Mellontes wrote:RND wrote:karenprtlnd wrote:Remember what Peter stated:
2 Peter 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
This has got to be one of the most out-of-context understandings of Scripture! Peter quoted Psalm 90:4 to show how God was faithful DESPITE what these scoffers were saying. The end of the generation was fast approaching. The scoffers (likely unbelieving Jews by the language they used) of the last days (of Judaism) questioned the timing for the arrival of His second appearing (Heb 9:28, - the day approaching to them Heb 10:25, that would occur in a little while to them - Heb 10:37). Peter said what he said to disprove what they said, not agree with what they said!!!! He further followed it up by saying the Lord is NOT SLACK conerning His promise!!! Does this sound like a delay to you? Does this sound like God wouldn't (or didn't) keep His promise? The answer is a simple, "No." Further study will reveal that the "scoffers" alluded to by Peter are the same "mockers" (identical word) in Jude's day. Isn't it marvelous that Jude 19 says "These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit." Jude told his first century audience that these people HAD ARRIVED!
I would have to respectfully disagree
Mellontes. Not with you Ps 90:4 reference just your interpretation of what Peter is stating.
2Pe 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. : 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
Peter is purposely discussing events of the "last days" which we know has yet to occur because the heavens haven't passed away, there hasn't been the "great noise" of the last trump, and the "elements" haven't melted nor the earth or the works have been burned up. Peter is simply telling us that time is nothing to God, nothing to understanding God eternal nature.
No man has lived a whole "day" yet.
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for
in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Adam lived 930 years. Methuselah 969. Truly no man has "lived" a day with the Lord.
Verse 9 tells us that the Lord is not slack in His promise, He will come again. He comes with great power and great glory, suddenly and He comes where ever eye will see Him, including those who pierced Him.
Mat 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
From Adam Clark:
Verse 8. Be not ignorant] Though they are wilfully ignorant, neglect not ye the means of instruction.
One day is with the Lord as a thousand years] That is: All time is as nothing before him, because in the presence as in the nature of God all is eternity; therefore nothing is long, nothing short, before him; no lapse of ages impairs his purposes, nor need he wait to find convenience to execute those purposes. And when the longest period of time has passed by, it is but as a moment or indivisible point in comparison of eternity. This thought is well expressed by PLUTARCH, Consol. ad Apoll.: "If we compare the time of life with eternity, we shall find no difference between long and short. ta gar cilia, kai ta muria eth, stigmh tiv estin aoristov, mallon de morion ti bracutaton stigmhv? for a thousand or ten thousand years are but a certain indefinite point, or rather the smallest part of a point." The words of the apostle seem to be a quotation from Psa. xc. 4.
Verse 9. The Lord is not slack] They probably in their mocking said, "Either God had made no such promise to judge the world, destroy the earth, and send ungodly men to perdition; or if he had, he had forgotten to fulfill it, or had not convenient time or leisure." To some such mocking the apostle seems to refer: and he immediately shows the reason why deserved punishment is not inflicted on a guilty world.
But is long-suffering] It is not slackness, remissness, nor want of due displacence at sin, that induced God to prolong the respite of ungodly men; but his long-suffering, his unwillingness that any should perish: and therefore he spared them, that they might have additional offers of grace, and be led to repentance - to deplore their sins, implore God's mercy, and find redemption through the blood of the Lamb.
As God is not willing that any should perish, and as he is willing that all should come to repentance, consequently he has never devised nor decreed the damnation of any man, nor has he rendered it impossible for any soul to be saved, either by necessitating him to do evil, that he might die for it, or refusing him the means of recovery, without which he could not be saved.
Verse 10. The day of the Lord will come] See Matt. xxiv. 43, to which the apostle seems to allude.
The heavens shall pass away with a great noise] As the heavens mean here, and in the passages above, the whole atmosphere, in which all the terrestrial vapours are lodged; and as water itself is composed of two gases, eighty-five parts in weight of oxygen, and fifteen of hydrogen, or two parts in volume of the latter, and one of the former; (for if these quantities be put together, and several electric sparks passed through them, a chemical union takes place, and water is the product; and, vice versa, if the galvanic spark be made to pass through water, a portion of the fluid is immediately decomposed into its two constituent gases, oxygen and hydrogen;) and as the electric or ethereal fire is that which, in all likelihood, God will use in the general conflagration; the noise occasioned by the application of this fire to such an immense congeries of aqueous particles as float in the atmosphere, must be terrible in the extreme. Put a drop of water on an anvil, place over it a piece of iron red hot, strike the iron with a hammer on the part above the drop of water, and the report will be as loud as a musket; when, then, the whole strength of those opposite agents is brought together into a state of conflict, the noise, the thunderings, the innumerable explosions, (till every particle of water on the earth and in the atmosphere is, by the action of the fire, reduced into its component gaseous parts,) will be frequent, loud, confounding, and terrific, beyond every comprehension but that of God himself.
The elements shalt melt with fervent heat] When the fire has conquered and decomposed the water, the elements, stoiceia, the hydrogen and oxygen airs or gases, (the former of which is most highly inflammable, and the latter an eminent supporter of all combustion,) will occupy distinct regions of the atmosphere, the hydrogen by its very great levity ascending to the top, while the oxygen from its superior specific gravity will keep upon or near the surface of the earth; and thus, if different substances be once ignited, the fire, which is supported in this case, not only by the oxygen which is one of the constituents of atmospheric air, but also by a great additional quantity of oxygen obtained from the decomposition of all aqueous vapours, will rapidly seize on all other substances, on all terrestrial particles, and the whole frame of nature will be necessarily torn in pieces, and thus the earth and its works be burned up.
