Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
***
(Today’s Reading)
The Biblical Case for the Second Coming as Accomplished Fact
(Book Installment 28)
Part Two – The Timing of the Second Coming
Chapter 4 – What the Epistles Say
What Peter Says About Timing (1 and 2 Peter)
Along with the rest of the apostles, Peter considers he and his readers as living “in these last times” (1 Peter 1:20) and that “the end of all things is at hand” (1 Peter 4:7). He says that Jesus is “ready to judge the living and the dead” (1 Peter 4:5) and that “it is time for judgment to begin” (1 Peter 4:17). He then coaches the church leaders to be ready for the appearing of the Chief Leader (1 Peter 5:4) giving no instruction whatsoever about how to pass on church government just in case Jesus should change His mind and decide to come in some subsequent generation. The church would need no human government because the Lord Himself was on the verge of taking charge of His own flock.
2 Peter is for Peter what 2 Timothy was for Paul – a farewell letter. We know from John 21 that Peter was to die before the Lord’s coming. In the first part of 2 Peter he says the Lord has now made it clear to him that his fateful time had come. History tells us that Peter was crucified, head downward, in Rome – probably within a few years of Paul’s execution. No wonder there was to be such a rise of false teachers near the end – so many of the good ones were dying! And what do Peter’s parting words concern? The same things Paul’s parting words concerned. The same thing that concerned all the true apostles – protecting the flock from the flood of false teachers and false messiahs that were arising on the eve of the Lord’s coming.
Any social movement, especially as it encounters success and gathers momentum, will attract those whose motives are not as pure as its founder and earliest followers. The movement Jesus started was no different in this regard. Peter explains that false teachers will introduce their false teaching, some going so far as denying the Lord Himself. Peter says such false teachers will be immoral and sensual and will mislead many who are not seeking purity of life. Peter concludes his letter by exhorting his readers to keep looking for the day of the Lord, including new heavens and a new earth (we’ll say more about this in the next part of the book on the nature of the Second Coming).
Peter says that his fellow disciples should be ”looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God” (2 Peter 3:12). This was no time to set people up for a false hope; no time to encourage people to pin their hopes completely on a coming event that might be delayed for centuries. Obviously, it never occurred to Peter that the Lord might not come in the time frame He gave. And why should it? Peter knew in the most personal and unforgettable way that the Lord would not make a mistake in His prophesying, even when you thought He might (“…before a rooster crows, you shall deny Me…”). Therefore, Peter told people to pin their hopes completely on assurance of the Lord coming when He promised (1 Peter 1:13). To maintain that the Lord did not come in that time frame is to accuse Peter of false teaching.
***
A Bible Reader's Website 