2 Peter 3 “Dear
friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them
as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. 2 I want
you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the
command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
3 Above all, you
must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and
following their own evil desires. 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.” 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. 6 By these waters also
the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 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.
8 But do not forget
this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and
a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping
his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with
you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10 But the day of
the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a
roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and
everything done in it will be laid bare
11 Since everything
will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought
to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day
of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of
the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But
in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new
earth, where righteousness dwells.
14 So then, dear
friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found
spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that
our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul
also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the
same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters
contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and
unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to
their own destruction.
17 Therefore, dear
friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may
not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your
secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever!
Amen." (2 Pet. 3:1-18 NIV).
ELEMENTARY
Now, it’s the job of the preacher to don his deerstalker as it were, grab his pipe and magnifying glass, and study the passage of Scripture he intends to preach on. One of the things the preacher does is interpret the text, noting context, whether historical, literary, and immediate. He also studies the meaning of words in the text among other things.
After all of that is done, then comes the structuring of the sermon for presentation to the congregation. This can be an uncomplicated commentary of the text verse by verse, or it can be preaching the substance or heart of a section of Scripture. And then there are topical sermons where things can be explained using what the whole rest of the Bible says about that subject.
General gist: Will you and your life’s work pass the final exam on Judgment Day?
1.
Elementary School - Learning Your ABCs
It looks like Sherlock is going to need a telescope more than a magnifying glass! We’re looking at the heavens disappearing, and the elements being destroyed and melted by fire. That word “elements” in verses 10 and 12 of 2 Peter 3 is translated as “heavenly bodies” in the English Standard Version (ESV). Elements or heavenly bodies, take your pick.
So, Sherlock looks at the night sky through his telescope. He sees the moon, the stars and maybe a planet or two. Then he picks up his magnifying glass to study the word elements. He looks up the original Greek word that Peter is using here, Stoichea, (στοιχεῖα) and he finds it means things like, “elements (of learning), fundamental principles, even letters of the alphabet, ABCs, something orderly in arrangement, and by implication, fundamental, initial, elementary, rudimentary, from steicho, to arrange in a regular line, to march in military rank, keep step, i.e., figuratively to conform to virtue and piety – to walk orderly.”
What?
Sherlock puts down his magnifying glass and says to himself, “By deductive
reasoning, I see that Peter wants Christians to walk in an orderly fashion, like
an army marching in step with Jesus, yes, like the stars on their courses!
That’s what he means by elements here.”
Peter wants his “audience” to behave in a certain way. Verse 11, “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, [i.e., by fire] what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.” Therefore, Peter wants his listeners “to march in step, i.e., walk in an orderly manner, be like the stars on their courses.”
“But wait!” says Sherlock. “What about immediate context? The word ‘elements’ as it’s used here is in relation to ‘the heavens’ and ‘the earth’ and ‘a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.’”
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| First primary school & church author attended |
Elementary school is primary school. It’s the first part of a child’s education. It’s where children learn their ABCs, and are taught how to get their thinking straight, how to get all their ducks in a row, or in our case, how to get their planets to align! Then comes secondary school where your elementary or primary school teaching is further developed.
2.
Secondary School - Studying Your ABCs
Now, Sherlock lights up his pipe. He puffs and he ponders.
I remember attending secondary school in Scotland fifty odd years ago and learning something called The Periodic Table of Elements which gives you all the chemical symbols, you know, H for Hydrogen, Li for Lithium and so forth. Now then, if you were Sherlock, would you deduce that when Peter wrote that word “elements” twice that he had the Periodic Table of Elements in mind? Do you think Peter had nuclear fusion and fission in mind? Nowadays, stoichiometry is the study of chemical reactions.
Peter is saying that “the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.” The ESV says, “the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.” How is any of this different to what Peter was talking about in his previous letter, in 1 Peter 1:6-7 where he says, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ”?
In
elementary or primary school in Scotland we had to sit our qualifying-exam, the
“quali”, to see whether we would be held back or qualify to progress onto
secondary school. We had to go through a baptism of fire, i.e., sit that
dreaded test, the “quali”. We were “tested by fire” as it were.
John the Baptizer said, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt. 3:11-12). Wheat and chaff, Heaven and Hell.
So where is Peter getting his ideas from? “Aha!” exclaims Sherlock. Peter has Scripture in mind, just as he did when he used apocalyptic figurative language to describe what happened when the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the nations, you know, baptized with the Holy Spirit and tongues of fire at Pentecost (Acts 2).
Perhaps Peter when he wrote 2 Peter 3 may have had Isaiah 34:4 in mind, “All the stars in the sky will be dissolved and the heavens rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.” Is this type of language figurative or the reality? You wouldn’t want to see the stary night sky fall and hit the earth! Let’s investigate further.
Peter says, “The day of the Lord will come like a thief” (2 Pet. 3:10). Paul says something similar in 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3, “For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” We now have something far better than Holmes and Watson, now we’ve got Peter and Paul on the case.
Up ahead in verse 16 Peter says that “[Paul] writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.”
Notice that Peter says Paul is speaking of “these matters.” What matters? As Paul himself says, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames” (1 Cor. 3:11-15).
Now, I put it to you that Peter and Paul are
speaking of the same matters. In some Bibles, in 2 Peter 3:10, instead of “the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare” as
in the NIV, it says, “both the earth and the
works in it will be burned up” as in the NKJV. It’s what they call a textual
variant.
Paul uses the exact same word where he says, “If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss…” (1 Cor. 3:15). He is, of course, speaking metaphorically, figuratively not literally. In short, he’s saying, make sure the things you do in life are built upon the Jesus of the Bible, because it’s all going to be laid bare, exposed – tested by fire.
Both Peter and Paul speak of “the Day”. Paul says, “the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire”, and Peter says, “the day of the Lord will come like a thief” and “You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.” What Day are they talking about? Yes, the Day is Judgment Day! “The present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Pet. 3:6b).
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| Tron Church, Glasgow |
Gone are grand majestic structures built to the glory of God. Now it’s “Little boxes, little boxes, all made out of ticky-tacky”, because that’s all you need when it’s all going to be consigned to the flames and totally disappear. But is it?
Are we looking at actual nuclear fission and fusion or are we looking at events being described by highly figuratively language, yes, symbolism. Peter here, like Paul elsewhere, is not easy to understand. That’s why we, as it were, have got Sherlock on the case! So, let’s delve deeper and then look at our findings.
3. Tertiary School - Applying Your ABCs
As you know, tertiary means third. Primary, secondary, and then if you will “thirdary”. This is where we really need to put on our “thinking caps” as my primary school teacher used to say.
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| Author's other primary school |
But let us don our deerstalkers. A deerstalker, if you don’t know, is a cap with two peaks. One at the front for stalking deer in front of you and one at the back to stalk deer behind you!
Tertiary studies are the kind of thing you do at university or technical college, where you deal with theory and practice (“theory and prac”). There’s little point in having a good head knowledge of something if you’re not going to put it into practice. As Christians we’ve to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. Application of our Christian knowledge in our lives is the key thing.
Sometimes Sherlock and Watson wear double-breasted coats or jackets. There’s an overlapping going on. With this overlapping in mind, consider the fact that both Peter and Paul are talking about the “Day of the Lord”, which means the “Day of Judgment”, i.e., when Christ returns at the end of the present age at Resurrection Day, the very last day of the last days.
Sometimes Bible scholars have difficulties when trying to figure out whether what we are reading in the Bible is referring to the last days of the Old Testament administration or the last days of the new administration with Jesus in the New Testament, ie, the time in which we live. Is it God’s judgment on Jerusalem or is it Judgment Day. Try reading Matthew 24!
For example, the heavyweight Puritan theologian John Owen thinks what we’re looking at was referring to the last days of the old covenant with Israel with the seven years of the fiery tribulation beginning AD 63 and ending with the total destruction of Jerusalem climaxing with the demolition of the Temple in AD70.
Now, Peter agrees with Paul when Paul uses the word elements (steicho) to mean elementary in Galatians 4:3-9 (ESV), “In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
This was the Old Testament Church coming of age, leaving elementary or primary school to now attend secondary school and even moving onto tertiary studies!
Paul uses the same word in Colossians 2:8 and 2:20. So, both Paul and Peter are using the word elements to mean elementary as in basic, fundamental, rudimentary. It’s the same with the writer to the Hebrews, “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!” (Heb. 5:12).
The double-breasted jacket. If you read through the Book of Acts, for example, you’ll see that there is an overlapping of the Old Testament with the New Testament, a transitioning from the one to the other.
Therefore, we can look at the destruction of Jerusalem as a trial run if you will, typological, a practice run for what will happen when Jesus returns this time, not by His Spirit as on the Day of Pentecost, but physically to judge the living and the dead.
Think of the deerstalker hat with its twin peaks, the front peak is for what’s ahead – new heavens and earth, and the rear peak is for what is behind, the end of the old covenant with the destruction of the temple in AD70.
So, like Sherlock’s deerstalker, there is a peak
behind and a peak ahead. And like his double-breasted coat, there is an
overlapping. Jesus, at His resurrection, was the beginning of the new creation,
the firstfruits. The birth pangs of the old creation began when He rose from
the dead.
As Paul says, “For the creation waits in eager
expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation
was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one
who subjected it, in hope that the creation
itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the
freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that
the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right
up to the present time” (Rom. 8:19-22).
John Calvin looking at our 2 Peter 3 text says, “Of the elements of the world I shall only say this one thing, that they are to be consumed, only that they may be renovated, their substance still remaining the same, as it may be easily gathered from Romans 8:21, and from other passages.”
Robert Letham says, “Peter uses the same language with reference to the world of Noah’s day, which was destroyed by water. That world was not annihilated. The destruction related to the judgment of God on human sin; the earth remained. The human race and the various nonhuman species were preserved. Peter writes in the language of apocalyptic, with graphic visual imagery relating to the judgment of the wicked. The creation is no more to be eradicated than, at the overthrow of Babylon, did the stars cease to emit their light or was the earth shaken off its axis (Isa. 13:9–13).” Robert Letham, Systematic Theology, p. 590.
So, Sherlock deduces that Peter has a double entendre in mind here, a twin peaked deerstalker, a double-breasted jacket. Peter, as it were, is killing two birds with one stone where he uses the word “elements”. He means that the elementary things of this world, which includes the heavenly bodies, will undergo a change.
Just as the rudimentary ABCs of Old Testament times were developed into the sentences, paragraphs, and chapters of our own New Testament times, as it were, so, when the Lord returns physically to dwell with us here on Earth, the last Word of God’s good news story will have been written. What is that last word, or rather Who is that last word? “Jesus our righteousness.”
So, the conclusion is that on the Day of the Lord, this old Earth is going to be renewed by fire, yes, just like those places in the Australian bush where the fire goes through, burning off the dead stuff so that it can bloom anew!
The basic elements from which everything in the natural world is made is going to undergo a radical change. The curse will be lifted from Creation. Like you and me on Resurrection Day, getting our renewed bodies, the Creation itself will be changed in the twinkling of an eye to accommodate us.
The corruptible will have put on incorruption, the perishable the imperishable, and the earth will become the place “where righteousness dwells.”
Conclusion
Don’t be one of those Christians who think that since the heavens and the earth and the works that are done in it are going to burn up, then why bother with it? Rather be with Peter who asks and answers his own question where he says, “what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God.”
For, as Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). Therefore, both you and creation, your inheritance, are awaiting full consummation.
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| Image from Internet |
The building in which the creator of Sherlock Holmes was born in 1859 in Edinburgh was demolished in 1970. The only thing remaining is, not a statue of Conan Doyle, but of Sherlock Holmes – the thing that he is known for.
When
your life’s work is “laid bare”, what will be the thing that you are known for?
I pray that the thing that remains is Jesus Christ, because all your works are
being done in, through and for Him. To Him be all the glory, honour and praise.
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