Dr. J. Vernon McGee :: The World That Is

The World That Is

As we come to the “world that is,” I am turning to the Revised Standard Version, reading this chapter over again. It is not that I recommend this version, but I am very much interested in getting at the meaning of some words, and it is well to note the difference from our Authorized translation and any other translation of the Scriptures.

This is now the second letter that I have written to you, beloved, and in both of them I have aroused your sincere mind by way of reminder; that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.” They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire! But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability. 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. (2 Peter 3, REVISED STANDARD VERSION)

False Premises Concerning the Lord’s Second Coming

The reason that Peter mentions “the world that was,” “the world that is,” and “the world that will be” is due to the fact that in the last days scoffers will arise, and they will ridicule the truth concerning the coming of Christ again to this earth. The scoffers in the past based their ridicule on two false premises:

Nothing has happened in the past; therefore, nothing will happen in the future. They base their ridicule on the false assumption that since nothing has happened in the past, nothing will happen in the future. I say it is a false assumption, a counterfeit premise, because, as we have seen, something has happened in the past. This world bears scar marks of a past judgment; the very stones cry out, telling the story of a past civilization that was submerged beneath water. They tell us that the cosmos that was then in existence was brought into chaos and that this present world in which we are living today is built on that chaos. There is every evidence of that, of course.

Before we go on to the second false premise on which scoffers in this present world base their belief that the Lord will not return, I should like to answer some questions which naturally arise in connection with the destruction of this present world: Will it be drowned? Will it be drenched? Will it be put beneath the flood? Verses 7, 10, and 12 answer these questions, and in these three verses we find it definitely stated that the present world will be destroyed by fire, not by water. Let us note, first of all, verse 7:

But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

This present order of things is temporary. This present world in which we are living today is moving toward another day of judgment, which is unlike anything in the past. This time it is a judgment by fire. In fact, Peter is very specific in this epistle and in this particular passage, mentioning it three times (verses 7, 10, and 12).

Now let us look at verse 10:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.

There you see that Peter not only says that this world will be “dissolved with fire,” but also that it will be “burned up.” How could he be more specific?

The third reference is as follows, in verse 12:

Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire!

This is one of the most remarkable passages in the Word of God, especially for the present hour. It is this passage of Scripture which has caused the skeptic of the past to ridicule. If you should consider many of the criticisms that have been made in past ages, one that caused the loudest guffaws was the question: “How can water burn? Most of the world today is water, and it is ridiculous to think that it can burn.” Of course at the present hour that sort of criticism is outmoded because we know today that water is made of two inflammable gases and that it can burn.

Now let us return to the second false premise mentioned above: the eternity of matter. This was a premise on which a great deal of the science of the past was based, something which was taught by Plato. You see, they said this passage could never come to pass because matter was indestructible and could not be destroyed; matter was eternal. Not only did the critics ridicule this passage, but also the Bible scholars of the past were puzzled by it. Though they believed it sincerely and humbly, they could not explain it. And I have been very much interested in noting that some of them felt called upon to make some sort of an explanation, one saying that probably this earth will bump into some other heavenly body causing a mighty conflagration. That could be, of course, but it does not seem likely with the information that has come to us and since we know that the thing that is mentioned here in this third chapter of 2 Peter can happen. We not only know that it can happen, but we also know how it can happen. When the atomic bomb fell on Hiroshima, a flood of light fell on this chapter. The fact of the matter is that this is the only good that the atomic bomb has done so far. It has at least given us a commentary on 2 Peter 3.

Atomic Fission Explains the Language of Peter

In atomic fission (when the little atom is split) the tremendous force that is released consumes it. I want us to note the language very definitely in the three verses previously quoted. They speak of the fact that this present order of things will be destroyed by fire. Therefore, let us return to verses 7, 10, and 12, taking them in chronological order, continuing with the Revised Standard Version, verse 7:

But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

Note that it says that this earth has been stored up for fire. This is a very interesting expression, by the way, and it not only means stored up for fire but also stored up with fire (that could easily be the translation of it). The suggestion is that there are resident forces present in the world which could destroy it. In other words, this world can commit suicide. This possibility is suggested in this passage. It is not that God is going to rain fire down from heaven — it is not that there is coming in from the outside some medium of judgment — but this earth carries its own judgment. How well we know this today! Now note verse 10:

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.

There are several expressions here which we want to examine in detail. A loud “noise” (Greek rhoizeμdon) is a word used by Simon Peter that is not found anywhere else in the New Testament. It is a word that belongs to classical Greek. It belongs to the poets, for the pronunciation carries its own meaning. It is sometimes used to speak of the swish of an arrow, the hiss of a serpent, or the splash of water. Does that not suggest to you the sound of atomic explosion? This is the very word and the only word that I know that could describe such a noise.

“The elements will be dissolved with fire” or “the elements shall melt,” as the King James translation has it, is a very interesting expression and contains two remarkable words: elements and melt. First let us examine the word elements. The word for elements here means the basic materials, and it is the word used to speak of putting building blocks in a row or a series. It is used to speak of the first steps of a child. It is that which is primary, that which is foundational, that out of which a thing is made.

This is much better than our word “atom.” You see, the word “atom” comes from the Greek word tomao, which means to cut. An alpha (the first letter of the Greek alphabet) gives the opposite meaning when placed at the beginning of a word. So atomao (atom) means something which you cannot cut. That is what scientists thought a few years ago about the atom — that it was something that could not be cut. But now it is being cut up like a railroad restaurant pie. The word translated “elements” is a much better word, for it means the basic materials. As one of the outstanding scientists of the present hour expressed it, “The atoms are the building blocks of the universe.” Thus, “elements” suggests the atomic structure of the universe.

“Melt” employs one of the simplest Greek words. It is one that every student of first-year Greek uses as his model in considering all the parts of the verb. It is the verb luoμ, and this word simply means “to untie,” “to unloose.” That is the word translated “melt.” This passage says that the atomic structure, or the atoms of the universe, will be untied. That certainly is the way we laymen would speak of atomic fission. We are told that when the little atom is untied, an atomic explosion goes off.

In verse 10, we are also told that the earth and the works are to be burned up. That is the exact language of Peter; that is the total destruction of this universe. And, of course, that is what happens when atomic fission takes place. It means the mass has been converted to energy and tremendous heat has been released. Consider verse 12:

Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire!

You will note that the expression in which we are interested in verse 12 is the same expression which we considered in verse 10: “elements shall melt.” However, this time we have a different word in the original for “melt.” It is not the simple little word luoμ, but it is teμkomai, a word that means actually “wasting away,” the wasting away of nature. This could possibly suggest the effects of radioactivity when an atomic bomb goes off.

Please note that in all three of the verses under consideration, the release of intense heat is mentioned. In verse 7 Peter mentions that “the heavens and earth … have been stored up for fire” and in verse 10 that “the elements will be dissolved with fire” and in verse 12 that “the elements will melt with fire.” These references certainly speak of a fervent heat that is to be generated. These are things that cannot escape even the casual reader. And the analogy to atomic action again is striking. Certainly we have here a rather interesting description of atomic fission written about two thousand years ago.

In 1947 a very interesting little brochure was printed relative to the atomic bomb and what the Bible says about it. The writer evidently went to a great deal of trouble to gather quite a lot of information regarding the experiment which was made in Alamogordo, New Mexico. He tells us that he had dinner with a Christian railroad man who lived about one hundred miles from Alamogordo. On the morning of the fateful experiment, this man was preparing breakfast at about five o’clock when suddenly the sky became so lighted up that the fluorescent fixture in his kitchen seemed as if it were dark rather than light. The writer of the book mentioned also a blind girl in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is about one hundred and twenty miles from Alamogordo. She had been waiting on the street for a bus, and when the bomb went off, she exclaimed, “What is that?” We are told that this bomb that was released in Alamogordo weighed approximately four hundred pounds and that it was suspended from a tower built very much like an oil derrick, except that it was not built of any sheer materials but actually of railroad rails which weigh about ninety pounds to the foot. When this bomb, which was just a midget, went off, it dissolved this derrick which went up in a puff of smoke; and for a mile in every direction there was a place at least five feet deep that had been blasted out, and the rocks in the immediate vicinity had become molten.

This gives us a bird’s-eye view of what an atomic bomb can and does do. It would seem that men of today have broken into God’s treasure house; they have found God’s secret, it appears. The fact of the matter is that this is the suggestion in verse 7:

But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

This gives the suggestion of being kept in store, and that is the same word that the Lord Jesus used when He told of the man who was laying up treasure. God had been laying up this secret of how He made this universe, and it seems that man has broken into God’s secret treasure house and stolen the secret. At least, man has opened a veritable Pandora’s box, and today men are frightened.

People in All Walks of Life are Frightened

It makes no difference which way we turn today, people in all walks of life — scientists and statesmen, college professors and presidents — are all speaking concerning the awful possibilities of the future, warning that a chain of atomic fission could be set off which might destroy this universe. In other words, it is just like living on a powder keg; we are living on a dynamite dump; we are living on an arsenal. It can go off. God’s Word says that it will go off some day, and informed men of today know that to be true.

Knowledgeable people have been saying some very interesting things about this present hour. Please note that I am not quoting from any preachers but from outstanding people in other walks of life.

Dr. Urey from the University of Chicago, who worked on the atomic bomb, began an article several years ago in Collier’s magazine by saying, “I am a frightened man, and I want to frighten you.”

Dr. John R. Mott returned from a trip around the world and made the statement that this was “the most dangerous era the world has ever known.” And he raised the question of where we are heading. Then he made this further statement, “When I think of human tragedy, as I saw it and felt it, of the Christian ideals sacrificed as they have been, the thought comes to me that God is preparing the way for some immense direct action.”

Chancellor Robert M. Hutchins, of the University of Chicago, gave many people a shock several years ago when he made the statement that “devoting our educational efforts to infants between six and twenty-one seems futile.” And he added, “The world may not last long enough.” He contended that for this reason we should begin adult education.

Winston Churchill said, “Time may be short.”

Mr. Luce, the editor of Life, Time, and Fortune magazines, addressed a group of missionaries who were the first to return to their fields after the war. Speaking in San Francisco, he made the statement that when he was a boy, the son of a Presbyterian missionary in China, he and his father often discussed the premillennial coming of Christ, and he thought that all missionaries who believed in that teaching were inclined to be fanatical. And then Mr. Luce said, “I wonder if there wasn’t something to that position after all.”

It is very interesting to note that The Christian Century carried an article by Wesner Fallaw (of all journals, this one seems to be the most unlikely in which to read a statement like this) which said, “A function of the Christian is to make preparation for world’s end.”

Dr. Charles Beard, the American historian, says, “All over the world the thinkers and searchers who scan the horizon of the future are attempting to assess the values of civilization and speculating about its destiny.”

Dr. William Yogt, in the Road to Civilization, said, “The handwriting on the wall of five continents now tells us that the Day of Judgment is at hand.”

Dr. Raymond B. Fosdick, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, said, “To many ears comes the sound of the tramp of doom. Time is short.”

H. G. Wells declared before he died, “This world is at the end of its tether. The end of everything we call life is close at hand.”

General Douglas MacArthur said, “We have had our last chance.”

Former President Dwight Eisenhower said, “Without a moral regeneration throughout the world there is no hope for us as we are going to disappear one day in the dust of an atomic explosion.”

And Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, ex-President of Columbia University, said, “The end cannot be far distant.”

If men from all walks of life are speaking in this manner, certainly you and I, who have believed the Bible and who have had all these years such a clear statement concerning the judgment that is coming upon this world and the way in which it is to be destroyed, should be alert. Do not misunderstand me, I am not saying that the atomic bomb will be God’s method for the destruction of this world. I am merely saying that man at last has found out that this passage in 2 Peter makes good sense. This is a way that is not only logical but is scientific by which God can destroy this universe.

Notwithstanding, this is something that should not alarm God’s people, and the reason it should not alarm God’s people is that we have a blessed hope.

The Believer’s Blessed Hope

We are not looking for the atomic destruction of this world; we are looking for the Lord from heaven. I am confident that this is the next thing which is in God’s program for His people — we shall have more to say concerning this in the next section. Certainly there is here a warning to the unsaved. If you are without Christ and are living without God in this world, certainly there is a message in this for you.

In verse 9 we read:

The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

It is not God’s will that you should perish. One of the reasons that you have read this message is simply because God does not want you to come into judgment, but He wants you to pass from death unto life.

And you can do that — you can turn to Him and receive the wonderful salvation that He has for you. It is His gift to you, for He says:

Verily, verily I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)

Did you know that you cannot keep God from loving you? You can reject His love, but you cannot keep Him from loving you. You cannot keep it from raining, but you can raise an umbrella to keep the rain from falling on you. At this moment God’s love is falling around you — certainly showers of mercy are falling on this earth — and you can raise the umbrella of indifference, you can raise the umbrella of skepticism, you can raise the umbrella of your own self-will, but you cannot keep God from loving you.

There is a story that comes out of Greek mythology concerning a young man who had a very godly mother, but he fell in love with a very ungodly girl. The ungodly girl hated the boy’s mother and could not bear to be in her presence. It was not because the mother rebuked her, but her very character and her very presence were a rebuke to this girl. Nevertheless, this boy was desperately in love with her, for she was beautiful. And finally he pleaded with her to marry him, and she said, “Only on one condition; you must cut out your mother’s heart and bring it to me.” Well, this boy was so madly in love and so desperate that he descended to the low plane of committing this diabolical deed. He killed his mother, cut out her heart and was taking it to the girl when, on the way, he stumbled and fell. The heart spoke out, “My son, did you hurt yourself?”

My friend, you can slap God in the face, you can turn your back on Him, you can blaspheme Him, but you cannot keep Him from wanting to save you. And He does want to save you, and He will save you if you will turn to Him and receive the salvation that He offers in Jesus Christ.