Matthew 24:48
Matthew 24:50
2 Peter 3:4
4. (Compare Ps 10:11; 73:11.) Presumptuous skepticism and lawless lust, setting nature and its so-called laws above the God of nature and revelation, and arguing from the past continuity of nature's phenomena that there can be no future interruption to them, was the sin of the antediluvians, and shall be that of the scoffers in the last days.
Where—implying that it ought to have taken place before this, if ever it was to take place, but that it never will. the promise—which you, believers, are so continually looking for the fulfilment of (2Pe 3:13). What becomes of the promise which you talk so much of? his—Christ's; the subject of prophecy from the earliest days. the fathers—to whom the promise was made, and who rested all their hopes on it. all things—in the natural world; skeptics look not beyond this. as they were—continue as they do; as we see them to continue. From the time of the promise of Christ's coming as Saviour and King being given to the fathers, down to the present time, all things continue, and have continued, as they now are, from "the beginning of creation." The "scoffers" here are not necessarily atheists, nor do they maintain that the world existed from eternity. They are willing to recognize a God, but not the God of revelation. They reason from seeming delay against the fulfilment of God's word at all. 2 Peter 3:10
10. The certainty, suddenness, and concomitant effects, of the coming of the day of the Lord. FABER argues from this that the millennium, &c., must precede Christ's literal coming, not follow it. But "the day of the Lord" comprehends the whole series of events, beginning with the pre-millennial advent, and ending with the destruction of the wicked, and final conflagration, and general judgment (which last intervenes between the conflagration and the renovation of the earth).
will—emphatical. But (in spite of the mockers, and notwithstanding the delay) come and be present the day of the Lord SHALL. as a thief—Peter remembers and repeats his Lord's image (Lu 12:39, 41) used in the conversation in which he took a part; so also Paul (1Th 5:2) and John (Re 3:3; 16:15). the heavens—which the scoffers say' shall "continue" as they are (2Pe 3:4; Mt 24:35; Re 21:1). with a great noise—with a rushing noise, like that of a whizzing arrow, or the crash of a devouring flame. elements—the component materials of the world [WAHL]. However, as "the works" in the earth are mentioned separately from "the earth," so it is likely by "elements," mentioned after "the heavens," are meant "the works therein," namely, the sun, moon, and stars (as THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH [p. 22, 148, 228]; and JUSTIN MARTYR [Apology, 2.44], use the word "elements"): these, as at creation, so in the destruction of the world, are mentioned [BENGEL]. But as "elements" is not so used in Scripture Greek, perhaps it refers to the component materials of "the heavens," including the heavenly bodies; it clearly belongs to the former clause, "the heavens," not to the following, "the earth," &c. melt—be dissolved, as in 2Pe 3:11. the works . . . therein—of nature and of art.