Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | 2 Peter 3:4 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." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 Peter 3:4 and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming [what has become of it]? For ever since the fathers fell asleep [in death], all things have continued [exactly] as they did from the beginning of creation." |
Subject: Where do I go from here? |
Bible Note: Treadway: You wrote: 'Seems as if I'm caught in a "Catch-22", since I say my post is my last on this subject, then there is another response, and I can't help myself--have to respond. Maybe this can be the last? :)' Maybe, but as you have found, it is easy to get drawn into things here... :) You wrote: 'As far as citing the verse, "But don't forget this dear friends, that a day or a thousand years from now is like tomorrow to the Lord," has no real meaning to the current situation. Do you think it assuaged the problem for the disciples? Do you think it helped them with their waiting?' I would assume that it did indeed help them, but that is not the issue. God's revelation is not solely for the purpose of making us feel at ease or comfortable. It does fit in very well to the purpose of Peter's letter. Whether it would assuage you may be another story, but again, God doesn't exist to serve our wants. Regarding Mark 9:1 and parallel passages in the other gospels (particularly Matthew 24), many Bible scholars have adopted what could either be called a "partial preterist" or a "preterist" view, depending on whether one refers to the notion that the Second Coming has already occurred as "preterism" or "hyper-preterism." Essentially, this view holds that the events depicted in the first 35 verses of Matthew 24 refer to the impending destruction of Jerusalem, along with the slaughter of over a million Jews and the razing of the Temple. The rest of the chapter is understood to refer to the Second Coming. Not being heavily transfixed by eschatology, I have not examined each of these views in any great detail, but I wanted to assure you that there is a great deal of difference among Christians regarding the timing of end-times events prophesied in the Old and New Testaments. Like the prophecies regarding the coming Messiah, there was quite a lot of difference among the Jewish population regarding how and when God would bring the deliverer of Israel. Many very intelligent and Bible-believing Christians regard Tim LaHaye as anything but an authority on the future events depicted in the Bible. While I will agree that dispensational pre-millenialism that we see in the "Left Behind" series is currently "the rage," it is by no means the predominant view in church history. Personally, seeing that events such as the glorification of the saints (1 Corinthians 15) have quite obviously not taken place yet, I could not subscribe to "complete" or "hyper-preterism." Therefore, it is possible that the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Coming are two separate events prophesied by Jesus and the apostles. For a more complete look at these views, I recommend two sources that I have throughly examined, but which analyze differing viewpoints on the end-times events, including the issues that you raise. One is this Web site: http://www.reformed.org/eschaton/index.html and the other is a book by R.C. Sproul called "The Last Days According to Jesus." If not convincing to you, these resources will provide alternatives to those of atheists and "Left Behind." --Joe! |