“Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames. But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.”
2 Peter 3:11-13 NLT
Noah took a hundred years or so to build the ark. He wasn’t in a hurry, obviously! But God patiently waited before He brought judgement on the nations with the Flood. Could Noah have hurried the “day of the Lord”, if he had built the ark a bit quicker? Quite possibly. Peter wrote that his readers should “[look] forward to the day of God and [hurry] it along”. Does this mean anything to us pilgrims? Are we living our lives, as Noah did, in expectation that the “day of the Lord” is just around the corner, and we should be doing all we can to hurry it along? Is such a thing even possible?
Jesus gave us an indication that once the Gospel has reached every corner of our world then the “end will come”. Matthew 24:14, “And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come“. There have been extraordinary efforts to meet this goal. The Bible has been translated into many languages. Quote from Wikipedia, “As of September 2023 all of the Bible has been translated into 736 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,658 languages, and smaller portions of the Bible have been translated into 1,264 other languages according to Wycliffe Global Alliance“. But that in itself won’t satisfy Jesus’ statement because the Good News, the Gospel, has to be “preached”. But it’s a start. Will this goal ever be reached? With God’s help it will be, and we can’t be far from when “the end will come”.
We will certainly know when the Gospel has been preached throughout the world, because Peter told us what would happen next. Fire will destroy the heavens and the earth. That will really be global warming on steroids! But there will be nothing left, paving the way for the “new heavens and new earth He has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness”. To find out all about this we turn to Revelation 21:1, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone.” Peter wrote that the existing heaven and earth was destroyed by fire. John just noted in his vision that it had “disappeared”. But either way, the earth and sky we know was replaced by a new heaven and earth. If that was not enough, though, we read on in Revelation, “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband“. What a creation! More details can be found in my book, “The End Times”.
We pilgrims know how the story ends, and that must change our world view. We may perhaps come to the conclusion that saving the planet is a pointless exercise, if it is going to be destroyed by fire anyway. Peter wrote that we must hurry along the coming “day of the Lord” and look forward to the new heavens and new earth that “He has promised”. We pilgrims take the long view as we lift our eyes above the horizon and see coming the glory of the Lord. Is there a hint of a glow I see just over the hill?
Dear Lord Jesus. Please help us as we preach Your message of Good News to those around us. Maranatha! Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 