2 Peter 3:8

Again Peter reminded his readers to remember what they had learned previously (2 Peter 3:1) and not to forget, as the scoffers did (2 Peter 3:5). As far as God’s faithfulness to His promises, it does not matter if He gave His promise yesterday or a thousand years ago. He will still remain faithful and will fulfill every promise (cf. Psalms 90:4). The passage of a thousand years should not lead us to conclude that God will not fulfill what He has promised. The passing of time does not cause God to forget His promises. Peter was not saying that the "day of judgment" will last 1,000 years since a day is as 1,000 years with the Lord. This would contribute nothing to Peter’s argument against the scoffers.

This verse does not mean that God operates in a timeless state. Time is simply the way He and we measure the relationship of events to one another. The idea of a timeless existence is Platonic, not biblical. God’s relationship to time is different from ours since He is eternal, but this does not mean that eternity will be timeless. Eternity is endless time.

"Peter did not say that to God ’one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years are one day.’ The point is not that time has no meaning for God but rather that His use of time is such that we cannot confine Him to our time schedules. His use of time is extensive, so that He may use a thousand years to do what we might feel should be done in a day, as well as intensive, doing in a day what we might feel could only be done in a thousand years." [Note: Hiebert, Second Peter . . ., p. 153. See also Bauckham, p. 310. See Zane C. Hodges, The Epistles of John, pp. 106-7, for a good explanation of how Einstein’s special theory of relativity has introduced a new perspective on time that harmonizes with this verse.]

This statement does not negate the hope of the imminent return of the Lord either. Peter, as the other New Testament writers, spoke as though his readers would be alive at His return (2 Peter 1:19; 2 Peter 3:14). This was an indisputable hope of the early Christians. [Note: Fornberg, p. 68; Bauckham, p. 310.]