Saturday, January 2, 2009
Latter Day Scoffers
(II Peter 3:1-4)
Peter’s purpose in writing his second epistle was to “stir up” his readers by reminding them of the words of the Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles (1, 2). His first reminder concerns the attitude toward Christ’s return that will be the prevailing opinion in the “last days” (3). Succinctly, Peter promises that belief in Christ’s return will eventually give way to scoffing—unbelieving derision regarding the reliability of Christ’s words.
Until the historic period known as the Enlightenment (1700’s), theologians generally accepted the Bible as the inspired revelation of God. In creeds and affirmations they proclaimed the Scriptures “infallible” in both apographs (existing texts) and autographs (inspired originals). Though differing over matters of interpretation, theologians did not question the veracity of the Bible. Eventually, however, all of that changed.
By the middle 1800’s, unbelieving theologians expressed doubts concerning the truth of Scripture and the purity of its manuscript stream. By the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, some boldly and publicly denied the fundamental truths of Christianity—proposing a new, hybrid belief system that would amalgamate the ethics of Jesus with newly accepted scientific “truth.” The new system adopted several names, all of which fit the category of theological liberalism.
The relative popularity afforded the scoffers actually served to fulfill Scripture, rather than to deny it. You see, Peter stated that the “last days” would see an exponential increase in doubt and denial of Christ’s words. And so it is today. That’s too bad for the doubters; but it’s great news for believers: Jesus is coming soon!
