This final study in Peter’s second letter (ch3) was given by pastor Barry Forder on 8th November 2020.
In this chapter Peter underlines his reason for writing – namely to stir up your pure minds and to get you to remember:
- What you have been saved from – (we were in darkness and given over to the lusts and desires of the flesh)
- What you have been saved for – (you are to be a Royal Priesthood & Holy nation to show forth His praise!),
- The certainty of our faith – (it is based on real events recorded by eyewitnesses and furthermore we have the undeniable proof of fulfilled prophecy)
- Jesus is coming back – soon!
- The material world around us is temporary and will all be burnt up
- What you have awaiting you – the new heavens and new earth
However, Peter warns that in the last days people would scoff at the idea of Jesus returning, would deny that God is Creator, and would reject that there was once a worldwide flood to judge the earth.
In effect their argument will be that, because their perception is that apocalyptic events don’t happen (in their experience), they could not have happened in the past and the idea of divine judgment will not occur in the future.
To this Peter says they are ‘willingly ignorant’. Chuck Missler points out that this shows they have made a decision to not believe – not because there is insufficient evidence, but because they don’t want to accept it.
They would rather carry on in their own lusts – lusts for power and position, lusts for recognition and accolades, lusts to been seen as being intellectually superior. The notion of a God who will bring Judgment is unacceptable to them.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that we live in a universe that screams of many cataclysmic events, James Hutton, around the turn of the 19th century, proposed the now commonly accepted and taught view of uniformitarianism – ‘the past is the key to the present’ / ‘nothing changes, everything carries on as it always has’. He countered the then popular view Neptunism theory espoused by Abraham Werner et al which claimed that rocks had originated from a great flood and were basically sedimentary in origin – much as the Bible taught.
Within a few years Hutton’s ideas were picked up and championed by James Lyell, who wrote the infamous ‘Principle of Geology’ which in a stroke eradicated the writings of Moses in the minds of the worlds academia. There was now an alternative explanation of the history of the world that didn’t have to include the God of the Bible (and the personal moral challenge that entailed).
It just so happened that a young Charles Darwin was given a copy of Lyell’s book as he set out on his voyage on the Beagle. This changed his thinking and gave him a ‘millions of years’ framework from which would come his theory of evolution.
Thus Peter – and the Word of God – were proven right! Scoffers have come and they now do deny that Jesus will return, that He is Creator, and that there was once a worldwide flood.
In this study we look at some of the clear evidence that shows the geologic column – the backbone to ‘millions of years’ – is pure fabrication. Without it the theories of Hutton, Lyell and Darwin come crashing down.
Peter concludes by asking; “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be?”
The answer is simple, we must be holy and Godly as we expectantly wait for Christ’s return which will usher in the end of this age and bring in ‘everlasting righteousness’!
May you be blessed and encouraged by this teaching.
