2 Peter 3:4

and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

Where is the promise of his coming ... ? As the centuries pass away, this objection recurs repeatedly, with greater and greater intensity. The central thesis of Christianity is the Second Coming of Christ in the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment, the Lord's Supper itself being oriented absolutely to that future event. Peter here foretold the ultimate mockery with which unbelievers and apostates would receive such doctrine, there being in all probability at the time he wrote outcroppings of the same thing.

From the day the fathers fell asleep ... One is amazed that so many commentators jump to the conclusion that was stated by Caffin, thus: "By `fathers' there must be meant here the fathers of the Christian church."[15] That this is not the meaning of the reference is apparent in the fact that "nowhere else in the New Testament does this expression mean anything other than the Old Testament fathers."[16] It should have been translated "patriarchs" as in Romans 9:5, where the same expression is used.[17]

All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation ... If the fall of Jerusalem had already occurred at the time 2Peter was written, scoffers would not have been saying such a thing as this; for that event was enough of a cataclysm to silence the gainsayers for a generation. The Lord had clearly predicted the fall of the Holy City, the destruction of its sacred temple, and the removal of the Jewish state, making all of these things to be a type of the ultimate destruction at the time of the final coming and judgment. These prophecies of Jesus were well known, the Pharisees even citing garbled references to them in the trials. The cataclysmic fulfillment of those great prophecies so soon after 2Peter was written would not have contributed to the hostile attitude in evidence here. The proper time for the flowering of such mockeries was in the decade preceding 70 A.D., to which period the writing of this epistle must be assigned. The prophecy Peter gave here (and it is a prophecy) has regard to the end of time, when by reason of passing centuries, the old mockery would flower again with greater intensity than ever. And even today, it could not exist except in those who are ignorant of the full import of the destruction of Jerusalem, a fact which, through neglect of the New Testament, many fail to connect with that final and terrible event of which it is the standing prophecy.

From the beginning of the creation ... The implications of this make it impossible to view "fathers" here as any other than the patriarchal progenitors of the human race. It is not the time between the resurrection of Christ and this letter which is in view but the whole sweep of human history. As Green pointed out, "It is not said that things continue as they were from the coming of Christ, but from the beginning of the creation."[18]

[15] B. C. Caffin, op. cit., p. 66.

[16] Michael Green, op. cit., p. 139.

[17] Raymond C. Kelcy, op. cit., p. 154.

[18] Michael Green, op. cit., p. 129.