The Day of the Lord
Peter has cautioned us regarding false teachers. We noted that some are guilty of being deceivers. Others are deceived and are teaching things that are not true … but they think they are right. Either way, damage gets done. False things are said about who Jesus really is. False things are taught regarding what really needs to be taught concerning coming to Christ for salvation.
And false predictions are being made about the coming of Christ.
Peter says that we need to listen to what the holy prophets had to say about the second coming. So let’s begin at verse 1 of 2nd Peter chapter 3.
3:1 ¶ This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
4 They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation."
The People that Peter is speaking of would be those who do not believe in an actual return of Jesus at all. You don’t usually find such people mingled in conservative churches. We expect to find such teachers in the cults that we consider to be way out in left field. And in those cults, typically, Jesus is not God. So, whether you are being bothered by those who push their way into your homes, bringing you the false gospel (That Jesus is not part of the Trinity) or whether you are listening to a conservative Chrisitan teacher on TV who is not all that far off of the truth, … what Peter has to say here is incredibly valuable to our understanding.
First of all, Peter addresses the apparent delay in the return of Christ. Peter was getting up in age when he wrote this. But let's get this into perspective.
About 50 years have passed since Jesus said good-bye to the disciples, and ascended up into the air. An angel appeared and said that Jesus would be back. And now some people were saying, ‘Well … where is He?’
And what about now? Over 2000 additional years have passed and Jesus still has not returned.
Peter gives some very solid reasoning as to why Jesus had not returned already. As I mentioned in a previous chapter, Peter expected to grow old and die … and not meet the Lord in the rapture. But there were those who expected Jesus to return before the apostle John died.
At the time Peter is writing this, both of those things had not yet happened. Little did Peter know that the things that he was going to say about the second coming would have so much meaning for Christians for centuries to come.
Peter begins by clearing up an obvious exaggeration and ignorant statement.
Everything has remained the same since creation, they said? Peter says, What about the flood? You call that ‘remaining the same’?
Nowadays we fight against the teaching that earth has been here for billions of years … and there was no global flood. And, according to this kind of teaching, there is no God either.
Peter says that these teachers deliberately overlook things.
5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,
We can certainly say that this is true of present day evolutionists. They refuse to look at the possibility of a flood as it is described in scripture, because that would mean that they would have to acknowledge that there actually is a God. If they were to consider what effects a global flood lasting a whole year on this planet would have, they would have no reason at all to believe in a planet that is billions of years old.
Some Christians have swallowed this teaching. Their problem is that they think these teachers are authorities in their field … and sadly, these Christians are not authorities in the Word of God. So they try to ‘weld’ this teaching to the teachings of scripture.
Warning … do not believe the teachings of those who deliberately remove God from the picture. It distorts everything they have to say and renders it to have no credibility at all.
5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,
6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
So, Peter is saying, everything does NOT stay the same. The wickedness in this world could only go on for so long … and then God acted. Millions of people died and went to hell. Millions of ‘innocent’ babies and young children also died … but they went to paradise … Abraham’s bosom it was called, and it was, at that time, in the heart of the earth. Jesus spent three days and three nights there. He then, after having completed the prophecies regarding his death and payment for sin, moved paradise and all of its residents up to heaven, where it is to this day.
God is right on schedule. He will take care of the scoffers of today as well. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
The ‘fire of God’ is going to fall on the wicked. But when? Peter wants us to know the sequence.
8 ¶ But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 ¶ The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
First of all we are asked to realize that God’s time is not like ours. And, secondly, that God is patient.
What about God’s ‘time’? God created time. And God is, and always has been, eternal. Do I understand that? Not a chance. But neither do those who have said to me, “Everything is a constant NOW with God. There is no time … no past, no future, only the present.” Well thank you very much … but that does not explain anything, and besides that, the bible never says that.
Even here in Second Peter, there is no mention of an eternal ‘now’ with God. Peter actually states that God does have time, but that it is a bit different than ours.
‘with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day’.
If this is just Peter’s way of saying that God is not bound by time, I think it would have been stated more clearly. What is very clear is that Peters says, But do not overlook this one fact...
So this is a fact. One day with God is like a thousand of our years. If we consider the implications of that, we can understand that God created this earth just about a week ago … in His time. And that when Jesus left this earth … to Him, He would be back in a couple of days.
But before I go on, I want to go back a bit. Some Christians have taken these words of Peter’s and tried to apply it to the six days of creation. Their thinking is that … One day is like a thousand years could mean that in Genesis, each of those days could have been a thousand years long … but that would not be nearly enough for evolution to have happened … so they take the next leap and say that … Why does one day have to be like a thousand years … maybe one days is more like a billion years. I suppose God, looking ahead, knew that someone would be coming up with that, so He slipped in some very specific language … “The evening and the morning was the first day”.
Another thought in the above scripture could benefit from a comment. not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
So this is the reason for God’s patience. He does not want any to perish. This certainly does not sound like Peter believed John Calvin’s theory, that God pre-selected before the foundation of the world was ever laid … exactly who would go to heaven and who would not. Peter says that God wants ALL to come to repentance. We know that is not going to happen. But right here we are given our ‘go ahead’ to reach as many as we possibly can.
Going on with Peter's mention of days and years … just discard that theory that each day was a billion years or so. Just believe the bible.
But now Peter makes a comment about a ‘day’ that really needs some reconciling with other scriptures about the last days.
Peter says, 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
First, let's look at the phrase, day of the Lord.
We need to ask, are we talking about one single day? Are we talking about a period of time? Are we talking about a change of ownership and authority? I think the answer is ‘Yes’.
The Lord will return to this earth. That will occur on an actual day. He won’t ‘gradually’ become more and more present in the things that go on in the world.
Why would I even say that? Because there are those who teach that this world will get gradually better, until such a time that we could say … We are now in the millennial reign of Christ.
No, there will be an actual day that Jesus descends to this earth, His feet will touc h the mount of Olives … the mountain will tear apart and form a 70 mile long valley in which the battle of Armageddon will take place.
This is the first understanding of the day of the Lord.
And this ‘day’ says Peter, will come as a thief in the night. Paul said this in his letter to the Thessalonians:” While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 1Th 5:3 We, the church, can recognise the ‘labor pains’ of prophecy happening before our very eyes. But the ‘birth’ itself is compared to the coming day of the Lord, when all of those pushing the global reset for peace and safety in the world, will suddenly find themselves helpless before an angry God.
Like a thief, Suddenly. Without any warning. However, this applies to the wicked ones of this world. Jesus told us to watch, so that we will not have our ‘house’ broken into, like what will happen to all of them. If we do not grow in grace, practice what we learn, stay in close fellowship with Jesus, we will go backward to the point that we too will suffer the effects of a ‘break-in’.
Paul plainly tells us that we will not experience Jesus coming as a thief in the night.
“But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.” 1Th 5:4
There is one more aspect to ‘day of the Lord’ that we need to connect with here.
Earlier we talked about Peter’s emphasis for us to understand that one day with the Lord is like a thousand of our years.
So, the day of the lord is one, a specific day when he returns to earth. And two, the Day of the Lord is a change from man’s day to His day. And three, the Day of the Lord is a period of time that is 1000 years long.
During that ‘long’ day, many things are going to happen. The one, main event that Peter focuses on, happens at the end of the day.
But allow me to list some of the things that took place during that day, during that one thousand year day.
Restoration. God did not intend for man to become sinners. He made a perfect earth, and placed man in it to enjoy the works of God’s hands. We can only imagine what that perfect world looked like in Adam’s day. But sin ruined it. When Jesus returns to rule and reign on this earth, as I understand scripture, he will put an end to the ‘curse’ that came on the planet as a result of Adam’s sin. No longer will the earth produce thorns and thistles as resulted from Adam’s fall. No longer will animals kill each other in a method that we have come to call the ‘food chain’.
The restoration process might be instant when it comes to the changing of natural animal instincts. But the appearance of the earth will require a system of cleanup. Certain people will take on the role of ‘human bone identifiers’. In their course of travels, as they come across human remains, they will post ‘markers’. Then a team of ‘buriers’, as they travel the land, as they spot one of the markers, they will remove the remains to a burial plot. This process will take seven months to complete.
The terrain will change. The desert will blossom like a rose.
The lifespan of humans increases. Here is some information we get from the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament., “No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; For the child shall die one hundred years old, But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. Isa 65:20
We are talking about a time when the curse on this earth has been removed. Sickness and death are part of that curse. So why is this verse talking about the death of a child? It isn’t really. The key point to look at is the mentioning twice of a hundred years. A child dies at a hundred years old. A sinner is accursed at a hundred years old.
I do not believe that this verse is speaking about children that are 99 years old. And why curse a 100 year old sinner? After all, wouldn’t that 100 year old sinner be just a kid?
No, here is what we have … we have a situation in the coming millennial reign of Christ that presents a population of people who are NOT living with their glorified eternal bodies. They are physical, normal people who will cohabit for a thousand years. The population by the end of that period is said to be ‘as the sand of the sea’. We, believers, have been raised to meet Christ in the air. We have changed eternal bodies, but we have come back down to this earth to rule and reign with Jesus for the whole thousand years. We will be ruling and reigning with Jesus over the natural humans who are living in that wonderfully restored environment.
But here's the thing, everyone of those natural humans living on the earth after the return of Jesus, will need to receive Christ as their personal Saviour. And if anything, God is just and fair. You and I have had one lifetime in which to trust Christ as our Saviour. Some of our lifetimes go up to a hundred years old, but that certainly is not common. Eighty something is about average.
In the fairness of God, he gives the natural humans living on that restored earth … a maximum of 100 years to trust Christ as saviour. The period of time for a ‘child’ to receive Jesus, is a hundred years. After that time they no longer can be saved. They now are termed, ‘The sinner who, at 100 years old, is accursed’.
From the moment Jesus returns and onward … this will be the Lord’s day. Man is having his day, so to speak, from Adam until now. But when the Lord comes back, from then on, it will be His day. His time.
So not only will the day of the Lord be a specific single day, it will be a change of administration. And it will be a thousand years long.
Revelation 20 gives us a lot of insight regarding this ‘thousand year long’ day of the Lord.
But to ‘lead into it’, it is helpful to look at the last three verses of chapter 19.
19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.
20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
21 And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
It is quite easy to see that the event described in these verses is the one called ‘The Battle of Armageddon’. This takes places as Jesus descends from heaven with his bride … and apparently an army, and he does what we have just read about.
We note that ‘the beast and the false prophet’ are thrown directly into the Lake of fire. Just as a matter of information, no one else is there or has ever been there.
The very next thing that God deals with is to take care of Satan. Instead of taking him and throwing him into the Lake of Fire as well, we read,
1 ¶ Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.
2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
God ‘takes care’ of Satan … but not by throwing him into the Lake of Fire. Instead what we read indicates something temporary. He is bound for a thousand years. This would be the same thousand years that we call the ‘day of the Lord’. Or we call it the Millenial Reign. This is the same thousand years that is called ‘the Restoration’. The curse is removed. And a Garden of Eden type of condition prevails over the earth. Satan will not be there. He will be ‘bound’ and restrained somewhere for a thousand years. Here is where he will be; 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, That is the first part of the verse. It would be so nice to know that this is permanent. But we read in the rest of the verse; until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
I think it is fair to say at this point, that there is a teaching that has grown in popularity that dismisses these verses by saying the thousand years is symbolic and simply represents the eternal age. But that teaching must also dismiss the verses that say Satan will be released at the end of the thousand years. Because it one takes the belief that the thousand years represents eternity, you would have Satan being released at the end of eternity. That would be absurd reasoning, so it is easier to dismiss the verses and say ‘They must mean something, but we are not sure what, so we just won’t go there’.
In this teaching, not only is the thousand year period believed to mean eternity, but it is also believed that heaven will be on this present earth for ever. So let’s go on with what scripture is saying and what Peter is going to add concerning the day of the Lord.
John, the writer of Revelation, said that Satan must be released for a little while at the end of the thousand years. This means that something Peter includes in the day of the Lord had not happened yet. He said, 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 up.
So, according to Peter, Jesus comes as a thief in the night on a specific day. He rules and reigns on the earth for a thousand years. This is His day. And at the end of the day, the earth passes away with a great noise.
At the end of the day … at the end of the thousand years. But let’s read a bit more in revelation to see the details of the ‘end of the day’.
Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison
8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.
Who is Satan deceiving? Remember what I pointed out earlier, for a thousand years, people in their natural bodies will live, marry, have children and fill the earth … for a thousand years. These people will not have the Devil to tempt them, because he will be bound and residing in the bottomless pit for the whole thousand years. I am not sure what this means for all of his demon cohorts. Will they also be powerless?
But, in spite of Satan’s being bound, thousands, millions of those born during that time, will fail to receive Christ as their Saviour, and Satan will be able to gather them to become his own army.
After the thousand years have expired Satan will be released from his prison; 7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison
8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.
9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them,
Peter had said, 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 up.
That sounds huge. In a study of the end times, there is nothing mentioned that even comes close to this. Fire coming down out of heaven, destroying Satan’s army is the only mention of fire so far. But even that, as big as that would be, does not come close to the earth and the works being burned up.
The rule of properly understanding scripture, particularly prophecy, is to take things literally unless it is otherwise stated or clearly implied.
For all of the present day Bible teachers who teach that, after the restoration at Jesus’ return, we will live on this earth forever, it becomes essential that they disregard any biblical references to people in natural physical bodies producing offspring after Jesus’ return to earth. The must exclude any literal understanding of the term, one thousand years, (mentioned six times in Revelation 20). They must totally ignore the release of Satan at the end of the thousand years (because in their minds, eternity has begun when Jesus settles down in Jerusalem).
And they must totally do away with a literal understanding of, 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 up.
John, in Revelation 20, mentions the release of Satan, his amassing of an army, surrounding Jerusalem, fire coming down from heaven and burning them up, then he mentions the final White Throne judgment. As the judgment proceeds, says John, those whose name is not found in the Book of life are cast into the Lake of Fire. John says that hell gave up the dead, some who had been there since the days of Cain, and they were cast into the Lake of Fire. But there will also be those present there whose names ARE in the Book of Life. These would be all of those who received Jesus as Lord and Saviour … after he had already returned to this earth before the millennium.
Then John transitions to another scene entirely. Except for one final thing that I must mention. After the judgement is over, death and hell are cast into the lake of fire.
14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
Taking this literally, we are talking about the fate of this planet. Hell is a place in the center of this earth. For hell to be cast into the lake of fire, the whole planet will have to go with it. It is as though it (the planet) has now served its divine purpose, and God is through with.
The writer of Hebrews alludes to this. And, "You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment,
12 like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end." Hebrews 1:10-12
When we are through with a worn-out garment, it does not get ‘renewed’. It gets thrown out. Replaced.
John caught quite a glimpse of the replacement. He said, 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
21:1 ¶ And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
This present earth passes away. Peter says it will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat;
Jesus is coming soon. The storm clouds are gathering. At the end of the storm, just before the great day of His wrath, He will catch us all up to heaven, for the accounting day, and the celebration supper called ‘the Marriage of the Lamb. Then He will return with us to take care of the last of the unbelievers, and then rule and reign for a thousand years. The day of the LORD. The day of the Lord ends with this earth passing away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat.
So Peter says, 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Does it all seem like a dream, or is this real? We have to get our heart around it and believe it by faith.
So Peter tells these ‘scattered believers’, and us, how we need to think and live in view of all that is going in the world … and all that God has foretold.
14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation,
Most, if not all, of us have loved ones who are not ready to meet Jesus. Why has He not returned already? He is being patient. If He were like us, He would be saying, “I can hardly wait to have my whole family together with me!” His family is still growing. He is waiting … and helping us, to bring in the last few stragglers. We have incredible joy to look forward to.
Next time we will cover the last four verses and then summarize these two letters of the Apostle Peter. I hope you are enjoying God’s word, verse by verse.
And false predictions are being made about the coming of Christ.
Peter says that we need to listen to what the holy prophets had to say about the second coming. So let’s begin at verse 1 of 2nd Peter chapter 3.
3:1 ¶ This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
4 They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation."
The People that Peter is speaking of would be those who do not believe in an actual return of Jesus at all. You don’t usually find such people mingled in conservative churches. We expect to find such teachers in the cults that we consider to be way out in left field. And in those cults, typically, Jesus is not God. So, whether you are being bothered by those who push their way into your homes, bringing you the false gospel (That Jesus is not part of the Trinity) or whether you are listening to a conservative Chrisitan teacher on TV who is not all that far off of the truth, … what Peter has to say here is incredibly valuable to our understanding.
First of all, Peter addresses the apparent delay in the return of Christ. Peter was getting up in age when he wrote this. But let's get this into perspective.
About 50 years have passed since Jesus said good-bye to the disciples, and ascended up into the air. An angel appeared and said that Jesus would be back. And now some people were saying, ‘Well … where is He?’
And what about now? Over 2000 additional years have passed and Jesus still has not returned.
Peter gives some very solid reasoning as to why Jesus had not returned already. As I mentioned in a previous chapter, Peter expected to grow old and die … and not meet the Lord in the rapture. But there were those who expected Jesus to return before the apostle John died.
At the time Peter is writing this, both of those things had not yet happened. Little did Peter know that the things that he was going to say about the second coming would have so much meaning for Christians for centuries to come.
Peter begins by clearing up an obvious exaggeration and ignorant statement.
Everything has remained the same since creation, they said? Peter says, What about the flood? You call that ‘remaining the same’?
Nowadays we fight against the teaching that earth has been here for billions of years … and there was no global flood. And, according to this kind of teaching, there is no God either.
Peter says that these teachers deliberately overlook things.
5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,
We can certainly say that this is true of present day evolutionists. They refuse to look at the possibility of a flood as it is described in scripture, because that would mean that they would have to acknowledge that there actually is a God. If they were to consider what effects a global flood lasting a whole year on this planet would have, they would have no reason at all to believe in a planet that is billions of years old.
Some Christians have swallowed this teaching. Their problem is that they think these teachers are authorities in their field … and sadly, these Christians are not authorities in the Word of God. So they try to ‘weld’ this teaching to the teachings of scripture.
Warning … do not believe the teachings of those who deliberately remove God from the picture. It distorts everything they have to say and renders it to have no credibility at all.
5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God,
6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
So, Peter is saying, everything does NOT stay the same. The wickedness in this world could only go on for so long … and then God acted. Millions of people died and went to hell. Millions of ‘innocent’ babies and young children also died … but they went to paradise … Abraham’s bosom it was called, and it was, at that time, in the heart of the earth. Jesus spent three days and three nights there. He then, after having completed the prophecies regarding his death and payment for sin, moved paradise and all of its residents up to heaven, where it is to this day.
God is right on schedule. He will take care of the scoffers of today as well. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
The ‘fire of God’ is going to fall on the wicked. But when? Peter wants us to know the sequence.
8 ¶ But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 ¶ The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
First of all we are asked to realize that God’s time is not like ours. And, secondly, that God is patient.
What about God’s ‘time’? God created time. And God is, and always has been, eternal. Do I understand that? Not a chance. But neither do those who have said to me, “Everything is a constant NOW with God. There is no time … no past, no future, only the present.” Well thank you very much … but that does not explain anything, and besides that, the bible never says that.
Even here in Second Peter, there is no mention of an eternal ‘now’ with God. Peter actually states that God does have time, but that it is a bit different than ours.
‘with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day’.
If this is just Peter’s way of saying that God is not bound by time, I think it would have been stated more clearly. What is very clear is that Peters says, But do not overlook this one fact...
So this is a fact. One day with God is like a thousand of our years. If we consider the implications of that, we can understand that God created this earth just about a week ago … in His time. And that when Jesus left this earth … to Him, He would be back in a couple of days.
But before I go on, I want to go back a bit. Some Christians have taken these words of Peter’s and tried to apply it to the six days of creation. Their thinking is that … One day is like a thousand years could mean that in Genesis, each of those days could have been a thousand years long … but that would not be nearly enough for evolution to have happened … so they take the next leap and say that … Why does one day have to be like a thousand years … maybe one days is more like a billion years. I suppose God, looking ahead, knew that someone would be coming up with that, so He slipped in some very specific language … “The evening and the morning was the first day”.
Another thought in the above scripture could benefit from a comment. not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
So this is the reason for God’s patience. He does not want any to perish. This certainly does not sound like Peter believed John Calvin’s theory, that God pre-selected before the foundation of the world was ever laid … exactly who would go to heaven and who would not. Peter says that God wants ALL to come to repentance. We know that is not going to happen. But right here we are given our ‘go ahead’ to reach as many as we possibly can.
Going on with Peter's mention of days and years … just discard that theory that each day was a billion years or so. Just believe the bible.
But now Peter makes a comment about a ‘day’ that really needs some reconciling with other scriptures about the last days.
Peter says, 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
First, let's look at the phrase, day of the Lord.
We need to ask, are we talking about one single day? Are we talking about a period of time? Are we talking about a change of ownership and authority? I think the answer is ‘Yes’.
The Lord will return to this earth. That will occur on an actual day. He won’t ‘gradually’ become more and more present in the things that go on in the world.
Why would I even say that? Because there are those who teach that this world will get gradually better, until such a time that we could say … We are now in the millennial reign of Christ.
No, there will be an actual day that Jesus descends to this earth, His feet will touc h the mount of Olives … the mountain will tear apart and form a 70 mile long valley in which the battle of Armageddon will take place.
This is the first understanding of the day of the Lord.
And this ‘day’ says Peter, will come as a thief in the night. Paul said this in his letter to the Thessalonians:” While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. 1Th 5:3 We, the church, can recognise the ‘labor pains’ of prophecy happening before our very eyes. But the ‘birth’ itself is compared to the coming day of the Lord, when all of those pushing the global reset for peace and safety in the world, will suddenly find themselves helpless before an angry God.
Like a thief, Suddenly. Without any warning. However, this applies to the wicked ones of this world. Jesus told us to watch, so that we will not have our ‘house’ broken into, like what will happen to all of them. If we do not grow in grace, practice what we learn, stay in close fellowship with Jesus, we will go backward to the point that we too will suffer the effects of a ‘break-in’.
Paul plainly tells us that we will not experience Jesus coming as a thief in the night.
“But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.” 1Th 5:4
There is one more aspect to ‘day of the Lord’ that we need to connect with here.
Earlier we talked about Peter’s emphasis for us to understand that one day with the Lord is like a thousand of our years.
So, the day of the lord is one, a specific day when he returns to earth. And two, the Day of the Lord is a change from man’s day to His day. And three, the Day of the Lord is a period of time that is 1000 years long.
During that ‘long’ day, many things are going to happen. The one, main event that Peter focuses on, happens at the end of the day.
But allow me to list some of the things that took place during that day, during that one thousand year day.
Restoration. God did not intend for man to become sinners. He made a perfect earth, and placed man in it to enjoy the works of God’s hands. We can only imagine what that perfect world looked like in Adam’s day. But sin ruined it. When Jesus returns to rule and reign on this earth, as I understand scripture, he will put an end to the ‘curse’ that came on the planet as a result of Adam’s sin. No longer will the earth produce thorns and thistles as resulted from Adam’s fall. No longer will animals kill each other in a method that we have come to call the ‘food chain’.
The restoration process might be instant when it comes to the changing of natural animal instincts. But the appearance of the earth will require a system of cleanup. Certain people will take on the role of ‘human bone identifiers’. In their course of travels, as they come across human remains, they will post ‘markers’. Then a team of ‘buriers’, as they travel the land, as they spot one of the markers, they will remove the remains to a burial plot. This process will take seven months to complete.
The terrain will change. The desert will blossom like a rose.
The lifespan of humans increases. Here is some information we get from the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament., “No more shall an infant from there live but a few days, Nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days; For the child shall die one hundred years old, But the sinner being one hundred years old shall be accursed. Isa 65:20
We are talking about a time when the curse on this earth has been removed. Sickness and death are part of that curse. So why is this verse talking about the death of a child? It isn’t really. The key point to look at is the mentioning twice of a hundred years. A child dies at a hundred years old. A sinner is accursed at a hundred years old.
I do not believe that this verse is speaking about children that are 99 years old. And why curse a 100 year old sinner? After all, wouldn’t that 100 year old sinner be just a kid?
No, here is what we have … we have a situation in the coming millennial reign of Christ that presents a population of people who are NOT living with their glorified eternal bodies. They are physical, normal people who will cohabit for a thousand years. The population by the end of that period is said to be ‘as the sand of the sea’. We, believers, have been raised to meet Christ in the air. We have changed eternal bodies, but we have come back down to this earth to rule and reign with Jesus for the whole thousand years. We will be ruling and reigning with Jesus over the natural humans who are living in that wonderfully restored environment.
But here's the thing, everyone of those natural humans living on the earth after the return of Jesus, will need to receive Christ as their personal Saviour. And if anything, God is just and fair. You and I have had one lifetime in which to trust Christ as our Saviour. Some of our lifetimes go up to a hundred years old, but that certainly is not common. Eighty something is about average.
In the fairness of God, he gives the natural humans living on that restored earth … a maximum of 100 years to trust Christ as saviour. The period of time for a ‘child’ to receive Jesus, is a hundred years. After that time they no longer can be saved. They now are termed, ‘The sinner who, at 100 years old, is accursed’.
From the moment Jesus returns and onward … this will be the Lord’s day. Man is having his day, so to speak, from Adam until now. But when the Lord comes back, from then on, it will be His day. His time.
So not only will the day of the Lord be a specific single day, it will be a change of administration. And it will be a thousand years long.
Revelation 20 gives us a lot of insight regarding this ‘thousand year long’ day of the Lord.
But to ‘lead into it’, it is helpful to look at the last three verses of chapter 19.
19 And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.
20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
21 And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
It is quite easy to see that the event described in these verses is the one called ‘The Battle of Armageddon’. This takes places as Jesus descends from heaven with his bride … and apparently an army, and he does what we have just read about.
We note that ‘the beast and the false prophet’ are thrown directly into the Lake of fire. Just as a matter of information, no one else is there or has ever been there.
The very next thing that God deals with is to take care of Satan. Instead of taking him and throwing him into the Lake of Fire as well, we read,
1 ¶ Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.
2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
God ‘takes care’ of Satan … but not by throwing him into the Lake of Fire. Instead what we read indicates something temporary. He is bound for a thousand years. This would be the same thousand years that we call the ‘day of the Lord’. Or we call it the Millenial Reign. This is the same thousand years that is called ‘the Restoration’. The curse is removed. And a Garden of Eden type of condition prevails over the earth. Satan will not be there. He will be ‘bound’ and restrained somewhere for a thousand years. Here is where he will be; 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, That is the first part of the verse. It would be so nice to know that this is permanent. But we read in the rest of the verse; until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.
I think it is fair to say at this point, that there is a teaching that has grown in popularity that dismisses these verses by saying the thousand years is symbolic and simply represents the eternal age. But that teaching must also dismiss the verses that say Satan will be released at the end of the thousand years. Because it one takes the belief that the thousand years represents eternity, you would have Satan being released at the end of eternity. That would be absurd reasoning, so it is easier to dismiss the verses and say ‘They must mean something, but we are not sure what, so we just won’t go there’.
In this teaching, not only is the thousand year period believed to mean eternity, but it is also believed that heaven will be on this present earth for ever. So let’s go on with what scripture is saying and what Peter is going to add concerning the day of the Lord.
John, the writer of Revelation, said that Satan must be released for a little while at the end of the thousand years. This means that something Peter includes in the day of the Lord had not happened yet. He said, 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 up.
So, according to Peter, Jesus comes as a thief in the night on a specific day. He rules and reigns on the earth for a thousand years. This is His day. And at the end of the day, the earth passes away with a great noise.
At the end of the day … at the end of the thousand years. But let’s read a bit more in revelation to see the details of the ‘end of the day’.
Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison
8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.
Who is Satan deceiving? Remember what I pointed out earlier, for a thousand years, people in their natural bodies will live, marry, have children and fill the earth … for a thousand years. These people will not have the Devil to tempt them, because he will be bound and residing in the bottomless pit for the whole thousand years. I am not sure what this means for all of his demon cohorts. Will they also be powerless?
But, in spite of Satan’s being bound, thousands, millions of those born during that time, will fail to receive Christ as their Saviour, and Satan will be able to gather them to become his own army.
After the thousand years have expired Satan will be released from his prison; 7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison
8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.
9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them,
Peter had said, 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 up.
That sounds huge. In a study of the end times, there is nothing mentioned that even comes close to this. Fire coming down out of heaven, destroying Satan’s army is the only mention of fire so far. But even that, as big as that would be, does not come close to the earth and the works being burned up.
The rule of properly understanding scripture, particularly prophecy, is to take things literally unless it is otherwise stated or clearly implied.
For all of the present day Bible teachers who teach that, after the restoration at Jesus’ return, we will live on this earth forever, it becomes essential that they disregard any biblical references to people in natural physical bodies producing offspring after Jesus’ return to earth. The must exclude any literal understanding of the term, one thousand years, (mentioned six times in Revelation 20). They must totally ignore the release of Satan at the end of the thousand years (because in their minds, eternity has begun when Jesus settles down in Jerusalem).
And they must totally do away with a literal understanding of, 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 up.
John, in Revelation 20, mentions the release of Satan, his amassing of an army, surrounding Jerusalem, fire coming down from heaven and burning them up, then he mentions the final White Throne judgment. As the judgment proceeds, says John, those whose name is not found in the Book of life are cast into the Lake of Fire. John says that hell gave up the dead, some who had been there since the days of Cain, and they were cast into the Lake of Fire. But there will also be those present there whose names ARE in the Book of Life. These would be all of those who received Jesus as Lord and Saviour … after he had already returned to this earth before the millennium.
Then John transitions to another scene entirely. Except for one final thing that I must mention. After the judgement is over, death and hell are cast into the lake of fire.
14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
Taking this literally, we are talking about the fate of this planet. Hell is a place in the center of this earth. For hell to be cast into the lake of fire, the whole planet will have to go with it. It is as though it (the planet) has now served its divine purpose, and God is through with.
The writer of Hebrews alludes to this. And, "You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment,
12 like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end." Hebrews 1:10-12
When we are through with a worn-out garment, it does not get ‘renewed’. It gets thrown out. Replaced.
John caught quite a glimpse of the replacement. He said, 20:15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
21:1 ¶ And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
This present earth passes away. Peter says it will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat;
Jesus is coming soon. The storm clouds are gathering. At the end of the storm, just before the great day of His wrath, He will catch us all up to heaven, for the accounting day, and the celebration supper called ‘the Marriage of the Lamb. Then He will return with us to take care of the last of the unbelievers, and then rule and reign for a thousand years. The day of the LORD. The day of the Lord ends with this earth passing away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat.
So Peter says, 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Does it all seem like a dream, or is this real? We have to get our heart around it and believe it by faith.
So Peter tells these ‘scattered believers’, and us, how we need to think and live in view of all that is going in the world … and all that God has foretold.
14 Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.
15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation,
Most, if not all, of us have loved ones who are not ready to meet Jesus. Why has He not returned already? He is being patient. If He were like us, He would be saying, “I can hardly wait to have my whole family together with me!” His family is still growing. He is waiting … and helping us, to bring in the last few stragglers. We have incredible joy to look forward to.
Next time we will cover the last four verses and then summarize these two letters of the Apostle Peter. I hope you are enjoying God’s word, verse by verse.