2 Peter 3:4, commentary and pictures

The verse foretells that in the last days scoffers will question and mock the promise of Christ's coming. Their argument is that since the fathers and past generations fell asleep, all things continue unchanged from the beginning of creation, so the passage of time without visible change proves nothing will change. To ask where the promise of His coming is means the same as to say my Lord delays His coming, said not only in words but in a life lived for the world while following selfish desires. It repeats the unbelief of Noah's contemporaries and of Sodom, willfully forgetting God's judgment by the Flood and that the present world is reserved for judgment by fire, yet Christ will come literally and visibly, suddenly as a thief in the night. The apparent delay reflects God's patience for repentance, so believers are to reject this skepticism, discern the signs, remain watchful like the wise virgins, and warn the world to prepare lest sudden destruction overtake the careless.

The Scoffers' Claim

In the last days scoffers arise who question and mock the promise of Christ's coming. Their mockery is the predicted reception of the message of the second advent, a denial of the promise grounded in the claim that all things continue unchanged. This scoffing is ridicule directed at those who expect the Lord to come, and it is the rejection of His promised return even while Christ will nevertheless come to judgment with every eye seeing Him.

Their argument is that since the fathers, patriarchs and past generations fell asleep and died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. They point to the apparent continuation of ordinary life as proof that nothing will change, treating the passage of time without visible change as evidence that no change will come. They put the Lord's coming far off and dismiss warnings while boasting of security, yet the signs are being fulfilled around them.

The question, where is the promise of His coming, means the same as saying, My Lord delays His coming. It is a worldly saying that steals upon the senses, quiets the conscience, and lulls to spiritual slumber and carnal security. When one who has had the light says it even in his heart, it marks him as an unfaithful servant, and it affects believers unless they are daily learning meekness and lowliness of heart. In this application the claim appears in words and in actions, for those who hold it live for the world, mistreat and smite their fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunken. Their denial of the truth in spirit, in works and in words springs from unbelief and doubt, warning others against expecting Christ's speedy appearing and saying peace and safety and the time is not yet.

The scoffers walk after their own lusts while they mock, pursuing their own desires in disbelief of the nearness of the end. Their claim expresses unbelief in the nearness of the end and denies the expected return of the Lord. It is a condition expected shortly before Christ's coming.

Their claim reflects willful ignorance and forgetfulness of God's earlier judgment of the world by the Flood and of the certainty that the present world is reserved for judgment by fire. The apparent delay does not cancel the promise but reflects God's patience and desire for repentance, and the day of the Lord will come. Believers are therefore to remember the prophetic and apostolic words and understand God's promise rather than follow this skepticism.

Fulfilled in Last Days

The verse is a prophecy of opposition to the second advent, fulfilled in the opposition raised to the proclamation of a definite time for Christ's coming. The passing of the 1843 and 1844 expectations made such scoffing bolder, but it did not mean the Lord will not come, for His faithful followers continued to expect Him in His own good time after being tested and purified. Similar troubling conditions caused by men in the early church must be faced by God's people today.

Its prophecy is fulfilled by the present state of the world with its abominations, crimes and prevailing wickedness showing the wickedness that would prevail during the last days. It is fulfilled while the Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the world and casualties, disasters, floods, fires, rail accidents, earthquakes, plagues, disease and sudden deaths multiply without impressing people. The signs of His coming are rapidly being fulfilled, yet security is found only in God.

It is fulfilled when ministers, including those professing to be God's watchmen, teach that Christ's coming is to be spiritual or is to take place in the distant future. They promise a thousand-year period of peace and worldwide conversion before He comes, and dismiss those who warn of judgment as fanatics. The message of His soon return has been denounced as fanaticism or heresy, and opposed as a new and strange belief that cannot agree with church standing, asserted without asking reasons and without reference to the Bible to convince of error. At the same time skepticism and science falsely so called have undermined faith in the Bible, while multitudes striving to forget God eagerly accept fables that they may pursue self-indulgence undisturbed.

The question is asked when the cry of peace and safety is sounded from pulpits and from every part of the Christian world. It is the scornful denial by the sleeping church and the world just before the second appearing of Jesus Christ with power and great glory, in answer to which God's people are to warn the world to prepare for His coming. It is asked while people are eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, planning business and pleasure in godless riot, with money-makers seeking wealth and lovers of pleasure intent upon amusement. While people say peace and safety, sudden destruction is coming.

This scoffing happens at the very time of Christ's coming, while the signs of the last days are thickening around and the wickedness of the wicked is increasing. Violence fills the world and sin and iniquity increase, yet minds are filled with eating and drinking and getting gain, so that people fail to realize the judgments of God are about to fall. Those who live in careless security and put the day of Christ's coming far off will be overtaken as unexpectedly as by a thief and face sudden destruction.

Noah, Sodom, and Judgment

The scoff repeats the attitude of those who rejected Noah's warning before the Flood, answering the message of coming judgment by insisting that life goes on unchanged from creation. Solemn warnings will likewise be mocked in the present age, treated as delusion while people carry on with ordinary pursuits and with minds filled with eating and drinking and getting gain amid increasing violence, sin and iniquity. Noah's contemporaries ridiculed his warning as fear and superstition, and the last-day denial that Christ is coming and judgment is near is the same heedlessness, failing to watch and prepare.

Before the Flood some at first apparently received the warning yet did not turn to God with true repentance, being placed on probation to be proved and tried and failing to endure the trial. Overcome by prevailing degeneracy, they would not leave off their sins but continued in polygamy and indulgence of base and corrupt passions, and finally joined the corrupt in deriding and scoffing at faithful Noah. Some who heard and even helped build the ark later turned away from the truth and scoffed, and will recognize at the judgment according to deeds that accepting and obeying the message would have brought life and salvation. So also multitudes mocked Enoch's solemn warning and went on more boldly in evil ways, while some gave heed and renounced sin, just as the last generation makes light of the warnings of the Lord's messengers.

Confidence in fixed laws of nature leads to treating God's warning as impossible, as when those before the Flood assumed the waters could never overflow their bounds. The same reasoning now rejects prophecy that the world will be destroyed by fire and its history will soon close, on the ground that it would violate nature's laws. Nature is not greater than God, for the Lord of nature who made and rules it can use it to carry out His purpose and is not bound by it, so apparent regularity does not make His warning ineffective and is used only to quiet conscience and disregard God. The scoff willfully ignores God's earlier judgment of the world by the Flood and the certainty that the present world is reserved for judgment by fire, while the apparent delay reflects patience and desire for repentance, not failure of promise, for the day of the Lord will come.

Like the dwellers in Sodom who derided God's messenger and planned business and pleasure as the sun rose for the last time upon the cities of the plain, scoffers absorbed in planning and invention will be awakened only when too late. Destruction falls as fire fell, as a peal of thunder from an unclouded sky, when the wrath of God is poured out without mixture of mercy at the coming of the Son of man. Nevertheless Christ will come to judgment, literal and visible in the clouds with every eye seeing Him, breaking false security while men boast of security. The exact time is not known, but He comes suddenly as a thief in the night in an hour they think not, catching the unprepared and bringing sudden destruction.

Who Scoffs and Why

The scoffers come from all classes, from ministers to reckless sinners, including professed lovers of the Saviour who claim to accept the second advent yet object to a definite time. The scornful denial is heard from the sleeping church and the world alike, from lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, and from worldly-wise people and unfaithful preachers. It is also found among unconverted leaders and false guides who have outgrown their advent faith and live for the world, and among learned people who reject light and oppose truth.

Their real motive is unfaithfulness and fear, for they do not wish Christ to come to judge the world in righteousness because their works will not bear inspection by the heart-searching God. Like the Jews at Christ's first advent they are not prepared to welcome Jesus. They put the Lord's coming far off and expect tomorrow to be like today only with greater abundance, planning to go deeper into pleasure-loving. This unchanged appearance becomes an excuse to ignore warnings of judgment and to pursue pleasure and sin, while living for the world and mistreating fellow servants in word and action as those who say the Lord delays His coming.

The same claim is used to pursue wealth-seeking and money-making without principle, ambitious knowledge of everything but the Bible, and self-indulgence undisturbed, with multitudes striving to forget God eagerly accepting fables. While people are eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, planning business and pleasure in godless riot, they ask where the promise of His coming is. Their lack of love for His appearing gives Satan and his angels cause to exult and taunt Christ and holy angels. Satan uses that preaching and a power from beneath in calamities to keep minds full of pleasure and amusements of every description so they go on as ever, and the unfaithful are controlled by Satan in reason so they know not at what they stumble.

The saying steals upon the senses, quiets the conscience, and lulls to spiritual slumber and carnal security, and it affects believers unless they are daily learning meekness and lowliness of heart. Joining in such ridicule even while professing religion is infidelity and is incompatible with watching and praying for Christ's appearing. They laugh at warnings, refuse plain arguments from the Bible, and ridicule those who look for the Lord and try to arouse them, calling them fanatics, enthusiasts, and not levelheaded. The promise of the Lord's soon coming is opposed as a new and strange belief that cannot agree with church standing, with incompatibility asserted without asking reasons and without reference to the Bible. Those outside the place of safety ridicule those hastening in to be saved, telling them the plan of safety is a cunning deception and there is no danger whatever to avoid, and laying hold of some to prevent them from entering.

Watchfulness and Warning Response

Believers are to remember the prophetic and apostolic words and understand God's promise rather than follow the skepticism of last-day scoffers who argue that since the patriarchs died the world has continued unchanged from creation. Their willful ignorance is not to be taken as truth, and students of God's Word must reject the world's counsel and refuse to take the position that Christ's coming is delayed because life appears to go on as always. Faithful believers instead discern the signs of the times and endure to the end, for disbelief and mockery of the promise are conditions expected shortly before Christ's coming. Learned people who reject the light of God's truth and oppose it place themselves among those who have turned from God.

Those who reject the claim of delay are to be prepared to meet Christ like the wise virgins who have oil for their lamps, ready to meet the Bridegroom. Those waiting for Christ answer the challenge to His promise by watching for His return and turning from earthly pleasure, fame, and riches. Such watchfulness strengthens them to overcome sloth, selfishness, and love of ease, and to endure affliction even when the waiting seems long.

Readiness to meet Him cannot be attained in a moment's time but requires vigilant waiting and watching combined with earnest work. Security is found only in God while the signs of His coming are rapidly being fulfilled and sudden destruction approaches amid the cry of peace and safety, the withdrawal of the Spirit of God, and increasing calamities. The fulfillment of prophecy in the present state of the world with its abominations, crimes, and prevailing wickedness calls true Christians to lives of humility and prayer. Men absorbed in business and pleasure, money-makers seeking wealth and lovers of pleasure intent upon amusement, question the promise because they have been taught His coming is spiritual or distant and the message of His soon return has been denounced as fanaticism or heresy, while skepticism and science falsely so called undermine faith in the Bible and multitudes eagerly accept fables to pursue self-indulgence undisturbed.

God's people are to warn the world to prepare for Christ's coming in the face of that scorn, answering the scoffing denial raised by the sleeping church and the world just before the second appearing of Jesus Christ with power and great glory. That scornful question denying the promise on the ground that all things continue as from the beginning is asked when the cry of peace and safety is being sounded from every part of the Christian world. Those who look for His coming and face this ridicule for expecting the Lord find comfort and clearer understanding through searching and diligent study of Scripture.

Those who scorn the promised coming point to the apparent continuation of ordinary life as proof nothing will change, put the Lord's coming far off, dismiss warnings, and boast of security while the signs are being fulfilled, but sudden destruction comes upon them and Christ's coming catches them unprepared like a thief. The message that all things remain as from the beginning is now heard from pulpits joined to the cry of peace and safety, preached while the Spirit is being withdrawn and casualties, disasters, floods, fires, rail accidents, earthquakes, plagues, disease, and sudden deaths multiply without impressing people. Satan uses that preaching and a power from beneath in these calamities to keep minds full of pleasure and amusements of every description so they go on as ever, and lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God laugh at warnings, call those who try to arouse them fanatics, enthusiasts, and not levelheaded, expect tomorrow to be unchanged with even greater abundance, and plan to go deeper into pleasure-loving. Unchanged appearance becomes an excuse to ignore warnings of judgment and pursue pleasure and sin like those in Noah's day, and the claim that the Lord delays His coming appears in words and actions by living for the world and mistreating fellow servants. The careless, the unfaithful servant, and those who mock the doctrine will have to answer when Christ comes and each is judged according to deeds, then recognizing that accepting and obeying the message would have brought life and salvation, and sudden destruction from which they shall not escape will overtake them unless they heed the warning and be saved.