Lesson 34
Second Peter
Warning against dangers
facing the Church
Chapter 3
The Certainty of the
Believers Hope – The Return of Christ
7. So
this uniformitarianism that the F/T’s
are promoting during the last days
rules out any divine intervention in human history.
8. We
need to recognize that this belief in uniformitarianism has led to a number of
false doctrines and practices; biological evolution; socialism; Freudianism
(the psychological explanation for we don’t function as we ought); Marxism
(militant socialism); Keynesianism
(economics).
9. All
of these today are essentially unchallenged by most and taught as fact in
school.
10.
Their statement here in vs:4 not only questions the fact of His return but also
denies the veracity and integrity of the Word of God, its inspiration and
inerrancy.
- denies 2 Tim
11.
These F/T’s maintain that God’s promise is unreliable and that the universe is
a stable unchanging system where an event such as the parousia just will not
occur.
12.
Therefore for them the logical conclusion is that the parousia and the judgment
to follow at the second advent are a delusion and therefore they are free to
pursue their old sin nature lust pattern unrestrained.
Peter
cited two events in history to prove his point: the work of God at
Creation (2 Peter 3:5), and the flood
in Noah’s day (2 Peter 3:6).
3:5 For
when they maintain this, verb
here is circumstantial participle of thelo qe,lw which
means to will or desire
that by the word of God Jesus Christ is the member of the Trinity in
view here
God created the heavens
and the earth by His word. The phrase “and God said” occurs nine times in
Genesis 1.
John
1:1-3; Psalm 33:6-9
the
heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed
out of water and by water,
Peter’s argument is obvious: the same God who created the world by His word can also intervene in His world and do whatever He wishes to do! It is His word that made it and that holds it together, and His word is all-powerful.
Lit translation by Wuest I
believe says it most clearly: “For concerning this they willfully forget
that heavens existed from ancient times, and land [standing] out of
water, and by means of water cohering by the word of God.”
Summary
Observations:
1. The
F/T’s in view willing accept evolution or uniformitarianism in spite of the
facts.
…Professor D.M.S. Watson, who held the
position of the Chair of Evolution at the University of London for more than
twenty years, echoed the same sentiments when he stated that evolution itself
is accepted by zoologists, not because it has been observed to occur or can be
proven by logically coherent evidence to be true, but because the only
alternative, special creation, is incredible (1929, 123 [sic 124]:233).
2. By accepting the premisses of evolution
they deny Divine creation and hence the inspiration and inerrancey of the
Bible.
3. The sequence or stages of earths history.
a. Perfect original creation Gen 1:1; Psalm 33:6; Col 1:16
b. Fall of Satan Isa 14:12-14; Ezk 28:15
c. Judgement of the earth which results are
seen in Gen 1:2
- key here is the tohu wa bohu
- tohu refers to the chaos of the topography
- bohu refers to the habitibility
d. Restoration of the earth/universe for
habitation Gen 1:3-31
4. During the restoration, water was dealt
with in the 1st 3 days.
a. The thawing of the ice pack Gen 1:2b
b. The establishment of the canopy that
surrounded the earth that would be condenced out at the time of the flood.
- Gen 1:6-8 have the separation of the waters
above and from the waters below
c. Next the separation of land or ground from
the water 1:9 “dry land” is used of land once covered by water; Ex. 14:16, 22, 29; 15:19; Joshua 4:22; Neh 9:11; Psa 66:6
5. There is no place for geological ages to
be added anywhere in the Scriptural account.
- some attempt to do so to make in their view
Scripture line up with the long ages of evolution.
6. This verse clearly points to one land mass
before the flood.
1:1 In the beginning God created
~yhi_l{a/ plural - often said to be a plural of majesty,
The
important thing here is the focus, its on God, and if you recall this is the
term that means the powerful one, the strong one.
created arB bara' a
definite act /not relative;
speaks of creating something new, fresh, and complete; also to create
without using pre-existing material; ex-nihilo This is noted in Heb. 11:3
The material elements do not
pre-exist God, or His creative acts,
nothing pre-exists God.
God does not derive His existence in
any way from His creation.
The
what that God created here is the
heavens and the earth.
- this is a usual term to describe in Hebrew the entire universe.