2 Peter 3:7
But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
The same word of God that drowned the old world with water now holds up the present heavens and earth, kept in store and reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. That reserved fire will be unquenchable by any human effort, burning the earth and its works to sweep away moral corruption and cleanse the tainted atmosphere. The day of judgment will last 1000 years, begun by the coming of the Son of man in glory to raise the sleeping saints and change the living, and closed when God calls forth the fires to destroy the wicked of all generations. Scoffers in the last days deny the promised coming and overlook the Flood, just as Noah's contemporaries scorned his warning while eating and drinking and heaping treasure for the general conflagration. Escape is still open to all who receive God's message, repent, find refuge in Jesus Christ, and prepare for immortal life by fearing God and keeping His commandments before the opportunity is gone.
Heavens and Earth Reserved
The same word of God that caused the old world to perish by being overflowed with water now preserves the present heavens and earth, kept in store and reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. Another storm is coming when the earth will again be swept by the desolating wrath of God, and sin and sinners will be destroyed. The present heavens and earth are preserved by that word and reserved for fire at the day when ungodly people will perish.
The reserved fire will cleanse the tainted atmosphere and burn the earth and its works. It will sweep away moral corruption and the evil brought into the earth, cleansing it as the old world was cleansed by the Flood. Unlike the former destruction by water, this will be by an unquenchable sea of fire that no human effort or means can stop or quench.
As the Flood used waters from heaven united with waters hidden in the earth, so the coming destruction will unite fire from heaven with fire and weapons drawn from the earth. Fire from heaven will join fire stored in the earth, and God will thereby purify the earth as the Flood's waters cleansed it in Noah's day. Coal and oil, formed from trees that grew in the old world and were later used for idolatry and corruption, are among the earthly agencies kept for that destruction.
God as maker and ruler and controller of nature is greater than the laws of nature and can use the works of His hands to accomplish His purpose to destroy the world by fire. Objections based on the laws of nature do not prevent Him from using nature to fulfill His purpose. The denial by modern men of science that the world can be destroyed by fire because it would violate the laws of nature repeats the denial by philosophers in Noah's day that the world could be destroyed by water. The prophecy must not be interpreted in a way that removes its warning.
Enoch's translation before the Flood represents the translation of the living righteous before the earth is destroyed by fire. They will be glorified in the presence of those who hated them for obeying God's commandments. That burning of the earth comes before the judgment and perdition of the ungodly.
Day of Judgment Accomplished
The day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men will be 1000 years long. Its most important events are the coming of the Son of man in glory with the holy angels, His sitting on the throne of glory, and the gathering of all nations to be separated as sheep and goats. That long day is introduced and begun by His coming to raise the sleeping saints and to change the saints who are alive at that time.
God will call forth the fires from the earth at the end of the thousand years to destroy the wicked of all generations, including those who perished in the Flood. The present heavens and earth are preserved by God's word and reserved for that fire, which will cleanse the tainted atmosphere and burn the earth and its works. The righteous, united with the Lord, will remain unharmed through the cleansing fire, while the dead will rise, some to life and some to face Christ as judge.
The present heavens and earth are reserved for certain final destruction by fire because of transgression of God's holy law and impenitence in the closing period of history. This gives the world a lesson on the sure result of breaking that law, following the same pattern as the destruction of the antediluvian world for transgressing God's law and refusing warning, the destruction of Sodom for disobeying the laws of God's kingdom, and the destruction of Jerusalem for refusing to heed the messages the Lord gave.
The fires of the great day answer to the waters of the Flood, both declaring God's verdict that the wicked are incurable. The reserved fire is God's execution of justice at the decisive hour when destiny is fixed by human choice, after years of probation granted to form characters for heaven. Their will has been exercised in revolt, pride, deception, licentiousness and cruelty have become fixed, they have never trained the mind to love purity nor learned the language of heaven, they have no disposition to submit to divine authority, and when life is ended it is too late to turn from transgression to obedience, from hatred to love. Their exclusion from heaven is voluntary on their part, and just and merciful on God's part, for the good of the universe and even of those judged.
This final destruction of the rejecters of grace is in mercy to the universe, as was the blotting out of the wicked in Noah's time and the destruction of the corrupt dwellers in Sodom, to stop workers of iniquity who through deceptive power gain sympathy and admiration by constantly leading others to rebellion. Heaven's purity, holiness and peace, with every soul filled with love, would be torture to them, and the glory of God and the Lamb would be a consuming fire, so they welcome destruction to be hidden from the face of Him who died to redeem them.
Before that fire comes God's judgments will fall upon the earth, and in that time the impenitent will know just where and what their sin is, that transgression of God's law and despising His holy law caused their ruin. Like the old-world sinners at the Flood they will acknowledge sin only through fear of punishment, without true contrition and without abhorrence of evil, and would return to defiance of Heaven if the judgment were removed, so the impenitent at the end will have no more true repentance than they had. By retributive justice God will then make the earth pure by fire, and the principles of His government — justice, honor, love, and truth — will be established upon it.
Last Days Warning Heeded
The verse stands in Peter's warning that in the last days scoffers will deny the promise of Christ's coming, willfully overlooking that the Flood proves God's word can bring judgment. As Noah's contemporaries scorned his warning, so men in the last days ridicule solemn warnings of judgment by fire. The Flood generation was given a way of escape through the ark yet perished for rejecting the warning, and those who now reject God's warnings may at last lose the conviction of the Spirit.
The verse belongs to the prophecies of Second Peter 3 concerning the wickedness that would prevail in the last days. Against every pleasing sophistry of human wisdom that would diminish God and His glory, Bible truth alone is worth living for. The present state of abominations and crimes fulfills those prophecies, with a strange abandonment of principle, a lowered standard of morality, wrecks of humanity and ruined homes, until the earth is fast becoming a Sodom. The same practices that brought judgment on the antediluvian world and caused Sodom to be destroyed by fire are fast increasing.
As it was in the days of Noah so it is now, for there is a time of warning in which the masses slight and reject the message. Some fail to complete the change of character needed to fear and worship God and turn away. Like the antediluvians they are given up to eating and drinking, planting and building, marrying and giving in marriage, with minds engrossed in things of minor importance. Men heap to themselves treasures for the general conflagration, indulge pride, appetite and passion, and practice abominable wickedness fast filling the cup of iniquity. In the 120-year warning lawful eating and drinking were carried to excess, with foods undermining soundness and animalizing the nature, strengthening the lower propensities, weakening mind and destroying spirituality, while the land was filled with violence, crime, wickedness and ungovernable indulgence debasing body and mind, and the same increasing violence, crime, wickedness, excess and unlawful uncontrollable passion now prevail.
The earth is nearing its end when it is to be purified by fire. The present heavens and earth are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, and that final destruction is just prior and rapidly approaching. The day of judgment is right upon us.
The destruction of Jerusalem was only a symbol of this greater calamity upon a world that will not take warning. Christ, weeping over the city, looked beyond it to impenitent souls for whom He was about to give His life as the great sacrificial offering for redemption, and saw this future destruction by fire, unlike the former destruction by flood. Judgments already fallen upon cities, including San Francisco, stand as warning but are not the finishing punishment kept in store. That finishing punishment will come upon wicked cities as most terrible places where all kinds of revolting sin and iniquity are practiced and where the Lord's name is greatly dishonored.
Escape is still possible by receiving God's message, repenting, and finding refuge in Jesus Christ. God's mercy in saving a few in the Flood while destroying the disobedient does not make the warning of coming judgment untrue. The flood that cleansed the earth is the pattern for the last great day when God's fire will purify the earth, and this calls for preparation now, for searching the Scriptures, for serious thought about giving account for pride and vanity and wasted time and money, and for loving Christ and waiting for His soon coming to take His own, while pleasure-seekers devoted to display and perishing riches will be rejected as workers of iniquity. That fulfillment should lead to lives of humility and prayer, to fearing God and keeping His commandments. The coming judgment makes repentance and preparation for immortal life urgent, for the present is the time to turn from sin, to reform intemperate habits without trifling with God, because life may end suddenly, God's judgments will soon fall, and when judgment comes the opportunity to prepare will be gone.