STEADFAST Against the Current of Time – Part 1

In his second letter, Peter speaks of the final developments that take place before Jesus returns. He states how deception will begin to unfold, and how all moral barriers eventually crumble. One sign of these end-time developments is mentally putting off Jesus’ return to a day that never comes.

Peter warns of the danger of end-time deception, and shows how we can resist it:

1. We remain steadfast by orienting ourselves toward the Lord’s return.

2. We remain steadfast by setting ourselves apart for God.

3. We remain steadfast by being sustained through God’s long-suffering.

4. We remain steadfast by growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The north face of the Eiger, a mountain in Switzerland’s Bernese Alps, is world famous. It is one of the most difficult climbs in the Alps. To date, more than 70 climbers have lost their lives there. Because of the numerous tragedies, the surface is also known locally as the “Murder Face.”

On July 21, 1967, calamity struck on the Eiger, with its highest number of victims up to that time. A four-person rope team, part of the East German national climbing team, was successfully scaling the north face. Shortly before, the men had successfully climbed the north face of the Matterhorn, despite poor conditions. Onlookers admired the skills of these young Saxons through telescopes, and the ruling political party was naturally hoping to ideologically exploit a successful ascent. Then tragedy struck.

The four climbers were sighted one last time, but fell to their deaths shortly thereafter. Although the cause was never officially determined, it was likely due to a falling rock. According to one report, the four-person rope team was lacking backup anchors to the rock face. So, the first climber’s fall probably triggered the rest, as the connecting rope was pulled with him.

In his second letter, Peter speaks of the final developments that take place before Jesus returns. In chapters 2 and 3, he states how deception will begin to unfold, and how all moral barriers eventually crumble. In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul speaks of apostasy, the great falling away from God. Another sign of these end-time developments is mentally putting off Jesus’ return to a day that never comes. Peter also mentions this.

Regardless of where we expect the Rapture in the sequence of end-time events, Peter makes it clear that these trends even extend to the Church. Recall the tragedy on the Eiger: After the first member of the party fell, one climber after the next was swiftly pulled down after him. This is exactly what Peter is warning us about:

“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability” (2 Pet 3:17).

This is a serious warning. For one thing, we need to beware of this perverted doctrine of grace, which confuses God’s mercy with a free pass to sin. May the Lord also protect us from self-assurance, believing that our own godliness and theology will keep things under control, and that we are in no danger of being deceived—just as those four men on the mountain were convinced of their own abilities, choosing to forego the necessary safety measures. On the other hand, we shouldn’t be paralyzed with fear either. Unfortunately, there are followers of Jesus who put their sole focus on the deceptions and various evils. At some point, their spiritual life collapses. After pointing out the dangers, Peter gives clear instructions on how we can stand firm in these dark times.

Steadfast Through Our Orientation

In 2 Peter 3, verses 7 and 10, the Apostle explains that this first Creation will perish on the Day of Judgment. Verse 11 makes it clear that this isn’t just a matter of theoretical head knowledge: “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness.” The knowledge of Jesus’ return and the end of this Creation must have a practical impact on our lives. Only then do we have a living faith. It’s the only way we can remain steadfast.

The expectation of Jesus’ return and the coming of a new Creation, should be reflected in our practical discipleship. Peter summarizes several events in verses 12 and 13, and speaks of the Day of God. In other places, he speaks of the Day of the Lord. This day encompasses the events from the time of the Great Tribulation (which ushers in Jesus’ return) to the final judgment after the first Millennium, when the first heavens and the first earth perish in God’s judgment. Verses 11 and 12 focus on this final judgment.

Everything we have on this earth will one day be dissolved. No building, mountain, sea—not even a devastated earth will remain. It isn’t enough to just know this: Peter says that we are to wait for the coming Day of God.

Of course, “waiting for” can mean different things in different contexts. In this case, it means an active, joyful anticipation of what is to come ... an expectation that has implications. As a child, I always began looking forward to Advent and Christmas in the fall. My parents combined a beautiful external routine with solid theology. The weeks leading up to Christmas seemed to go by so slowly. Even the well-known trick of opening two little doors on the Advent calendar, didn’t make the time go any faster! I thought about what I’d get for Christmas and what I’d give my parents. When I was little, the presents were homemade. I’d sometimes finish my parents’ gifts weeks in advance, in anticipation of the big day. We would count down the Sundays of Advent until the time had finally come, on December 24th. The closer the day came, the greater the anticipation, causing all other concerns to fall away.

This is how we are to be awaiting the coming of the Day of God. Our present everyday life is to be oriented toward that day, so that we may rejoice when the Lord comes, instead of being caught flatfooted. Warren Wiersbe wrote:

“The purpose of prophetic truth is not speculation but motivation; thus Peter concluded his letter with the kind of practical admonitions that all of us must heed. It is unfortunate when people run from one prophetic conference to another, filling their notebooks, marking their Bibles, drawing their charts, and yet not living their lives to the glory of God. In fact, some of the saints battle each other more over prophetic interpretation than perhaps any other subject.”

Waiting for that day means aligning our lives with the Lord. We can even “hasten” the day, or rush toward it. The original text uses a word whose meaning we can easily figure out: speudō. It looks similar to our word “speed.” So, we should be picking up speed. In practical terms, what does that mean?

We focus on the present day, not allowing ourselves to be carried away by either the euphoria of creating a better world, or the doom and gloom of the world’s imminent demise. Our Lord is coming, and that’s the great light at the end of the tunnel. Things may still be restrictive and oppressive, but we’re headed toward that day. Missions and evangelism are also part of hastening it. We aren’t meant to be withdrawing to our own pious private island; we want people to be saved before it’s too late. And we pray for Jesus’ return, as 2 Peter 3:13 echoes:

“But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

Isaiah 65:17 also refers to the new heavens and the new earth, but then describes the Messianic Kingdom on earth. The thousand-year Kingdom is like a link to the new Creation of Revelation 21 and 22. This means that after His return, Jesus will first judge and rule on this earth with justice.

When we see how darkness and evil will ripen in the last days, that should also lead us to pray for Jesus’ return: so that after all of human history’s darkness, His day of light and His Kingdom of peace and justice will come. Second Peter 2:7 speaks of Lot, a righteous man whose soul was tormented day and night by the unrestrained way of life in Sodom and Gomorrah. We don’t ordinarily tend to see this spiritual tightrope walker as a great example of the faith, but I fear that he was far ahead of us in this respect. We’re well-aware of all the breaches in society’s moral foundation, but we’re still doing fine. Are we really suffering when we reflect on the practice of abortion, or the all-destructive power of the disintegration of sexual ethics? Consider the war in Ukraine, or similar horrors in other countries. Or the veritable crumbling of the very spiritual substance of Western Christianity. All these things should lead us to pray for Jesus’ return and to long for that day. He will establish justice and judge sin. In the new Creation, there will be no more sin, only divine righteousness.

Steadfast in Isolation

I’d like to point out two dangers in the concept of isolation. Some are upset by the very word. It’s important for them to belong, to have their Christian social commitment affirmed, and to be considered a valuable part of society. Some of them want to be as socially relevant as possible, smoothing out every sharp edge of the Gospel so that nobody could possibly take offense.

On the other hand, there is also the misguided isolation which leads to pious individualism. No Bible-based church corresponds to one’s own ideas and expectations anymore. Instead, one is only occupied with one’s own insights, believing one can completely nourish oneself spiritually with devout-sounding tidbits found online. In Proverbs 18:1 we read, “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.”

This headstrong, willful isolation isn’t what we’re talking about here. Peter writes that we should distinguish ourselves through holy conduct and godliness, in light of the coming judgment. A holy walk means a life set apart to the living God. We belong to Him, desiring His will and His honor. This is inseparable from the fear of the Lord. Fearing God means that He is ahead of and above all else. We fear Him more than the people and mainstream culture surrounding us. And we refuse to twist His Word into some sort of religious chewing gum that can be stretched or squashed as we please, depending on the social context.

Second Peter 3:17 speaks of the deception of the wicked, and the danger of being carried away by it. Most English versions of Scripture use the word “error.” The term in the original text (planē) doesn’t refer to accidental or innocent straying, but a deliberate misleading. We also find this word connected to homosexual activity in Romans 1:27.

Every deception referenced in 2 Peter is a calculated deception, and we must not underestimate its pull. This not only includes the dismantling of Bible-based ethics, but also the deconstruction of the Bible itself as the eternally valid, inerrant revelation of God.

The alternative is a holy walk in the fear of God—standing before the Lord and allowing His Word to determine our thoughts and actions. There has always been sin in the world, and people who secretly dabbled in it. The difference is that today, man’s egoism (and the desires that flow from it) is presented as the highest ideal. In some Christian circles, passages from the Bible are even taken out of context or reinterpreted to justify this. Second Peter 3:16 speaks of the Bible being twisted to one’s own destruction. The meaning is crystal clear: It’s speaking of ruin in the sense of being doomed.

A brief aside: In this passage, Peter refers to Paul’s epistles using the same term used to refer to the Old Testament. In doing so, he makes it clear that Paul’s writings also have divine authority.

There is also the danger of being carried away by others. Parents can suffer terribly from their children’s actions. We are to love our children no matter how far they have strayed from God. This applies to all human beings, no matter how they live. The Lord loved us even though we were lost sinners. However, there’s a grave danger that our standards will begin to shift as a result of misunderstood mercy (whether the people in question are your own children, or others who are close to you). A person may suddenly begin to justify things that are clearly in opposition to God’s Word.

Finally, there’s the great danger of being carried away because we still inhabit our flesh (which pounces on everything sinful) until we are perfected. All the pride of life that encompasses us is grist for the mill of our sinful nature. We have to constantly and consciously be reminding ourselves, “I belong to Jesus, and His honor and will come first. My life should belong to Him, and I will have to answer to Him one day.” This was an important motivation for Paul as well. In 2 Corinthians 5, he mentions the love of God as the motivation for his ministry. But he’s also well-aware that the Lord is to be feared.

“The fear of the Lord”—the very idea makes us wince. But this flinching also helps us not to be torn from our firm footing. Picking up the story from the beginning of the article, it’s possible that this tragic fall was caused by self-confidence, and a lack of fear of the dangers involved. There is also a beneficial fear of the Lord. In Hebrews 12:9, we read that we also feared our earthly fathers, as they disciplined us from necessity. How much more should we submit to the Lord as our spiritual Father.