2 Peter 3:12, commentary and pictures

Believers are to look for the coming day of God and hasten it, treating it as near at hand and not distant, for that day is Christ's coming in the clouds with power and great glory. On that day the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved with great noise, the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth and its works shall be burned up. That same fire consumes the wicked root and branch yet purifies the whole earth from sin and the curse, and according to promise believers look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness as their eternal home. Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, believers ought to be diligent in all holy conduct and godliness, found in peace without spot and blameless. It is in human power to hasten that day by giving the gospel of the kingdom to all the world for a witness, by Christ's character fully reproduced in them, and by faithful working, warning, and stewardship to prepare a people to stand.

Wording and Nearness

Believers are called not only to look for the coming of the day of God but to hasten it, and this is the privilege of every Christian rather than something to treat as distant. Looking and hastening require diligence and readiness for Christ's appearing in eager, watchful expectation, with faithful living and work. That hastening takes place as those who profess His name bear fruit to His glory and sow the world with gospel seed, so that when the whole world has been sown and the last harvest is ripened Christ comes to gather the precious grain and claim His people. His coming to claim them takes place when His character is fully reproduced in them.

The day of God is the time of Christ's coming in the clouds with power and great glory, the second advent and the day of Christ's kingdom and coming kingdom. It is also the great day of judgment and of Zion's deliverance, a coming day of trial that will come upon people as a thief in the night, stealing unawares. That second coming and the saints' establishment on the new earth are still future events, not scenes already past. Readiness for that day calls for holy conduct and godliness, for an education in which all powers are trained and consecrated to service, with youthful zeal employed in thorough, organized efforts to bless others instead of spending holidays, money and time in games, and for vigilance, temperance, humility and simplicity with active work to awaken others to their danger.

The verse belongs to the close of this earth's history, the last remnant of time when prophecy is fulfilling and Christ will soon come with power and great glory. It presents that coming as near at hand, with no time to lose and no room to say it is delayed. The present time is still a precious period of probation in which people may prepare for eternity, for the day has not yet come. Yet present events are leading toward it, and though nations are in turmoil and wars are occurring, a general engagement has not yet begun because the four winds are held until God's servants are sealed, after which the powers of earth will gather for the final battle. Looking for and hastening in this setting means keeping souls in the love of God by not only watching but praying and working and waiting, rousing people to immediate preparation, sounding earnest warnings, persuading men everywhere to repent and flee the wrath to come and come to Jesus repenting of sins, declaring the end of all things is at hand and being instant in season and out, while living in all holy conduct and godliness, diligent to be found in peace without spot and blameless, guarding against being led away by the error of the wicked from steadfastness, growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, and looking according to promise for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. This call speaks directly to those living at the close and to churches in the lukewarm Laodicean condition, neither cold nor hot, summoning them to a fresh, new experience.

The apparent delay is not slackness but the Lord's longsuffering, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. At the same time there are willingly ignorant scoffers of the last days who walk after lust and deny the promise of His coming, and believers are to refuse to belong to them by understanding the Word of the Lord and following on to know Him day by day. The day of the Lord will still come as a thief in the night, when the heavens pass away with great noise and break apart by burning fire, the elements melt with fervent heat, and the earth and its works are burned up. Because all these things shall be dissolved, looking for and hasting unto the day requires being persons of all holy conduct and godliness.

Its nearness is testified by casualties and disasters by sea and by land, by floods, storms, fires, earthquakes, and the unsettled condition of affairs throughout the world. Fire, flood and earthquake are warnings of the Lord's soon approach that the day of judgment is at hand, and terrible calamities and destructions of cities that blot wicked inhabitants from the earth warn of what is coming upon the world in that day. These judgments are to arouse men and women to recognize the time, to fear God and turn from wicked ways to the living God, to stand in fear before Him, to get ready to meet the Lord, and to join with urgent, determined effort the great work of preparing a people, with individual members enlightening those in darkness in a world-wide field whose openings exceed the means on hand. That coming judgment by purifying fire is upon widespread moral corruption, for the practices that brought judgment upon the antediluvian world and caused Sodom to be destroyed by fire are fast increasing, the standard of morality is lowered, and the earth defiled by transgression and increasingly burdened by the curse is fast becoming a Sodom and preparing for purification by fire.

Christ's coming and the day of God are a great subject of truth calling for serious attention. The verse's warning makes preparation urgent, since choices are being made with consequences for both time and eternity and everything is being decided for life or death.

Fire Dissolves and Purifies

On that day the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and break apart with great noise, the elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth and the works in it shall be burned up and dissolved. Looking for and hastening that coming belongs with living in holy conduct and godliness, being diligent to be found in peace without spot and blameless, accounting longsuffering as salvation, and looking for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness. The time is the close of this earth's history, the last remnant of time when prophecy is fulfilling and Christ will soon come with power and great glory, leaving no time to lose, and it calls lukewarm Laodiceans neither cold nor hot to a fresh new experience with growth in grace and knowledge and guarding against being led away by the error of the wicked. There is no standing still but only advancing or going backward, and the dissolution shows how quickly God can create and how quickly He can destroy, requiring fear of the Lord and forbidding finite man to exalt himself with swelling words of vanity.

That final conflagration is God's decreed judgment that no human power or invention or skill can stay. It will be even more thorough than the great fires of Chicago and London, which spoke as God's voice calling to repentance.

The weight of the passages places the melting of the elements with fervent heat when Christ comes in glory with His holy angels. Then the whole earth blazes with the terrible light of His presence, greater than when the glory on Sinai was like devouring fire. A fiery stream issuing from before Him causes the elements to melt and the earth and its works to be burned up, and that same flaming fire takes vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel.

Those who held the other position place the fire that dissolves the heavens and melts the elements as fire breathed and coming down from God out of heaven at the end of the thousand years to devour the wicked. The cleansing does not happen until after the saints have rested in the Holy City and reigned as kings and priests a thousand years. It follows Jesus descending with the saints upon the Mount of Olives and the mount parting asunder to become a mighty plain for the Paradise of God and the city of God to rest upon, and follows the wicked dead being raised and gathering around the City after seeing what they have lost. The saints are safe in the city and on top of its wall with Jesus while it happens.

That fire executes judgment and consumes the wicked root and branch, with Satan as the root and his children as the branches. It gives them what Christ and the saints together measured out to them during the thousand years. The feet of the wicked will never desecrate the earth made new.

The same fire that devours the wicked purifies the whole earth, melting the broken ragged mountains and the atmosphere, burning up all stubble and what remains. It cleanses the earth a second time from moral pollution, sin, impurity, corruption and every mark and sign of the curse, so the universe is clean and the great controversy is ended. Then the whole earth made new opens before the saints as their glorious inheritance, and they shout Glory Alleluia.

The earth, defiled by human transgression and increasingly burdened by the curse, is preparing for that purification by fire. After the thousand years the city of God comes down to the prepared earth, where God's people see what He has done for them, eternally secure so the city will not be corrupted and its inhabitants will never know corruption. Jerusalem is no longer sacred because of the rejection and crucifixion of Christ and remains under guilt until that cleansing, and only when cleansed by the purifying fires that remove every stain of sin will it again be sacred, when Christ stands again upon the Mount of Olives and His feet part it asunder into a great plain prepared for the city of God.

Enoch's translation to heaven just before the Flood represents the translation of all living righteous people from the earth before that destruction by fire. They will be glorified in the presence of those who hated them for obeying God's commandments. Enoch also shows that people can live holy lives amid widespread corruption, representing the faithful living in the last days who will be translated from the sinful world to heaven, so the terrors of the day should not be needed to compel right action.

Promise of Renewal

According to promise believers look eagerly for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness, hastening the coming day of God when the heavens dissolved by fire break apart and the elements melt with fervent heat. That looking is joined to holy conduct and godliness in conversation and especially in words spoken, through grace and good hope by faith working by love to purify the soul, wrestling over sin and checking impatient expression, with diligence to be found in peace without spot and blameless, guarding against being led away by the error of the wicked from steadfastness and growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. It calls lukewarm Laodiceans neither cold nor hot to a fresh new experience at the close of this earth's history in the last remnant of time when prophecy is fulfilling and Christ comes soon with power and great glory, leaving no time to lose, keeping souls in the love of God by not only watching but praying and working and waiting, rousing to immediate preparation, sounding earnest warning, persuading men everywhere to repent and flee coming wrath and come to Jesus, and declaring the end of all things at hand. The promise belongs to those loyal to God's commandments and gives hope beyond this world with lasting heavenly riches that cannot perish, be defiled, or fade when earthly treasures are lost, bringing good courage even when parting in this life.

The same fire that devours the wicked purifies the whole earth, melting the broken ragged mountains and the atmosphere and burning up all stubble and every mark of the curse and moral pollution, so the universe is clean and the great controversy is ended. That cleansing does not come until after the saints have rested in the Holy City and reigned as kings and priests a thousand years, after Jesus has descended with the saints upon the Mount of Olives and the mount has parted asunder to become a mighty plain for the Paradise of God, and after the wicked dead are raised and gather around the City, for the feet of the wicked will never desecrate the earth made new. In that execution of judgment fire breathed and coming down from God out of heaven consumes the wicked root and branch, Satan as root and his children as branches, giving them what Christ and the saints together measured out during the thousand years, while the saints are safe in the city and on its wall with Jesus. Then the whole earth made new with no sign of the curse opens before the saints as their eternal inheritance and home, where they possess the whole earth, see what God has done for them, know no corruption, and find nothing impure or harmful to peace and happiness, shouting Glory Alleluia.

Because the present world with its earthly things, treasures, buildings and works will soon be consumed and dissolved in the great conflagration, life is not to be devoted to this world but heaven is the believer's home and citizenship above. Faith in the soon coming must therefore be shown in buildings erected by refusing large outlay of money on what will burn, binding about ambitious plans, and guarding against extravagance or improvidence. Money means souls and is to be used to bring knowledge of the truth to those under condemnation for sin, for wasteful building empties the Lord's treasury so builders lack means to do their appointed work.

Hastening Christ's Coming

It is in human power to hasten the day by giving the gospel to the world, for preaching the gospel of the kingdom in all the world for a witness to all nations brings the end. Sowing the world with gospel seed and ripening the last harvest brings Christ to gather the precious grain, and had the church done her appointed work the whole world would have been warned and Jesus would have come in power and great glory. That hastening does not mean the conversion of all the world but the proclamation of the witness, attended by living power and given with greater earnestness as the coming nears. It is done in waiting, watching, working, praying and warning the world to convert souls to the blessed hope of the Lord's return.

Believers hasten the coming by bearing fruit to God's glory, so the whole world is quickly sown and the last harvest quickly ripened. Christ comes to claim His people when His character is fully reproduced in them, and hastening comes by zeal to tell the story of redeeming love, of Christ and Him crucified. Faithful, prayerful, hopeful work to advance God's cause hastens the coming, including faithful warning of the cities carried forward in faith and obedience. That work is to be done with courage and genuine faith rather than feverish excitement or despair, with God's Spirit filling workers in answer to earnest persevering prayer and angels going before to prepare hearts so the message goes speedily to every people, nation and tongue before Christ comes in power and great glory.

Faithful stewardship hastens the day, for bringing what is lent into the Lord's treasury advances the work and wins many to the truth through true, earnest, whole-hearted workers. Giving entrusted means and surplus under God's own plan sends workers and truth to unreached places, and cheerful response when He calls for help makes His work advance rapidly. Every person by his position hastens or retards the appearing, since eternal interests are involved in life practice and each is deciding his own destiny. Hastening comes by consenting to be freed from natural selfishness and to be charged with the Holy Spirit, sanctified through obedience to the Father's will, thereby taking part with God and pouring forth divine influence as a human channel. Such consecrated work builds gold, silver and precious stones imperishable when the day tries every man's work, while unconsecrated work builds wood, hay and stubble that are consumed and lost.

Lack of faith, spirituality and divine power hinders that hastening. The present day of waiting requires climbing ever heavenward and holding God's Word as the solid rock against surrounding falsehoods while Satan works with great power and desperate energy for souls, which calls for discernment and living touch with the risen Saviour. It requires patience, longsuffering, gentleness and love, with more of Christ and none of self and no pulling apart, after cleansing of soul and spirit so the Holy Spirit can mold mind and character, and after having done God's will the promise is received. Those who prepare to stand in the day of God and hasten the second advent receive the Spirit and power of the coming One in large measure. Just in proportion to consecration in this life will be advancement and place in the future life and in the temple of God, for work is rewarded according to its character.

Holy Life Required

Seeing that all these things shall be dissolved, those who look for the coming day of God are to be persons of all holy conduct and godliness in conversation, especially in the words spoken, as those cleansed by the Holy Spirit with a new heart who have received present truth, manifesting Christ's meekness and lowliness by divine inspiration as co-laborers with Christ. That standard is reached not by natural ability but through grace given by Jesus Christ and good hope through faith working by love to purify the soul, wrestling for mastery over every sin and checking every impatient, fretful expression. It is lived out with temperance, humility and simplicity, and with understanding of how quickly God can create and how quickly He can destroy, which requires fear of the Lord and acknowledgment of His power and forbids finite man to exalt himself against God with great swelling words of vanity that corrupt speaker and hearer. The dissolution will be even more thorough than the great fires at Chicago and London, which no human power or invention could stay and which spoke as the voice of God calling to repentance, so no human skill can stop that final fire.

Believers are to be diligent to be found of Him in peace without spot and blameless, accounting the longsuffering of the Lord as salvation, guarding against being led away by the error of the wicked from steadfastness, and growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Readiness cannot rest on one's own righteousness but requires the righteousness of Christ and trust in God, for happiness anticipated without trust in God is fleeting like morning dew. Patient obedience to God's will accompanies looking for and hastening the coming day of God, and the promise is received by those who do God's will. Preparation must be made now while probation continues and mercy is still offered, by putting away sins and letting them go beforehand to judgment through confession and repentance to be blotted out in this Day of Atonement. Sins concealed or left unconfessed and unforgiven cannot be made ready in the final trouble, when despairing confessions of unprepared professed Christians will come too late while the wicked rejoice at their distress, for God sees thoughts, intentions, deceit, impurity, corruption and hypocrisy even when outward appearance would hide them.

That present work calls for a more pure and holy work than has yet been seen, with men of clear understanding controlled by the Holy Spirit leading out in thorough reformation, with God's laborers coming into line, and with every soul standing in deeper, truer consecration to God than in past years, leaving no time for trifling or self-seeking in view of what is soon to come and the crisis before us. In that setting God tests and purifies His people like gold until His image is reflected in them and the dross is consumed, requiring self-denial, suffering for the truth, and firm grounding in it, because everything that can be shaken will be shaken and those not settled in the truth will fall. There is no standing still but only advancing or going backward. The verse demands lives of humility and prayer while refusing to diminish God and His glory by pleasing sophistry of human wisdom, in view of the wickedness prophesied to prevail during the last days, now fulfilled in the abominations and crimes of the world.

The day is to be eagerly awaited without careless delay, calling churches in the lukewarm Laodicean condition, neither cold nor hot, to prepare by a fresh, new experience. Those who encourage careless delay turn people away from looking for and hasting unto it, leaving them unwatchful and absorbed in worldly passions and corrupt thoughts. Fitness for the coming of the Son of Man means purity of action, free from selfishness, envy, secret slander and self-esteem, with the heart open for God who sees and reads the heart to search and try it, for the coming brings a judgment of every man's work of what sort it is, rewarding every man as his work shall be. Learning and supposed wisdom that have no lasting value are like wood and stubble, destined to be consumed in the final conflagration.

The day tests inner life, speech, modesty and obedience: words that seem insignificant when spoken will be seen in their true light and judged, so speech and conduct should be controlled now, and thoughts and the hidden life should be such that they can be faced without shame when brought to account. Only sacred purity and virtue will abide that day, stand the final review, and be received into a pure and holy heaven to join the sinless angels, and modesty and virtue guard that purity. Excuses for disobedience to God's law, including neglecting the fourth commandment because of business, family or social ties, will not stand in that judgment. Worldly sharpness and a spirit of taking advantage of others and avarice will not endure it, though business skill is needed to protect institutions when governed by reverence for God and love rather than avarice, for time and circumstances expose character and God's testing brings defects to light so they can be corrected by His grace.

Professed disciples looking for and hastening Christ's appearing cannot join in drunkenness and dishonor God. Physicians waiting and longing for the coming and kingdom of Christ, when death will no longer have power over the saints, are not to overwork and are not to expect more pay than the Christian minister or editor, but are to work within strength, keep the laws of life they teach, and serve for the glory of God and the relief of suffering fellow men rather than for high wages. Teaching natural law and urging obedience to it accompanies the third angel's message in preparing a people for the coming of the Lord. The day of God is a future day of reckoning when each meets the record of conduct written in the books: unrepented questioning of the men God made responsible for His work, exalting one's own opinions and views above the light God gave through them, boasting of knowledge, accusing brethren, belittling the judgment of God's servants and charging them with weaknesses and errors will be seen with shame, as will reproaches and murmuring against faithful ministers, betrayal of trust and corruption of others by physicians, and the work of unfaithful shepherds who will have no reason to rejoice when they meet it.

Warning Others to Prepare

The day calls for a people prepared to stand in it, and that preparation is urgent because of the perils of the present time. The last message of mercy is to be proclaimed throughout the world to prepare them, and those entrusted with this work are accountable for carrying it forward. Preparing them means winning souls to love God and keep His commandments, as love's response to Christ who gave His life for those to be saved. God commissions every child of God to go into all the world and preach the gospel for this purpose.

That mission is high and holy, to be pursued with unceasing activity and every opportunity used. Hasting unto that day means staying at the work instead of losing sight of the mission, settling down at ease for the pleasures of this life or greater worldly advantages, moving away from places of usefulness, or fleeing duty because of opposition or persecution. To be silenced and not actively engaged in service is to abandon that work, for Satan works to thwart the divine purpose and silence voices. Hasting means keeping souls in the love of God, not only watching but praying and working and waiting.

It means rousing people to immediate preparation because little is known of what is before us, sounding earnest words of warning, persuading men everywhere to repent and flee from the wrath to come. It means telling men and women that the end of all things is at hand, being instant in season and out of season, presenting an open door before all who will come to Jesus repenting of their sins. In view of that day of dissolving heavens and melting elements, preparation comes through vigilant waiting, earnest work, holy and godly lives, and full dedication to God. Diligence to be found at peace, spotless and blameless, looking for promised new heavens and new earth, belongs to the same readiness.

Fire, flood, and earthquake are warnings of the Lord's soon approach that the day of judgment is at hand, calling for urgent, determined efforts to help people recognize the time and prepare. Casualties and disasters by sea and by land, floods, storms, fires, and the unsettled condition of affairs throughout the world testify that the day of God is at hand in the very last days of this earth's history. Terrible calamities and destruction of cities that blot wicked inhabitants from the earth warn of what is coming upon the world in that day. These judgments are to arouse men and women to get ready to meet the Lord, to turn from wicked ways to the living God, to stand in fear before Him, and to join the great work of preparing a people for the judgment, with individual members enlightening those in darkness because the field is the world with openings so many and work so enlarged as to be beyond the means on hand.

Satan works to divert minds from that preparation by inciting the nations to war against one another. He delights in war because it excites the worst passions of the soul and sweeps its victims steeped in vice and blood into eternity. His temptations leading to intemperance, sensual indulgence, strife and bloodshed bring multitudes to ruin. Those approaching the day will face the consequences of neglecting duty to warn and seek the salvation of those around them, for no one will be excused for being absorbed in selfish interests.

Many meet that day having done nothing for God because they have shunned responsibility, their lives showing no work to save souls, like unfruitful trees that take up ground without bearing fruit. Professed believers will be held accountable in that day of judgment for efforts to save neighbors they could have warned and urged to come to Jesus. In view of the approaching day, believers should live faithfully rather than waste precious time following inclination and neglecting duty, for character will matter when the day comes. The refined, ennobled, and purified who live rightly with God and help others prepare will be ready, with every moment precious and no time to lose.

The terrors of that day should not be needed to compel right action, yet Enoch shows that people can live holy lives amid widespread corruption. He represents the faithful living in the last days who will be translated from the sinful world to heaven. Those who hear the truth and have every advantage to grow in grace and become of moral worth and fitted for a holy heaven, yet choose corrupt society instead of good, will perish in the coming general ruin even if they act a part in preparing the fitting truth for others, like the men who helped build the ark yet perished in the flood. The day is a terrible end of the ungodly in fiery judgment, warning sinners to repent, seek mercy and pardon through Christ, and get ready for His coming before they call in vain for rocks and mountains to hide them.

It is also the time when results of lives devoted to the Holy Spirit's work will be revealed. Those who served as instruments in bringing others to salvation will see the good their lives accomplished and meet the people they helped. The saved may express gratitude to those who helped them, without taking any praise, honor, or glory from God and the Lamb, to whom redemption belongs. Preparation for that day of trial, which will come upon people as a thief in the night stealing unawares, calls for an education in which all powers are trained and consecrated to service, like the school of the prophets.

In that education youthful zeal and ardor are employed to glorify God in real, thorough, well-organized efforts under instructors to be a blessing to others, instead of spending holidays, money, and time in games. The work of restoring the breach in God's law brings workers into conflict with worldly customs and exposes them to discouragement, opposition, and betrayal, yet they are to continue advancing the cause of truth.