#548

Why Mock the End of Days?

Scoffers

My dear friends, this is now the second time I’ve written to you, both letters reminders to hold your minds in a state of undistracted attention. Keep in mind what the holy prophets said, and the command of our Master and Savior that was passed on by your apostles.

3-4 First off, you need to know that in the last days, mockers are going to have a heyday. Reducing everything to the level of their petty feelings, they’ll mock, “So what’s happened to the promise of his Coming? Our ancestors are dead and buried, and everything’s going on just as it has from the first day of creation. Nothing’s changed.” (2 Pet 3:2-4, MSG)

The Apostle Peter, famous for blurting out whatever came to him mind got a little more controlled and nuanced when he wrote these two epistles. And in them he also looked into the future as he most likely marveled when his teacher and mentor Jesus did as well. He also knew very well how religious leaders and scholars mocked him and his friends for being country bumpkins compared to their studied and high knowledge of spiritual things. In these brief words Peter tried to warn both his contemporaries and future believers the kind of caustic, cutting criticisms they would have to endure. And he wasn’t speaking about something generic, but something he went through not only because he went through it, but because he saw how Jesus encountered and endured it. Religious history teaches us how true these verses became, and also how prescient they are to us right now.

The Last Days Deconstruction

Critics of these verses and really prophecy in general exhibit this same attitude all the time now. The main thing that makes it more difficult to deal with is of course the vast amounts of information that anyone has at their fingertips due to the Internet. Even people who you would have never met let alone heard from can show up in our lives via social media ad nauseam or to a sickening or disgusting degree. Granted, information that is actually helpful can be accessed and even life-saving instructions can now be found in the very instant it is needed as well so I’m not advocating throwing the educational baby out with the nonsensical bath waters here. The information age as we call it is an uneven blend of good and evil with a lot of distraction thrown in for less than good measure. The point I’m trying to make here is that these scoffers and mockers now have a platform to scoff and mock incessantly and with the advent of the so-called YouTube critics, the algorithmically aided faultfinders are out in abundance growing in their influence seemingly by the day. And it is, in my mind, exactly what Peter was warning about for us, who I believe are living in the last of the last and the end of the end times. The spirit of condemnation coming from these people who laud their educational expertise as they, even humbly deride, deconstruct, and destroy the faith of millions and maybe even billions of believers is like dripping drops of water on the rock of our salvation. It is eroding the beliefs of those who once held firmly to the Bible and have gotten lax in their studies or careless in their devotions and left an opening for the enemy to scholastically steal both their joy and their solid love for God.

An Opening For Unbelief

Ironically, these social stealers of Biblical truth oftentimes have the demeanor of a loving and caring soul who just wants to keep you from believing fraudulent information and may even think they are doing Christians a solid for clearing up what they couldn’t possibly know due to their lack of education or experiences, both of which these folks have in abundance. They have more degrees than a thermometer as the old adage goes and they now have a platform to use that superior intellect to spread their “help.” As I read the various responses to these videos I see a multitude of people who are thankful for what they espouse because they were hurt by bad teachings on the topic du jour and the explanation emboldens them to condemn it. Rather than try to actually address the error and replace it with solid Scriptural teaching they use the information to move farther away from God and embrace a religion made in the image of their teacher who almost always waters down and demeans what thousands of years of Christians have defended and even died for. I commend the time and effort that went into getting the degrees in religion these influencers have, however they are just the current crop of detractors in a long line of learned people who maintained that the Bible is full or mistakes and lies and contradicts itself and only the foolish or gullible still see it as the inspired word of God. They stitch in their short derisions as they pick on people who have not done their research in what they believe are fulfillments of prophecy among of other things. Sadly, thousands of once strong Christians or maybe shallow ones are given reasons to turn their backs on the Word of God instead of using the intellectual challenge to get closer to the truth and The Truth, Jesus. I wish I could find more social influencers that use these teachable moments to edify and correct errors rather than use them as opportunities to espouse the wrong teachings they received in getting their degrees.

Don’t Be Shaken

I have to admit that at first blush, I was a tad befuddled by some of these religious scoffers and for a moment thought that I couldn’t hold a candle to their logic. But I actually held to my beliefs that I was following the right path and that the Bible wasn’t some book full of flaws written by people who were influenced more by their culture than they were Holy Spirit. This determined mindset was buttressed by actually praying and asking Holy Spirit to tell me how to respond to the challenge, an opportunity that I believe the once tactless Apostle Peter would have used to cut off the ear of a critic if it happened in his formative Christian days. Instead, the seasoned Peter told his readers what was coming in his day and prophetically, future believers what was coming in their time and not only why it would happen, but how to prepare and respond to it. I like how one Bible commentary, the Benson Commentary breaks down this challenge:

Knowing this first — That your faith in the prophetic word may not be shaken, but that you may be armed and prepared for the trial; that there shall come in the last days — The expression here used, επ’ εσχατου των ημερων, is different from υστεροις χρονοις, future, or latter times, (1 Timothy 4:1,) and from εσχαταις ημεραις, the last days, 2 Timothy 3:1. It is also different from επ’ εσχατων των χρονων, these last times, 1 Peter 1:20. And it probably means the last part of the days of the world’s duration. Scoffers — Or mockers, who shall ridicule the expectation of such awful events, and deride the truths, promises, and threatenings of the divine word; walking after their own lusts — Influenced by their appetites and passions, and their earthly and sensual inclinations. Here the apostle has laid open the true source of infidelity, and of men’s scoffing at religion. “They may pretend to religion,” as Dr. Benson says, “but they are governed by sense and appetite, and they take refuge in infidelity, and scoff at religion, to make themselves easy in their vices.” “When the apostle wrote this passage, there were Epicureans and others among the Gentiles, and Sadducees among the Jews, who ridiculed the promises of the gospel concerning the resurrection of the dead, the general judgment, the destruction of the earth, and a future state of rewards and punishments. Wherefore, seeing the scoffers, of whom St. Peter here speaks, had not yet appeared, but were to come in the last period of the duration of the world, it is probable that they were to arise in the church itself. Accordingly they are reproved, (2 Peter 3:5,) for being wilfully ignorant of the Mosaic history of the creation and of the deluge; and Jude says, (Judges 1:18-19,) the scoffers separated themselves from other Christians, and had not the Spirit, though they pretended to be inspired. The evil of scoffing at the doctrines and promises of the gospel may be learned from Psalm 1:1, where scoffing at religion is represented as the highest stage of impiety.” — Macknight.

Knowing why these last days scoffers do what they do is only part of addressing their challenges. As I said before, I don’t doubt their sincerity for the most part and I respect their research and educational endeavors, I just question their conclusions. No matter how many sources they cite and books they suggest that support their thinking, I have years and years of experiences that show me that I know what I have believed and learned is more than a fairy tale. I, like the Apostle Paul will not be shaken:

This is the Message I’ve been set apart to proclaim as preacher, emissary, and teacher. It’s also the cause of all this trouble I’m in. But I have no regrets. I couldn’t be more sure of my ground—the One I’ve trusted in can take care of what he’s trusted me to do right to the end. (2 Tim 1:12, MSG)