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Perspectives:
Response by: Arthur Melanson, Jimmy Henry, Dr. Kelly Nelson Birks The verse, 2 Peter 3:8, “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day,” suffers great abuse. Many retreat to this verse when confronted with the time statements of Scripture concerning the first-century return of Jesus Christ. Thus, when one reads timing statements such as soon, near, at hand, shortly, etc., 2 Peter 3:8 is invoked to claim that God does not view time as man does. But Peter defended both the promises of God and the timing thereof against the scoffers of his day. The scoffers taunted Christians, saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:4). Yet Peter says they willfully forgot that God promised to destroy the world of Noah’s day, and that God did what He promised! Then Peter reminds them that God also promised to destroy the heavens and earth in their day (i.e., the Old Covenantal system) by fire. It is at this juncture that Peter uses the verse we are considering. Note the context: He is defending the truth of God’s Word, especially the promises, against those who jeer and mock God’s faithfulness. In response, Peter ministers to the household of faith as he strengthens them. He writes that, if God promises to do a certain thing in a day, the promise is sure, and it will come on time. If God promises to do a certain thing in a thousand years, the promise is sure, and it will come on time. It makes no difference to God if the time is a day or a thousand years; He will be faithful, and He will be on time. The very next verse, 2 Peter 3:9, begins, “God is not slack concerning His promise . . . .” Peter strengthens the sureness of the time statements in Scripture, rather than negating them. I pray this brief study will help you see through the errors of men and grasp what Peter taught concerning God and the faithfulness of His promises.
In an attempt to explain away the meaning of the clear “time texts” that declare Jesus’ return was to occur within the generation to whom the Bible was written, some teachers take Peter’s statement in 2 Peter 3:8 and attempt to prove that God does not measure time as men do. But is that what Peter was saying? I think not. The best interpreter of Scripture is Scripture. Peter was quoting from Psalm 90:4, where David writes, “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” It is true that with God all time is as nothing, because in the presence of God all is eternity. David wrote in this same Psalm, “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” Since God is the eternal being, time is irrelevant to Him. However, He deals with men, who are mortal creatures of time, in a way that they can understand. If God does not measure time in the same way men do in His message to men, then He becomes a deceiver and no man can comprehend His works with men. When Peter quoted from Psalm 90:4, he was dealing with the scoffers who were denying the promise of Jesus’ return within that generation. By quoting Psalm 90:4, Peter was making the point that what seems to be a long period of time to man is no more than a day to the eternal God. Much like the phrase “the thousand years” used by John six times in Revelation 20:1-7, Peter’s use must be symbolic of a period of time in the first century. It seems to me that the apostle never intended for this to be some kind of chronological formula by which believers were to measure human time. I believe he was showing how God perceives time qualitatively, as well as quantitatively. Peter first illustrates God’s quantitative perception of time by saying that a day with God is as a thousand years; in other words, God can accomplish a thousand years’ work in a day if He so chooses. Peter then illustrates God’s qualitative perception of time by saying that a thousand years with God is as a day; in other words, he was saying God is not limited by time as men are. It is not unusual for those who hold to Futurism to quote this text as an argument or excuse for the total disregard of the time texts of prophetic writings. Even in prophecies where a certain time constraint is specified (e.g., words like “shortly,” “speedily,” or “at hand”), Futurists appeal to 2 Peter 3:8 as an arbitrary treatment to justify their attempt to explain why there is a delay in the fulfillment of what the text clearly says. When one who believes in fulfilled eschatology points out that certain predictions had to be fulfilled within the limited time frame, Futurists reply, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” Peter is not giving a mathematical formula, that a thousand years equals one day or one day equals a thousand years. If this is a formula, then how should we interpret a passage like Genesis 7:17, which says, “. . . and the flood was forty days upon the earth.” Are we to understand that the flood lasted forty thousand years upon the earth? This kind of reasoning is illogical, but it is the kind of reasoning used by those who quote 2 Peter 3:8 to deny the literal interpretation of the many time texts in prophetic Scripture. To rightly interpret Scripture, we must read every text in its context and not remove it to some distant time that does not fit the parameters set forth by our Lord or the apostles. To suggest that God has two weights and two measures in His dealings with men, and that His mode of reckoning is ambiguous and variable, is not only unreasonable to me—it is immoral. To make such a suggestion implies that a day may mean a thousand years or a thousand years may mean a day. If this is so, then there is no possible way prophecy can be reasonably interpreted. The Scriptures themselves offer no reason to use such a method of interpretation. God is faithful and He gives no reason to believe that His dealings with men are anything less than consistent with His faithfulness. It is clear to me that Peter’s reason for quoting Psalm 90:4 is to assure his readers that what Jesus predicted in Matthew 24 was about to unfold in their lifetime. Peter was assuring his readers that the Day of the Lord was the Day of Judgment predicted by Jesus and that it was indeed coming upon that generation. In the balance of this chapter, Peter uses apocalyptic language (cosmic imagery) to explain how the Old Covenant age was coming to an end and how the New Covenant age was soon to appear. Peter was, in reality, speaking about the destruction of the Jewish leadership or government, which was fulfilled when the fires of war came upon the nation shortly after he wrote. All these things were to come in the generation that was contemporary with our Lord. The time text makes this very clear. As John Noē says, “Why not just take Jesus at His word?”
When people feel threatened by other viewpoints, those threatened will often manipulate a passage of Scripture so that it appears to support their own point of view. This is exactly what Futurists do with the subject of eschatology. The text of 2 Peter 3:8 is no exception, as it is possibly the most misrepresented text that non-Preterists use when disputing Preterism. The Futurist, when citing 2 Peter 3:8, conforms the text to what the Futurist wants it to say and fails to determine what the text itself means. When preparing to teach or preach on a passage of Scripture, good exegetical and hermeneutical procedure is adhered to by asking the following questions: 1. What does the text say? The text of 2 Peter 3:8 (English Standard Version) reads: “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.” This is a basic proclamation. However, the meaning of the text is understood within its over-arching context and will not be discovered by simply quoting verse 8 alone. We must, at all costs, avoid the temptation to quote a text out of its original context as others do in order to validate their opinion and win the argument at hand. Typically, when this text is quoted, the argument at hand (with deference to its original context) is: “Don’t you understand that time is meaningless to the Lord, and that He can say that His Son can return at any moment (i.e., ‘soon’ or ‘at hand’) with that ‘moment’ possibly being thousands of years still in the future?” This type of position betrays a great sense of desperation. The Bible does not teach spiritual double-talk. The fact remains that all of the New Testament books either discuss the Second Coming explicitly or allude to it; moreover, each book places that coming directly within a first-century context. The text of 2 Peter 3:8 has been proclaimed. But read alone we cannot fully understand the text. This brings us to the second step of biblical hermeneutics: 2. What does the text mean? As was brought out in the first point, context is of primary concern when it comes to understanding any passage of Scripture. However, our context for understanding the verse under discussion does not merely contain a few verses before or after 2 Peter 3:8. Peter laid the ground work for his teaching on the timing of the Second Coming long before writing his second epistle. Notice that Peter’s statement about “a thousand years” is in response to a question—one that is defiantly posed by those whom Peter calls “scoffers.” Verse 3 states: “. . . knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming?’” Going back to verse 1, we begin to understand the meaning of verse 8 and the “thousand years” statement. In order to refute the scoffers and their defiant question in verse 4, Peter states that he had written another epistle previously to this same group of recipients, namely, the first epistle of Peter: “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them [1 and 2 Peter] I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder . . . .” (It is true that Peter does not directly and irrefutably tell us that he is referring to his first epistle (i.e., 1 Peter); but if he is not, then to what could he possibly be referring? Since we have both 1 Peter and 2 Peter preserved for us as canonical Scripture, let us, for argument’s sake, receive the proposition that here, in 2 Peter 3:1, he is referring to the first epistle that bears his name.) At the end of verse 1, Peter states that he is, by what he is about to say, attempting to “remind” his readers of something that he had stated to them in his first epistle. In 2 Peter 3:2, he tells his readers to “remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles” concerning Christ’s Second Coming. (We know this because of the immediate reference to the dispute over the timing of the Second Coming being “scoffed at” by the scoffers in verse 4.) Thus, both Old and New Testament prophets prophesied concerning the timing of Christ’s Second Coming, and the Lord Jesus Himself taught regarding it. Next, Peter directs us to the timing of the Second Coming in verse 3: “. . . knowing this first of all [‘first of all,’ meaning that what he is about to say concerning the timing of Christ’s Second Coming is of ‘first’ importance], that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing . . . .” Clearly, the Parousia was predicted to occur within the period of time which Peter calls “the last days.” My intent is not to discuss the meaning of the term “last days” (the first-century Jews believed it represented the last days of the Mosaic system and the beginning of the reign of the Messiah). Rather, it is my intent to establish that what Peter called the “last days” was, in fact, the same generation in which Peter lived and ministered. Thus, the scoffers were retaliating against the first-century teaching that Christ’s coming was certainly about to occur in their lifetimes. This is why it is important to understand why Peter made reference to “reminding” his readers about what he had stated previously to them in his first epistle concerning the timing of the last days. Peter makes it abundantly clear in 1 Peter 1:20 that the last days were the time in which Christ himself was first manifested in the flesh, carried out His ministry, sacrificed Himself on Calvary’s cross, and was resurrected bodily from the grave. According to 1 Peter 1:20, “He [Christ] was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake . . . .” The fact that Christ was upon the earth during what the Bible calls the last days or the last times is made abundantly clear from numerous passages (Gen. 49:1, 10 and Num. 24:17; cf. Mt. 2:1-2; Heb. 1:2, 9:26; and 1 Jn. 2:18). The scoffers’ scoffing was yet another sign that those alive in the first century were, in fact, living in the last days. Clearly, Peter believed that he was living and writing in the last days. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter now states in verse 4 that a person’s “sinful desire” asks the defiant question, “Where is the promise of His coming?” This is important: if the scoffers are asking the question of “where” the promise of His coming is, then this indicates that the scoffers were responding to the first-century teaching that Christ’s coming was “soon,” “at hand,” and “about to be.” This very important fact is missed by all Futurists who deny that the New Testament teaches a first-century Parousia. They are so livid in their denial of the biblical teaching that they fail to ask themselves the all-important question: “Why are the scoffers scoffing at the promise of His coming?” The simple answer is that they understood what Christians were proclaiming. However, because several years had passed, and the Temple was still standing, they felt that the promise of His coming had been proved false. The fact that they were scoffing verifies that the first-century church proclaimed a first-century Second Coming of Christ! No other explanation will suffice as to why the scoffers were scoffing at the first-century timing of Christ’s coming. With the above in mind (and without belaboring verses 5-7), let us now answer the question at hand: “What does 2 Peter 3:8 mean?” While Peter refers to the fact that, to the Lord, a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day, Peter is not saying that time is a meaningless concept to God and that His apostles and prophets can say that Christ will come soon, or that His coming is at hand, while it is still thousands of years away. Rather, through the God-honoring method of proper biblical hermeneutics, we can discover precisely what Peter means when he refers to a “thousand years.” The answer to the meaning of verse 8 is found in verse 9: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise . . . .” Verse 8 simply means that God and His promises are not affected by time as it affects us who live “under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Unlike God, we are bound by the tick-tock of the clock. When it comes to God fulfilling His promise of a first-century Parousia, He is not bound by the whims and ways of evil, unbelieving man. Note that, in verse 4, the scoffers asked in their defiant challenge to the confident expectation of a first-century Parousia, “Where is the promise of His coming?” And now, in verse 9, Peter answers his challengers directly: “The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise . . . .” Of what “promise” is Peter speaking? The only “promise” referred to in this context is the promise of Christ’s expected first-century coming that was last mentioned in verse 4. Peter says that to question the validity of what the early church was preaching concerning the first-century expectation was nothing less than sinful (verse 3b). Since this is the “only” Second Coming to which the New Testament documents testify, then it is unreasonable and without biblical foundation to say that the scoffers were referring to anything else other than the proclamation of an expected first-century Parousia. We are to understand that the phrase of a thousand years being as a day to God was not given in order to teach that the Second Coming could happen at any time or that time is meaningless to God relative to the Second Coming. Rather, we are to understand that verse 9 teaches us that, when God states what He does concerning the thousand years, it is meant to proclaim that the Lord is not “slow” (as the scoffers pronounced) when it comes to fulfilling His promise of Christ’s first-century Parousia. Why would someone “scoff” at a promise of a Second Coming that was still thousands of years in the future? They could only “scoff” at a Second Coming that was proclaimed to be at hand! Having settled what the text says and means, we come to our final question: 3. What am I going to do about it? The original intent of Scripture is not fully realized unless it is applied to one’s life. The question that remains for every properly exegeted passage of Scripture is: “What is this text demanding of me? What am I required to do with this information of a first-century expectation of the Parousia?” How about doing for others what I am doing for you, the reader, right now? Take this information, go over it and over it until you digest it thoroughly, and then ask God to send people to you who struggle over 2 Peter 3:8. You will be amazed at the number of folks He will send to you so that you might glorify Christ’s word in defiance of those who, according to their sinful desires (2 Peter 3:3), continue to declare a still-future-to-us Second Coming that is foreign to the text and meaning of Scripture. |
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