Throughout this letter, Peter states his belief that this eschatological event would occur within the lifetime of his original readers. Yet one sentence may seem to confuse the issue of Peter’s expectation of imminence. In 2Peter 3:8 the author states, “But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

 

With a single stroke of his stylus, does Peter flip flop on a cosmic scale? Was Peter safeguarding his conscious or subconscious eschatological uncertainty? Is he suggesting that “God time” is not the same as “human time”?

 

If we read Peter’s statement as an obfuscation, we end up making him sound ridiculous. He comes across as proposing: “Jesus and the other apostles have been saying that the kingdom of God will come in its fullness soon. And even though I affirm this throughout this letter, I’m a little concerned that it might not actually happen. Besides, God doesn’t tell time like we do. He’s not limited by the clock; so his ‘soon’ isn’t the same as ours and the kingdom may not come for another thousand years.”

 

Instead of hedging his bets, Peter’s statement of one day being like a thousand years plays an integral role in affirming his belief in the proximity of the day of the Lord by referring to the eschatological Psalm 90. Before examining 3:8 in association with the Psalm, it will be helpful to notice the emphasis Peter places on the eschatological imminence in his letter.

 

 

In 1:1-11 Peter reminds his readers of their eschatological participation with Christ. As partakers in the firstfruits body of Christ, they had received God’s promise that would allow them to escape the corruption (perishing) of the world-order that was currently passing away (2Peter 1:4 = Hebrews 8:13). As a result, they would be supplied with “an entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2Peter 1:11 = Hebrews 12:27-29).

 

Peter is not communicating disgust for the physical universe. Nor is he making a morality declaration. The world Peter is concerned with relates to what the Gospel of John refers to as “the world below.” It is a covenant-world, an age characterized by a covenant.

 

The apostle Paul makes a similar contrast of covenant world-orders in 2Corinthians 3. He suggests that the first covenant-world consisted of death and condemnation. This was a ministry written in stones was about to pass away (3:11), but the second covenant-world would be characterized by exceeding glory, justification (righteousness), and life. Paul believed that this transformation was occurring in his lifetime (3:18).

 

Next, Peter’s statement in 1:1-11 transitions to a comment about his belief concerning nearness of the end in 1:12-21. This may be a reference to Peter’s death, or it could be a declaration about the transition of the covenant-ages (as in 2Corinthians 5 and Philippians 1:23-24). Either way, Peter believed that the event itself would occur “soon” (1:14). No one debates that “soon” does not mean “soon” if Peter expected his physical demise. We should apply the same standard of “soonness” to the entirety of the letter and the proximity of the day of the Lord.

 

Although he may have anticipated his own death occurring before the end of the age, Peter encouraged his audience to focus on the nearness of the eschatological events. Echoing the eschatological parable of the virgins spoken by Jesus on the Mount of Olives, Peter advised his readers to shine their lights in a dark place “until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19). Peter’s readers would live to witness the eschatological day of the Lord (see Malachi 4:1-2).

 

Peter’s testimony resembles Paul’s counsel given to the Romans in 13:11-13. “Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day.” Both Paul and Peter recognized the dawning of the eschatological day of the Lord during their lifetime.

 

 

In 2:1-3 Peter addresses the issue of false teachers, and this plays a prominent role throughout this letter. The presence of these false teachers among the believers provided ample evidence of the closeness of the final judgment. Like Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2:11-16, Peter believed that these “last days scoffers” would experience eschatological judgment in short order. He asserts that the judgment would delay no longer and was not sleeping.

 

2Peter 2:4-22 develops the judgment theme as it relates to the scoffers. Peter draws heavily from Israel’s history including Noah’s flood, Lot’s escape from Sodom, and Balaam’s attempt to curse Israel. In all of these cases the scoffers underwent judgment, but the faithful remnant were vindicated and served as firstfruits of a new order. Each instance represents the end of one world and the beginning of another. Peter’s use of these incidents indicates his belief that his day represented the ultimate world transformation. (Compare Luke 17:28-30).

 

Like Peter, the last days scoffers play a prominent role in Jude’s eschatological expectations. Jude recognizes their existence as evidence that he was living in “last time.” Additionally Jude repeats Peter’s observation that Christ and the apostles (including Peter himself) predicted that these particular mockers would immediately come before the end time (Jude 17-18 = 2 Peter 3:2. Compare Matthew 24:11-14, Mark 13:6, 1 Peter 4:4-7).

 

Peter and Jude were not alone in understanding the false teachers as indicating eschatological nearness. Their description resembles John’s portrayal of the antichrists. “Children, it is the last hour! As you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. From this we know that it is the last hour” (1John 2:18). For John, the antichrists indicated that the “last hour” had arrived in his day.

 

In 2John 7, the apostle reiterates his belief about the antichrists’ activity in his day. John didn’t project a singular antichrist to appear several millennia after his lifetime. He—like Peter and Jude—identified multiple antichrists/false teachers active in his lifetime. None of the New Testament authors projected the antichrists two millennia into the future, nor did they depict them as global rulers amassing Russian or Chinese armies to march into the Levant. Instead they saw the false teachers acting in their day, and for them this activity meant that the end was near.

 

Paul shared the view of the other New Testament writers. He encountered scoffers, false prophets, and antichrists in his ministry. For him, this clearly denoted eschatological imminence. He wrote about this to Timothy. “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons” (1Timothy 4:1). Paul was not predicting things that would happen twenty centuries in his future. This was Paul’s observation of the circumstances Timothy was currently facing.

 

By the time Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, the false prophets had intensified their work. The apostle encouraged his young protégé not to lose heart while facing his opponents. “You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come” (2Timothy 3:1). Paul assures Timothy that the great tribulation he was experiencing indicated the onset of the last days (see Matthew 24:9-13). It pointed toward the ultimate deliverance, not to God’s displeasure of Timothy. The nearness of eschatological liberation helps to explain Paul’s use of Exodus imagery in 2Timothy 3:8-9. Paul and Timothy were living through the decisive eschatological Exodus that would be completed in their generation (compare 1 Corinthians 10:1-11).

 

 

The first two-thirds of 2Peter fits with the eschatological pattern of the rest of the New Testament, and 2Peter 3 doesn’t break the mold. When we reach chapter 3, Peter has already communicated his strong belief concerning his imminent eschatological expectation. The kingdom was nearing. One world was passing away. The day was at hand. The judgment was near. Israel’s stories were finding expression on their grandest level. The Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21) was being played out as Jesus had envisioned. The other apostles shared Peter’s belief, and he wasn’t out of step with bulk of the New Testament letters when he wrote chapters 1 and 2. We shouldn’t, then, be surprised to find him consistently asserting his eschatological beliefs about the proximity of the day of the Lord in chapter 3.

 

As chapter 3 opens, Peter continues the conversation concerning the scoffers. For him (as with Jude, John, and Paul), their activity was not unexpected. Jesus and the apostles had predicted that scoffers would be functioning during the last days (2 Peter 3:1-3).

 

These mockers were characterized by their denial of the soon-coming arrival of the parousia (2Peter 3:4). Significantly if Peter suggested that the end was far-off, he would be engaging in the same activity that he accused the scoffers of.

 

The scoffers were not mocking a supposed belief concerning the dissolution of the space-time universe. Instead, everything in their covenant world-order continued as it had been since the time of Israel’s fathers. The Jerusalem temple stood in place. The priesthood remained unchanged. The sacrifices continued. By all appearances, everything had remained in tact and it would continue like this for the foreseeable future. To assert that all of this would change in a relatively short period of time would seem preposterous.

 

Yet Jesus and his earliest followers taught that there would be a world-changing event occurring in Jerusalem to its temple structure in their generation. On Palm Sunday, Jesus led the ritually unclean crowd into the temple, indicating that he was opening the house of God to all. By entering the temple and overturning the tables, Jesus enacted a parable of judgment (Matt. 21). Shortly thereafter, he condemns the scribes and Pharisees, accusing them of following in the footsteps of the ancestors who ignored, ridiculed, and persecuted the ancient prophets. Then Jesus declares to them that the eschatological judgment “will come upon this generation” (Matt. 23:36). At this point he weeps for Jerusalem.

 

After leaving the temple complex, Jesus headed to the Mount of Olives. He spoke to his disciples about the fall of the temple and the catastrophic destruction of the Jerusalem. Once again Jesus stated, “This generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matt. 24:34-35). As one of the disciples listening to Jesus on this occasion, Peter would have easily connected the fall of Jerusalem with the passing of heaven and earth (Mark 13:3).

 

Later, a follower of Jesus named Stephen stood before the Jerusalem council and announced a critique of the temple system by quoting Isaiah 66 (Acts 7:44-50). He was subsequently slain. A few years later, Paul went to Jerusalem and was seized while in the temple complex. The mob charged him with blasphemy against the temple. “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place” (Acts 21:28).

 

To Torah-zealous nationalists and the pious power elites, predicting the fall of the temple would have sounded like blasphemy. Likewise the Judaizing faction within the Jesus movement would have mocked any suggestion that the temple and its services would soon disappear. Both groups had their own reasons for doubting and opposing anyone who predicted that the current world-order would soon end with the fall of the Jerusalem temple.

 

Yet Peter—as one who listened firsthand to Jesus on the Mount of Olives speak about the devastation of the city and its world-changing significance—advised his original readers that this transformation would occur within their lifetimes. In 3:5-8, Peter raises the issue of the end of one world and the beginning of another by referring to the Noahic new creation. He chides the scoffers by charging them with willful ignorance related to the heavens and earth (the world-order) that “existed long ago” (3:5). That world was destroyed and recreated.

 

This was not a complete ending of the space-time universe. Instead it signaled the end of one order and the arrival of another. For Peter, this ancient transformation foreshadowed the change that his audience would experience. Significantly, time was an issue for Peter. Noah’s events occurred “long ago.” The Greek word is ekpalai, and it means “from of old, a long time ago.” This indicated that Peter knew the difference between a “long time” and “soon.”

 

In 3:6-7, Peter continues his critique of the scoffers as he compares them to Noah’s generation. Just as Noah faced doubters in his day, Peter’s generation experienced skeptics too. By pointing out the scoffers, Peter proposes that the end of one world was nearing and the full arrival of a new age was about to be manifest.

 

Additionally in likening his generation to the narrative of Noah, Peter echoes Jesus. In Matthew 24:37-40, Jesus uses Genesis 6-8 as a metaphor for the events he foresaw occurring to Jerusalem prior to the passing of his generation (Matt. 24:36, also Luke 17:25-30). One world was about to be flooded thereby giving way to a new order. Rather than describing the means of transformation in terms of water, Peter portrays the impending flood in terms of fire. This fiery imagery related to judgment is common through the New Testament (see 1Corinthians 3, 2Thessalonians 1, Hebrews 12, James 5, and Revelation 19-20). As noted in 2Peter 2, Peter expected this fiery judgment to occur in his generation.

 

Peter’s use of fire evokes the judgment and New Creation scene of Isaiah 66:15. “For the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to pay back his anger in fury, and his rebuke in flames of fire.” Immediately following this pronouncement of judgment, Isaiah envisions the arrival of the new world, a new creation fashioned by God. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your descendants and your name remain” (Isaiah 66:22). Peter echoes Isaiah’s prophecy, thereby applying it to his day.

 

In 3:10b-13, Peter refers to Isaiah 66 again and evokes the image of fiery judgment and the impending day of God. Like Isaiah, the apostle affirms that this prophesied eschatological event will be followed by the new heavens and earth. The arrival of the new creation would amount to the fulfillment of the eschatological promise uttered by Israel’s prophets.

 

One again, Peter assures his original readers that they should be watching for this. He reminds them in 3:11 that they should live their lives with the end in view. In 3:12, he states that they were actively waiting the day, and he instructs them to actually accelerate the day’s arrival. A 2,000 year waiting period cannot amount to anything akin to a hastening of the eschatological transformation.

 

At 3:13, Peter refers to Isaiah’s prophecy and applies it to his eagerly waiting generation. “But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.” The apostle states that “we” are waiting for the fulfillment of the promise. This “we” is not all people of all time. It refers to Peter and his original readers. He makes this clear in 3:14 where he reiterates his instruction for his readers to comport themselves in a way that anticipates their life in the age to come (see also Romans 13:11-14, Ephesians 4:22-23, Colossians 2:20-3:17.)

 

In 3:15-17, Peter notes the opposition faced by Paul. Perhaps an allusion to the scoffers, Peter observes that Paul’s opponents were misconstruing his words. Paul and Peter asserted that the end was near (compare Romans 13:11-2 and 1Peter 4:7). No one should misconstrue God’s patience as a lengthy delay. The scoffers twisted the message to their own judgment—not 2,000 years down the road, but in the imminent eschatological event that Peter has been explicating throughout this letter.

 

The letter concludes with a seemingly-standard formula. “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever.” Most English translations follow the tradition set down by the King James Version. This approach renders Peter as offering an exclamation of eternal praise. “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen” (3:18). Other translations (including the NRSV and New American Standard) translate the passage a little more accurately. The Greek wording extends Christ glory both “nun kai eis aion hemera.” Literally: “both now and into the age day.” The phrase “aion hemera” does not necessarily imply an endless period. Peter has something else in mind.

 

Here Peter is not contrasting “time” with “post-time.” He is speaking of his present time in contrast to the nearness of the new age—the eschatological day of the Lord. Peter’s distinction contrasts his then-current time and the approaching period (the “age day”). Paul does the same thing in Ephesians 1:21 where he speaks of “this age and the age to come.” When discussing the “age to come,” Paul specifically utilizes the word mello (meaning, “about to, on the point of”). He believed that the “age to come” was about to arrive. It hadn’t fully come yet, nor would it take millennia to appear. The new age would be consummated soon, and Peter’s expectation matches Paul’s.

 

In 2Peter 3:12-14, Peter encourages his readers three time to wait eagerly for the fulfillment of God’s world-changing promise. As a summary to the entire letter, 3:18 reemphasizes Peter’s expectation of the imminent arrival of the New Heaven and Earth,

 

Within the entire context of 2Peter we find an overwhelming sense of imminence. Peter’s statement in 3:8 does not negate the entire letter. Instead, it further reinforces his belief that the end of the old covenant world was approaching.

 

 

Peter’s description of one day being like a thousand years comes directly from Psalm 90. Ostensibly a Psalm of Moses, this poem appears to fit the circumstances of Israel under captivity. Perhaps it should go without saying that Psalm 90 is a poem that employs evocative and figurative language. We find several images like a flood, cut and withered grass, and a sigh.

 

In the fashion of other prophetic texts, the Psalm seeks an explanation for Israel’s condition in exile. Using various descriptions, the Psalm sees Israel as being destroyed (90:3), carried away with a flood (90:5), living in a dream (90:5), and as mown grass (90:5-6). The Psalm, like so many other prophetic texts, ascribes Israel’s exilic situation to the work of God in response to the nation’s covenantal unfaithfulness.

 

Additionally in Psalm 90 God is the primary actor. He serves as a dwelling place and forms the earth. He carries away the children of men and expresses his wrath. He shines his light and brings forth joy. The Psalm emerges as a human response to the author’s perceptions of God in the life of Israel. Peter, like the other New Testament writers (all of whom with one possible exception were Jewish), read this Psalm and saw it’s themes as being relevant to his day.

 

As in other Old Testament texts, Psalm 90 calls on God to return to Israel and to restore the nation’s fortunes. The turning point comes in 90:13 with a cry of “How long?” coupled with a plea for God’s compassion.

 

Meanwhile, Israel should number their days and wait for the symbolic seventy years to pass (90:7-12). The completion of the numbered days—whether seventy years, a thousand years, or one day—would signal the end of the exile. The Psalm concludes with a declaration of confident hope. God will bestow divine mercy, the work of YHWH will appear, his children will shine with glory, and the work of Israel’s hands will be established once and for all (90:14-17).

 

Allusions from Psalm 90 make their way into various New Testament texts. For instance, the statement about the children of men being carried away like a flood (90:5) can be heard in Matthew 24:37-40, Luke 17:25-27, and 2Peter 2:5. Jesus and others echo the insights of Psalm 90:5-6 in relationship to the transience of life in relationship to the morning grass that grows us and is cut down by the evening (Luke 12:28, James 1:10-11; Rev 8:7).

 

The statement in Hebrews 12:29, “Our God is a consuming fire,” can be heard first in Psalm 90:7. In 90:12, the invitation to “number our days” is found in Paul’s letters. Paul draws from this passage and also 90:15 when he encourages his audience to “redeem the time for the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16, Colossians 4:5).

 

In 90:16, the Psalm asks God to make his work appear to his servants. This dual theme of God’s work and God’s work appearing makes it way into several New Testament texts beginning with the early proclamations of Jesus and John the Baptist, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” In Romans 14:17-20 Paul describes the kingdom of God in terms of the work of God, and in the Epistle to Titus he confirms that he eagerly anticipated the appearing of God’s saving grace to all (Titus 2:11-13). Moreover, in 2Timothy 4:1, Paul links the appearance of God’s work through Christ with the kingdom, judgment, and resurrection.

 

The work of God in relationship to the servants of God is an important subject in Ephesians 2. Here Paul discusses the graceful work of God through the servants of God. God’s workmanship would bring peace to Jew and Gentile, ending the enmity, and establishing the eschatological temple in which the spirit of God would reside.

 

Peter develops this theme in his first letter. In 1:7-8, he anticipates the appearance of Christ that would bring joy to these first-century believers—thereby echoing Psalm 90:14-17. Then in 1Peter 2:4-12, Peter describes the work of God through these servants of God. This was the chosen generation that God would form into a living, spiritual house that would receive mercy and proclaim the praises of God (compare Ps. 90:13-14).

 

Because Psalm 90 pervades the teaching of Jesus and the other New Testament authors, it is not unexpected that Peter would rely on it too.

 

 

Peter’s appropriation of Psalm 90 suggests that the apostle believed that the exile spoken of in the Psalm was coming to an end. Throughout the letter, Peter affirms that he was reading the ancient Biblical texts in light of the events occurring in his day (2Peter 1:16-21; 2:4-9; 3:1, 13). He quotes the one line from 90:4 in order to evoke the entire Psalm.

 

By referencing Psalm 90, Peter is suggesting that Israel had numbered their days, and the time for deliverance had come. The scoffers may have continued asking, “How long?” But Peter and the remnant lived and served on behalf of the salvation of all Israel.

 

Peter is not implying that the day of the Lord might not come for a thousand years. Instead he is affirming that the “thousand years” had passed. Significantly, Psalm 90:4 likens the length of a millennium to a day in terms of its passing, not in its future arrival. “For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past.” The reference point is looking back on the thousand years, not looking toward it.

 

Peter reads the Psalm in light of Jesus’ words and applies it his time. He understands that he and his generation was living at the conclusion—not the start—of the “thousand years.” The exiles had been crying, “How long, O Lord?” Peter’s reply comforts them with the knowledge that the wait was nearly over, and the long-anticipated salvation was at hand (compare Revelation 6:9-11).

 

For Peter the consummation of the “thousand years” confirms that God had not been slack concerning his promise. Therefore, he could encourage his first century audience that they would witness the dissolving of the old heaven and earth and the arrival of the new one. God’s work would appear to these servants, the beauty of YHWH would be upon them, and God would establish the work of their hands in hastening the coming day of God.