Thoughts From 2 Peter - Day 23

  Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 2 Peter 3:15,16

         Paul's letters receive a lot of criticism from unbelievers or false teachers because they deal with multiple hot button topics like women's role in the church and home, the rapture, homosexuality, church polity, church discipline, spiritual gifts and more. If you can just say, "Well, that's just Paul's opinion" or "He changes his mind from book to book", then you can read the epistles with a "grain of salt" and not treat them as authoritative. The problem with that is Peter calls them "scriptures" and puts them in the same category as the other scriptures that the early church was using which would eventually become todays Bible - God's inerrant inspired authoritative word given to us by which we get to know Him, hear from Him, and discern His will for our lives.

       Peter, himself, admits that some of Paul's writings can be difficult to understand. Note the word "some". That means that most aren't. I once heard a famous Christian quoted as saying, "I'm more concerned with what I do understand about the Bible than what I don't". In other words, there is enough clearly convicting stuff in the Bible to deal with so first get in line with that. Also Peter says "difficult" not "impossible". How deep do you want to dig to understand it? My favorite YouTuber/ Bible Scholar, Mike Winger devoted himself to discovering what Paul's teaching on Women's role in the Church was and once made a 13 hour video on one aspect of this. He desired to understand the difficult and not just say it's impossible.

      Lastly, Peter says that if you distort the scriptures you are ignorant and/or unstable and headed for destruction. I see that as two categories - ignorant; untaught, don't know any better and probably don't desire to know. -unstable; like the house built on sand. Choose the easy way to follow the ways of the world. Either way, you will stand before God someday and have to give an account for your disobedience and He will say, "You have no excuse". God has spelled out His will in the Bible and as we have previously mentioned, it butts heads with our wanting to do what we want to do so quite often we look for ways to distort what God is saying so we can fulfill our lusts.

        Are you reading the Bible in a submissive way and saying, "God, whatever you say, I will obey"? This is the way.

Thoughts From 2 Peter - Day 22

 ... what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives... So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him... But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.  2 Peter 3:11,14,18

         When I read these verses I'm reminded of a parable that Jesus told of a wedding feast in Matthew 22. In this story, a wedding banquet was going on and everyone was clothed in splendid garments, possibly supplied by the host or maybe just wearing their "Sunday best", in honor of the occasion. However, there was one person that stood out because they came in wearing casual attire. Maybe they were still in their PJ's like they just rolled out of bed. Maybe they were wearing their workout clothes having just come from the gym. Or maybe they were wearing overalls coming from working in the field. Whatever the case, they didn't think the occasion was worth taking time to get dressed up. The host sees the man and promptly kicks him out either because he crashed the party and wasn't wearing the members only garb supplied by the host, or he had disdain for the host as hinted at in context from the prior parable.

        Although I'm not afraid of getting kicked out of the wedding feast of the Lamb because He has clothed me with His robe of righteousness and received His invitation, I do want to be found wearing it when He makes His surprise return. This is hinted at in the parable of oil in the lamps where the groom came in the middle of the night to surprise the bride and she was prepared unlike the bridesmaids. Peter says, since Jesus could come back at any moment, make sure you are dressed for the occasion. What's that look like? Living Holy, Godly lives, being found spotless and blameless, at peace with Him, understanding Him better and getting to know Him better.

        During a time of revival in my life, I was extremely convicted about wasting my time doing things that didn't have eternal consequence. I went to a movie and while taking a bathroom break, I noticed that the toilets were made by a company called American Standard. Have you ever been convicted by a toilet before? Why was I at the movie instead of reading my New American Standard Bible? While that may be dividing the Sacred and Secular too much, or so I was told that I was suffering from dualism, the point is "Are You Dressed For Success"?

Thoughts From 2 Peter - Day 21

" Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming" 2 Peter 3:12

           How do you speed the day of the Lord's coming when God already knows when it is? Here is the only logical answer. Have you ever had a day at work that seemed to last forever? Chances are it was a boring day where nothing was happening. I recently went to an NCAA football game and got there 75 minutes early - at least that's what the clock ticking down to game-time said. It seemed to last forever. My wife was ready to leave by the time the game started. Once the game started, the clock seemed to speed up. What happened? Busyness and activity seem to make time go faster. How can we speed the day of the Lord's return - by being about His business. Don't be a lazy Christian but go out and labor in His strength for the kingdom. It will make the time go quicker.

         That's the logical answer. Here's the illogical answer which could be right because our finite minds can't comprehend much. For example, Q. why pray when God already knows what He's going to do? A. Because prayer changes things. Huh? I thought God doesn't change his mind? Q. Why witness when God already knows who is going to be saved? A. Because God uses evangelism to save people. But if I didn't witness they'd still get saved? So here is the illogical answer. Matthew 24 says Christ will return when all the world has heard therefore let's reach all the unreached people groups and bring Jesus back. Similarly, Romans 11 talks about the fullness of the Gentiles being reached before God brings about revival of the Jews. Therefore, let's go get that last Gentile saved.

         The illogical part of this is that a finite date set by the Lord could be expedited. Yet, David, when being judged for a census, chose 3 days of being judged by the Lord because the Lord is merciful and sure enough, those 3 days were shortened because He relented at Aruanah's threshing floor. Dates and times are fixed, God doesn't change His mind, yet we see examples of both. Paul told the men on the ship that no one would be lost yet as men tried to escape in a lifeboat, he told them if they left, they would die. How could both be true?

          Truly, God's ways are higher than ours. Let's first of all get excited about the Lord coming back and secondly, let's get busy and hurry Him up. After all, it has been 2000 years already!

Thoughts From 2 Peter - Day 20

 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

         I was recently in a discussion with a guy who rejects Christianity because of the problem of suffering in the world and God can't be a good God and all powerful God at the same time to allow this to happen. I've dealt with this in a blog in detail previously, ( https://thoughtsfromtherightbrain.blogspot.com/2016/06/apologetics-week-2-i-cant-worship-god.html)

but I was thinking of it again as I looked at this verse. If God wants all people to be saved and He's all powerful, why doesn't He make it happen? The reason has to be that He doesn't want to violate people's free will. He doesn't want to make people choose Him because they have to. God, though all-powerful allows people to go to Hell even though He could stop it, in order to let them have free will. I was recently watching a show called Foundation where Brother Day, the leader of the Empire, falls in love and leaves everything, even fakes his death, to be with a woman who he has been spending time with. When he finally finds her, she doesn't want him, in fact she is with another woman and states that she was only with him because she was forced to be and was scared of him. Brother Day is devastated at this news and crushed. Like art imitating reality, God wants our chosen love, not forced love.

 Relating this to the previously mentioned problem of suffering, God could stop all suffering and get rid of all evil in the world, but then He'd have to get rid of you (and me). He would have to step in and violate the free will of people to make choices and He has decided not to do this.

         My other thought on this verse is what led me to leave the Presbyterian church. The Westminster Confession states,  God's sovereign decree actively predestines some individuals to eternal life and others to everlasting death. This is explicitly stated in Chapter III, Section 3, which declares that for the manifestation of His glory, God predestined some men and angels to eternal life and others to everlasting death. How can this be possible if He desires everyone to be saved and not perish, in fact He is delaying His return because of it. If He has chosen certain people to spend eternity in hell and has created them for that reason, how could He desire everyone to be saved and why would He delay His coming knowing that they can't even choose to be saved. It makes no sense.

        God is so "into" free will that He put a tree in the garden, knowing that giving mankind a choice would cost His only Son's life on a cross. He values free will that much that He allows all the suffering we see today. He wants you to choose to love Him and follow Him and find everything you've been looking for - even Heaven. The choice is yours.

Thoughts From 2 Peter - Day 19

 By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.8 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 

          As we think about global warming, ozone layer disappearing, carbon emissions, meteoric collisions, etc. it can lead to a panic thinking what is going to happen to our home? Well, first of all, believers need to rephrase that question because Earth isn't our home. We are citizens of Heaven and just visiting this planet as ambassadors for the King. But secondly, we don't need to wonder what's the future of Earth because Peter spells it out - it's going to be burnt up.

       Being premillennial, I understand the future this way. Jesus will come in the clouds, sound the trumpet, the dead believers will rise and those believers that are alive will be caught up in the air and "raptured". We will be in Heaven at the great banquet/wedding feast of the lamb as the bride of Christ. Just like Jewish wedding feasts lasted a week, the feast will last 7 Earthly years and at the end of it, we will return with Christ to an Earth that has been ravaged by the Antichrist and the bowls of wrath of God's judgement on the Earth, and defeat Satan as he has rallied worldwide forces to fight Christ at His return. (Armageddon)

      During those 7 years a number of people will choose to follow Christ, and those who weren't killed will be judged at the "Sheep and Goats" judgement along with unbelievers who remain and be joined with us who have been raptured and given Heavenly bodies on a recreated Earth that is more like the garden of Eden. Those people with earthly bodies who were saved during the tribulation will procreate and after a thousand years, even though Satan has been bound, Christ is on Earth ruling, will choose to follow Satan when he is released and rebel against Jesus. 

      I believe at that time we will all leave Earth and be taken to the gates of Heaven where Satan will be sent to the Lake of Fire along with all those whose names weren't in the Lamb's book of Life at the Great White Throne Judgement. While we are in Heaven, my understanding is that the Earth will be destroyed and a new one created. Matter, as we know it consists of atoms held together by an invisible force. Colossians says that Christ holds all things together. What if He decided to just let go? Would the Earth explode like a nuclear bomb or a ball of fire? And what if then He decided to create a new Earth with a whole different structure than atoms and molecules? Some kind of structure that our Heavenly bodies will be made of with whole different properties. We already know that we won't sleep, die, have pain, and Jesus passed through closed doors, so we get hints of different matter make up.

      Anyway, that's my understanding and even though it's hard to fathom because we are in a period of time where everything goes on as it always has, there will come a time where it doesn't and God steps in and ends the status quo. Have you ever heard the statement "It's all going to burn"? This is where that comes from. Every time you buy something remember it's temporary. Don't make it your treasure. Don't stockpile a bunch of kindling. Store up treasures in Heaven that won't burn up.

Thoughts From 2 Peter - Day 18

 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4 They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” 5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.  2 Peter 3:3-6

         Forty-five years ago, when I was doing a rotation in anesthesiology in medical school, the anesthesiologist described his job as 30 seconds of terror followed by 90 minutes of boredom followed by 30 seconds of terror. In other words, a lot can go wrong in a hurry while putting people to sleep and waking them up but keeping them asleep is just turning on the ventilator and gases and reading an Outdoor Living magazine.

        We are living in the ventilator stage and have been for quite some time. In fact, it has been so long that people/scoffers think it has always been this way. Peter says, no, you are deliberately forgetting that before God set this world, the Laws of nature, the rotation of the Earth, the hydrologic system and all the other scientific discoveries that enable us to tell what time the sun will rise and set, the tides will be high and low, and bad weather is rolling in tomorrow at 4PM - before all that there was seven days of creation of everything in unexplainable means like we've never seen before. Then one to two thousand years later, there was a massive upheaval of the creation with the buried waters underneath the surface of the earth ripped open the earth's core recreating and flooding the surface of the Earth and seeding the canopy above causing rain for 40 days and collapsing the greenhouse effect creating the climate differentials we see throughout the Earth today.

       We are in the time when things seem to be going on as always thus, we have problems believing all that Creation Ex Nihlo stuff, worldwide flood with animals 2x2 on an ark, not to mention Virgin Birth, resurrection, walking on water, etc. because we have developed scientific laws that don't allow for that. The problem is that these Laws are for a closed system, but we have a God that periodically "sticks His hand" inside this closed system and blows our mind. Frankly we wish He would do it every time we pray for a loved one with cancer but in His wisdom, He usually chooses to let the Laws He put in place to run their course. But there is coming a day when He will jump into our closed system and we will see Him in the clouds and with the shout of a trumpet, the dead believers in Christ will rise first and we who remain will be caught up in the air to meet Him.

      Don't let the fact that we've never seen something created out of nothing or feeding 5000 people from 5 loaves and 2 fish happen. There is a God who can violate all Laws of Nature and He will soon. Stop scoffing and start believing!

Thoughts From 2 Peter - Day 17

 3 Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.   2 Peter 3:3

       When I think of scoffing, I think of rolling your eyes at something someone is saying. The world rolls its' eyes at the mention of Jesus coming back to catch believers up with Him or come down to judge unbelievers and set up rule on Earth. Why do they mock or scoff at that idea - we will see as we move on, but the underlying reason is they don't want to believe it. They are following their own evil desires so they have ruled it out.

      When we were leading the youth group and kids would start distancing themselves from the group and studying the Bible, we knew something was up and it was usually related to them letting sin, quite often sexual sin, into their lives. Suddenly, the Bible was outdated, not to be trusted, and they became skeptics, scoffers not because of scholarly refute of the validity of scripture but because they wanted to sin.

     I see this in Christian celebrities or famous Christians who "deconvert" or majorly deconstruct. What precedes a lot of it is they get a divorce. Now they know that the Bible forbids most reasons for divorce and "God hates divorce", but in order to "be happy" they divorce anyway. Soon, what follows is a lesser view of the Bible to justify their behavior. Becoming gay affirming usually follows because if the Bible isn't to be trusted on marriage it isn't to be trusted on LGBTQ and other relevant issues like judgement, hell, blood atonement, wrath of God or anything else unsavory.

   Paul discusses this in Romans 1 when he says,

   " The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened..."

     I highlighted in blue all the times they know the truth but they suppress it because they want to sin and over time, to them, the truth of God becomes less and less and their behavior and what they accept becomes more and more wicked.

     So when people roll their eyes at you when you share Christ, don't back down, be ashamed, be offended, or take it personally. Realize that for them to accept the Truth they would have to admit that they are sinful and that the way they are headed is wrong so therefore they choose to scoff and mock the Truth. Their only hope for salvation is that God would break down the walls of sin in their heart and that requires the Holy Spirit so pray that God would release "The hound of Heaven" on them.