“so Christ … will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” (Heb 9:28, NKJV)
We are currently still discussing 2 Pet 3:10: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” From the earlier teachings we have found the following:
- Peter wrote this letter to the Jewish contingent in the first churches, who at all costs wanted to hold onto the majority of their Jewish ways and traditions, “the rudiments or principles of the Jewish religion“.
- The word “elements” here does not point to heavenly bodies, or to material elements, etc, but in the original Greek it points to the elementary religious
- The scaffolding of the Old Covenant had to finally in 70 AD make way for the TRUE building. The fire of God had to come in the natural realm to destroy the bastion of the Jewish cult religion, especially in our “human thinking”.
In the light of what we had said earlier in the Manna about the interpretation of the term “the day of the Lord”, Acts 1:11 spells out our expectation: “This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” It will one day ultimately culminate in Jesus’ actual second coming, but it does not only and exclusively point to that, but also to God’s ‘appearance’, his transmutation, in events on earth. Therefore Paul writes in 2 Cor 6:2 (in reference to the Old Testament expectations from Isa 49:8) about “the day of salvation”, which is any day in which God makes his presence ‘visible’ (Heb 3:7; 4:7).
This important understanding becomes especially clear in Heb 9:28: “so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” This appearance is NOT the second coming, and for the following reasons:
- The word “appear” can point to physical manifestations, as these where Jesus “presented Himself alive” (Acts 1:3), but in the original language it also means “to look at, behold” (Thayer), as the same word is then salso used in Matt 5:8, where it is clearly spiritual in nature – “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” The same goes for those who pursue holiness – “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.” (Heb 12:14). Has everyone seen the pure heart of God? Clearly not, as God is by definition INVISIBLE (Col 1:15; 1 Tim 1:17). An even better example is Jesus’ own words in Matt 26:64 – “Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” HEREAFTER we will see Him? No. At most this “appear” means that which had been said of Abraham in Heb 11:27, that he moved in faith “as seeing Him who is invisible”. Scriptures like John 1:51 – “And He said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man’”, and John 16:16 – “A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me, because I go to the Father”, clearly shows that Jesus will again start appearing “a short while” after his death, to those who expect Him, and who can see in the faith.
- It is important to take note that in Heb 9:28 it states that Christ will only appear to those “who eagerly wait for him … for salvation”. If this is read in various translations, the inaccurate paraphrasing becomes clear – that Jesus will then bring “full salvation” (Ampl), or will come “to make their salvation complete” (WNT), as if the salvation at the cross was not already complete (Heb 7:25 proves this in undeniable terms). No, by the end of times EVERYONE will see Him, states Rev 1:7 – “every eye will see Him”. But now – only these “who eagerly await Him”.
- The word “salvation” can easily be seen as only salvation, but it is much more than this. When it states that He will appear to those who eagerly await His salvation, Murdock’s translation is the closest to the depth of meaning the word evokes: “(He) will he appear for the life of them who expect him.” [And then I can’t help but think of Papa’s (= God) words to Mack (= man) in The Shack: “I want to heal the wound that has grown inside of you, and between us … I have no magic wand to wave over you and make it all better. Life takes a bit of time and a lot of relationship.” (p. 92).]
When this “day of the Lord” then comes “like a thief in the night”, we know from 1 Thess 5:2-4 – where the same words are used – that we are NOT of the night nor the darkness, “so that this Day should overtake you as a thief”! We do not rest in the carnal expectation of Adam, “for those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.” (1 Thess 5:7-8), or as Murdock then states, “the hope of life”!
Back to 2 Pet 3:10, which dramatically spells out that with this appearance on “the day of the Lord … the heavens will pass away with a great noise”. One can rightly ask – where are the heavens passing to? What is wrong with the heavens that they need to be destroyed in the first place? The heavens do, after all, belong to God (Ps 115:16); they proclaim his honour and righteousness (19:1; 50:6); our reward (Matt 5:12) and citizenship (Phil 3:20) is there, along with our hope (Col 1:15); we have an “enduring possession” (Heb 10:34) and an incorruptible inheritance (1 Pet 1:4) which is reserved for us in heaven. In three places heaven is referred to as “eternal” (Ps 89:3; 119:89; 2 Cor 5:1)! We know that He will “reconcile all things to Himself, by Him” (Col 1:20), but how can this happen if it passes, or even as some other translations dramatically declare, end “with a thunderous crash” (Ampl)?
David Curtis neatly explains his answer to this: “In biblical apocalyptic language ‘heavens’ refers to governments and rulers, and ‘earth’ refers to the nation of people. This can be seen in Isa 1:1-2 & 10.” And then read 2 Pet 3:11-12 along with verse: “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?” Read about this in all these translations – Rotherham, KJV, DRB, RV, Websters, YLT – “the heavens, being on fire”! While all these things dissolve … And that happens through my and your walk, here and now. Selah.
- Selah: Selah the last paragraph, and especially Curtis’ symbolic explanation.
- Read: Zach 7-12
- Examine how this has been fulfilled: Zach 8:16 (Tip: Eph 4:25)
