Why is the second coming of Christ delayed?
1 Dearly beloved, this is the second letter I write to you. In both of them I have intended to remind you of sound doctrine.
2 Do not forget the words of the holy prophets and the teaching of our Lord and Savior, as you heard it through his apostles.
3 Remember, first of all, that in the last days scoffers will appear, their mockery serving their evil de sires.
4 And they will say, “What has be come of his promised coming? Since our fathers in faith died, everything still goes on as it was from the beginning of the world.”
5 Indeed, they deliberately ignore that in the beginning the heavens existed first and earth appeared from the water, taking its form by the word of God.
6 By the same word of God, this world perished in the Flood.
7 Likewise, the Word of God maintains the present heavens and earth until their de struction by fire; they are kept for the Day of Judgment when the godless will be destroyed.
8 Do not forget, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day.
9 The Lord does not delay in fulfilling his promise, though some speak of delay; rather he gives you time be cause he does not want anyone to perish, but that all may come to conversion.
10 The Day of the Lord is to come like a thief. Then the heavens will dissolve with a great noise; the elements will melt away by fire, and the earth with all that is on it will be burned up.
11 Since all things are to vanish, how holy and religious your way of life must be,
12 as you wait for the Day of God and long for its coming, when the heavens will dissolve in fire and the elements melt away in the heat.
13 We wait for a new heaven and a new earth in which justice reigns, according to God’s promise.
14 Therefore, beloved, as you wait in expectation of this, strive that God may find you rooted in peace, without blemish or fault.
15 And consider that God’s pa tience is for our salvation, as our beloved brother Paul wrote to you, with the wisdom given him.
16 He speaks of these things in all his letters. There are, however, some points in them that are difficult to understand, which people who are ignorant and immature in their faith twist, as they do with the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 So then, dearly beloved, as you have been warned, be careful lest those people who have gone astray deceive you in turn and drag you along, making you stumble and final ly fall away.
18 Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: to him be glory, now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
------------------------------------------------------------
Comments Letter of Peter 2, Chapter 3
• 3.1 Two generations of Christians had already waited for the return of Jesus: a similar hope stimulated their perseverance. Now false teachers refute the words of the prophets (those who announce an imminent end) by citing daily events.
They sow doubt showing that the apostles also died and did not witness Christ’s coming. The response is twofold. On one hand, God does not measure time as we do. He may present something as being very near and not fulfill it immediately. On the other hand, if to us the time seems long, it does not mean that we can settle in this world; we should make good use of the time given us for genuine conversion.
In our days the majority of Christians give little thought to the return of Christ: because we see it as a long way off, or because we do not understand its meaning? In reality it is always urgent to give ourselves totally.
The paragraph referring to Paul shows that already at that time Paul’s letters had the same authority in the Church as the old sacred books or the Gospel, the “rest of Scripture.” The Church was also concerned about the wrong interpretations that people might get from passages in which Paul did not express himself clearly.