0928. Those Who Scoff His Coming

Those Who Scoff His Coming

"Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.

"And saying, Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (2Pe_3:3-4).

Peter was especially enjoined by the Lord to strengthen his brethren. In view of the times of the end, and the trials attending them, Peter has many things, in the Spirit, to say. He gives much of warning and much of cheer. He girds the saint against the day of the apostasy; he keeps constantly before them the inspiring, comforting hope of the Lord's return.

1. Peter in His Second Epistle, and 1st chapter, presses home the fact of the Lord's return.

In 2Pe_1:11, he speaks of an abundant entrance being ministered into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

In 2Pe_1:16, he says that the power and coming of Christ is no fable.

In 2Pe_1:16-18, he refers to the transfiguration of Christ, which he had seen, as a picture of the Lord's return.

In 2Pe_1:19, he speaks of the more sure Word of Prophecy, which shines in the dark place until the day dawns, and the day star arises.

In 2Pe_1:20-21, he tells that no prophecy is of private interpretation, but that men wrote the prophecies borne along by the Holy Ghost.

2. Peter, in the 2d chapter, outlines the false teachers who shall privately come in with their destructive heresies, even denying the very Lord Who bought them, This chapter is a startling vision of these men and of their final judgment and overthrow.

3. Peter, in the 3d chapter, gives, in detail, how these scoffers will say: "Where is the promise of His coming?" He shows how they will decry the coming in wilful ignorance, ignoring facts that are established historically. He concludes by urging that "the Lord is not slack concerning His promises," and he asserts that "the day of the Lord will come," and he even goes beyond, saying that the day of God will come, with its new heavens and earth, "wherein dwelleth righteousness."

It seems almost impossible that any one, after such words as Peter gives, could scoff at the promise of the Lord's return. Yet, the last days of which Peter wrote, have surely come–the mockers are here.

The Word of God is maligned and criticised. The Prophets are supposed to have gotten hold of a false hope, favorable to Israel's kingly aspirations; Christ is supposed to have fallen heir to the misconceptions of the earlier Prophets; the Apostles in turn, are said to have fallen into the same trap, and to have accepted and preached the literal return of Christ to reign on David's throne.

The saints of today who believe in, and teach premillennialism, are described as carping literalists. They are marked as separatists and are blamed as division-makers.

The Second Coming of Christ is preached against, spoken against and in some church circles, voted against.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR