CHAPTER TWENTY: Unique Witness of Epistles of Peter and John

I. Peter’s Portrayal of Cataclysmic End Events

The apostle Peter—man of action, ever ardent and impulsive—was one of the earliest of the original “twelve” to be called as an apostle. He followed Christ through all His travels and teachings and witnessed His miracles. He was the first to confess Christ to be the Son of God. He sought to walk on the water. He became one of the chosen three to witness the transfiguration, and heard Christ’s great sermon on the end of the world, or age (in Matthew 24).CFF1 368.1

Peter thrice denied Christ, but repented, was soundly converted, and became a strengthener of his brethren (Luke 22:32). He was the chosen preacher at Pentecost, and wrought miracles, even restoring the dead. His vision at Joppa opened the door to the Gentiles (Acts 10:11-34; Acts 15:14). And finally, according to Christ’s prediction, he died a martyr’s death, crucified head down.CFF1 368.2

Peter heard Christ’s constant teachings on eternal life. And when the disciples were turning away from Christ—during the crisis with the Jews over Christ’s claim to be the “Life” and the “Resurrection,” and the “Living Bread from Heaven”—and Christ asked the disciples if they, too, would go away, it was Peter who answered, “To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). And into his two short epistles, written to the Christian Jews of the dispersion, much vital truth on the destiny of man is packed.CFF1 368.3

Picture 1: The Ardent Apostle Peter:
The Ardent Apostle Peter Bears Confirmatory Testimony to the Truth of Conditionalism as Borne by All the Other Apostles, and Before Them by the Prophets of Old.
Page 368CFF1 368

1. IMPOSING OUTLINE IN SWEEPING STROKES

With bold, sweeping strokes Peter sketches in the outline of the “last things,” leading up to “an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4). He deals particularly with the “last time” (1 Peter 1:5), and the final phase of the salvation “ready to be revealed.” This includes the climactic second “appearing [apocalupsei, “unveiling,” “revelation,” “manifestation”] of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7), or “revelation” (1 Peter 1:13), prophesied by the prophets, with the “glory that should follow” (1 Peter 1:11).CFF1 369.1

Peter goes back to the first advent, when our Lord made all this possible, as He paid our redemption price (“the precious blood of Christ”), who was slain and raised up (1 Peter 1:18-21). Then he touches on our imperative new birth (1 Peter 1:23). And he stresses Christ as the “living stone,” and “chief corner stone,” but becoming the “rock of offence” to many (1 Peter 2:4-8). Peter presents Him as our great sinless Substitute (1 Peter 2:22-24), the “just [dying] for the unjust .... being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18) at the “resurrection,” but “who is [now] gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers ^{11) Ephesians 1:21; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 2:10, 15; Titus 3:1.} being made subject unto him” (1 Peter 3:21, 22).CFF1 369.2

Peter then presents Christ, our present mediator, as erelong “ready to judge the quick and the dead” (1 Peter 4:5), and declares that “the end of all things is at hand [eggiken, “approaching,” “drawing near”]” (1 Peter 4:7). He tells of the joy of the saints “when his [Christ’s] glory shall be revealed” (1 Peter 4:13). But he warns of “judgment,” beginning at the “house of God” (1 Peter 4:17), and of the fateful end “of them that obey not the gospel of God,” our “faithful Creator” (1 Peter 4:17, 19). And he again stresses the day when “the chief Shepherd shall appear,” and we “receive a crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:4).CFF1 370.1

2. CHARACTERISTICS OF CENTURIES THAT PRECEDE

In his second epistle, after mentioning the precious promises of God that enable us to escape the world’s “corruption” (2 Peter 1:4), Peter again leads up to “the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:11). He then refers to the Spirit-inspired prophecies that light up the darksome pathway of the centuries, until the “day star” shall appear (2 Peter 1:19-21). He touches on the “damnable heresies” (2 Peter 2:1) that mark and mar the centuries, and pervert the faith of some. And he touches on the “angels that sinned,” confined in the darkness of Tartarus, “reserved unto judgment” (2 Peter 2:4)—and how the “unjust” among men are likewise reserved “unto the day of judgment to be punished” (2 Peter 2:9). They will then “receive the reward of unrighteousness” (2 Peter 2:13).CFF1 370.2

Next Peter comes to the last-day scoffers (empaiktai, “mockers”), openly doubting the promise of Christ’s coming (2 Peter 2:3), contending for the now familiar “uniformity” of all things from the beginning, and willfully denying the evidence of the cataclysm of the Noachian deluge “whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Peter 2:6).CFF1 370.3

3. COMING DELUGE OF FIRE IN “DAY OF THE LORD

“Then comes Peter’s tremendous eschatological prophecy, blending in with Christ’s great last-day prophecy of Matthew 24, and anticipating John’s fourfold description (Revelation 20:10, 14, 15; Revelation 21:8) of the coming lake of fire. Here is Peter’s portrayal. He had just referred to the prediluvian world.CFF1 371.1

“The world [kosmos, abode of mankind] that then was [“of old”—2 Peter 2:5], being overflowed with water, perished: 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 [apoleias, “utter and final ruin”] of ungodly men.” “The Lord ... is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:6, 7, 9).CFF1 371.2

Thus Peter comes to the tremendous “day of the Lord” or “day of God,” with his vivid portrayal of coming destruction; when, in the overwhelming fierceness of the fires of Gehenna, the earth actually melts:CFF1 371.3

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up [katakaesetai, “to ashes”]. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto [speudontas, “hastening”] the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? ^{22) This corresponds to such frequent Old Testament predictions of earth’s final destruction as:
“They [the earth and the heavens, v. 25] shall perish ... shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them” (Psalm 102:25, 26).
“The earth is utterly broken down ... clean dissolved ... moved exceedingly .... The earth shall reel to and fro ... be removed like a cottage ... shall fall, and not rise again” (Isaiah 24:19, 20).
“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner” (Isaiah 51:6).
“For, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch” (Malachi 4:1).
So Old Testament and New Testament predictions are in harmony on the coming destruction.} Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:10-13).

Peter thus presents the histories and destinies of the three worlds:CFF1 372.1

(1) “The world that then was” (2 Peter 3:5, 6), that is, before the Flood.
(2) “The heavens and the earth, which are now” (2 Peter 3:7) needs no explanation.
(3) The “new heavens and a new earth” to come (2 Peter 3:13), that will continue on through all eternity as the home of the redeemed.

Thus the awful judgment of an earlier age through death and destruction by water is to be surpassed by the more awful day of eventual judgment to come of death and destruction by fire in the “day of the Lord,” and the destruction of the ungodly. Then Peter closes with a warning against so wresting (streblousin, “straining,” “turning,” “twisting”) the Scriptures as to result in the destruction of the distorter (2 Peter 3:16).CFF1 372.2

Thus, in a lesser way, Peter traverses the same general eschatological pathway later given in greater fullness and detail by John, the seer of Patmos, as well as by Paul. There is complete agreement.CFF1 372.3

So Peter declares that fires now hidden in the heart of the earth will burst forth in the final flames of the judgment day and do their appointed work. Then sin and sinners will pass away forever.CFF1 372.4