THE BIBLE AND THE SECOND COMING
2 Peter 1:12-21

The late first century church was in a turmoil. From a small sect of fanatical followers in Israel, the movement had spread across the Middle East into southern Europe, northern Africa, and even to Rome. All sorts of writings flooded the new congregations, both from the eyewitness “founders” and all sorts of other peoples. I have a copy of the “Ras Shamra” tablets and scrolls, a group of writings discovered years ago in Egypt that include many different “Christian” writings from all sorts of viewpoints.

Our New Testament rests for its authority on eyewitnesses. The likelihood is that the gospel was spread by word of mouth in a culture that relied much more than we do on memory. Then as the first generation began to die out, the Gospels were written down to preserve them, based on the testimony of the apostles. Peter may well have been in prison in Rome by this time, and his execution by Nero was impending. So he writes this as a sort of farewell address, reminding his readers of the beliefs they have in common and urging them to remain faithful.

One belief under attack was the “Parousia,” or second coming of Christ. That first generation had expected Him to return much sooner. As the apostles aged and began to die out, others thought the doctrine must be wrong. This is the main doctrine Peter was addressing here. The Lord will return, and He will judge the living and dead. The world is in His hand.

He writes so even after his death he can keep reminding them of that truth. “We’re not making this stuff up, you know. We were there on the Mount of Transfiguration when God revealed the glory of His Son. And we heard the voice of God Himself saying, ‘This is my Son whom I love. With him I am well pleased.’”  So Peter is emphasizing his personal experience with the Lord. Hard to argue against that. (It’s also hard to argue against your own personal experience when you share your testimony as to what the Lord has done for you.)

He further confirms the Parousia by the Old Testament prophets. Remember that the OT was the only Scripture they had. Some of our NT books were being circulated among the churches, but they were still debating which ones were most useful. That’s one reason 2 Peter was written. By extension, we apply the last two verses to our NT as well. BTW, Parousia originally referred to a big shot, perhaps a king or other ruler, coming to town. The church applied it to the Second Coming and that’s pretty much the only way the NT writers use the term.

He states a high view of the importance of Scripture. He repeats that the prophets didn’t make stuff up, but God inspired them and spoke through them. This week’s lesson in the quarterly emphasizes this point, a vital one indeed. We Baptists have insisted from out beginnings that we have no creed by the Bible, inspired by and interpreted with the aid of the Holy Spirit.

A LIST

2 Peter 1:1-11

2 Peter has a little mystery about it. Obviously written after 1 Peter, we don’t know whether this book or Jude was written first. That’s important why? Because Jude has only one chapter, and that chapter is very, very similar to 2 Peter. That fact suggests one strongly influenced the other, but we don’t know which came first. Another possibility is they both were influenced by the same third document!

Traditionally Peter was executed under Nero, which puts these letters  having been written around 60-65 AD. Tradition puts Peter in Rome at this time, which if true says the letter was written from there. Tradition also says Mark wrote his gospel from Rome, relying on Peter’s memoirs.

I’ve mentioned in previous lessons that the ancient world liked to list virtues, both as Hebrews and as Greeks. (Matter of fact, so do we still. Look at the magazines beside the check-out with stories advertised as “Five ways to know…” or “Ten hints to…”) So I’m going to jump to verse 5 (we’ll come back later) and give you a pop test in form of a list. Read each quality on the list with its synonyms and rate yourself from 1-10, with 10 being high.

1 - _____ Faith, trust, belief, dependence, discipleship, following.

2 - _____ Virtue, moral goodness,

3 - _____ Knowledge, in Bible usually knowledge from personal experience. Can include head knowledge, but is more like in John 1, when Andrew and Philip spent the day with Jesus and ran to find Peter and Nathaniel.

4 - _____ Self-control, even tempered, disciplined.

5 - _____Steadfastness, endurance, patience, hanging on…

6 - _____ Godliness, goodness as pleasing to God. Compare #2.

7 - _____ Brotherly affection, friendship, fellowship, team spirit

8 - _____Love, charity, Christian love, grace

CHALLENGE: Pick your lowest score and work for at least a week to raise it. Find Bible verses about it, pray about it, make an effort to step up at least one point, say from 5 to 6.

Verse 8 comments on the list. Peter says these qualities, if increasing, will keep you from being unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Stated positively, keep building these qualities within you and you WILL bring forth fruit of two kinds, first winning others to faith, and second, developing those “fruits of the Spirit” that Paul lists in Galatians 5:22f.

Now let’s back up to the beginning. By now you should remember that the ancients began their letters more intelligently than we do. Instead of having to look to the bottom to find out who signed it, they jumped right off with it. Peter introduces himself much as Paul did by stating he was a bond-servant – voluntary slave – and an apostle of Jesus Christ. Scholars believe the title “apostle” was limited in those days to people who could bear witness as having seen the risen Christ. Later the word reverted to its basic meaning of “one sent.”

In this second letter he doesn’t specify the geographical location of his readers. He gives their spiritual location within the faith, however. Note he proclaims they have equal faith to his! The New Testament is strongly egalitarian. This is so because our standing does not depend on our own lives and behavior, but on the grace and love of God. Healthy parents will love all their children equally – or at least treat them so. Peter explicitly says our faith is of equal standing because of God’s righteousness or justice. God’s love is based on God’s character, not ours.

Verse 2 – Again he copies Paul’s salutation, or maybe all Christians wished one another “grace and peace.” Both are plays on two other words. Greek writers usually identified themselves and then said “greetings,” charein. Christians baptized the word and came up with “charis,” or grace. Further, the typical Jewish greeting both then and today was shalom. That can mean both hello and goodbye. But to both Jews and Christians peace was deeper than a common greeting. It was health and well-being, even salvation.  So Peter and Paul could not even say hello without going all theological on their readers. Maybe we should too?

In verse 3 Peter tells us how to accomplish the list he will talk about in those later verses. We do it by the power of God! It’s actually impossible to build Christian character only in our own strength. But we do have a role to play. That part is to answer Jesus’s call to knowing Him. Spend time with Him in prayer and read His teaching. I like to imagine He’s sitting across from me telling me the things I’m reading. In fact our goal is to have fellowship with Him, becoming more and more like Him.

We escape from the corruption that is in the world. This verse can be read several ways. One way sort of lies on top, and when I read it, it says to me I won’t get pulled into the dirtiness of the people around me who regularly dive into sin. But it also can refer to eternal life, meaning that the sinfulness of this world and my often sinful nature will not destine me to Hell but to abundant life!

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Now skipping the list that we’ve already discussed, we move to verse 9 where Peter warns what happens if we neglect those qualities. He says we are so nearsighted that we are blind. Didn’t Jesus say If the blind lead the blind, they both fall in the ditch? Peter says that after you have become a disciple, you must not forget you have been forgiven your sins and cleansed. I’ve followed developments at Qumran and their Dead Sea Scrolls closely for years. One architectural feature of the site is the abundance of pools guiding the water through their compound. They would not forget their need for cleansing because they acted it out repeatedly with ritual washings.

Verse 10 states positively that if you practice those qualities you will never fail. Want an article or book on success? Go back toward the top and check that list. And he reminds us that the outcome of our faith is entrance into the eternal Kingdom of God!