Monday, January 4, 2010
Not Willing That Any Should Perish
(II Peter 3:8-9)
God will, in a literal manner, fulfill every detail of Bible prophecy. Jesus assured us that not “one jot or one tittle” (the smallest diacritical markings of the Hebrew language) “shall…pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (Mt. 5:18). The issue is never God’s faithfulness to His Word; the issue—for us—is one of timing. Each successive generation of earnest Christians hopes to be the terminal generation—the one that sees the coming of Christ.
Some genuine believers, in their zeal for Christ’s return, have engaged in the folly of setting dates. Usually explained through complex mathematical formulas relating to Scripture and the calendar, these dates have all come and gone with not so much as a whimper from heaven. And we should expect it to be so. The time of Christ’s return is a perennial secret, known only to God Himself (Mt. 24:44).
Peter gives us a hint as to our timing problem: We fail to count time as does the Lord. In fact, time is not an issue to Him. From the Lord’s eternal perspective, a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is as a day (8). Some have used this verse as a secret “key” to unlocking the timing of Bible prophecy. Far from explaining the specifics of God’s prophetic plan, verse 8 actually emphasizes the impossibility of man’s predicting Christ’s return. We simply don’t see things as God does; so our guesswork is always faulty.
The Lord, however, is not unnecessarily delaying His return to tantalize and frustrate believers. His tarrying is a feature of grace, because the Lord desires that all have time—before He returns—to place their faith in Him (9).
