By Angus Harley

2 Peter 3:9 is a fun text. Hotly debated. Considered proof positive of the Arminian belief in God’s universal salvific will. Similarly, the free-offer of the Gospel model latches on to this text to argue its case that God desires the salvation of every unrepentant person. Are we properly understanding this text in its context?

3 Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” 5 For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, 6 through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. 7 But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 8 But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people 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 destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.[1]

The assembly

Throughout the chapter Peter is speaking to the assembly, the “beloved” (3:1, 8, 14, 15, 17; 1:17; 1 Pet.2:11; 4:12). It is the beloved who are the focus in v8, and then spoken of in v9, “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved….patient toward you”. The personal pronoun su as second person plural “you” is used throughout 2 Peter of the assembly alone (1:2, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19; 2:1, 3, 13; 3:1, 2, 11, 15, 17). Therefore, those whom the Lord is patient toward are the assembly, the beloved, “you”.

“any…all”

It is assumed that because of the indefinite pronoun “any” (tinas, derived from tis) and the adjective “all” (pantas, derived from pas) that Peter is referring to the whole of mankind. However, this dismisses that up unto this point Peter has been addressing the beloved. God’s patience toward the beloved is to the end that no one would perish, but all come to repentance. God does not desire any of his own, of his beloved, to perish, but to repent.

We see a similar use of the indefinite pronoun tis applied to believers in 1 Peter 2:19, “For this finds God’s favor, if because of conscience toward God someone (tis) endures hardships in suffering unjustly” [NET]. Here, the “someone” is a believer. Similarly, 1 Peter 4:15, “Make sure that none (tis) of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler”. Moreover, 1 Peter applies pas to believers, “To sum up, all (pas) of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit” (1 Pet.3:8); “You younger men, likewise, be subject to your elders; and all (pas) of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another” (1 Pet.5:5); “Peace be to you all (pas) who are in Christ” (1 Pet.5:14).

What some Evangelicals find off-putting about this teaching is that it, to their mind, indicates that Christians are asked to become believers all over again. Or, it seems to others that, due to the language of repentance and God’s unwillingness for any to perish, this must be the language of coming to faith in Jesus.

Unfortunately, it is hard-bitten into the Evangelical mindset that salvific language must denote coming to faith in Christ for the first time. No one denies that salvation terminology sometimes indicates that initial coming-to-faith moment. However, plenty of texts teach that salvation is something to be worked out (1 Pet.2:3; Phil.2:12) and fulfilled (1 Pet.1:6, 9; 2 Pet.1:4, 11). Part of that process is ongoing repentance. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “be reconciled to God” (2 Cor.5:20). The Galatian assembly had en masse deserted the Gospel, causing Paul to sternly rebuke them for turning away from the Lord and his Gospel (Gal.1:6; 3:1, 11; 4:10-11, 16; 5:1, 7; 6:17). They had to return to the Gospel and to the Lord.

The beloved to whom Peter was writing were in a similar position to the assembly in Galatia, but, in my opinion, not quite as bad as in Galatia. In the first epistle, Peter had exhorted the believers to flee ungodliness and to work out their salvation. That epistle gave the bog-standard apostolic exhortations to an assembly whose souls were assailed by fleshly lusts (1 Pet.2:11-12). Even in this more generic style of exhorting the assembly, Peter had to remind them that Satan was like a roaring lion seeking to devour them (1 Pet.5:8). By the time of the second epistle of 2 Peter, something was amiss, and it was as if the roaring lion was let loose on the assembly itself! The seemingly generic exhortations to grow godliness (2 Pet.1:1-15; 3:18) are really like two pieces of bread that contain the meat of horrendous spiritual warfare arising from false teaching, and the temptation to follow the path of evil (see 1:9-10).  For various false prophets/teachers were promoting “cleverly devised tales” (1:16; 2:1; 3:16), and were severely tempting the faithful (2:2-3, 18-19; 3:17). The beloved needed to follow the apostolic witness, therefore (1:16-21; 3:2), and to come away from any folly they had slipped into; they needed to fight tooth and nail, so to speak, to preserve their standing before God on ‘that day’.

The Lord’s patience

Therefore, the Lord’s patience was not toward the world, or toward the false teachers, but toward the beloved. A major reason, in context, that the Lord had not come to bring judgment on the wicked was that he was giving time to his own, his beloved, to repent and get their act together (see Rev.2-3), time to get stronger to overcome evil.

1 Peter 3:20 conveys a similar teaching, “who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.” Notice how the patience of God, here, keeps waiting for the eight, who were eventually made safe through the water.

The Lord is not desiring any to perish

This is taken by many to indicate a mere wish on God’s part. The verb in question is a subjunctive, boulomenos. It has various meanings: “desiring” (Mark 15:15; Heb.6:17), “intending” (Acts 12:4; 2 Cor.1:17), “wishing” (Acts 22:30), “wanting” (Acts 23:28; 27:43). It is safe to say that boulomenos does not indicate mere wishfulness on God’s part. Peter is teaching that God has resolved, due to the beloved’s weakened condition, to give time to his people to repent. Peter conveys the same thoughts in different words in vv14-15:

14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation….

See how Peter calls upon the beloved to regard the Lord’s patience “as salvation”. For, the judgment of God that was reserved for the wicked was to come first to God’s household to cleanse it out, “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Pet.4:17), so that the saints might rejoice in the revelation of the glory of Christ (1 Pet.4:13).

The lines of demarcation

2 Peter very much so reminds me of Galatians, for in both epistles the lines of demarcation are drawn, and specific groups are clearly identified. There is the apostolic-prophetic witness/group, then there is the assembly, or beloved, and, finally, there are the bad guys, the heretics. The false teachers are never, ever described as being potentially Christian, even if they formerly had some association with the name of Jesus. In sharp contrast to these false teachers and heretics, the wavering, wobbling, back-turning, weak, assailed Christians are unhesitatingly called the assembly of God, his beloved, even though they were riddled with chronic problems and seem to be, at points, almost indistinguishable from the false teachers. For, to the apostolic mind, it is one thing for the Christian to foolishly follow some false teaching or other, to turn his back on the Lord (think of Peter himself!), but quite another thing for someone taking the name of Christ to despise the Gospel of Christ and God’s people, and to go on the attack against God’s word, his apostles and prophets, and to deliberately mislead the flock of God. Now, if the reader is wondering if there really is a difference between the two groups- a severely weakened assembly and the false teachers- then the reader has properly understood and felt the effect that both Paul and Peter are going for, because it is very scary business to be messing around with the Gospel. Yes, God is that patient and longsuffering with his beloved! Importantly, it is assumed that given this ‘salvific time’ of God’s patience, the believer in the Lord will return to him.

A day like a thousand years

In the light of these things, the saying “one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day” (v8) is surely to be seen as different perspectives on the Lord’s patience. My own take on this saying is as follows. The mockers said God was not returning; but the day of the Lord was surely coming, like a thief, and this would catch the mockers unaware (vv3-4, 10). Indeed, these mockers are blind to the Scripture’s teaching about God’s previous judgment by water of this earth (v6; see Gen.6-9). In that regard, the thousand years were like a day, for the years of mockery will soon come to a head. Conversely, the Lord was super-patient with his beloved, giving them the required time to repent, a very short time when compared to the former judgment of the earth, but a long time of patience for the sake of his assembly.

The Lord’s time of rescue

It would not be quite conveying Peter’s mind if we left matters as stated. For that time of salvation, of repentance, of God’s desire for his beloved, does not have a bold question-mark superimposed on it, as if the goal of the Lord’s desire might or might not be accomplished. As much as it is true that the beloved must do due diligence, spiritually speaking, Peter is equally adamant that just as it is God who will bring judgment on the unrighteous, so it is he alone who rescues the godly from temptation, “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment” (2:9). God will not fail to preserve his beloved!

[1] All quotes are from the NASB unless otherwise stated.