“Above all, be aware of this: Scoffers will come in the last days scoffing and following their own evil desires, saying, ‘Where is his ‘coming’ that he promised? Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.’”
All through 2 Peter 2, and now at the beginning of Chapter 3, there have been parallel verses in the book of Jude. This ends with verse three and Jude 1:18, which reads, “They told you, ‘In the end time there will be scoffers living according to their own ungodly desires.’”. I was originally going to blog Jude next, until I saw just how similar they are! There are many theories as to why these accounts mirror each other. Robert Gromacki, a Bible scholar who writes commentaries on the Old and New Testament writes, “Since all biblical truth is divinely revealed truth, it is the Spirit’s prerogative to direct two authors to write on the same subject for emphasis and/or to cause one to utilize another. In the final analysis, it is not one man copying another man’s work; rather it is God copying God, or God copying twice.”
So God wants us to be aware of the false teachers and he wants us to know that scoffers are going to come in the last days. I first want to look at the phrase “last days.” When we hear that, we think of the end of time. But what does the Bible teach? I looked up the phrase to see where else it was used. First, I found Acts 2. Peter is speaking to the crowd, explaining what has just happened with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. “Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, ‘Fellow Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and pay attention to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it’s only nine in the morning.On the contrary, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all people; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams’” (vv 14-17). Peter is saying that they were in the last days at Pentecost. Paul writes this in 2 Timothy 3:1-5. “But know this: Hard times will come in the last days. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, demeaning, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people.” Notice how he ended. “Avoid these people.” While at first it looks like he is writing about something that will happen in the future, he ends with a present tense command. Paul also believed that they were in the last days. And lastly, let’s look at Hebrews 1:1-2a. “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son.” “The last days” is a phrase that refers to the time from Christ’s death/resurrection/ascension to when He returns again.
Until Jesus returns, we will see scoffers who follow their own evil desires. Their reasoning is, since Jesus hasn’t returned yet, He isn’t going to return, and they can live however they want. Douglas Moo writes this in his commentary. “The ‘scoffer’ or ‘mocker’ is certainly not a new phenomenon in the history of God’s people. The psalmist pronounced a blessing on the person of God who does not ‘sit in the seat of mockers’ (Ps 1:1). And three times Proverbs presents the mocker as someone whose ways are to be avoided by the righteous (Prov. 1:22; 9:7-8; 13:1).”
Peter uses the phrase “following their own evil desires…” He has already written to the believers about this in his first letter. “Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will. For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry” (1 Peter 4:1-3). Christ suffered for us, so we are to live for him.
This last part of the verse will continue on into the next verses, so I will just briefly cover it today. The scoffers say “where is his ‘coming’ that he promised? Ever since our ancestors fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation.” Kenneth Gangel writes, “The scoffers wanted to push their argument as far back as possible. So they referred to our fathers (lit. ‘the fathers’), that is Old Testament patriarchs (John 7:22; Acts 3:13; 13:32; Rom. 9:5; 11:28; Heb. 1:1), and to the beginning of Creation. Since nothing has happened in all this time, mockers reasoned, why expect the Lord’s return now?”
It happened in Peter’s day and it is still happening today. These scoffers were claiming to be believers based on 2 Peter 2:18-22. Today we have some progressive “Christians” who follow a theory called “Realized Eschatology” which is a theory popularized by several theologians born in the late 1800s to the early 1900s. They claim that the eschatological passages in the New Testament are not referring to future events, but rather to the ministry of Jesus and his legacy. Liberal Christians like this view it this way because it emphasizes God’s love and goodness and rejects the notion of judgment. Of course, this is not what the Bible teaches, so it’s an example of what Peter is talking about in his letter! They are denying the second coming of Jesus.
So many of the old heresies are just recycled and repackaged for a new audience today. Don’t be fooled by them!
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 