2 Peter 3
Chapter Context After thoroughly condemning the false teachers in chapter 2, Peter now dismantles their arguments. These deceivers scoff that Christ has not returned as promised. We should doubt Christ's return, they say, since the world goes along as it always has and always will. Peter reminds his readers that God is the one who made the world. Noah’s flood is evidence of His willingness to alter the course of nature in order to bring judgment on humanity for sin. Christians should be looking forward to the new heavens and earth, rejecting false teaching, and leading holy lives. Source: https://www.bibleref.com/2-Peter/3/2-Peter-chapter-3.html
The day of the Lord will come
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."
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.
Peter accepts the global flood as historical fact. Do you, or are you one of those who "deliberately overlook this fact" because you choose to believe in Big Bang + Evolutionary Theory? The "last days" started at the Lord's ascension, which means we are still in the "last days" now - and waiting for the Lord's return. Are you standing on the solid rock of faith that is Christ, or are you a scoffer who is scoffing and "following your own sinful desires"?
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.
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.
Many self-professed Christians who reject literal 6-day creation cite this passage in support of their false belief in Theistic Evolution, the idea that God used evolution as part of his creation process. Firstly, Peter is probably thinking of Mose's Psalm (Psalm 90:4) and using it in the same sense, which is that to God a thousand years wouldn't seem like a long time - exactly as it is written. Moses was certainly not thinking about evolution, and neither was Peter. Secondly, for people who refuse to accept a day means literally a day in Genesis, they are very quick to accept a thousand years means literally a thousand years here. That's highly ironic since they dismiss literal for metaphor in Genesis, but accept metaphor for literal here. Why is that? It's because they're desperate to fit evolution into the Bible, when it's clear to any child who can read that the Bible doesn't support evolution in any shape or form, and in fact obviously contradicts it. Thirdly, even if this verse is literal, that would only give them 6,000 years for the 6 days of creation which is still nowhere near enough for the sort of evolution they believe in, which, supposedly needs millions and millions of years. Fourthly, millions and millions of years still can't explain how a fish can become a Man. That's just story telling. Evolution is not science. It is a fake story of our origins. It is a replacement religion for those who reject God, reject his Bible, and the faith of Christians who believe it are built on sand. They accept the atheistic theories of fallen Man rather than the inspired word of God. May God have mercy on them!
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.
Perish: ἀπολέσθαι apolesthai; from G622: apollumi: to destroy, destroy utterly; The same word is used in John 3:16.
all should reach repentance: All means all of you and not everyone in the world, as some universalists claim. And even if it does mean that, it is clear from the rest of the Bible, that God does NOT save everyone in the world. Not because he can't but because, for his own reasons, he chose not to, and he hasn't told us why. Neither is he obliged to.
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.
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!
Fire also mentioned in v.7. Peter could be confirming a prophecy that God will destroy this earth a second and final time with fire. The first time he used water in the global flood as in the days of Noah. The next time, which will be the final time, he will do so with fire.
13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Final words
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, 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.
Destruction: ἀπώλειαν apōleian G684. This is the fifth and final time Peter uses this word in this letter. Jesus uses the same Greek word for the wide gate that leads to destruction (Matthew 7 13). There, Jesus is talking about those going to Hell. Peter is most probably talking about eternal damnation here as well. People twist the word of God to their peril. This should be a warning to those who believe in the so-called Liberal Theology, a misnomer if ever I heard one. Liberal Theology imprisons its believers firmly in the flesh and the deceitful philosophies of the world.
17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
False preaching can cause you be carried away with error and lose your stability. How stable is your faith?
18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Peter tells us to "grow in the grace and knowledge". Again knowledge. What is the state of your own knowledge? True spiritual knowledge comes from the Holy Spirit. All other spirits are deceitful demons. A Christian can only grow spiritually in the true sense by studying the words of the Spirit found in Scripture, i.e. the Bible, which Peter himself calls "the prophetic word" (2Peter 1:19).