Reading the Text Rightly
Every time someone wants to debate my soteriological views with me, they always go to two verses, 1 Timothy 2:4
and 2 Peter 3:9. While I might concede 1 Timothy, most people fail to actually read 2 Peter 3:9. In that verse, Peter states,
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
What people like to do is say, “Look, the text says, ‘not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.’” Now if a person is to read 2 Peter 3:9 from the point of “not wishing” onward, then the conclusion one must draw is that which is being argued, that God wants all, in a universal sense, to be saved. However, it fails to read the whole verse.
Go back and read the entire verse with me, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness.” Here Peter is referring to the judgment theme in this chapter. People will mock God and say that, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation” (3:4). Yet this mocking overlooks that at one point, the earth stored up water and that water was used by God to purge all but eight people and two of every kind of animal from the planet. God now has fire reserved and ready to purge the earth of all sinfulness (3:5-7). God is just biding his time for his economy of time is different as Peter points out in 3:8.
Peter goes on to say, “but is patient toward you.” Now who is the Lord patient with in this text. It is “you.” Who is the you? It is the you found in 3:1, “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved.” This “you” is the audience identified in 2 Peter 1:1-2, “To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” Peter is talking to those who are saved.
Now read the rest of 3:9 in light of what Peter has just said, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” The terms “any” and “all” must be taken in light of “you” or the verse is drawn out of context and out of the flow of thought that Peter had when he wrote this just before he died–or by one of his disciples if you hold that this letter was written in the period of 80-90 AD.
Therefore, what Peter is saying here is this, “While some might mock and say that God hasn’t poured out his wrath and thus he won’t or he even doesn’t exist, this is not true. They forget that God destroyed the world with a flood and now is ready to do so again with fire. A day to him is like 1000 years and 1000 years is like a day. He is just being patient with you guys. He wants to make sure you have came to repentance before he unleashes his judgment, lest you perish.” Peter is speaking to the church and God wants all in the church to repent before he unleashes his wrath. This does not say that God wants every human alive to repent but only his people. I can remember only reading the last half of the verse. It was one of my key verses to defeating Calvinism. But one day, I read the whole text of 2 Peter and my eyes were opened to the context of the verse. Now it is one of my tools to show that the Bible does teach Election and Particulare Redemption.
Brothers and Sisters, I exhort you today to repent of your sins. Repent for God will not hold back his wrath forever. Isaiah 55:6 says, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near.” This is the most scariest verse in all of the Bible. There will be a time when one cannot seek God and call upon him for salvation. Do it now lest you get caught up in the judgment of unrighteous mankind!
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Good job broheem. Addressing 2 Tim 2:4
- I once had a bunny rabbit that got out and my dog got a hold of it. Needless to say, the rabbit was in a pretty bad way. It wasn’t long for this world for old buggs and time was not his friend. I couldnt stand seeing him suffer anymore so I decided out of sympathy to go grab some hedge clippers to finish my pal off. (gruesome I know) I hated doing it, it still bothers me to this day, but it had to be done.
Just as it is possible for us to do things that we hate it is the same way with God. His righteousness requires that He judge sin but He most certainly gets no pleasure out of the destruction of the wicked.
So, when it says that He desires that all men be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, it most certainly means what it says.
However, I wonder if people stop to consider the simple logic behind defining the phrase as our Arminian friends wish to do.
If God really is actively pursuing to save all men in an equal, American friendly, way, yet the majority of people on this earth will go down the wide road that leads to destruction; then God is impotent to save most though He desperately tries.
If He is not willing that any should perish, yet some perish then He is no greater in the administration of His divine power then I am of my puny human power. For then His will could be controverted and He is therefore not sovereign over His creation. This perhaps could open up a door for Satan to, perhaps win in the end. He holds my soul in the palm of His hand, how easy it would be for me to slip out of the hand of a God like this and into a Christless eternity!
The point of the passage is that, God takes no pleasure over the destruction of the wicked, as opposed to the model that would have Him standing there wringing His hands, hoping that just maybe someone would come by His salvation garage sale and buy some grace with their wallet full of faith.
Thank you my adelphos.