NOTES for Pe2 3:1-18

We read the warning that in the last days insolent scoffers will appear, and we may wonder: whom is the apostle speaking about? There are many in our own time who can be included in the category he describes; does this mean that our days should be considered the last? In fact, there have been plenty of such scoffers in every age, yet the end of the world did not come.

Yes, those who revile everything holy displayed their zeal not only on the eve of the end of time. But we were also told that “about that day and hour no one knows” (Matthew 24:36). For us, who do not know the times, it is far more important always to be ready to meet Christ, regardless of whether His coming will take place soon or not soon. Looking at the signs of the last times, even if by human standards these times last a long while, we should not sit with folded hands in fear, but set about correcting our ways. God's perception of time is not like ours.

For that matter, even among people it often happens that periods which seem long to us pass in an instant.

The Apostle Peter paints a terrifying picture: “the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire”... And yet he looks forward to this day with joy and calls us to do the same? Yes. Yes, because this destruction is a consequence of God’s coming. Nothing evil or sinful can endure before the face of God—and this entire world has been poisoned by human sin. But the Lord promises us a new heaven and a new earth, and this means that, purified by fire, the earth will become itself: as the Lord created it, as it was before the Fall. And therefore the last day, the day of God, is a day of joy: the day when our Lord will come!

Anyone who has read attentively the Bible, knows that, when it comes to "time and deadlines", one should handle God's words with a certain caution. As shows the experience of the Christian history, which extends already three millennium, His "soon" and our "soon" differ from each other, and moreover very considerably. But what means this difference? And to what is it connected? The apostle says that for God one day is as thousand years. But how lasting is the day of God? And with what measures do we measure the days of the One Who Himself is timeless? And thousand years - is it an exact figure? Or an allegory, as the one found in the English language, when we speak about something which was already "one thousand times said" or "known thousand years"? And if it is the case, while God waits? And why He says that already "soon"?

Probably, if He acted alone, without regard to man, everything could have really ended much faster, maybe, even sooner than we can imagine. But here is the problem, that He doesn’t want to act like that. Because, it is important for Him to engage us, men in His plans, but to engage the fallen man in something good, and even more in the work of his own salvation, - is not a simple task, especially, if we consider that it can be done only with our consent.

It seems that it is in particular here, that is the reason for which God's "soon" is so different from ours. Everything is close, the Kingdom is near, everything can end at any time, the ship is ready to sail, but it is absolutely necessary to wait for the travelers who are late, otherwise, those remained on the shore, which will become very fast unfit for life, will be condemned to perdition.

And the Captain waits, waits, as it may seem to some, wasting time in vain. But He knows better, and He waits. And how much it will be necessary to wait depends, among others, above all on us. For, without us the Kingdom is not complete. And when we shall become attached to its plenitude and how time (according to the earthly count) it will take, depends not only on God, but also on us.

Peter reminds us of the day of Judgment. In doing so, he appears to have in mind the perplexities that were spreading among Christians already of the second, not the first, generation. The matter concerned unfulfilled expectations: both the first and the second generation of Christians expected the Savior's return literally from day to day, and still He did not return. This prolonged waiting gave rise to perplexity.

Against this background there appeared the very "scoffers" mentioned by the apostle: they openly questioned all of Christianity, being sure themselves and assuring others that there would be no return of the Savior and that all eschatology was merely an invention of a mind heated by the Christian texts that had already begun to appear.

Peter remains faithful to what he heard from his Teacher, who promised to return soon after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple that He had foretold. But the apostle also remembered something else: Jesus' words that not even He Himself knows the day of His return, and that all times are in the Father's power. Peter understands these words of the Savior to mean that the day of Judgment and His return is not predetermined in the sense of dates, but is inevitable because of the spiritual process that we today usually call the history of salvation. As for the dates, they are determined first of all by the spiritual condition of the Church, and also of all humanity.

The postponement of Judgment is not an indulgence for sinners, but a chance for their conversion. Of course, if God's goal were to punish sinners as strictly as possible, the day of Judgment would quite possibly have come long ago. But He has another goal: He wants as many sinners as possible to repent and turn, and therefore He leaves chances for conversion to everyone and each person as long as this has meaning. Of course, sooner or later the day will inevitably come when there is no one and nothing left to wait for.

But when it will come cannot be said exactly, and only the Father can determine the moment of its coming. This is understandable: He alone sees the whole of reality in all its fullness, and the full depth of every heart. Only He can determine when waiting no longer has meaning because everyone has already made his choice. We human beings cannot know this by definition. But we do not need to know it: what matters for us is to walk our path and reach the goal. To the Kingdom. Without waiting for the day of Judgment. All the possibilities for this have already been given to us now.

Probably every Christian at least once asked the question: why God waits? Why He does not intervene in the events, why He delays the moment of the complete and definitive triumph of the Kingdom? Could not the Savior already return today? And wouldn’t it have been better? At first glance it may seem that it is exactly like that.

In reality, in this case, finally this evil, in which the world is still in, since it is not transformed yet, would have finally lose power over it, and everything would have been formidable. And everything would have indeed been like that. But with a correction: the moment of triumph of the Kingdom is also the moment of the last Judgment. And thus, the bar under the current stage of the world history, that God brings, thus depriving the chance to those who have not yet had time, had not yet define themselves, have not yet chosen. For those who have done their choice, the Judgment Day becomes the day of the final approval in the Kingdom. For those who have not yet succeed to make it, it turns out the day of the last and very serious trial.

Trials, outcome of which salvation depends. That is why God does not hurry up. He waits. Of course, He sees the heart of each and knows what and from whom to expect. As well as He knows if it makes sense to wait again. Of course, we could say that in any case the bar brought by God under the history leaves somebody out of the Kingdom.

But the question is to know who stays outside. It is one thing not to be ready for the final choice, and another- the choice makes not in favor of the Kingdom. The first case is reparable, the second - not. And God waits, wishing to lead each to a conscious and definitive choice. For, man is free, and he absolutely has to make his main choice freely and deliberately. And those who has already chosen, it remains only to wait, particularly when everything is already said and all witnessed. Indeed, waiting in this case is the highest expression of love.

The context of this sentence of the apostle Peter is understandable: it is about the Second Advent of Christ, of which the first Christians waited literally from day to day. Jesus promised to return, and it was evident for the Christians that His return is happiness, that is what they wished all their heart. And it was sometimes incomprehensible for them, why this promise doesn’t come true, why the Lord slacks; has He changed His mind? Maybe, He doesn’t want to come? Peter explains that it is not slackness, and that the Lord hasn’t changed His mind. It is just that His purpose is not to come, but to save. That is why He exercises patience, complying with the rhythm of the changes taking place in people. It is not Him Who slacks, but we that slack, - we slack with our personal conversion and with our help towards other people for their coming to repentance.

But we can examine this verse and in a wider context. We always have requests for God; we pray for our problems and sometimes don’t see the answer to our prayers. And we are perplexed, why is God silent, why He slacks to fulfill our requests. Perhaps, it is not once again God's slackness, but His longsuffering. He waits with patience, when we shall ask not for what we want for ourselves, but rather for what He wants from us. He wants the answer to our prayer to be really good - good for us and for all those He loves. Somebody said once upon a time that when we pray for fear wind, we should remember that it will be dead-wind for someone else. God doesn’t slack with the answer to our prayers, but it is we that slack with the answer to His appeal to love us one another.

Almost every Christian has asked at least once: what is God waiting for? Why does He not intervene in events, why does He delay the moment of the complete and final triumph of the Kingdom? Could the Savior not return today? And would that not be better? At first glance it can appear that this is so. Indeed, then at last the evil in which the world still remains, insofar as it has not yet been transformed, would finally lose its power over it, and everything would become wonderful. And everything really would be exactly so, but with one correction: the moment of the Kingdom's triumph is also the moment of the last Judgment. That means the line under the present stage of world history is drawn by God, thereby depriving of a chance those who have not yet managed, have not determined, have not chosen. For those who have made their choice, the day of Judgment becomes the day of final establishment in the Kingdom. For those who have not yet managed to make it, it becomes a day of final and very serious testing, a test on whose outcome salvation depends. Therefore God is not in a hurry. He waits. Of course, He sees each heart and knows what can be expected from whom. He also knows whether it makes sense to wait further. Of course, we might say that in any case the line God draws under history will leave someone outside the Kingdom. But the question is who remains outside. Unreadiness for a final choice is one thing; a choice made not in favor of the Kingdom is another. The first can be corrected, the second cannot. And God waits, desiring to bring everyone to a conscious and final choice. For the human person is free, and his main choice must certainly be made freely and consciously. Those who have already chosen have only to wait, especially when everything has already been said and testified to. In this case waiting turns out to be the highest manifestation of love.

The image of the destruction of the world, briefly, but explicitly described by Pierre, impresses of course. Although, it is necessary to recognize, there is nothing completely really new or unexpected in it: all the yahviste and of the early Christian apocalypse looks at the end of time approximately in the same way. And the Savior Himself said quite a lot of time when the day of Yahweh, the Day of Judgment (" the Day of the Lord ") will come, as a thief in the night. The most interesting here, is probably this accent on the surprise of the event, which breaks the usual train of things.

According to the context of the statement, Peter addresses those of his coreligionists, to whom began to seem that with the coming of the Messiah, nothing in the world has changed, it remained the same as it was, and no Kingdom, about which Jesus said it was “near” was in the world, and hasn’t be. Apparently, it seemed to them that the Kingdom will come when history will end, and they probably sought in the world signs of this end, and were saddened because they could find nothing consolating for themselves. The apostle points out the fact that the Kingdom enters into the world not because the history ends; it enters into the world through the rupture of history.

It can’t be otherwise: because the Kingdom of Jesus, according to His own words "is not of this world", it can’t come in the course and consequently of the natural historical process. At the moment of the triumph of the Kingdom and the transformation of the world, the history does not end, but is interrupted. And that is why the Judgment Day comes, "as a thief in the night", when nobody waits for it. And to those who wait, do not try to determine the proximity of that day by any external features.

Of course, any tension of the historic development, any period of trouble increase in a certain sense the probability of the rupture of history, but only in the sense, in which any increase of load on any structure increases the probability of its destruction. Even the most serious social, technological or natural disasters can’t by themselves witness about the proximity of the Judgment Day, although each of such a disaster, in principle, can become its precursor. And that is why Peter is able to give to the one waiting for this day only an advice. The very same, that the Savior Himself gave His followers.

Probably, to every Christian (and to every believer in God) at least once in life has risen the question: Why God waits? Why He does not intervene in the events taking place on earth, to restore order, to end the evil that occurs here, to punish the sinners, to reward the righteous? Or why He did not make at least the world such that every good and every evil are rewarded immediately and publicly, in a way that each sees the consequences of the good done by the righteous, as well as the evil done by the sinner? Indeed, the world would then have been better, and the one doing evil would have think several times if it worth to do that! And few are those who think about another thing: upon this order of things, could many have had hope not to say for salvation – but even only for physical surviving?

Because there is no man without sin on earth, except the One, Who brought to the world this Kingdom, which alone can be considered as the only alternative in the existing order of things! Could the Kingdom brought to them reveal itself so immediately in all its fullness? In principle, of course could, there couldn’t find in any case in the fallen world forces, capable to disturb it. Here is, the only inhabitant of the Kingdom in such case would have been Jesus Himself.

Others wouldn’t have been found, because sin is incompatible with the Kingdom, and there wasn’t at those days and there is not today in the world people without sin, except Him. The only means to save those who seek for the Kingdom and cannot enter because of their sinfulness, is to stretch the process of the transformation of the world and man. And not because this process, being spread in a century or millennium of earthly time, turns out to be easier or painless, but because it can not be completed, without waiting for the free self-determination of each of the living.

Such self-determination can turn out of course also negative, the free man has the right to reject the Kingdom and salvation, here before us the reverse of freedom, so to say, its wrong side. But everyone must decide, and this freely. And sometimes a lot of time is needed for such self-determination, particularly if we consider that most of people because of their fallen nature try as much as possible to avoid the decision-making, avoid to give an unambiguous and definitive answer. And God waits. Wait in order to save everyone who could be saved.

Christians in every age have loved to discuss what they call "the teaching of the Church." And in every age there have been people who sought to make this teaching unified, whole, and unambiguous. They wanted it to be such that one could easily find in it the answer to any question that arose, and an answer that was completely clear and allowed no ambiguous interpretations. Such that no one would have any doubts left. But judging by Peter's words, in the Church that Holy Scripture itself offers us as a model, things were by no means like that. There was no complete unanimity in it, no total unambiguity. Even the apostles themselves did not always and in everything understand one another.

Some passages of Paul's letters were, as we can see, not especially clear to Peter. This is not surprising: after all, Paul, who had received a full rabbinic education, at times thought in images and concepts not very familiar to a simple fisherman such as Peter. Yet Peter himself is not troubled by this. He knows that he and Paul understand some things differently, but in the main thing they are united. If the Church were yet another new religious organization or community, everything would not be so simple. For a religious organization, even if it is a relatively small movement, questions of doctrine are always fundamental. They are precisely what determine the life of that organization, including its spiritual life.

But Christianity is not a new religion; it is a new life. Life cannot be regulated by prescriptions, norms, rules, and theories set in advance. The Savior Himself refuses such regulation: the only thing that, according to His design, was to unite His followers was love for one another and union with Him Himself. Everything else was left to the discernment of the Church itself. Only those who are living can decide what forms their life should take and how it will unfold in the concrete conditions in which they have to live. That is why in the first Christian times the Church knew no single unified teaching: it did not need one. Christ was enough for it.

Of course, there could always be people who would prefer to engage in various kinds of intellectual exercises over one or another text read in the Christian community. Whoever seeks testimony in Paul's letters finds testimony; whoever seeks occasions to argue and exercise his intellect finds such occasions. But this has been so in every age of church history, and such people will always find material for their exercises. A unified teaching does not save one from this. But it can create the illusion of life where there is none. It is generally human to compensate for the absence of genuine life by talking about it. But no conversations, theories, or concepts bring us closer to the Kingdom. Peter understands this perfectly, as does Paul.

Today I want to draw attention to the words: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away." "Heaven and earth" is a biblical expression meaning the whole universe, the whole cosmos created by God. The Bible begins with these very words, as we all remember well. But do we understand correctly what Heaven is, what earth is, where we are, and where God is? The worst thing is if we think at the level of Soviet propaganda leaflets: that we are on earth and God is in heaven. It is known that after Gagarin's flight, articles appeared in the Soviet press saying that now it had been proven that there was no God in heaven. This is a warning against very crude errors. But there is also a more subtle mistake. It is to think that God is in Heaven, with Heaven capitalized, understanding Heaven as some world beyond the earthly one, inhabited by angels and the souls of the dead, over whom God reigns. Perhaps this mistake comes from a wrong understanding of the words "Our Father, who art in Heaven..." or "O Heavenly King..." This mistake will become clear when we recall the already mentioned lines of Gen. 1:1. The Lord created Heaven too, and there was a time when there was no Heaven, but God was. This does not mean that God is not in Heaven, but when we say that He is there, we greatly limit Him, placing Him on the same level as creatures, while He is the Creator. This is exactly what the lines of today's reading, which we wanted to offer you today for reflection, should remind us of. "Heaven and earth will pass away." Heaven, like earth, is not eternal. The end of time does not at all mean that people will be selected on earth and taken up to Heaven, as though they were being saved from the sinking ship of a passing world onto the firm shore of eternity. No, the end of time will mean the complete reordering of creation, which even Heaven will not avoid. This is what today's reading reminds us of.

Why does Jesus not answer such a burning question about times and dates? Does God really deliberately hide such an important fact from people? Indeed, if only we knew the exact date of the coming triumph of the Kingdom... Still, it is not so simple to say unambiguously what any of us would do in that case. One cannot even be sure that everyone would take such a revelation seriously. And yet, as is well known, to be forewarned is to be forearmed, and each person decides for himself how to respond to a warning. In any case, for those who take spiritual life seriously, the situation would become noticeably simpler: they would not have to remain in a state of continuous spiritual, and perhaps not only spiritual, tension, expecting every day the main event of their life. Besides, Jesus Himself says that even He does not know the time of His own return. Why is this so? Maybe the point is not that something is being hidden from us, but that the time has not been fixed? After all, the history of the Kingdom is, above all, the history of those who live in it and bear witness to it, the history of Christian righteousness, which is determined not only by God's will but also by the choice of those people whom God calls. And then it inevitably turns out that the time of the Messiah's return and the triumph of the Kingdom depends not only on God, but also on us.

Today's reading is remarkable for the transition reflected in it from history to the end of time. It begins with Jesus' prophecy about the Temple, which, according to His words, awaits complete destruction (vv. 1-23). This prophecy was fulfilled in A.D. 70, when, after the anti-Roman uprising raised by the Zealots in Judea, Jerusalem was taken by the Romans by storm after a long siege, and the city, together with the Temple, was destroyed to its foundations. Only the foundation of the Temple remained, whose western retaining wall is known today as the Wailing Wall. These events were preceded by a powerful rise of the messianic movement. Shortly before the uprising began, claimants to messiahship appeared regularly in Judea, and some of them managed to organize local rebellions that were harshly suppressed by the Romans; it is evidently about such claimants that Jesus warns His disciples (vv. 5-6). The atmosphere of the era was restless and fevered. Rumors spread about an approaching war, which the Zealots said would be the final, messianic war, and every military action, even a minor one, gathered rumors around it, sometimes the most unbelievable, further intensifying this atmosphere of universal, excited expectation of the end (vv. 7-8). Jesus' warning about coming persecutions was not in vain either (vv. 9-13): persecutions of Christians really began even before the uprising of A.D. 70; and Paul's preaching had already sounded throughout the Roman Empire before the fall of Jerusalem (v. 10). When the uprising began and failed, and Jerusalem came under threat of a severe and lengthy siege, Christians, remembering the Savior's warning (vv. 14-23), left the city (the Pharisees did the same). Josephus Flavius, one of the witnesses and participants in these events, writes in detail in his book "The Jewish War" about what happened in the besieged city, about the general hatred, intolerance, and violence that reigned there.

And so, after the prophecy about events that were to happen very soon after His death and Resurrection, the Savior turns to the account of the end of time and His second coming (vv. 24-37). It would seem that these events should have followed at once, or almost at once, one after another. However, Jesus Himself says plainly that the time of His return is known only to the Father. In that case the question arises: what connection is there between the events of A.D. 70 in Jerusalem and the second coming of Christ? For believing Jews the Second Temple, built by the repatriates who returned from Babylon in the sixth century B.C., was the messianic Temple. The Messiah-Christ was to preach there, and the end of this Temple was also to become the end of earthly history and the arrival of the messianic Kingdom. And Jesus, as we can see, confirms this idea that earthly history will be completed with the defeat of the Temple, adding that it will end while the contemporaries of His earthly life are still alive (v. 30; "this generation" means "this generation"). But between the completion of earthly history and the final triumph of the Kingdom, as we can see, some time must pass, known only to the Father. And we are left to wait and keep watch (vv. 33-37): to wait for the Savior's return in the fullness of the Kingdom and to keep watch so that His return does not catch us unprepared.

Today we read a passage in which Jesus speaks to the disciples about what is coming, about what awaits them and their descendants. This speech of Jesus is the longest one in Mark. Let us listen to it more attentively: what prompted the conversation? what can be said about the disciples' attitude toward Jerusalem and its temple?

Jesus' own words can be divided into three parts: about the destruction of Jerusalem, about His return and the end of this world, and two parables. The intersection of these themes can seem unexpected, but prophecy is not a chronological account of the future. It is, rather, various images of it, so that in the destruction of Jerusalem one can also see the end of this world.

It is interesting to trace whether the disciples' initial curiosity receives an answer. It appears that a direct answer sounds only at the very end of the chapter: in the parable of the fig tree He speaks about signs. But about the exact time it is said that it is hidden from everyone except the Father. And if He himself is what matters to us, then we must keep watch, like the doorkeeper in the second parable. This final summons will help us hear all the other words of Jesus as well, which seem to stand apart from the disciples' question: He is addressing each of us personally.

If Jesus does not answer the disciples' question before verse 28, then what is He speaking about in verses 5-27? What stands out is how often Jesus addresses them directly. Jesus is concerned not so much with the future itself as with people, His disciples, in that future. Jesus makes them understand that what they need most in this life is God and His guidance, something that is especially visible "against the background" of the end.

When reading this chapter, a natural feeling often arises: although one would very much not want to take part in the events described, there is one thing to be glad about. If all this does happen, then (vv. 19-20 and vv. 24-27) Jesus will return and save His chosen ones. He is God and Savior.