Scoffers Will Come

Peter says this is his second letter, and both letters are reminders meant to stir his readers to wholesome thinking. The believers already know the truth, but knowledge can become quiet and inactive. Peter wants their minds awake enough to remember what the holy prophets foretold and what the apostles commanded from the Lord Jesus.

He says scoffers will come in the last days, mocking the promise of Christ's coming and following their own evil desires. Their question sounds reasonable on the surface: where is the promise? The world seems to continue just as it always has, so why live as though God will judge and renew it?

Peter says the scoffers deliberately overlook creation and the flood. By God's word, the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By that same word, the world of that time perished in the flood. The argument is not that every detail of creation answers every scientific question. It is that apparent continuity does not prove divine indifference, and history already contains an act of judgment that the mockers refuse to consider.

Peter says the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire and kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly people. This is a sober claim, not an invitation to identify the date or make confident predictions about current events. The future belongs to God's word even when the present appears stable.

Remembering judgment is meant to wake up moral attention. The church is not supposed to answer mockery with panic or contempt. It should live as though Jesus' promise is real, speak honestly about what Scripture says, and refuse to let the apparent delay of judgment turn into permission for evil.