God’s plan for the world: (chap.3)
Apostle Peter gives a beautiful and meaningful clarification of the imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was intense persecution during Peter’s days, scoffers were creating controversy that the Lord will not come, what happened to His coming just as we see in the Christendom today. But Peter was fervent in his letters and challenges the believers to live in holy while looking forward to the day of the Lord.
It is important for Christians to understand God’s truth! Today we are surrounded by scoffers, who refuse to take the Bible seriously when it speaks about Christ’s return and the certainty of judgment. Peter is writing to us that our minds may be stirred up and God’s Word would continue to be a reminder. It is possible that we may be carried away without giving much attention and fall down without knowing even just as Eutycus went to sleep listening God’s word during Paul’s sermon. Peter is giving equal importance and authority to both OT prophets and NT prophets.
Peter speaks of 3-important facts about God and the promise of Christ’s coming.
The Word of the Lord: (3:1-7)
God’s Word is true and we must pay attention to it and take its message seriously. The doctrines must be taught to every generation. The doctrine of Second Coming of Christ must not be underestimated. The Second coming must arouse our minds to lead godly lives and win the lost souls. Many scoffers scoff at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ asking “where is the promise of His coming”? Infact the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ was prophesied even by OT prophets viz, Isaiah (2:10-22), Jeremiah (30:7), Daniel (12:1), Joel, Amos, Zephaniah, Zechariah etc. and in the New Testament in Mathew (24-25), Paul in (1 Thes.5, 2 Thes.1-2) and John in Revelation (6-19). The day of the Lord is that day of Judgement that climaxes with the return of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth.
Prophetic students have put this into three categories: those who believe the church will be raptured (“caught up together,” (1 Thess. 4:13ff) before the Day of the Lord; those who see this event taking place in the middle of the Day of the Lord, so that the church experiences the first half of the Tribulation; and those who believe the church will be raptured when the Lord returns at the Tribulation’s close. There are many good and godly people in each group and the differences of interpretation must not create problems in fellowship or in sharing Christian love.
The scoffers scoffed at the idea of Judgement or the day of the Lord. They scoffed during the days of Noah and we can see them again at Sodom and Gomorrah. The scoffers scoff because they want to continue to live in their sins and in the lust of uncleanness (2 Pet.2:10). Further they take the support of scientific approach but ignore the substantial evidences which science has proved the Bible. Most of the scientific approaches and laws of science are based on hypothesis. But the Bible cannot be taken for hypothesis or the Bible prophesies to be tested in laboratories. But we can trust God and it is absolutely true that the Lord Jesus Christ will return to the earth on His second coming.
God’s Word can create and even destroy the world. The entire universe and the earth was created by His Word and came into existence (Gen. 1). God’s word has the power to create anything in this world. He created the world out of water and the vegetation and the animals, the fish and all the living beings on this earth except human beings just by His word. But for man He made out of His hands in His own image and put His spirit.
By His Word, God destroyed the earth through the floods in the days of Noah. Except Noah all the human beings were dead. Such is the power of the Lord’s Word. The Flood was a cataclysmic event; in fact, the Greek word translated “overflowed” gives us our English word cataclysm. The people living on earth had probably never seen a rainstorm or the fountains of the deep broken up, but these events happened just the same. “Scientists” could have argued as the scoffers argued, “Everything goes on as it did from the beginning. Life is uniform so nothing unusual can happen.” But it happened! God promised that there would be no more floods to destroy the world (Gen. 9:8-17). The next judgment will be a judgment of fire. And now God’s Word again reminds us that the present heaven and earth are reserved for fire on the day of the Judgement along with the ungodly men.
God’s word can create, sustain or destroy or even recreate anything in the world. God is able to intervene in the course of history. He did it in the past and He is able to do it again. The Day of the Lord that was promised by the prophets and Apostles, as well as by Jesus Christ, will come just as surely as the Flood came in Noah’s day and the fire and brimstone came to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.