get rid of matter -- that is, it can be converted into energy. Peter speaks here of "the elements," the little building blocks of the universe, the stoicheia as it is in the Greek. Stoicheion is a better word than our word atom which comes from a Greek word meaning something you cannot cut, because we have found that an atom can be cut and it can be taken apart.
"Melt" employs one of the simplest Greek words, the verb luo, which simply means "to untie or to unloose." When God destroys this earth someday, it is going to be a tremendous thing. I think that it will be just like a great atomic explosion, and the earth will go into nothing. I have always felt that the Lord will probably turn the little atoms wrong side out and use the other side of them for a while. When He does that, man will never be able to untie them again.
"The earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." This will certainly include the tremendous amount of water that is on the earth -- it will be burned up. We know today that water is made up of two elements, hydrogen and oxygen, and both of them are gases that are inflammable and can be very explosive. There are certain kinds of fire which, when water is put on them, are only helped along by it. Firefighters have to use certain kinds of chemicals to put out such fires. "The works that are therein shall be burned up."
Peter is saying that God will judge in the future just as He has in the past. At the beginning of this chapter, Peter says that the scoffers will say, "All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (v. 4). The scoffer's great fallacy is in not knowing the past.
The Day of the Lord will include judgment also. The "day of the Lord" is a familiar term in Scripture. The prophets used it, the Lord Jesus used it, and many of the New Testament writers used it. It is a technical term. The Day of the Lord begins in darkness, as the Old Testament prophets said -- it begins with tribulation. It ends with this great explosion, this great judgment of the earth by its being dissolved by fire. Between these two great events is the period of the seven years of tribulation, the coming of Christ to the earth to establish His Kingdom, the millennial Kingdom, the brief release of Satan and the rebellion of those who rally to him, Satan's final confinement, and the Great White Throne judgment of the lost. Then after the judgment of the earth, which Peter is describing, the new heaven and the new earth come into view.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness [2Pet. 3:11].
Now Peter says that, in view of the fact of what has happened and what God is going to do in the future, you and I ought not to be standing on the sidelines, twiddling our thumbs, and indulging in criticism. Christians find it so easy to criticize others, but specifically, what are you doing today to get out the Word of God? That is the important question in this hour for every Christian, every church, every pastor. Every person sitting in the pew needs to say to himself: "I am not here to sit in judgment on the preacher; I'm not here to judge other Christians; I am here to get out the Word of God, to do something positive. The question is: What am I doing to that end?"
Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? [2Pet. 3:12].
"Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God." Peter is writing to the Diaspora, the Jews scattered abroad, and he says that the day of God is coming.
"Wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved." After the dissolution of the present heavens, the day of God, which is eternity, as we see in Revelation 21:1, will come.
"Wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" This is one of the most remarkable statements you could possibly have coming from a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. I don't imagine that Peter figured out how the water, that sea where he fished, would burn. He didn't know how all this could be dissolved and melted. But the elements, that which we call atoms, the building blocks of the universe, are to be absolutely melted. However, this time Peter uses a different Greek word for "melt" than he used in verse 10. It is tekomai, a word that means actually "wasting away, the wasting away of nature."
This could possibly suggest the effects of radioactivity when an atomic bomb goes off.
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