The doctrines and precepts delivered by the prophets and apostles, being the most effectual means of preserving the Christian converts from being seduced by the false teachers spoken of in the preceding chapter, the apostle begins this with informing the brethren that his design in writing both his... [ Continue Reading ]
_Knowing this first_ That your faith in the prophetic word may not be shaken, but that you may be armed and prepared for the trial; _that there shall come in the last days_ The expression here used, επ ' εσχατου των ημερων, is different from υστεροις χρονοις, _future_, or _latter_ times, (1 Timothy... [ Continue Reading ]
_Where is the promise of his coming_ To raise the dead, judge mankind, and destroy the earth? We see no sign of any such thing. The promise of Christ's coming we have Matthew 15:27, _The Son of man shall come in his glory_, &c.; John 14:3, _I will come and receive you to myself_, &c., and in many ot... [ Continue Reading ]
_But_ Though the destruction of the old world by water shows that the present world may be destroyed, I do not say it will be destroyed by water. No: _the heavens and the earth, which are now_ This whole sublunary world; _by the same word_ Which at first created them, and afterward destroyed them, a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be not ye ignorant_ Whatever they are; _of this one thing_ Which casts much light on the point in hand; _that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day_ This is an allusion to Psalms 90:4, where Moses had said, _A thousand years in thy sight are as one day_, whic... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord is not slack_ Ου βραδυνει, _does not delay_, or is not slow; _concerning his promise_ To fulfil it, as if the time fixed for the fulfilment of it were past; for it shall surely be fulfilled in its season; _but is long-suffering, to us-ward_ Children of men; _not willing that any should per... [ Continue Reading ]
_But_ Notwithstanding the long-suffering of God; _the day of the Lord_ The day of the consummation of all things, and of final judgment; _will come_, and that _as a thief in the night_ Because thieves commonly break into houses in the nighttime, and occasion great fear to those who are within, any s... [ Continue Reading ]
_Seeing then that all these things_ Which our eyes behold; _shall be dissolved_ And we shall be spectators of their dissolution, being raised from the dead before, or at the time of, its taking place; _what manner of persons ought ye to be_ How serious, how watchful, how free from levity and folly,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Nevertheless we, according to his promise_, &c. That is, “Though the present frame of things shall be dissolved by fire, yet we look for another, a more durable and perfect state; _new heavens and a new earth_ New and everlasting abodes, which the divine mercy will then open to our enraptured view,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore, beloved_ Bearing these great truths in your minds, give up your whole souls to their influence; and, _seeing that ye look for such things_ Since you expect the coming of Christ to destroy the present mundane system, and to create a new heaven and earth, and since death, which will confir... [ Continue Reading ]
_As also in all his epistles_ From this it appears that Peter had read Paul's epistles; and, as he speaks not of some but of all of them, it is probable that Paul was dead when St. Peter wrote this, namely, a little before his martyrdom, as appears from 2 Peter 1:14. And seeing that Paul, in his epi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore, seeing ye know these things before_ Respecting the coming of the Lord to judgment, in what an awful manner the scene will close, and what dreadful vengeance will be executed on all the wicked, and especially on those that pollute the Church of Christ, into which they have professed to en... [ Continue Reading ]