Monday, June 23, 2025

"Lesson on 2 Peter 3:8-10)

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/23/2025 10:05 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                Focus:  PT-2 “Sodom and Gomorrah”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                  Reference:  Jude 7

 

            Message of the verse:  7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

 

            I am going to quote from the end of my Spiritual Diary from yesterday and then after that will write some things that I promised to write this evening:  “The cities were set forth by God as an example and warning to ungodly people today.  The verb set forth means ‘to expose openly to public view.’  (Interestingly enough, the word was used to describe a corpse lying in state!) But the cities of the plain are not today in public view.  It is generally agreed among archeologists that Sodom and Gomorrah are buried under the southern end of the Dead Sea.  How, then, do they serve as an example?  In the pages of the Word of God.  No one can read Genesis 18-19 without clearly seeing God’s hatred for sin and, at the same time, His patience and willingness to postpone judgment.  This certainly ties in with Peter’s explanation for God’s seeming delay in fulfilling the promise of Christ’s return (2 Peter 3:8ff).”

 

            “Those verses at the end of 2 Peter 3, which ends that letter are very interesting to me, but I don’t think that tonight is the time to go over them as there are different things in them that would have to be explained.  Perhaps tomorrow?”

 

            Well tomorrow is here and I will attempt to write what I learned from the verses at the end of 2 Peter, as it has been a while since I looked at these verses, but I hope to shed some light on what they say.

 

            “8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day”(2 Peter 3:8).

 

            It is my belief that this verse has been misinterpreted by people, and I will tell you why. Now notice the two times that the word like is used in this verse, as it does not say that a thousand years is one day, and a thousand years is one day.  Time in heaven is certainly different than time here on earth for as the earth travels around the sun and it takes 365.25 days to complete its course around the sun, but as it travels around the sun it is spinning and it takes 24 hours to make a complete revolution.  We don’t know how time is experienced in heaven, but it certainly is different than how it is on earth.  Now these are my thoughts.  I think that when a believer dies and is then taken to heaven by the angels, that say their spouse died 25 earth years later, that when they come together in heaven it will only seem like a very short time.

 

            “9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up” (2 Peter 3:9-10).

 

            Verse ten to me is speaking about the patience of God as God is waiting in heaven for those whom He has chosen in eternity past to come to the Savior.  Once that last person is saved in the Church age then the rapture will take place which will end the church age which began in the second chapter of Acts when the Holy Spirit came upon the believers who were praying.  As mentioned the rapture will end the church age, and then shortly after that the Tribulation period will begin when the antichrist is revealed.  That will last 7 years with 360 days in a year which is how Israel did it in the Old Testament.  At the end of the Tribulation period is when the Lord Jesus Christ along with those resurrected saints who were taken in the rapture will come on horses with the Lord to end the Tribulation period.  Now this can be seen in the 19th chapter of the book of Revelation as John writes “11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14  And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15 From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty” (Rev. 19:11-15).

 

            “10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up”(2 Peter 3:10).

 

            This verse is talking about the end of what is called the Millennial Kingdom, which begins after the Lord returns in Revelation 19, and it lasts for 1000 years, and this is the promised kingdom to Israel.  Peter is saying that at this time the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat.  I want to talk about the word elements which in the Greek is stoy-khi’-on, and the word means basis building blocks.  Now the basic building block of everything in the universe is the atom, and it is not known by scientist how the atom is held together.  Now take two magnets which both have a negative and positive side to them.  Putting the negative and the positive together will cause the magnets to stick together, while putting two positive ends together or two negative ends together will cause them to move away from each other.  Well the atoms are like that but they do not go away from each other, so what hold them together?  Well the answer is that the Lord holds them together and at the end of the Millennial Kingdom He will lose them and they will because the biggest nuclear explosion ever seen as the entire earth along with the entire universe will be burned up.

 

            Looks like we will have to finish our lesson in Jude tomorrow, and I hope you enjoyed the lesson from the end of 2 Peter.

 

6/23/2025 10:49 PM

 

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