Most think that 2 Peter 3 is predicting the end of the earth, the burning up of the “elements” that make up the earth. Many think that it predicts a future (in our future) creation of a new heavens and earth recreating the earth to its pristine Garden of Eden state. I don’t. I believe it is prredicting 70 AD. Notice my “keys” to believing this chapter to be about 70 AD.

2 Peter 3:1 Beloved, this is now the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of a reminder, ² to remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.” Here is the purpose for writing this letter: to remind the diaspora Jewish Christians of several things. He hs already reminded them of some things in 2 Peter 1:12-14. Key 1: the things in this chapter were. predicted by the prophets and by Jesus through his apostles.

2 Peter 3:³ Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, ⁴ and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue just as they were from the beginning of creation.” ⁵ For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, ⁶ through which the world at that time was destroyed by being flooded with water. ⁷ But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly people.

Key 2: This event occurred in the “last days”. That phrase refers to the last days of the Jewish Age. Acts 2:¹⁷ “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; ¹⁸ even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. ¹⁹ And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; ²⁰ the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. ²¹ And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ ⁴⁰ And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” The last days would start in 30 AD (Acts 2) as Peter said that the apostles speaking in tongues was the beginning of the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy that the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit would be poured out on believers during the last days. The last days would end with “the great and magnificent day of the Lord”, i.e. a judgment day (the day of the Lord in the OT refers to a day of judgment: Joel 1:15; 3:14; Zephaniah 1:7,14; Obadiah 1:15). That great judgmenet day of the Lord would be 70 AD when God judged the evil, unbelieving Jews who had rejected Jesus as rthe Messiah and were rebelling against Rome. God sent the Romans under Vespasian and then Titus to put down the rebellion from 67-70 AD, killing thousands of Jews and then destroying the city of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD, killing 1 million Jews according to Josephus. Acts 2:40 this would occur within that “generation” of Jews that Peter was speaking to. The Greek word genea always means a period of about 40 years or the people living in a 40 years period, the same as we speak of the “baby boomers generation”. Matthew 1 lists 42 “generations” from Abraham to Jesus, which is bout 2,000 years (each genertion about 40-45 years). Malachi 4:⁵ “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. ⁶ He will turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land with complete destruction.” John the Baptist would be the Elijah to come. Matthew 17:¹⁰ And His disciples asked Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” ¹¹ And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; ¹² but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did ^[d]to him whatever they wanted. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” ¹³ Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.” Malachi said that Elijah would come shortly before the “great and terrible day of the Lord” which could only be 70 AD, a “complete destruction of the land”. John was not able to get the Jews the repent and the land was destroyed in 70 AD. Malachi 4:5 was predicting 70 AD to be the “great and terrible day of the Lord”, which is the same day in Acts 2:20. Thus the end of the last days was in 70 AD. 70 AD also marked the end of the miraculous being poured out on believers. Only the apostles were able to lay hands on baptized believers and given them miraculous Gifts (Acts 8:14-24), so when all the apostles died by 70 AD, the gifts died out, at least giving of new gifts died out. So 2 Peter 3:2 says that the events of 2 Peter 3 would occur in the last days, which limits the fulfillment to the period from 30 AD to 70 AD. That day of the Lord in 70 AD would be the 2nd coming of Jesus which he said would happen within the lifetime of those he ws speaking to (Matthew 10:23; 16:27-28; 24:30-34; 26:64). There are no other verses in the gospels that predict a “coming back” of Jesus that would not occur within their lifetime. None (find one if you can). Jesus himself had warned that false prophets would come and lead many away from the truth (Matthew 24:11) before 70 AD: Matthew 24:³⁴ Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” The mockers in 2 Peter 3:3 would be those false prophets before 70 AD who mocked Jesus’ prediction. in Matthew 24 that He was coming within that generation to destroy the temple and fulfill Daniel’s prediction about the “abomination of desolation” (Daniel 9:24-27).

Key 2: It was people, not dirt, that would be destroyed when the heavens and earth that existed in Peter’s day would be destroyed. The mockers said that things had been the same on earth since the creation with no cataclysmic day of the Lord as Jesus predicted to happen (Matthew 24) happening. But they forgot about the destruction of the old heavens and earth during the flood. The world was destroyed in that flood. What was “destroyed”? Evil people were destroyed. The earth went through drastic changes during the flood, but the earth and heavens were not literally destroyed. That left the heavens and earth that existed in Peter’s time and they were reserved for a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly people. Notice it would be ungodly people who would be destroyed when the current heavens and earth were to be destroyed, not literally the earth itself being destroyed.

2 Peter 3:⁸ But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.”

Jesus and the apostles had predicted the judgment day of the Lord at Jesus’ 2nd coming would be within the lifetime of those they were speaking to, within that generation of Jews living at that time. Matthew 23:³⁶ Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” The 2nd coming had not happened yet at the time Peter wrote 2 Peter (about 65 AD), but that didn’t mean it would not happen within that generation, and it did happen soon after Peter wrote this letter (5 or so years later). He would still fulfill his promise within that generation It could happen at any time, but any extra years would just be the Lord giving more time for Jews to repent and accept Jesus as the Messiah. Any extra years would mean nothing in God’s time frame b/c a day with the Lord was like 1000 years and a 1000 years as one day. People try to use 2 Peter 3:8 to argue that “soon” could be thousands of years when Revelation predicts that the events to be fulfilled in Revelation would happen “shortly”, “soon” (Revelation 1:1-3; chapter 22). But when God warns people about an imminent judgment, His warning is in their time frame, not His. He is saying, “you better repent b/c this judgment day is about to happen. to you soon”. If I told my students at school, “you will have a test soon so you better prepare by studying hard”, they would clearly understood soon to be in their time frame. Mark 1:15 “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. The need to repent was b/c of the imminent soon coming of the kingdom in their lifetime. Revelation 1:³ Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it; for the time is near.” The need to hear and keep the things written in Revelation was b/c the time was near, in their lifetime. The Greek work mello is used several times in warnings to the 7 churches (Revelation 1:19; 2:10; 3:10,16; 6:11; 8:13; 12:5). Mello always means “about to happen” in the NT.

2 Peter 3:¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be discovered.”

Key 3: The “elements” to be destroyed when the. current heavens and earth would be destroyed were not the physical elements of which the earth is made of (hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, etc.). The Greek word for elements is stoicheion: Element, principle, rudiment. It is used 7 times in the NT and never refers to the physical elements of the earth (Galatians 4:3,9; Colossians 2:8,20; Hebrews 5:12; 2 Peter 3:10,12). For example, Hebrews 5:¹² For though ^[i]by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God (i.e. the basics) , and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” The word stoicheion always refers to the basic teachings of the Law or of the pagan religions and never refers to the physical elements of the earth. 2 Peter 3:10,12 is no exception. There it refers to the basics of the Jewish system that would be destroyed in 70 AD. The temple would be destroyed; no more animal sacrifices or priests after 70 AD; the kingdom would be taken from the Jewish nation (Matthew 21:43); no more genealogy tables to confirm who the true Messiah was. But it sounds like fire and heat? That is typical of figurative apocalyptic language such as “moon turned to blood” (Isaiah 13 where it is talking about judgment on Babylon in 539 BC), “stars fall” (Matthew 24:30 and this had to happen within that generation 24:34), “heavens rolled up like a scroll” (Isaiah 34 where it is talking about judgment of the nations in Isaiah’s time). So it doesn’t have to mean literal fire in 2 Peter 3:10.

2 Peter 3:¹¹ Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, ¹² looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! ¹³ But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”

Key 4: God had made a “promise of a new heavens and earth” that they were looking for. Where is that found in the Scriptures? The only place that is found is Isaiah 65 and 66. Isaiah 65:¹⁷ “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. ¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness. ¹⁹ I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying. ²⁰ No longer will there be in it an infant who lives only a few days, Or an old person who does not live out his days; For the youth will die at the age of a hundred, And the one who does not reach the age of a hundred Will be thought accursed.” What is this “new Jerusalem” in the NT? That new Jerusalem is the church. Hebrews 12:²² But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, ²³ to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven…” Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Now remember, everything predicted to happen in Revelation would happen “shortly” (1:1-3) , “near” (22:10) , “soon” (22:6) , “I am coming quickly” (22:10). The new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to earth is no exception. That had to happen soon. John then describes the new Jerusalem as the bride of Christ, which is the church. Revelation 21:⁹ Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls, full of the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” ¹⁰ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, ¹¹ having the glory of God.” 2 Corinthians 11: ² For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” What about the “new heavens and earth” predicted in Isaiah 65:17. Again, Revelation 21:1 the new heavens and earth replaces the old heavens and earth and that has to happen soon, shortly, near. Revelation was written about 63 AD predicting the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The old heavens and earth would be the Jewish system, temple, sacrifices, etc. Hebrews 8:13 (written in 60 AD) predicted that the old covenant was “ready to disappear” and it did 10 years later. The old heavens and earth was destroyed in 70 AD. The new heavens and earth had to happen soon. That could only be the new Messianic order of things, the Messianic Age, the new reign of the Messiah. Hebrews 12:²⁵ See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns us from heaven. ²⁶ And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” ²⁷ This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. ²⁸ Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let’s show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; ²⁹ for our God is a consuming fire.” The old heavens and earth, the Jewish system, contained thing that could be “shaken”, created things, like the temple and the city of Jerusalem. God would shake that old system one more time and the last time, when he destroyed the temple and the city in 70 AD. A kingdom that cannot be shaken, i.e. the church kingdom, remained after 70 AD and remains today.

The final scripture where a new heavens and earth is promised is Isaiah 66:¹⁸ “For I know their works and their thoughts; the time is coming to gather all the nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory. ¹⁹ And I will put a sign among them and send survivors from them to the nations: Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal, and Javan, to the distant coastlands that have neither heard of My fame nor seen My glory. And they will declare My glory among the nations. ²⁰ Then they shall bring all your countrymen from all the nations as a grain offering to the Lord, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, and on camels, to My holy mountain Jerusalem,” says the Lord, “just as the sons of Israel bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. ²¹ I will also take some of them as priests and Levites,” says the Lord.”

²² “For just as the new heavens and the new earth, Which I make, will endure before Me,” declares the Lord, “So will your descendants and your name endure. ²³ And it shall be from new moon to new moon And from Sabbath to Sabbath, All mankind will come to bow down before Me,” says the Lord.
²⁴ “Then they will go out and look At the corpses of the people Who have rebelled against Me. For their worm will not die And their fire will not be extinguished; And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.”

Notice some event where the nations are gathered and there would be “survivors” (65:19) sent to the nations (i.e. Gentiles). That doesn’t sound like the end of the world and physical destruction of the earth, does it? Those survivors would “declare God’s glory among the Gentile nations”, which is preaching the word to the Gentiles. That is not the end of the world. God would make some of the converts from the nations as “priests and Levites”. That is not in heaven. That is figurative for the priesthood of believers in the church. All Christians are spiritual priests whether Jew or Gentile. Obviously God did not literally make Christian converts as Levites. This is typical of Messianic figurative language. It uses things familiar to the Jews in a figurative sense. The same with “all mankind will worship me on new moons and sabbaths”. Paul condemned those making Christians observe new moons: Colossians 2:¹⁶ Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food and drink, or in respect to a festival or a new moon, or a Sabbath day— ¹⁷ things which are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” Likewise in Jeremiah 33:¹⁷ For this is what the Lord says: ‘David shall not lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel; ¹⁸ and the Levitical priests shall not lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to prepare sacrifices continually.’”  This passage is definitely a prediction of the Messiah and his kingdom, fulfilled in Jesus (figuratively “David”). Also there would be Levitical priests in the Messianic kingdom who would offer burnt offerings. Is that saying that in Messianic kingdom we would go back to Levitical priests and animal sacrifices? Again, that is figurative language of the priesthood of believers. The burnt offerings would be figurative of the sacrifice of Christ in the new covenant. But a lot of figurative language that was confusing to the Jews when Jesus came. They were expecting a literal fulfillment of this figurative language and missed the whole boat! I think these predictions were fulfilled figuratively in the church now. Some Christians make the same mistake of the Jews and expect Jesus to return some day and establish a physical kingdom. The unbelieving Jews still expect the real Messiah (not Jesus) to come some day to establish a physical Jewish kingdom with animal sacrifices, priests, and a 3rd temple. But bottom line for our lesson is that Isaiah 66:22 the new heavens and earth, which is obviously in context the new Messianic age and not the end of the world and heaven itself, will endure before God. That is the Messianic system or order of things where Christ reigns in the church. It is not a new re-created earth and heaven. Peter says that God promised a new heavens and earth and that can only be found in Isaiah 65 and 66 and there it is not the end of the world but refers to the Messianic order of things which we have had for 2,000 years.

2 Peter 3:¹⁴ Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found spotless and blameless by Him, at peace, ¹⁵ and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, ¹⁶ as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which there are some things that are hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. ¹⁷ You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unscrupulous people and lose your own firm commitment, ¹⁸ but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

Audience relevance! How does this apply to the diaspora Jewish Christians Peter is writing to. He says they were “looking for these things. Were they expecting the new heavens and earth to come in their lifetime? I think so b/c Jesus and the apostles told them that Jesus was coming in their lifetime. Let’s throw in 1 Peter 4:⁷ The end of all things is near.” In an earlier article on 1 Peter 4, I said that “the end” had to be “near” or else Peter is a false prophet. What end was he predicting that was near? It was not the end of the world, but the end of the Jewish system in 70 AD. So in 2 Peter 3, would the removal of the old heavens and earth not be included in “end of all things” of 1 Peter 4:7????? The end of all things must include the destruction of the old heavens and earth in 2 Peter 3. That alone should make us realize that 2 Peter 3 is predicting something that is “near” and is not predicting the literal destruction of the heavens and earth in our future going on 2,000 years now since the prediction was made.

Regard any extra time as possible salvation for some before the 2nd coming in 70 AD. Peter then said that Paul “spoke of these things”. What things? The 2nd coming of Jesus was a common teaching of Paul and 2 Peter 3 is based on the prediction of the 2nd coming. 2 Peter 3:³ Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, ⁴ and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?” Paul spoke of that 2nd coming especially in 1 and 2 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians 15. He said in Acts 24:15 that there was “about to be” (mello) a resurrection of the righteous and unrightesous. He told the Athenians that God had set a day in which he was “about to ” (mello) judge the world through Jesus. He said in 2 Timothy 4:1 that Jesus was “about to (mello) judge the living and the dead. So Paul did speak on the same things as Peter did on eschatology (the study of the end). Some of Paul’s teaching is “hard to understand” (like 2 Thessalonians 2 and 1 Corinthians 15) but can be understood. But the “untaught and unstable” distort Paul’s teachings, just as they do today. They do this also to the “rest of the Scriptures”. This would refer to the OT Scriptures since the NT canon had not been completely formed at the time Peter wrote 2 Peter. But that statement by Peter means that Peter considered Paul’s writings to be inspired and equal to the OT inspired writings. Some today would say that Paul was not inspired, that he was not a true apostle. They said that back when Paul was living and fighting the Judaizers who tried to undermine him. Paul has to defend his apostleship in Galatians and 2 Corinthians especially. 2 Corinthians 12:¹² The distinguishing marks of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs, wonders, and miracles.” The conversion of Paul when he saw the resurrected Jesus make it obvious that he was a true apostle. Nothing could have converted this killer of Christians other than seeing the resurrected Jesus. The reason some question his apostleship and inspiration today is that they don’t want to accept his teaching that homosexuality is a sin. They say that he is homophobic and just opinionated. They say we don’t have to follow his commands or his condemnation of homosexuality. But I always send them to 2 Peter 3:16 where Peter said that Paul’s writings were inspired Scripture. Most everyone accepts Peter as an apostle (maybe they even think he was the first pope). So can we trust Peter’s confidence that Paul’s writings were Scripture? I think so. Peter then closes with a warning against being carried away by unscrupulous people, i.e. the false prophets and teachers and mockers that were among them. Instead, grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus. Amen.

So there it is. I think 2 Peter 3 is all about 70 AD and not at all about a prediction for our future of the destruction of the earth and re-creation of the earth. Many scholars have come to this same conclusion, so this is not some new teaching I came up with.