Interpretations of II Peter 3: 10-13

Bernard Pyron

II Peter 3: 10-13 says "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. 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 the coming of the day of God, wherein

the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall

melt with fervent heat?

Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look

for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

Harold Camping in 1993-94 taught that when Christ appears it is

the end

of the world, interpreting II Peter 10-13 as saying the

world will be totally destroyed. Harold Camping comes out of the American Dutch Reformed Church and he has been a follower of amillennialism. For years Camping has broadcast on short wave and regular AM and FM radio worldwide over Family Radio. In 1992-94 he taught that the world was to end in September of 1994. I am not sure where Camping got the interpretation of II Peter 3: 10-13 that the world is to be entirely destroyed when Christ appears. He might have gotten it from his Calvinist background.

But I can see how those who interpret II Peter 3: 10-13 as saying the

world will be totally destroyed at the appearing of the Lord would not

see how it is possible that there could be a thousand year reign of

Christ on earth after the Tribulation - unless God re-creates the

earth, as II Peter 3: 13 says.

Accepting Revelation 20: 1-6, that there is to be a thousand year

reign of Christ on earth, avoids the problem of the two resurrections,

the first in Revelation 20: 4, and the second after the thousand years

which is in Revelation 20: 5 and 20: 11-15. The first resurrection is

for the saved and the second for the unsaved.

If amillennialists follow Augustine and say that the thousand year

reign of Christ on earth is a broad allegory of the entire Church Age,

then the first or second resurrection in Revelation 20 has also to be

allegorized away - or amillennialists can change the Book of

Revelation and say

there is to be only one resurrection at the end of the world.

One of the big problems of amillenialism as a theology which claims to

interpret end time events is that it does much the same thing with

other end time events as it does with the millennial reign of a

thousand years. For example, the 144,000 of Revelation 7: 1-8 and

14:1-5 in amillennialism are allegorized away as representing all

saved Christians in the entire Church Age. So, in amillennialism,

most of them are not alive now or at the time they are sealed, and

how could they perform the role Christ

has for them (see Daniel 11: 33, for example). And why are the mostly dead 144,000 sealed to protect them from what is coming on the earth during the Tribulation?

What would strict amillennialism do with Luke 21: 16, that Christians

in the end time will be put to death? Or Luke 21: 36, saying that

Christians should pray that they are worthy to escape all the things

that come to pass during the Tribulation?. I have no idea how

amillennialists would interpret Revelation 9 on the Fifth and Sixth

Trumpet Judgments. They may ignore Revelation Chapter 9.

I can’t see that amillennialism has done a great deal to encourage

persistent study of end time Bible prophecy. As a result, amillennialists and their followers

generally do not know what to expect to happen during the Tribulation.

Perhaps they are only interested in one event, the appearing of

Christ.. But Christ said in John 16: 13 that the Holy Spirit will

"…shew you things to come," meaning he will open end time Scriptures for us, or some of us. Christ did not mean that the Holy Spirit will only show us the appearing of the Lord, but will show us "things," plural events.Within the Church, dispensationalist premillennialism dominates understanding of end time events. Dispensationalism makes an extremesplit between Old Testament Israel and the Christian Church, has its eye on honoring the unsaved Jews, and promises that Christians will be raptured off the earth before the Great Tribulation begins.

Followers of dispensationalism tend to reject any Bible teaching that the Tribulation is about God’s judgment upon the Christian Church. And in the Church there is little understanding of alternative end time prophecy interpretative systems other than dispensationalism, Catholic and Calvinist amillennialism, preterism and dominionism.

I know that there have been writers who follow the historical premillennialism of the Early Church Fathers, but I have not found the writings of contemporary historical premillennialists on the Internet to read. One small Christian Remnant on the Internet happens to follow historical premillennialism, that is, they believe in a thousand year reign of Christ on earth following the Tribulation. But unlike the dispensationalists, the Remnant Christians I am talking about do not separate faithful Old Testament Israel from the Church as the dispensationlists do. The remnant Christians say that Christians in the truth are Israel. They do not believe in a pre-tribulation rapture and delve into end time prophecy in trying to fully understand what events are to take place before Christ comes back at the Seventh Trumpet which marks the end of the Tribulation. Dispensationalists who follow the pre-tribulation rapture theory say that Christ can appear invisible any time to get Christians and no understanding of end time events is necessary to know when he may appear.

Lets see what John Gill, the 18th century Reformed Baptist, said about II Peter 3: 10:

http://www.studylight.org/com/geb/view.cgi?

book=2pe&chapter=003&verse=010

"and the elements shall melt with fervent heat:

not what are commonly called the four elements, earth, air, fire, and

water, the first principles of all things: the ancient philosophers

distinguished between principles and elements; principles, they say

F8, are neither generated, nor corrupted; (ta te stoiceia kata thn

ekpurwsin) (fyeiresyai) , "but the elements will be corrupted, or

destroyed by the conflagration"; which exactly agrees with what the

apostle here says: by the elements seem to be meant the host of

heaven, being distinguished from the heavens, as the works of the

earth are distinguished from the earth in the next clause; and design

the firmament, or expanse, with the sun, moon, and stars in it, which

will be purged and purified by this liquefaction by fire; the earth also

will be purged and purified from everything that is noxious, hurtful,

unnecessary, and disagreeable; though the matter and substance of it

will continue:"

TSABA SHAMAYIM, host of heaven Tsaba is Strong’s number 6635 Hebrew, a mass of persons (or figuratively things), especially regarding

organized for war (an army), by implication a campaign, lit. or fig.

(spec. hardship, worship): - appointed time, army, battle, company,

host, service, soldiers, waiting uppon, war.

Heaven is Hebrew number 8064, shamayim, shaw-mah’-yim, dual of an

unused singular Heb. shameh, shaw-meh’, from an unused root meaning to

be lofty, the sky (as aloft, the dual perhaps alluding to the visible

arch in which the clouds move, as well as to the higher either where

the celestial bodies revolve): - air, X astrologer, heaven(-s).

Isaiah 34:4 "And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the

heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall

fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig

from the fig tree (Rev. 6:13)."

Psalm 75: 3 "The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are dissolved: I bear up the pillars of it."

John Gill may have gotten the idea that II Peter 3: 10 concerns the

dissolving of the host of heaven from Isaiah 34: 4. The ancient

Hebrews fell away from worship of God to the worship of the host of

heaven, which is the sun and the moon and any of the host of heaven.

Isaiah 34: 4 could be interpreted literally, saying that the host of

heaven as the sun, moon and stars will be dissolved. But Deuteronomy

4: 19 and 17:3 say that the sun, moon and stars - the host of heaven -

are worshipped instead of the Lord. In

I Kings 22: 19 the host of heaven is seen standing by the Lord, and

some are on his right hand and some on his left hand. Remember in

Matthew 25: 31-41 the sheep are set on the Lord’s right hand and the

goats on his left hand (verse 33). The sheep on the Lord’s right hand

inherit the kingdom but the goats on his left hand are sent into

everlasting fire. In Amos 7: 8 the Lord say "I will set a plumbline

in the midst of my people Israel: I will not pass by them any more."

The plumbline of Amos 7 suggests that the sheep and the goats are both

part of "my people Israel."

The host of heaven as the sun, moon and stars becomes a kind of

metaphor, in I Kings 22: 19, where the Lord is seen judging

the host of heaven by putting some on his right hand and some on his

left hand. The various bodies of the host of heaven which are physically the sun, moon and stars appear to represent

groups of people, that is, groups within "my people Israel."

And don’t forget that

"my people Israel" worshipped the host of heaven. Pagan gods were associated with

the various physical bodies of the heavens.

In Acts 7; 43 Stephen tells the Pharisees "Yea, ye took up the

tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon."

He is quoting Amos 5: 25-27, "Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and

offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye

have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the

star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Therefore will I cause

you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name

is The God of hosts."

The "star of your god" may be the six pointed star of Solomon which in

later times became the national symbol of the nation of Israel. If its

a five pointed star, its still part of the worship of the host of

heaven.

Deuteronomy 4:19 "And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and

when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the

host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them,

which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole

heaven."

Deuteronomy 17:3 "And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped

them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven ("the

heavenly bodies"), which I have not commanded;"

1 Kings 22:19 "And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD:

I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven

standing by him on his right hand and on his left."

2 Kings 17:16 "And they left all the commandments of the LORD their

God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove,

and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal."

2 Kings 21:5 "And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the

two courts of the house of the LORD."

If II Peter 3: 10-13 does not say that the earth will be totally

destroyed at the appearance of Christ, but that the host of heaven

representing worship of false doctrines will be destroyed, and that

all of this involves "my people Israel" which is the Christian Church,

the Church will not accept this interpretation. Bernard