In my last post (here), I listed four points that show Peter was not speaking of the literal heavens passing away in 2 Peter 3:10–13. I discussed the first point and will now look at the other three.
2. Peter specifically linked the judgment of the scoffers, the day of the Lord, and the new heavens and earth to old prophecies, not to any new prophecies.
This fact lies at the heart of his argument: he describes things that God had revealed through the prophets. Peter makes this clear:
That you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets.… (2 Pet 3:21)
For a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. (2 Pet 2:3 NKJV)
But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (2 Pet 3:13)
The judgment promised “long ago” cannot be any new proclamation of judgment; it must be something the prophets predicted and promised a long time before Peter wrote these words. The Old Testament does not mention the destruction of the physical heavens and earth, so the Apostle was not speaking of the physical heavens and earth either.
3. Peter described the “last days” (2 Pet 3:3; cp. 1 Pet 4:7), but not the last days of everything. His reference is to the last days of Judaism. God destroyed “the world that then existed” in Noah’s day (2 Pet 3:6).2 In like manner, He was about to destroy the world of the Jews, not just darken their heavens and earth by a temporary punishment. They would fully dissolve in this final judgment. He would not melt the physical elements of the world, but He would end the old covenant. God was about to dissolve all remnants of corrupt Judaism in the same way He had judged Babylon and Egypt in the book of Isaiah—through an invading army (cp. Isa 13:1, 6, 10, 13, 17; 19:1; 20:4; Luke 21:20). (And, the prophets foretold great things that would occur after the final days of Judaism! But that subject is well beyond the scope of this article.)
4. Let us move now to the various prophecies of the final destruction of Israel as a covenant nation. Remember, to fit Peter’s description, these must be old prophecies.
The oldest prophecy is a song God gave Moses (Deut 32) at the founding of Israel as a nation. It describes Israel’s history in advance, even before the nation entered the promised land, its new “heavens and earth.” And, Moses calls the heavens and earth to witness this prophecy (Deut 32:1). Can we think this plays no part in Peter’s thinking in 2 Peter 3?
This song foretells Israel’s progression into wickedness and God’s various punishments in response. It predicts their “latter end” (Deut 32:29) and God’s vengeance that would come at that time (Deut 32:35) and alludes to their end in its latter verses. The Apostle Paul mentions this “latter end” in Romans 9–11. Compare Deut 32:32 with Rom 9:29 and Deut 32:21 with Rom 10:19. In Deuteronomy 32:43, God calls the nations to rejoice over the end of Israel. Does Paul not refer to this in Romans 11:11–36? And does this not fulfill one of the ten requirements Peter listed for the end of which he spoke—that the other apostles referred to it? (For the complete list of requirements, see here.)
Notice Deuteronomy 32:22, where God says,
A fire is kindled by my anger,
and it burns to the depths of Sheol,
devours the earth and its increase,
and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
Is not this precisely the kind of deep fire that Peter is talking about? It is if we understand the type of heavens and earth that he means! That deep fire would dissolve the pagan perversity that filled Israel by Peter’s day (see Isa 65:7; Matt 23:32). God would expose all their works, and then destroy them by fire.
What about other old prophecies of the “Day of the Lord”? In one, Malachi predicted the coming of John the Baptist, the Elijah to come, whom God would send before the “great and awesome day of the Lord” (Mal 4:5).
Notice how the prophet described this day: “‘Surely the day is coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble, and the day that is coming will set them on fire,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘Not a root or a branch will be left to them’” (Mal 4:1 NIV). Is not this the fire to which Peter refers? Is this not the destruction Peter intends?
Joel mentions two days of the Lord. One was coming soon: “The day of the LORD is near” (Joel 1:15). The other was not yet near, and it would be the “great and awesome day” of Israel’s final judgment (Joel 2:31). Both would be days of judgment, and Joel uses similar language to describe them.
Note the similarity between the language Joel used for his soon-coming judgment to that Isaiah used to describe the destruction of Babylon:
The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. (Joel 2:10)
For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. (Isa 13:10)
Then note Joel’s language regarding Israel’s final judgment:
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.… I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls. (Joel 2:28, 30–32)
This judgment was more than the darkening of sun and moon, and the shaking of the heavens and earth. It was the dissolution of the heavens and earth. The sun was going fully dark, and the moon would die a bloody death.
We know from Peter’s preaching in Acts 2 that these things were beginning to happen in his day. Peter, speaking of God giving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, says, “This is that” which Joel prophesied. If the times of God’s pouring out his Spirit upon all flesh was happening, is it not plain that the “day of the Lord” was not far behind?
And what of the old prophecy of Isaiah 61:1–2? Jesus quotes it at the beginning of his ministry:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
But what of the “day of vengeance of our God” that immediately follows “the Lord’s favor”? Is this not the exact vengeance Moses mentioned in Deuteronomy 32:35, 41, 43, and that Jesus declared in Luke 21:22, the “days of vengeance to fulfill all that is written”?
Jesus spoke of this vengeance in the Olivet Discourse. He said it would come at the end of “the age.” Not the end of the entire world, but the end of the Jewish nation, as predicted by the holy prophets. He used the same judgment language as the old prophecies in Matthew 24:29, the imagery of full destruction, with the stars of heaven falling to the earth. And Jesus said all these things would come upon “this generation,” meaning the people then alive (Matt 24:34).
What else can this be but the final judgment of the nation, as predicted by prophets of old? And it is this very thing that Peter refers to in 2 Peter 3, and it matches all his criteria. It was the final judgment predicted of old in Deuteronomy, mentioned by the holy prophets, mentioned by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse, and mentioned by Paul (see the Supplement). It is the dissolution of all things, perfectly described; not all things in the physical universe, but all things in corrupt Judaism.
Peter is speaking of this great and dreadful day of the Lord, and we do not have an apparent reason to say otherwise. The fulfillment of this “long ago” judgment prophecy would culminate in the total and formal dissolution of God’s covenant with Israel. It happened when God destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70.
Footnotes
- Quotations are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.
- The image in this post is The Deluge by Francis Danby (1793–1862). This file (here) is in the public domain (PD-US).
