2 Peter 3:8-12

[Hidden In Him]

How Long Before The Earth Is Consumed By Fire In The Wrath Of God?



How long will it be before the prophesied Day of the Lord? It's something even the angels desired to look into (1 Peter 1:12), and even Christ when He was on earth did not yet know the time (Matthew 24:36). Several verses suggest the early church believed it was imminent, as even Peter himself attested in his first letter when he wrote the following:

The end of all things is at hand, so be you therefore sober and watch unto prayer... rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. (1 Peter 4:7,13)

It appears even the kingdom of darkness was convinced His return was at hand, because demons said to the Lord Jesus when He came to cast them out, “What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?" (Matthew 8:29). By this it is clear they expected Christ was about to usher in the Day of the Lord, and they wanted to know why He was coming for them in advance of it. But by the time Peter was writing this second letter in the mid 60s AD, a revelation about how long it might be was beginning to emerge, and it was farther away than they initially realized. In addressing them regarding the Day of the Lord, Peter had this to say about Christ's return:

8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 10 But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the Day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? (2 Peter 3:8-12)

Some think Jesus prophesied falsely when He told the disciples, "This generation will not pass away until all is fulfilled." But as I have taught many times, what Jesus actually said was that this age would not pass away until it was, and by 70 AD the church was figuring this out. The Heavenly Father knew it was expedient for the New Testament church to believe His return was imminent, because if it had been revealed to them that Christ would not be returning for another 2,000 years, they might not have fulfilled the call on their lives to proclaim the gospel, and die for Him if necessary in doing so. But the Greek word γενεά also meant "an age," and after the Jewish temple fell to the Romans yet the Antichrist did not manifest himself as expected, the Spirit of God was now revealing there would still be another 2,000 years of human history before Christ's eventual return, and that it was not coming at the end of their generation but at the end of the church age instead.

Regarding Peter's teaching that "A day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day," the Epistle of Barnabas had this to say.

The Sabbath is mentioned at the beginning of the creation [thus]: And God made in six days the works of His hands, and made an end on the seventh day, and rested on it, and sanctified it. Attend, my children, to the meaning of this expression, "He finished in six days." This implies that the Lord will finish all things in six thousand years, for a day is with Him a thousand years. And He Himself testifies, saying, "Behold, today will be as a thousand years." Therefore, my children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, all things will be finished. And He rested on the seventh day. This means that when His Son, coming [again], shall destroy the time of the wicked man, and judge the ungodly, and change the sun, and the moon, and the stars, then shall He truly rest on the seventh day. (Epistle of Barnabas, Chapter 15, mid-70s AD)

So why the secrecy until after the first generation had largely passed away? I believe it was for the disciples benefit to carry out their calling, but also because the Lord was fooling Satan into playing his hand. He did the same thing in the garden when he told Adam "In the day you eat of it, you will surely die." Satan assumed and Adam and Eve would die in the same literal 24 period after they ate of the tree, and he would succeed at destroying man from off the face of the earth. But he was exposed as evil, and without succeeding at killing humanity, because as he would find out, a "day" with the Lord is as a thousand years, and this is what the Lord was referring to. Adam and many of his descendants lived well into the 900s, but not one of them ever lived to be 1,000.

So too in the New Testament era was Satan attempting to martyr the church into extinction, only to be met with the cold reality that he had been fooled again, and that Christianity would live on and become the most influential religion on earth. But it revealed again just how evil his intentions were toward the righteous. Among other things, they were burned at the stake to light Nero's dinner parties, one of the cruelest forms of "entertainment" imaginable and something only Hell could dream up.

I discussed the false accusations that were leveled against godly Christians in Study #7 of this series, and they were designed to justify murdering them in the cruelest ways possible. But in the process Satan got suckered into playing his hand and exposing himself for who he truly was. Like after the temptation of Eve in the Garden, believers in Christ would go on to multiply in the earth for thousands of years more, and through them the gospel would be preached to the whole world. The only question that remains is when will the true end finally come.


Jumping The Gun

Unfortunately many in the church have been jumping the gun again. I recently wrote a piece on end-times hysteria, and how quickly many get duped into thinking the Day of the Lord is at hand in our time. Donald Trump will be shot in the head, but rise from the dead and set up a golden idol of himself in Gaza, or the New Pope in the Vatican will gain power over the EU, or Barak Obama will take over the world after assuming leadership of the United Nations. Tomorrow it will be something else.

How does it relate to the six thousand year prophecy? They play with numbers and "fudge" things to teach that we are now nearing the end of the six millennium, but are we? According to the Jewish calendar, it is only the year 5786, which means if we go by it then we still have 214 years to go. That might be too long, because there is indeed some grey area when trying to calculate the number of years humanity has been on this earth according to scripture. But unfortunately there are some Christians and Christian institutions who toy with the numbers to make it appear we are at the doorstep. The Worldwide Church Of God did so, claiming that we could be only years away now, and there have been many others. But while some like the WCG might not have been deliberately trying to deceive, there are others who are, and who tell people the end is at hand because they are deliberately intent on luring in the naive to start an end-times religious cult. There is one such individual who has inhabited the Christian forums for many years now. He goes by different names, but identifies as a pseudo-Jewish cult leader who is telling everyone Christ's return will be in 2026.

 

[Hidden In Him]

It's a scam, based purely on his own "calculations" that we are at the end of the sixth millennium now, and he has built a home in Columbia, one of the most corrupt countries in the world, to lure people into his compound. Such scams are why Christians need to be more educated in things than to simply buy it when someone "calculates" that the 6,000 years are almost over now. If you should see anything like this advertised anywhere on a Christian forum, beware. You were warned not to be suckered in.

KEHILLAH TORAH YESHUA, THE SET-APART HOUSE​

Welcome to my home in Envigado, Colombia. This home is a central base for a community of believers in Yeshua that obey the Torah of Moses here in the city and throughout the world. We expect the return of Yeshua to be in the year 6,000 from creation, which I have calculated to be in 2 years in the autumn in 2026 AD. We have begun gathering on every shabbath to share the parashah of the week, to teach and learn, to discuss current events, to discuss end time preparations, to discuss how we can help each other, and how we can help the poor and homeless in the city. Any believer in Yeshua that obeys the Torah is welcome to join us on shabbath, and even lodge with me if necessary. I can be contacted from the Contact page.




Armstrong's "calculations" on what the current Jewish year should be:

The Hebrew Year 5785—or Is It?

A significant chronological debate you may have never heard of

armstronginstitute.org

The Proper Setting

The reason I am never fooled by end-time scams is because I know the context in which God's wrath will eventually be poured out. It will come when the planet has descended into a wickedness unlike anything since the flood, when scripture says, "The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). The Lord does not just destroy the entire planet arbitrarily. He destroys it when there is no choice left because the planet has become corrupted beyond all hope of recovery and there is nothing left but evil. At the time of the flood, their only thought continually was on killing, murder, hatred, cunning, lying, stealing, adultery, cannibalism, betrayal, deception, witchcraft, etc. There were never thoughts of love, only evil all the time.

So how wicked will they need to get before God's wrath finally comes? I wrote about this in a piece called A World Of Masters And Slaves, but I will provide a brief excerpt from it here, citing Kathryn Baxter's work A Divine Revelation Of Hell. The Satanists will rule the planet, and by the time of the Antichrist's reign they all have turned it into an absolute slave state. The masses will have been reduced to mind-control slaves who serve the Satanic elite, and are simply euthanized when they have outworn their use:

A voice said to me, "Where are My people?" I looked closer and saw people like dead men walking. There was a desperate sadness in the air, and no one turned to the right or left. I saw that the people were being led about by some unseen force. Now and then a voice spoke to them out of the air, and they obeyed the voice. They did not talk to one another. I saw too that the number "666" was written on each one's forehead and on his hands. I saw soldiers on horses herding the people about as though they were cattle. The American flag, tattered and torn, lay forlornly on the ground. There was no joy, no laughter, no happiness. I saw death and evil everywhere.

The people walked one behind another into a large department store. They kept in step like discouraged soldiers and were dressed identically in a type of prison garb. A fence surrounded the store, and guards were stationed here and there. Everywhere I looked, I saw soldiers in battle-dress uniforms. I saw these zombie-like people herded into the store, where they were able to buy only the barest necessities. As each completed his purchases, he was placed aboard a large green army truck. The truck, well-guarded, was then driven to another area.

Here, in a type of clinic, these people were examined for communicable diseases or crippling handicaps. A small number of them were shuffled to the side as rejects. Soon, those who failed the examination were taken to another room. Without a struggle, they arose when their names were called and marched into a large box. When they were inside, another technician closed the door and pulled a switch in a panel on the wall. A few minutes later he opened the door, took down a broom and dust pan, and swept what remained of them off the floor. Nothing but a bit of dust was left of what had once been a roomful of people.

I saw those people who passed the medical exam being put back into the same truck and driven, to a train. No one spoke or even turned to look at anyone else. At another building each person was assigned a job. They all went to work without a single dispute. I watched as they worked very hard at their assigned tasks, and then at the end of the day, they were taken to an apartment building with a high fence around it. Each undressed and went to bed. Tomorrow they would work hard again...

There was also a "big brother" machine that could see into homes and businesses. Only a single machine of this type existed, and it belonged to the beast. The part of the machine that was located in the homes of the people was invisible to the naked eye, but it could and did report to the beast every move the people made. I watched as the beast turned his throne around and faced toward me. On his forehead was the number 666... [The beast spoke, and said], "You will work and not get angry or frustrated, nor will you cry or be sad. You will work for me until you die. I have many like you that I control. Some lie, some kill, some steal, some make war, some have children, some run machinery, and some do other things. Yes, I control everything." An evil laugh came from him. (Baxter, A Divine Revelation Of Hell, P.163-170)

The vision describes some being programmed as mind-control slaves for breeding, some for assassination, some for misinformation campaigns and propaganda, some for just for mindless labor, but everything will be controlled. There will be no joy, no communication, no freedom of thought, no laughter, no love, and no purpose in life other than serving the elites until they have worn out their usefulness.

Such is a world will need to be destroyed and will be, but does such a world exist right now? No, it does not, and in my humble opinion it will not exist in the eared yet for several decades still, though AI technology is certainly casing things to progress evermore swiftly now.


Questions And Applications

1. So what are your thoughts? How long before the wrath of God is finally poured out upon the world?
2. Do you believe the 6,000 year prophecy recorded in Barnabas is accurate?
3. Do you think Peter is here drawing a parallel between conditions on earth before the flood and what will need to exist on earth again?
4. Were there any "end is nigh" scenarios you found credible in the past?
5. What do you think can be done to protect people from jumping the gun, and getting duped into thinking the end is here when it is not?