Saying: Where is his promise or his coming? For since the time that the fathers slept, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
και λεγοντες που εστιν η επαγγελια της παρουσιας αυτου αφ ης γαρ οι πατερες εκοιμηθησαν παντα ουτως διαμενει απ αρχης κτισεως
5 Church Fathers comment on this verse · 6 commentaries
Yet because one promise has not yet been fulfilled, for the reason mentioned above, it is unjust not to believe the Lord's other saving commandments. This is what evil-minded men desire and strive for. The Gnostics of that time spoke such empty words, namely the Naassenes, Lampetians, and Euchites. All of them, he says, are ignorant, for they willingly shut their eyes before the truth.
Now Peter prophesies about the future, since they, the apostles, are prophets of the New Testament.
Everything has remained as though there had been no flood of righteousness, and as though the fire of judgment would not come.
Where is the promise of His coming? This is the same form of speech used, for example, by the mockers mentioned in the Book of the prophet Malachi (Mal 2:17), who insolently said, "Where is the God of justice?" Similar speech appears in Lk 8:25; Ps 41:4; Ps 78:10.
Where? That is, there is no such promise, and there is no fulfillment of such a promise. Promise is spoken by the mockers from the viewpoint of believers, since they themselves do not believe in any such promise.
His coming means the future visible coming of the Lord for the last judgment of the world at the end of the kingdom of grace (Mt 24:3; Mt 27:37; 1 Thess 2:19; 1 Thess 3:13; 2 Pet 3:12).
His. These insolent mockers do not even wish to pronounce the worshipful name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They refer to Him contemptuously with a pronoun.
For since, and so forth. From the beginning, everything has gone according to its usual order. Nothing like what is spoken of as the future coming will occur, just as nothing like it has occurred. Such is the thought of these mockers.
Since the fathers began to fall asleep. Fathers means ancestors in the general sense, or the whole human race, from the time people began on earth. From the beginning of creation is an even stronger expression. Not only since people began to die, but from the very beginning of creation, everything has gone according to its established order in heaven and on earth, in all its parts.
All things remain, or abide, as they were. This means in essence and as a whole, apart, of course, from ordinary particular changes in nature and life. Such changes have no essential significance for the standing of the basic laws of the world.
According to the meaning of the mockers in question, the basic laws of the world act and will always act as they have acted. Therefore, they say, there will not and cannot be any special coming of Christ. The world will always be as it has been.
"Those who live passionately according to their own lusts shamelessly attack believers and mock them. They do this because the event does not follow the prophecy of the Lord's coming at once. Instead, an interval has been allowed for the salvation of those written in the book of the saved" (Theophylact).
The sources of unbelief concerning the second coming of the Lord are these. By references to the writings of the prophets (Joel 1:15; Obad 15), to the words of the apostles, and also to Jesus Christ Himself, Saint Peter affirms that the end of the world and the second coming of the Lord will certainly take place.
In particular he refers to the apostles of Asia Minor: Paul, Barnabas, and Silas. Hence Peter's expression, "your apostles."
Saint Peter foretells the appearance of unbelieving deniers of this truth. He indicates the source of their unbelief and the arguments on which it will rest.
The source lies in the sensuality, or lusts, of these men, who fear the judgment of God. Their arguments lie in the delay of the Lord's coming and in the unshakability of the laws of the universe's being: "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers began to fall asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."
Having said all that was necessary about heretics in general, the apostle turns special attention to their denial of the second coming of Christ.
On the basis of an incorrect understanding of the Lord's sayings about the second coming, it seemed to the heretics, as also to many during the Savior's earthly life (see Mk 10:37-38) and even to some of the apostles, that it must soon take place.
But since it was not taking place, the heretics said that it would no longer take place at all, and that everything in the world would remain unchanged (cf. 1 Cor 15:12).
So spoke the ancient deniers in Solomon's time: "A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth abides forever" (Eccl 1:4). So also proclaim some modern scholars, the materialists, who preach an eternal cycle of life that allegedly requires neither the Providence of God nor God Himself.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 21 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS