Posted on 03/10/2016 5:43:19 PM PST by grumpa
In some translations of 2 Peter 3, we see implied that the planet itself (heavenly bodies/elements) will be literally burned up. There are many reasons why this is not literally about the physical cosmos, but rather is about the coming events of AD 70 when God judged Old Covenant Israel. At that time, over a million Jews were slaughtered at the hands of the Romans, the temple was destroyed, and along with it the last vestiges of the Old Covenant order.
1. The Bible elsewhere anticipates a never-ending earth (Ecclesiastes 1:4; Psalm 78:69; 104:5; 148:3-6; Ephesians 3:21).
2. The context of Peter’s letters and speeches is the utter imminence of the culmination of the last days: The end of “all things” was “at hand” per 1 Peter 4:7. It was “time for judgment to begin” per 1 Peter 4:17. Peter was living in the last days per Acts 2:14-20 and 1 Peter 1:20.
3. This passage is about the culminating Day of the Lord. The “Day of the Lord” in the Bible is ALWAYS about God’s judgments on specific groups of people—not about the destruction of the planet: Isaiah 34 (against Edom); Jeremiah 46:10 (against named nations); Lamentations 2:22 (against Jerusalem); Ezekiel 13:5 (against Israel’s false prophets); Ezekiel 30:2-4 (against Egypt); Amos 5:18-20 (against Israel); Obadiah 15 (against Egypt); Malachi 4:5 (against Jerusalem)—not about the end of the planet. While the others were fulfilled in Old Testament times, Malachi 3:2-5; 4:1-5 ties “burning/ablaze” to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, which is confirmed by Matthew 3:7, 11, 12; 11:13-16; 13:49-50; 22:7; etc. The certain focus of the New Testament Great Judgment is against the first century Jews (Matthew 16:27-28; 21:40-45; 23:29-39; 24:1-3, 34; 26:64, etc.)—not thousands of years later.
4. The language about COSMIC DISTURBANCES of the created order is standard Hebraic apocalyptic language, used in non-literal terms about THEOLOGICAL OR COVENANTAL events, and especially about actual judgments by God on guilty groups of people. Take the time look up Isaiah 13:10-13; 19:1-22; 24:23; 29:3-6; 34:4; Jeremiah 4:23-31; Ezekiel 32:7-8; Joel 2:1-10; 3:15-16; Amos 5:20; 8:8-9; Micah 1:2-16, Nahum 1:2-6; and Zephaniah 1:2-18.
5. It is interesting that the Thessalonian Christians thought that the Day of the Lord had already come (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2)! So they had a different understanding about the Second Coming and Day of the Lord than modern Christians. They believed in a Parousia that could be MISSED—this, even after having Paul’s first letter to them concerning the “rapture.”
6. The language about the New Heaven and New Earth is found also in Isaiah 65-66 and Revelation 21. In these passages we see that God judges his enemies but regular human history continues, in which there is still sin and the need for evangelism (Isaiah 66:19-24; Revelation 22:15). It is also found in Matthew 5:17-18 where Jesus ties the New Heaven and New Earth to the age of grace and dissolution of the Old Testament law, which was clearly about the events of AD 70. Thus, the New Heaven and New Earth is not literally about the destruction of the planet, but rather about the new covenant. (See my articles in section B: http://prophecyquestions.com/2014/02/01/articles-by-charles-meek.
7. The Greek word for “heavenly bodies/elements” (which were to be “burned up”) is STOICHEION. Everywhere else in the New Testament that this word is used it is about the “elements” of the OLD COVENANT, not strictly physical things (Galatians 4:3, 9; Colossians 2:8, 20-22; Hebrews 5:12-13).
8. The Greek word for “burned up” is KATAKAIO, which is otherwise translated as “exposed,” “found to deserve judgment,” or “laid bare.” This is appropriate language for what happened in AD 70 to the old covenant order.
9. We are given in the text the comparison of Noah’s day, when only the ungodly were destroyed, and Noah and his family were saved from this destruction (cf. 2 Peter 2:5; Revelation 11:18). This is similar to what happened in AD 70, where God took vengeance on Old Covenant Israel for their sins and refusal to accept Jesus.
10. The “day as a thousand years” language is not literal, otherwise it would be nonsense. Thus, it cannot mean that a short time means a long time. A “thousand” in the Bible is often used as a symbolic term of completeness. Peter is saying that covenantal completeness was coming soon.
11. Peter told his readers in verses 11-13 that THEY were to be looking for the coming Day of the Lord. If we are to receive a message as to the timing of the events in the statement about a thousand years being as a day, we submit that it means the opposite of what futurists think. Peter meant that the expected events were a short time into the future, especially given the other imminence passages in his epistles.
12. The imminence of Peter’s warning is evident from his warning to the “scoffers.” It seems that certain scoffers (2 Peter 3:3) were deriding Christians, claiming that Jesus had not come as He had promised in their generation (Matthew 24:34). Peter retorted, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises.” (2 Peter 3:9) Peter was telling the scoffers that they should not make the mistake of believing Jesus had overlooked his promise to return while some of them were alive (Matthew 16:27-28; 26:64). He was warning the scoffers in no uncertain terms that “the Day of the Lord” would come and that it would come upon those very scoffers “as a thief in the night” (Matthew 24:34-43, 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4; Revelation 16:15; 22:6-20). The perceived delay or “slackness” was simply God’s patience toward all who would come to repentance and be saved in the last days of the Old Covenant Age (2 Peter 3:3, 9-10).
Finally, some questions: Does the thought of a burning planet somehow give you hope? What about the people who would be destroyed that had not yet had time to come to know Jesus? Does this sound like a God who promised not to destroy the earth (Genesis 9:11)?
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Horsepucky gramps.
I was just reading 1 Peter today and was.looking up studies, particularly referencing 4:7.
If it means what a lot of people think it means, then Peter was a fraud.
Would that be two Peter three?
I guess your Bible doesn’t have Rev. 21:1 in it.
Christus Victor
I’ve read some books on dominion theology.
Days of Vengeance by David Chilton is an interesting book but I am not argumentative on a pre or post millennial.
I just say it will all pan out, in God’s time.
Poor ole preterists. The don’t have a prayer of a chance. (Giggle. Chortle. Guffaw, guffaw, guffaw . . . )
I don’t pretend to know exactly all that’s going to happen
at the end of the age. I fear God & trust Christ to save me
from the wrath to come. I know I have no control over what
transpires. - This mortal coil has been terrible AND also
wonderful. I would not have missed it & I’m looking for the
return of Yeshua HaMaschiach (Jesus Christ) & praying to be
ready for His return. (If I have to ride a white horse in
His army, I’m not much of an equestrian or warrior; but
maybe He will empower me to be able to serve.) If He does
all the fighting Himself; I guess that takes care of that
concern.
For anyone pushing back against this list, consider the source of the phrase “New Heavens and New Earth”. It comes from Isaiah 65-66. Below is a section of Isaiah 66 that describes the second coming and the conditions of the “New Heavens and New Earth”:
Isa 66:18 “For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory,
Isa 66:19 and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations.
Isa 66:20 And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the LORD, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the LORD.
Isa 66:21 And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the LORD.
Isa 66:22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your offspring and your name remain.
Two questions: 1) Why are there people in the New Heaven and New Earth who weren’t aware of the second coming? 2) Why are there people who have to have the second coming explained to them by missionaries, which flatly requires that there are still unbelievers running around?
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The flood purged, purified and cleansed the surface of the planet.
No reason this fire, if literal, won’t purge, purify and clean the surface of the planet.
Isa. 65-66 are to considered as a continuation of a reality not realized because of the failure of Israel to heed her prophets following her restoration from captivity. The descriptions pointed to the universal changes IF Israel had fulfilled her divine mission. A spiritual renewal throughout earth could have been effected to embrace the birth of our Savior. This did not happen. To try to apply these verses to a future New Heaven and Earth results in severe dilemmas as you have noted. A person could try to twist a metaphorical sense out of it otherwise but I cannot. Isaiah ends on this sad lamentation of what could have been.
Peace be to you.
Yes. It means evil will be utterly destroyed.
Does this sound like a God who promised not to destroy the earth (Genesis 9:11)?
Yes it does. He promised not to destroy earth by a flood. In other words not by a global deluge. Make no mistake, this earth and its atmosphere will be burned up but not the righteous. By leaving out a key part of His promise, the question is unfair to God.
What a strangely bi-polar point of view. Are you saying that if Israel had heeded Isaiah’s prophecy that Christ would have arrived to an idealistic world, sort of like the Postmillennialists propose? And, what do you make of Paul applying Isaiah 65 directly to his ministry?
Isa 65:1 I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that was not called by my name.
Isa 65:2 I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices;
Isa 65:3 a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and making offerings on bricks;
Isa 65:4 who sit in tombs, and spend the night in secret places; who eat pig’s flesh, and broth of tainted meat is in their vessels;
Isa 65:5 who say, “Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.” These are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.
Isa 65:6 Behold, it is written before me: “I will not keep silent, but I will repay; I will indeed repay into their lap
With God all things are possible. Do not doubt His power. Just the shortcomings of man. If the world had been evangelized with all nations alerted that the Promised One was coming, then these things would have happened. If you doubt it take it up with Him.
And, what do you make of Paul applying Isaiah 65 directly to his ministry?
That Paul applies Isa. 65:1 to the Gentiles. Remember that the Jews thought the Gentiles had no way to redemption. Paul points to this verse to differ with them.
Preterstism twists scripture.
2 Peter 3:10
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.
There it is in black and white. It is very clear the earth will be destroyed. That settles it for me regardless what some disbelievers say.
“With God all things are possible. Do not doubt His power. Just the shortcomings of man. If the world had been evangelized with all nations alerted that the Promised One was coming, then these things would have happened. If you doubt it take it up with Him.”
Did you just make this up? I’m not aware of any theologian who has ever postulated anything like this.
I think you should think about the reality that the Apostles, in scripture, apply the fulfillment of these eschatological scriptures to their generation. There are more than 360 direct and indirect times statements in the New Testament that assert the second coming was going to happen in the lifetimes of the New Testament generation. Were Jesus and the Apostles wrong?
I guess that is my fault somehow.
statements in the New Testament that assert the second coming was going to happen in the lifetimes of the New Testament generation.
Those prophecies applied to more than one event. Also do not be confused by the Apostles exhortations to be "prepared" for the Second Coming. Every generation is to be prepared and waiting, for no man (including the Apostles) knows the day or hour. Being prepared was(is) still good counsel.
Were Jesus and the Apostles wrong?
Jesus was never wrong. The Apostles had a learning curve (which greatly accelerated after His Ascension).
Peace be unto you.
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