2 Peter 3:3-7 (New International Version)
3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
I struggle with the "last days" part of Christianity. I have for a long time. In the discussion of the "last days" things switch to an "us and them" thinking and the dominant outsiders will now get whats due them by God. I suppose that I have a reaction to what I perceived as being escapist from the world; and being an escapist in other areas of my life I react that that which I embrace but dislike in myself.
As I look again at the text God tells me through the Apostle that "scoffers will come scoffing and following their evil desires." Oops. That would be me. So if the last days warnings are about preparing my heart for the reign of God I must guard myself against scoffing at the scoffers and also scoffing against the community of faith that I like to criticize for a variety of reasons. God is judgmental of my judgmentalism.
The story of the deluge is a story of judgement in and by creation at the will of God. I live in the world and by the world and am of the earth in my body chemistry and some day it will decay as all organic matter does. We have evidence of the destructive power of the creation as well as its bounty. When I have participated in a wasteful consumer lifestyle there are consequences for my life and around the world as we deal with the waste and the shortage of unwasted matter.
The apostle warns of fire and combustion is the great innovation of humanity that is now the growing threat to humanity. Carbon burning poisons us and the world. the balance of nature is upset. Our desire for consumption of processed material requires burning and refining of mineral and organic material. To create heat we burn. In all we do--and I participate in it--we face burning. There is an inevitable "big burn" that will await. Some have pointed apocalyptically to nuclear holocaust and other destructions of war and that is true. But the way we live and scoff at creation is our own judgment.
Today I will not mock God. I will not judge others for the sins I commit. I will not scoff.
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