2 Peter 3:10–13

Context

2 Peter is a letter written in the name of Peter. Two views of its authorship coexist: the traditional view that the apostle Peter wrote it himself, and the scholarly view that a later disciple wrote it in his name.

Chapter 3 responds to scoffers who ask, "Where is the promise of his coming?" (2 Peter 3:4). The author answers with three points:

• The world has already been judged once, by the flood in Noah's day.
• With the Lord a thousand years are as one day (3:8).
• The delay of the Second Coming reflects the Lord's longsuffering as he waits for people to come to repentance (3:9).

Verses 10–13 declare that the day will surely come, and without warning. The passage then exhorts those who await that day concerning how they ought to live.

Interpretation

• Annihilation reading: The present heavens and earth will be burned up and pass away, and an entirely new world will be created. Some seventeenth-century theologians of Lutheran orthodoxy are known to have held this view.
• Renewal reading: The fire is understood as a purifying fire, so that the created order is not destroyed but renewed. Many theologians in the Reformed tradition hold this view, reading the passage in connection with Romans 8, which speaks of the creation awaiting its deliverance.
• Dispensationalist reading: "The day of the Lord" is taken as an extended period, and the dissolution of the heavens and the earth is placed after the millennium, around the time of the Last Judgment.
• Ethically focused reading: Many commentators hold that the weight of the passage lies not in how the universe will end but in the question, "what manner of persons ought ye to be?" (3:11).

Debates and Issues

• Textual variant in verse 10: Greek manuscripts differ in the wording at the end of verse 10.
• "will be laid bare (will be found)": the major early manuscripts read this way.
• "shall be burned up": the majority of later manuscripts read this way, and the King James Version follows this reading.
• "will not be found": some manuscripts read this way.

The Korean Revised Version and the Revised New Korean Version render the phrase "will be laid bare." This wording is commonly taken to mean that all the works on earth will be exposed before God and judged. It is also frequently cited in support of the renewal reading.

• Meaning of "elements": The word translates the Greek stoicheia (basic elements). Opinions differ on whether it refers to the material elements of matter or to heavenly bodies such as the sun, moon, and stars. The Revised New Korean Version renders it "matter."
• "Earnestly desire" in verse 12: The Greek verb rendered this way in Korean Bibles can also mean "to hurry" or "to hasten" (compare the KJV's "hasting unto"). Some therefore read the verse as teaching that believers' holy living and evangelism hasten the coming of that day, while others read it simply as eager expectation.
• Care for creation: Proponents of the renewal reading use this passage as a theological basis for environmental stewardship. Some critics charge that the annihilation reading leads to indifference toward environmental concerns. Those who hold to annihilation respond that the end of the world does not remove the present responsibilities of stewardship.

In the Korean Church

The passage is frequently used as a sermon text on eschatology and the Second Coming. Since the 1992 controversy over a predicted date for the Rapture, it has often been cited in sermons and writings that warn against date-setting eschatology. In such contexts the phrase "as a thief" is cited alongside Mark 13:32–33.

Related Passages

• Isaiah 65:17–25: the prophecy in which the expression "new heavens and a new earth" appears
• Romans 8:19–23: the creation awaiting deliverance
• 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11: the day of the Lord coming as a thief
• Psalm 90:4: the background to the saying that a thousand years are as one day
• Revelation 21:1: the vision of a new heaven and a new earth