The Day After Tomorrow (2 Peter 3:1–13)

The Bible gives us little reason to assume that faithful Christian teaching will be well received by the unbelieving world. Indeed, the message of the cross is offensive to those who have not been taught by the Holy Spirit to believe (1 Corinthians 2:14–16).

But it is one thing when unbelievers reject the truth because they are resistant to truth itself. It is quite another when unfounded Christian fervour gives cause for scoffing.

One of the cardinal doctrines of Christianity that has been the cause of much derision over the centuries has been Christ’s clear teaching about his future, bodily return to earth to judge the living and the dead. To be sure, a great many have rejected this because it is a hard truth that unreceptive hearts cannot receive. But far too many Christians have added fuel to the fire with foolish and completely unfounded predictions of Christ’s coming, which have all, obviously, failed spectacularly.

Hippolytus of Rome, Sextus Julius Africanus, and Irenaeus of Smyrna first predicted that Jesus would return in 500 AD. Beatus of Liébana predicted Christ’s return on 6 April 793, while Sylvester II predicted that Christ would return on 1 January 1000. Others predicted the second coming in 1260, 1370, 1504, 1524, 1533, 1673, 1694, 1700, 1757, 1770, and 1793–95. An uptick of predictions began in the 1800s, not coincidentally coinciding with the rise of dispensational theology, with no fewer than 24 failed predictions between 1800 and 2000 and a further thirteen since 2000. There are, on record, at least a further four predictions of Christ’s coming between 2024 and 2057.

With so many failed predictions, is it any wonder that the unbelieving world scoffs at the idea that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead?

But the second coming is not the only object of such derision. In the first century, after Jesus promised that he would come in judgement on Jerusalem within a generation, scoffers derided his prophecy. His loyal prophets and apostles faithfully preaching the coming judgement, but their teaching was met with strong derision. It is this derision that forms the background to the writing of 2 Peter.

From the very beginning of the letter, Peter has been writing about “the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1:16). As we have seen, this “power and coming” is a reference to Christ’s prophecy that he would come within his generation to judge Jerusalem and end the Jewish sacrificial system, bringing down the curtain on the intense Jewish persecution faced by Christians across the first-century world. These persecuted Christians lived in “a dark place” and the promise of Christ’s coming was the glimmer of hope they needed to hold onto “until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your heart” (1:19).

In chapter 2, Peter exposed the false teachers and plainly told of their end. As he moves into chapter 3, he continues addressing false teachers, but now he shifts focus slightly to reassure his readers that, despite its delay, Christ’s coming was certain. There would be a tomorrow and, more significantly, a brighter day after tomorrow, despite the protestations of the false teachers. They needed to be aware of the denial of the false teachers (vv. 1–7), understand the reason for the delay of Christ’s coming (vv. 8–9), be persuaded of the certainty of his coming (v. 10), and live rightly in light of that coming (vv. 11–13).

In this study, we will consider these four truths as we consider Peter’s encouragement to his readers to live in light of the day after tomorrow.

The Denial of the Day After Tomorrow

2This is a much-debated text, for reasons we will see as we move through it, but it is important to recognise that, whatever Peter is saying here, it must be consistent with what he has said until this point. Chapter 3 continues his teaching in the first two chapters. Specifically, he zooms in here on the reality he had highlighted in in 1:16: that the apostolic prophecy of Christ’s “power and coming” was not a “cleverly devised myth,” as the false teachers suggested.

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles, 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? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

(2 Peter 3:1–7)

Peter references an earlier letter that he had written to this same “beloved” audience. Interpreters are divided on whether this earlier letter was 1 Peter or another, lost, letter that he had written to them between 1 and 2 Peter. It could be either, but the important point, for our purposes, is the reason that Peter wrote both letters: “In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles” (vv. 1–2).

Peter’s teaching in the text before us was nothing new. It was something that had been pressed home through “the holy prophets” and the “apostles.” Unlike today, apostles and prophets were active in the early years of the new covenant church and, as the stewards of God’s truth, it was important for the early Christians to pay attention to their teaching.

By way of application, we should recognise that, while we don’t have prophets and apostles active in our churches, we have the prophetic and apostolic teaching recorded in the Scriptures, and we need to pay attention to Scripture. God has given us the Scriptures as his authoritative, sufficient word for his church today. We need to be reminded of our responsibility to submit to this truth.

Specifically, Peter wanted his readers to remember “the predictions” of the prophets and apostles. It was necessary for them to remember these “predictions” because “scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires” (v. 3).

The “scoffers” of v. 3 are the “false teachers” of 2:1. By referring to “the last days,” Peter was not projecting forward to the final days of human history but to “the last days” of the old covenant era, which would be brought to an end with the destruction of the temple. In one very real sense, Christ’s sacrifice had already put an end to the efficacy of the Jewish sacrificial system but, as long as the temple still stood, the sacrifices persisted. The destruction of the temple would signal the final end to the old covenant dispensation and, in that sense, Peter and his readers lived in “the last days” of the old covenant era.

Unlike those who, through the centuries, have scoffed at failed predictions about Christ’s return, these false teachers had no cause to deride prophecies of Christ’s coming. Jesus had clearly predicted that he would return in that generation and his apostles and prophets had consistently reiterated that coming. They had not set dates—indeed, Jesus himself had stated that he did not know the day and the hour!—but had consistently proclaimed that it would happen in Christ’s own generation, which was still active when Peter wrote. Instead, the scoffers were motivated in their false teaching by “following their own sinful desires” (v. 3a). Christ was coming to judge, and if the false teachers believed what he and his apostles and prophets taught, they would need to correct their behaviour. But they didn’t want to do that. They wanted to pursue their sinful desires and they could only do so by denying the reality of judgement.

Don’t be surprised when unbelievers reject the concept of judgement. If we believe that Christ will judge the living and the dead, it will certainly affect the way we live. We will change our behaviour if we really believe in Christ the judge. The only way to persist in our sinful unbelief is to reject the notion of coming judgement.

Peter now directly addresses the content of the false teaching that his readers were facing: “They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation’” (v. 4). Essentially, the false teachers rejected the promise of Christ’s coming on the basis that God does not intervene in human history in unusual ways. As they looked down the annals of human history, they could not find a single instance of God entering human history in an unusual act.

It may seem incredible that false teachers steeped in Judaistic orthodoxy (see the identification of the false teachers in chapter 2) would make such outlandish claims. How could they possibly be so ignorant? But Peter shows us that they did not really believe what they said. Instead, “they deliberately overlook” the facts. They knew better, but what they knew did not align with “their own sinful desires” (v. 3) and so they “deliberately overlooked” what was obvious to persist in their “sinful desires.”

Countering their outlandish claim that God does not intervene in human history, Peter offers two historic instances of God doing just that, and argues from those two examples that he will do so again.

First, he shows “that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God” (v. 5). Creation was an act of divine intervention.

Second, he argues “that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished” (v. 6). The flood of Noah’s time was an act of divine intervention.

If God divinely intervened in creation (v. 5) and the flood (v. 6) there was no reason to think that he would not do so again. Indeed, “by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgement and destruction of the ungodly” (v. 7).

At this point, you may be wondering what any of this has to do with the first century judgement on the Jewish temple. It seems—does it not?—that Peter is describing some sort of future destruction of the cosmos. This understanding, at least initially, appears to be supported by v. 10: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (v. 10). What does any of this have to do with the Jewish temple?

To answer that question, I need to take a detour into a brief Bible study before returning to the flow of our text. I want to argue that the terms “heaven and earth” and “heavenly bodies,” as Peter uses them, are not a reference to the physical cosmos, but to theological realities. I do not believe that Peter here describes a future destruction of the cosmos. Let me offer three reasons why.

First, if the destruction by fire in v. 7 is parallel to the destruction by water in v. 6, it suggests something other than the destruction of the physical cosmos. In the flood, God did not destroy the fabric of the heavens and earth but instead the evil men and women who populated the earth. The shape of the earth may have been radically altered by the flood, but the substance of the planet post-flood was the same as pre-flood.

Second, the concept of “heaven and earth” are frequently used in prophetic writings to describe spiritual, rather than physical, realities. Consider some examples of this dynamic in the Scriptures.

In Isaiah 51:15–16, God describes forming Israel in terms of cosmic creation. Quoting God, Isaiah writes, “I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’” Notice that, in forming his chosen people, God established the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. The language of heaven and earth describes a politico-theological reality, not a cosmological reality.

Conversely, when God described his judgement against nations, he did so in terms of destroying heaven and earth. For example, “The LORD is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter…. All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree” (Isaiah 34:2, 4). He was not warning of a cosmological judgement but of a politico-religious judgement, which he described in terms of the heavens rotting away and rolling up like a scroll.

In similar fashion, God described the forming of the new covenant in terms of a new creation. “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness” (Isaiah 65:17–18). The creation of a new Jerusalem—the new Israel of God; that is, the new covenant church—is described here as the creation of “new heavens and a new earth” (cf. Isaiah 66:22–23).

Third, the “heavenly bodies” that “will be burned up and dissolved” as “the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (v. 10) strongly suggests a temple setting. The phrase “heavenly bodies” translates a Greek word that is elsewhere used in the New Testament always to describe fundamental religious principles rather than physical elements.

Writing against the Judaisers, who were infiltrating the Galatian churches, Paul writes, “In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world” (Galatians 4:3). The Galatians, like Peter’s readers, were facing pressure to return to Judaism. Sadly, many of them had done so, embracing another gospel. Paul warned that the Jewish system that the Judaisers were pushing were “elementary principles of the world” and no substitute for the fullness of the gospel. He reiterates this in v. 9 when he asks, “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?” (Galatians 4:9).

Paul warned the Colossians against embracing Judaistic emphases contrary to the gospel and writes of “the elemental spirits of the world” (2:8, 20). Again, he refers contextually to the tenets of Judaism that were being foisted upon the church by the Judaisers.

The author to the Hebrews rebuked the Jerusalem church for forgetting “the basic principles of the oracles of God” (Hebrews 5:12).

Far from describing physical elements, the word typically describes religious building blocks. Peter appears to be saying, then, that the coming “fire” will destroy a religious system rather than the physical cosmos. If we remain consistent in our interpretation throughout 2 Peter, I suggest that he has in mind the destruction of the temple and the entire religious system that rests on it. The entire sacrificial system would be “burned up and dissolved” while “the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

The reference to “the earth and the works that are done on it” being “exposed” is perhaps a reference to the final removal of the veil in the temple. While the veil in the temple stood between the holy place and the most holy place, God worked with humanity through the sacrificial system. But the final removal of the temple meant that God no longer looked at the world through the veil. Instead, Christ was seen as the one mediator between God and men. The earth has been “exposed” through the once-for-all sacrifice of Christ.

Now, that is all quite technical, but the point is that the “scoffers” of whom Peter was warning were blatantly contradicting apostolic teaching that Jesus would come in judgement on Jerusalem and its temple. They framed their scoffing in terms of timing: “Where is the promise of his coming?” (v. 4). Where was this judgement that the apostles had been prophesying for nearly forty years? It was time to give up the dream. Peter, in response, shows that, while there had been a delay, there was a reason for the delay, and delay was not the same as denial.

The Delay of the Day After Tomorrow

The false teachers “deliberately overlooked” a “fact” (v. 5) and Peter did not want his readers to make the same error:

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. The Lord is not slow to fulfil his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

(2 Peter 3:8–9)

The scoffers were deriding the reality of coming judgement because it had had been nearly forty years since the prophecy had first been given. How could the apostles and their followers possibly hold onto hope after nearly forty years? Forty years was a lifetime!

Peter replied that forty years is nothing to God! In fact, “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” The point is not so much that God operates outside of time but that God is not in a hurry. We are usually far more in a hurry than God is. He does not count slowness in the same way that we do. Our interpretation of slowness is inaction or unconcern. If God does not step in immediately to relieve our suffering, he must either be impotent or inconsiderate. An omnipotent, omnibenevolent God will surely step in as soon as he can to relieve any form of suffering that we experience.

Rabbi Harold Kushner died earlier this year. Rabbi Kushner’s son was born with a fatal disease, which caused him to wrestle with God’s providence. His wrestling resulted in the publication of When Bad Things Happen to Good People, in which he argued that God is sufficiently good to want to prevent evil but insufficiently powerful to be able to prevent evil. That was the only way that he could reconcile the reality of suffering with a good God.

But let us not think that this is a struggle only for non-Christians. I recently stumbled across a podcast called “Compelled,” which tells remarkable stories of real Christians. One of the remarkable things about the stories is their honesty, which shows Christians wrestling with God’s providence.

How did Hannah Overton wrestle with God’s providence when she was wrongfully convicted of murdering her son and sentenced to life in prison? How did Brian Birdwell wrestle with God’s providence after a hijacked plane crashed meters away from him at the Pentagon on 9/11, dousing him in jet fuel and flame? How did Gracia Burnham wrestle with God’s providence after she and her husband were kidnapped by militant Muslims and held captive for a year, only for her husband to be accidentally shot and killed by their rescuers? These men and women of faith did not find easy answers, but they were not afraid to ask the right questions.

Peter does not offer a full theodicy here, but he offers one reason—and one reason only—for God’s first-century delay: to afford opportunity for repentance. God “is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (v. 9). God still had some “beloved” ones (3:1) to save from among the Jewish persecutors, and he would wait until the very end to ensure that every one of his “beloved” responded to the gospel.

This text should encourage us in God’s fierce commitment to save his elect. We may never have all the answers to God’s strange providences in our lives, but we can be sure that he is committed to saving his people, even if it means delaying judgement to accomplish that. As has often been said, when we can’t fathom God’s ways, we can at least trust his heart.

The Definiteness of the Day After Tomorrow

While the scoffers were denying the reality of Christ’s coming, Peter and his fellow apostles firmly affirmed it: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (v. 10).

Regardless of the protestations of the false teachers to the contrary, “the day of the Lord will come like a thief.” This language, reminiscent of the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24:43; cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:2), reiterates Christ’s promise of the certainty of his coming. At his coming, the Jewish sacrificial system would collapse and the church of Christ, free of restraint from Jewish persecution, would flourish. The gospel would go forth in true freedom without the encumberments of the Jewish sacrificial system. There was hope in the day after tomorrow.

We should pause to recognise how important it is that the sacrificial system came to an end. The Levitical system had been instituted for a specific purpose. Its intent was to remind God’s people of the reality of their sin and their need for forgiveness. The ongoing sacrifices pointed to the truth that sacrifice was necessary for sin but animal sacrifice could never fully atone for human sin. But when Christ became a human being, taking to himself the likeness of sinful flesh, he went to the cross in the place of those he had come to save. Though he never sinned, he died on the cross in the place of all who would believe in him so that he could give to them eternal life. He now holds out the offer of forgiveness and eternal life to all who will believe and receive him.

The sacrificial system undermined the gospel. It blasphemed the name of Christ. The temple and its worship were an affront to God and stripped sinful human beings of all hope. But Christ came to bring hope. By his sacrificial death and victorious resurrection, he offers to all who will come to him in repentance and faith the promise of sins forgiven and life eternal. The sacrificial system denied everything that Christ had done and it was necessary that the temple be removed so that the gospel could be seen in its glorious fullness.

The Difference of the Day After Tomorrow

Having countered the denial of Christ’s coming with the definiteness of Christ’s coming (and having addressed the delay of Christ’s coming), Peter draws this section to a close by noting the difference that this all makes.

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

(2 Peter 3:11–13)

We see here that affirming the coming of Christ to destroy the temple made would make at least two differences in the lives of Peter’s readers as they waited for the fulfilment of Christ’s promise.

A Purposeful Wait

First, Peter shows his readers that their waiting was to be purpose-filled. That is, they were not meant to circle the wages and gaze longingly into the sky as they awaited Christ’s judgement on Jerusalem. Instead, as they waited, they were to consider “what sort of people ought to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming day of God” (vv. 11–12).

If they really believed that Christ was coming as judge, they would live lives of “holiness and godliness,” which, of course, they had been fully provided by God to live (1:3). They would diligently pursue lives free of spot or blemish (v. 14). Believing Christ’s claim to ultimate authority would change the way they lived their lives.

Though we live on the other side of the fulfilment of these events, the principle remains true for us: Believing Christ’s authority as ultimate judge changes the way we live. If we believe that Christ is our ultimate judge, it will change the way we live. It will spur us to holiness and godliness.

If you believe that Christ is your final judge, you will repent of mistreating your wife or disrespecting your husband. If you believe that Christ is your final judge, you will repent of your sexual impurity. If you believe that Christ is your final judge, you will repent of your bitterness and unforgiveness. If you believe that Christ is your final judge, you will repent of disregarding your parents. You will realise that you will give an account for every idle word you speak and will repent of your sin and embrace holiness and godliness. You will believe that God has left you here as a witness of Christian godliness and holiness and will live in line with that purpose.

A Promising Wait

Second, Peter encourages his readers that their waiting was a promise-filled wait: “because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (vv. 12–13).

The end of the sacrificial system would not mean the end of God’s working among his people. Indeed, the removal of the old heavens would result in the establishment of “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” No longer would sin and evil rule the day. The gospel, which produces the righteousness of God, would go forth with real power. Darkness would give way to light. The day after tomorrow would be a day of hope and brightness.

Once again, we live post the fulfilment of Peter’s prophecy. That means that we live in the new heavens and the new earth. (That is not to deny that there will be a cosmic renewal at Christ’s return, but the new heavens and the new earth, at least as they are spoken of in this text, are a present reality.) If the present heavens and earth are heavens and earth “in which righteousness dwells,” there is no cause to be pessimistic about the future of the church or the spread of the gospel. There is a great deal of talk today about the greatest threat to the gospel, and it usually falls along the lines of wokeness and CRT on the one hand or Christian nationalism on the other. While I appreciate that there are always challenges to gospel advance in every generation, the reality is that Christ has won and there is no real threat to the gospel. He will build his church. The gates of hades will not prevail against it. The gospel will go forth to conquer in the new heavens and the new earth. The question is, will we believe it?

Do you believe that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes? Do you believe that Christ intends to grow his church? That is the promise of the day after tomorrow and it makes every difference how you live your life now. Believing this promise will ensure that you will continue to hold to Christian worldviews even if they are increasingly popular, because godless worldviews cannot be sustained. Righteousness will win the day. Will we trust? Will we believe? Will we obey?

AMEN