2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
One of the most insidious methods that is used to challenge one’s faith is claiming that all this waiting for the second coming of the Lord is waiting for something that will never happen. By nature people are impatient for relief from their sorrows, pain, and trials. It is to this problem that Peter directs his comments in a long section about the promise of the Lord’s coming. Today’s passage is the first part of that, 2 PET 3: 1-4, “My dear friends, this is now the second letter I have written you. In both letters I have tried to arouse pure thoughts in your minds by reminding you of these things. I want you to remember the words that were spoken long ago by the holy prophets, and the command from the Lord and Savior which was given you by your apostles. First of all, you must understand that in the last days some people will appear whose lives are controlled by their own lusts. They will make fun of you and will ask, ‘He promised to come, didn’t He? Where is He? Our fathers have already died, but everything is still the same as it was since the creation of the world!’“
In view of the persecution the dispersed early church was experiencing, it was absolutely necessary that Peter address the issue of the waiting that we must all do for the Lord to come. It gets right down to heart of the question, “how strong is your faith?” For some, that is a painfully difficult question to answer, particularly those experiencing real pain, separation from loved ones, economic hardship, insults, and other forms of persecution. This group of people are not the only ones who need to hear Peter’s words and meditate upon the issues they raise. We who are impacted by humanism in the world also need them. JUDE (JD) 17-18, “But remember, my friends, what you were told in the past by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, ‘When the last days come, people will appear who will make fun of you, people who follow their own godless desires. “ We already know that the evil one knows how to get to the most vulnerable areas of our spirits, and impatience for the end of pain, trials, and sorrow is one of them.
The difficulty that we encounter is that our Lord has told us that we must delay our gratification as a part of the sanctification process. This is inherent in the Lord’s response to the question of His disciples [in the Olivet Discourse], MT 24: 36, “No one knows, however, when that day and hour will come-neither the angels in heaven nor the Son; the Father alone knows.” The same principle is in 1 THESS 5: 2, “For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come as a thief comes at night.” That is backed up by one of many assertions that the Lord will establish His eternal Kingdom after “the final separation of sheep and goats” [the last judgment spoken of in MT 25: 32]. HE 1: 1-2 is an example of many such Scriptures, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors many times and in many way through the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us through His Son. He is the One through Whom God created the universe, the One Whom God has chosen to possess all things at the end.” Faith has been clearly defined for us in HE 11: 1-3, “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God’s approval [see GN 15: 6 for example]. It is by faith that we understand that the universe was created by God’s word [see JN 1:1-4], so that what can be seen was made out of what cannot be seen.” I love Les Feldick’s definition, “faith is taking God at His word.”
Believers are given information in the Scriptures about the rapture, that Day when the last trump shall be heard and Christ calls us to meet Him in the clouds in 1 THESS 4: 13-18. 1 THESS 3: 11-13 gives us insight into the culmination of the sanctification process, “May our God and Father Himself and our Lord Jesus prepare the way for us to come to you! May the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow more and more and become as great as our love for you. In this way He will strengthen you, and you will be perfect and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all who belong to Him.”
We need to understand the nature of God’s enemies, those people who scoff at His teachings and allow the devil’s control of them to lead them to attempt to destroy the faith of those they persecute. They often know the picture of the final judgment as it is described in the Scriptures and want to scare believers into thinking that the whole story is a lie along with everything else in the Scriptures. Many of them buy into the theory of uniformitarianism, the belief that existing natural processes remain the same with the same intensity as they have at present, and these processes sufficiently account for all the changes that have taken place on earth. This is closely linked with the Darwin theory of evolution which teaches survival of the fittest. If you can believe this, I began my career teaching college level biology that favorite theory of humanism. That was before I was brought to faith and the course of my life was changed by my loving Abba. One of the features of that theory is a statement that says, “ontogency recapitulates phylogency.” What that means is that if you line up all the embryos of different species, they will appear the same in the early stages and only differentiate into the unique features of each species as maturation of the embryo continues. That is used as the explanation for the assertion that man has evolved from the ape. Any intervention by God in man’s physical creation, maturation, and history is rejected by humanists. That is why they can be completely comfortable with passing laws making it illegal to teach anything in schools that remotely suggests God’s supremacy or sovereignty. That is why there is law in force that prayer is illegal in the public schools of this country. That is why they would like to convince people weak in faith that the Scriptural promise of the Lord’s second advent is a lie. These are the people who Paul speaks of in RO 1: 25, “They exchange the truth about God for a lie; they worship and serve what God created instead of the Creator Himself, Who is to be praised forever! Amen.”
The real lesson for all of us in this is that God alone, through His Son, the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures, our prayer lives, our congregations, and our circumstances, equips us to reject the efforts of those scoffers who try to destroy our faith. When we hold close to our Lord, they cannot win. Instead, through Him we are victorious in our rejection of humanistic, evil lies. We can delay our gratification and wait until the Lord shows us the time is right for Christ’s second advent. Most important of all, we can rest assured that once the final judgment has taken place, the Lord will establish His eternal Kingdom, and we will be joint-heirs to it with Him. God will reign supreme!
PRAYER: O Lord, when You gave us faith, Your Son told us there would be persecution from unrighteous people who reject You. He also told us that in the latter days, there would be those who would challenge our faith, doing the work of the adversary. At the same time, You demonstrate Your love for us by equipping us to deal with liars such as those who confront us. In the Scriptures, You describe their attributes and how they do their work, so that we would be able to recognize them. Then You guide us to truths that let us know that we can overcome their assaults on our faith. Thank You for providing this comfort and this defense. We appreciate the inspiration that You have given to Peter and the other writers of the Scriptures that provide us with effective weapons in the spiritual warfare we must wage. Most of all, we honor You for sacrificing Christ on the cross for us and then causing the Holy Spirit to dwell within us. We offer You our worship, adoration, praise, thanks, glory, and honor in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
Tomorrow, we will continue looking at this section of Peter’s letter on the promise of the Lord’s coming with 2 PET 3: 5- 7, which elaborates on the description of unrighteous rejecters of God’s teachings and why their arguments are spurious. God’s love for us is woven throughout the fabric of Peter’s letter. We can take encouragement from that and bask in its warmth. My husband, Peter, and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn