2 Peter 3:10

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

St. Peter's rejoinder charges the scoffers with malicious ignorance: For this escapes their notice of their own purpose, that the heavens were originally and the earth out of water and through water was formed by the word of the Lord. Peter maintains that there are certain facts connected with the creation of the world which are evident even to the casual observer, the denial of which, therefore, reveals the tendency which governs the mind of the scoffers. It escapes them, it is hidden from them, because they willfully shut their eyes to the evidence presented. From the beginning the heavens were there; they were made by the Lord at the very beginning of His creative labors, Genesis 1:1. And the earth, the dry land, was set up, being formed by the separation of the earth and the water, just as it is to this day kept fruitful through water, Genesis 2:6. Thus the earth did not come into existence by itself, it was not developed in the course of eons, or millions of years, out of some original atoms, but it was created by the word of God, called into being by the word of His almighty power.

Upon this world descended the destroying wrath of God: Through which the world then existing, being submerged by water, was destroyed. By the word of the Lord the world was created, through the agency of water it maintained its existence. But again by the word of God and through water as a destroying agency, the world, as then existing, perished. The waters that had receded at the almighty word of God arose again at His command, and the dry land was submerged, and all creatures that had the breath of life in them perished with the exception of the few that were placed into the ark at God's command. Here is an answer to the scoffers that things did not always remain as they were in the beginning.

The apostle now, in contrast to this vain jangling, sets forth the truth: But the present heavens and earth are treasured up by the same word, set apart for fire for the Day of Judgment and destruction of the godless men. The sky, or heaven, as it now appears over our heads, and this earth, as its various forms blossomed forth to new life after the Deluge, are now being kept like a treasure, held together, not through eternal and blind forces of nature, but through the word of the Lord. But the purpose of this careful watch of the Lord is not to have the world last forever. It is being kept, rather, for destruction by fire. The world, as the men from Adam to Noah knew it, was destroyed by water; the world, as it was peopled by the descendants of Noah, is being saved for the fire which will attend the last Judgment. The scoffers may now jeer and ridicule, but the day will come when the patience of God will have an end. Then He will hold judgment; then every sinful thought, word, and deed will have to be accounted for; then the godless, the scoffers, the unbelievers, will be condemned to everlasting destruction.

To his first argument concerning the coming of the Day of Judgment the apostle now adds another to explain the apparent delay: But this one thing should not be hidden from you, beloved, that one day before the Lord is as thousand years and thousand years as one day. There is always danger that the ridicule of the unbelievers may leave just a little doubt in the heart of the Christians, especially since so many of the signs which were to precede the Lord's coming have been fulfilled. But Christians should not permit themselves to be led astray. They should not forget, should not lose sight of the fact, that their Lord is the eternal God, before whom a thousand years of human reckoning are as a day and a single day like a thousand years. Time does not exist for the eternal God, Psalms 90:4. What seems long to us is to the Lord only as the day that has just passed. If to our finite minds the return of the Lord seems to be unduly delayed, we still know that His Word and promise stand safe and sure.

Moreover, it is not a mere caprice on the Lord's part to delay His coming: The Lord does not delay with the promise, as some consider it a delay, but He is long-suffering on your account, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance. To speak of the Lord's delaying, of His being slack in the fulfillment of His promise, is not right, does not square with the facts. He is the true and faithful God, who keeps His promises and fulfills them at the time when He believes the fulfillment should come. The reason why He has not yet permitted the Day of Judgment to dawn is rather one which again opens to our view the wonderful love toward sinners which fills His heart. He is patient, He is long-suffering; He is still sending out His servants into every part of the world because He does not desire the death of a single sinner. He wants all men to turn to Him in true repentance and faith; He wants them all to accept His grace and mercy in Jesus Christ the Savior. His loving-kindness and tender mercy is adding one year after another to the time of grace, as it were, in order that as many men as possible will hear the message of salvation and come to the Lord.

All these considerations, however, do not change one fact: But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a crackling noise, and the elements, being burned, will be dissolved, and the earth and the works in it will be burned. Every word of this verse emphasizes the inevitable certainty of the Lord's coming. The day of the Lord, the Day of Judgment, is corning beyond the shadow of a doubt. Moreover, the believers should keep in mind that this day is coming like a thief, Matthew 24:43; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; Revelation 3:3; Revelation 16:15, that is, its coming will be sudden unexpected, its actual coming a surprise to all. The coming of the Lord on that day will inaugurate the end of the world. The firmament of the heavens will quake and break and vanish, with a crackling noise and roar as of a devouring flame. The elements of which the earth is composed will be dissolved in their present form by burning, and the earth itself and all the works in the world, all the mighty and magnificent structures of man's hands, the immense cities with their proud sky-scrapers, the great ships and all conveyances which the ingenuity of man has devised for use in the sea, on land, in the air, all the wonderful works of art which are exhibited with such self-satisfaction: they all will perish by fire in the destruction of the last day. Of this fact the Christians must never lose sight; it must, in a way, be a norm controlling all their actions in this world.