This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

2 Peter 3:1-4

Over the weekend, I listened to a podcast that featured a single conservative Christian taking on the challenge of twenty progressive professing Christians who did their best to undermine the truth of Scripture on a variety of topics. In my view, they sounded more like skeptics and unbelievers for the most part as they dismissed the kind of approach Peter used in the passage above by pointing to the consistency of God’s word through the prophets and the apostles.

Peter’s goal was to stir up or build up his reader’s confidence in their Faith, even in the face of those who dismissed the promises of God. So, Peter reminded the scoffers that “they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly” (2 Peter 3:5-7).

God didn’t just wind the earth up like a pocket watch and then walk away. He was actively engaged in the creation of the world in the beginning. He intervened again in judgment in the flood and He will certainly keep his promise in the future.

Still the questions of the scoffers remain. I’ve heard the question in my lifetime as well. Have you? “Where is the promise of His coming?” “It’s been two thousand years and you still believe in a literal return of Christ? What’s taking so long?” And so it goes because if the promise of His return is false, then the whole house of cards collapses.

But, God is the creator of all things. God judged the world in Noah’s day. God provided Christ as the Savior of the world. Jesus was physically resurrected from the dead. His return is imminent and we can depend on His word.