Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
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2Peter 3: 3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
Ah yes, 2 Peter 3. The go to verse whenever someone feels their end times chart wobble.
Let us look at it without clutching a prophecy conference brochure.
First, the passage. Peter says that in the last days scoffers will come, saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?” They argue that all things continue as they were. Peter responds by pointing to the flood as proof that God has intervened before and will intervene again.
Now here is the key question. What “coming” is Peter talking about?
If you assume without argument that every reference to the Lord’s coming means the end of world history, then of course you will read it that way. But Scripture does not use the word “coming” that narrowly. God “came” in judgment against Egypt. He “came” against Babylon. He “came” against Jerusalem repeatedly in the prophets. None of those involved the sun disintegrating.
Peter is writing to first century Christians facing Jewish opposition. Scoffers were mocking the promise that Jesus would come in judgment, particularly upon apostate Israel. “Everything continues as it always has,” they said. Sound familiar? It is the same tune played before the flood. Judgment delayed does not mean judgment denied.
Peter’s flood analogy actually strengthens the preterist reading. The flood was a covenantal world ending event. The “world” of the ungodly perished, yet the planet remained. Likewise, the old covenant world centered in Jerusalem was about to be swept away. That is precisely what happened in AD 70 when Rome flattened the city. The heavens and earth of that covenant order passed away.
Notice also Peter’s audience relevance. He says the day of the Lord will come like a thief. Jesus used that language repeatedly about Jerusalem within that generation. You do not warn first century believers about something two thousand years distant and call it imminent without doing violence to language.
Now, does 2 Peter 3 have ultimate cosmic implications? Certainly. Final judgment is real. But the immediate thrust of the passage addresses the collapse of the old covenant order, vindicating Christ and silencing scoffers who thought He would never act.
The historical point is simple. Christ did come in judgment against Jerusalem, just as He promised. That was not the end of history. It was the beginning of the new covenant world’s public triumph. The kingdom was not vaporized. It advanced.
So when you wave 2 Peter 3 as though it topples the Nero case, it is rather like bringing a garden hose to stop a freight train. The text, read in context, supports the reality of covenantal judgment in history. It does not demand that every “coming” be the last trumpet and cosmic meltdown.
Scoffers were wrong then. They are still wrong now. Christ keeps His appointments. "Last days" doesn't translate to Armageddon. It means the end of the age, not the end of the world.... And the end of the sacrificial age ended in 70AD when Jesus came on the clouds in judgment within the same generation He promised he would and did what He promised He would do.
If you want to continue actually make an argument instead of posting just scripture (without your own thoughts) that I understand the same way Christians did for 1800+ years while you clearly do not.