2 Peter 3:3-4 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,… I. THEY GET FROM IT A ONE-SIDED IDEA. The idea they obtained from the observation of nature was, that it was unchanging. "Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue," etc. This is only partially true. We thank God for this constancy. Without it the farmer would have no motive to cultivate his field, the mariner no chart to guide him over the deep, the philosopher no data on which to prosecute his inquiries or to build up his science. All would be confusion. Man, without plan, and without hope, would move under the wild impulses which the casualties of the moment awakened. Still, nature has her changes. Nay, amidst all this constancy are there not incessant revolutions? Does not the inorganic change in its appearance? Old mountains, rivers, islands disappear, and new ones emerge. The vegetable and animal worlds succeed each other. Nay, perhaps there is nothing the same — all things change. A one-sided view of u many-sided thing is evermore erroneous. II. THEY APPLY THIS ONE-SIDED IDEA AGAINST THE WRITTEN WORD. "Where is the promise of His coming?" Now, has not the sceptic always read nature in this way? Whether he has looked at its astronomical, geological, or physiological phases, has he not always so read it as to get some false idea of it, in order to turn it against the Bible? III. THEY DO THIS FROM A SAD PERVERSITY OF HEART. They are "scoffers walking after their own lusts and willingly ignorant." (D. Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,WEB: knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts, |
    |