The Apostle Peter wrote an amazing devotional to encourage the church about what would happen in the last days on the planet before the Lord’s return. He provides this prophecy to encourage believers towards good and proper thinking in a world where people mock or scoff at God’s story and promises.
Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles.
Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. – 2 Peter 3:1-7
A quick summary of each verse in that passage:
A reminder to think about what is good and true.
By remembering what is written in the Bible.
Scoffers will make fun of the Bible so they feel better about living in sin.
Scoffers will deny that Jesus will return, claiming that the natural world goes on today as it always has.
Scoffers intentionally forget that God created the world.
Scoffers intentionally forget that God flooded the world.
They scoff at the idea of an afterlife and God’s judgment.
Peter’s prophecy speaks directly to modern atheists, much of modern culture, and science that denies the supernatural and only sees the world as natural. One crazy thing about the naturalist’s perspective is that as scientific knowledge accrues, much of what gets labeled “natural” appears to be supernatural.
Life is one thing that seems normal and natural. We are used to it and it is all around us, but it is miraculous and remarkable. For example, there is no such thing as a “simple cell” as Charles Darwin described it in his book on “The Origin of the Species.” Every cell is a vast array of complex biological machinery that no human is even close to imagining how it might have come into being without a creator. As Ray Comfort of Living Waters ministries likes to put it, “When you see a building you automatically know there was a builder, when you see a painting you know there was a painter.” Likewise, every cell proclaims there was a creator.
Take another moment to consider Peter’s prediction and give God thanks for his magnificent hand of creation, provision, and salvation.
Pastor John Riley