2 Peter 3:4

2 Peter 3:4 ‘and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”'

‘and saying' -God gives us one of the arguments being spread by these deceivers. We should remember at this point that God will take into account every idle word which we have spoken (Matthew 12:36). If you wouldn't want it in print, then don't say it.

‘Where is the promise of His coming?' -‘Where is His promised return' (Wey); ‘What has become of the promise He would appear' (Knox). The ‘coming' under consideration is His second coming. Their argument reveals that the apostles had taught that Jesus was coming again! (Matthew 25:13; Matthew 25:19; Matthew 25:31; Acts 1:11; Acts 17:30; 2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Thessalonians 4:13 ff; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 2:1 ff). Scoffers always insist upon “instant proof”, like the people who claimed they would believe in Jesus if He would come down from the cross (Mark 15:32).

‘For ever since the fathers fell asleep' -The expression ‘fathers' can refer to their ancestors in the Old Testament. But it appears that the word here means the past generation of deceased Christians. Peter is writing more than 30 years after the Lord's ascension, and the first generation of Christians was rapidly passing away. They hoped, he came not, why should we entertain such hopes? It appears that were twisting the Scriptures concerning the Second Coming, insisting that Jesus was supposed to return within the lifetime of the first generation of Christians, but He didn't, therefore the doctrine of the Second Coming was untrue. In addition, they may have been claiming, ‘these people are saying that Jesus Christ has changed nothing; things are just the same as in Old Testament days when our fathers died. Going further back, even the Old Testament has not changed anything, because one state of affairs has been in place since the beginning of creation.' (Lucas/Green p. 131)

‘all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation' -‘Ever since our fathers passed to their rest, everything remains just as it was when the world was first created!' (TCNT)

Points to Note:

‘The scoffers supported their skepticism that God would break decisively into history at the return to Christ, by emphasizing the immutability of the world. Had they been alive today, they would have talked about the chain of cause and effect in. closed universe governed by natural laws, where miracles, almost by definition, cannot happen. “The laws of nature”, one can almost hear them saying, “disprove your ….doctrine of divine intervention to wind up the course of history.” Their mistake was to forget that the laws of nature are God's laws; their predictability springs from His faithfulness.' (Green p. 128) 2. The spiritual offspring of such individuals are still alive today: (a) People who deny all the supernatural events recorded in the Bible, and yet still profess to be Christians. (b) Evolutionists who claim that all present possesses have remained constant since the beginning of time. These false teachers believed in. doctrine which was very similar to the popular concept of ‘Uniformitarianism', ‘the doctrine that all geologic changes may be explained by existing physical and chemical processes, as erosion, deposition, volcanic action, and so on..And that these possesses have operated in essentially the same way throughout geologic time.'