2 Peter 3:4 –
They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
Think about when the New Testament was written, these men were expecting Jesus’ return any time. The did not expect that 2000 years later people are still saying “the end is near”! I really believe that it is getting close because as Peter wrote in verse 15, God is waiting for all to repent. Right now more than ever, the Gospel has been spread throughout the world. Although we may think the Gospel is spread all over, I constantly talk with people that have never heard the “message” here in the states.
Now what does that mean for us? Are we as Christians doing our “job” of spreading the Gospel? I know I fall short daily. Where I can type and tell this computer about God, but put me face to face with a skeptic and I clam up! We all need to get comfortable sharing the Gospel on a personal level and outside our comfort zone. The best way to get “comfortable” with sharing your faith is to read more! This will get you “book smart” and will help in real world applications.
As I said earlier, the apostles all expected Jesus to return in their lives. But verse 8 is one of those that often is quoted about time and God. How “a day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.” God really transcends time when you think about it. Like energy, He has always been and always will be. When compared to infinity our day is nothing. Do you notice the one thing few quote in that verse? How a day is like a thousand years!! That really shows how God transcends time when there is no difference between the two to Him.
One point about this verse that we need to take light of and that is the mocking that we will get. It’s less now since there has been 2000 years of waiting, we can say it’s not time. Now Harold Camping recently did not help the “cause” by predicting the exact hour and day it would happen. Was he just full of himself or was he like Jonah, watching Nineveh and waiting for their destruction only to have God’s compassion spare them? We will never know, but the key point is to not focus on the end more than the now. People love see what Jesus can do in their lives, now. Hearing about an eternity in a place they don’t believe in because of a God they can’t image tends to turn people off more than on. I think it’s more for the urgency of believer to spread the word, than to draw non-believers in … but I may be wrong!