2 Peter 3:8 Deliberate Ignorance
Peter, in this his last letter, is very concerned over the influence sceptics, or as he calls them scoffers. They were infiltrating the early church and people were listening to them instead of to the apostles. It is still happening in our generation. When I was a student the Dean of Emmanuel college Cambridge was Don Cupid, an ordained Anglican minister was an outspoken scoffer. He said,
“Anyone who believes in an afterlife must be barmy!”
David Jenkins was consecrated Bishop of Durham in spite of his scepticism about what the apostles taught. He gave an interview for a BBC Credo programme in which he admitted that he doubted whether God would have arranged a virgin birth for Jesus, or allowed him to walk on water. Two months later he gave an interview saying:
“To believe in a Christian way, you don't necessarily have to have a belief that Jesus was born from literally a virgin mother, nor a precise belief that the risen Jesus had a literally physical body.”
We have just seen in 2 Peter 3:3-7 a brilliant analysis of ‘scoffers’. Peter writes that they do not accept the witness or authority of either the prophets of the Old Testament or the apostles in the New Testament. This why this letter was written to all Christians:
“I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles.” 2 Peter 3:1-2
Note that for Christians to think Biblically was not an option but a command of God! There is good evidence that scoffers empty churches but for some reason they remain popular interviewees on the radio and in the press. Could there be some agenda going on here?
The scoffers argue that because God has not clearly intervened supernaturally in world events within living memory, he is never going to do so. Consequently man is on his own and needs to find solutions to all his problems just as he has in developing the physical sciences. The obvious problem with this is that man’s greatest problems are not physical but spiritual. How should we live? Can we experiment with sexuality and see how far we can get away with things? Is lying really bad, many seem to be successful by doing this? Do children really have to honour their parents? Can we not experiment with drugs?
Scoffers need to face two issues head on, the intellectual questions and the moral questions.
Intellectual Questions
Jesus claimed to be the one and only Son of God who was equal to God. He taught people that they could only become acceptable to God by becoming his followers. Consequently the most important question people need to ask is ‘Who is Jesus?’, is he who he claimed to be? There is much evidence for people to get their teeth into. Did he did fulfil those 330 prophecies about the coming Messiah given in the Old Testament, was he was crucified and killed and did he rise of the third day? Were his apostles really were so convinced that they gave their lives to tell the world about Jesus?Why did the early church spread so rapidly in spite of persecution. If there is any substance in such arguments then Jesus cannot be simply overlooked. On top of this comes his attractive character, his selflessness and his willingness to speak out against evil. Most significantly Jesus speaks of my need. I know I am not the person I ought to be and of my own I have no hope of being acceptable to my creator. I do need a Saviour. Jesus says that the only way to find answers to these spiritual questions is through the gracious revelation of our creator and Lord. All these arguments make him someone to be reckoned with.
Consequently in one corner stand those who think that man has now ‘come of age’ and has to find answers to all our questions by ourselves as we are on our own. They think that if we can make such progress in the sciences can we not do the same and answer spiritual questions without reference of God? Such secularists tell us ‘Don’t listen any more to the Word, look at the World, that is all we have.’ In other words, man’s thinking has been deified – it is only in what man thinks and discovers that is valid!
In the other corner stands Jesus with his extraordinary statements about his own importance.
“I and the Father are one.” John 10:30
“I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
He even contrasts what he says to what the passing worldly can offer,
“Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will not pass away.” Matthew 24:35
Jesus is saying that this world we live in is not the final authority, it is God. No real answers to the big questions of life, death and eternity can be found in studying man and this world. They can only be found in what God has revealed. Moreover the evidence for the dependability of Jesus can be thoroughly investigated as outlined above. The sciences teach us how things work but not why. Scoffers, even those with a Christian title, stand against this authority of Jesus and his Word but so force themselves into what is logically a life without a meaning or purpose.
Moral Questions
Scoffers deny the anger of God yet this is central to the teaching of the Bible. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were consequently expelled from his presence and we are all now facing this same problem. This issue of the wrath of God is not popular today. The revised liturgies of many Anglican churches have markedly reduced this emphasis, warnings given in Scripture have often been deleted from the liturgies. At present the English revisions are not so bad as those of North America but there is one glaring example of the change in thinking that is going on.
The Venite, Psalm 95, has been used in the morning prayer of churches since the earliest of days. The first seven and a half verses are a call to worship, and the psalm starts,
“Come (Latin venite), let us sing for joy to the LORD, let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.” Psalm 95:1
However the second part of the psalm is a warning that when we come to god in worship we must listen to what God says. The end is severe, addressing those who reject God’s teaching,
“I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” Psalm 95:10-11
It is striking that in the old Book of Common Prayer the whole Psalm is included. However in the Alternative Service Book the warning in the second half has been been replaced by a softer substitute ending. Perhaps this is why the gospel, the good news that we can be put right with God by Christ meets little eager reception – we are not teaching people basic Christian truths. The Bible is clear however,
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
There is only one answer to the eternal danger we face,
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
Peter’s Answer
Peter keeps reminding us that our problems come from a failure to think clearly. He started the chapter,
“I have written both of them ( his two letters) as reminders to stimulate you into wholesome thinking.” 2 Peter 3:1
“But they deliberately forgot that long ago by God’s word . . .” 2 Peter 3:5
He then proceeds to remind the sceptics that each stage of the world’s creation was initiated by what God said and that this same God later judged the rebellious world in the time of Noah. He urges his readers to look at the facts, or, more specifically, not to forget just one fact,
“With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” 2 Peter 3:8
Peter answers the issue of the apparently delayed return and judgment of Christ head on. This quote comes from Psalm 90, a Psalm written by Moses, is so apt. This Psalm contrasts the eternity of God with the brevity of human life and Peter contrasts the eternity of God with the impatience of humanity. We are warned never to think that we are anywhere near the same league as God! The scoffers were saying that the only permanent reality is in matter, in what can be seen and measured. In contrast Moses taught us that God was God even before matter was created,
“Before the mountains were born, or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” Psalm 90:2
Peter is taking us back to the profound truth that the prophet Moses passed on to us and with which this psalm begins,
‘Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.” Psalm 90:1
We have no home and can find no security outside of a relationship with the Lord our creator. The possibility for this has been won by Jesus and this is now open to all. What a wonderful teaching this is to the many restless souls in our world today. Real satisfaction is only found in such a relationship; this is what Jesus came to offer us all.
The Psalm, unlike many modern churches does not overlook why we desperately need this salvation,
“We are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation.” Psalm 90:7
“You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.” Psalm 90:8
“All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan.” Psalm 90:9
“For who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due to you.” Psalm 90:11
Alexander Solzhenitsyn has analysed what has gone wrong in Russia and also what is going wrong in the West. In receiving the Templeton prize he analysed the reasons behind the Russian revolution, the French Revolution concluded,
“Men have forgotten God.”
The history of the Jews, God’s original people shows they have faced immense opposition from the Ancient Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Nazis and many others over thousands of years yet they continue to exist.
King Louis XIV of France once asked Blaise Pascal for a proof of the existence of God. The reply was immediate. “The Jews, your majesty”. The Jews have repeatedly faced the judgment of God but have survived because, as the bible makes clear, they are a people he loves. Look at what is happening to churches throughout the world, many are losing influence. It can only be the judgment of God on the people he loves. Is Covid also a warning from God, is God saying to our societies, ‘You have forgotten me!’?
The churches keep repeating the limited mantra, ‘God is love, there is nothing to fear,’ and leaves out warnings about God’s judgment. To do this is to be unfaithful to Jesus and his message, a message that the apostles have faithfully passed on to us. We need to remind each other that God really does become indignant when rejected. Psalm 90 concludes with the only reasonable response people can have,
“Relent, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants.” Psalm 90:13
“May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendour to you children. May the favour of the LORD our God rest upon us.” Psalm 90:16
This is the prayer of humble people begging the Lord God to return and to give their tiny short-lived lives significance.
Anthony Trollope’s ‘Barchester Towers’ is the story about a mid nineteenth century humble but Godly clergyman, the Red Mr. Harding, the vicar of a small village church. The villain of the book is the outwardly religious Mr. Slope. A film of the story unfortunately omits the ending of the book which reads,
“The author now leaves him (Mr Harding) in the hands of his readers. Not as a hero, not as a man to be admired or talked of, not as a man who should be toasted at public dinners or spoken of as the conventional absurdity of a public divine, but as a good man without guile, believing humbly in the religion which he has strived to teach and guided by the presepts he has striven to learn.”
Mr Harding’s one concern was to take his Lord and God’s word seriously and put it into practice in how he lived and taught. This is what matters most.
Peter is similarly reminding us that man, in his pride may extend his life for a few years but God can sweep us away at any moment. Yet our small lives can have an eternal significance, whatever our lot in life, if we repent and return to our Lord and Saviour. This is the message all people need to hear.
BVP
