Read with Me
2 Peter 3:3-7 (HCSB)
First, be aware of this: Scoffers will come in the last days to scoff, living according to their own desires, saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.” They willfully ignore this: Long ago the heavens and the earth were brought about from water and through water by the word of God. Through these waters the world of that time perished when it was flooded. But by the same word, the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
Listen with Me
There are scoffers who exist today, claiming that since it has been 2000 years since Jesus promised to return, he was obviously wrong, and therefore couldn’t have been God, or even divine. But they also existed even in Peter’s day, even though at the time he wrote this letter it had been less than 35 years since the ascension.
Peter understands very well that for the enemy to succeed in turning people away from the gospel, he first has to discredit Jesus and his followers. And the surest way to do that is to cast doubt on God’s promises. This is the same strategy by the way that he successfully used on Adam and Eve in the garden (“No! You will not die.” Genesis 3:4).
Peter points to the fact that the people the enemy uses to throw doubt on the promise of Jesus to return also doubt other key points of God’s revelation to humanity. Among the things that are willfully ignored is God’s creation of the universe, and that He raised up the dry land out of the water with which the newly minted Earth was covered.
Huge numbers of people today have been led to disbelieve this testimony of how God created everything, being led to believe in a chance, directionless origin and development of the universe, with the earth itself starting out as a molten ball that cooled over eons instead of as a water-covered sphere specially formed by God to be the place where he could create living creatures for his delight.
Many of these same people also have been taught to deny the global flood that God brought on the earth to destroy sinful mankind as well as all land-dwelling, air-breathing animals, except Noah and those with him on the ark who God preserved to start anew.
Of course, if people disbelieve God’s testimony about the past as He Himself reported it, and He never lies or exaggerates, if they believe that the history present Bible is mere stories and myths made up by people or borrowed from the cultures around them, then they have no basis for believing what God says about the present times, or the promises that He has made about the future.
Pray with Me
Father, you are absolutely right. If we don’t believe what You have said about the past, what foundation do we have to believe what You have said about the future? I know many Christians who believe in evolution because “the scientists say…” but ignore what You have said about the beginnings in Your word. After all, the scientists weren’t there in the beginning, but You were. Scientists can lie or be mistaken, but You can’t lie and are never mistaken. Often, those same Christians say they don’t believe that Jesus will return “the way that people believe”. They have no foundation for believing what You have said about the future, because they reject what You have said about the past. Lord, help me to always trust in your word, and to follow your path all the way to the end. Amen.