2 Peter 3:10

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

We shall not attempt to follow the lead of the commentators who spiritualize this passage, making it teach some figurative or symbolical lesson regarding God's dealing with human wickedness, the obvious intention of the apostle Peter being that of giving a literal account of what will take place on the day of the Lord. It is not clear whether the planet earth in totality is to be destroyed, or if the total re-doing of it, as in the instance of the flood, is indicated. The actual meaning is the same either way. It was the literal earth which was, in a specific sense, destroyed by water; it is the literal earth which Peter here prophesied would be destroyed by fire. Macknight said, "There are things in the apostle's prophecy which show that it was intended to be taken literally."[37]

What will it all be like? We do not know. Faith in God and in his holy word is the only true enlightenment that is available on such a passage as this.

As a thief ... Paul used this figure of the thief's sudden coming (1 Thessalonians 5:2); the apostle John used it twice (Revelation 3:3,16:15); but it was Christ who first used it (Matthew 24:43). As Dummelow said, "All through this passage, Peter had in mind the prophecy of our Lord recorded in Matthew 24."[38]

Plummer was correct in seeing that:

This repeated reproduction of words and ideas from one of the most impressive of Christ's discourses (Matthew 24), which only Peter and three others were privileged to hear, may fairly be added to the evidence of the authenticity of this epistle.[39]

The day of the Lord ... As used throughout the New Testament, this word indicates the second coming and the judgment. In Isaiah 2:12; Ezekiel 13:5; Joel 1:15; and Malachi 3:2 it is also associated with judgment.

In which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise ... The word for "heavens" here is from [@ouranos], a word with different meanings in the New Testament.[40] Among these are "the atmosphere" (Matthew 6:26), "the sidereal heavens" (the sun, moon and stars) (Matthew 24:29,35), and "the eternal dwelling place of God" (Matthew 5:16; Matthew 12:50). Peter's obvious remembrance throughout in this passage of Matthew 24, where Jesus used the word for the sidereal heavens, makes it probable that Peter meant that here.

With a great noise ... The word for noise is [@rhoizedon], a powerful word used for, "the swish of an arrow through the air, the rumbling of thunder, the crackle of flames, the scream of the lash as it descends, the rushing of mighty waters, or the hissing of a serpent."[41] Peter has chosen it as if he would unite many horrors in one."[42]

The elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat ... By this is meant the basic building blocks of all material things, the very atoms themselves. "These words were written by Peter long before the atomic age, but they fit strikingly into the atomic vocabulary."[43] Well into the period spanned by countless people now living, the scientific world was certain that such a thing as that mentioned by Peter here was impossible. During this writer's years in school, a science professor ridiculed him for being baptized, observing that, "One cannot believe the New Testament, because it teaches that the earth will burn up." He even "proved" that it cannot burn (with a Bunsen burner, no less!), by applying it to a handful of soil! Well, science has at last caught up with revelation. And if such a fact as this does not convince one of the apostles' inspiration, such a person cannot be convinced. Today, all nations tremble in fear of atomic fires that may devastate and make uninhabitable the whole earth. Besides that, the strides in the field of astronomy postulate a fate of our earth that almost invariably is described as fiery dissolution, whether from the explosion of our sun, or by the sun's becoming a "black hole" and drawing our earth into itself! No one knows, of course, how the end will be; but only a fool can believe that the end will not occur; and there is no reason at all to reject Peter's prophetic revelation that the end will be by fire, a fate which he prophesied nearly two millenniums ago, and which today is recognized as true by every scientist on earth. What Peter evidently meant here was summarized by Bo Reicke, thus:

The solar system and the great galaxies, even space-time relationships, will be abolished. All elements which make up the physical world will be dissolved by heat and utterly melt away. It is a picture which in an astonishing degree corresponds to what might actually happen according to modern theories of the physical universe.[44]

Another important meaning in this verse was pointed out by Strachan. "No distinction is made between the Day of the Lord and the Coming of Christ. This is remarkable as excluding any idea of millennarian teaching."[45]

Those familiar with some of the so-called translations and certain writers will be aware that some attempt to translate "will be burned up" in this passage, as "shall be manifested"; but as Caffin said, "The reading `shall be burned up' is well supported, and suits the context best."[46]

[37] Ibid., p. 566.

[38] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 1052.

[39] Alfred Plummer, op. cit., p. 460.

[40] W. E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, vol. 2(Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1940), p. 208.

[41] Michael Green, op. cit., p. 138.

[42] Lumby, as quoted by Green, Ibid.

[43] Eldon R. Fuhrman, op. cit., p. 336.

[44] Bo Reicke, as quoted by Green, op. cit., p. 139.

[45] R. H. Strachan, op. cit., p. 145.

[46] B. C. Caffin, op. cit., p. 68.