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

The World That Was

The first one is mentioned in verses 5 and 6:

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, by which the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.

That is the “world that was.”

In verse 7 we have our next reference:

But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

This is the present world or the “world that is.”

And then we have the third world mentioned in verse 13:

Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness.

And this is the “world that will be.” Actually, we have here only one world but three periods of time: The world of the past, the world of the present, and the world of the future.

One World

Now we have been introduced in our generation to the one-world idea, and it has been presented to us as something entirely new. When Wendell Willkie toured around the world and returned to write his book, One World, that was probably the first time that this idea was made available for public consumption. At least, it is the first time it came into the limelight for John Q. Public to consider. And the flash of the atomic bomb crystallized this thought to such an extent that after World War II the public demanded an adequate answer to meet this new need of the one-world idea. The United Nations was man’s answer to meet this new problem — and let us be very clear, it was man’s answer and not God’s. Many world-wide movements have come into focus since then, and we hear a great deal today about global politics. But, you know, this is not something new. We have had ecumenical movements in the church for many years. Nevertheless, all of this caused us to coin new mottoes, and we heard new phrases: Unite or Perish, Federate or Disintegrate, Yoke Up or Blow Up. Now these are not God’s movements, and certainly they are not His solutions to the problem. But God does have a global gospel today that was meant for every race and tribe and tongue and nation on top side of this earth. The fact of the matter is that this gospel is going to reach all of these because the day is coming when there will be gathered in His presence out of every nation, tribe, tongue, and condition of mankind those that have been redeemed by this glorious gospel. But this one-world idea — it is about two thousand years old.

Let us look at verses 3 and 4 of 2 Peter 3 and we shall see in it the expression, “the world that was”:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

You see, scoffers were to arise who would ridicule the notion that the Lord Jesus Christ would return. And they present a very specious argument, an argument which lacks logic and has no foundation in fact. They say, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” They, of course, want to adopt the doctrine of laissez faire, and they are willing to continue the status quo because they believe that everything has continued on an even tempo from the very beginning. That may have sounded plausible in Peter’s day, and it may sound plausible to some now. But surely it is not true to the facts as we know them today because there was a world that came into judgment, and that world perished. This is the statement we have in verse 6:

By which the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.

There was a judgment of this world in the past, you see; the world that then existed perished.

Scar Marks of the Water Judgment Upon the Earth

The very interesting thing is that both the heavens and the earth bear scar marks of a past judgment. That is the subject of common knowledge today, and it is needless for me to go into a great many details. However, I would like to mention a few:

We know today that the mountains, especially out here in the western country, have been thrown up by some major catastrophe of the past. I well recall my first trip to Yosemite Valley, listening to the ranger there give his memorized lecture that evidently had been handed to him by some geologist. This ranger made the statement that sometime in the ages past there was a colossal glacier that moved down through that area, cutting out the mighty Yosemite Valley. My, what a chiseler it took to perform such a feat!

Another evidence is found in the presence of seashells on mountain tops. I was speaking several years ago to an oil geologist in Texas — a very fine Christian, by the way — and I was telling him of an experience I had had while squirrel hunting down near the Brazos River. Along the river bank I had noted a strata of rock with nothing but dirt beneath it and nothing but dirt above it. On closer examination of that strata of rock, I found out that it was nothing in the world but crushed seashells cemented together. The geologist made this statement, “It is quite evident that this entire state as well as this western area was at one time under water.”

And we are all familiar, I am sure, with the account of the animals which have been found in Siberia in “deep freeze.” They have been there through the centuries. Elephants, for instance, have been found with grass in their stomachs — green grass. They evidently were enjoying a tropical climate in that area when all of a sudden, through some major catastrophe, they were put in quick freeze.

In other words, the laws of nature as we know them today were interrupted; something interfered, the status quo was disturbed, and a mighty cataclysm came upon this earth. In fact, “cataclysm” is the very word that Peter uses, and he says it was a judgment by water. At that time a great inundation took place which submerged the civilization of that day beneath watery waves.

In the world as we know it today, three-fourths of its surface is water. It is one of the basic materials. Even the Greek philosophers from the very beginning always considered water one of the basic materials. Thales, an early Greek philosopher, speaks of four basic elements: water, fire, air, and earth. And we know that this water was the destructive force. In other words, there is resident in nature its own destructive force, and there was a judgment of God upon the world at that time by water.

God’s Judgment, Not Love, Manifest in Nature

As you look out today at the world of nature, you will not discover the love of God, for the love of God is not revealed in nature at all. You will not find the love of God, as the poets like to speak of it, in the birds and bees and the budding of the trees. Nature today has a bloody tooth and a very sharp claw. As I write, the great drifts of snow out in the Middle West have caused farmers to be isolated and have not only endangered life but actually have caused many to die. The forces of nature which are at work today do not reveal God’s love.

You will not find the love of God today except in one place, and that is in the cross of Jesus Christ. It is there God has made the focal point for all His love, and there He showered all His mercy. And if you are to know the love of God, you will have to find it at the cross where He gave His Son to die for you.

The heavens, likewise, bear scar marks of a judgment of the past. I have been very much interested in reading a book by an astronomer concerning the dark nebulae. He holds that these dark nebulae are evidently stellar systems like our Milky Way that are out yonder beyond our galaxy. By the way, these dark spots in the sky are not dark at all, for beyond them there are stars. It is supposed that these dark spots have been caused by some sort of a major catastrophe which took place in the past. Surely new telescopes will flood this subject with new light. Until then, I will have to reserve my opinion relative to this.

The Time of the Water Judgment

Now the question arises: When did this judgment which produced the flood take place on the earth? Let me quote again to you verses 5 and 6 of 2 Peter 3:

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, by which the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.

It is impossible for us to date the great catastrophe when the world was destroyed by water. There are, however, two possibilities:

The Flood of Noah’s Day

I have asked several outstanding Bible teachers what judgment they thought Peter had in mind, and there was some disagreement among these men. Most of them did agree, however, that it referred to the flood of Noah’s day. Surely that seems to be the suggestion here.

The antediluvian civilization was destroyed with a flood, and there is abundant evidence for this. The great shaft which was put down at the site of ancient Ur of the Chaldees shows that there were several civilizations destroyed. In the excavation, the archaeologists came to a great deal of sand and silt and quite a bit of sediment that was deposited there by a flood. Then beneath all this, they found that a very high civilization had existed. Personally, I believe that Peter referred directly to the flood of Noah’s day, and surely this earth bears abundant evidence of this flood.

The Judgment of the Pre-Adamic World

There was another judgment concerning which we know very little, and this judgment took place in the pre-Adamic world. It is suggested in the very first few verses of the Bible. In Genesis 1:1, 2 we read:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved [brooded] upon the face of the waters.

God created the heavens and the earth, and then we find the earth without form and void, or better still, “It became without form, and void.”

The literal translation is that it became tohu-wa-bohu. In Isaiah 45:18 the prophet says that God did not create this world tohu-wa-bohu, which would suggest that something happened that made this world without form and void. In other words, a cataclysm came upon this earth. When God began to move, water was upon the face of this earth. One of the first things that God had to do, after He brought light, was to remove the water from the land and to separate the land from the water.

The view I hold is that there was a great judgment that took place in this pre-Adamic civilization. We know practically nothing about it although it seems that this judgment is in connection with the fall of Satan who was created Lucifer, “the son of the morning,” an “angel of light,” evidently the very highest creature that God ever created. And we find this mentioned in Isaiah 14:12-14:

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, who didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.

We have here what was evidently the origin of sin. Sin, here at the very beginning, is connected with the fall of Lucifer. This one, created so high, lifted his will against the will of God. In other words, there was rebellion in heaven against God. And, my friends, this is sin at its very core. I suppose the worst thing that can be said about any man is that which is recorded in Isaiah 53 where it is said that each one has turned to “his own way.” That is, we set our way over against the way of God. That is sin in its inception; that is sin at its blackest; that is sin in its origin. The way all sins begin is by man setting his will over against the will of God. And here we find this creature, the highest creature that God ever created, setting his will over against the will of God. He did not say he would be unlike God, that he wanted to be different from God. He said, “I want to be like God.” And he tried to lift himself up and set himself up as God and set his will over against the will of God. And that is what rebellious man is doing today. He is setting himself up as his own little god or insisting on his own particular viewpoint of God. Each one is turned to his own way.

This judgment in 2 Peter could refer to this pre-Adamic civilization in which Satan, who evidently at that time was Lucifer, an angel of light, had control. When he rebelled and set his will over against God, then the judgment of God came upon this earth. And it was a water judgment.

God’s Messengers to This Present World

God has judged sin in the past. This earth bears scar marks, open wounds that testify that God has moved in mighty judgment against that which opposed Him. And since He has judged sin in the past, He is going to judge sin in the future. You are living in a world that is on its way to destruction. We are going to deal with that in the next section. This world in which we are living today is moving toward a judgment, not by flood, because there hangs over this earth the rainbow of many hues and colors, the rainbow of the grace and patience of God, but the judgment of God is coming. This world will be destroyed. Every time you pick up a popular magazine and read a scientific article about prehistoric creatures who existed upon this earth thousands, even millions, of years ago — for that is quite possible — God is speaking to your heart to let you know that a judgment came upon that civilization because it had turned its back upon God.

God is speaking today; He is speaking to men and women in all walks of life and in many ways. In effect He is saying to them, “In view of the fact that I have judged sin in the past, don’t you know that I am going to judge sin in the future?” That is the message which He is trying to get over to this gainsaying world today that seems so dull of hearing and filled with scoffers.

God speaks in many ways. I believe that the snowstorms, floods, and droughts are a judgment from God. I believe that He is using them to speak to America. The dust storms that we had during the Depression, as so many of God’s messengers at that time pointed out, were God’s warning to America. At that time there was no revival, no turning back to God; but I do believe that if America had heeded God and turned back to Him, we would not have had to send our boys to die in the second World War and on battlefields all over the world.

God also speaks to men personally. The very gray in your hair, the rheumatism and the difficulty that you are having in your physical body — all of these are just messages from God to let you know that you are not going to be in this world too much longer. Signs of aging are merely God’s messengers, telling you that you are to be removed from this place. You see, God is not going to take you out in a hurry; He gives you plenty of warning. But having given you the warning, He then moves in.

You will recall that Noah preached one hundred and twenty years, and certainly that was long enough to give the people of that day an ample opportunity to decide whether they would turn to God or not. The Lord Jesus, speaking of that in Matthew 24:37-38, said:

But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.… They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark.

Now is there anything wrong with eating and drinking? Is there anything wrong with marrying and giving in marriage? Certainly not. Then why did the Lord Jesus mention those things? The reason He mentioned them is that after Noah had preached one hundred and twenty years, telling them of the imminent danger they were in, they were going through these ordinary pursuits of life, such as eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and were paying no attention to the fact that the flood was even then at their doors. God was warning them, and the thing that was wrong was that they were not listening to His messenger at all.

I know that there are many of you who think this sounds old-fashioned — and certainly it is — because in the years gone by God’s messengers had a great deal to say about the judgment of God. And you probably think that I drive around in a Stanley Steamer since I am such a back number in mentioning these things. Or you may think that I am attempting to frighten you. Do not think that. I know that we live in a skeptical and sophisticated age, and I have too much respect for your intelligence to believe that I can frighten you. But, my friend, you and I are living in a world that is moving to judgment. The reason we know it is moving to judgment is that God has judged sin in the past, and certainly sin is prevalent today. No civilization has gotten by with it; eventually God is going to move in judgment.

Let me share with you this little story that came to my attention several years ago while I was doing graduate work in the Dallas Seminary. I was walking down the main street in Dallas one evening after dinner with another student. We noticed a crowd in front of a theater gathered around an automobile that had been in a wreck. The fact of the matter is that I have never seen an automobile that was so completely wrecked. We were told that the passengers had been killed and that their bodies had to be sawed out of that car because they were so tightly locked in it. Upon returning to the seminary, we were telling the fellows there what we had seen. One of them told us this story, for he knew all about it. He taught a Bible class in one of the suburban communities of Dallas, and in that Bible class were quite a few high school students, some of whom had been converted, including several on the football team. However, others had become very skeptical and were ridiculing the Christians. Two boys and a girl went by to get one of the girls that formerly had been running with this crowd. She told them that she would not go with them but that she was going to a Bible class that evening instead, and she tried to persuade them to go. Well, they merely laughed and went on their way. And so every Monday evening they would come by and try to get her to ditch the Bible class and go with them. She tried to plead with them to accept Christ as their Savior; she told them what she had done and the step she had taken. One Monday night they asked if they might take her by the Bible class, which they did. When they let her out, she pleaded with them again to come in just one time. Refusing, they started out in their car again. They had not gone two miles until the accident took place that killed all three of them. This was the car that was there in front of the theater which we had seen.

You know, God is gracious, but after He has given us His message and we turn our backs upon it, there is nothing left but His judgment. Oh! that you and I might be warned to turn to Him while it is called “today”; “now is the accepted time.”