John Claeys
I. INTRODUCTION
In the movie, As Good as It Gets, Jack Nicholson plays Melvin, a crude, obsessive-compulsive author who thinks only of himself. But Melvin becomes enamored of Carol, a waitress played by Helen Hunt. Carol has seen Melvin at his worst but reluctantly agrees to meet him at a posh restaurant for dinner. When she arrives, Carol is obviously ill at ease with the fancy surroundings, and while the other patrons are impeccably attired, Carol wears a simple red dress.
Seeing her, Melvin waves her over to his table. As she approaches, Melvin hits an all-time low when he says, “This restaurant! They make me buy a new outfit, and they let you in wearing a housedress.”
Carol is stunned and hurt. Tempted to walk out, she looks Melvin in the eye and says, “Pay me a compliment, Melvin. I need one—now.”
Melvin responds, “I’ve got a great compliment.” What could he say to make up for the thoughtless comment he just delivered? This deeply flawed man, his own worst enemy, looks at Carol and sincerely and quietly says, “Carol, you make me want to be a better man.”
Wow! There are few compliments better than that one.
As we come to know God more intimately through an openness to His Word, that is exactly the effect on us: We want to become better people. We want to grow in our relationship with Him and with our Savior. We want to progress spiritually, and as we do, we lay up for ourselves great, eternal reward in God’s kingdom.
False teaching, however, can have the opposite effect. That is why Peter so adamantly deals with false teaching in his second epistle.
A. The Message of 2 Peter
The epistle of 2 Peter deals with continuing in the truth in the face of false teaching. In fact, I see the message of 2 Peter as this: Believers must continue to progress spiritually in the face of false teaching. As Peter explains, false teaching denies important truths such as the gospel and the future Christian hope. These truths center around the return of Jesus—truths that are critical for the spiritual progress of believers. Unfortunately, Christians can be led astray by false teaching, which is why Peter warns his Christian audience to be alert to it.
If ever there was a time for Christians to be on the alert to false teaching, it is now! Therefore, 2 Peter is definitely a relevant book for our time.
B. 2 Peter 3
The passage we are focusing on is 2 Pet 3:10-13. It follows an extended warning against false teachers with their damaging heresies and destructive lifestyles.
As chapter 3 begins, Peter connects the morality of the scoffers with their rejection of the return of Christ. He states that these false teachers live according to their lusts while denying the return of Jesus. It may be that they live that way because they do not believe Jesus will soon return. This is similar to Jesus’ description of the evil servant in Luke 12:45:
“But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk…”
Both the false teachers of Peter’s epistle and the unfaithful servant of Luke 12:45 seem motivated to live according to their lusts because they do not believe Jesus will return soon.
In vv 5-7 of chapter 3, Peter responds to the scoffers’ attack by announcing that these mockers shut their eyes to the facts of Scripture (and to the evidence of nature). By His word, God formed the waters above and below the firmament (cf. Gen. 1:7), which He used to destroy the world by a flood. And the heavens and earth, which are preserved by God’s word, will face a certain judgment by fire. Peter’s stress on the power of God’s Word to control and to judge serves as a strong proclamation to the scoffers: His powerful word will be fulfilled, and it will judge those who resist it.
Peter then gives this reminder in v 9:
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
God’s promises are sure; He will fulfill His word.
Immediately before our passage in 3:10-13, Peter has revealed why the Lord has delayed the return of Jesus: He longs for all to come to repentance.
GES advocates will understand that repentance refers to leaving a sinful lifestyle to enter into fellowship with God. It is not a condition for receiving eternal life. Instead, it is a call for believers and unbelievers alike to enter into fellowship with God.1 Therefore, God has allowed much time for people to enter into harmony with Him.
II. GOD WILL BRING ABSOLUTE JUDGMENT (2 PETER 3:10)
A. Judgment Will Come Suddenly
However, there is coming a time when God will end this extended period of mercy and grace and will enact judgment upon the world, as Peter expresses in 3:10:
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned down.
While those who are not open to the truth mock God’s coming judgment, it is, nevertheless, true that the Day of the Lord will come. In fact, when Peter wrote v 10, he placed will come (hēxei) at the beginning of his Greek sentence, giving it full emphasis. While the scoffers say that the Day of the Lord will not come, Peter says it absolutely will come!
The Day of the Lord refers to God’s future judgment upon the earth. OT passages that describe it as bringing devastating consequences include: Isa 2:12-21; 13:6-13; Jer 46:7-10; Ezek 13:5; Joel 1:15-18; 2:1-11, 30-32; Obad 15-17; Zeph 1:14-16; Zech 14:1-9; Mal 4:4-6.
B. Judgment Comes with the Day of the Lord
The Day of the Lord is connected with the return of Jesus. Peter indicates this by referring to the coming of Jesus in v 4 of this chapter, a mention leading into Peter’s defense in vv 5-10. More specifically, the Day of the Lord begins when Jesus comes in the air for believers (the Rapture of the church). It continues through His return to the earth and goes on to the destruction of the world one thousand years after His return. I will discuss this later.
While false teachers have claimed that “all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Pet 3:4), Peter warns that “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.” The misunderstanding of the false teachers is akin to what Jesus prophesied in Matt 24:37-39:
But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
The Day of the Lord will come upon an unsuspecting world as a thief in the night. Paul taught this same concept to the believers at Thessalonica:
For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night (1 Thess 5:2).
This thinking is supported by our Lord’s teaching seen in Matt 24:43:
But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into (emphasis added).
While Paul and Peter were warning of the impending Day of the Lord, Jesus was forewarning that both the Rapture of the church and the cataclysmic Day of the Lord would come as a thief.2 This is evident when we make two observations.
The first is that the passage in which Jesus makes this revelation, Matt 24:37-39, is formed by an inclusio, a literary device that brackets a passage by using the same words or concepts at the beginning and the end, forming a unit.3 The bracketing in Matt 24:37-39 is formed with the phrase, “so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (We should note that the term Son of Man, stems from Dan 7:13-14, and refers to Jesus’ receiving His kingdom. Thus, the phrase, the coming of the Son of Man, speaks of Jesus’ returning to the earth to establish God’s kingdom.)
The second observation is that Jesus connects His return to two events: 1) Noah’s entering the ark; and 2) God’s global judgment, the cataclysmic Flood.
Noah and his family entering the ark has often been seen as a picture of the Rapture of the church. If we expand this passage in Matthew 24 a bit, we could more easily understand this:
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.…the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect [emphases added] (Matt 24:36-39, 44).
The emboldened portion shows our original passage, which forms an inclusio (along with the underlined brackets of the inclusio). Notice, however, that the larger passage also forms an inclusio, not with repeated words, but with a repeated concept. The phrase, but of that day and hour no one knows, is equivalent to the phrase, at an hour you do not expect.
What is the event that occurs at a day or hour no one can predict? It is the coming of the Son of Man. This coming begins with the Rapture of the church. But this coming is linked not only with Noah and his family entering the ark, picturing the Rapture, but also with God’s global judgment of the world, picturing the coming Tribulation, the seventieth week of Daniel.4
While many dispensationalists believe there is a time gap between the Rapture of the church and the seven-year Tribulation, notice that Jesus links the two with one day—that day—and even a specific hour—that…hour. That means that both events described above—the Rapture of the church and the onset of the Tribulation—will occur on the same day and even within the same hour.
Furthermore, by going back to the description in Genesis 7 of Noah and his family entering the ark, here is what we see:
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.…On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark [emphasis added] (Gen 7:11, 13).
Notice that the description of the beginning of the Flood cites a specific day: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day… (emphasis added)”. Then note the day in which Noah and his family entered the ark: “On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark (emphasis added).” On the very same day that the Flood came upon the world, Noah and his family entered the ark to be delivered from God’s global judgment. The Flood began the very day they entered the ark.
I believe that at the very moment the seven-year treaty that initiates Daniel’s seventieth week is confirmed, the Rapture will occur, catching many off guard like a thief in the night. Thus, as Jesus revealed, the Rapture of the church and the initiation of the Tribulation will occur on the very same day––in fact, in the very same hour!
C. Judgment Concludes Following the Great White Throne Judgment
Peter prophesied that
…the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great, rushing noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned down.
We dispensationalists typically think of the day of the Lord as a time frame of seven years called “the Tribulation” or “the seventieth week of Daniel.” However, Peter broadens the day of the Lord to include seven years plus one thousand years (the millennial kingdom). In fact, the culmination of God’s judgment upon the current universe follows the Great White Throne Judgment.
If we think of the Day of the Lord as God’s eschatological judgment upon the world, then Peter’s presentation makes sense. While it is true that God will pour out judgment upon the world during the seven-year Tribulation, His ultimate judgment upon the world will come when, following the Great White Throne Judgment, He destroys not just the earth, but the entire universe.
This timing makes sense when we understand that this concluding judgment is necessary to remove sin from the universe. This final judgment will occur following the fulfillment of the millennial kingdom. While the earth will be transformed during the millennium, sin will still exist in the millennial kingdom. Revelation 20:7-10 clearly states as much; it describes the rebellion of Gog and Magog––the final rebellion of mankind––that takes place at the end of the millennial kingdom, prior to the Great White Throne Judgment described in Rev 20:11-15.
At the Great White Throne, Jesus will judge every unbeliever from the history of mankind. While Revelation does not specifically mention sin in connection with this judgment, these unbelievers will die in their sins (cf. John 8:24).5 Sin in the human condition will end with the dispositioning of these unbelievers to the lake of fire. However, there will still be the need to deal with sin’s effects and consequences in the Creation, as Rom 8:20-22 points out. Therefore, following the judgment of sinful unbelievers, the Lord will dispose of all sin in all of Creation by destroying the present universe.6
D. Judgment Will Be Complete
Peter heightens the drama of God’s final judgment by describing the way it unfolds. First, he discloses that both the earth and the heavens “will pass away”; their elements will be “burned down.” Many dispensationalists believe that this judgment simply describes a restoration of the old earth and universe.7 However, in my book, Unveiling Eternity, I argue that the restoration of the earth refers to the changes on the planet that God will affect during the millennial kingdom.
However, in 2 Pet 3:10, Peter is describing how God will completely destroy the present universe and create a new one.8 The terms “will pass away” (Greek, pareleusontai) and “burned down” (katakaēsetai) lend evidence to this latter thought. BDAG gives the meaning of the Greek word translated “will pass away,” as “come to an end, disappear.”9 Regarding the Greek term translated “burned down,” BDAG defines it as “consumed by fire.”10
Peter reveals that the current, sin-corrupted universe will be destroyed with a great, rushing noise. Joseph B. Mayor points out that the underlying Greek word, roizēdon, “is especially used of the noise caused by a devouring flame.11 This clearly fits the context in which “the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat.”
BDAG defines roizēdon in this way: “with a roar, with great suddenness.”12 This word conveys two aspects of the destruction: intense noise and abruptness, in keeping with the “thief in the night” metaphor. This indicates that both the beginning and ending of the Day of the Lord are characterized by suddenness.
In his commentary on 2 Peter, Zane Hodges discussed theories of eminent physicists such as Stephen Hawking and Brian Greene who surmised that, as a result of the rapid expansion of primordial material from the Big Bang, there could “come a time when the expansion slows to a halt and then reverses itself, leading to a cosmic implosion.”13 Hodges believed that “the word roizēdon would then be a perfect word to express the sound of the rapid ‘intake’ of this powerful divine energy.”14 Physicist Brian Greene describes his understanding of this phenomenal “implosion” in this way:
Like the contents of a pressure cooker, as the shrinking universe compresses the galaxies together, the temperature dramatically increases, stars disintegrate and a hot plasma of matter’s elementary constituents is formed. As the fabric continues to shrink, the temperature rises unabated, as does the density of the primordial plasma.15
Of course, God does not need a shrinking universe to accomplish this. Just as He spoke the universe into existence by His powerful word, He will speak into destruction the current universe, burning it down with incredible sound and fury! Included in that annihilation will be all its elements, including those affected by sin. At the same time, the Lord will speak into being a new universe.
III. THEREFORE, LIVE IN LIGHT OF THE NEW WORLD (2 PETER 3:11-13)
Since the present universe is transitory, the wise and perceptive Christian should not focus on the present “elements”––which include all that this world has to offer––but on the coming new and eternal universe.
A. Live with Holy Conduct and Godliness
Based on the revelation of the complete destruction of the present world, Peter provides us with this essential exhortation in vv 11-13:
Therefore, since all these things will be destroyed, what manner should you be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening [being zealous of] the coming of the day of God, because of [for the sake of which] the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Yet, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness makes its home.
Because “all these things will be destroyed,” our life’s investment should be focused on the future. As Jesus instructed in Matt 6:19-20:
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
Peter urges us to lay up for our future through “holy conduct and godliness.” In other words, our earthly conduct should match the environment of our eternal home.
B. Look for, and Be Zealous of, the Day of God
Holy and godly conduct is easier to maintain when we are “looking for and being zealous of the coming of the day of God.”
While translations, such as the NKJV, read: “looking for and hastening the coming day of God [emphasis added]”, hastening does not seem to fit the idea or the context.16 It is difficult to see how we can “hasten the coming day of God” by our conduct.
BDAG offers a helpful alternative to that translation, providing a secondary definition of the Greek word speudo: “be zealous, exert oneself, be industrious.”17 Hodges translated the word as “eagerly awaiting.”18 Therefore, we should not only be looking for the coming of the day of God but should be eagerly awaiting it; we should even be “zealous” for it. As we approach the day of God in that way, it will naturally shape our conduct to match where our heart is. As Jesus revealed, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:21).
Earlier, Peter referred to the “Day of the Lord,” which refers to God’s pouring out His judgment upon a sinful world. The day of God, however, cannot be synonymous with that, for Scripture does not encourage us to be zealous for God’s judgment upon the world, nor would placing our affections on that period necessarily formulate holy conduct and godliness. Instead, I agree with Hodges that the day of God refers to the time when God becomes all in all.19
There is another strong clue indicating that this meaning is correct. In the Greek text of this passage, v 12 begins with the participle prosdokōntas, which, in its verb form, means “wait for, look for, expect in hope.”20 The verb form of this word (prosdokoō) appears in the very next verse (v 13), in which we are exhorted to look for “new heavens and a new earth.” Therefore, we are to look for (in expectation of) the day of God (v 12); Peter then reiterates this by urging us to look for new heavens and a new earth. Thus, the day of God is synonymous with the new heavens and a new earth.21
As the apostle Paul pointed out, after Jesus returns to the earth, “He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet” (1 Cor 15:25). Following His millennial reign, “then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power” (1 Cor 15:24). That is the day of God.22
It is for the sake of the day of God that “the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat.”23 The Greek text uses a preposition (dia) that can be translated on account of, because of, or for the sake of.24 It is because of (“for the sake of”) the coming day of God––which brings in new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells––that the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. The old must be destroyed so that the new, eternal age can be born.
IV. CONCLUSION
Therefore,
…we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness makes its home (2 Pet 3:13).
For the first time since the fall of Adam and Eve, the (new) universe will contain no vestige of sin. At that time,
God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away (Rev 21:4).
This quality of righteousness should be our focus; we should make our time in this present world an investment in our real home, the new heavens and new earth. We should make that investment by taking on the very characteristics of righteousness that will imbue our true, and eternal, home.
1 For an excellent discussion on repentance, see Zane Hodges, Absolutely Free! (Dallas, TX: Redención Viva, 1989), 143-63.
2 See Zane C. Hodges, Jesus: God’s Prophet (Mesquite, TX: Kerugma, Inc., 2006), 24-32.
3 While Matt 24:36-44 also provides an inclusio, forming a larger unit, we will focus on this smaller unit, which will demonstrate our point.
4 Of “the arrival of the Day of the Lord” in connection to “the coming of a thief in the night” in 2 Pet 3:10, Zane Hodges observed: “This concept can be traced back directly to our Lord’s own eschatological teaching in the Olivet Discourse (Matt 24:36-44). When we compare the present verse [3:10] with v 4 (‘the promise of His coming’) and with v 9 (‘His promise’), it is clear that the promised coming is synonymous with the Day of the Lord, since the latter fulfills the former. This is also evident in Matt 24:36-38 where the terminology ‘that day and hour’ is immediately defined as ‘the coming of the Son of Man’” (Second Peter: Shunning Error in Light of the Savior’s Return [Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2015], 108).
5 Sin is not mentioned in the passage describing the Great White Throne Judgment because the destiny of unbelievers (that is, where they will spend eternity) is not due to their sin, but to their names not being found in the Book of Life.
6 Zane C. Hodges, Romans: Deliverance from Wrath (Corinth, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2013), 228.
7 See Randy Alcorn, Heaven (Carol Stream, IL; Tyndale, 2004), 90-95.
8 John Claeys, Unveiling Eternity: Discover Your Forever Future (NP; 2024), 75-86; see also William R. Newell, The Book of the Revelation (Chicago: Moody Press, 1935), 336; J. Dwight Pentecost, Things to Come: A Study in Biblical Eschatology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing Co., 1980), 561; Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 8–22: An Exegetical Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), 438-41; John F. Walvoord, The Millennial Kingdom (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981), 333; and Hodges, Second Peter, 108-13.
9 Of pareleusontai, BDAG assigns the meaning “pass away, come to an end, disappear” (Walter Bauer; F. William Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich; and Frederick W. Danker, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament [Chicago; The University of Chicago Press, 1979], s.v. parerchomai, 626a).
10 Regarding katakaēsetai, BDAG defines it as “burn down, burn up, consume by fire” (s.v. katakaiō, 411a).
11 Joseph B. Mayor, The Epistles of Jude and II Peter (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1979), 157.
12 BDAG, s.v. roizēdon, 737a. Mayor observes that roizēdon is an onomatopoeia, “expressing the whizzing sound produced by rapid motion through the air, as the flight of a bird or of an arrow, and is then used for the rushing movement itself or the accompanying crash or roar” (The Epistles of Jude and II Peter [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1979], 157).
13 Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe (New York: W. W. Norton, 1999), 234.
14 Hodges, Second Peter, 112.
15 Greene, The Elegant Universe, 82.
16 Zane Hodges agrees with this assessment: “The word hastening is not the best translation. In this context the Greek means eagerly awaiting (cf. Acts 20:16).” (Zane C. Hodges, “The Second Epistle of Peter,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert Wilkin [Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010], 1187).
17 BDAG, s.v. speudō, 762c. J. N. D. Kelly sees that “earnestly desiring,” or something equivalent could feasibly be the meaning in this context, though he prefers “hastening” (A Commentary on the Epistles of Peter and Jude [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1981], 367). Kenneth O. Gangel comments that it is toward “a new heaven and a new earth [which] is what believers are looking forward to (cf. vv. 12, 14), not to the earth’s destruction” (“2 Peter,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament Edition, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy Zuck [Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983], 877).
18 Hodges, “The Second Epistle of Peter,” 1187.
19 Hodges, Second Peter, 118-19.
20 BDAG s.v. prosdakoō, 712c.
21 In other words, we have synonymous parallelism in vv 12 and 13, demonstrated by the same word (prosdokoō).
22 Hodges, Second Peter, 118-19.
23 Kelly chooses the translation “because of” here (A Commentary on the Epistles of Peter and Jude), 352.
24 BDAG s.v. dia, 181a.