
The End of the World
Challenges to our Christian faith, as well as mockery of it, are to be expected. God is well aware of this. The third chapter of 2 Peter answers attacks on the truth of Christ’s second coming and the day of the Lord and reveals the practical impact the future should have on our lives.
Transcript
Ask the average person on the street about where the world is heading, and you are not going to hear much optimism. National security and world peace concern many, as nations wrestle for military or economic power over other nations.
Infectious diseases are still the leading cause of death worldwide. We constantly hear the dire predictions of the depletion of natural resources, even the extinction of the human race. More and more people are convinced of a coming global crisis, if not the end of the world.
In a manner of speaking, they are absolutely right. This planet—in fact, this universe—is going to come to an end. But what is the end of the world going to look like? Does the Bible tell us anything about it? The answer is yes.
As we set sail back into 2 Peter, we discover that the apostle Peter was given a divine telescope to peer into the distant future and literally describe the end of the world. And what he provides for us here in chapter 3 are three action steps that we need to apply. First, we are to take biblical prophecies seriously. Peter begins this way:
I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. (verses 1-2)
He is saying, “What I am about to tell you has been, in part, predicted by the prophets and repeated by the apostles. This is not anything new.”
Here is one of the prophecies of the last days: “Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires” (verse 3). These people mock the truth of God, and Peter reveals their motive: they do not want to give up their “sinful desires.”
In the New Testament, this expression, “last days,” refers to the period between the birth of Christ and the return of Christ. The “last days” are now 2,000 years long, and the clock is still ticking.
And these scoffers are not saying anything new either. Verse 4 tells us they are saying, “Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” They claim that the way things are today is the way they have always been. This is one of the key arguments of evolutionists today—everything has remained constant since time began.
So, for example, based on the normal rates of erosion, it would have taken the Colorado River 6 million years to erode much of the Grand Canyon. They argue, then, that the earth cannot be 6,000 to 8,000 years old—as indicated by the genealogical records in Genesis. It has to be at least 6 million years old.
But here is the evolutionists’ fatal flaw: they cannot allow for any kind of divine intervention in history.[1] They rule out the miracles of creation, like the miracle of bringing starlight immediately to Planet Earth, for our benefit; or creating trees already bearing fruit (Genesis 1:11); or creating a mature adult male and female, named Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:27).
But Peter writes of divine intervention here in verse 6: “The world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.” Genesis 6–8 gives us the account of that global flood and how it not only eliminated the human race outside Noah’s family, but also dramatically eroded and sculpted and changed the topography of the earth.
So, let us take biblical prophecies and predictions seriously.
Here is our second action step: we need to take God’s judgment and power seriously.
God promised Noah He would never destroy the earth again with water (Genesis 9:11); now Peter delivers God’s promise that the final worldwide destruction will be with fire. Note verse 7:
By the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
Verse 4 says that scoffers and mockers deny the coming judgment of God because judgment has not fallen—everything continues as always. They also argue that even if Jesus was the Son of God, He has not kept His promise to come back now for 2,000 years, which they think means He never will.
Peter explains the delay, writing, “Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (verse 8). It might be thousands of years to us, but God exists at the same time from eternity past to eternity future. So, while it has been 2,000 years to us, to God, it has been like only two days.
The apostle then gives us another reason for God’s delay in ending the world:
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (verse 9)
God is not in any hurry to judge the world with fire. He is patiently waiting, giving people time to repent and believe.
We have covered many texts that describe salvation as God choosing His elect. Well, this text flips over the coin and emphasizes the other side of salvation: a person choosing God. Both sides are true; and in this regard, God does not wish for anyone to reject the gospel, although many will.
The unbelieving human race one day will experience the promised wrath of God. Peter writes in verse 10, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief.” This final judgment will come suddenly and unexpectedly. A thief never calls ahead; he just shows up.
This phrase, “the day of the Lord,” refers to a future time of divine judgment. It often refers to the tribulation period, which immediately follows the rapture.
In this context, however, Peter is taking us all the way past the rapture, past the tribulation, past the thousand-year kingdom of Christ on earth, to that final judgment of the unsaved, when Revelation 20:11 says the universe effectively disappears. Peter fills in the blanks in verse 10:
Then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
This fiery judgment will take place at the end of Christ’s millennial reign.
Peter ends his letter by urging his readers to take one more action step: we need to apply God’s commands and priorities seriously.
If the world is going to end one day, what kind of testimony do we want to leave behind? That we were fearful? Anxious? Apathetic toward a world of scoffers?
No. Peter answers here in verses 11-12:
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved [the universe literally destroyed], what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!
Beloved, we have just been given the future of the universe. This is the end of the world, as we know it. It will one day dissolve in a fireball. But then it will be created new again. Peter writes in verse 13, “We are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” And this time, the universe will last forever.
Think about this: we will be with the Lord when He performs this new creation. Who knows? He might even follow the same order right out of Genesis 1. Only this time, we will be able to see Him and hear Him speak the word and bring the new universe into existence.
In the meantime, as Peter writes in verse 18, let us continue to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
[1] Edwin A. Blum, “2 Peter,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 12, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein (Zondervan, 1981), 285.
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