Count The Patience
2 PEter 3
Transcript
INTRO
Count the patience.
These words struck my heart years ago and I knew the Spirit was teaching. They lifted from the pages in the final chapter of Peter’s second letter.
So, I’m excited to share this message which I believe is poignant for the season we are part of.
CONTEXT AND PURPOSE OF THE LETTER
2nd Peter was probably written a few years before the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.
This is sent to the same group of people as the first letter – sent primarily to Jewish believers in the Dispersion (the Diaspora), scattered throughout what we know as modern-day Turkey. In this letter though it’s addressed “to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours.” So, he’s now including gentiles who have joined the Jewish believers.
When Peter is writing this letter, he is anticipating his imminent death (1:13–15). Jesus has made clear to him that he was to suffer crucifixion as Jesus did (Jn 21:18–19). The last words of someone’s life are significant. On top of that if you knew that you were going to be crucified, would you not include the things that really matter in your last words. I think so.
The purpose of the letter as a whole is twofold: first to warn against false teachers and second to encourage spiritual growth.
PROPOSAL
If you have been tracking with me, you’ll be aware that I believe the church is asleep right now in the west.
Chapter three, which we will focus on contains spiritual truths that should snap us out of our lullaby.
With the perversion of the gospel from within and the push-back of the gospel from outside, the bride is unprepared for the return of the groom.
What I wish to propose today is this: The Day of the Lord will come, and we should be counting the days with Godly posture.
PETER GIVES THEM A REMINDER OF THE BASICS
“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,” (v1)
This is not new teaching. He’s not doing a 101 online distance learning course (nothing wrong with that by the way). He’s already been through this stuff with them over and over breaking bread and doing life together.
What should they bring back to the forefront of their minds:
“that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles,” (v2)
The predictions of the prophets and the commandment of Lord Jesus. He may as well be saying to us, the OT AND the NT. Not just your favourite gospel book stripped from the grand narrative – the predictions and the commandments of the Lord Jesus. Which predictions? About the cross, sure, but the context of the passage as we will discover is fixated the Day of the Lord – the future return of Messiah.
To remember the predictions of prophets about that future day, means we must know what they are. For those who have been a Christian a while you may be familiar with the words of the Lord but I’m not sure we’re familiar with the predictions of the prophets. Thankfully Peter, in giving them the reminder, opens the window for us to know what is key to understanding the predictions – meaning the things that will happen – meaning the narrative that will play out.
In verse three he beings to delve into the details:
SCOFFERS WILL COME
“knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires” (v3).
What will the scoffers say?
“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” (v4).
UNBELIEVING SCOFFERS
In saying that, the unbelieving scoffers know there was a beginning and they know there is a creator to create creation otherwise they couldn’t say “all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” Which sounds contradictory. Unless these unbelieving scoffers were attempting to use the biblical logic to throw it back in our face. Which is possible. But I think Peter is saying there are those who know the truth deep down but scoff because in their short lifetime apocalyptic events have not taken place. “Where is the promise of his coming?” Well if he came, you wouldn’t be able to say that.
BELIEVING SCOFFERS
Who else believes there was a beginning and a creator of all but who also scoffs? Believing scoffers.
I think Peter’s main target here are unbelieving scoffers. But there are plenty of believers who scoff at a six-day creation; at Noah’s ark; at Babel; at the literal fulfilment of the covenantal promises; at the dramatic and apocalyptic Day of the Lord.
Within the Preterist camp - preterist are those who believe the vast majority of the predictions of the prophets were fulfilled in the first century - let me tell you within this camp – I’m seen it time and time again when Preterists scoff at the those who believe in the future fulfilment of the promises and predictions – they scoff. Most of Europe holds an amillennial position. Meaning they don’t believe in the millennial reign of Christ when he returns. They scoff at it.
Scoffers can be both within and outside of the church.
Peter explains their approach:
SCOFFERS OVERLOOK THE GRAND NARRATIVE
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. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgement and destruction of the ungodly.
DELIBERATE DENIAL
Scoffers choose denial. They are deliberate about overlooking the facts.
Which facts – Peter indicates both Creation and Judgement.
Genesis and Revelation (and Revelation coupled with the book of Daniel) are the most attacked books of the bible. Because they speak of the start and end of the story. It’s Devil’s strategy. If you can confuse the narrative from the start, the context of the cross will be warped, and then add a twist the knife at the conclusion, and you have a well-formed lie.
Peter is keen to set the record straight.
HE BEGINS WITH THE FORMATION OF THE EARTH
Peter says the universe was formed “out of water and through water”. This is key information in forming our worldview… Which I will look at in more detail soon enough.
God created water and with this inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odourless, and nearly colourless chemical substance, and which life is dependant upon, he formed the universe. And through this same substance he judged life upon the earth.
God baptised the earth to cleanse his creation, by making it perish and then giving it new life.
Scoffers laugh at the word of God that says the globe was flooded – scientifically impossible they say – actually scientifically it stacks up. The bible says the mountains were covered 15 cubits – about 7 to 8 metres deep. If the earth surface was flat, there is enough water to cover the earth 8000 feet deep. “Well, how could it cover mount Everest at 29,000 feet?”. Well, it covered the topography of the pre-flood earth. After which the earth was radically different. The Himalayan range, the Alps, the Rockies, the Appalachians, the Andes, were raised up and valleys made low. Which is why on these mountains you can find ocean-bottom sediments, full of marine fossils. Climbers have discovered giant clam fossils on the top of mount Everest. It makes perfect sense if you believe the word of God.
But scoffers will deliberately overlook the facts.
They overlook the flood and gaze at the planet Mars which is as dry as a bone in-large-part, and they point to a canyon you can see with giant telescope that is much bigger than the Grand Canyon. And this article I read said this canyon on Mars was formed quickly by massive amounts of fast flowing water. Well, yeah Peter could have told them that – Mars was formed “through water”. Yet they maintain – the Grand Canyon must have been a process of small amounts of water over millions of years.
The earth is nick named the water planet because its surface is 70% water and yet they deliberately deny that the Grand Canyon was created rapidly by massive amounts of water – because they do not want to leave credit for the global flood. They don’t want to see what is before them, so they deliberately turn their blinkers toward a dusty planet that holds no life.
THE DAY OF JUDGEMENT WILL COME
In overlooking the first global judgement the scoffers are overlooking and unprepared for the second global judgement.
FOR CLARITY
When Peter says the earth is being “stored up for fire” – it does not mean this earth will be burnt and destroyed and therefore we get transported to a new earth or even stay in heaven. When the predictions of prophets speak of a new heavens and new earth, it means a radical renewal of the present one. The earth was stored up for the watery judgement and it was renewed after the water receded. In the same way, the earth is stored up and in his patience “kept” or sustained until fire rains from heaven, in what will be another year-long judgement similar to the flood, and then the great renewal of the heavens and earth will come, under the direct kingship of Jesus.
SCOFFERS CHOOSE DENIAL OF CREATION AND JUDGEMENT
They deny the grand narrative. Peter just indicated that they know God created everything at some point in the past but now “they deliberately overlook” the facts: that God exists, he created, he judged in the flood, he will judge in the future, because, as Peter defined they are, “following their own sinful desires.” Scoffers are not atheists in the true sense, they are idolaters. They choose the blindfold of sin.
They want the story to be about them. The story starts and ends with them. They want to be the alpha and omega. But the job is not available, so they are choosing to be stored up ready for fire – in judgement at the return, and in the lake Jesus spoke of.
Then Peter turns his attention from unbelieving scoffers.
WE SHOULD NOT OVERLOOK THE GRAND NARRATIVE
“But do not overlook this one fact, beloved,” (v8a)
Who is he now speaking to? You and I – Christians. The scoffers overlook facts but now he warns us not to overlook “this one fact”. It must be an important fact. Hold on to your seats:
“that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (v8b).
He is reflecting Psalm 90 which is a prayer of Moses – focusing on verse 4 which says “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” The verses that surround it, speak of the coming judgement of man.
I’ve heard people quote “that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years” therefore God didn’t create in six literal days. Well if you follow that logic, did he create it in six thousand years then? That’s not enough time to fit your evolutionary model. You have to keep reading “and a thousand years as one day.” Peter is making a point about the patience of God within his grand timeline:
“The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 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” (9-10).
Peter is highlighting the patience of God toward mankind. The scoffers say “where is the promise of his coming” because they count his patience as “slowness”. Though they scoff at God – they scoff at us, but it’s directed to God – he doesn’t wish them to perish. When his promise comes, they will perish – but in his patience he allows them to continue, giving them a chance to repent. None of us deserve to live for more second under our own works.
“the day of the Lord will come like a thief” to the scoffers. Not to us believers who “remember” the teachings of the apostles. We remember Paul writing to the Thessalonians “But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you like a thief.” (1 Thes 5:4).
When the Lion of Judah roars, it will be frightening for some.
Peter returns to counting and patience in a moment, but first he wants us to check our character.
OUR CHARACTER SHOULD REFLECT IN SOME WAY THE GRAND NARRATIVE
11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
What we believe determines how we behave.
BEHAVIOUR OF SCOFFERS
Imagine the scoffing Noah received. He’s building this 500 ft wooden boat. He’s likely hired scoffers to help build the giant structure. They would be mocking him and his sons. “Hey Noah, you gonna attach wheels to this thing when it doesn’t rain”. “Noah is so intense, so dramatic, so black and white, “the rain’s coming Noah, OOooo”. He’s building something that people cannot miss. He was basically a street preacher with a 500 ft sign. It would have been relentless scoffing that Noah received. The scoffers deliberately overlooked the facts, and their behaviour reflected their framework of belief.
They were casual about eternity. They acted like they were bulletproof or perhaps more fitting, drown proof. They thought they would be exposed to the flood waters.
BEHAVIOUR OF BELIEVERS
Noah on the other hand, believed the word of God. He set about preparing for the coming judgement and salvation. Noah had a sense of urgency about him. There was a sense of Holiness and godliness about him as he waited “for and hastened the” coming day. He must have pitied the scoffers knowing they were talking themselves under water. He must have reached out to them, but they overlooked his preaching.
We will be scoffed at. By unbelievers and even some within the Christian camp. Peter tells us that the apostles held a framework of the “predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior” which points forward to the Day of the Lord. Today, mainstream church points to the cross and remains at the cross. But the cross points forward to the Day of the Lord. Peter tells us in his first letter to “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:13). Their daily cry was maranatha. Come Lord Jesus.
Fire awaits our friends, our family, neighbours, our colleagues, all who deliberately overlook the cross and salvation in Messiah. How much do we have to hate them to say nothing. That challenges me.
Our character should reflect the grand narrative. Urgency, “holiness and godliness” waiting for his promise for the “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
WE ARE GOING TO COUNT THE PATIENCE OF THE NARRATIVE
To do that Peter connects this challenge of Godly character with a Godly status and mindset before we begin.
“Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace” (v14).
Wow. In a world of global pandemic. Rioting. Protests. We are to be found “at peace” when he returns and in the present in preparation of his return. Not blemished by a loose tongue. Not spotted with angry outbursts. “at peace” regardless of how fast the world is spinning.
If you are enraged or bitter… you will not sit at peace and therefore have the wrong mindset to study the scriptures. When we strive for “holiness and godliness” we will sit at peace and therefore be postured to count accurately.
STRIKING PASSAGE
Peter says something that stuck me at such a deep level. Listen to this:
“And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (15-16).
He’s asking us to “count”. Count what? Count the patience? What do mean, count the patience? The “the patience of our Lord as salvation”. He’s asking us to count the patience before his patience runs out. What on earth does that mean? Well, let’s count it together.
First off – Peter, a first century Jew said that some things that Paul writes were hard to understand. That should encourage us. If you don’t get it with the first read, don’t worry. Peter didn’t get it first read. When I first started to read the bible I worked my way through and I said to myself when I come across something I find hard to understand I’m going to stop until I understand it and only then will I move on. That’s bad wisdom guys. Don’t do that. You will not get very far before putting the bible down. It may be the case that you require to build a bigger picture of the biblical narrative so that you discern the meaning of a text.
Equally what we don’t do is twist the scriptures to fit what you want it to say – that is a serious offence that may end in your destruction.
Moreover, hard does not mean you can’t understand it. It’s a mistake whenever we come across a hard passage to say, well some things we’ll never understand until the age to come. We should be like the Bereans who “examined the Scriptures every day” and wrestle through these things.
Hard means fun. “Holy Spirit help me to understand these hard things that are written. Reveal to me the true meaning of the passage, regardless of how it may disrupt my thought patterns.”
We have already seen that the scoffer counts the patience of God, from creation until the present day, as slowness. So how do we count the patience of God with the knowledge he has just given us, “that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”. Peter is giving us the values of the formula. We are to count the days, or units of thousand years. We can in fact count days as thousand year periods. What days?
What other information do we have in the bible about counting days?
The bible begins with counting days. God purposely counted the days of creation and then separated the six days from the seventh day of rest. This created the seven day pattern the world lives by today, thousands of years later, and in doing so, each working week, a counting of his patience is taking place. The seven days are a prophecy of world history and it is most relevant to our generation. Each day represents a thousand years of history – past, or future.
Prophetic days can mean years, but they can also mean a thousand years, and that is the context Peter provides. For example, God told Adam “for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” Gen 2:17. Adam did die at age 930 - within that prophetic day – within the thousand years.
So, if we count the units of patience, the units of a thousand years, there are roughly four units of a thousand from creation to the cross, and almost two thousand from the cross until today. That makes nearly six thousand years, or six prophetic days. One day remaining. Which day is that? The millennial reign of a thousand years when Jesus returns, on the Day of the Lord. The Millennial reign, written of in the book of Revelation is the seventh day of rest that we enter.
So when we count the patience of the Lord, from creation until today, we can see that on God’s timeline of redemption, on his calendar, we are very close to the end of the sixth day – which means that the Day of the Lord is near.
PROOF OF A MATTER
For some of you this will be a light bulb moment. For other you may be thinking, “I’m not sure I’m with you.”
There is a biblical principle that proof of a matter should be on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
And we find the testimony of other passages that point to the same counting of patience.
120 JUBILEES
For example. Genesis 6:3 says “Then the LORD said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” (NASB) (Gen 6:3). This verse at first glance is one of those hard texts. It wasn’t 120 years until the flood, so It can’t mean that. People lived over the age of 120 after the flood, so it can’t mean the lifespan of the individual. But what if these are 120 specific years, or units of time that when counted, point to the end of His Spirit contending with man.
Within God’s calendar the Jubilee cycle is the largest unit at 50 years or 49 depending on how you calculate the Jubilee year – which is the final year. But without getting into that, if we count 120 jubilee cycles, which includes 120 jubilee years – 120 multiplied by 50 = 6000 years. His Spirit will strive or contend with man for 6000 years. That is the limit of his patience and then the Day of the Lord will come with judgement followed by a 1000 years of rest – and on to eternity.
HOSEA
We see consistency in the prophets also. Hosea contains an incredible prophecy:
“I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue. I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.” (5:14b)
This is clearly a prophecy about Jesus who will come and then “carry off” and return to heaven until Israel repents. Then, continuing in the following chapter – remember chapters and verse numbers were not in the original text – in verse 1 and 2, Hosea predicts when he will come again to earth:
“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him” (6:1-2).
We see the pattern of the third day throughout the scriptures.
This isn’t a prophecy about Jesus being raised up to life – it is about when he returns to “raise us up”.
So, let’s count the days of the prophecy. After Jesus ‘goes away’ and ‘carries off’ – meaning ascended to heaven – there will be 2 days – 2 units of time – followed by 1 day – 1 unit of time. If one day is the same as a thousand to God according to his patience – that means 2000 between his first and second coming, following by a 1000 years in which we will live. It makes perfect sense.
We are fast approaching two thousand years since his first coming and then at his second coming those who are alive will be translated into glorified bodies and those who are asleep in Christ will be raised to life and will get to live in his Millennial Kingdom rule.
MARK’S GOSPEL
The final words of chapter 8:
“he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (8:38c).
So, the context is the future coming kingdom.
“some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power. And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves” (9:1b-2a).
This is when the transfiguration happens, which is a preview of the coming glory in the kingdom. Peter was included – he understood that these were a prophetic six days in the lead up – and then the seventh on the mountain in glory.
EXODUS 24
On another mountain we read:
“The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud” (24:16).
Both the Apostles and Moses met with the Lord on a mountain, face to face on the seventh day and lived.
THE SABBATH
The Israelite’s were given the six-day working week as part of their formal calendar, followed by a Sabbath to tell the prophecy each week. They were also given a pattern of seven years within their calendar – the seventh year was the Sabbath year – the shmita; which literally means "release" – teaching them about the six units of time followed by the 1 unit of time which gives them rest, debts are paid off and so forth.
HEBREWS
Paul in his letter to the Hebrews reveals his understanding of the seventh day, connecting it to the coming kingdom
By quoting Psalm 95 and Genesis 2 in Chapters 3 and 4 he labours the point that the Lord’s rest, “my rest” (3:11) is only for those that have known his ways. But that “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (4:9).
Listen to this in Chapter 4:
“For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest”” (4:3-4).
He explicitly connects the creation pattern and process with the timeline of history and ultimately the coming kingdom rest.
So, there is this continuity from OT to NT of this prophetic pattern that tells the story of God’s redemptive timeline.
REVELATION
John we’ve mentioned was told to write his vision in the book of Revelation
He penned this about the Lord’s rest:
“They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” (20:4b)
It’s worth reading all of chapter 20. This is not a symbolic thousand years.
ISAIAH 49
Isaiah points us to creation for understanding the ending:
“I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning” (Isa. 49:9-10)
THE MARRIAGE AT CANA
Think about the first miracle Jesus performed. A Jewish wedding symbolised the messianic kingdom, so it was fitting to demonstrate his identity and the timing of the kingdom at the Marriage at Cana.
Jesus told the servants to fill six large stone jars that were used for religious purification, with water. They would count the jars and fill them one by one. You know the story, the water turned into the finest wine.
Jesus the Messianic king was with them, so they got to literally taste the blessings of the coming kingdom.
He was saying, that he was the creator of all, the giver of life, and it was a demonstration of what he would do in the age to come when he will purify all.
Jesus was saying, I am the one who will turn the world from 6000 years of fallen conditions, into Edenic conditions thereafter, with fertile ground to produce the finest wine, and you will drink with me in the Messianic kingdom feast.
The CHURCH FATHERS BELIEVED THIS
It isn’t just the apostles who believed this. Most of the church fathers did too.
BARNABAS (AD 100)
“God made in six days the works of His hands… This implieth that the Lord will finish all things in six thousand years.” He then references Psalm 90 in the same interpretive manner as Peter.
HIPPOLYTUS (AD 170-236)
“six thousand years must needs be accomplished, in order that the Sabbath may come, the rest, the holy day on which God rested from all His works. For the Sabbath is the type and emblem of the future kingdom of the saints…” and again he goes on to quote the same Psalm as Peter – about the day being a thousand years.
IRENAEUS (AD 120-202)
“a summing up of the whole of that apostasy” In others words – counting the patience of the Lord – “which has taken place during six thousand years. For in as many days as this world was made, in so many thousand years shall it be concluded.”
COMMODIANUS (AD240)
“when six thousand years are completed… according to God’s command living again in the world for a thousand years”
METHODIUS (AD260-312)
“For since in six days God made the heaven and the earth, and finished the whole world, and rested on the seventh day… this world shall be concluded in the seventh thousand years”
LACTANTIUS (AD 260-330)
“know that the six thousand year is not yet completed, and that when this number is completed the consummation must take place” and again he then references the creation model.
VICTORINUS (AD300)
“Sabbath should be observed in the seventh millenary of years. Wherefore to those seven days the Lord attributed to each a thousand years… the true Sabbath will be in the seventh millenary of years, when Christ with his elect shall reign”
Some of them miscalculated when the end of the six thousand years was but you can see that this was mainstream doctrine. It’s often referred to as chillism. This isn’t a new eschatological framework, convenient for the time we live – it’s not exactly convenient to live through the end times under the Antichrist if that is what we are to face shortly.
GOD’S TIMELINE
This is how God works.
He isn’t casually hanging around waiting for people to get moving before he can do anything. God has a timeline and exact appointments and everything to the millisecond occurs at the precise moment. He is kind enough to offer insights into his timeline of redemption and we should be counting as instructed to do so by Peter.
We are not to know the exact day or hour, but we can sure know the season and the general timescale of things – otherwise he wouldn’t have told us. So, we don’t date set, but we do study like good Bereans, discern the time we live in, SO THAT we can prepare our hearts for what must take place.
Before I had even heard of this doctrine, after studying the scriptures alone I came to this conclusion myself – it made complete sense of six thousand years, plus the seventh Sabbath millennium – the kingdom. Since then I keep reading affirming words.
WHY ISN’T THIS BASIC CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE?
I’ve listened to a preacher who I have much respect for, a very smart, well educated guy, who preached through the book of Revelation from a Preterist framework, and he was open enough to allow the congregation to ask him questions - one asked: “what did the earlier church fathers believe about this”. And he said “I don’t know”. I find that hard to believe if I’m honest. He’s a very well researched man. I think he didn’t want to admit they held a radically different position than his. And that many of them believed not only was the Kingdom future focused, but that they held chiliastic position. Six thousand, then one thousand sabbath rest.
You did have the likes of Origen (AD 184-253) who were highly influenced by Plato – he studied at the Platonic Academy of Alexandria, and with this Greek framework, he would super-spiritualise the gospel of the kingdom. Then the likes of Augustine would run with this Platonic framework – remodelling heaven, the kingdom, the biblical hope.
The church today is heavily influenced by this Greek philosophy. Particularly in the UK. Most of us hold an Amillennial position – spiritualising the millennium, or post-millennial position – where the millennium has already past or we are currently living in that age. It is like a virus in the church.
In counting the patience, we should be pre-millennialist – we are living before the seventh millennium that will soon arrive. Why. Because the old and new testaments teach this. The apostles taught his. While not scripture, the church fathers were in agreement.
PETER WARNS US OF LOSING APOSTOLIC FOUNDATIONS
“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand” (17a) In other words – remember we discussed this round the table”.
“take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (17b-18a).
Lawless people – not obviously lawless people – they may be smartly dressed, sophisticated, dwell in affluent areas – they could be scholarly - do not get carried away with their errors.
If a new wind of doctrine comes along, stand firm.
Today we are told that we should judge based on our emotions of empathy and compassion – stand firm on the scriptures.
Do not get carried away with the lawless frameworks of the world.
Your stability is in Christ. Not the lawless, worldly version of christ. Not the cherry picked, this-feels good-christ. The Christ that is found throughout the whole council of God.
“take care… that you are not carried away”
If you don't take care, before you know it, you are away with error of the lawless and counting his patience as slowness.
“remember”, Peter says “the predictions of the holy prophets”
“The day of the Lord is coming with a roar”
Don’t let it come as thief.
At peace, Count the patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you will “grow in the grace and knowledge of ” him.
I’ll let Peter have the last word, as he ends his letter:
“To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen” (18b).