End-time events

Okay, well today we're going to start, not start, we're going to continue on with kind of the end time events that are described in 2 Peter. So, I think just to get the context here, let's go back to part of the section we had last week. Could someone read starting in verse 3, 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 3 and read verse 3 down through verse 12. So it would be 3.3 through 3.12.

First be aware of this, scoffers will come in the last days to scoff, living according to their own desires, saying, Where is the promise of his coming? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they have been since the beginning of creation. They willfully ignore this.

Long ago the heavens and the earth were brought about from water and through water. by the word of God, though through these waters the world of that time perished when it was flooded. By the same word, the present heavens and the earth are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and the destruction of ungodly men.

Dear friends, don't let this one thing escape you. With the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.

On that day the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, the elements will burn and be dissolved, and the earth and the works on it will be disclosed. Since all these things are to be people, you should be in holy conduct and godliness as you wait for and earnestly desire the coming of the day of God. The heavens will be on fire and be dissolved because of it, and the elements will melt with the heat.

But based on his promise, we wait for the new heavens and a new earth where righteousness will dwell. Okay, so basically what we're going to see today, we're going to start in on 8-12 here, and we're going to continue on. If you look at what Jim read back in verse 7, this is sort of like further explanation, because in verse 7 he says, But the present heavens, plural, and earth by his word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment. and destruction of ungodly men.

So now he's going to expand that. He's going to go in and talk about actually some attributes of God. How God exists and what he does. How he views things. And we're going to talk about these things called the Day of the Lord. which actually is a time period, and actually the day of God. And some actually believe the day of God and the day of the Lord is synonymous. I'm not sure I came to any great conclusions about that. I looked at what people said. I actually have a quote from Chafer about that. The handout's over there, Tom. So look at that. And then there's some wonderful statements at the beginning about how God Time and God. How does God exist in time? What he does about time? How he views time? That's kind of cool. And then it talks about his compassion, his promises, his long-suffering in verse 9.

And then about the end-time events here. So really neat stuff here. OK, so let's just kind of get into it. It says, but but do not let this one fact escape your notice. So that was that first little phrase. So the idea of this is actually as a imperative in the original language. So it's the idea that we're to and actually we surrenders it. But this one thing, stop allowing it to be hidden from you.

So it's an important thing that the guy wants to convey here. He wants to convey that the way he's going to view things, the way he's going to view time, how he operates in time. So he's saying, don't let this fact escape you. And he's going to explain the fact he's talking about. Roger, I think we're missing some pages. Are we really? You only printed the odd pages? Oh no, we're missing page two. Yeah, we're missing four.

OK. Yeah, I think what happened, I know what happened when I told Sue that I didn't exactly say it the right way because the last page was just one sided. She thought both generalized all pages were OK. What I'll do is I'll have her reprint. I apologize. Or if if I don't know somebody, she's still up there. I don't know. Somebody's willing to talk with her. Yeah. If you want. OK. Just read it. OK. All right. Thanks. Thanks for pointing that out. OK. So.

Do not let this one fact escape you. He's saying in the original, stop allowing this fact to be hidden from you. Which I think is kind of cool. And actually he talks about this word we mentioned last week. I think Jim has it in his translation. Divinely loved ones.

He's talking in comforting terms here. He's talking about the times that are coming. And actually it's to be an encouragement to us that we're not going to go through those times. He's going to talk about what's going to happen in those times, but there's a comfort that we're not going to go through those times. And he's also going to comfort us with how God views things. So basically, with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. You've heard this expression over and over again. Sometimes you can think, well, does that mean Does that mean one day is equal to 1,000 years? I don't think it's saying that at all.

I think it's talking about an attribute of God. God is outside of time. He can look. And to Him, He can look at 1,000 years, look at one day, and it's no problem for Him to look at that. For us, in this earthly body, that's an impossibility. We can read about 1,000 years in the past, but God's able to handle that with no problem. It's like, hey, I can handle this. I'm able to handle that.

In the context where it's talking about judgment, it's also a picture of his mercy, his grace, because a thousand years, he could hold off judgment thousands of years. We're going to see that expand the fact about his patience and his long suffering. He's not willing that any should perish. He's willing to wait.

People say, you're slow. In the earlier parts here we had people saying, what's going on here? Nothing's changed. It's the same as ever. Man will complain about his slowness. They complain both ways. They'll complain it hasn't happened soon enough or he's not taking it long. Be more patient with me. God is infinitely patient and infinitely right. There's actually a quote I have later on that he's perfectly patient And he knows exactly the time to act and to do things. We see that in his word. That's our closest view we can have of that.

He's able to do that, where man is unable to do that. Man wants to have things quickly done, and is not willing to wait, but complains about when things will happen soon enough. So it's interesting. We complain both ways. It's a comparison, like a thousand years, and then Psalm 90 in verse 4 has, interesting, for a thousand years in your sight, are like yesterday when it passes by or as a watch in the night.

I kind of view it as a picture of God hovering above time. You draw a timeline. He'll do like a pencil. That will be eternity, if you will. God can view eternity from a view that can see everything. And he can zoom in or zoom out wherever he wants and that's no problem. If a thousand years is a day, it's only been two days since Christ was here. So he isn't slow. Exactly. It's just because we're not in his domain. We will be in his domain, but we're not there now. It's wonderful that he can look at that.

We always say take the long view, like in life we learn as we get older and older. Now that I know that, I could have acted much differently when I was younger. I wouldn't have been so impatient. Because we've gotten older, we have a lot more experience. Well, that's okay. I understand that now, but at the moment we're not very patient. So let's go on to the next part. So that's verse 8.

So now it says, The Lord is not slow about his promises, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you. So here we are in this discussion about, since God is God's outside time can look at time. People will complain about his slowness. The Lord is not slow about his promises as some count slowness. Is slow is the verb, and this is the negative of that. Is slow is to delay or loiter, to be tardy, and it's in the present tense. He is not the negative of that, he is not slow, he is continuously not slow and not tardy.

So that's a wonderful attribute that our Savior has. And here's a quote I was mentioning, and this is actually Hebert, which is, he's a commentator on 2 Peter, and he's quoting somebody else, so I didn't want to overdo this, but he says, He the Lord waits, but is never slow, he's never late.

It's a little bit hard to read, I found, but the more you read that and think about that, He, He waits. He, the Lord, waits. But it's never slow. He's never late. So God does wait. And right now He's waiting. The times are coming when He's going to judge the earth. He's waiting right now. It's a waiting period going on. So He waits. Now, of course, to him, you could argue, he's not really waiting. He sees the whole view of that. Yeah, thanks, Fonny. OK. But he is patient toward us.

And this is, actually, the but here is, there are several buts in, several buts. There are several original words for the word but. And this is the one Allah, which means a strong contrast. So it says, The Lord is not slow about his promises, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you. And that is patient is this word long-suffering. Actually, long-suffering kind of brings across, I like that word because it kind of brings out the attitude of God. It seems like it's more than patient. It's an English word, but it's the same word. And it's towards you, which is really neat.

So let's look at 1 Peter 3.20.

Could someone read that for us, 1 Peter 3.20? who once were disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through the water.

So there's an example of his patience, right? He waited that long time period. It took Noah, you know, what was it, a hundred years? I mean, it took him a long time. And so God was patiently waiting for him to finish the ark. He patiently waited, but it turned out that it wasn't a surprise to him it was only Noah's family that were saved. But he still waited, demonstrating his patience.

There's another verse, I'll read this one, Romans chapter 2 and verse 4, and that says, Or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, knowing that the kindness of God leads to your repentance? So we're going to see here about repentance shortly here in the last half of this verse. But his kindness, his forbearance, and this is a very comforting. The last part of this verse is one that I remember as well as ones that you memorize.

And it always seems there's a time when to be remembering that. Because questions will come up about, you know, you look at God's election of man, you look at other statements in scripture, and I find this statement always kind of balances out the scale because you can take other statements in scripture and it seems like, well, God's, He's, you know, He's elected. Well, am I, you know, some people, well, I haven't been elected, so how can I be saved? And you get all those kind of discussions. Well, this verse kind of brings you back down to earth, in my mind, or brings you back down to God's thinking.

The last part of this verse about his patience, his forbearance, I always find this very comforting. I thought this really emphasizes the personal nature of God and His care for His creation, how He cares for us. He's patient. He's not in a hurry. He knows in advance what's going to happen, but He's still patient. Which is hard.

Many times you find that if you know how to do something, like you're watching somebody, like maybe you're at work, and you know how to do it exactly, I find I'm not very patient at all. I try to help her. She's on the computer. So if she has a problem, I'll just reach over and do it. I'm not very patient.

So any thoughts about this? We're going to the next part of the verse here. Go ahead. It seems to me that God has everything all planned out. You know, when you say we're sitting here waiting on God, waiting and waiting and waiting and thinking, when is he going to do this?

You know, and then, you know, like you said on the other in the other search tests, It seemed like he did that too fast. Man gets upset with God two ways. Either he's too slow or he didn't do it fast enough. We get upset with God in both areas I find.

But when you look back on it, you see his timing is exactly perfect. You just have to trust Him. And that's exactly where that comes in. It's trusting Him. That was my comment about how as we get older, we look back and say, well if I was just a little more with it, I would have realized whatever it happens to be. So anyway, that's great.

So the next part of the verse is, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. Wishing is the idea of willing or wanting. The idea is he's not willing. This is not his will. I'll save my comment until the end about that. Actually, I want to go back just for a second here. I apologize here, let me just go back. There was a verse I wanted to show you about this really neat statement, back to his patience. He the Lord waits, but it's never slow, it's never late. Let's look at Habakkuk.

Habakkuk 2.3. It's a verse I wanted to share, but I just zoomed past it. First of all, I have to find Habakkuk. I'm not sure I can. It's in the old Minor Prophets, right? Before Zephaniah.

Is Nathan Habakkuk 2.3? I got it. Okay. For the vision is yet for the appointed time. It testifies about the end and will not lie. Though it delays, wait for it, since it will certainly come and not be late. Wow. Maybe not as stark. I like the vision. Is that yet for the appointed time?

Like you said, God knows His timing. He has a time. Actually, remember what the Lord said? He said, only the Father knows. He said, I don't know. I mean, it's amazing. I'm the Son. I don't know. The Father knows the time. He knows the appointed time. scripture reference, it might have been from one of the Psalms, but I will say, wait on the Lord. His times, my times are in his hands. Actually, I have one more about waiting on the Lord. Let's look at Hebrews. I'll read Hebrews 10. I find Hebrews much easier. I was thinking about it. There's a skill that's being lost for us. You're a little bit older. It used to be the concept of Bible drills.

All you guys here probably know what that means. But a lot of folks don't know what that even means anymore. Because if you have an electronic device, you don't have to... I mean, you just press speak. That skill is being lost. I think I lost it. I find I can't find things, even though I don't use electronic Bible normally. I use it to study, but I don't use it for the class. Actually, it's not that fast. What's that?

You have to look up the table of contents. You can't just page through it. Yeah, sometimes actually you get to be good. You could just flip, if you had little tabs on it, you could flip through it. I mean, you can really be fast. But that's cheating. He was 1037. Let's go back here a little bit. Let's go back to 35.

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a little while, he who is coming will come, and will not delay. It's not as startling as I thought they were, but I have them down. It's like God has a big long mural, and he knows exactly what he needs to do in a consecutive timeline.

But think about this. Somehow, and don't ask me how this works, somehow man's, you know, input, man's input, he allows man to be part of that process. And we choose, will we enter in to his eternal plan for us? And that's what this verse is going to say. His will is, that all should come to know him, but he knows some will not. So he allows man, you know, he doesn't force man to do this. He doesn't force man to believe him. So he's still painting the picture.

I think it's interesting that in the inner linear, the word for not wishing is purposing. Not wishing to perish. That flows away the Calvinists who say that he's designated some for perdition and some to be saved. Not purposing. The whole verse does.

Now I had wishing. We're going to look at wishing here in just a second. So you had... I didn't spend a lot of time on wishing. Maybe I should have. So what was it? Tell me again what the... Well in the interlinear translation the word for wishing is purposing. He is not purposing any to purge. OK, OK, well, that's good. That's good. And that's right. He's not doing that. And that's consistent. OK, that's good. No, I like and I like what your your thought is. That's great.

So, Tom, did you have something I missed? This is something that you'll find in any linears and you won't even find in commentaries, but there is a tradition among. when they try to go through the last book of the Bible, Malachi, and they don't want the Testament to end the way it did, lest I give the world a curse. So they deliberately repeat the verse preceding, When the Son of Righteousness comes with healing in His wings, Interesting.

Interesting. OK. And there's no McAfee's to follow. OK. Interesting. All right. So, OK. Wishing or wanting or not purposing. That's good. Parish is the idea to perish eternally or to be deprived, you know, to be deprived of eternal life. There are several verses I have about that. Let's look at a few of those.

Obviously John 3.16, we know that one.

Let's look at Luke 13.1-3.

Can someone read that Luke 13.1-3?

Now on the same occasion, there were some present who reported to him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. So basically, the word parody shows up in many verses that talks about God's working in man's life, and that's always the result of them not accepting His gift of salvation, His gift of eternal life.

Let's see that one in John there. John 10, 10-28. Let's go back to 25. Jesus answered them. I told you, and you do not believe, the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them. They follow me. I give them eternal life. And they shall never perish. And no one shall snatch them out of my hands. It shows up in many, many places in terms of the result of... Here it's an assurance that those who believe will never perish.

Then repentance is a change of mind. I believe that's the one that Hal had a picture of. He had a person that... Is it turning around? Is it a change of mind? It's used in the New Testament to indicate a change of mind in respect to sin, or God, or self.

Chaffer mentioned that, and I thought, boy, it would be neat to kind of... I didn't actually go down that path. In terms of sin, I see that. It would be interesting to kind of list the categories and go through each one to find verses where we see repentance in terms of God, in terms of self. That one might be interesting. I actually didn't study that one out.

First of all, 1 Timothy 2.4 is kind of like a parallel verse to this about God's desire of men perishing.

It's not His will that they perish. Oh, who desires all men to be saved, come to the knowledge of the truth, is that the one? That's it. Verse 3 says, this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth. So this is a very equivalent verse. Very equivalent to that. That's his desire. That's his will. He doesn't force men there, but that's his whole purpose in what he's doing.

Then you say, well, I see over here, I see election. He says, every person who believes is elected. And then your circuits start blowing out because you say, well, how can God elect and desire all men come to Him? It seems contradictory. But I find I have to accept both. I have to accept that every believer is elected, because that's what he says. That's one of our blessings, that we've been elected. But I also see that his will is that men, by faith, accept him.

So both are true. That's helped me to reconcile that. Let's look at one more. Let's look at the Ezekiel passage. It says, As I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from the way and live. Turn from his way and live.

Right. Good. Good. Thank you. So that was the Ezekiel passage? I thought it said, didn't it have Israel in there someplace? Yeah. At the end, right. Okay. That's a picture in the Old Testament. His view hasn't changed. He hasn't changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament. He wanted men to accept him and believe him as well. Let's look at one more.

Let's look at Titus 2.11. This was just a statement of the provision of God's salvation. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. Salvation is available to all men. I think that's one of the messages of not wishing that any should perish. Salvation is available to all men.

Now we're going to switch gears and we're going to look at what's going to happen and the time period, let's call it the Day of the Lord. So we're going to go into that verse next. Any last thoughts on this verse? If not, we'll go ahead. So he basically says, he told us his will. But now he's going to say, something's going to happen. Something's going to transpire.

But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. So he's going to describe this day of the Lord, and if you were to do a search of the day of the Lord, there's quite a few verses in Old and New Testament, and actually it's more than a single day, it's actually a time period. So we'll see that in a second. So do you guys remember, we can look on the handout there, but do you guys remember about the day of the Lord?

You probably do. Is that when he actually not comes to take his church away, but after that he comes and starts, this is the beginning of the millennium, isn't it? Well, it's the beginning of the tribulation. Is it the beginning of the tribulation? Well, and that's part of the problem. And it's hard.

Oh, yes, yes, yes. You're right. You're right. It's OK. It's OK. So actually, I like Vern's definition here. Now, the phrase, the day of the Lord, is a time from the rapture. It's careful. I would have put an asterisk there. The rapture has occurred before the day of the Lord starts. The day of the Lord does not include the rapture. The rapture occurs and then the day of the Lord happens.

How soon, and this is where it gets a little, I'm not all this, does it start instantaneously after the rapture? Maybe it does. I'm not sure about that. I kind of don't think so because the Antichrist reign for the first three and a half years is just going to be peace and prosperity.

But in the middle of the tribulation, that's when the Day of the Lord is. That's when God's going to pour out His will. But it's still the time of judgment. The tribulation starts at the time of judgment. It takes some careful study. Be careful about the Day of the Lord. Make sure you look at it carefully. But it happens after the rapture, that's for sure.

It's followed by a tribulation to the very end and it's a time period. It goes all the way to the end of the present heavens and earth. And the last part of this verse is going to describe the end of the day of the Lord. So in one verse you've got the beginning and you've got the end and one verse is kind of jammed together.

And it occurs when people don't expect it. You've heard all these different arguments. When believers are taken out, maybe it's the time to think, well, things are going to really be good now. I don't know. Some people will view that. This will really be good now. So they'll be thinking, this is going to be a great time. Get rid of all those Christians. They're all gone. So maybe they'll think it's going to be good times.

Just hope it's a significant number. I don't know. In some ways I think it's going to be more than we think. God is based upon his willingness. I don't know. I don't know that in any way. Well, then if you go by what Jesus said, he says, as in the days of Noah, so will the days of the Lord be. There was only eight people in Noah's time. Yeah, and you could argue both ways. You could argue that it could be more than you think or less than you think.

Okay. Will come like a thief. Will come is a future. It's a statement of fact. You know, and that word, like in John 2, why did I put John 2, 4 down there? I had a reason. John 2, 4 says, Okay, so just looking at this will come, John 2.4 says, Jesus said to her, Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not yet come.

So, it's a future thing, it's a fact. Indicative mood says it's a fact. It's a fact that it will come. There's no doubt about that from the original there. But it's going to come Unannounced, if you will. Unexpected. The literal is to steal. I guess in today's world, normally you don't expect something to be stolen. In some places you would. But hopefully you're not expecting someone to steal something. But it's unexpected.

And also there's some discussion about There's another verse that says a thief in the night. Some versions have put in the night in this one, but apparently it's not there in the original. It just comes like a thief, and not in the night. We're going to see some other verses here that are parallel verses that have the in the night in there, and that's in the original.

Go ahead. I think it's going to be unexpected because it's so sudden. It's going to happen quickly. That's what makes it so unexpected. Right. Well, it sounds like people and some of the like the Luke passage, I think, is one about Noah you talked about or somebody talked about. You know, they were just going even though they saw what's interesting is Noah's building this ark.

I mean, that didn't give him a clue. It almost sounds like that at the end of the millennium, we know there will be many, many unbelievers. And it sounds like since the day of the Lord will come as the thief of the night, and then it goes into right in when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise.

It seems like it's kind of related to that period of time. Well, I know, and I'm with you on that. It seems like if you put it... Say you put it in the first part of the tribulation or right in the middle of the tribulation. But then there are believers in there. I don't know. It applies to both. At the end of the millennium they are going to be surprised. That's true.

So let's look at a couple of additional verses here. in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. And actually, to be fair, many have said that this would occur when the Lord returns, the thief. There are commentators that talk about that, that talk about that occurring when the Lord returns. But that's been predicted. It seems like people would know about that too, so I don't know. It's interesting. Could someone read 1 Thess 1-4? 1 Thess 5-14.

But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need, I write unto you, for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Right. And it goes on, it says, For you are all sons of light. So he's talking to believers here. For you are all sons of light. So Paul here was trying to comfort and inform people about the day of the Lord. Tom?

I'm thinking that segment that Hal mentioned about when sin occurs a person becomes pregnant and then that echoes back right there at that verse and pregnancy here does not bring life but death. So it drives it home for sure. But you compare this verse with what we've just discussed, this doesn't seem like it means at the beginning of the tribulation. I know. You start reading that and you think, well that sounds like, because it sounds like things are going along pretty well, and then it doesn't sound like it's at the end of the tribulation when it's been through this awful terrible time. I mean, it seems like, I don't know, I'm not sure what people are expecting after this. Like you say, he's comforting the believers. Right, he is. This is the believers.

Okay, then the Luke passage, I think it's the one about Noah. It compares it to the... So Luke 12, 39. Could someone read those two verses, 39 to 40? But know this, if the homeowner had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. you also be ready, because the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect. Now this one, actually this wasn't a no one, this one seems like this is talking about the second advent, when Christ comes in power and glory. So from this one you could argue that maybe he's talking about, our verse here is talking about at the end of the tribulation when Christ comes. All right. So let's talk about the last part of the verse. Let's see. OK.

So three things are going to happen at the end of the tribulation in which the heavens will pass away with a roar. And notice heavens plural. So in kind of going through this, There are three heavens mentioned in scripture. We have the atmospheric heaven, we have the stellar heaven, and we have the highest heaven, the third heaven. So it seems like this can refer to certainly the first two.

One and I talked about this. If you think about the fact that sin, if you will, started in heaven. was the highest angel. So sin started in heaven in a sense, if you will. He rebelled. Is God going to redo the third heaven? I don't know. We don't have scripture to support that, but it's just kind of a thought. Since Satan was there, so I don't know. Well, the third heaven isn't a material heaven. We call that abode of God. That's where Paul was called up to the third heaven.

All the material universe is just going to be destroyed. Right. And the heavens, yeah. And that's why the atmospheric and stellar certainly seem to be fitting there. Whether the third heaven, I don't know. But there is a point that is God going to clean up the remnants of what happened in heaven with the angels rebelling against him? And Satan, he has some interface with God right now. As that's described in Job. So I don't know. That's actually those verses. Those verses talk about a lot of time versus talk about Roger. They talk about the heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will not pass away.

Basically, those those three were they're all all similar elements or. Basically atoms, electrons, the building blocks of our world. This is kind of interesting. It says the earth and its works. So we have the heavens, the elements, the earth, and its works.

And the works, I thought Hebert had an interesting comment here. That seems to be, if you think about the Great Wall of China, some monument that man has to himself. I built this great building. I built this great wall, I built this great whatever, those are going to be destroyed as well. He singles out the earth and its works. Related to what man thinks is a great achievement possibly.

Roger, I'm sure you'll probably be bringing this up, but right now Christ himself is holding everything together. And he will just let loose. That's a good point. OK. OK, that's good. Right. I like that. That's good. So, Roger. Sure. Could this be referring to just the judgment of God?

I mean, what's the passage where it says that we'll be trying, talking to believers, we'll be trying so as by fire. And the wood, hay, and stubble will be burned away. I mean, he says the earth and its works You know, in that other passage, our works are burned up, and it's only the ones done in Christ that will remain. Is this more metaphorically, could this be metaphorically speaking to the kind of judgment of God in which everything that's, you know, temporal is burned away rather than Talking about the works will be burned up. That's similar to what it talks about for believers. Our works are going to be trapped by fire and they're going to be burned up. Obviously what's in view here is that this is obviously the ungodly, this is people outside of Christ. He's already judged their works. That's been judged at the email. Yeah, I don't know. You know, I didn't spend a lot of time with this. I'm not sure I have a whole lot more to say than what I kind of comment, which I thought was interesting.

And you're right. There's other opportunities he has to judge. He would judge each man individually at the Great White Throne. This seems like he's talking about things, you know, heavens, elements, earth. I'm thinking works, I thought, kind of fit in with some monument to man. I mean, that's just how I took it. It was some physical monument to man. That's what I took it as. I'm not sure. The interlinear transform and the earth and in it works will be discovered. Like you're describing works of man.

It seemed like, in this context, it seemed like it fit to be, you know, the Tower of Babel I'm thinking of. Of course, Tower of Babel is long gone, but that was something that man really thought was a big deal. How about the trunk tower? It'll be gone. Anyway, so, we better move on here. Since all these things are to be destroyed, what do you describe? The things that we just read about, the earth, the elements, the whole works.

What sort of people ought we to be in holy conduct and godliness? Peter has addressed this before. He wants us to look to our future home, We will be with Christ and to base our conduct on that. Because we look the long view. We look into where we are, our citizenship in heaven. We look to the future will be with Christ forever. So that kind of fits. He says all his are going to happen, so we're going to be focused on the Lord and what he's doing.

And then the last part, looking for and hasting the coming of the day of God. Hasting is the idea to desire earnestly. And the day of God, actually, Chaffer, in studying this, some said the day of God and the day of the Lord seem to be synonymous. And it only occurs one other time in Revelation that I could find. Chaffer says that the day of God is evidently an identification of the eternity yet future when the heavens and the new earth will have been created. He kind of views it as a final state. The new heavens and the new earth are here and that's the day of God.

But what's interesting is right after the day of God we have another kind of sandwich verse here. He repeats Part of what we saw before, the heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will be melted away with intense heat. So I guess I could be talked into easily, it seems like it may be synonymous with the Day of the Lord, based upon the fact that the last part of that verse includes some similar things.

Tom? It just seems more like he repeats it because This has to happen first before the day of God really takes place. Really takes place. That's a good point. Well, the day of the Lord is kind of a judgment time, isn't it? Right. But the day of God doesn't sound like it's a positive. Yeah.

And that's what and that's kind of what I know. And actually the Corinthians passage kind of talks about where God takes all things together and God is all in all. Everything's come to completion. So that verse kind of goes along with Schaeffer's definition. Kind of saying, we'll see in the end. Everything will be taken care of. Christ will be in his proper place. And God will be all in all.

Well, let's close. Dear Father, we thank you, Lord, for this day. We thank you for the blessings we have, Father. Thank you for your marvelous word, Lord. Thank you for the promises, and the promises, Lord, for us that we'll be with you forever. And Lord, the promises also that your judgment is coming. And we pray for those. We know they're coming, and we trust you for your carrying them out in accordance with your will. In Christ's name, amen.