“Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. (Vs.4) They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” (Vs.5) But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. (Vs.6) By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. (Vs.7) By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:3-7).
In relation to understanding Bible prophecy you will find three categories of believers within the wider Body of the Messiah today. Firstly, you have those who know very little or are even unintentionally ignorant of what the Bible teaches about the end-times and the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus, some will even laugh and possibly make light of it and may be regular church attendees. Secondly, you have those who have heard and have some knowledge regarding it but who choose not to pursue a deeper understanding of it and just ignore it. Thirdly, you have those who know about Biblical prophecy and who are understanding and preparing themselves for what lies ahead in these last days. The Bible in both Testaments speaks a great deal about the end-times and we find the Lord Jesus, the apostles and the Old Testament prophets speaking about the last days and the need for God’s people to prepare themselves spiritually for those days to come.
There is no doubt that we are in the very last of the last days. 1948 was the turning point when we saw the rebirth of the nation of Israel, an event prophesied in God’s Word (Isaiah 66:8-9) (Ezekiel 37:1-6). Since that time Israel and the ongoing events in the Middle-East have been consistently in the headlines around the world. The nation of Israel is God’s prophetic time-clock for the nations and the clock is rapidly approaching midnight when the clock will strike, the last trumpet will be sounded and the Lord will return (Matthew 24:31) (1 Corinthians 15:51-52) (Revelation 11:15).
In his second letter Peter wanted to stimulate faithful New Covenant believers to wholesome thinking regarding the end-times and focuses a lot on the last days and the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. He speaks about the transfiguration in relation to Bible prophecy and the Second Coming of the Messiah. Peter also writes about false prophets and teachers infesting the wider Body of the Messiah and about the Day of the Lord which will see a series of sequential events that will precede the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus. Now in these verses in Chapter 3 Peter speaks about those who have no regard for Bible prophecy and ridicule those who do regard it as vitally important for one’s spiritual survival in the last days.
Now let’s look at this… (2 Peter 2:3-7)
(Vs.3) “Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.”
Peter had just been speaking about false prophets and teachers that would be an infestation within the wider Body of the Messiah in the last days and he spares nothing in describing their character and their conduct (2 Peter Chapter 2). In regards to Jesus’ Transfiguration on the mountain Peter relates this event to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus and to the rapture and resurrection of believers (2 Peter 1:16-21). Now Peter tells us that there is something we need to take note of above all else and that is those who are described as “scoffers” and “as those following their own evil desires.” Keep in mind that just previous to this Peter has devoted a large part of his letter to those within the wider Body of the Messiah who had by stealth crept in to the assembly and had secretly introduced destructive heresies by which they were laying truth and error side by side much like offering a beautiful gourmet sandwich filled with all kinds of delicious healthy ingredients but laced with arsenic, a slow poison, virtually undetectable to the taste when mixed with other food, but over a short span of time prove to be fatal.
Now he addresses the scoffers who have integrated themselves into the fellowship but have their own agenda and they actually ridicule the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus, and Peter puts them in the same category as false prophets and teachers (2 Peter 2:1-2). Notice the word “scoffers.” The word can be translated as “mockers” as those who “deride, reproach, ridicule and have a contempt or malignity toward an object.” Here the sense seems to be that they would treat with derision or contempt the predictions regarding the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus and the end of the world. Notice that they are also “following their own lusts.” In other words they are given over to living in the free indulgence of their sensual unrestrained appetites and that without any reverence for God or His laws (2 Peter Chapter 2). See also (Jude 1:18).
Within wider Christendom today there are those who actually mock and deride those who believe and teach about the last days and Bible prophecy. These are described as scoffers or mockers. What else does Peter tell us about these “scoffers”?
(Vs.4) “They will say where this coming is he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”
Sadly there are those within the Body of the Messiah and a growing number of ministers, who have the attitude that says; “It will all pan out in the end” but it is in reality an excuse and somewhat of a spiritual laziness on their part in studying or taking seriously what the Bible teaches about Prophecy and the preparedness needed for the last days. The whole Bible itself is prophetic and great slabs of scripture clearly describe the last days and how we are to prepare for them. Around 30 years ago or more there was much more interest within the wider Body of the Messiah about Bible Prophecy than there is today. These days it is Kingdom Dominion and having it good in this world and a ‘craziness’ to see miracles signs and wonders.
Some are just like Peter describes and are saying; “They have been speaking about the Second Coming but things are still the same as they were years ago, nothing has changed!” Multitudes of professing Christians including many pastors take this attitude towards Biblical prophecy. They may not be indulging their sensual appetites as those Peter describes but never the less their attitude is none the less serious. God’s puts them in the category of mockers! These fall into the second category of the people who know the truth but do not seek to study it or to teach on it or just ignore it. This applies to clergy and laity alike in many churches today. Now Peter goes on to write…
(Vs.5-6) “But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.”
We are told by the Lord Jesus that just before He comes back that people in the world will be living just as they were living in the time of Noah. They were eating and drinking, doing business as usual, marrying and giving in marriage and totally oblivious to the deluge that would sweep them all away into hell. In Genesis Chapter 6 we are told that there was satanic infiltration of the human race, sexual corruption, and global violence and that the imaginations and inclinations of people’s hearts and minds were set on evil continuously.
These things are very conspicuous marks of today’s world. The people in Noah’s time were warned by him, a preacher of righteousness, to turn back to God and come into the ark of salvation, a type of the salvation found only in the Lord Jesus himself who is that ark spiritually speaking (John 14:6). He is the one and only door into the ark of salvation (John 10:9). God have the earth 120 years in which to repent but they chose not to and perished in the deluge. Now notice Peter says about these scoffers that “they deliberately forget” or they chose to wilfully forget what they were being told about Jesus’ Second Coming and ignoring and even ridiculing the Word of God as multitudes do today concerning the end-times and everything connected with them.
Spiritual blindness is the lot of everyone who is unsaved and only the Lord Jesus can remove the spiritual blindness and impart spiritual sight (John 9:39). However, wilful blindness is something that cannot be solved such as we see in the Pharisees who knowing about the prophecies concerning the Messiah opposed the teaching of the Lord Jesus and the apostles. Those who scoff and ridicule those who are seeking to teach about Bible prophecy will inevitably be swept away by the deluge of God’s judgment (Matthew 25:37-41) (Psalm 57:9) (Psalm 73:19) (Proverbs 21:7) (Zephaniah 1:2-3) (Psalm 28:3) (Proverbs 10:25). But let’s read on…
(Vs. 7) “By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:3-7).
While God set His rainbow in the sky as a guarantee that He would never destroy the world by a flood again, He has also set a day when He will judge the earth with fire because of its wickedness and rebellion and wilful rejection of the absolute truth found in the Lord Jesus, the Living Word of God made flesh, and who tabernacled among us (John 1:1-2, 14). Now in 2 Peter Chapter 3 we are also told that God measures time differently than we do in that a 1,000 of our years down here is as one day to Him and that He is not slack or lazy in delivering what He has promised but is patient with people not wanting any to perish, but everyone to come to repentance both without and within wider Christendom (3:8-9).
We also see in Chapter 3 that Peter tells us explicitly about this fiery judgment. This day of the Lord will come expectantly and without warning. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire and the earth and everything in it will be burned up or laid bare before the eyes of Him who has come to judge the earth. That day then will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire and the very elements themselves will melt in the heat (3:10-12). In the Greek text it is actually describing the splitting of the atom such as we see in a nuclear detonation. We see this described in the prophet Zechariah where the eyes of the armies of the antichrist will literally melt in their sockets and their tongues will rot in their mouths (Zechariah 14: 12-13). the same as happened when the two nuclear bombs were exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
In light of these end-time events and what is happening in the world globally can any truly born again, blood washed, Spirit filled New Covenant believer afford to neglect or even ignore Bible prophecy? Peter tells us that we will do well to pay attention to the words of the prophets as it will prove to be as a light shining in a dark place and that the prophecies of scripture did not originate in the will of man but men spoke as they were moved by the Spirit of God to prophecy what they did (2 Peter 1:19-21.
How then can we prepare ourselves to face the things that are even now coming upon the world? Peter tells us that we ought to be living lives separated wholly to the Lord and allowing the Holy Spirit to conform us to the image and Godliness of God’s Son the Lord Jesus. Added to this we are to be looking forward to that day when the rescue will come and to speed its coming. We speed its coming by being involved in the work of evangelism. The sooner the Gospel of the Kingdom has been preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations the sooner our Lord Jesus will come back! (Matthew 24:14). Finally we are to hang on to His promises regarding His return and be looking forward by faith and anticipating the new heavens and earth that will be established after His return and in which will be the home of righteousness! In light of this Peter also adds since we are looking forward to this that we must make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him (3:11-14).
If we have repented before the Lord of all known sin, been baptised, and have been born again, justified by faith, cleansed by the Messiah’s atoning blood and have received the Holy Spirit, then that blood that has redeemed us back to God will shelter and protect us from the wrath to come! As the apostle Paul writes; “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus the Messiah, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:9-11).
God will say to us what He said to the Israelites that night, who, by faith, had applied the blood of the spotless lamb to the doorposts of their houses when the destroying angel passed through Egypt, “When I see the blood I will pass over you!” In light of Bible prophecy and understanding the end-times, as mentioned already there are three categories of people. To which of the three categories do you belong?
Firstly, are you among the uninformed about the end-times and possibly even among those who mock at those who are anticipating the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus? Secondly, are you among the informed that know about the end-times but are deliberately choosing to ignore them? Thirdly, are you preparing yourself for these end-times in which we are now living? You will fall into either one or the other of these categories.
As the end of this age approaches, both without and within wider Christendom, people will continue to mock and deride the Second Coming of the Messiah. They are thinking to themselves and saying to others that things will remain the same as they have always been and that if He is coming back then somehow it will be sometime down the track and not relevant to today. However, they deliberately forget that a thousand years of our time frame on earth is as one day to the Lord, that He is not slack of lazy in fulfilling what He has promised, and that He will come in an hour when He is least expected and that we must be ready for His arrival! (Matthew 24:42-44).
