Sunday, January 3, 2010
Earth, Water, Fire
(II Peter 3:5-7)
In the verses immediately previous to today’s passage, Peter exposes the false assertion that the Lord is indefinitely delaying His return. He especially rebukes the end-times notion that the world will continue on as it has from creation, without any spectacular divine interruption. To combat such foolishness, Peter cites world history. The world was created “by the word of God” (5), but God interrupted the corruption of that age by Noah’s flood (6). Just as God surprised that generation with a worldwide deluge, so He will surprise a future generation with fiery conflagration (7).
There is coming a “day of judgment and perdition” for “ungodly men” (7). When judgment day arrives, the earth—which has been preserved by God—will be destroyed by fire. John the Revelator gives us the exact chronology of these eschatological events. In Revelation 20:11-15 we find a detailed account of the “day of judgment and perdition.” In Revelation 21:1, John states that the old heaven and earth have been replaced by a new heaven and a new earth. Getting a little ahead of ourselves, Peter tells us that this world will end by fire, the elements melting with a fervent heat (II Pet. 3:10, 12).
In other words, it’s all going to burn! The things we preserve so diligently and hoard so greedily will one day melt—simply vanish away. And, that day—yet future—is marked unchangeably on the calendar of God. Though some in our generation question the possibility of God’s intervention, the Bible assures us that He will once again interrupt the ebb and flow of human history!
