Not Willing That Any Should Perish

Not Willing That Any Should Perish

I was pulled aside by one of my friends the other day and told “I have a bone to pick with you”.  I asked “about what” and my friend began to tell me how I had made God out to be a liar. This rebuke really bothered me and I wanted to know what he thought I had done or said to make God out to be a liar.  (This, of course, I would never hold to even if something I said was blatantly in error in regards to the Word of God.  In Romans 3:4 Paul makes this proclamation, “Indeed let God be true and every man a liar”.  So, while men including myself certainly can and do misrepresent the Word of God, it is man who is the liar, never God). He told me that God was not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, referring to 2 Peter 3:9.  He made this comment to challenge my Calvinistic position on God’s election and how God had not chosen all for salvation.  When I tried to defend my position based on this passage he suddenly had to leave, this had been one of those drive by comments that my friends like to do to me from time to time, so we were never able to fully discuss the matter.  So I hope this makes for an interesting posting.

Let us begin with the passage, 2 peter 3:3-9:
2 Peter 3:3-9
3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
NKJV
In this short epistle Peter expresses to his audience three times that he is reminding them of the divine power given to them through the knowledge of Christ (2 Pet 1:3), that they  have been given everything for life and godliness through this knowledge of  Christ (2 Pet 1:4), that they should display fruitful growth in faith (2 pet 1:5-11), the trustworthiness of the prophetic word given to them (2Pet 1:16-21), and that they remain mindful of the words the holy prophets of old and the apostles of Jesus Christ (2 Pet 3:1-2).  He follows up this last reminder by warning them that mockers who are slaves to their own lusts will come with mocking and saying “where is the promise of His coming”?  They maintain that things have gone on as they always have from time out of mind and that there is now no indication that the Lord will come.  The New Geneva Study Bible notes conclude, “from the delay in Christ’s return, the false teachers wrongly concluded that He would never return to judge them.  Peter portrays their scoffing as ironic evidence that the last days are indeed present.”  Peter says in verse 5 through 7 that what has escaped their notice is that the world of evil doers was judged and destroyed through the flood of Noah, and that today, by the Word of the Lord the earth is “reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”  Just as the flood came in the days of Noah and surprised those living at that time and swept them away to their destruction, so too, it will be for those who question Christ’s coming, they will be surprised, unprepared and horrified at their day of reckoning.

Notice that when Peter is addressing the mockers and scoffers he addresses them as “their” in verse 3 and “they” in verse 5 but in verse 8 Peter turns his comments to a different audience and addresses them as beloved.  Now he is writing to those whom in chapter one verse one he describes as having obtained like precious faith with him, and reminds them not to be like the mockers and false teachers and let this fact escape their notice, “that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”  Though this passage is sometimes used to assert that in prophecy the usage of one day is associated with a thousand years of time, I would disagree with this view based upon the latter phrase of “a thousand years is one day”.  I think it refers to God’s sovereignty over time and that what may be considered long or short relative to our position in time, it is not that way with God.  God does not stand with us in our temporal position in time, He is atemporal, over and above time, and not limited to its restraints.

Peter uses this argument to contrast the mockers view of time and their denial of the coming judgment and God’s providential promise of judgment on the wicked.  He assures his readers that God is not slow as the mockers count slowness, God has made a promise, a decree, and He will indeed come, but is “longsuffering towards us”.  This phrase “longsuffering towards us” sets the target for whom the following statement is intended for.  The “us” here refers to those whom Peter is writing to, current believers and future believers, not the mockers and false teachers he has described earlier.  Peter is giving the reason why God is waiting to come in judgment.  It is because of them, those who now have like precious faith and those that will come to faith, that He delays His coming.  The following statement, “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” needs to be qualified.  Any of who and all of who, needs to be answered.  Rather than a universal definition of any and all, which seems to contradict the prior promise of judgment on the false teachers and mockers and the change of subject Peter makes in verse 8, it would fit the context much better to point the reference of any and all to the “us” that God is longsuffering towards.  There is a reason that God delays and it would be foolish to say that God is patient towards the false teachers and mockers that Peter describes in chapter 2 verse 12 as brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed.  The whole point of the preceding verses in chapter 3 is that the wicked will not escape God’s righteous judgment, it is as sure as if it had already happened.  Any mercy that Peter mentions is directed at his immediate readers and those who are yet to join them in true faith.

Paul in Romans 9:22-24 makes a similar statement about God’s longsuffering and states:
22 What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
NKJV
God delays his judgment of the wicked that were prepared for destruction that He might show His mercy on His elect that were prepared for glory.  God is waiting and patiently enduring the insults of those who despise Him so that He may be merciful to all who are chosen and will come to Him.  This is why the world has not already come to an end in judgment, God is awaiting the coming of the faithful, those in the world who have yet to come and those who are yet to be born who will come to Him.  John 6:39 states: “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.”   “Emmanuel will come, He will take His power and reign, when the full complement of His people has been redeemed from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.”1

Chosen for Life    The Case for Divine Election.  Sam Storm (Wheaton, IL, Crossway Books 2007)
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