2 Peter 3:12

The Greek participle translated "hastening" or "speeding" (speudontes) sometimes means, "desiring earnestly" (RSV margin). [Note: A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, s.v. "speudo."] If Peter meant that here, the sense would be that believers not only look for the day of God but also desire earnestly to see it (cf. 2 Peter 3:8-10; Matthew 24:42; Matthew 25:13). [Note: Lenski, p. 348; Barbieri, p. 122.] The AV has "hastening unto" implying that Peter meant believers are rapidly approaching the day of God. Yet "unto" needs supplying; it is not in the text. Most of the translators and commentators, however, took speudontes in its usual sense of hastening. They assumed that Peter was thinking that believers can hasten the day of God by their prayers (cf. Matthew 6:10) and their preaching (cf. Matthew 24:14; Acts 3:19-20). [Note: Bigg, p. 298; Green, p. 140; Barclay, pp. 410-11; Kelly, p. 367; Blum, p. 287; Sidebottom, p. 123-24.] Believers affect God’s timetable by our witnessing and our praying as we bring people to Christ (cf. Joshua 10:12-14; 2 Kings 20:1-6; et al.). [Note: Cf. Constable, pp. 101-6.]

"Clearly this idea of hastening the End is the corollary of the explanation (2 Peter 3:9) that God defers the Parousia because he desires Christians to repent. Their repentance and holy living may therefore, from the human standpoint, hasten its coming. This does not detract from God’s sovereignty in determining the time of the End . . ., but means only that his sovereign determination graciously takes human affairs into account." [Note: Bauckham, p. 325.]

The "day of God" may be a reference to the time yet future in which God will be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:28). [Note: Gerald B. Stanton, Kept from the Hour, p. 73; et al.] This will follow the creation of the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:1). On the other hand this phrase may be another way of describing the day of the Lord. [Note: Fanning, p. 470.] The "day of God" in Revelation 16:14 refers to the time of the battle of Armageddon, which will be at the end of the Tribulation. Consequently I lean toward taking the day of God as another way of referring to the day of the Lord. The antecedent of "on account of which" (NASB) is the day of God. God will burn up the present heavens and earth because of that day (i.e., because the day of the Lord has reached its end).