![]() ![]() 11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 10But 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. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 8But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Misc.6Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7But 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 of ungodly men.PRC-Related: RFPA, Standard Bearer, Reformed Witness Hour, Etc.Missions, Sister Churches, Christian Schools.Covenant PRC Ballymena, Northern Ireland.Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia.Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church of Singapore.Be patient for the coming of the Lord draws nigh! Through the preaching of the gospel, all the elect are gathered and then (and only then) does Christ return to judge the ungodly and renew the creation. ![]() God’s "promise" and "longsuffering" and "will" are that none of His people "perish" but that "all. Either all are saved together or all perish together, for, if one is lost, all are lost. ![]() Remember too that the salvation of each member is necessary for the rest of the elect, for the church is an organism. When the bride is made ready, the bridegroom will come! Only when the last member of Christ’s body is added, only when the last living stone is fitted in God’s temple, only when all the sheep are called, will Christ come again. Now we are ready to answer the question: Why did Christ not return, say, in the year 99 or 872 or 1356 or 2003? The answer is that some of God’s elect people had not yet been born and called. is longsuffering into us-ward." This indicates the closest possible connection between God’s longsuffering and us, such that God’s longsuffering grabs hold of us and effects our salvation. Sometimes "longsuffering" takes the prepositions "upon" or "towards." Here "into" is used. Third, we should note the preposition taken by "longsuffering" in II Peter 3:9. This is an established fact to be reckoned as a first principle in understanding God’s longsuffering: " account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation" (15). Here Peter teaches that those to whom God is longsuffering are saved. Second, Peter explains that the "longsuffering" of II Peter 3:9 is not an ineffectual wish of God to save everybody, for a few verses later he tells us that "the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation" (15). Against the dark backdrop of the destruction of the world and His fearful judgment upon the ungodly, the Lord assures us four times in II Peter 3 (1, 8, 14, 17) that we are His "beloved" people, loved with the everlasting, irresistible, gracious love of God, according to our eternal "election" (1:10). is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish" (8-9). The "us" are referred to as "beloved" in the previous verse: "But, beloved. is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." The apostle refers to the same people as "us-ward" and "any." The Lord is longsuffering to us and so is not willing that any (of us) should perish. For, if Christ delays His return so that everybody head for head will be brought to repentance, then His second coming will never happen.īut who then are the "any" of II Peter 3:9? Three lines of argument lead to the same conclusion, that they are the beloved people of God.įirst, we should notice the word "us-ward" in the text: "The Lord. ![]() Last time, we saw that the Arminian and free offer view of II Peter 3:9 (that God desires to save absolutely everybody) makes Peter agree with the scoffers that Christ is not coming back. ![]()
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