⁸ But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord ONE DAY IS LIKE A THOUSAND YEARS, AND A THOUSAND YEARS LIKE ONE DAY. ⁹ The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its activities will be shown for what they are. ¹¹ Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, ¹² looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! ¹³ But according to His promise WE ARE LOOKING FOR NEW HEAVENS AND A NEW EARTH, in which righteousness dwells. ¹⁴ Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found spotless and blameless by Him, at peace, ¹⁵ and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, ¹⁶ as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which there are some things that are hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. ¹⁷ You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unscrupulous people and lose your own firm commitment, ¹⁸ but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of that age. Amen (2Pet3:8-18).

The reason for these posts and my book is that I have received a prophetic insight concerning the interpretation of Scripture that is radically different from what most have understood since the time of Augustine. What I do not claim to have received is a clear idea of what shall happen on the “Day of the Lord” and what immediately follows it. That is, other than in the broad terms that the Apostle Peter himself sites in this passage – new heavens and a new earth.

Paul’s perspective

Paul had emphasized this “Day” as a time of sudden destruction for those choosing to live in darkness. Like Peter he refers to the Lord “coming like a thief” (1Thes5:2-4). Paul also made reference to the “rapture” in this context (1Thes4:16-17; cf. Lk17:34-35); relatedly that it shall be a time of the resurrection and final gathering of God’s elect (2 Thes2:1-2 cf. 1Thes4:16-17). Unlike Peter, Paul does not envisage or at least make reference to a radical cosmic event. For concerned as to whether some believers might be under the misapprehension that the Day of the Lord had already come, he refers to the fact that a great apostacy (Greek ἀποστασία)  initiated by the Man of Lawlessness must already have occurred (2Thes2:3-4) rather than a cosmic meltdown having taken place. The latter would surely be the more obvious and unambiguous event to have occurred if he believed such were to happen.

What we DO know

Either way, taking Peter, Paul or indeed the Book of Revelation, what I once envisaged would happen is surely not going to play out, thanks be to God. That is that those  and only those who knew Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour would be transported to Heaven whilst everyone else would, along with the earth, be burnt to cinder and their souls transported to Hell. For there are to be new heavens and a new earth, and the latter (at least) clearly shall be inhabited. Regarding the three implied soteriological groupings, in Revelation the largest eschatological group in the age to come are pictured as the “nations of those who are spared”, whose kings bring their treasures to the city in which Christ is enthroned with His saints. The latter are privileged to dwell with their Lord intimately, for He is also their Spouse. (Rev19:7; 21:22-27; 22:4).

 Revelation also suggests that the new earth will be substantially changed physically (21:1). It certainly will be in the socio-political and religious sense as it will be under new leadership. For Christ with His people do not currently run the “κόσμος” (the world order – 1Jn2:15-16) in any executive sense – Scripture in both the Old and New Testament indicates they shall do in the age to come.

But not all shall be a part of it. The wicked/children of the devil, who currently live amongst us, a number of whom have great wealth, authority and influence in the world shall be no more. It is they who are to be removed from the earth, not the elect or righteous (Mt13:49; 2Thes1:8-10; Rev21:2: cf. Ps104:35; Is11:4; 1Enoch1:1). Only then can the world be a place “where righteousness dwells” – and Jesus Christ is known by all for Who He is and what He has done to bring such eutopia about .

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