2 Peter | Practical Teaching on Coming Conditions

Session 10 | 2 Peter 3:1-7

2 Peter 3:1-2 | A Key Insight Into Peter's Epistles

Verse 1 --
- The fact that Peter mentions his second epistle lets us know that the recipients of the second are the same as the first, namely scattered saints.
- Both the first and second epistles serve for the same purpose: to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. The KJV inserts the word both, but the word is practically required by the relative pronoun which, which is in the plural.
- These words are similar to those of 2 Peter 1:13. The phrase lets us know that 1 and 2 Peter are not new revelation but rather reminder of the old.
Verse 2 --
- What Peter wants to bring to remembrance (v. 1) are very much kingdom related rather than related to the age of grace, for they are from the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles.
  - The apostles served under Jesus as a minister of the circumcision...to confirm the promises made to the fathers (Rom. 15:8).
- Since we presume Peter wrote in perhaps 65AD, why would he be keeping them mindful of that doctrine which (according to most dispensationalists) ceased to be in-effect in the year 33 AD? The choices, it appears, are:
  - The covenant and/or so-called progressive dispensationalists are right: the kingdom of God is spiritual in its current form, and so all kingdom theology is applicable to us today. While this sounds appealing, it requires endless eisegesis (for example, which aspects of the kingdom are already and which are not yet?)
  - **The kingdom offer did not cease to be in effect at Pentecost, nor at the revelation of the mystery with Paul, but was continuing alongside the grace offer. The kingdom offer was always national and the grace offer was always individual. The kingdom offer thus would by necessity cease only when the nation lost its national status and could no longer have a bona-fide reception of the kingdom offer. Thus kingdom theology would have been in effect until 70AD.

2 Peter 3:3-7 | The Kingdom is Coming in Spite of Scoffers

Verse 3 --
- The presence of scoffers in the last days who are walking after their own lusts is well-attested in Biblical instruction about the coming kingdom. P
  - aul had taught the same thing in 1 Timothy 4:1-2 and 2 Timothy 3:1-2.
  - Jesus had taught this in Matthew 24:5.
  - Isaiah noted these scoffers in Isaiah 5:19-23.
  - The book of Proverbs (likely being a book of end-times wisdom) is filled with information about those who **delight in their scorning **(Prov. 1:22, etc.).
Verse 4 --
- The scoffers mock his coming and assume that since it has not yet happened, it will not happen.
- Notice that the connection with his coming goes back to the fathers and even the beginning of the creation.
- “peace on earth" is a New Testament concept.
- The promises of his coming begin as early as Genesis 3:15.
Verse 5 --
- The scoffers will be willingly ignorant.
  - In such a case, education is never the solution, because all education is rejected. Ignorant is what they want to be.
  - In such a case of two competing worldviews, the solution is simply separation of the worldviews or battle between the worldviews.
- The scoffers are ignorant of the fact that as sure as the earth and heavens exist today, the Maker of the kosmos will see to it that judgment will come. This will be explained in vv. 5-7.
- What is described in verses 5-7 are the strongest single textual argument for the Gap theory found in scripture. In the plainest sense they teach the following:
  - There was an old heavens and earth that were consisting of water and existing in water (v. 5). This is the state at which they are found in Genesis 1:2.
Verse 6 - Continued from verse 5: - The world that then was was overflowed with water and thus **perished. **While this could be taken as a reference to the flood, the world κόσμος [kosmos] did not really perish in the flood.
Verse 7 - Continued... - The heavens and the earth, which are now are the same as the heavens and the earth pre-flood, leading to the conclusion of the gap theory. - It is this current cosmos that is reserved unto fire against the day of judgment. - Here Peter speaks of the ultimate eradication of the created order in order to establish the new heavens and new earth.

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