NOTES for Pe2 3:15-16

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.

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!

We read Christ's prophetic words about the future of the world and the days before His Second Coming in power and glory. Everything that will happen will be terrible, and... all of it is already found in our world: earthquakes and wars, famine and epidemics. But what is the Lord's patience of which the apostle speaks? It consists in His waiting for every person and giving everyone opportunities to meet Him. He has given us the promise of which the apostle speaks: “According to His promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” Our world can become these new heavens and this new earth if Christ's proclamation is heard by everyone; if Christ's works and people's love for Him become the foundation of human life; if through repentance and the fear of God each person acquires faith, hope, and love. Prayer for the world and for everything that happens in it, prayer to Christ for the salvation of human souls amid distress and misfortune, must resound every day in the heart of every Christian, just as it resounds every day in the Church.

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.